The Syndicate (7 page)

The both of us huddle at the foot of his bed, and I tell him everything except the strange yearning sensation mustering inside me. When I’m done, he studies me closely.

“You moron,” he finally says.

My jaw drops, suddenly fearful that I’m too weak to fulfill a necessary job. “What?”

“You idiot. You don’t go sending yourself to the ER, you dope. What if she
was
some sort of monster-alien-Hybrid-beast? How the hell would you have fought her with stitches?”

I can’t help but laugh before I plead my case.

“I had to see her for myself. I couldn’t go into it blind.”

“Right. Well?”

“Well what?”

“Well, is she a beauty or a beast?”

“Dani. Seriously, man. What am I supposed to do? What would you do?”

“Depends on how cute she is.”

I nudge him hard enough to jar my stitches and flinch. “Ouch.”

“See. You dope.”

“You’re not helping. Be serious.”

“All right. Okay. That’s some freaky stuff. I don’t even know. I’ve never thought about killing a girl, but if the Readers see it, then—”

“But that’s just it, Dani. The Readers didn’t say that she kills any of us. How dangerous can she be?”

“I don’t know. I can’t think straight in the middle of the night, but we’ll figure it out. We’ve got fourteen more days before the next Circle. Just get some sleep and think it through in the morning and we’ll go from there. I trust your judgment, Vasi. If you think she’s harmless, then don’t do it. But if you decide she needs to go, and you’re having trouble with it, I’ll do it for you. No one will ever know.”

Somehow I’m fighting a surge of bitterness at his offer, when it’s actually a nice gesture in terms of our code. Even still, if I can’t harm one curl on her head, I won’t feel right letting someone else do it.

The rest of the night goes by in a blur. I try to think rationally about all possible reasons for this unprecedented situation. I try to think about what the Reader could’ve mistakenly seen and what needs to be done to fulfill my destiny. But all I can think about is her.

I lie, feeling the throbbing in my side, and it only makes me remember the bright lights of the hospital and the perfect way her curls fell past her shoulders. And then I think about the disarray of those same curls as we practically wrestled in her apartment. I cringe at the recollection and then can’t stop smiling at the visual of her holding a gun.

Images of her shaking hands and pleading eyes ricochet inside my skull, but somewhere intertwining with those images, I see bravery, and it makes me smile again. Then, I’m angry, frustrated, and annoyed all over.

Mentally and physically exhausted, I finally fade into a brief sleep.

My morning starts off later than usual. I can’t seem to find the energy or the desire to have breakfast, so I lie around until I feel the need to clean myself up.

My long shower makes me realize that my last twenty-four hours have been unproductive. It’s like I’m wandering around aimlessly, and it bothers me to no end. I feel lost and unmotivated.

The urge to shoot hoops briefly comes, but I pass because my stitches are too new. Instead, I decide to go for a drive, when I see Rosie making her way down our wing. Her room is down the hall from mine, so seeing her is no surprise.

It’s a welcomed encounter, because she brings normalcy into my life, and that’s something lacking right now. I’m about to say “hey” when I see her suck her teeth and roll her eyes. My head bounces back in reflex, and I look behind me to see if anyone else is there. It’s just me.

“What’s that about?” I ask as she gets closer. Without answering me, she brushes past and huffs in disgust, but I grab her elbow. “I said what’s that about?”

She swings around and jerks herself free, deciding not to hold back.

“I know you left last night, and I saw your bloody towel in the bathroom,” she hisses. “How could you?”

She’s looking at me with a disgust that I’ve never been faced with, and it shocks me momentarily. By the time it registers why she’s so pissed, she’s halfway down the hallway.

“Rosie, would you stop? Please.” I catch up to her, and in a whisper I say, “It’s not what you think.”

“The hell it isn’t. What? Did you kill a cat?”

“Keep your voice down. No, I didn’t kill a cat.” I lift up my shirt to show her my bandage. “I’ve got stitches. I was cleaning it this morning. That’s what you saw on the towel.”

Her shoulders relax, but she crosses her arms, waiting for more. “Fine. I was going to,” I admit. “I even cut myself so I could pay a visit to the hospital, but—”

“You stalked her?”

“No! Well, sort of.”

She starts walking away, and I go after her again. “Rosie. Stop, damn it. I didn’t do it.”

We’re in front of her room now, and she looks at her door, then at me. “But you will.”

“No I won’t,” I say firmly.

“How do you know?”

“Because I already tried.”

She sucks in a breath, so I quickly finish, “I didn’t go through with it. But I found out some more about her, Rosie. She has nightmares about Hybrids.”

“What?” She pulls me into her room and closes the door, where I spill everything. It’s more than I told Dani, and I still feel the same sense that suddenly our two-hundred-year-old code of secrecy is going to pieces.

“You can’t kill her, Vasi.”

“Haven’t I just finished telling you that?”

“Yeah, but I mean, no matter what Henri says.”

“I know.”

“But, you have to figure out what’s going on with her, and you have to mark it in the book or else Henri will get suspicious.”

That’s something I didn’t think about.

“If I mark that I killed her in the book, that would be lying. That’s a blatant disgrace to the Syndicate. I’d be disowned.”

“No one owns you, Vasi. What’s the worst that can happen? And besides, you have a right to be the head of the Syndicate. Not Henri. You can disown
him
if you want to.”

My vision is getting cloudy and the room spins as the voices of Henri, Stefan, and Valentin ring in my head: “Do it, Vasi. Save our family. Save the people.” And then I hear my father saying, “Listen to your intuition, Vasi. Do what it tells you.”

Then my sister’s head comes into focus, and I see her big browns melting into me like syrup, and I hear her and my mother saying, “She’s just a girl, Vasi.”

“Damn it.” I jump up, grunting at the sharp pain shooting in my side.

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t know.”

Without further explanation, I wander through the halls until I end up in our supply room. And I don’t mean food supplies. I mean our underground weapons and training facility, surrounded by soundproof walls and impenetrable locks that can only be opened with a ten-digit password unique to each Guard.

I’ve brought myself here to focus on the destruction that I’m trained to do. I survey the custom-made stainless-steel knives and blades, and high powered rifles and guns with silencers.

Explosives, ropes, anything that can be used to seek out, attack, and kill—all are within my grasp. My hands trace over the weapons, and, as I admire the fine craftsmanship, a calm sense of purpose comes over me. I’m an assassin. This is what I
want
to do, what I
will
do.

To a Hybrid.

A
Hybrid
. I felt it before, but know it now. I’m not going to harm a girl.

These weapons are not meant to be used on Riley Bennett. That much I know.

And since I won’t lie about my abandoned mission, it’s time for me to see Henri, again.

By the time I reach his study door, I decide not to tell him anything about the encounters with Riley. It’s not necessary for what I need to accomplish, and I don’t want him thinking she personally affects me.

Inside his study, he’s playing a game of chess with Stefan. I ask to speak with him alone, but he refuses this time.

“We have no secrets here, Vasi. You know that. Whatever you have to say to me, you may say to Stefan.”

Nodding, I sit, and although Henri is trying to appear as if he has no secrets, something in his eyes tells me otherwise. He’s making this even more difficult.

“I’ve come to respectfully tell you that I won’t be able to complete my second assignment.”

Stefan’s marble pawn falls over, breaking the lingering silence.

Henri remains much more composed. “Now, Vasi, we’ve already discussed this. Even challenges we do not understand must be confronted. Have no fear. You will prevail.”

I clear my throat to make sure he hears me clearly. “Henri. I’m not afraid. I’m not completing my task, because my target is simply
not
a Hybrid.”

I notice Henri’s grip on his bishop tighten as he makes a move. “Again, Vasi, I have already told you, the Reader sees that your target will become a threat, and that is all that matters.”

There’s no use debating, so I stand and nod respectfully to both men. “I’m sorry, Henri, but my intuition is telling me otherwise.” And knowing it’s the only way Stefan will truly understand, I add, “And my father taught me to always follow my instincts. No matter what. So, I’m sorry. I can’t.”

I back away as they continue their game. It appears no further comment will be made, so I turn to leave. As if waiting for the exact moment my hand touches the knob, Henri says to Stefan. “He is a respectable boy. We will just have to reassign her to someone else.”

My reflexes cause me to grip the knob a little too tightly and pause.

“Unless,” I say, hopeful, “the Reader’s vision changes.”

“Perhaps,” he says. “We’ll just wait until the next Circle and find out. Have no worries, Vasi. The Syndicate will do what is necessary.”

I
know what Henri means when he says the Syndicate will do whatever is necessary. Even if a Reader doesn’t still see her as a threat at the next Circle. But, I also know Henri won’t want to raise an alarm that he’s lost control. He’ll wait until the next Circle and assign her name as if it were the first time. No one will know the difference.

Even though the idea bothers me, I can’t seem to bring myself to think about it any longer. It’s one thing for me to refuse an assignment, but it’s another for me to interfere with assignments that aren’t mine. The last thing I want to do is continue to inflict it on my mind. I’ve already inflicted unnecessary pain on my body. Which is exactly why I decide to feed myself.

I fix a sandwich and chips, and then grab a water and sit at our dining room table. No sooner am I there does Rosie plop herself across from me. I ignore her, no longer feeling obligated to explain my decent nature. I’ve already done enough to make myself feel better.

“So?” she says after she can’t hold it in any longer.

“So. I told you.”

She leans forward in a whisper now. “No, what did Henri say?”

“He said ‘okay.’”

“That’s it?”

I eat my chips, since there’s barely anything left of my sandwich, really hoping she’ll drop it there, but I know better.

“So, he didn’t say
anything
?”

I roll my eyes. “No, he said something.”

“Damn it, Vasi. Stop jerking my chain. What did he say?”

I lean back, my lunch officially not going as planned. “He said he’ll wait until the next Circle and do what needs to be done.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know—”

“Yes you do. He’s going to assign her to someone else, and you’re going to let him.”

“Rosie. It’s not in my hands anymore. What do you want from me? I can’t help what the Elders decide.”

She stands swiftly and leans over the table to whisper, “You might as well have done it yourself if you sit back and let someone else do it. She’s my age, Vasi, for Christ’s sake. I didn’t sign up to be a part of this crap.”

There’s a fire in her eyes that I’ve never seen before, but something tells me I need to take back the control a Guard is given over his Scout. It’s time to separate blood from duty.

I stand, leaning over the table as if I’m going to fill her in on a secret. In the same hushed tone, I lean into her. “Rosie, what we do keeps those Hybrids from taking over
everyone
. Including you. The Readers have been doing their work long before you were even a thought in Mom’s brain. So you need to show some respect, and right now you are
way
out of line. I suggest you go back and wait until we have another assignment that’s our business.”

She looks stunned and takes a deep breath. “If you guys start killing people for no reason, then all honor goes out the window.”

“Like I said. Back to your own business.”

I stand firm, knowing she wants to huff and puff, but she sees I’m serious. I’ve never played the superior card with her before, but it’s about time she got a glimpse. Scouts can easily be replaced, and if Henri senses resistance from her, too, it’ll just be another thing I have to deal with.

After one barely audible huff, she stomps off, but I suspect she won’t mention the assignment again, and neither will I.

I pick up my empty plate and return it to the kitchen. I’m about to find Dani for some Horse when I hear the doorbell chime. Looking for any reason to keep my mind on something other than reflections, I quickly make my way to answer it.

Like a makeshift butler, I find pleasure in pulling open the door. “Yes,” I practically sing until my eyes bulge. Before my brain catches up to my antics, my unexpected guest speaks, nervously.

“Hi. I’m sorry, but I didn’t know how else to reach you. I…I…looked up your address in the computer at work.”

A very large frog is caught in my windpipe as I stare, speechless, at her mesmerizing ringlets blowing in the wind around her nervous face, which is nearly pleading with me for a response.

All I can think of is, “You shouldn’t be here.”

Her bottom lip clamps shut and opens slightly before clamping shut again. “Um…”

“No, I mean it,” I say, closing the gap of the door so it’s only slightly open. “You
really
can’t be here right now.”

She steps closer, which causes me to close the door another inch. “Listen. Please. I had a nightmare that Hybrids were living in my building, coming for me. And this morning, I think I saw one, and you said your fam—”