Benedict. Anika. Lucy. Ike. Edward. Lyra. Thalia. Those were all the classmates who had donated blood to Lauren while her heart was destroyed. Plus Spitter, whose blood she had slurped on the rooftop. Plus Redmaw, now. Plus, who knew whose blood had gotten into her mouth from the arena. That was her running total.

  She was in a sterile white room. They poked her. Took fluid out and put others in. Had her undress, redress. She let them puppet her body, holding the positions they put her in. She lost track of time. People moved around her. Dr. Yeoh. Monty. Assistants. Her vision was fuzzed. They asked her questions. Her mouth moved, and sounds came out. Lights scanned her face. Her eyes dilated. What in the world was happening to her? She hadn’t gotten like this since…

  Another figure pushed their way through the medical staff. It was a she. Her words were stern, caring when they were directed towards Lauren. She asked more questions, a voice that might have been Lauren’s answering. The room was cleared, and Lauren was directed to dress in fresh clothes. A gentle guiding hand led her through halls. She was outside in the night again.

  Lauren came too fully when she bent over and vomited into the grass. Headmaster Knapp rubbed her back. Lauren stayed doubled over for a moment, hands gripping her knees. Her jaw trembled.

  “It’s okay,” Knapp soothed. “They shouldn’t have brought you directly for testing. I can only imagine how triggering that is for you.”

  “…Triggering?” Lauren echoed.

  “You were disassociating in there,” Knapp said. “I imagine from your time in the lab? A similar situation, even if well-intentioned…”

  “Right.” Lauren righted, wiping her mouth. Her memories started dropping in and out after she landed with Mary. BASTION found them. She was taken back. She remembered asking after her team, and the rescued women. The details were lost. Time felt compressed.

  “Sorry, that was…” Lauren didn’t know what she was apologizing for. The night was a lot, even before she found out what her body was up to. The fight was draining, the stakes of rescuing so many high. It had been one thing after another since waking up from her long sleep.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay.” Knapp brought her into a hug. Lauren could feel herself trembling. She could normally brace herself through medical visits. Things were changing so fast. This time she wasn’t ready for it.

  “This isn’t on you to figure out,” Knapp said, releasing her. “Your powers are… rapidly evolving, but we have our best people on it. You’ve given them all you need to. We’ll take it from here. Go rest. Sleep as long as you need to. We’ll check-in later, yeah?”

  Lauren nodded, the gesture still feeling mechanical. The headmaster’s words were nice. Lauren felt bad about their first meeting being so caustic. It seemed she got off on the wrong foot with most authority figures.

  “You did good tonight,” Knapp gave a last assurance as Lauren trudged away to the dorms. She didn’t have it in her to respond. At least, until a thought entered her head suddenly.

  “How did they get their powers?”

  “What was that?”

  Lauren turned back, the headmaster in her overcoat and big glasses standing under the exterior lights of the medical building.

  “The humans with Ollyrian powers.”

  “Sentinel and Stargazer.”

  “Yeah,” Lauren said. “How did they get their powers?”

  Knapp could only offer a shrug. “One of the great mysteries of herodom. We didn’t even know what Ollyrians were before the two revealed themselves to the world. Then the diplomats came out of space. That was around the time Vivian’s father was found by them. The Ollyrians never told us how they misplaced DNA on Earth. It was always a tight-lipped affair. I suppose someone knows something. It just isn’t me.”

  She turned away again. Something niggled at Lauren’s mind. Power-copying. Blood. Humans with Ollyrian powers. And secrets. Dr. Smythe’s words found her again.

  Once upon a time, a man fell out of the sky.

  She’d meant Pariah. Didn’t she?

  And little Lauren’s life was never the same.

  Something else she had said, while Lauren was in captivity.

  I have given incredible gifts to incredible people.

  The mad doctor couldn’t have possibly meant…

  Her head abuzz, she left the halo of light around the headmaster and went into the night, feeling deep dread at being part of something she couldn’t fathom.

  There was muted crying before Lauren even opened the dorm door. She swung it open and entered.

  The scene in the living room was something like a renaissance painting, if the subjects of the painting were teenage girls and tubs of ice cream.

  Lucy was on the floor, her legs folded underneath her. Her hands cupped the head of Thalia, half sprawled on the floor and half on Lucy’s lap. Thalia was sobbing great heaves, makeup spoiled as tears ran rivulets down her cheeks. Her pretty green dress bunched awkwardly on her frame, and her hair had been unbound to explode around her. As she cried, she brought a spoonful of rocky road to her mouth, the scoop taken from one of several awaiting tubs. Grace and Harper both sat poised on the couch. All heads of Lauren’s roommates turned to her as she came in, though Thalia was too caught in her grief.

  “Why can’t he love m-me…” Thalia wailed around the glob of frozen desert in her mouth.

  Lucy’s eyes held questions for Lauren, but she was too polite to interrupt Thalia’s meltdown. Lucy had been part of B Team, and everyone had surely heard about Lauren and Mary’s trip into the sky with the winged pirate girl. Had Mary, or anyone else, spilled how that had ended? Seemed unlikely. It hadn’t been long, and Mary tended to clam up under attention. Things would come out soon enough, either way.

  “I shouldn’t’ve waited… I should’ve said yes to him…”

  Lauren did not feel enough sisterhood that night to go join the girl circle around Thalia instead of to her shower. She left the scene behind and began peeling off layers before even making it to her room. Her shower, she set to scalding. She tried to burn away the sensation of freezing river water rinsing her. Burning water ran down her bare body as she sat on the floor of her tub.

  While the water heated her, she took an internal inventory, that strange thing she seemed able to do of feeling her own biological makeup. Did she feel them inside her? All her blood donors, willing or unwilling?

  When she focused, there was… something. Like nodes. Or wells. Something inside her mind and body she couldn’t exactly pin a shape to, but could feel the general form of. Sort of the way she could feel the potential of her natural weapons. Or the buzz of her regeneration. Potential was a good way to put it. She could feel her options. She just didn’t know what all those options were. Or of the ones she did have an idea of, how to tell which was which. A bunch of unknown powers inside her, her body ready to shift and form the structures needed to produce them. If it was possible to feel any more alienated from herself, she did now.

  She washed, killed the flow, dried, and was asleep before she could remember her head hitting pillow.

  . . .

  “Explain it to them.”

  The next morning, Lauren stood at the head of a cafeteria table. Monty was beside her. The class was all there, Lauren having sent out word of a breakfast meeting. Fifteen sets of eyes were on her. Most of them clearly tired and sore from the late night operation. Thalia was still plainly miserable, her eyes puffy and red-rimmed. Adam and Annabelle there too, sitting together, Adam looking like he held culpability.

  Everyone probably assumed it was a debrief of last night’s mission. They had a school meeting about that later, combined with information about the upcoming semester. This was for the other thing. The thing Lauren didn’t know how much they were aware about, but wanted to be on the same page as everyone.

  Monty side-eyed her. “You sure?”

  “Yes.” Honestly, it would be helpful for Lauren to hear it in plain terms now that she was not disassociating and had rested. Last night was fragmented, like too many of her memories were.

  Monty nodded. Despite his wicked appearance, he was courteous for the most part. She left it to him.

  Monty cleared his throat before addressing the class. “Last night, a new facet of Lauren’s abilities was revealed. It seems her body is able to absorb and process DNA, particularly ultra-genes and other mutations that are deemed beneficial. Essentially, Lauren has the capability to replicate superpowers with a genetic origin. She is likely able to do this via any exposure to DNA, such as blood, saliva, or… other bodily fluids. Presumably.”

  Lauren’s cheeks reddened at that last unnecessary part.

  The first reaction she noticed from the class was Reagan frowning, deeply. The others murmured.

  “Lauren copied superpowers from us?” Lucy spoke up. She sat one of the closest to them at the head.

  Monty nodded. “Those of you who’ve provided DNA to Lauren in some way or another. Blood transfusion, in the case of the emergency situation some weeks ago. Last night, Lauren demonstrate the ability to grow wings and turn partially invisible, powers of your former classmate Benedict. Although Lauren noted the invisibility was at roughly half-strength compared to Benedict. It’s likely some traits will express themselves differently in her compared to their donor.”

  “So whose powers does she have?” Ike asked.

  “Do the rest of us even need to be here?” Billy followed quickly.

  Grace crossed her arms. “I’m not giving her my powers! And I’m not leaving Rosewell just cause Lauren can copy us!”

  More questioning voices overlapped.

  “Shut up!” Lauren yelled.

  The voices quelled. They turned to her again, some unhappy, some curious. Reagan looked incensed, huffing out of her nose. Thalia was miserable and quiet towards the end. Vivian at the far end of the table had a distant stare.

  Monty read from a list he carried with him. “Confirmed donors: Lucy, plant control. Anika, emotion broadcasting. Benedict, flight and invisibility. Ike, baseline human with serum enhancements. Presumably nontransferable. Lyra, Atlantean physiology. Presumably transferrable. Thalia, baseline human with external power source. Edward, magic initiate. Presumably nontransferable.”

  “Although if you’re part Darkheart now, welcome to the family,” Edward chimed in.

  “I guess we should probably cut to the most directly relevant part,” Monty said, putting his chart down. “Those of us with something to donate still, assuming that’s on the table. I’ll start with me. My only gift is above-average intelligence in multiple fields of fringe science. Although intelligence has a genetic component, I’m guessing my DNA would not be a high priority to Lauren’s drive.”

  Lauren shifted on her feet. They didn’t talk about this. She didn’t mean to sound like she was panhandling for more powers. She could barely control the ones she had already, and she wasn’t sure adding more to the pot was necessarily helpful.

  “No one needs to share their powers,” Lauren cut in.

  Monty raised his hands. “I’m just talking through the options. Doubling up on some powersets might not be such a bad thing, when we’re so shorthanded.”

  Lauren let him continue.

  “The ones present with something likely to contribute: Grace—”

  “Nuh-uh,” Grace insisted. “My power can’t be shared anways. I was invested with the Power Patriotic after Miss Fifty died. The Spirit of America courses through me. It’s not in my DNA.”

  “That’s not true,” Monty said flatly. “There’s no such thing as the ‘Power Patriotic’. You’re a psychokinetic. Your subconscious likely dictates the colors of your constructs.”

  “What did you call me?!”

  “Anyways, Grace with psychokinesis and flight. Billy with his array of mental powers. Troy’s ability to heal and energize. Let’s see… Mary’s an automaton, Maggie-Lou has her magical satchel. Reagan’s powerless.” Reagan’s stare was burning holes into Lauren. She could practically see her steaming. “Annabelle, chemical accident. Adam, unknown. I’m also not so sure about Moof or Harper.”

  “I got my powers from touching a Greek artifact when I was a kid,” Moof reported down the table.

  Harper shook her head, red locks swishing. Lauren wasn’t sure if that was a can’t or won’t.

  “And lastly…” Expectation hung in the air. All heads turned, to Vivian sitting at the other head. “Ollyrian physiology from Vivian.”

  Naked panic spread across Vivian’s face.

  “NO!” The table jolted as she flew directly upwards. She hovered out of reach ten feet above them, her breaths quick. Her voice came out high and tight. “No no no no no no no! She can’t have my powers! That’s so against the rules! That’s so against the rules there isn’t even a rule for it!”

  Vivian fluttered her hands as she bounced up and down in the air. Lauren recognized she was legitimately panicking. Those rules she lived by were etched deep in her.

  “No unbound Ollyrians! That’s not how this works! You can’t have my DNA!”

  “Why not?” Anika challenged. She sat between Ike and Thalia. “If we had someone with your powers who could fight, we’d win basically automatically. This city would be ours again. What if Pariah ever comes back? Who’s going to protect everyone?”

  Heads nodded their assent at that logic. Vivian’s face contorted, her jaw clenched so tight veins stood out on her neck. It was plain enough she blamed herself hard for the first attack, and Terry’s death, judging by the apology she gave to Lauren. And now she was being ganged up on. This was getting out of control.

  Lauren took charge again. “Hey! I’m not taking anyone’s powers who don’t want me to. Not Grace, not Vivian, not anyone. Your bodies are your own. I don’t even know if I want more powers. This is all overwhelming to me. I just wanted to tell you what’s happening. Leave Vivian alone about it.”

  Vivian remained in the air, stunned and trembling. She held herself. Glances went between her and Lauren. It was clear Vivian sharing was now the only thing on everyone’s mind.

  Lauren couldn’t even imagine having that much power. What would she do with it? It wouldn’t actually bring her any closer to what she was looking for, but it would sure as hell help when she did find it.

  She cast the thought out of her mind. It was too much to even think about. It wasn’t up to her, even if she did want it.

  “We’ll talk about this more later,” Lauren dismissed.

  Students left, talking in groups. A few hung around. Vivian flew out the door ahead of everyone else, leaving it swinging open.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Lauren sighed. Being a pseudo-leader wasn’t easy.

  Monty sidled up to her. “You know, if you’re up for it—”

  “Monty, politely go fuck off for now.”

  “Yep.” He strolled off.

  Billy hesitated in leaving. “We’re not kissing right now, right?”

  “No Billy, thank you for the offer.”

  He nodded and left too. Lucy was next up with her reaction.

  “Power-copying. Do you ever run out of tricks up your sleeve?”

  “I don’t know,” Lauren said heavily. First all her weapons, her healing, her body morphing, now other’s powers. Where was the original Lauren in all of this? She was being twisted increasingly into the shapes of other things. Even her mind was different. The trailing scents of her classmates hadn’t disappeared, and they likely wouldn’t until Lauren had sampled them all. At least Lucy didn’t have a scent. Apparently because Lauren had already tasted her. And the dark spots in her brain, the territory the parasite was taking. She didn’t even want to see how much headway it had made. She needed answers.

  Seeing her friend lost in her mind, Lucy knuckled her arm.

  “Hey gloomy, let’s go test the green thumb I gave you. We can be plant buddies!”

  Lauren attempted a smile for her. “Sure. In a bit.”

  “I’ll meet you at the dorm.”

  Anika was behind her, the only other left waiting for Lauren’s attention Reagan glowering in the corner.

  “Is she ever happy?” Anika asked, bobbing her head Reagan’s way. Her dyed swoop of hair briefly cleared from over her eye before settling back into place.

  “I don’t think so,” Lauren said. It was always good to see Anika, even if it made Lauren conscious of how ungirly and not pretty she herself was. Her first kiss with Reagan flashed across her mind like a bad, brief migraine. Her slight smile wavered. That wasn’t really her kissing Reagan, she told herself. It was her other half, wanting whatever Reagan had. It wasn’t really a first kiss, and there was no reason it should spoil the good thing she had going on with Anika.

  “Let’s go out tonight,” Anika said.

  Lauren blinked. “Seriously? Tonight?”

  “Tonight,” Anika said. “You were out for six weeks. I’ve been waiting. Let’s go.”

  Lauren was caught off guard by her forwardness, but not put off. A date sounded good, actually. It was coming at the right time for her to need to take her mind off things. She always needed that, come to think of it. A few hours would leave with not too much time to overthink for days. She nodded.

  “Good. I’ll come pick you up at 6.” Anika said it so casually and confidently. Lauren found an honest to God genuine grin on her face. Anika savored the no-doubt goofy look on her face before turning and swaggering off.

  The grin was ruined by Reagan stomping over. Her scent led in front of her like a wake, still horribly intoxicating. Lauren’s mouth was set to watering by it, and the part of her brain being overtaken lit up with feelings she couldn’t control. Goddamnit. Weren’t things supposed to be over with her, after they had swapped plenty of spit? Why did her body still crave something from her?

  Reagan was obviously furious, having reached a climax in her mounting mood over the course of the meeting. The first thing she did was jab a thin finger into Lauren’s chest. Lauren snorted, ready to bring the same energy back to her even as her body told her to embrace the other girl.

  “You fucking stole my powers,” Reagan growled. Her voice was deadly, but low, even though the rest of the room had cleared out. It seemed they were keeping their kiss mutually secret.

  This close, Lauren could see more than just anger in Reagan’s eyes. Plenty of that, sure, but other emotions mixed like oil and water. She looked almost ready to spill tears. She searched for something in Lauren’s face, softness breaking through for fractions of seconds. Confusion? Hurt?

  She had just witnessed Anika telling Lauren they were going out.

  Was Reagan… jealous?

  Lauren needed to believe that wasn’t true.

  “I don’t steal powers!” Lauren shot back. “I just copy them!”

  Anger won out in Reagan. She stayed in Lauren’s face.

  “They’re my fucking powers! Mine! You kissed me as soon as you found out my parents were superheroes! I was stupid enough to tell you that.”

  “I don’t even know what the fuck your parents’ powers were! Or the fact that I could fucking copy them from you!”

  “They’re mine. My inheritance.” Tears did spill, but they were from pure outrage. “You don’t get to just swoop in and use them. I’m not having you take that from me.”

  “Well too fucking late.” Flecks of spit from Lauren’s mouth hit Reagan’s face, they were that close. Lauren was breathing pure scent. The parasite still thought it had something to gain from Reagan. Maybe it wasn’t too late, the copy being incomplete or something. Maybe blood was a more pure transfer. But Lauren wasn’t about to start crafting theories and assuring her most temperamental, unbearable classmate.

  Reagan backed up slightly, heaving and huffing.

  “You kissed me. You just wanted to take my powers from me.” Sadness broke through her wrath. Her lower lip shook.

  Lauren shoved down her anger, trying to refocus into something more serious and productive. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment before reopening them.

  “I kissed your neck to stop myself from drinking your blood. I didn’t mean for it to turn into a thing. I didn’t know what my body wanted. I won’t use your powers if you don’t want me to.”

  Reagan’s cheeks reddened, likely from embarrassment now. She shouldered roughly past Lauren.

  “Good. Cause it wasn’t a thing. And I’m never telling you what their powers were. So don’t ask, and don’t expect any help.”

  “Fine.”

  As Reagan left Lauren covered her face with her hands, wondering again how her life had become such bizarre madness. She was quickly alone. Now Reagan’s smell was stuck in her system again, swirling around her head, promising delights the likes of which couldn’t be found elsewhere.

  Just what did her body want so badly from her?

  Knapp was waiting outside as Lauren exited last. They walked in step.

  “Were you watching that?” Lauren asked.

  “Maybe a little,” Knapp confessed. “Only from out the window. I wasn’t spying.”

  She probably saw well enough how that went by everyone’s reactions.

  “I didn’t want you overwhelmed, but your apparent ability to copy genetic powers is a very big deal, Lauren. Ultra-genes are fickle things. They’re instable, hard to clone even by those who specialize in such things. With the hero community in the state it’s in…”

  “I could be the next planet-class superhero,” Lauren said.

  “How would you feel about that?”

  Dread. Dread she tried not to even think about.

  “I can’t,” Lauren said slowly. “This isn’t me. I don’t want this. I want it out of me… I think it’s killing me. Or taking me over.”

  “I’ve seen the scans,” Knapp said seriously. “I’m so sorry, Lauren. We still don’t know the nature of what’s been placed inside you. But it is spreading. I want you to know that I’ll always advocate for you, as my student. My job isn’t protecting the world. It’s protecting my students.”

  “That’s not everyone’s priority.”

  “No, it isn’t.”

  They were thinking of the same person.

  “Weiss has been digging her claws into Vivian for weeks, trying to wear her down.” Knapp’s tone suggested it was a battle she was on the other side of, and losing. “I don’t know what she expects that poor girl to do. Vivian is here to learn and be a beacon of hope. She isn’t a killer. It isn’t in her nature.”

  It’s in mine.

  If Knapp had that thought to, or a suspicion of it, she left it unsaid. That one night in the arena was still a powder keg under Lauren. She never knew when it would go off, or who was holding a match. She needed to go after Maudlin soon, if she wanted to maintain plausible deniability.

  “When Weiss finds out about this, and she will very soon, she’s going to try to feed you part of Vivian whether the girl wants it or not. I’m sure she already has one of her hairs, if not more. A new unrestrained Ollyrian is Weiss’ holy grail. She’ll try to mold you into being her weapon.”

  “And what should I do?”

  Knapp shrugged, seeming lost. “I don’t know. I think it’s a bad idea. At least for now, until we understand your situation better. I think it would also be a mistake diplomatically. The Ollyrians might abduct you.”

  “That is not happening,” Lauren said.

  “I hope not,” Knapp said. “I hope none of it happens. But if this position is teaching me anything, its that my influence is much lesser than I was hoping.”

  “That’s not true!” Lauren insisted. They stopped, the headmaster turning towards her in surprise at Lauren’s passion. “I listen to you. I respect the hell out of you. You always try to do what’s right for us.”

  Knapp’s mood shifted. She was clearly touched by Lauren’s words.

  “Thank you, Lauren. Thank you. I’m glad you feel that way. I always try to help the best I can. I want to nurture each and every one of you. I feel like I’ve already failed this school.”

  “You haven’t,” Lauren said, shaking her head. “We need you.”

  The words came out of her from a much deeper appreciation for the school than Lauren had even realized she had. What would she do without Rosewell? She wasn’t made to be a New Lord, or a Skell. This was her place.

  Knapp have her a side hug. “Thank you Lauren.” She dabbed at her eyes. “I’ll let you continue on with your day. We have group therapy tonight, after dinner. You told me you would attend,” Knapp reminded her.

  “Oh…” Lauren hesitated, giving her best apologetic smile. “…I kinda have a date tonight. Next time?”

  Knapp rested her hands on her hips, playfully stern. “I had a feeling you’d find some excuse. I suppose young love is as good as any, at least for one session. Go, find some uncomplicated fun in your young life while you still can. I’d like you to keep your word, in the future.”

  “I will!” Lauren insisted. “Thank you. She’s really pretty.”

  Knapp chuckled and waved her off. “We’re starting class again on Monday!”

  “Okay!”

  . . .

  “Feel it.”

  “I’m trying.”

  “Try harder.”

  “I’m trying!”

  Lucy was not a very good teacher when it came to her own powers. Then again, maybe Lauren wasn’t the best student.

  They stood at the edge of the school woods. At the base of the pines, ferns dripped with winter wetness, most of them retaining their green. Lauren did her best to follow her friend’s directions, in order to make one of the ferns grow larger. Lucy kept using words like spirit and aura and lushness to describe how Lauren was apparently supposed to be feeling a connection to plants. Lauren didn’t know how to feel spirit and aura. She felt her strange nodes inside of her, one of them Lucy’s powerset. The nodes didn’t come with great instructions either. They seemed to be mostly the domain of the parasite, it having been the one to activate powers previously to save Lauren’s life.

  She kept her hand held out, trying to picture the fern most in front of her growing larger.

  “Don’t force it,” Lucy suggested.

  “I’m not!”

  “You clearly are…” Lucy muttered.

  Lauren dropped her hand. “You’re the one who just told me to try harder. This is—”

  Lucy arched an eyebrow. “Pointless?”

  “I did not say that,” Lauren insisted. She was not about to give Lucy any ammo to fuel her move to Canada. Plant control was a useful power in many situations, she was sure of it. Just maybe not immediately useful to Lauren.

  “This is hard, I was gonna say.”

  Lucy shrugged. “Yeah, well, I didn’t master it overnight. It helped that I liked gardening and botany even before I got my powers. Maybe you should adopt a plant.”

  “That’s not a good idea.”

  Something shifted in Lauren’s gut suddenly. She grabbed her sides and grunted.

  “What is it?” Lucy asked. “Are you starting to feel the spirits of plants?”

  “No. I feel like I have to shit.”

  “Oh. Well maybe you have to shit.”

  Maybe. The shift did feel similar to right before she grew wings, though.

  “Let me try again.”

  Mostly ignoring the bloated feeling, she held her hand out to the fern. She tried to concentrate, imagining it growing fuller, lusher, maybe even waving its fronds at her.

  The frond shuddered.

  Lucy gasped. “You’re doing it.”

  Lauren did her best to keep her concentration. The fern continued shuddering. But it didn’t grow.

  In fact, it did the opposite. The plant wilted, then began to yellow. As it sagged pitifully onto the ground, its broad leaves curled inwards. Lauren dropped her hand and her concentration, but by then it was too late. The process didn’t stop until the entire fern was withered brown, lifeless.

  Lauren used Lucy’s power to kill it.

  Lauren covered her mouth, realizing what she had likely done.

  “I killed Gabriel.”

  Lucy nodded, burdened with the same truth.

  “You probably killed Gabriel.”

  “I’m so sorry, Lucy.”

  She shrugged, defeated but trying not to show it.

  “It’s okay. You use my powers for the opposite and kill plant life. That’s… okay.” Lucy approached the dead fern and held it, part of it crumbling off. “Poor guy.” She shrugged again as she stood. “Well, circle of life. It’ll go back to the soil.”

  “I’m sorry,” Lauren said again.

  “I think that’s enough practice for today,” Lucy said. She wasn’t angry. Maybe just a bit disappointed her powers expressed themselves differently in Lauren. “We should probably head over to the spring orientation anyways.”

  Lauren must have made a face.

  “You’re already skipping?”

  “It’s been a heavy 24 hours,” Lauren said. “I’m going out with Anika tonight, and I just need some time to decompress. Please?”

  Lucy couldn’t argue with that.

  “Alright. I’ll pick up your class list. Be safe out in the city. Tell me how it goes when you’re back.”

  “Absolutely.”

  They split ways, Lauren back to the dorms and Lucy in the direction of the gym.

  When she reached the dorms, Lauren didn’t head inside. She had a thought that she wanted to be on the roof again. The roof was a good thinking place. In a skip off the ground and a dig with her claws, she was up.

  It just seemed easier to breathe here. Maybe part of it was the seclusion. Or the view of the city. She had some important conversations up here. Her first talk with Mara. Lucy’s dressing-down of her behavior. Both points in her growth.

  She sat on the far edge and looked out over Pacific City, down the cliff beyond the trees.

  After some minutes, she realized Harper had appeared beside her completely silently. She sat facing Lauren, one leg dangling off the edge to Lauren’s two. Her crimson hair caught and held fire from the filtered sunlight.

  After all this time, Lauren and Harper had never talked much. Mostly because Harper didn’t talk much at all. She was certainly an enigmatic roommate, prone to disappearing for lengths of time. Not that Lauren was great at talking or being around either. Still, Lauren completely trusted her fourth roommate, and wasn’t bothered by her presence even though she meant to be alone.

  It was some minutes before Lauren spoke.

  “I’m gonna die here.”

  She swallowed after she spoke the revelation.

  “Maybe not exactly here. Maybe not even this city. But I’m going to die in this system. It’s never going to let go of me. I’m going to die in a body I don’t really own or understand. It’s eating me hollow. I’m not any closer to finding my sister or the person who did this to me. I don’t know if she can fix me. I’m part everyone else now. I’m just a vessel for powers. I’m gonna die an experiment. Maybe my sister doesn’t really exist. Maybe my memories are fake. Maybe I don’t even really exist.”

  Harper squinted into the horizon. Lauren didn’t really expect any sort of reply from her. Speaking to Harper was usually like speaking to a wall. She said what she said just to force the thoughts out, to start accepting them.

  Surprisingly, Harper did speak.

  “I was an experiment too.”

  Lauren turned her head. Harper continued looking forward.

  “My father’s experiment. He tortured the shadows into me. He wanted me to be his best killer. That’s all I was supposed to be. A weapon. Not a person of my own. He wanted me to be exactly what he made me, and nothing more. I didn’t understand my body. It didn’t feel like mine. Even before his trials started. I wasn’t me.”

  She paused there, and Lauren thought that might be the end of it. She picked it up a moment later.

  “I had to make who I am. I had to find myself. I had to get away from him if I was going to live. He would never let me be who I was inside. He always wanted an heir. A son.”

  Lauren absorbed that, by far the most information Harper had ever volunteered. Her words resonated. Harper also felt alienation from her body. Hearing what her roommate had gone through was a surprise, but it went some ways to explain her. She had been so caught up in her own problems, Lauren had never even considered there might be someone else at the school who had gone through something similar to her. She suddenly felt closer to Harper than ever before.

  And she hadn't just endured experimentation, but expectation too. She understood Harper wasn’t only talking about going through trials and torture, but something else Lauren had a vague concept of yet had never thought about too deeply: that Harper had been born a boy.

  “I don’t know how to find who I am. I don’t even know who I’m supposed to be. I feel like I’m always changing.”

  “I think that’s being a teenager,” Harper said.

  They sat with that for a while. Lauren digested it. There was nothing to do but keep moving forward.

  “Maybe you’re right,” Lauren said. “Whatever happens, I guess we won’t have to do it alone. Right?”

  Harper nodded.

  “If you ever want to talk about it more, I’m here for you.” Lauren rose. “I think I should go sit in on the orientation after all. You want to come?”

  “I’ll meet you there.”

  Lauren nodded, showing Harper she heard her and appreciated her opening up. Harper glanced at her and smiled slightly. They left it at that, Lauren not wanting to press. Harper would open up more in her own time. She hopped off the roof and headed to the gym complex.

  The closest door to inside was to the hall that connected the gym to the rest of the school. Lauren opened it, her boots leaving muddy prints on the waxed floors. Already, she could hear the mic-amplified voice of a speaker in the gym through the wall. She could tell by the inflection it was Agent Carmichael.

  Lauren rolled her eyes. It wasn’t too late to turn back around.

  She heard a bang from the opposite side of the hall to the gym. Not a loud one, just the slam of a locker. It came from the girls’ locker room. Who would be in there during the assembly?

  Lauren opened the door, immediately coming into a light mist of fragrant steam. Someone had just taken a hot shower. She could hear the tap dripping from one of the stalls. The tiled and locker-lined space was empty except for someone moving in one of the middle rows. She went down the row to investigate. By the smell in the air, she already had a good guess of who it was.

  Reagan faced away from her down the middle row, toweling off her black hair. She had just put on a shirt and small athletic shorts. Reagan lowered the towel, flipping her hair. She started and scowled when she noticed Lauren at the end of the row.

  “What do you want?” she demanded.

  “What are you doing in here instead of the gym?”

  Reagan scoffed. She dropped her wet towel on the bench. “You’re one to ask. Shouldn’t you be doing your best attempt at makeup or something?”

  Lauren stepped closer. Closer to Reagan, and her scent. She didn’t want her anger to rise, but Reagan had a way of setting her off like no one else.

  “What powers did your parents have?”

  Reagan snarled. “I told you, that’s none of your fucking business!”

  “It’s inside of me. It is my business.” They met in the middle of the row. “I need to understand what’s in me. So get the fuck over it.”

  Reagan tilted her head. She adopted a mocking smile. “Does it bother you, you having part of me in you? And you don’t understand it?”

  Lauren put her arm out, pinning Reagan against the row of lockers with her body. The space between them shrunk further.

  “It doesn’t bother me.”

  Reagan looked her up and down, taking note of their closeness.

  “No?”

  “Nope.”

  They transitioned smoothly into kissing. Lauren put both hands on Reagan’s lower back and pulled them together. Reagan did the same. Their kisses were much smoother this time. They fell into a rhythm of their lips moving in and out, up and down together and in opposite directions.

  Again, Lauren was flooded with happy chemicals. The parasite really, really wanted this. She couldn’t pull away. Even as she continued the amazing kissing session, the rational part of her yelled to stop, that she had a date she was looking forward to in mere hours. That part of her brain was very quiet and not very convincing at the moment. The echo of Agent Holly’s voice reminded them the rest of the class wasn’t too far away, and they could be walked in on at any moment by someone seeking a toilet.

  Lauren broke away from the kiss and Reagan’s embrace. Reagan whimpered, concerned it was over so soon. That wasn’t Lauren’s intention. She sat on the bench in front of Reagan. Seeing what she was getting at, Reagan arched backwards and lifted her arms. Her shirt pulled up, exposing her stomach.

  Lauren peppered the toned stomach in front of her with kisses. She made a trail from Reagan’s ribs to her belly button, the flesh soft yet firm against her lips. When her trail of kisses finally reached the bottom of Reagan’s stomach, Lauren bit her lip and briefly considered continuing lower. At that point she was almost tremoring with lust that wasn’t her own. Looking up, she saw Reagan keeping nervous watch on the door over the top of the lockers. She glanced down, ultimately leaving the choice of whether to continue in Lauren’s hands.

  With a trembling breath, Lauren forced herself to rise. It took everything in her to stop at kissing. She came back up to eye level with Reagan.

  Reagan was flush, her eyes not able to meet Lauren’s.

  “What are we doing? You’re going out with Anika.”

  “I don’t know,” Lauren answered. Was it only the parasite wanting this? She had fallen pretty easily into making out. Reagan was somehow rapidly improving at kissing.

  “Are we done?”

  Lauren nodded. She swayed on her feet suddenly. Reagan steadied her, which only brought Lauren closer again. The parasite disagreed. It came on strong and quick, with less need for permission than it ever had before. Lauren fought it internally. With Reagan so close, her scent so strong, it was a helpless fight.

  The parasite wanted blood.

  Lauren bit down on Reagan’s neck, and Reagan screamed.

  not be writing any explicit scenes in this series. That being said, if I get a finger wagged at me it might be that I have to censor certain scenes and direct you elsewhere if you would like to read them. I hope not, because that would be a pain in the ass, but Royal Road does not have much tolerance or nuance when it comes to minors, even peripherally or alluded to doing things. I have my artistic vision, they have their policies, and we'll see how it goes.