Chapter 3

Let's just say it didn't take them very long to decide what to do with me. A tiger—a very real tiger--waltzed in the door, and I had a fleeting suspicion that it was his job to rid them of me.

Let me say this now. If you've ever been to a zoo, you've seen a tiger. You know that they're the biggest of big cats. But you've probably never been sitting down when a kitty two and a half times your size looms in, towering above you. It's scary.

The tiger's body moved with muscular grace. Before then, I'd had no idea that anything that big could be graceful. It was beautiful too, but that wasn't necessarily on my mind at the moment.

"Please," I murmured as Jake's bared teeth came closer and closer. "Please don't kill me. I have a family, same as you. I-I—"

((I'm not going to kill you,)) Jake said calmly.

"Jake, I'm not stupid. If you're not planning on killing me then why are you in tiger morph?" I asked suspiciously. I sounded braver than I felt.

((How do you know who I am?))

"You're the only one with a tiger morph, duh. It didn't help that you were the first one to come in either. You're the leader, you usually go first." Maybe to him I sounded calm, but I was babbling, shaking. My voice was probably cracking.

((How much do you know about me?))

I began listing off everything I remembered about Jake. "You and Rachel are related, you have a big brother who's infested, your last name is Bear…Bear…Berenson, that's it! You've got sort of brown hair and blue eyes—I think. At least Rachel does, but I don't remember about you…" The list went on.

((Well, I guess if you already know what I look like and my name, there's no use in the disguise, is there?)) Jake's lips dropped from his snarl, making him look a little less menacing. He moved away from me and began to demorph.

I had read about demorphing so many times and imagined it over and over again. Still, I had never seen it happen. It's completely different. In my mind was a sort of undetailed picture, almost cartoonish. Real morphing wasn't like that at all. If you've ever really looked at an animal, like, straight in the face and actually imagined it demorphing, you'd have a slightly better idea, but still no real comprehension of what I saw.

The tiger was actually changing shape. It wasn't pretty. The ears didn't change together, they just did their thing separately, destroying the elegant look of symmetry I had imagined. The only pair of things that changed together were his legs, and even then, they sort of withered and then regained their shape. It was like the most disgusting horror movie in existence, except there was no blood or guts. I had to look away until Jake spoke. This time it was a real, human voice. It had been a while since I'd heard any aloud voices but my own, and it filled me with joy to hear Jake's.

"You can turn around now," he said. I turned to see Jake. He was way hotter than I'd imagined. His hair was a little longer than I'd thought, but he wasn't quite as muscular, though he definitely wasn't skimpy. His hair was slightly wavy, giving it an untamed-and-I-don't-care look, and it wasn't dark brown like I'd imagined, but more sandy. The only thing that made me stop staring was the fact that he was wearing a tight T-shirt and bicycle shorts. I stood up slowly.

Well, it wasn't exactly like I knew what I was doing. It was a pretty uncomfortable moment. He walked up to me carefully, but with a deliberate force. He was a good five inches taller than me, and I had to look up to see his face. I finally realized that I was looking at a real, live character from a book. It was pretty astonishing. "I'm Jake," he said, reaching his hand out.

For a minute, I just stared at his hand. His fingers were less callused than I expected. When my mind finally registered to shake hands, I reached for his. His handshake was firmer than his soft hands seemed to illustrate, and I tried to match his grip unsuccessfully. "I know," I said stupidly, not exactly sure what one was supposed to say when meeting a not-so-fictional-anymore character.

Jake nodded. "It's nice to meet you too. Alex, right?"

I had a feeling he knew very well that Alex was my name. "Yes."

There was a short silence, but every moment was like twenty years in my mind.

"What are you going to do with me?" I asked earnestly.

"It's your choice," Jake said. "We can't let you go obviously."

"Yeah," I said, trying not to sound upset about it.

"We're strongly contemplating putting Cassie in your head to figure out exactly what your deal is."

"I've told you guys what my 'deal' is," I said.

"No offense, but we can't exactly trust your word on that one."

I nodded. I knew that, I just wished they could take my word for once. "What are my other options?" I asked.

"We'd be glad to get any suggestions. We're not eager to kill anyone, but since we're pretty confident at this point that you're not a yeerk, holding you for three days just isn't going to do the job."

"Just put Cassie in me," I said. "I don't have any other bright ideas, and then you'll at least know that I'm not lying."

"Okay then," Jake said. He opened the door and whispered something I couldn't hear, then closed the door and walked across the room. He took the jackets and sheets I'd been using for a bed and arranged them on the floor. "You should lie down, it'll make things easier."

I adjusted my clothes. Jake was cute and nice. I wanted to look as good as I could in front of him. I crossed the room and sat on the jackets, running my fingers through my hair and immediately finding several knots. I pulled my hand free and settled for tucking it behind my ears. Now I regretted the fact that I had no hairbrush, no makeup on and only sweats. Maybe I would have felt better if my hair were at least in a ponytail…

"One order of escargot," Marco announced as he entered the room. He was even cuter than Jake, and I found myself wondering if Tobias was even better-looking, not to mention Ax's human morph. I examined his black hair and dark eyes, slowly taking in his features. I stopped, however, when I saw what he was holding.

I had never seen a slug so big. It was a mixture of green, gray and brown, and possibly the ugliest thing I'd ever seen. Green-gray slime was dripping from it and it was not in the least bit appetizing. I shuddered involuntarily.

"Alex, right?" Marco asked.

"Yeah," I said.

"I'm Marco," he said friendily, "and this is Cassie." He held out his hand so I got a good view of the slug.

I gagged at the smell and held up my hands nervously. "Gross."

"Well that's not very nice," Marco said. He sheltered Cassie the slug mockingly. "It's okay Cassie, she doesn't mean it." I giggled despite the situation.

"Shut up Marco," a female voice said. I looked up to find a new face in the room, quite obviously Rachel. She was just like the book had described: stunningly beautiful. Her long hair was a natural bleach blonde and her eyes were deep blue. She was Jake's height, and she had an amused smirk on her face. She noticed my gaze and sent me a sharp glare, causing me to redirect my eyes back to Marco.

"Cassie's going to crawl in your ear," Jake said. "I'm guessing you know the process. She'll put out painkiller and take momentary control of you so she can read your memories easier. Don't be scared, she'll come back out later. But you have to know that you'll have no secrets when she gets in."

I quickly searched my brain, in case there was some sort of secret I wouldn't want them to know, but there was nothing there I could think of. I was a little afraid that they would judge me as a bad person, but I reminded myself that I was strong, so there wasn't anything to worry about. "Okay." But the longer I looked at Cassie, the less I wanted her squeezing through my ear canal. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I could do this. I opened my eyes again and felt something slimy touch my ear.

"AHH!" I yelped, covering my ear with one hand and turning to find Marco at my side, still holding Cassie.

"She said okay!" he yelled defensively at Jake.

"Calm down Alex," Jake said. "It's just Cassie, you don't have to be scared."

But I was scared. I was not eager to have a slug shoved inside my head whether it was a person at one point or not. I shook my head.

"It would be a lot easier for us to just kill you," Rachel reminded me. I believed that Jake didn't want to kill me, but when I caught a glance of Rachel's menacing grin, I decided that she probably would do it. Slowly, I took my hand off my ear. "Good girl."

I resented being treated like a disobedient puppy, but it wasn't as if I had a choice. It was this or death, and I had to admit that I liked the slug idea a lot better.

"Ready?" Marco asked.

I nodded and closed my eyes. The slimy creature touched my ear and I flinched, but steadied myself carefully as the creature wormed its way into my ear. It was disgusting, and I had to fight the strongest urge to pull away with everything I had. Someone's hands held my head steady for me. The slug squished through my ear canal, feeling like a giant, cold, slimy q-tip. It was a very uncomfortable sensation. I felt something touch my mind, like a finger brushing my skin ever so slightly. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Suddenly, my eyes fluttered open, not of my own accord and I heard a voice in my head.

((Nice to meet you Alex.)) I tried to close my eyes again, but they didn't close. Instead, I leaned back onto the bed of jackets, then my eyes closed.

((Cassie,)) I said. I felt a flood of memories go along with those, showing Cassie my mental image of her and all I knew about her.

Cassie seemed slightly overwhelmed with this. ((That's not quite what I look like, but you're pretty close,)) she said kindly. ((I'm going to shuffle around a bit if that's okay with you.))

I didn't think I had a choice, I thought.

((Now that I'm here, I don't think you do,)) she muttered. I didn't think she knew she'd said it to me though.

Memories surfaced without me calling them up. The books, what I was doing there, everything. Cassie just flipped through my brain, carefully avoiding anything that was irrelevant. Even when she examined the information from the books, she seemed to avoid the majority of it. After a few minutes of memory searching, she withdrew and spoke to me again.

((This makes things way less complicated,)) she said happily. ((As weird as this is, you're telling us the truth.)) She paused. ((Or maybe it makes things more complicated. Either way, you seem like a trustworthy person. I'm sorry we've been so hostile towards you. Can you forgive us?))

((Yes,)) I said immediately. It was so great to finally meet the people I had idolized for so long, especially Rachel.

Cassie opened my eyes and sat up. She broadcasted her thought-speak to everyone around. ((We're all good,)) she said. ((Looks like she's telling the truth.)) I beamed inwardly as the faces around me went a bit pale. Ax and Tobias were in the room now, I hadn't even heard them come in.

Marco was first to respond. "Then what does that make us?"

((I don't know,)) Cassie said solemnly.

((Maybe Alex is just mentally unstable,)) Ax suggested.

Hey! Not to say that the possibility hadn't crossed my mind, but still! I was still there, in case he hadn't noticed.

((I'm pretty sure she's stable,)) Cassie said hastily, sensing my indignance. ((Her mind is just like Truman's was. She doesn't seem to have any difficulty with reality at all.))

"Are you sure?" Jake asked.

Cassie paused. ((Yes.))

"All right, come on out," he said.

((I'm giving you back control now,)) Cassie said gently, and I slowly felt control come back to me. I held myself up and felt an uncomfortable sensation again as Cassie crawled out of my ear. Marco picked her up and moved her to a safe place for demorphing, and I turned away as she began to change. I didn't want to lose my PB and J sandwich.

All eyes were on me when I turned back around. I smiled. "Does this mean I'm in?" I asked hopefully.

Jake examined everyone else's faces. "Let's vote. All in favor of Alex joining the team?"

Cassie raised her hand immediately.

Tobias looked at her carefully, then said, ((If Cassie thinks it's a good idea, I won't argue.))

((I will choose what Prince Jake believes is right,)) Ax said.

Rachel was next. "I say no," she said firmly, providing no reason.

When it was clear that Rachel didn't want to be asked why, things moved on to Marco. His class-clown grin was gone, and a serious expression replaced it. "As much as I'd like to see another girl on the team, I'm a no too."

I blushed a bit.

"It's your call Jake," Marco said. "Pressure's on."

Jake looked at everyone in the room carefully, especially me. After a long time, he spoke. "I'm just as concerned about this as you guys are," he said, nodding at Marco and Rachel. "But the truth is, we need help. I trust Cassie's judgment, so I'm going to say yes, but on a few conditions." He looked at me, waiting for my approval.

"Okay," I said.

"First, you use the morphs we give you. We know what we're doing, trust me."

"Sounds fair," I said.

"Okay. Second, you have to give the utmost respect to every member of the group. Like I said, we've been doing this for a long time. We know our stuff."

"All right."

"Third, you have to use your powers responsibly. Avoid the two-hour limit like the plague and never use the morphing power to do anything illegal or harmful unless we tell you that you can. Even then, we'll try to make it right."

I nodded.

"So you agree to our terms?" Jake asked.

"Absolutely." As much as I wanted to pick my own morphs, it wasn't as if I had a choice. Maybe they would let me have some say at least.

"And you know that if any of these terms are broken without a really, really good reason, we're totally liable to cut you out of the group?"

I nodded again.

Rachel felt the need to intercept. "And you know that if you are a threat to our safety, you risk being killed."

"Of course," I said, my voice shaky. This was so huge.

"Then you're in," Jake said.