INTEGRATION (Bonfire Academy Book Two) (Bonfire Chronicles)

by Imogen Rose

  Appropriate? I had asked her if that meant he’d been located, but she wouldn’t say, being annoyingly vague. Plus she asked me not to contact Quinn’s parents, which was doubly irritating. I knew them well and was sure they’d tell me what was going on, if they knew. There was no arguing with The Smelt; I’d have to find a way to get more information. All I really needed was proof that Quinn was okay. That’s all.

  I had to put all Quinn thoughts to the back of my mind as I readied myself for the day ahead. Whoever did the scheduling for Professor Kunz had messed up and scheduled Mason and Faustine on the same day, not realizing that they’d both need the use of the dOME lab. So Henri and I were due to test Mason first and then Faustine in the afternoon.

  Neither of us had ever done an Integration baseline test. Since the Integration department was completely separate from the Initiation one, it had had its own technicians and test chambers. But it didn’t have a dOME lab, hence the crossover. Thankfully, Professor Kunz had promised to send one of his apprentices over to help.

  I dressed comfortably in dark purple Chanel slacks and a cream cashmere top, then headed down to the lab, leaving Faustine fast asleep in her bed. I assumed Ryker was around to keep an eye on her. I needed to get to the lab two hours before the test to set up and meet with the apprentice. I hoped he or she had a plan because when I had talked to Henri, it became clear that we both would have winged it if things were left up to the two of us.

  Even two hours early, I was the last to arrive. Henri and Professor Kutz’s apprentice were already sitting and chatting by the monitors.

  “Good morning, Cordelia,” Henri said. “This is Colton, Professor Kunz’s apprentice. He’s going to help us with the Integration tests.”

  The apprentice turned around to reveal his full hotness to me, which he couldn’t even hide in his starched white laboratory coat. “Nice to see you again, Cordelia,” Colton extended his hand.

  Nice! Getting to spend time with Colton was not something I could complain about—apart from maybe the smell. I shook his hand and sat down beside him. “So, what are we doing?”

  Colton pointed at his laptop. “Henri was helping me hook my computer into the main unit so we can use some of the pre-recorded test scenes and record the baselines.”

  “Okay. What can I do to help?” I asked.

  “Are you okay?” Colton asked, tilting his head.

  I had inadvertently covered my nose. Sheesh, how rude of me. I removed my hand instantly. “I’m sorry. I thought I felt a sneeze coming,” I lied.

  “Cordelia, it’s okay. I know about your issue. I sprayed myself this morning and hoped that would suffice. Give me a moment, and I’ll do it again.” He took a little canister out of his pocket and sprayed himself liberally. Whatever was in the can didn’t smell of anything, but it did a reasonably good job of masking his shifter stench.

  “Thanks,” I said, thoroughly embarrassed.

  “No problem. It’s just temporary, so feel free to use it on me when you need to.” He held out the spray can.

  I took it and put it in my pocket, promising myself that I’d have Professor Bern help me find a more permanent solution as soon as I got a minute. Today was out, though, with these back-to-back tests.

  Colton laughed. “No need to look so mortified. You can’t help it. Anyhow, let’s get ready.”

  “I think I’ve got you hooked up to the main terminal,” Henri said. “Can you input your code, so we can check?”

  Colton tapped on the keys, and an Excel spreadsheet appeared on the monitor. He proceeded to type a bunch of numbers into various cells.

  I guessed I should have asked him to explain, but numbers bored me to tears. “Shall I go and make sure the chamber is ready? Henri, do we have any new safeguards up after what happened to Faustine?”

  “I’ve got this, if you two want to get the chamber ready,” Colton said.

  “Good. Yes to your question, Cordelia. Let me show you.” Henri stood and led me to the steps.

  Once we both were inside the chamber, Henri said, “Hit the wall, really hard.”

  “Um…no.” The wall had no padding to break the impact.

  Henri chuckled. “Well, watch me then.” He pulled his arm back and then slammed his hand into the wall.

  He moved so fast that I didn’t see exactly what happened, but his knuckles seemed to stop an inch or so from the surface. I walked over and looked at the wall carefully. There didn’t seem to be anything between his hand and the hard surface of the glass, yet his knuckles hadn’t touched it.

  “Can I touch your hand?” I asked.

  Henri withdrew his hand. “It would be much more fun if you tried it yourself. It won’t hurt, I promise. I’ve tested it several times, as has Professor Bern.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He nodded. “Go ahead.”

  I turned to face the wall, standing about a foot away. It seemed like insanity to slam my hand into it after what had happened to Faustine. But I gritted my teeth, pulled my elbow back, and slammed my fist into the wall as hard as I could. There was no hard impact. It felt as if my fist had sunk into a soft cushion of silk. I looked down at my hand, which was suspended about an inch from the wall.

  “Impressed?”

  “Yes! This is neat.” I boxed my fists against the wall several times, moving all around the chamber. Then I body-slammed into it. The cushion broke my impact. That was cool, and now the place was definitely safe for Faustine.

  Henri laughed as he watched me throwing punches at the wall. “Done?” he finally asked.

  “I think so. This is really great.”

  “Yes, let’s go back and see how Colton is doing. I’m looking forward to trying this out.”

  “That looked like fun,” Colton commented when we got back.

  “Yeah, it sure was! How are you doing?” I asked.

  “I think we’re ready. Mason should be here any minute. I was wondering if you could stay out of sight until Mason is safely in the chamber and unable to see you. You seem to trigger him.”

  I rolled my eyes, but he was right. It was best to get Mason into the chamber, relaxed, and ready to go. So I nodded and walked into the ante-office where the files were stored. I checked my text messages while I waited, hoping that there would be one from Quinn. None from him, but there was one from my mom asking me to contact her. I called her number.

  “Cordelia?”

  “Hi, Mom. I just got your message.”

  “I was just wondering how you’re doing.”

  “I’m good.” No point laying my troubles on her; she’d just fly over.

  “What about Pascal?”

  “I haven’t seen much of him, but I take that as a good sign, that he’s settled in.”

  “Hmm. I’m not so sure about that.”

  “What do you mean?” With everything going on, I had totally neglected him. He’d seemed fine the one time I had talked to him, but anything could have happened since then. I would have expected someone to let me know, but not my mom.

  “Well, he called me last night. He didn’t say much, but I could feel that something was wrong. He asked me if I’d heard from Quinn, or Quinn’s parents, which I haven’t. He sounded tense. Could you check on him for me and call me back? Is everything okay with Quinn? I haven’t bumped into his mom in a while.”

  “Oh. That’s odd about Pascal. Of course I’ll talk to him. I’ll do it as soon as I’m done with work. I have to go. Is that okay?” I hoped she wouldn’t ask any more questions. I really wasn’t allowed to discuss Quinn with her. Frau Smelt had made that clear.

  “Yes, I suppose so. Talk to you later.”

  I turned off my phone just as Henri tapped on the door to let me know it was time for me to join them.

  “Everything okay?” he asked.

  “Yes, fine. You haven’t heard anything from my brother, have you?”

  “Pascal? No, why? Whose group is he in?”

  “I have no idea.” I was ashamed to admit i
t. “I need to spend some time with him, obviously.”

  “Well, you’ve been busy.”

  I took my place on Colton’s left and looked over at the chamber. Mason—in his male form—sat in the armchair, looking relaxed.

  “Are we ready to start?” I looked over at Henri, who nodded. I glanced back at Mason again. “What are those tubes jutting out behind the chair?” Several narrow, clear tubes snaked their way up the back of the chair.

  “I had to add those for the Integration test,” Henri explained. “They’ll deliver different aromas to the chamber, so we’ll be able to measure olfactory response as well as visual and sound.”

  “I’ll start by putting him into a semi-sleep state, so we can get started,” Colton said. He spoke into his microphone. “Mason, sit back, close your eyes, and slowly count backward from twenty.”

  Mason made it to seven and then seemed to be asleep.

  “Let’s give him about ten minutes or so to settle before we start,” Colton said.

  “Okay. I’m going to make a couple of calls in the meantime. Be back in ten.” Henri stepped outside the dOME lab, leaving Colton and me staring at the static monitor.

  Colton chuckled.

  “What’s up?” I asked, noticing nothing funny on the screen.

  “You. I can feel you bursting with curiosity. Good job trying not to break the rules, but go ahead, ask me anything you want. I have very few secrets.”

  I smiled. I had wanted to ask him a few things. “What kind of shifter are you?”

  “Just the regular, boring kind—a werewolf.”

  I decided to get all my questions out there while he was being so amenable. “Hardly boring. What’s the accent?”

  “London. I’m guessing you’re from Paris?”

  “Yes. My dad’s the demon sovereign of Paris,” I offered, evening the exchange of information a bit.

  “That’s interesting! My dad is one of the shifter sovereigns of London. Our parents probably know each other. So, are you planning to head into politics yourself?”

  “No, I don’t think it’s for me. I haven’t decided exactly what I want to do once I’m done here. I was hoping that apprenticing with Professor Bern would open some unexpected doors, but it’s too early to tell yet. What about you?”

  “I’m my dad’s heir, so that’s definitely the plan.”

  I nodded. I could see why he’d been chosen. He was so amiable. Even I kind of liked him.

  Henri interrupted our mutual nosy session. “Okay, let’s start. We have another test to do in a few hours.”

  Colton nodded. “I’m going to start with the sound test, then visual and, finally, olfactory.” He tapped on the keyboard, and I heard sounds of dripping water, like rain against a window. The intensity of the noise increased slowly, until it resembled a full-blown storm. The entire time, I kept my eyes glued on Mason, who didn’t stir. Colton added thunder to the track, but even that didn’t elicit a reaction from Mason. The track went quiet for a moment before being replaced by the sound of flapping wings. Mason’s lips twitched into a slight smile. Colton replaced the track again with a recording of me saying hello in a loop, again and again. Where the heck had he managed to get hold of that?

  Before I could ask, Colton grabbed my hand. “Look!”

  Mason had transformed into an eagle and was thrashing around in the chamber like a lunatic. I thought he might hurt himself, but the padded walls did their job. He suddenly fell to the floor.

  Henri got up and started walking toward the chamber.

  “It’s okay,” Colton said. “I just dosed him with a sedative through the tubes to get him to calm down. He’ll awaken in a moment, back to normal.”

  Henri didn’t look fully convinced, but he turned back and sat down. “How long will it take?”

  “Just a few minutes, then we’ll start with the visual measurements. He’s going to need a lot of work though, judging by the reaction he just had,” Colton said.

  “Where did you get my sound bite?”

  “Oh, Professor Bern gave me that. I hope that’s okay. She also gave me a canister of your aroma.”

  “I guess.” She should have asked me, but I figured she felt she could take liberties with her apprentice.

  “I volunteered mine for Faustine’s test, if that’s any comfort.”

  “I think it would be more useful to have Mason’s for her tests.”

  “Yeah, I know what you mean. And even though I’m not strictly supposed to, I’m collecting his aroma as we speak, and I have a sound bite from before that we can use.”

  “Good.”

  Mason stirred, transformed back into his human male form, and sat down in the armchair, leaning back into it.

  “Are you okay?” Colton asked, speaking into the mic.

  Mason nodded. “Can we get on with it?” he asked curtly.

  “Yes. Count back from twenty again.” Once Mason was ready, Colton brought up an image on the screen. “This is very much like the visual stimulations during Initiation. The difference is that we keep the images up for a short time, not allowing the subject time to put themselves into the scenes.”

  The first was a static image of a black cat. I looked over at Mason, who didn’t bat an eyelid at that. Numerous images flashed on the screen—clowns, horses, buildings, rivers, planets—without any response from Mason. I held my breath as a bunch of demon-like shapes from literature were put up. Once again, there was no response from Mason. Next came a set of photographs of the current demon Integrates.

  Mason tensed and sat up in his chair. His heartbeat showed a significant increase, as did all of his other biological data measurements. Finally, a picture of Faustine appeared. That was it. Mason transformed immediately and went off in a thrashing fit until Colton sedated him.

  “Interesting,” Colton remarked. “He seems to be able to tolerate most demons, but he went totally berserk when he saw Faustine.”

  “I bet he’d have done the same if you’d put up my picture,” I said.

  “Yes, yours was next. Let’s give him a minute to recover and get his olfactory responses. I expect they’ll mimic the ones we’ve seen already, but Professor Kunz likes to be thorough.”

  Colton fed different scents into the chamber through the tubes attached to the back of the armchair. The process took longer than the visual tests because between each smell, an odor neutralizer had to be applied to ready the chamber for the next aroma. He started with innocuous ones—vanilla, strawberry, rotten cheese. Then he moved on to essences that had been collected from various demons at the Academy. I wondered how they’d managed to bottle them. Mason maintained his relaxed stance during the first set, but perked up with the second set. I braced myself when the final one was pumped into the chamber—bottled Faustine. Predictably, Mason completely lost it again, flapping around in a comically insane fashion. Colton dosed him up to put him out of his misery.

  “Well,” Colton mused as Mason fell to the floor. “That was interesting.”

  “Eh? Really?” I asked. “Surely you expected that?”

  “Most of it, yes, but I expected him to have more of a reaction to all demons. His issue is more specific than I’ve ever seen, which is good. It means we can tailor his training more specifically.”

  “Training?”

  “Yes. The aim would be to get him to control his adverse reaction to Faustine to a point where he can converse with her in a calm manner. That’s what Integration is all about.”

  I snorted. As if that would ever happen. Still, I guessed that Professor Kunz had to go through the motions.

  “You don’t seem on board, Cordelia,” Colton said.

  “It’s not that. It’s just horribly unlikely, isn’t it?”

  “If I thought that, I wouldn’t bother doing this at all. It will be a challenge for sure, but I’m optimistic.”

  “Good for you. Shall I make myself scarce so you can get Mason out of here? I’ll go and bring Faustine over.”

  “Sure,
but give us a few hours to recalibrate. We’ll see you back at two, okay?”

  Perfect. That would give me enough time to check in with Pascal. I texted Faustine to let het know that I’d come by and collect her at one o’clock. I looked at Pascal’s schedule on my iPad. He was at hockey.

  At the ice rink, I walked down the bleachers and stopped halfway to watch the hockey team slam their pucks into the goal. I scanned the players, looking for Pascal, but couldn’t tell which one he was under all the heavy padding and helmets. The schedule said that the team was due to come off the ice in ten minutes, so I took a seat and waited.

  After the whistle sounded, the players skated off the ice. One of them waved at me and started walking to where I was sitting.

  “Hey, Sis! Looking for me?”

  “Yep. How are you doing?”

  He chuckled. “Mom called you?”

  “Yes. She’s worried about you. Care to tell me why you asked her about Quinn?”

  He shrugged, lowering his eyes.

  I kicked at his padded shin. “Come on, I don’t have a lot of time, so just tell me.”

  “Don’t know. I just wanted to know where Quinn is.”

  He was totally lying.

  “Why?” I kicked him again, much harder this time.

  “Ouch!” He sat down beside me. “Promise you won’t tell Mom?”

  “Tell her what?”

  “Promise first.”

  “Oh, okay. Spill.”

  “I was there when you came into Mrs. Stone’s office looking for Quinn.”

  I gaped at him. “What? Where were you hiding?”

  His lips turned at one side. “In her.”

  “You possessed Mrs. Stone?” I gasped. “Why?”

  “I was bored.”

  Typical Pascal behavior. He didn’t think twice about body hopping. It was a sport with him, and he was an expert at it.