Uninvited (Uninvited, #1)(58)

“You’ll send us to the camps if we don’t make it in here,” Addy states more than asks. It seems she’s the only one bold enough to say anything.

“If you’re lucky, you’ll be transferred to a detention camp.” Dusty’s expression turns grim. “You want to make it here. Trust me in that.”

Transference to a detention camp would be lucky? What would be the unlucky alternative?

Unthinkingly, I hear myself answer, “Agent Stiles told my mother if this didn’t work out I would go to a detention camp.”

Dusty looks at me then, her gaze hard as steel in her sun-browned face. My earlier hope that she’d be a benevolent mentor withers under her stare. “Agent Stiles is no longer here. I am.”


With schedules in hand, we’re led from the lounge area. The doors to our rooms are a pristine white just like everything else. A small, thick-glassed window is positioned at the top of each door—a reminder that we’ll never have total privacy here.

Sabine is in the room next to mine. Her wispy-thin form darts inside, clearly eager to escape everyone. Zoe, the imprinted redhead, is on the other side of me. She moves at a slower pace, looking at me eerily with those wild, green eyes of hers before disappearing inside her room. I shiver a little, knowing that I should have anticipated this. Even though the carriers here have all been screened, they’re positive for HTS. Some of them have to be dangerous . . . maybe even a little unhinged.

Dusty stops me before I get inside my room. “Hamilton, we expect great things from you.”

“Really?” I swallow uncomfortably. I didn’t want them to expect great things from me. I just want not to fail.

“You have the breeding the other girls lack. Gentility, if you will . . . it’s important that you don’t lose that here. We’re going to train you to be tough . . . a skilled fighter, but don’t . . .” Her voice fades as though she’s searching for the right words. “You still need to maintain some sophistication. It will serve you well when you’re on assignment in the field.” She reaches up and taps a finger against my throat. “Shame about this. Perform to our expectations and we’ll see about getting that removed. It’s a painstaking process . . . delicate, but it can be done.”

They could remove my imprint? I could walk freely in the world with no one marking me on sight as a carrier?

My chest swells at the promise of this. I never dreamed of such a possibility.

I nod eagerly. “I’ll do my best.”

“Excellent.” She motions to my room, indicating I should go inside. “Have a good night.”

Once I’m in, the door clangs shut. As I sink onto the single bed, a bolt falls into place on the other side, the sound heavy, jarring.

At least we get our own rooms. Clearly, they don’t trust us alone with each other. No telling what would happen in the middle of the night. I might wake with someone’s hands around my throat.

Sitting there, I think of Sean and Gil, somewhere on the other side of this building with forty-odd boys. Did they get the same type of introduction? Were they, too, expected to cultivate their talents? Gil’s a computer genius, but what about Sean? What did they expect from him?

A soft sound starts up on the other side of my room. Sabine is crying.

I move from the bed and tap the wall, pressing my face close to the plaster. “Hey, you okay?”

Her words come out muffled, “I’m never going to make it.”

“You’ll do great,” I say. “They want us to succeed. They’ll train us.”

She doesn’t say anything else. After a while, I sigh and step away from the wall. I change into a fresh T-shirt and shorts and lie down on the bed. Grasping the collar, I inhale the soft fabric of my favorite T-shirt. It smells like home.

I notice a pair of training pants and black T-shirt folded neatly on the chair. For tomorrow, I assume. Probably standard issue.

Sinking back on the bed, I study my schedule and try to block out the sound of Sabine crying next door.





UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

..................................................................



* * *





Mount Haven Camp Schedule



ATHLETICS 6:00–6:45 A.M.

BREAKFAST 7:00–7:45 A.M.

ATHLETICS 8:00–9:30 A.M.

INDEPENDENT STUDY 9:45–11:45 A.M.

LUNCH 12:00–12:45 P.M.

CONDITIONING 1:00–2:30 P.M.

GROUP DRILLS 2:45–4:15 P.M.

INDEPENDENT STUDY 4:30–6:00 P.M.

DINNER 6:15–7:00 P.M.

COMMUNAL TIME 7:00–8:00 P.M.

LIGHTS-OUT 8:15 P.M.





TWENTY-TWO





IN LESS THAN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS, I DISCOVER just how out of shape I am. It’s a painful lesson. After seventy-two hours, I’m not sure I’ll survive one more day.

Every morning, the doors unbolt at six a.m. We have only a few minutes to dress before heading outside for a pre-break-fast run. The Mount Haven staff greets us with shouts and whistles and a clanging bell that makes me think I’m in a boot camp. The hard-core kind you see in movies. The type where cadets are driven to suicide. Only this isn’t a movie. And none of us are here to die. By the time we get to breakfast, we fall on our food, ravenous. Sean and Gil sit at the same table with me, but we’re so busy eating we barely speak.