“Thank you,” he says, lifting his head, looking at me.
“No problem. You want me to help you lift some weights?”
“Sure,” he says. His tone is more cheerful, but it doesn’t reflect in his mourning eyes.
Chapter Thirty-Five
After dinner, I head home to shower. I’m happy. Really happy. Too happy. I feel like skipping to my room, but I repress that urge and casually walk there with a smile. Please let this be perfect, and please don’t let any Zombies be present or coyotes or anything to ruin our moods. And let him be willing to do what I ask him to blindly walk into.
It’s seven, not nine. The minutes are taking too long to pass. I sit on my bed after throwing on a plain white shirt and blue jeans.
“Ky?” Collins knocks on my door.
No, not tonight. “Not right now, Collins. I’m not in the mood for you right now.” My happiness slowly dwindles, being replaced with disgust.
“Come on, Ky.”
I open the door. “I’m serious Collins, not tonight. Talk to me tomorrow.”
“I just wanted to let you know that I talked to Luke, Jord, and Seits. I’m in.”
I purse my lips and question, “What are you talking about?” She shoves past me, entering my room. I roll my eyes, closing the door. She is out to ruin my life. Has to be.
“Invading the enemy’s realm,” she whispers and shrugs. “I’m in.”
Oh, yeah. I’m supposed to be convincing Marc of that too. I wanted to talk about everything but Vojin tonight. I don’t want to make it seem like I’m doing all of this to try to persuade him to fight with me. I do want him to, but that’s not why I’ve set up tonight.
“Okay, Collins. Thanks for telling me.” I grab the doorknob. “Now can you leave?”
“You know, Ky,” she starts with a mischievous smile. “If you aren’t able to convince Marc to come with us, I can.”
“Saying things like that, Collins, is what gets you shot in your face,” I say with a plastered smile. Pulling the door open, I add, “Now please get out.”
She laughs. “I’m just letting it be known. If you can’t handle Marc, I can definitely tame that beast.”
I kick my foot against her ass, shoving her the rest of the way out of my room. She twists around, and I slam the door in her face. I hear her giggle, trotting down the hall.
My door’s ripped open, and Luke barges in. “If you are going to say words that start with V, C, or S, I don’t want to hear it.”
He gives me a contemplative side-eye. “I think one of my words has an S.” He shrugs. “Maybe another has a C.”
I laugh. “What Luke? And close the door.”
He does and says, “I talked to Collins. That’s the one with the C. And she, that’s the one with the S, is in.”
“I know. She told me. And I don’t want to talk about that right now. You feel better?”
He rubs the back of his head and nods. “A little. That was a nice couple of days off.”
“It was. The beds were fantastic, and the hot water lasted longer than it does here.”
“Carden offered you placement there?”
“I think that’s what he was doing. But that’s not how he said it. He said it like I had a choice between being a Creation and something else. I told him that was impossible, and he responded there was going to be a change. Maybe something he’ll implement.”
“Yeah, when he gets his position, he’s going to make an offer to the leaders of Separation. Oh, sorry, that’s another S. But he wants them to have a choice after they reach the age of twenty-one or thirty to choose if they want to stay in Separation or not. Look, I’m sorry. I can’t, see, I can’t not say,” he shakes his head, rolling his eyes, “a word with a S, C and uh...”
“A V. It’s okay. I broke my own rule. What are you about to do? This conversation can be talked about later because who knows if we are even going to see nineteen.”
“Nothing. Go check on a couple of things. You?”
“Nothing. Go talk to Marc in a bit.”
“Don’t forget you need to get his answer as soon as possible. We have the weapons, ammunition, and we need those two to complete us. After we get their okay, we plan our mission.”
I hold in my grumble. “I got it, Luke.” I’ll ask him tomorrow, unless he brings it up. “Oh!” I get up and check the hall before I say, “Carden is creating new Creations.” I lift my palm before him. “Their circles were colored green.”
“Why?”
“He wants to bring them up differently than us. Make them more human than mindless killing machines. But I think he now knows that we aren’t mindless killing machines of our own accord.”
“Were their eyes black like ours before we got the vaccine?”
“Don’t know. They were sleeping.”
A strange look comes over Luke’s face. “Oh shit, Ky! I spaced, too much booze! Don’t leave. I’ll be right back.” Luke races from my room and quickly returns. “Look.” He closes the door behind him.
He holds a torn sheet of paper with the same scribbled handwriting as the letter I received months ago. I slap my hand against the side of his head. “How could you forget to tell me about this?”
“Ow!” He punches my arm. “Too much to drink, I said! Check it out.” He points as he reads. “They were inserted as result in further experimentation. Unexpectedly, they were accepted as part of the Vojin’s plan. Being brought back to earth as implants for Breeders in Separation. The experiment brought forth unknown information of the Vojin’s threat before the threat was initiated…”
“Hold on.” I lift my gaze to the empty wall of my bedroom, recalling, “That’s what that Trade member said.”
“Check this out.” He points further down where the words are clearer. “The more concrete question is who implanted them in the Trade…”
“What…?” I ask, jumping to my feet.
Tapping the paper, Luke nods. “This is bigger than we thought, Ky.”
“Who were our parents?”
“What were our parents?”
“What are we?” Not exactly Vojin? Not exactly human? Not exactly Creations?
Luke rubs the back of his neck. “Last time I checked, I was a Creation.”
“Me too.” I nod. “But by how much?”
“Every ounce of us is Creation. Don’t think anything different.”
“What if they know about us? What if that light thing mom mentioned once actually means something?”
Luke’s hand clamps down over my mouth. “Shut up. Don’t speak about that. Don’t think it. You know better,” he hushes me.
I roll my eyes, pushing him away from me. “I wanted a night where I didn’t need to focus on this! I wanted to stay away from words like Creations, Separation, Vojin, Trade, implant,” I complain.
“Welcome to Separation, Kylie, where as a Creation, you are now obligated to battle against Vojin and implants as ordered by the Trade.” He smiles. “Now watch your mouth and never bring up what Mom said again.”
“Thanks for nothing, Luke.” I punch his chest. It’s not like he nor I know anything about it. Except one day when mom grabbed our hands, the night before she and dad were murdered, and said, “There’s a light within you two that someone will want one day. Protect each other and let no one steal it away.” We never heard another thing about it after that. So we never bring it up because we don’t know if it’s incriminating.
“Good. I’ll see you later.”
No, he won’t, but I don’t want to continue our talk. He leaves, and not thirty seconds after he closes the door, it opens.
“I’m not waiting until a quarter to nine,” Marc says, closing the door behind him. He crosses the floor to me and stands near my bed.
I smile and push away all thoughts except this night I plan to experience with him. “Very impatient you are, Marcain.”
“Yes, I am.” He sits on my bed. “You were also gone for a while. I missed your voice.” He waves me over.<
br />
Giddily, I go and kiss him without him asking or trying to kiss me first. He leans back, and we lie across my bed, me straddling his legs.
I clutch his shirt tightly in my fist, holding myself back from getting too deep into his kiss. Warmth blossoms in my chest, making my nerves erratic. His hand slips beneath my shirt and rubs over the part of my hips that dip in from my muscles. He tugs me closer.
I kiss his neck. “You are special.”
“You too,” he says as his rough hands scrape over my back, inching up to my neck and back down.
I lean away. “You want me to show you what I got?”
“Is it better than you?”
I smile. “Maybe.”
“Nothing is better than you.”
“If it enhances me, it might be.”
He turns down the corners of his mouth and shrugs. “What’ve you got?”
I climb off the bed and gesture for him to do the same, saying. “Stand up and face the wall. Don’t look until I say.”
He gets up without question and faces the wall. I quickly shuffle through the drawer where the dress is neatly folded so it wouldn’t wrinkle. I grab the dress and the shoes I put next to it. I quickly change and slip on the shoes. Going to the window in my room, I use the reflection as a mirror to see if I look okay. Today I wore my hair in two French braids so it will be wavy when I let it loose. I unbraid them and comb my fingers through my long hair. It waves past my shoulders to the middle of my back and came out just the way I hoped.
My hands shake as I stare at the beautiful girl looking back at me. I’m so far out of my comfort zone, trading my suit and boots for this gorgeous dress and flats. I hope he thinks it’s cute.
Going back to the middle of the floor, I stand a few feet behind him. I breathe and say, “Okay, turn around.”
He peeks over his shoulder, and his hooded eyes open wider as he turns around. He grins brightly. My dress is almost the same purple of his eyes, and it fits me perfectly.
“That dress is amazing, Kylie,” he says in his heavy rasp.
I look down over the dress. “You like it?”
He crosses the floor, picks me up by my waist, and spins us around. “You look amazing.” Placing me back down, he adds, “And your legs are phenomenal.”
I swallow the giggle but can’t stop blushing. “This is part one of three.”
He’s reaching up to grab me but stops midway. “Part one of three?”
Going back to the dresser, I pull out his clothes. “Okay, I didn’t know what size you wear, so I got you three of the same things in different sizes.” I lay the clothes out on my bed. “I had to describe you to the sales associate, and she said one of these should work.”
He comes up behind me, first touching my sides, then wrapping his hands around my middle. “What made you do all this? And what’s part three?”
“We were talking about it, so I went out to buy it. It’s amazing, right?” I spin around on my toes and face him. My cheeks warm as my smile grows wider when I see the delight in his eyes.
He shoves his hand through his hair, smile growing wider than mine. “It is, Ky.”
“Pick which one is your right size. And go change. You will, unfortunately, have to wear boots because there was no way I could guess the size of your feet.”
“It’s fine,” he says, looking at the first outfit I laid out. “You wanted to get the things we talked about?”
“Especially the dress.”
He picks up the second outfit and shows it to me. “This is my size.”
“Great! Don’t be seen because we can’t let anyone see us leave in these clothes.”
“Can you tell me how you plan on pulling all of this off?”
I bounce on my toes, and let my widest, brightest grin break through. “A lot of nervous jitters, some help from Seits, and your cooperation.”
He kisses my cheek. “You have my cooperation. You have whatever you want from me as long as you’re standing here in this dress.”
I press my palms together and fight my overgrowing grin. “Even better.”
“What are you going to do with the other clothes?”
I shrug. “I don’t know yet, but it’s not my concern right now.”
He nods and leaves my room. I look back in the window to see what he sees when he looks at me. I’m blushing; even my arms are red. But he liked it. Yay! He liked it!
After ten minutes pass, I leave to his room. I knock and wait for an answer.
“Yeah?”
“It’s just me,” I tell him, walking in.
He spreads his arms out to his sides and does a three-sixty. “Do I look as nice as you?”
Marc looks phenomenal no matter what he has on. He could wear a chicken suit with feathers scattered about his head, and I’d think he’d look great. Nevertheless, he does look nice out of his suit, t-shirts, and hooded sweatshirts. “Yes. Handsome, with your long hair waving around like that.” His hair sweeps his shoulders and blankets his neck. He shoves his fingers through it, pushing the strands from his face.
“You want to touch it?” he asks when he is closer to me.
“Yes.” I push my hands past his ears. His hair’s so soft, slipping between my fingers. As I make it to the back of his head, he moves in closer. I retract until my back is to the door, and his body is pressed to mine. Marc comes in for a kiss, but I press my index finger against his lips, holding him back. “This is not a part of our mission,” I whisper, fighting the temptation.
“Right.” He puts a little distance between us. “I’m excited to see what is. Go ahead, I’ll be right behind you.”
I leave his room.
The hall is quiet, and the lights are out. After he comes out, we sneak from the house, and I stop on our stoop, sickened by the red dirt covering every inch of everything.
“What’s wrong?”
“My shoes will get dirty, and my feet will be covered in dirt.”
He scoops me up in his arms. “No longer a problem. Now, where are we going?”
“You are awesome, Marc.”
“And you are heavy. You want to tell me?”
“To the smaller rec hall, Prince Charming. I saw a princess say that in a movie once when a man held her like this.”
“I bet.” He starts forward, saving my shoes from the dirt. “I hope we don’t get attacked by Zombies.”
“Me too, because I’m not armed.”
“I am, but I can’t reach my gun.”
“We’ll be fine.” I hope.
He walks us to the smaller rec hall, and Seits has our table set with plates and glasses. She’s not in here, thankfully. “This is half of part three,” I tell him. “You are really going to love this part.” I pull him to the table, and we sit in front of a plate, silverware, and glasses. “Alright. I’ve never had a Chicago-style Polish, but Seits knew what I was talking about. We got everything, even the mustard. And white shakes!” I cheer.
Marc holds my hand resting atop the table. “You in the business of making dreams come true, Ky?”
“No.” I frown. “I don’t have grass, sneakers, or the path by the water.”
“What you have is good enough. You made something out of nothing, and I wasn’t expecting any of this in this dump.”
One of the cooks sets a plate with the Chicago-style Polishes on the already placed plates, and from a pitcher, he pours our shake in only one of the glasses. He gives us two straws.
After he leaves, I say, “I’m happy you’re enjoying it.”
“What’s the second half of part three?”
I smile. “You will see after you get me smelling like onions.”
“If I didn’t like surprises, I would have a problem with your secrets.”
“Eat your food so we can move on. But don’t rush, these moments can last all night.”
“Are we sharing your vanilla shake?”
Laughing, I nod. “Yep! Our white shake is being shared.” I separate the straws so one is fac
e him too.
Again today, he gazes at me with brimming happiness. Marc’s eyes are lighter, and his cheeks are lifted. “I really like seeing you this free and light-hearted.”
He nods and looks away. We eat our food and drink our shake. The cook refills it, and we finish the second one over small talk and laughs.
Standing, I pull him from his seat. “I do not enjoy smelling like onions,” I tell him.
He wipes his mouth, coming with me. “You’ll be fine. It’s just me.”
“You need to pick me back up because we are leaving here.”
“To where?”
“The auditorium hall.”
“A movie?”
“Something like that.”
He picks me up and quietly walks us to the hall. It’s peaceful outside, no snarls or blazing gunshots.
As Seits advised, she removed the roof. On the stage are blankets and pillows Seits laid out earlier. We climb the stairs and walk to center stage.
“Wow, Ky,” Marc admires Seits’s work.
I pull him to sit with me, and I gesture up at the starlit sky. “Now,” I begin, “we have to talk about birds and fish. Surfing and snowboarding. Hang gliding and skydiving. And hold hands while we sweep each other away from Separation.”
Marc continues to admire our venue, tone awed and light as he asks, “Seits helped you do all this?”
“Yeah, she was really nice about it.”
“That’s so cool. Thank you for putting all this together.”
“Anything you want to talk about?”
“No. I’m speechless.”
“We can lie here in silence. I get the room for three hours. Then our date night is over, and we go home, back into our lives of Separation, where you don’t date, or love, or have someone other than your twin you care about.”
“Hmmm, Ky.” I scoot closer to him, resting my head on his shoulder. “You are special.”
“I only try with you.”
The Separation Trilogy Box Set: Books 1 -3 Page 57