Not that it wasthatdifficult – she still didn’t exactly feel top notch, after all, and whatever she’d been dosed with had left her with a killer headache. But she was feeling a hell of a lot better than she had before.
She let her head hang down to her chest, closing her eyes against the too-bright afternoon light that made her headache feel ten times worse, and slumped against James’s side.
“Rhys?” she murmured plaintively. “Rhys, what’s going on? Where are we?”
She thought that surely she was over-egging the pudding and that James would catch on, but apparently he didn’t even notice. Maybe her acting skills had improved since that little debacle at the airport.
She’d realized what was happening in the moments before she’d lost consciousness back in the medbay, but by that time, it had been too late. The orderly – or whatever she’d actually been – had told her she was just going to take a blood sample to make sure all her readings were normal. But then she’d jabbed Maisie in the arm with… something else, that sure as hell wasn’t for drawing blood.
Maisie had figured out pretty quickly that it must have been a sedative of some kind, since she’d immediately felt woozy and couldn’t keep her eyes open.
What – what are you –she’d tried to ask, but her mouth wouldn’t obey her.
Rhys,she’d thought, in the moments before darkness had swallowed her up.I have to tell Rhys –
But then she’d known no more.
At least, until she’d come tojustenough to see James and Rhys fighting in the medbay.
She’d wanted to help, but her limbs still wouldn’t obey her – and she hadn’t been able to do anything before James had snatched up the syringe of green goo he was now holding to her neck.
And then, she’d decided, it was probably better to play… well, notdead, she hoped, but certainly less conscious than she really was, as James had picked her up and dragged her over the floor.
I can keep the element of surprise that way,she’d thought – right now, James had them backed into a corner, as long as he held that syringe to her neck. She knew Rhys wouldn’t take any chances as long as he thought James might hurt her.
But if James doesn’t know I’m awake, then he can’t anticipate what I might do.
In any case, she knew she needed to eavesdrop while she recovered enough to actuallydoanything. The effects of the drugwere wearing off pretty rapidly, but James didn’t need to know that.
And she certainly didn’t want to try to escape from a syringe full of what appeared to be wyvern venom before she was back at her best.
She tried not to shudder at the thought of getting injected with that stuff.
“Why did you do it?” Rhys asked. “You used to be a good guy. Iknowyou were a good guy. You taught me everything I know. What happened?” The pain was clear in his voice, and Maisie’s heart broke a little. She hadn’t realized that James had been so influential in Rhys’s life – she’d thought he was just a work colleague. This whole situation had just got even more complicated, if that was possible.
“I was like you, once,” James said musingly, and Maisie wanted to hit him. Besides being a murderous bastard, he also just seemed to really love the sound of his own voice. Maisie had to assume that he hadn’t always been like this, because there was no way she could imagine someone so pompous having the kind of mentor-like role in Rhys’s life that he’d apparently held.
“I upheld the agenda of the Agency,” he continued. “I put my heart and soul into it. I thought it could do no wrong. But then, I began to see it for what it was. The Agency let me down. Like they let you down.”
“Huh?” Rhys said, sounding honestly confused. “How did the Agency let me down?”
“Rhys, Rhys,” James said. “Can you honestly say that you’ve felt supported by the Agency these past few days? You put your life on the line to rescue one of their own, and how do they repay you? Suspension. Failure to take your account of the situation seriously. Kidnapping attempts on your mate. Even your own superior has given you the cold shoulder, when you need his support most.”
“Robb’s not like that,” Rhys shot back. Maisie thought she could hear the slightest hint of doubt in his voice, but when he spoke again, it was gone. “He’s doing what he needs to do – playing things by the book. If he’d been seen to be favoring me even the slightest bit during the disciplinary procedures, I’d be in even deeper shit. He’s been protecting me.” His voice turned harsh. “He sure as shit hasn’t held a syringe full of wyvern venom to my mate’s neck, so I’m inclined to take his word over yours. You’ll have to try a bit harder than that.”
“Your loyalty is touching,” James sneered, and Maisie felt his arm tighten around her ever so slightly. She hoped he didn’t have an itchy syringe finger! Shelikednot being pumped full of wyvern venom! “I suppose it’s the folly of youth. You can brush these things off now, but once you’ve been around a bit longer, you see patterns emerging.”
“Oh, yeah?” Rhys retorted. “And what kinds of patterns are those?”
“Bureaucracy,” James said. “Pointless tribunals and hearings andrules. I know you, Rhys. You’re like me. You’re a wildcard, with a mind of your own. Doesn’t it wear you down sometimes, having to do what others tell you to do? Especially when they rake you over the coals for doing the right thing.”
Maisie risked opening her eyes slightly against the sunlight – thankfully, her headache had mostly receded into the background by this point – and chanced a look at Rhys.
She could see that there was a part of him that was feeling conflicted about this, and she thought she could understand. Although she hadn’t known him long, she did know that he was, as James had put it, a wildcard. That he would love to just go his own way, and to hell with the consequences. He’d even flown her around the Whitsundays as a griffin, which, she was pretty sure, wouldnotfly with his superiors. So to speak.
But she also knew that he was a good guy. That he understood the need for regulations, as much as they pissed him off. That he knew that shifter powers – and, she was starting to suspect, shifter tempers – needed to be kept under control, even more than when regular humans were involved. And regular humans definitely needed to be kept in line!
Rhys’s eyes darted toward her face for a moment, catching her gaze – and, to his credit, he didn’t appear to react at all.
