Initiation by Imogen Rose Read Free Book Online Page B

camera captured the events. Cordelia, just shut your eyes if it becomes too much.”
    I nodded, and the show started. The first section showed Faustine and me heading down the corridor, smiling and chatting. Everything was as I remembered it, though it felt odd watching us from that angle. Very Big Brother. Our whole conversation had been recorded. I’d need to remember that in the future.
    Then, we came to the part where I had caught the scent of the shifters. I almost laughed as I watched myself sniffing the air like a dog. I saw that Faustine had grabbed my shirt, something I hadn’t noticed at the time.
    Then, the screen split. The shifters were shown on the right side. They had pretty much detected us at the same time as I had sniffed them out. I had been ahead by a few seconds, though. Ha! The screen showed them walking up the corridor as I stopped. They kept moving, talking, and laughing for about ten steps more, then the leader extended his arms, stopping the others in their tracks. They scrunched up their noses trying to pick up a scent. The leader’s face suddenly broke into a wide grin, and he glared at the others with a maniacal gleam in his eyes. They huddled, obviously communicating via thought because they suddenly lined up and started striding down the hallway again.
    My eyes darted between the split screens, which merged as Faustine and I ran into the shifters. From there, it was mostly a blur. Everything happened so fast, I could barely keep up with the events. I watched myself transform. I couldn’t help but find myself repugnant in my demon state. I had been brought up in the midst of Parisian high society and was used to appearing elegant in the human sense. The demon on the screen was far from that. I wondered what Jagger made of it. Was he repulsed?
      We watched Faustine and me being chased along the corridor at superfast speed. I’d have to ask if we could watch that portion again, in slow motion. I was impressed by my own agility, seamlessly running up the walls, and then to the ceiling. Too bad about that silly bird. Though not large, it was fast. It flew straight past my shoulder, knocking me down with a strong flap from its left wing.
    I watched Faustine and me fall, and by the time I hit the ground, she’d disappeared, just as I remembered. Seconds later, the four shifters pounced on me, and I was barely visible under their onslaught with the camera focused on their backs. Then, one of them transformed, and the others followed suit. They gawked at each other, nodded, and took off running down the hallway. The camera was left to focus on the remains. My remains. In my human form. I must have transformed back to my default shape when my body gave up the fight. I had been shredded to bits, my limbs separated from the rest of my body, and half eaten. My stomach twisted into a hard knot at the thought of those shifters having done that to me. Then, a flare of anger shot through me. I was beyond furious.
    The timer on the camera fast-forwarded a minute or so to show Jagger running down the hall. He stopped short when he reached me and knelt down to gather all my body parts, tears streaming down his face. A lump rose in my throat. Then, he turned and ran off with me.
    The screen went blank. No one said a word. When I felt my hand get wet, I glanced up at Mom, who had tears streaming down her face. Dad’s face was set in a hard expression, and Frau Schmelder stared determinedly at her shoes. Jagger winced when he caught my eye.
    I broke the silence. “Can we watch the part where the eagle knocks me down again, but in slow motion?”
    Frau Schmelder nodded and brought the surveillance disc to the right place. We watched it in silence until we got to the segment where Faustine disappeared.
    “Can you slow that down even more, so we can try to figure out what happened to Faustine?”
    No matter how much we slowed it, the result was the same. Faustine just seemed to instantaneously vaporize. Totally