The Grower's Gift (Progeny of Time #1) (18 page)

Ty strode over and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "You have nothing to worry about, Lana. I'm sure Rober only wanted you to be safe."

Lana smiled serenely, baring her teeth. "We'll talk more about this."

Ty steered Lana to the sofa and sat down as close to the window as he could. Liam Northman was showing everyone there how he intended to change his appearance as soon as he could. Lana leaned forward and studied the holographic representation of Liam's planned changes.

Ty stretched his arms over his head and took a peek at what Maya was doing by the window. She glared right at him, tornados replacing the lighting in her eyes. Ty turned away hastily.

Maya came over and balanced her drink on the armrest right next to Ty. She peered at Liam's holograph. He was explaining how he planned to change his black hair to yellow, and wear it in spikes across his head.

"So why don't you change your appearance now?" Maya asked. "Or have you not decided on one yet? Is it a painful procedure?"

A few exchanged incredulous glances, and a group of girls giggled at her question.

"Did I say something wrong?" Maya's eyes darted over the crowd like she was looking for a fight.

"We're not allowed to change our appearance until we turn twenty-one," Liam explained. "It's a stupid rule, only there because our parents want to force us to stay the way they made us for as long as they can."

Maya nudged Ty's arm. "So in a few years you'll be able to change and then you won't look like your mother anymore."

Ty coughed in shock. The rest of those gathered went silent as though someone had turned off the volume in a game.

Lana's green eyes were slits, promising bloody revenge. "Why would she say that, Ty? I thought you didn't even know Rober kept her here."

"I…I…"
 

Liam came to Ty's rescue. "What he's trying to stutter there is that he's too proud of the way he turned out, he'd never consider changing his appearance."
 

Lana was still glaring at him, so Ty laughed loudly, pointing at himself. "Well, what can I say? I came out perfect on the first try."

Lana smacked his hand. "You could do something about this arrogance of yours."

"What do you mean on the first try?" Maya asked. "Are you saying you all were genetically engineered?"

Lana shot up and stood over Maya menacingly. "And what's wrong with that?"

Maya backed away, a sneer on her face. "Easy now. I'm just asking a question."

Ty took Lana's arm to restrain her. "It's no secret we were all made according to our parents' specifications. Why are you getting so worked up?"

Lana yanked her arm away from him. "I don't get you, Ty. What do you see in this base girl?"

Everything.
 

"Don't worry about that," Maya said. "All I want is to get to the school. Can you take me tomorrow?"

A surge of icy cold erupted in Ty's forehead, snaked its way down his arm. He quickly let go of Lana, before anything happened that couldn't be undone.

Lana turned her glare on Maya, then her eyes softened. "Sure, why not? I'll come pick you up first thing tomorrow morning."

Rober appeared and stood between Lana and Maya. "Don't fight. This is supposed to be a party."

Lana glared at him like she was about to hit him. Rober pulled a tiny bottle of pills from his pocket and shook them in front of her face. "Why don't you try one of these? I've been saving them for a special occasion."

Lana's eyes widened as she reached for the bottle and held it up to the light. "Are these gifters? Where did you get them?"

"Straight from the lab and yes, they're the latest formula. The blue ones will make you see sounds and the green ones take you on a journey through all your happiest memories."

"Do they really?" Sage asked. Tanya and Liam also leaned closer. Maya stared from one to the other looking puzzled.

"Apparently," Rober said. "And I have enough for everyone."

Lana dumped a few pills into her palm and turned to Ty. "Blue or green?"

He could do with some happy memories. He chose the blue one instead, figuring it'd be easier to fake seeing sound. The rest swooped down on the pills in Lana's hand, and Ty slipped his into his sleeve, pretending to swallow it.
 

Minutes later, some of them started smiling gleefully, others laughing loudly at something only they could see.
 

Maya looked from the pills to Ty's laughing friends, a few of whom had dropped to the floor right where they stood.
 

Ty eased the giggling Lana onto the sofa, then followed Rober to the kitchen. Maya and Giles had retreated to the window casting shocked looks at the others.
 

"Those gifters sure work fast," Ty said, glancing back to the others. Most were curled up on the floor around the sofas now, gleeful expressions on their faces.
 

Rober shrugged. "I thought we could both do without Lana's snarky comments. You can go talk to Maya now."

Ty glanced at Maya and Giles, but neither of them were looking his way. "Why did you let her come anyway?"
 

"She accused me of keeping her locked up. I was afraid she'd do something dumb again."

"Don't call her dumb," Ty said.
 

Rober looked at him appraisingly. "I'll distract Giles for you."

Ty watched him walk over to Giles, and start showing him something on his phone. He joined them soon after, and stopped right beside Maya.

Rober announced he could show Giles a video of how fingers could be regrown in the other room. Maya moved to follow, but Ty held her back. "Can we talk?"

She whipped her hand out of his grasp. "I don't know why you refuse to take me to the school and I don't care. I'm going there tomorrow. Your girlfriend is taking me."

Ty ran his fingers through his hair and glanced over to the sofa to make sure Lana was still stuck in her hallucinations. "The school is not safe for you. Me and Rober are working on a plan to help the Badlands. You can help with that, and get to stay at home."

Her mouth twisted in a snarl. "You lied to me and pretended like you don't even know me on more than one occasion. I don't trust you. I left home so I can learn my gift. I'm not going back until I do."

"You should," Ty said, his anger rising. All he was doing was trying to protect her.
 

She turned so fast Ty took a step backward reflexively. "Well I don't and I never will again! Now please leave me alone so I can enjoy this party."

"The party is over," Rober said as he returned with Giles in tow. "Once they come to, they'll all want to go to sleep anyway. Apparently the come down from these new gifters is no fun thing. I'll take you to the guest room now."

Maya protested but Rober wouldn't hear any argument. Ty accompanied them, still seething from Maya's harsh tone. He'd leave right then, only he wanted to find out which guest room they were staying in.
 

"Right, now for the code," Rober said as soon as the door rippled shut on Maya.
 

"Can't you give it to me tomorrow?"
 

"No. Everyone else already got theirs," Rober said and led the way back to the elevator. "I swear, this gate I made is a piece of art. Undetectable to the point that it won't even register a disturbance if a whole fleet of crafts goes through it. Even if they seal the whole shield, this exit will still stay open."

Ty had to smile at his friend's excitement. "So you finally found a way to make the perfect secret gate? Like we always talked about."

Rober punched him in the arm playfully. "Yes! This one is even better than anything I ever imagined. It took me years to figure out how to make it."

"You really never stopped planning this, did you?"
 

Rober grinned widely. "No."

Back in his apartments, Rober had him place his arm into the machine that would inject the necessary line under Ty's skin.

As it congealed into just another stripe on his tiger tattoo, the dye containing the code to open Rober's secret exit left Ty's whole arm burning and throbbing painfully for the rest of the night. A fitting end to a terrible day.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

His mother wasn't in her office, nor was she in the control room at the facility. Ty had just sat down, preparing to coax more information about the pills from Martin when he and Ronia were summoned to the reception area. Ty followed, though he didn't want to see the poor person brought in today. However, his mother would be there and he wanted to make sure she saw him at work bright and early. Maya was still safe, there was no way Lana would've found where she was staying so quickly. Lana likely wasn't even awake yet.

As he neared the wraparound windows that separated the reception area from the rest of the facility his heart stopped, then began racing furiously. His freezing cold power exploded in his forehead.
 

Maya sat in one of the plush seats, Lana standing over her.
 

Ty still had time to send her away. His mother wasn't there yet. He pushed past Ronia and Martin and broke into a run towards Maya.

The door on the opposite side of the room slid open seconds before he reached her.

"Who is this, Lana?" his mother's voice rang sweetly from across the room.

Maya never looked back when he entered. Lana did, her eyes slits, then she turned back to Violetta. "Ty and I brought this one back ages ago for you. I'm surprised he waited so long to bring her to you."

Maya turned and looked around at him, lighting flashing in her eyes.
 

Ty hoped none of his terror showed on his face. He concentrated on the cold building in his mind, willed it to subside, fearing to touch anything, think anything. The emotions whirling in his mind were strong enough to wipe the whole room from existence. He
had
to regain control.

Ty forced a wide smile and walked to his mother's side. "I'm sorry about that, Mom. I didn't want to take all the credit, what with Lana gone. I was sure she'd never forgive me, and we did find this one together."

The words were shards of glass in his mouth. He had to lie to his mother. If she ever suspected he meant to hide Maya from her forever he'd get a cell right next to her.
 

His mother stood on tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. "You did absolutely right. You don't want to mistreat your girlfriend, after all."

She pointed at Martin and Ronia. "Prepare her, Ronia. I will call her shortly for the interview."

Ty fought back the urge to scream at Ronia to let Maya go, to not lead her from the room. All he could do was keep smiling.
 

He watched Maya retreating down the hallway, her dark curls swaying as she walked.
 

Why hadn't he sent her away last night? He could have led her and Giles to the SF headquarters, even used Rober's secret passage out of the Ring. Instead, he had gone home to sleep, feeling sorry for himself. That wasn't even all of it. He didn't send Maya away because he wanted to spend more time with her, and now he'd never see her again.
 

"Come to the control room after lunch, Ty, and I'll see about getting you a higher clearance," his mother said then left the room too.
 

"See how easy that was?" Lana asked innocently.
 

Yes, it was incredibly easy for Lana to hurt others. She had no empathy or compassion.
 

"See you later," Ty managed to choke out then left the room, not really caring what she made of it.

~

Giles started from the sofa as soon as Ty entered the guest room.
 

"Get your things. You're leaving," Ty barked at him.

Giles made no move to obey.
 

"Now!"

"Where's Maya? When is she coming back?"

Ty struggled to control his panic before it turned to rage. They had no time for Giles to argue. The SFs sent to collect him could already be on their way. His mother didn't leave loose ends. "I know who you are. If she exiled you once, she'll execute you now for returning."

The shocked gasp that escaped Giles' mouth told Ty he understood perfectly. He hurried to stuff his belongings into a backpack and was ready to leave in minutes.

Ty led him down the hallway and to the servants' elevator. Luckily the Orsinis kept human servants too. Most had androids these days, and the robots could fly up and down chutes on their own. Ty paced in front of the elevator, expecting the SFs to appear at any moment.
 

"You won't tell your mother I was here, will you?" Giles whispered.

Ty tapped the elevator button furiously. "No, why else do you think I'm here? Though she probably already knows, thanks to Lana."

The elevator finally arrived and Ty pushed Giles into it. He set it to take them to the visitor's plaza at top speed. "Where do your brothers live?"

"Southside, building 13," Giles muttered once he regained his balance in the speeding elevator. "Thank you, but what about Maya?"

"You should've stayed away. You should have kept Maya away."

"I tried. She's not easy to convince once she's made up her mind."

Force of nature.
Not that she would be for much longer.

"Will you tell Maya where I'm going?" Giles asked. "So she can find me once she gets out of the school."

"She's not coming back out," Ty said coldly. The words were a sharp jab through his stomach. It was the truth, unless he found a way to get her the pills in the next few hours.

"What do you mean?" Giles asked breathlessly.

The elevator stopped and Ty pressed his tattoo against the panel. The door rippled open and they stood in a vast plaza that stretched for miles in all directions. A handful of people milled around it, but otherwise it was deserted.
 

"Nothing," Ty said. "Maya'll be at the school full time for a while. You go hide with your brothers and I'll tell her where you are."

Ty led the way to an info booth at the far corner of the plaza and showed Giles how to ask the android manning the desk to find his family. Once Giles got the information and directions, Ty left him to find his own way. Giles looked like he still had a thousand questions to ask.