The Gray Institute (The Gray Institute Trilogy Book 1) (37 page)

'Eve, it's not exactly what you'd call flawless,' He snorts sarcastically. 'Why do you want to help her? Risk all of your eternity for her?' He grits his teeth as his asks this, sounding even angrier than before, though I don't know why.

'I don't know,' I sigh, sinking down onto my bed, letting my weakness show. 'I suppose I feel truly sorry for her. No one should have to endure what she has.'

'I don't deny that Lorna Gray has had a pretty tough time of things, but don't make the mistake of thinking she's the only one here who has.' He reminds me. I glance at him, realising that he, too, has many reasons to hate the system.

'Wouldn't you get back at them? If you could?' I ask. He looks away uncomfortably, pausing a moment.

'By 'they', I assume you mean my family?' He raises an eyebrow. 

'Yes, your family,' I nod. 'The family who took Aleks away from you. The family who are forcing you to live a life of misery, until the day when you can be the one taking loved ones away from others.'

'Don't cross the line, Eve,' Malachy growls, his expression closing off again. 'That subject isn't up for discussion. The bottom line is: if you decide to help Lorna Gray escape from the Institute, I will be forced to inform Sir Alec, and my family, of your plans. It is my duty.' He clenches his jaw but I sense that his words aren't as final as he'd like them to be.

'Would you really Confine me, Malachy?' I lean back, propping myself up on my elbows as I stretch across the bed. I'm being extremely cocky, I know, but no matter what I say or how I say it, there's no reasoning with him.

'Don't you understand?' He loses his temper, his eyes flashing with anger. He takes a few steps forwards, so that his frame towers above me.

'Of course you don't,' He sneers, narrowing his gaze, his aura oozing with hostility. 'You're nobody. You're of no importance, and any decisions you make don't matter to anyone. Well I'm not!' He yells, the weight of his words bearing down heavily on both of us.

'My decisions are extremely important! What I think and what I do can be the difference between freedom and Confinement for Immortals, life or death for humans.

I'm entrusted with our entire species and one day I will govern it. Do you really think I'm going to let your stupid, idiotic plan to rescue an insignificant woman from a fate she brought upon herself get in the way of that?

Remember who I am, Eve. Remember who my family are. And stop taking liberties with the friendship and help I've extended to you.

I will not be lenient with you because you happen to look like my ex-girlfriend, is that understood?

You are nothing to me and if you break a rule, if I hear so much as a whisper of your aiding Lorna Gray to escape, I will have you Confined and her killed.

The choice is yours.' He snarls before turning abruptly, striding across the room and disappearing through the door. His footsteps recede into the distance and I lay on my back, paralysed with shock.

I don't pretend to know Malachy inside out, I don't pretend to be something to him that I'm not, but I was pretty sure that he wouldn't Confine me without a second thought. Apparently I was wrong.

He risked a lot helping me with Katy Branch, he has a lot to lose, and it was stupid of me to think that because he did it once, he would do it over and over again. It was stupid of me to think that just because he helped me once, that made me something to him.

I'd forgotten his status amongst us. Forgotten that he is entrusted with duties and tasks beyond my imagination, far more important than anything I've done or will ever do.

Our entire world will soon look to him for guidance and decisions. His father already expects him to conduct himself in a certain way, have certain opinions and demonstrate that he's Auctorita material.

Did I really think he would cast all that aside for me?

My cockiness only a few moments ago now embarrasses me, and I curl into a ball, my ego knocked to the ground.

*

I make a steadfast decision to stay as far away from Malachy – and, for the moment, Lorna – as I can get. I need time to myself to think, figure this whole mess out and make a decision on where to go from this point.

All I can be sure of is that this situation won't end well for me, the only question now is: how would I like to go out? What offence would I prefer to be dragged to the Confine for?

Tia doesn't come back to our room all night and I guess that her brush with Malachy's darker side sent her running for the comfort of Richard's arms.

It's better this way anyhow; company is the last thing I want right now. But despite laying in bed for eight hours, thinking the events of the day through, come morning I'm no closer to a decision or solution.

I'm thankful that my first lesson of the day is Theory; I can handle neither the physical or mental demands of my other classes. Will's quiet, stuffy classroom seems like a good sanctuary for me and my seat at the front of the class keeps me away from the other students, no conversation or contact necessary.

Will announces that today's lesson will be a lecture, and whilst the rest of the class groan in distaste, I'm secretly pleased. Losing myself in Will's tales of history and politics is just what I need to take my mind off the present, and I settle in my seat, ready to – for once – give my undivided attention to my education.

'Who can tell me the name of our Government?' He starts with an easy question, and Logan rolls his eyes, indulging Will with a bored sounding answer.

'The Auctoritas.'

'Correct, Mr Marshall. An easy question and an easy answer. But how many of you can tell me who the Auctoritas are? Their individual names and positions?'

I fidget in my seat as heat builds within my chest. I love to share my knowledge with others, and I especially like to please Will, but to reveal my awareness of Sirus and Maya would only shed a damning light on Tia, who broke a rule by telling me about them.

I keep quiet, pretending to be as bemused as the rest of the class.

'In order to live in this world, run and governed by the Auctoritas, it would be beneficial for you to know a little about them,' Will smiles, taking his usual position perched on the edge of his desk at the head of the class.

'So, we'll begin with Sirus Bathory; head of the Auctoritas, the highest power in our world,' Will informs us. 'Sirus has ruled over our kind for two hundred years thus far. He succeeded his father, Caruso Bejarano, in 1813. Caruso had ruled for five hundred years and it was his time to step down and allow his son to take over...'

'How did the Auctoritas first come into existence? For that matter, how did we?' I ask, my curiosity stirring.

'Yeah, who's the oldest Immortal?' Tomos pipes up.

'Our kind first came into existence around 200,000 BC, as linear time is now regarded. We evolved alongside the first humans, helping to build civilisation as it's now known.

As to the oldest Immortal, that's a difficult question to answer. If you're asking for the oldest immortal in the truest sense of the word – as in: he who has been alive the longest – this would be Ka, a Sumerian man still in existence today. However Ka is immortal only by name. He has the ability to live forever, but does not live as we do.

The oldest Immortal in the way that we are, is Menes Sekhem, who stands at around 10,000 years old, born in 8000 BCE,' Will smiles at a sea of baffled faces and sighs.

'I'll try to put this as simply as I can, but we're touching on a very complex and little understood history. Our kind evolved in the same way humans did; we began as a superior race, faster, smarter, more developed than early human beings, but by no means Immortal.

Most of early human civilisation was built by our kind. But the one flaw in our biology was the lack of us. Our oldest ancestors were not Immortal, and the offspring they produced were not Immortal, until Ka.

Born to a biologically human – albeit superior – mother and father, he was the first of our kind to be born immortal. However, he possessed little of the power we, as modern Immortals, harness now.

He's only slightly smarter, faster or stronger than the average human, not an Immortal in our sense of the word, nor does he feed on human blood.

Ka mated with many human women for many years and all of his offspring were born mortal, until Menes Sekhem.

The first modern Immortal, Sekhem was ten times faster, stronger, more intelligent than his father – and had an irresistible urge to feed on human blood. I believe he killed his own mother.

Ka, terrified for his son, took Sekhem and hid him for years until Sekhem accidentally created another Immortal when interrupted whilst feeding.

Now knowing how to create fellow Immortals, Sekhem became greedy, creating hundreds of us, unleashing hell on humanity. We ruled the world for over two thousand years, until only a few hundred humans remained.

Menes Sekhem created a woman named only as Aed, who spotted the flaws in Sekhem's way of life, and the imminent extinction of humans.

She gathered the other Immortals, now in their thousands, and convinced them that Menes Sekhem had to be controlled, his appetite curbed. They confined Sekhem, not in the sense of our Confine, but by literally holding him in confinement, surrounded by guards twenty four hours a day.

Whilst Menes Sekhem served out his confinement, the human race was given time to repopulate, and Aed assumed control of the Immortals. She made a decision, one we have stuck to to this very day. She decided that Immortals and humans can not exist side by side. And as we have a far greater need for humans than they do us, she decided that we Immortals would step aside, allow humans to resume control of the world, and to create our own, keeping it hidden.

Over time, humans forgot about our existence. They re-populated, and we continued to live in the shadows, our only way to remain at peace alongside human beings.

Aed herself eventually tired of leadership, and chose her companion, Radha, to take her place. And so began the Auctoritas, with Radha as its head and Aed as second in command.

Radha ruled for three thousand years until he met and changed Caruso Bejarano, eventually allowing him to succeed his reign. Radha remained second in command until Caruso changed his wife, Lalita, and so began the tradition of a male and female couple as the head Auctoritas, and a board of older, wiser ex-Auctoritas to advise their younger successors.'

'What happened to the others? Aed and Radha? Menes Sekhem?' Logan asks.

'Aed and Radha remain Auctoritas, they sit on 'The Board', as it's known; on hand to advise Sirus and his wife and second in command, Maya.

Menes Sekhem remains in Confinement, as he has done for thousands of years. Many Immortals disagree with Sekhem's treatment, demanding that he be released and given another chance to re-join our society, but so far, no Auctorita has permitted it.

The five hundred year rule began with Caruso stepping down for Sirus, as Sirus will step down in three hundred years time for his son, Malachy.'

A hushed whisper makes it's way around the room as my fellow students realise the depth and importance of Malachy's role in our world. Previously regarded in their eyes as an annoying, self-indulgent and pompous student, treated far better than them and overly privileged, they now marvel at his family's history and the part he will play in theirs.

'Where does Lucrezia fit in?' Tomos asks. I shudder at the mention of her name.

'She is a back-up. In the event that Malachy breaks a law and needs to be Confined, Lucrezia will take his place. A system designed by Sirus.

If Malachy remains a true and loyal Auctorita, his mate – whoever she may be – will become his second in command.' Will replies.

'Now I get why Lucrezia's such a bitch.' Tomos sniggers behind me.

'Moving on!' Will calls loudly. 'Maya Bathory, Sirus' wife and second in command. She has a certain amount of input as to our laws and practices, and she's often entrusted with important tasks such as the general running of the Confine.

Aed, Radha, Caruso and Lalita make up The Board, and give advice to both Sirus and Maya whenever it's warranted. They also still have a certain amount of power, and most of Sirus' ideas and laws must be approved by them before they're put into practice.

Surnames beginning with 'B' are an Auctorita tradition. Caruso was Spanish, and the first Auctorita to possess a surname. Lalita, a Swede, assumed it, and the Bejarano reign began.