“Of course they do. There are always time, place and manner restrictions. You’ve been brought here to answer questions because you could call us experts on the issue.”
“Experts on what, exactly? I had armed people show up at my home without notice so they could drag me off without explanation. No one has told me what I’m doing here or what you want from me. I have no idea what I’m doing here.”
Lie.The words scraped against me, the immediate knowledge that he was lying. It wasn’t the slight unease when a person was unsure, when confused, but rather Charles was purposely lying, likely with something he’d thought of beforehand.
I wrote that down on the pad as Kit took a seat beside me, his gaze darting to the paper to read it without acknowledging the statement.
Instead, he focused on Charles. “I’m going to warn you that this will go much more smoothly if you are honest.”
“I am being honest.”
Kit smiled, but the edges held a dangerous threat as he opened the file he’d had with him. “You work for one of the companies that your father deals with, don’t you?”
“So? Last I checked, that was hardly illegal.”
“Collusion is illegal. Working at a company isn’t a problem, so long as you and your father do not use your positions for personal gain. It does seem that your company has had a far higher number of approvals compared to other companies. That doesn’t strike you as odd?” Kit asked.
“Not at all. My company is just better at producing advancements and running the necessary tests to ensure their safety. If other companies dislike our numbers, they should do better to improve themselves instead of focusing on us.”
I closed my eyes as I listened, to try to hear deeper. It was strange, because it had been so hard to learn to control that overwhelming skill, but now it was almost harder to lower those defenses, to hear it.
The lies were easy to hear—he hadn’t said much that was true thus far. Instead, I listened deeper, tried to allow myself to focus on what else I could pick up.
Flashes of him came to me, old ones where Charles appeared younger, all mixing together and flying past so quickly it was hard to pick one from another. I saw him having dinner with his father, another of him in bed with a woman I didn’t recognize, another with him working at a desk, poring over paperwork. The things went by so quick I shuddered, overwhelmed.
Something touched my leg, pulling me from the spiral. I glanced over to find Kit’s hand on my leg, though he didn’t turn to look at me, pretending as if it hadn’t happened.
Right.We were doing a job right now. His reminder helped me focus.
“What do you care anyway?” Charles said. “Even if what you’re saying is true, even if there was somethinggoing on, all of our medications have been beneficial. None of them have been proven unsafe.”
“That is true. The issue is that some of the medications have caused certain questions to arise. For example, the new diabetes medication your company just released officially lists the source as a level 3 werewolf.”
I tried to ignore the response I got from Kit, the way his voice also sparked images. I saw him in his room alone, then another of him in his other form, his real form, in the darkness. I saw him with a woman I didn’t recognize at all, one with long dark hair and light blue eyes. He kissed her, the action far sweeter than anything I had witnessed from him before.
I recalled the story he’d told me before about the woman he’d loved. Was this her? Seeing him act like that felt strange, like something I struggled to connect with the reserved man I knew.
Still, I shook that away, tried not to get overwhelmed by it.
“That’s right. What’s your point?” Charles’ voice drew me back to the room.
“That when we had the chance to look closely at the actual medication, it could not have come from a werewolf. Rather, it uses the blood and source from a banshee as the base.”
“If you had evidence about that, you wouldn’t be talking to me here. You’d already have me before a court,” Charles said as he leaned back in his chair, assured of his own innocence.
Or, rather, assured that he wouldn’t get into trouble. Then again, I’d grown up around people like him. They thought they were untouchable, that they had enough power and connections to never get caught foranything they did. They saw themselves as innocent because they thought they were above the law.
And I was just like that until I wasn’t…
I rubbed at the center of my chest because of an ache there, because of having to admit that I had been as bad as them. If I’d gotten pulled over before coming here, I hadn’t been above batting my lashes and flashing my license so they could see my last name. It always worked, too.
But this place wasn’t the world Charles knew the rules to. It didn’t operate the way he’d grown accustomed to.
Kit didn’t take the bait, remaining as calm as ever. “Again, we enjoy significantly more leeway than elsewhere. You said you didn’t know where you were brought, so let me tell you. You’re at Larkwood Academy.”
Thatgot through to Charles. He gulped hard, a break in his calm and cool exterior. “Why am I here?”
“Because you’re right. Out there, in the world that you’re used to, you can get away with a lot. Things like, for example, getting your father’s influence to gain access to level-1 shades, something clearly forbidden by law.”