1
Sandra
Blood pulsed through my veins. They were here. I could feel them. My eyes snapped open to blackness. The screaming alarms began to echo and red glaring lights began flashing throughout the room. I jumped out of bed, and tied my curly, bulging hair in a ponytail. Throwing my bag over my shoulder, I darted into the hall not bothering to change out of my pajamas. Red also flashed through the halls as People dashed out of their rooms, crowding into the hall. They complained as they shoved and pushed their way towards the stairs. Most were just scientist and business employees who lived here at the institute. They knew as well I did that fire alarms here could only mean the worst. Never had there been a simple fire.
    “Sandra, is it them,” Melissa fought her way through the crowd towards me.
    She was also in her pajamas, and carrying a long metal staff, “Yes, they broke in. We’re being attacked.” I tried to yell over the alarms and panicking people.
    “From where?” asked Jason. His usual spiked up hair was flatten to one side. He was carrying a metal bat.
    I froze and concentrated on the pulsing through my veins. The sensation felt as if someone was tugging on several threads attach within my body.
    “On the top floor –”
    “My brothers,” Melissa shouted out.
    Their rooms were on the top floor.
    “Right, let’s go,” Jason said.
    The three of us dashed towards the direction, thrusting through everyone who was trying to exit the building through the elevator. Melissa and Jason followed as I went up the stairs–or tried, people rushed down the stairs, pushing and trampling over us. By the time we reached the top, everyone had receded down stairs or so we thought. Two eleven-year old boys shot out from one of the rooms in the hall and ran toward us.
    “Anthony, Miguel what happen?” Melissa asked her brothers.
    “Mongrels–they broke into the window in the hall,” Miguel said, frantically.  
    “Did you see how many there were?” Jason asked.
    Miguel shook his head. “We hid before we could see them?”
   “Warn mom and the others,” Melissa ordered them.
  “What about you guys?” Anthony asked, I could tell the difference between him and his brother from a small faded scar on his left cheek that he had gotten when he was a baby.
    “Don’t worry about us, just go… hurry” Jason urged.
    Reluctantly, the twin brown-haired boys ran down the stairs.
    We hastily walked down the hall to the conference hall, and I could feel the sensation growing stronger.
    “If we’re lucky, they’ll be only a few and not the whole group,” Melissa said.
  “And what fun would that be?” Jason said, enjoying the fact he would have the chance to fight in an actual battle. “We hardly get any drama around here.”  
  “The fun…when I can go back to sleep. It’s two thirty in the morning!” she said.
  “I can sense three,” I said.
  “That’s makes one for each of us,” Jason informed.
  “Unless you want to do all the work?” Melissa asked him.
  “Naw, one’s enough excitement for me.”
I glimpsed a large shattered window they had probably come through. “How did they get past the security and manage to climb the building?”
  “We have lousy security,” Melissa suggested, shrugging her shoulders.
The door to the conference hall was closed. Cautiously, Jason grasped the knob, ready to yank the door open.
  “Get ready,” he said.
Alerted, we stood in front of the door. Melissa’s silver staff melted and merged into a battle-axe, fit for her size. I had already pulled out my ten-pound bladed, sharp disk from my bag. Jason held a two-foot curved sword— once a metal bat—   in one hand.
I felt a force charging for us on the opposite side of the door.
  “Watch out!” I pulled Melissa and Jason away from the front of the doorway.
  An enormous six-foot tall, blood red lizard blasted through the shattered door. Chunks of wood exploded through the air, striking and causing us to duck.
    Two more mongrels shot through the room. One pounded on top of my chest, knocking the air out of me. The three-hundred pound mongrel nearly smashed my rib cage in. It had a huge body of a bear that was covered in radiating blue-green scales that looked like thorns and the head and jaws of a wolf. My disk flung from my hand and slid across the hall. Crushed, I tried to push the mongrel back with one hand. The bladed disk melted into a puddle of molten steel. As I lunged for it with my free hand, it rapidly snaked its way towards me. The wolf’s sharp teeth tore through the flesh of my arm. I screamed in pain as my arm felt as if it was on fire. I touched the molten steel, and it transformed into a steel spear. With the beast still gnawing on my arm, I stabbed it through with the spear. It cringed backwards as it howled in agony.
    I sprung to my feet. Lunging with my uninjured arm, I touch the ground. The spear slid across the ground, and returned to my grip.
   Lying on its side, the wounded mongrel began quivering and his thorn scales begin to slowly  submerged beneath his skins. What had been an enormous mongrel was now an unclothed, quivering boy about my age. He had golden-brown skin and short dark hair. He was bleeding badly near his abdomen where I had gored him. He stopped quivering and shut his eyes.
     He was dead. I had killed him.
   Guilt and anguish throbbed inside of me. I had fought mongrels before but never had I actually killed one. I had only helped hunt and detain them.
   Turning around, I glanced at Melissa and Jason in their own raging battles. Jason slashed at the ferocious bird beast creature, the mongrel seemed to be wearing down. Melissa hacked at her lizard mongrel.  It slammed her against the wall with its tail. I ran towards the beast, trying to avoid killing it, and aimed to pierce its leg, but something behind me yanked my spear from my grip. Before I could turn around, I felt something sharp pressing against the back of my neck.
    “Don’t move!” a boy warned.
   I swiftly turned and snatched the weapon into my hand, it was my weapon but it wasn’t a spear. The mongrel boy I stabbed stood in front of me, directing a sword towards my throat. His eyes were a vibrant silver, they looked almost unreal as I stared at them baffled, a dagger dangling from my hand.
    Somehow, I had merged the spear into a dagger and sword without realizing it.
    The boy stared at me shocked. “Who. . . Who are you!”
    I froze, even more confused. Why did he want to know who I was?
    “Wait!” The boy suddenly yelled.
   I thought he was shouting at me until someone grabbed me from behind, and covered my mouth and nose. I tried to jab my elbows into their flesh, but the horrible salty powder stuff was shoved down my throat. I felt myself become weary and fall against the wall. My vision was blurred.
    “Relax, it will just put her to sleep. It’s time to go. Here’s your robe,” said the mongrel boy who had grabbed me from behind and shoved the powder down my throat to the other mongrel boy with the silver eyes.
    “We have the scientist. We have to leave–now!” said an unfamiliar girl’s voice.
As my eyes closed, I glimpsed a blurry scene of them escaping through the shattered window.
XXX

Opening my eyes, I realized I was lying in bed in a bright white room. I was in the clinic. My arm and shoulder was bandaged and ached— actually everything hurt especially my head.  The clock on the wall notified it was two o’clock in the afternoon. I had missed my studies–like that was even important, now.
    “Hey, you okay?” Melissa asked. She sat in a chair beside me, fading cuts and bruises covered her body.
    “Sure, if you call feeling like you got hit by a bus being okay,” I said.
    She smiled. “Don’t worry, you’ll be good as new, tomorrow.”
     “Great, just what I needed—  home study. So where’s Jason?”
   “In his room, imprisoned to the bed– leg is fractured. He won’t be able to walk for some time.”
     I remembered her being rammed against the wall like a rag doll.
    “And what about you?” I asked her.
    “Fine, I guess . . . I have a slight headache—   ”
    “Ms. Rodriguez,” called a woman, waiting at the doorway, in a formal gray suit, carrying files. “Dr. Cleveland needs to see you.” 
     Reluctantly, she stood up. “I’ll be back.”
    “Don’t bother—  I’m probably going to check on Jason.”
    “Shouldn’t you just stay in bed?” She stared at me quizzically.
    “For what?” I said. “I’ll be healed in no time.”
    “If you say so,” she said and walked out the door.”
    I managed to get out of the bed and take the elevator down stairs. People stared at me, baffled.  I guess anyone would be confused if they saw a teenage girl wearing purple pajamas and a bandaged arm, walking through a major scientific foundation.
  I gently rapped on Jason’s door—  carefully not to wake him up if he was asleep.
  “The door is opened,” said a boy’s voice.
  I opened the door. Jason was lying in his bed looking at his sports magazine–leg bandaged in white cloth. He looked more bored than in pain.
 A few posters of his favorite sport teams scattered the wall in his room including cut out pages of basketball, football, and soccer magazines.
I sat in a chair next to his bed. “So how long do you have to be cooped up in here?”
  “A week.”
That was like three to five months for a natural human wound.
  “Explain everything?” I said, wondering what the heck happen to him while I was knock out on sleeping powder.
  “One of the mongrels in human form tried to escape down the window with Dr. Felix. When I tried to break the grip of the mongrel girl from him, two mongrels in their demon forms pounced on me, one shattered two bones in my leg. Next thing I know, my dad and some of the Coalitionist barged through the hallway, but most of the mongrels escaped through the window except one. The same mongrel girl who tried to take Dr. Felix –she’s caged in the cellar.”
  “So where’s Dr. Felix? Why did they try to kidnap him?”
  “Asleep, the mongrels drugged him with some kind of sleeping powder. And the reason they tried to kidnap him–we haven’t figured out yet.”
  All I knew about Dr. Felix is that he worked with Dr. Rodriguez. Before Dr. Rodriguez was the main doctor, after my parents died, I began having sleeping problems and headaches from the wreck. I would see Dr. Felix every month for checkups and shots until I was twelve because of my difficulties.
  “So what’s your story?” he said, glancing at my arm and bandaged shoulder.
  I thought about the mongrel boy who could have injured me with my own weapon because I had mistakenly merged my spear into a sword and dagger. He wanted to know who I was. Why?
  “What?” he said puzzled, when I didn’t answer him, lost in thought.
  “I was bitten by a mongrel and another drugged me.”
  “The same drug used on Dr. Felix?”  He asked.
  “Yeah, I’ll . . . talk to you later,” I said getting up.
   “Hey,” he said, gently grasping my wrist. “Whatever it is you can tell me.”
   “I know,” I weakly smiled at him. “I need to find it out on my own, first.”
  “Okay, just letting you know you don’t have to hide it,” he let go.
  I opened the door to my room and went into the bathroom. The mirror revealed a girl with almond-brown skin and dark brown eyes, a patched up arm, and a faded scar above her eyebrow—  probably from the piece of wood that hit me when the door exploded. My brunette, thick, curly hair locks escaped from a bunched up ponytail. I had cut my hair short once to make it more manageable, but that just made it more difficult to put in a ponytail or any hairstyle.
  I carefully removed the bandage from my arm; the wound had healed into a hideous scar. It looked about two weeks old.
  After I took a shower, I changed into some sweatpants and a t-shirt. I strained my long wet hair into a braided ponytail and tidied the shorter length of my hair with bobby pins. Refreshed, I lay with my back on the bed, and began rummaging through my thoughts.
   How was I going to tell Weldon about the incident with my weapon that had almost gotten me killed? I probably wouldn’t be able to go on any expeditions – unless he was convinced I could merge steel accurately, which meant a lot of training. And should I mention the mongrel boy who was so determined to find out who I was. It didn’t make sense why he would want my name, and he had to know I was merger. I had inherited the abilities of a merger from my parents.
My parents’ duty had been to track and detain the mongrels that attacked the institute. They had been murdered by mongrels. Fury throttled inside me. Mongrels were exactly what they were called; demonic mortals, a mortal that had demon genes which enable them to morph themselves into demons. They were violent and dangerous. For some reason, they had attacked the institute to kidnap one of the scientists.
    Someone rapped on the door.
    “It’s me—  Melissa.”
    I opened the door and I lay back down, she sat next to me.
    “Weldon and the rest of the Coalition wants to have a conference with us in about two hours,” she said.
    “Where is Weldon now?”
    “Down in the cellar, trying to get information from the mongrel girl. He’s been down there for hours.”
    “Has she said why they tried to kidnap Dr. Felix?”
    “I don’t know, they won’t let anyone in the cellar and no one has come out accept my mom and Dr. Cleveland. They’re the ones who told me to tell Jason and you when you woke up about the meeting in the conference room.”
    “I thought that part of the building had been wrecked,” I said, thinking about the smashed door, the shattered glass from the window, and the damage we had caused while combating.
    “Apparently, they found a quick way to repair it.”
    “Where are you going?” she asked when I headed for the door.
    “To talk to your mom or Dr. Cleveland about the mongrel girl.”
    Maybe the mongrel girl knew why her mongrel friend wanted to know who I was?
   “Too late. My mom and Dr. Cleveland left with my brothers to the institute to buy Jason a wheelchair, so he won’t have to be stuck in his room for so long,” she said.
    “I Guess I’m going to have to find out during the conference,” I said.
    “Yeah I know, I want to find out what’s happening too.”
   “What’s that?” I said looking at her arm, a dark-blue mark the size of a quarter, bruised her arm.”
    “Oh, this,” she said looking at her arm. “My mom had to inject me with vygon.”
    “What happened!” I asked shocked.
    The only reason we would take vygon–a supernatural medication drug–is when we couldn’t heal fast enough or if we were dying which we rarely used because it disabled us to merge metal for a long period of time.
    “Don’t be so dramatic. I had a small head injury.”
    “Don’t lie to me,” I said angrily and fretfully. “you wouldn’t have been injected with vygon if it wasn’t life threatening.”
    “Fine. When I was slammed into the wall, my skull had been fractured and my brain had been punctured. My body had entirely shut down for about an hour and they had to use vygon to revive me. I didn’t want to tell you, Jason, or my brothers because I knew you would freak out.”
    “Sorry–but I don’t want to lose you. I have already lost my parents– just don’t keep stuff like that to yourself,” I said gently.
    “It’s okay, I know how you feel. And I’ll try not to hide stuff from
you.” 
    She had also lost one of her parents.
    “I’ll be back for the conference, I’m going to rest a bit, although the vygon healed me, I only have off and on headaches.” she said.
    “I’m going to handcuff your hand to mine if I find out you’re not telling me the whole truth,” I Joked. “If we have to be together all the time then oh well.”
    “I like using the bathroom in private,” she laughed at me.
    “Then I bet you’ll think twice about keeping secrets from me,” I said.
    “Okay mother,” she mumbled and laughed as she walked out the door.
    “You act more like your mother than I do,”I shouted to her.
    She didn’t protest, she knew it was true.

2: Chapter Two

2

Sandra

I sat at a long table, a dozen chairs were set on each side, and a single chair was placed at the ends of the table. Jason sat in his wheel chair beside me and Melissa sat across from us as associates from the Coalition filled in the seats. The coalitionists that consist of mergers, magicians, scientist and politicians entered the conference room filling the unoccupied chairs. They had started a union to detain mongrels and protect people from their destruction. Jason, Melissa, and I had joined the Coalition as mergers at the age of twelve. If Anthony and Miguel chose, they would begin their training as mergers when they also turned twelve.

A man with short cropped black hair in a full black formal suit– Weldon–sat in one of the chairs at the end of the table, Dr. Rodriguez and Dr. Cleveland sat near him. Dr. Rodriguez’s black hair was in bun as she always wore it. Dr. Cleveland had pale blue eyes, her blonde ponytail ran down the mid of her back. We sat three chairs away from them.

Once everyone had found a place to sit, everyone grew quiet, and Weldon stood and began to speak.

“As you all know, the institute was attacked by an invasion of mongrels. They evidently know our location now, and they tried to abduct Dr. Felix. We haven’t resolved the situation, so until then we have made some critical decisions. The first is that we set out for more expeditions to trail and detain the mongrels until we can find a way to cure them of their transformations and violent, aggressive behaviors. We also agreed that it would be vital to transfer all merger trainees to Darnton’s Magician boarding school in Santa Fe, New Mexico–”

My heart skipped a beat.

Both Jason and Melissa tensed, confused and stunned.

“What–why!” Jason asked furiously.

“We decided it is too dangerous for you all and Anthony and Miguel to stay here,” Dr. Rodriguez said.

“How long are you sending us away?” Melissa asked her mom, her voice was calm but angry.

“Until we can determine the building is secure and there won’t be anymore mongrel raids.”

“You can’t! This is our home!” Jason said. “That could take weeks! Even months!”

“We are mergers.” I added. “We transform and control metal. We’re not magicians, we can’t summon and use magic. We were made to train and hunt for mongrels.”

“Precisely. You are trainees. You are not old enough or strong enough to battle.” Weldon said.

“We’ve always gone on expeditions to track mongrels,” Jason said “So why are you trying to get rid of us so suddenly, dad? This isn’t the first time mongrels have raided the institute.”

Weldon glared at his son. “You have always been observed and had guidance. This is different. You engaged in a battle and weren’t permitted to do so. You were all severely injured and Melissa almost died while in a comma. This is the best for all of you until we can find a solution for these violent beasts.”

Shocked, Jason gazed at Melissa, but she pretended not to notice him. Apparently, she hadn’t told him about her head injury.

“But we were trying to protect our home. And where were you and the merger security? Aren’t you supposed to be guarding and watching the building?”

Dr. Cleveland stood up. “The merger guards were drugged, but that doesn’t make it your duty to protect the institute. You are still just students here. You haven’t yet mastered your strengths or powers.”

Great. There was no way I was going to mention anything about my incident with merging steel metal, now.

“You will be transferred as soon as Jason recovers,” Dr. Cleveland continued. “You should begin to pack on your spare time.”

I didn’t argue, I knew it would be useless to try.

“The last but most vital decision is that we summon demons from the portal to track mongrels,” Weldon proclaimed. “the magicians are in control of that situation but we–”

Melissa interrupted him. “But demons are vicious and dangerous, their worse than mongrels! Why not let Sandra track them, she can sense and detect them far better.”

As much as I wanted him to agree with her I knew he wouldn’t.

“There is only one of her, we will be scavenging all the states,” he proclaimed sternly. “also, she can only detect them in their demon formations, we need to find them before they morph.”

I couldn’t stay to listen to the rest. How could they send us away? The institute had practically been the only home I had; I had very few memories of the home I had lived in before I had moved to the institute. Everyone was like family here to me, and for me to have to leave it was like losing another home and family. Even if they summoned demons to hunt for the mongrels, that would take years to detain them all. Why were we trained to fight them if we weren’t permitted to battle them. Nothing made sense to me.

I stood up. “Since you have made your decisions, and being a trainee I have no choice in the matter,” I said enraged. “I will leave you to the conference and get some rest before we have to be transferred from the home and family I was adopted into and for the second time forced to leave and loose everything again.”

The room was silent, I walked out the room and slammed the door, not caring what anyone thought.

I lied on the bed in the dark room and sulked, I knew it wouldn’t do any good but make me feel worse. I could feel agony clawing its way inside of me. I smothered my face in my pillow. I hated them! I hated all mongrels! They had murdered both my parents, and they had murdered Jason’s mom and Melissa’s dad. If they had never raided the institute, we would never have had to leave.

Someone rapped on the door. I Ignored it.

“C’mon, Sandra.” Jason begged. “We need to talk to you, open the door . . . Please?”

“I know how you feel, Sandra, we all feel the same,” Melissa added.

I lifted my head from the pillow and reluctantly, walk over to open the door. Melissa came in with Jason rolling through in his wheel chair, behind her.

“I’m fine,” I said. “so what do we need to talk about?”

“Here,” she said, handing me a sword and a dagger–the same from the merging incident that had almost gotten me killed.

Instead of taking them, I just stared at the weapons confused and bemused.

“Are you okay?” Melissa stared at me quizzically. “Weldon told me to return them to you.”

“Yes– I mean no. Why give us our weapons if we won’t be training anymore. Their kicking us out, right?

“Yes, but just for a while,” Melissa said sitting on my bed.

“Which means ‘till we graduated,” Jason said.

“We don’t know that,” Melissa protested. “maybe the demons will be able to hunt them all down, they’re faster and can detect mongrels far better than mergers.”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “even with the demons tracking the mongrels down. It took the last mergers a year and a half to find the last mongrels that broke into the institute four years ago. This is about hunting them all, there are hundreds of them by now, they might as we’ll put us in a foster home.”

“That’s pretty much what they’re doing,” Jason said. “I don’t know about you two, but I’m not going to the magician boarding school. There is no way I’m going to be stuck in a school where all we do is study spells and magic that we can‘t even understand and use. We’re not little kids we should be able to have a say in this and make our own decisions, so I’m ditching the institute before we even–“

“Wait, you–we can’t just– what about Anthony and Miguel, we need to think about it first before we do anything,” Melissa blurted out.

“I agree with Jason,” I said “and as for Anthony and Miguel, we’ll have to–”

“What about us?” Antony and Miguel burst through the door.

“Might as well tell them too, they’re included in this,” Jason implied.

“No, not now,” Melissa Protested.

“Tell us what?” Anthony asked.

“They’ll probably find out sooner or later,” Jason urged on.

“Tell us already, we’ll just find out from mom anyway,” Miguel demanded.

“Fine,” Melissa gave in. “mom, the magicians, the mergers and the rest of the scientists, have decided to send us to a magician school in New Mexico.

“Why?” the twins exclaimed in unison.

“They think we’ll be safer there,’’ Jason said. “but I think otherwise, we’re surround by the best and advanced people who know how to capture and detain mongrels.

“That’s what I thought too,” I said. “until the mongrels evaded the institute, but that doesn’t mean they have to send us away. It’s not our fault that the building wasn’t secure.”

“Yeah,” Jason added. “but instead they’re accusing us for fighting the mongrel off, when the guards were drugged and there was no one else to protect the building.”

“I agree,” Melissa said. “but I don’t think running away or abandoning the magician school will resolved the situation we’re in; I think it will make it worse. I mean where will we go, how will we manage to survive on our own. Precisely, we can’t.”

I hated to break it to myself but she was right. We had no money, transportation, or plans to where or how we would live. The idea was absurd even if we would be imprisoned in a magician boarding school for months.

“So what do you suggested Melissa, we let them send us…” Jason paused, when someone knocked on the door.

“Come in,” I said .

A woman in a gray formal suit, stood at the door, and everyone stared at her, waiting for her message.

“Excuse me,” she stared at me, “the administrator wants to have a word with you in his office.”

I nodded, and the woman hastily walked down the hall probably busy with other duties.

“I guess we’ll talk to you later, then.” Melissa said and walked out the room, the twins and Jason following behind.

Great! Weldon was the last person I wanted to see.

I walked into Weldon’s office, not caring to knock. He sat in his leather armchair, his attention stolen by the computer on his desk.

“You wanted to speak with me?” I said rudely, crossing my arms.

“Yes,” he looked up from the computer screen and sighed. “I know sending you and the others away will cause all of you a lot a pain, especially for you but–”

“But you don’t care,” I interrupted his sentence. “as long as we don’t end up in your way or hurting ourselves.”

He gazed at me, genuinely apologetic. “You are wrong, me and the others are only trying keep you safe by sending you to a more secure location.”

“So why now? Since I could remember dangers been around me and the other merger trainees; we’ve even fought mongrels in combat during the summer expeditions.”

“You know why,” he said sternly, staring at me.

I stare back at my adopted father. “Really? Because I don’t think I have a clue,” I said walking towards the door.

“Sandra, wait. I didn’t send for you so we would argue.”

I Turn around and folded my arms. “So why did you send for me?”

“The reason the mongrels invaded the institute is that they were trying to find out how we’re capable in locating and tracking them down. They found out that one of us has the ability to trace them.

My eyes shot open. “The mongrel girl told you this?”

Weldon shook his head.

“Unfortunately, she hasn’t said a word, we can’t seem to get any information from her for now she’s too stubborn and vicious.

“So how do you know?”

“Dr. Felix explained they tried to force him to tell who had the ability to trace them before he was drugged.”

“Did he?”

“No, me and the rest of the league raided on them before anything could be revealed. Now, do you see Sandra why we must send you and the others to a more secure location?”

“But they don’t know I’m the one that can trace them and how does this involve Jason, Melissa, Anthony, and Miguel leaving as well…”

I felt my whole body tense and my breathing began to slow because I realized I had put my friends and I in danger.

That’s why I couldn’t sense them at first; they hadn’t morphed until they had already invaded the building. They only morphed and concealed themselves in the conference hall because they knew the one who could sense them would locate them – me, but Melissa and Jason had been with me. The other mongrels that had taken Dr. Felix hostage were just a decoy to distract the league and the rest of the coalition.

“So they know–”

“That it is possible you, Jason, and Melissa are suspects to have the capability to trace and locate them. You are their main targets, now.”

“And Miguel and Anthony?” I inquired.

“Their no longer safe here either, furthermore, just sending you three instead of all the merger trainees would probably make the mongrels more suspicious of one of you being the sensor of their presence. Sandra, you are my adopted daughter and Jason is my son and Melissa and her brothers are like my adopted family as well, I will not let harm come to any of you. That’s why I can’t let any of you stay here or join the expeditions; it would only put you in more danger.”

“Why didn’t you tell us earlier in the conference hall?”

“It’s not for me to tell,” he said.

It made sense now why the boy wanted to know who I was. I felt sick to my stomach, because I would have to tell them. It was my fault. I had led us straight into a trap.

Someone rapped on the door. “Weldon we need you in the cellar.”

Weldon hastily got up from his chair and trotted towards the door, but he glance at me before he left and predicted what I was thinking.

I must of looked pretty pitiful because he sighed and said sympathetically, “Sandra listen to me, they fooled us all so don’t blame yourself.”

I gazed at him as he walked out the door to take care of business and left me isolated in the room.

I felt useless. The secret gift I had to trace and sense mongrels had now been revealed to my worst enemy. Though the mongrels probably didn’t know which one of us could perceive their aura, that just made it worse, I rather have the mongrels know it was me rather than put Melissa and Jason in danger as well. How did they find out that there was even a sensor? Had someone told them or did they find out on there own? On top of that I still didn’t know how I had merged my steel spear inaccurately. I knew I had made a mistake in merging steel but that wasn’t the problem. I never made mistakes with merging steel– until now.

After getting my thoughts together, I went to my bedroom and lied down on the bed, thinking some more. It was pretty clear, the only reason we were all in trouble was that the mongrel clan didn’t know which one us was the true sensor: the one who could sense their presence and whereabouts.

Two days ago I wouldn’t have had to worry about any of this, especially with the maximum security, which must not have been so “maximum” since the mongrels manage to break into the institute. Melissa and Jason had almost died, and if the mongrels broke into the institute again they would be sure to succeed in killing us. The thought made me sick. They had already murdered my mother and father I wouldn’t let them murder my family again. So I made my decision, only one of us had to leave.