All The Things You Have To Burn (Grey Corp Book 1)

by Abbey, Kit

  “Serves her right? He yanked out her heart!”

  “Well, yeah, he would’ve had to, her being what she is.”

  “Her being what she…” William shook his head, as though the movement could dispel this madness. “He killed her. That’s not, I mean, what do you mean the boss doesn’t care?”

  Rowan shrugged. “Jones has been picking off employees who annoy him for years. The boss lets it go because he is a good sight more valuable than they are.”

  “That’s insane! He should be stopped!”

  Rowan shrugged, then reached over and ruffled William’s hair. It was the first time she’d touched him in a non-violent manner in all the time he’d known her, and he started in shock.

  “Look, don’t worry your pretty little head about it. You are apparently more valuable than Jones, and so he won’t try to do it again.” She shook her head. “Although really, what were you thinking? You should have just let him do what he wanted to the silly girl instead of pissing him of by getting involved.”

  “That’s not why he tried to kill me,” said William.

  Rowan looked interested. “No? That’s what he told Mr. Grey. Why’d he do it then?”

  “Oh, uh, actually, now I think about it I don’t really remember,” said William. “It’s all blurry.”

  Rowan looked unconvinced.

  “Herphm,” said Ben Waters, slowly beginning to come ‘round.

  “He needs to get to the testing room before he wakes up,” commented Rowan, although she made no move to take him there. “I hardly see the point, we do not have the resources for a new Employee even if he has potential. We barely had the resources for you.”

  “You didn’t tell me what the date was,” said William, remembering.

  “What? Oh, July 25th.”

  “Are you serious!”

  “You nearly died,” said Rowan. “Not from what Jones did but from the energy your body put into healing you. It would have been nicely ironic if you’d died from healing.”

  “I’m sorry to deprive you of your irony intake,” said William.

  “Urgle,” said Waters.

  The black doors swung open and William saw that, despite what his inner clock had been telling him, it was late at night. Wrapped in their customary heavy coats Chris and the members of his crew who hadn’t had their hearts ripped out by Caspien Jones entered the room.

  “Oh,” said Jeff as he caught site of William, “you’re awake.”

  “Yeah,” said William.

  “You look like complete shit,” said Barry, shaking rain out of his hair.

  “Yeah,” said Danny, “and you can’t blame it on lack of beauty sleep either.”

  William gave a half-hearted laugh. “Guess I can’t. But, look,” he said, “I’m really sorry about what happened to Clarissa.”

  The mood amongst them grew sombre.

  “We know you are,” said Jeff, “and it means a lot to us.”

  As one the six of them turned and glared at Rowan, who rolled her eyes.

  “Take him up to the training room, would you?” she said, gesturing to the stirring body of Waters with her foot. Silently, Danny and Jacob knelt down and picked up Waters.

  Chris hung back while the rest of the Collectors moved to the elevator. “We know you tried to help her,” he said softly, “and we really do appreciate that.”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more,” said William.

  Chris nodded and clapped him on the shoulder, then went to join his crew.

  Chapter 36.

  It took nearly a week of solid eating before William could truthfully say he was no longer hungry. Dr. Eagle told him that hunger was often a side effect of Illuding, and it wasn’t surprising that what he’d done had left him so ravenous.

  He told her he didn’t see why he couldn’t go back to his room and eat there, instead of being stuck in the medical ward. She’d clipped him under the ear for his insolence. (William was pretty sure she hadn’t forgiven him for skipping out of the medical ward the night he’d woken up). At least being in the medical ward reduced the chance of running into Jones. William was not looking forward to seeing the man again.

  He did wonder about what he’d seen though, the vision that had appeared in his mind of Jones and the soon to be wed Jude Cross, (and it had not escaped William’s notice that Cross was also Rowan’s married name). After turning the event over in his mind again and again (and again and again and again) William decided that it was the mention of Jude that had made Jones murderous. There was something about him that Jones didn’t want known, and it was possibly why he’d been so insistent that William hide his abilities all along.

  William quickly grew sick of thinking about it. Although he did decide that if anyone asked, he would go with Jones’ version of events. Rowan may have been confident that Jones wouldn’t try to kill him, but William wasn’t going to push it. Eventually, Dr. Eagle told him he could leave. He didn’t get enjoy being back in his rooms for long though, he’d barely sat down when Mr. Grey and Nobody came knocking.

  “Ah, Mr. Black,” said Mr. Grey, “I see Dr. Eagle has released you.”

  “She ran out of excuses to keep me,” said William.

  “Good,” said Nobody.

  “We’re terribly sorry about what happened,” said Mr. Grey. “Mr. Jones has been dealt with, I assure you. He will not be offering you a repeat performance of his behaviour.”

  “Well, good,” said William. “Pity you’re a bit late to help Clarissa.”

  “Oh, Miss. Dilanti,” said Mr. Grey. “Tragic, yes, but unavoidable.”

  “What do you mean, unavoidable! Removing someone’s heart with your bare hands is actually the definition of avoidable. It’s not like he tripped and his fist landed around it!”

  “Calm down,” said Nobody.

  “One must expect some level of violence when dealing with a man of Mr. Jones peculiar nature,” said Mr. Grey, “although he should have known better than to interfere with you.”

  “He’s a crazy bastard,” said Nobody, “but he’s not stupid.”

  “Look, just, whatever,” said William. “Did you want something?”

  Mr. Grey inclined his head. “I wonder, Mr. Black, if you remember the discussion we had in Dr. Smith’s laboratory? It was the same day as your unfortunate encounter with Mr. Jones.”

  “Yeah,” said William, “I remember.”

  “Well, the matter of the tracking device still needs taking care of.” Mr. Grey leant over and pressed the circular device into William’s hand.

  “Rowan is waiting for you in Albert’s room,” said Nobody.

  “What,” said William, “you want me to do it right now?”

  “Indeed,” said Mr. Grey. “Before you suffer any more mishaps.”

  “You do seem to suffer a lot of them,” said Nobody.

  They stepped back into the hallway, leaving William alone and annoyed.

  Chapter 37.

  “She’s a waitress,” said Rowan. “Getting paid under the table, as if that would be enough to keep us from finding her. Illude some life into the tracking bug, stick it on her person somewhere, and then come back out here. Think you manage all that?”

  She and William were sitting in the Mustang, which was parked in front of a café,

  “I’m sure I’ll manage,” said William.

  “Are you certain?” asked Rowan in mock concern, “it’s not going to be too much for your delicate ickle nervous system is it?”

  William refrained from answering, and got out of the Mustang in what he hoped was a dignified silence. Late afternoon must not be the optimal time for people to go to trendy little cafés, because this one was empty. Well, either that or the food was really rubbish. Although, looking at the cakes on offer in a glass display case by the counter, William really doubted that the problem here was rubbish food. After a week of Dr. Eagles impressively bad steamed vegetables, the three different v
arieties of cheesecake in front of him looked damn good.

  “Can I get you anything?” asked a voice from somewhere north of the display.

  “Cake.”

  “Perhaps you could be just a touch more specific?”

  “Many cake.”

  The owner of the voice gave one of those laughs that wasn’t a laugh so much as a little exhale of breath. “The chocolate cheesecake is on special,” she said. “Would you like some of that?”

  “Yes,” replied William firmly. “A big piece of that. And a blueberry muffin. And a piece of that caramel fudge.” He decided that it would be best if he looked away from the display before ordering everything in it. (Although, he wondered, would it really be so bad if he did?) His vision no longer filled with sugar laden deserts, he was able to see girl who the voice belonged to. She was a very tall and very skinny young woman. Her hair hovered indecisively on the border between blonde and brown, and William felt confident in betting it had not been brushed in a few days. It was yanked back into a lopsided pony tail, from which a great many strands had broken free. William would have described her as plain, certainly unremarkable. He would have, if not for her eyes. They were different colours, one brown and one blue. He found himself staring at them, not like in a cheesy romance novel but just out of interest.

  She apparently felt no similar pull to William’s own boringly symmetrical blue eyes, although the scar on his neck did appear to be catching her interest. “That’s nasty,” she said. “What happened?”

  “Bird watching accident.”

  “Bird watching accident?”

  “It’s a very dangerous pastime.”

  “Alright, I get the hint. None of my business.” She turned away and busied herself with getting his cakes. “Are you expecting company?”

  “No,” said William, “I’m just hungry.”

  She shot him a look over her shoulder. “You do look underfed.”

  “I’ll have you know,” said William, “that I’ve been unwell. What’s your excuse?”

  She glanced down at her very skinny frame and laughed bitterly. “stress.”

  “Stress about what?”

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. What were you sick with?”

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” William replied honestly, although she made a derisive noise as though he’d just said it because she had.

  She turned around then to put the remaining chocolate cheesecake back in the display and take out the muffins. It was then that William saw her name badge and realised that this was the infamous Gwendoline Shannon. She did not look like the type to be harbouring wells of mystical power. She also didn’t look like a Gwendoline, she was much more suited to the less pretentious ‘Gwen’ printed on her name badge.

  “I’ll uh, just go sit down ok?” he dropped some Illuded money on the counter and headed over to a table. He chose one that faced away from the counter. He pulled the tracking device out of his pocket and examined it.

  Live, he thought experimentally.

  To his surprise, the thing twitched.

  Live, he thought again.

  I’m not all that sure I want to, actually, came a weak little reply.

  Sure you do, thought William, it’s great. You’ll enjoy it. Live, little device!

  No, no, really. That’s ok. I don’t think I’m quite up to the complications. Thanks though.

  Don’t be that way! You’ll enjoy living. Nearly all the great minds in history were alive.

  But what would I do with a life? I really think it would be wasted on me.

  What would you do with a life? Exactly what you do with your, er, not-life. Track things!

  I do like tracking things…

  See! And I know the perfect subject for you to track!

  I don’t know. I’m still a little unsure about this whole life business. It seems a little messy.

  Tell you what, be alive for a while. Track this girl here. And if you don’t like it, I’ll make you just like you were before.

  There was silence as the device thought it over. Well, alright then. I’ll give it a go.

  That’s the spirit! William gave the device one last mental push, and quite suddenly it came alive in his palm. Its hard surface became fleshy, the wires that trailed out from the back became a tail, and a number of little legs popped out from under it. William hoped it would still actually work as a tracking device.

  “Here we are,” announced Gwen, setting various sweets down on the table. The device shivered, as though excited, and shot down William’s jeans, its little legs moving furiously.

  It scuttled onto Gwen’s shoes and up the outside of her pants. It slipped under her shirt and out of sight, and judging by Gwen’s lack of reaction William figured it had tucked itself away somewhere out of notice.

  Or maybe not.

  Her brow wrinkled for a moment, and she began to pat her white work shirt, as though feeling for something.

  “Your eyes are different colours!”

  Thankfully, this distracted her. “Are they? I’d never noticed.”

  “I guess people mention it all the time.”

  She gave a one shouldered shrug. “Once or twice. A day.”

  He held up in his hands in surrender. “Sorry!”

  She laughed and wandered back towards the counter, throwing a “don’t sweat it!” over her shoulder.

  William pushed aside the empty plate that had only recently been home to a muffin, and started on the cheesecake. The cheesecake did not last long. Gwen gave a preoccupied wave as he left, and William made his way back to the Mustang.

  “Took you long enough,” snapped Rowan.

  William shrugged. “I had some trouble making the device alive.”

  “Oh really?”

  “Yeah.”

  Rowan rolled her eyes. “There is chocolate on your cheek.”

  He grinned sheepishly, she rolled her eyes again, and they returned to the Grey building.

  Chapter 38.

  William was still feeling the effects of his sojourn in the medical ward. He awoke at seven the next morning feeling as though he had not slept at all, and it was with eyes bleary and mouth yawning that he stumbled to the elevator.

  Which is why he didn’t register that he was not alone until the doors had closed.

  “William,” said Jones.

  William jumped and quickly moved as far away from Jones as he could. Which, given they were in an elevator, wasn’t far at all. If it was the Eastern elevator, it would have sensed William’s distress and dropped him off at the nearest floor. But this was the western one; it just exuded an air of smugness and slowed down. William really needed to choose his elevators with more care.

  Jones looked inquiringly at William for a long time. Or at least, that’s how it felt. “As far as the boss knows,” he finally said, “I grew weary of that silly girl-”

  “She had a name, you know,” muttered William.

  “Most people do. As I said, I grew weary of her, and when I attempted to remove her from my life you grew aggravated and tried to stop me, at which point an unfortunate accident occurred.” He gestured vaguely to William’s neck.

  “Yeah, Rowan already told me that story,” said William, trying not to sound as aggrieved as he was, lest any more “unfortunate accidents occur.”

  “Did she now.” Jones eyed him for a moment. “Did you dispute it?”

  “No,” William replied sullenly.

  “Good,” said Jones. “I wouldn’t, if I were you.”

  “Why don’t you say what you mean. You don’t want me talking about Jude Cross.” Jones didn’t answer, but the temperature in the elevator seemed to drop a hundred degrees. “That’s why you threatened me and told me not to tell anyone about my powers, right? Because there’s something about him in your head that you don’t want anyone to know.”

  Jones rolled his shoulders. It was an action full of me
nace. “If Mr. Grey knew you could Illude inside minds he would use you until you lived more in other heads than your own. How many visions have you had since the bouncer? Since you healed Rowan? They’ll never stop, you know. Even if they took your powers away they wouldn’t stop. And the more you Illude inside minds the more frequent they’ll become.” He looked William in the eye, made sure he had his full attention. “Mr. Grey would drive you mad and not lose a second of sleep over it. He drove his own wife to suicide.”

  “You mean Sarah.”

  Jones looks briefly surprised that William knew her name. “That’s right. She helped him discover Albert and founded Grey Corp by his side, and he as good as killed her.”

  This was a lot to take in, and was enough to make William forget how mad/nervous Jones made him. “Wait. How old is Mr. Grey?”

  Jones shrugged. “He’s been here from day one, so a century at least. He’s notoriously hard to kill-” the elevator doors opened, “-even harder than you. So keep your mouth shut.”

  Chapter 39.

  “The tracking device worked,” Rowan announced as William darted gratefully out of the elevator. Then she caught sight of Jones. “You refrained from killing him, I see.”

  “It wasn’t easy,” said Jones solemnly, “but I managed.”

  “That’s how I feel every day.”

  Jones laughed, and then sauntered out the black doors.

  “The tracking device worked,” repeated Rowan. She was so excited she was struggling to maintain her trademark boredom. “We’re going to get the well now.”

  “We’re all?” asked William, watching Jones’ leave, “who else is coming?”

  The eastern elevator opened, and a small group of people stepped out. Horace and David, with Kirk and Lucy.

  “William,” said Kirk, “good to see you up and about again.”

  Lucy stared at William’s neck, David raised a hand to touch his own. William resisted the urge to turn up his collar to hide his scar.

  “This is exciting,” said Horace. He looked up at Albert. “You’ll be well again before you know old son.”