“Some of them do,” I replied, barely containing a shudder.
He grinned more widely. “That’s called teething. Only the little ones do that, and they’re long in bed. The others have been instructed not to bite the star signs.”
“Comforting that they had to be told,” I said, leaning over to stroke Sheena behind her ear. She pressed into my touch, trusting Gregor to keep her balanced. “Listen, have you been keeping up with the papers? Or the scanner? Anything going on that looks like Shadow activity?”
He shook his head, which gleamed even in the dim light. “I get the dailies first thing in the morning, local and national, and nothing’s popped. Nobody has a clue what the Tulpa’s up to, but we’re as balanced as we ever were, that’s for sure.”
I thought about that for a moment, and though his certainty was probably warranted, asked, “Do you think you could save them for me at the end of the day? At least the front page and the metro section? Warren wants me to stay in the sanctuary. Again.”
Gregor shot me a sympathetic look, showing me he’d already heard. “Sure…looking for anything in particular?”
I thought about lying, then reconsidered. It would cost me nothing to tell Gregor about the lab-he didn’t need to know about Liam and Regan, or the information that’d led me to Joaquin at Master Comics-and if anyone could help me discover the mystery of what a scientific laboratory was doing in a casino, it was he. So I told him about the portal Hunter had pushed me through at Valhalla, and what I’d found behind it. “So I was wondering if you’d heard of any missing person cases in the last, say, three months.”
“I wonder what they’re up to…” All the humor was absent from his gaze as he squinted in thought. “I could go through the archives. Look for a missing doctor, scientist. Maybe a professor of science out at the university.”
“Yeah, someone like Micah. A lab rat.”
“Better yet, I’ll just ask him when we get to the Orchard,” he said, motioning up the stairwell.
I frowned, surprised. “That’s where you’re going?”
He nodded, and Sheena stretched to nuzzle his chin. “Same as everyone else.”
I’d thought my training session with Tekla was private, and was surprised to find he was right; the others were lounging about the room in varying degrees of green-skinned glory. Most had faded to a light jade by now…all except Chandra, I noted, with more than a little satisfaction. She was still a dazzling Day-Glo emerald, and I gave her a little finger wave from across the room. She merely returned a finger.
Micah, as large as a sumo wrestler and as tall as a basketball player, was stretching lithely on the floor, and Gregor dropped down beside him to fill him in before Tekla arrived. I remained standing, though I shot him an apologetic smile. “Sorry about the hit yesterday, Micah. Good job on the color, though.”
“Thanks.” He smiled wryly, examining his fading forearm. “Next time I’ll try to concoct something a little less durable.”
Micah and Gregor were the only senior troop members in the room. Warren was absent, and the rest of the star signs were juniors; Vanessa and Felix, Riddick and Jewell, and me. The training we underwent-such as the maze out in the boneyard-was a good way for those in the middle to jockey for position, and the initiates who were raised in this subterranean grotto started that practice young. Scoring kill spots against enemy agents also gained you more power within the troop hierarchy, and the foiling of a Shadow plot was a good way to earn brownie points too. But everyone knew their place at any given moment.
Everyone, I thought wryly, but me.
“Monkeys?” I heard Micah say, and turned back to find him gazing up at me questioningly. “Primates are generally used for more complex research…combating disease, testing transplantations and vaccines, new surgeries.”
“Things that would eventually be used on humans,” Gregor said, and the two of them looked at each other in the long stretch of silence. After a moment Gregor rose again and left the room. I knew he was headed to speak with Warren.
I swallowed hard. “It’s serious, then?”
“It’s probably nothing, but you were right to say something.” A swift smile flickered over his face as he motioned around the room. “Ready for class?”
I narrowed my eyes, wondering why he was changing the subject, but let it drop as I noticed all the training paraphernalia-heavy bags, pads, ropes, and mitts-had been put away, and the spongy mat with its opposing sparring circles had been removed to reveal a naked slab of concrete.
Micah explained that the mat’s removal deactivated the mood room, and in its place was a single mirrored panel propped vertically beneath the apex of the whitewashed pyramid; colorless, stark, and somehow intimidating.
I stepped forward, studying my reflection in the shiny slab, hands on hips, feet splayed wide, a stance that looked a hell of a lot more assured than it felt. “So…what? We gonna practice our scariest superfaces on each other?”
Micah gave a shrug of his giant shoulders, and stood with a grunt until he towered at his full seven feet. “Probably another lesson on energy. We’ll find out when Tekla gets here.”
“She’s always late,” I grumbled, still peeved at the way she’d dug at me the day before. “You’d think a psychic would know we’re all waiting for her.”
“It’s an affectation,” Micah said, smiling sympathetically and ruffling my hair. “The troop’s Seer is allowed her eccentricities. Just look past the quirks, and you’ll learn something despite yourself.”
I was about to say that quirk was a nice way to word it, but Marlo walked in just then…followed by Hunter. I got that funny feeling in my gut again, and quickly looked away. Fortunately, Tekla’s appearance saved me from having to question why.
She wasted no time on niceties, instead heading straight to the center of the room, where it turned out today’s lesson would be on yet another of Tekla’s favorite subjects: controlling our thoughts.
“This wall beside me is made of glass, better to reflect the clearest sense of your goals. But beyond that, like the labyrinth in the boneyard, it’s made from thought.” She looked at each of us, and the room fell unnaturally still. “I created both walls with nothing more than the strength of my mind. I dreamed them into being. Does anyone recall what else had been wrought into being by the whim of a powerful mind?”
Her eyes landed on me, though we all knew the answer to that question. “The Tulpa.”
She inclined her head. “That’s right. A living being who moves, breathes, eats, shits, and sleeps.” And now she began to pace, her black salwar-kamiz flaring about her ankles. “A being who’s dedicated his entire undeserved life to destroying you. How much easier, then, to create a mere wall from the ether.” She waved her hand, and the air shimmered about her fingertips. A second wall materialized, rippling, before solidifying into one identical to the first.
“Whoa,” Riddick said, awed. I had to agree. The most awesome thing about it, though, was that the wall’s appearance hadn’t seemed magical or miraculous at all. It was as natural as if someone had just walked in a door.
“Your thoughts create your reality,” Tekla went on as we all crowded closer. “What you believe is true and real becomes true and real for you.”
She paused, then looked at Felix, just as he was opening his mouth to speak. Tekla’s stare had nothing to do with her being psychic. We all knew Felix would be the first to ask a question, and he caught the look and laughed self-consciously. “We know that…but that wall’s not going to disappear just because I say it’s not there. It’s tangible. It’s a wall.”
“I agree,” Jewell said, clearing her throat nervously. “You can’t just lie to yourself about things already in existence.”