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

by Smythe, Vanna

  Ty felt his cheeks grow red. He struggled to force all the anger, panic and sadness into the metal chest. "Are all the other schools for the gifted liked this? Does no one treat these people well? What about the school you are from?"

  Martin smiled sadly. "You know very well that all the other facilities defer to your mother. She's forced the ones in Toronto and Chicago to shut down. We are the only study facility left. Some good did come of it. Chicago had developed a pill that inhibits the use of magic and we have inherited the full formula for it now that they are closed down."

  "Like a cure?" Ty interrupted. If he could get the pills to Maya, she'd lose her gift, at least long enough to be willing to go back home. If Eve took some, all his worries over his mother finding out she had a gift would be over.

  Martin tapped his metal hand with the stump of the other one. "We are still studying the full effects of it. Hopefully now there will be no more maiming and no more lifelong comas."

  Ty didn't believe for a moment that his mother would be so merciful.

  "Who's working on the pills?" Ty asked.

  "Martin's already told you more than he's supposed to, Ty," his mother's voice came from the doorway behind their backs. Ty felt like he'd been doused in freezing water. "There are things about this facility you're not yet ready to know."

  He whipped around and plastered the most innocent smile on his face. "Mom, how can I help you and learn from you if you keep secrets from me?"

  His mother's whole face radiated glee. "You got me there, Ty."

  The red lights over the door into the control room started flashing, accompanied by a piercing alarm.

  His mother ran back in, Martin and Ty following.

  Ronia had both her hands clasped over her mouth. On the screen, the man in the padded room thrashed, his head smacking against the floor. Green liquid trickled from the tube he'd knocked loose.

  Ty's mother pushed Ronia aside so harshly the woman fell to the floor. "What happened? What did you do?"

  "Nothing," Ronia's words flickered above her. "I didn't take my eyes off his vitals for a single moment. He must have had an allergic reaction."

  Martin helped Ronia rise from the floor, looking at her suspiciously.

  The doctors on the screen had managed to sedate the man. He was again leaning against the wall, his eyes no longer wild. Ty's mother hastily scrolled through the information about his vitals.

  "You're in luck, Ronia. He's stabilized for now. Leave. I'll deal with you later." His mother settled into Ronia's seat. "You go too, Ty. We'll talk more about your future here tomorrow. You'll have to clear it with your father. I won't have your time divided."

  Ty had hoped to get his hands on the gift stopping pills tonight, but knew his mother would tolerate no arguments right then.

  ~

  Ty rushed to the SF flight command as soon as he left the facility. Later he'd collect Isis and go visit Maya. He'd tell her more about where he found Isis, how she was quite possibly the last of her kind. He'd also explain more fully why going to the facility was a bad idea, and tell her all about what he and Rober were doing to help the Badlands.

  Several heads turned when he entered the command room, and Ty quickly saw the one person he knew would be able to help him. Jon Black, a distant cousin, eager to rise through the ranks of the SFs, was always willing to exploit his blood ties with the Remarque family by doing Ty favors.

  Ty called him out into the hall.

  "I was thinking it's high time for another hunting trip," Ty said after making sure they were quite alone. "Any chance of getting me and a couple of others out despite the ban?"

  Jon winked at him conspiratorially. "There's every chance. The flying ban was lifted this morning. Lana Orsini just came back from Chicago, shouting how the next person to keep her locked out of her city will find themselves in the Badlands forever. If you take her with you, I don't think anyone will try and stop you."

  Ty felt his skin grow tight. It was all he could do to force his mouth to a smile. "Tomorrow night then."

  He wanted to say right now, but he needed access to the pills first. After that, he'd take Maya out of the city.

  He rushed to Rober's apartments. He called and called Rober on the way there so he could move Maya to the guest room now, left several urgent messages but got no answer.

  Lana opened the door to Rober's apartment. Her eyes turned to slits as she saw him. Ty knew he should hug and kiss her; his body did neither of those things. Behind Lana, Maya lounged beside the window, which today showed a vast range of jagged, snowcapped mountains. Lana pulled him into the room, pressing her lips to his. Maya turned away and looked at the window.

  "I must admit I'd expected a warmer welcome," Lana whispered in his ear. "What do I find instead? Your little Badlands girlfriend and you rushing here to meet her."

  Ty extricated himself from her tight embrace, loosely keeping his arms around her shoulders. Keeping Lana happy was the most important thing right now. "I wasn't running here. I was down in flight control and they told me you were back. I looked for you in your apartments, then thought maybe you came here."

  She still peered at him like she didn't believe a word. He interlocked his fingers at the back of her head and pulled her in for another kiss, this one wet and wild.

  "I do have a phone, you know," she said once she finally pulled away. "You might have even called me while I was in Chicago."

  Ty shrugged. "I thought you wanted your privacy. Let's go back to your apartment now."

  "No. I am waiting right here for my dear brother to return. It turns out it was his idea to keep me out of the city." Lana took his hand and led him back to the sofa.

  Maya was still staring out the window, her cheeks flushed. Ty tried to meet her eyes in the reflection, tried to silently let her know he'd much rather be holding hands with her. Maya kept her lips pursed tightly and her eyes on a point somewhere on the horizon.

  Lana's eyes flashed to Maya and back to Ty. He fixed the most detached expression on his face that he could manage.

  "Now we can exchange some pleasantries with your Badlands friends," Lana concluded.

  "My friends? I didn't even know Rober kept them both here. I thought it was just him," Ty said and pointed at Giles.

  Maya whipped her head around and fixed him with an angry glare, lighting flashing. Ty pretended not to notice. On the sofa opposite them Giles was looking from Ty to Lana to Maya, panic tightening his face.

  Lana turned to Maya. "Why are you even still here? I understood you wanted to go to the school for the gifted."

  "I still do," Maya replied. "I was told term didn't start for another two weeks."

  She glared at Ty as she said it, but at least she didn't reveal it was him who'd told her that.

  Lana dug her nails into Ty's forearm. "That was one big lie. You can enter any time you wish. I wonder why they would lie to you like that?"

  She studied Ty's face. He pretended not to notice.

  Maya gasped in surprise, eagerness fighting anger in her eyes. "You mean I can go now?"

  "Sure," Lana answered and stood up. "Me and Ty will take you."

  Ty pulled her back down into his lap, his heart beating furiously in his chest, throat and cheeks. "Not right now. My mother's not there, and you just got back. Let's go back to your place now. Or mine."

  He smoothed her hair back from her face and pulled her closer for another kiss. Lana was easy enough to distract, all she craved was being the center of attention. She bit his lip and pushed him away, then stood up, pulling him to his feet after her. "That's a great idea, actually."

  The urge to look back and apologize to Maya almost made it impossible to follow Lana from the room.

  ~

  That lying, conniving, dishonest, cold eyed…what's his game?

  Ty had lied about the school being on break. Looked right at her eyes and lied. And all that talk of taking her to another school, what was that? Did he just want to keep her for a bit of fu
n while his girlfriend was away. Maya's chest burned with anger at Ty. She was done with all of it. Someone would take her to the school and soon. Maya would make sure of it.

  Rober came in a few minutes after Ty and Lana left. "Has Ty been here?"

  "You just missed him," Maya said in an emotionless voice. "He left with his girlfriend."

  The thought brought back visions of Lana's and Ty's passionate reunion.

  "My sister was here?" Rober asked, his eyes bulging.

  Or the copperhead snake, as Maya preferred to think of her. Lana was no king cobra as her tattoo claimed, she was nothing more than a poisonous little no good, jumped up grass snake.

  Maya nodded. "I think they will be… indisposed for a while."

  She shook her head, trying to free it from the visions of Lana entwined with Ty on the sofa. It was not the reason Maya was angry at all; it was the lies Ty had told.

  Rober fixed himself a drink at the bar and drank it in one long swallow. "Alright. I'll figure it out. Right now I'm moving you back to the guest room. I have people coming over for a party."

  "A party? I want to stay," Maya said. It would be the perfect opportunity to get Lana to take her to the school tomorrow, or anyone else for that matter.

  Giles groaned. "Let's not, Maya."

  Rober shook his head. "The fewer people know you're here, the better."

  "I want to. I thought we were your guests here, not prisoners. Why can't we stay for your party?"

  Maybe she pushed it too far. But Rober had lied to her too. These people were not her real friends.

  Rober checked his watch and shrugged. "Fine, but you have to change. Here, I'll show you how to use the closet."

  "No need," Maya said. "I already got the hang of it."

  Rober didn't protest anymore and left soon after.

  "I told you neither of them were to be trusted," Giles said as soon as they were alone again.

  "Look, Giles, maybe if you made some friends here it could help you get the procedure for your hands," Maya said, more harshly than she intended. "I'm not constantly thinking of myself like you're always accusing me of doing."

  "I'm not that great at making friends," Giles complained.

  Maya swallowed her anger before she said anything she might regret. She was angry at Ty, and Giles didn't deserve to be the one she lashed out at.

  She strode over to the closet. "Come on, help me set up that outfit you found for me the first day. I want to look my best."

  ~

  Ty's phone kept buzzing. He ignored it, wanting to give Lana no reason to doubt him or suspect Maya of anything. She certainly seemed appeased, but all Ty could see was the lightning flashing in Maya's eyes; Maya dragged off by the doctors in the hospital; experimented on by his mother; tied up and fed medicine in a padded cell, her beautiful eyes wild and panicked.

  Lana whipped her head back, strands of her hair hitting Ty in the eye. "Answer it already."

  Ty rubbed his stinging eye and picked up.

  "Where are you? The others are here already," Rober barked into his ear.

  It took Ty a few moments to realize what Rober was talking about. "Oh, the party. I don't think we'll be able to make it."

  Lana ripped the phone out of his hand.

  "What party?" She waited a bit, listening to Rober's reply. "We'll be right there."

  Ty looked at her questioningly as she hung up. "Wouldn't you rather stay here?"

  She rose and went to the bedroom to change. "No, I want to have words with Rober. I'm so angry at him, it's all I can think about anyway."

  A half an hour later, she came out dressed in a floor length shimmering green dress that set off her eyes. Her face was framed by rows of complicated braids.

  She looked striking, as always. Ty wondered what Maya would look like with her hair all braided up like that. He'd only ever seen her with her hair down, loose, falling in thick glowing locks around her shoulders and down her back.

  "Do you want to go and change?"

  Ty shook his head. He was still wearing the dark green pants and black cashmere sweater he'd dressed for work in. It didn't matter what he looked like. He planned to disappear from the party as soon as Lana got high.

  He followed her out the door and into the elevator, already feeling sorry for Rober. Lana would not go easy on him.

  As soon as they entered Rober's place he wished he had gone to change. The lights in the room shimmered from green to blue to red and lilac. About thirty people milled around, all dressed up. Maya stood by the window, drinking a pink colored drink, wearing a golden brown body suit that matched her eyes and left little to the imagination, despite the fact that every inch except her face was covered.

  She looked right through him when he entered, and turned back to Adam Montague, laughing heartily at one of his jokes. A joke that couldn't possibly be all that funny, because Adam's jokes never were. Giles stood next to them, looking exactly how Ty felt: mutinous.

  Lana had already found Rober. "Who do you think you are, having me locked out?"

  Several heads turned to listen in, but not Maya.

  "It was for your own safety," Rober replied.

  "You can't decide on my safety!" Lana yelled. "Or did you think Ty would be more willing without me around!"

  "Get over it already, Lana," Rober said.

  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. W
hat 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."