“I’m sorry. I meant no offense.” He tilts the box toward me, and I shake my head. I’ve never been a fan of sweets, with the exception of a vanilla shake here and there. “I’ll find out what your favorite snacks are soon enough. Pardon me for asking, however…before, were you involved with Marcain the Creation?”
The lights dim, and the screen flickers, a picture slowly coming into view. I whisper, “Why is this information relevant?”
“We’re the only two here, you can speak in a regular tone.” He doesn’t give me the chance to respond as he continues. “I understand you may not want to answer at this moment, but I will need to know before we tie the knot.”
My head jerks back a bit. “Tie the knot?”
Carden crosses his right leg over his knee and slouches a bit into his chair. “You are considering staying, correct?” He’s dropped his political persona, muscles relaxing in his face, relieving me from the smile that lives on his mouth. He looks at me with more seriousness, and I finally feel like I can take him seriously.
I breathe easier, also slouching a bit. “I’ve not decided yet.”
“What is keeping you from making a decision?” He shakes a few round candies into his hand and tosses them into his mouth, one by one. “If you stay,” he says, chewing, “our union won’t be immediate. I’m not exactly in a position to court you yet, with the events happening across the America. However, it will happen. You will be my consort.”
I narrow my eyes, though keeping my gaze fixed on the screen. “This is an obligation if I stay?”
“I will not force you into it. I will wait for you to be ready. Yes, it is a future responsibility. But I do not intend for it to be looked upon as an obligation, Kylie. Though Creations were brought up to ignore emotions and feelings, I will be able to help you open your mind to emotions of affection and intimacy. I will teach you human reactions so it will appear natural until you get it all down.”
My trigger finger twitches. These people and their assumptions. Open my mind to affection and intimacy? I scoff. Teach me human reactions? What a moron. “I think I can teach you some things as well.”
“Fantastic. I love learning,” he cheers. “So you’ll love me before we take our vows.” He tosses more candy into his mouth. “Oh, love is—”
“I know what love is, Carden. I’m not a robot.”
He chortles. “I realize this.” Under his breath, he adds, “But can you imagine how much better Creations would be if they were?” Tensing in his seat, he looks at me. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. All I mean is, it’s easier to give commands to a computer than it is to force your way on Creations. Their design is complex.”
I dart my gaze to him from the corner of my eye then back to the screen. “Whatever you say.”
“Obviously, we don’t love each other yet. Because love isn’t something you come upon. You grow into it.”
I don’t believe that. Being a Creation restricted from affectionate feelings, I know love is something dropped down on you when you least expect it. It’s definitely something you stumble upon and can’t make sense of. It’s unexpected. It’s irrational. It’s unpredictable. It is something that I hate and I…love.
“I feel like I’m doing a lot of talking and not really getting much from you, Kylie.”
I clear my throat and shift uncomfortably in my seat. “I am, um, just soaking up everything you’re saying.”
“Well, Kylie. I just want to be honest with you. I’ll need you to give me the opportunity to help you get comfortable here, and I can’t do that if you leave today. If you wouldn’t mind staying at least a couple of weeks, see how you like it here. See the town. You may like it. And then, after each business day is over, you and I can spend time together, getting to know each other better.”
“You can just send for me. I don’t have to stay here to become more acquainted.”
Carden sits up and leans over on his knees. “What’s to say when you go back, there will still be a you for me to send for?”
“I’m a fighter.”
“You’re a human,” he states, sincerely, “with beautifully colored eyes. If anything happens to you, that’s it. And I’ll miss you. I’ll miss out on getting to really know you and whatever a future with you could’ve held. Maybe the issue here is that I’ve never actually conversed with a Creation on a personal level, sitting side by side, enjoying chocolate-covered raisins, and a movie. Maybe I don’t know how to relate to you. Yet. Give me that chance to understand, to know you better. Stay here. Please?” I stand, and he adds, “Sorry if it feels like I’m pressuring you.”
I stuff my thumbs into my jean pockets. “You are pressuring me.”
He rises too. “I just don’t want you to leave and something bad to happen to you on your way home. Then I’ll never see you again.”
“Don’t worry about that. With or without my twin, I got this.” I pat his shoulder. “You’ll know I stayed if you see me tomorrow. Bye, Carden. Thanks for the movie.” I climb over the railing and jump down.
“It’s not even over yet,” Carden yells behind me.
I land hard and wave behind me as I head out of the cinema.
My intentions were to gather more details from Carden about the transition and possibly inform him that I’ll be sticking around. The problem is, while I know I’ll have eyes on me while I’m here, being a consort to someone does make me feel more like property than a Creation. How much free time will I have to myself? The last thing I want is to be Carden’s wife, to tie the knot, or like Seits said, be a sidekick. But my options are limited. I don’t know another way to get my answers.
Chapter Fifteen
“Hey. Can we talk for a minute?” Collins is standing next to the door when I exit the cinema.
I point over my shoulder. “Did you follow me here?”
“Kind of. I just need a minute,” she says as I continue past her. Last night, and in so many words, Marc told me I was wrong for being so hard on Collins, that I should let bygones be bygones.
I pinch my lips as I release a breath. She doesn’t deserve that courtesy, but I give her the floor. “Fine, Collins. What do you want?”
“You’re the closest I’m going to get to apologizing to Luke, and I owe him that.”
Anger warms my neck, and I bite down hard on my bottom lip. The words cut from me, hissing past my teeth. “Don’t you dare speak my brother’s name, Collins. Not one peep.”
“Calm down, Kylie. You’re always so revved up, always so damn angry. Look at me.” She steps back twirls on her toes. “I’m like you now. Take a good damn look. Just like you don’t have a twin, neither do I. The way you wanted it.”
“Collins,” I grumble. “Get out of my way. If it weren’t for you, we’d both have our twins.”
“I did what was best for me and Cecilia,” she fires back.
“I noticed.” I half shrug. “What is it that you want from me? Forgiveness? Count yourself lucky to be standing in front of me and I’ve not decapitated you.” I head down the hall, refusing to explain anything to her. I don’t owe her an explanation. She and Marc could have included us in their dilemma, and we all could’ve figured it out together. But they chose to keep that secret, and maybe they thought that was the best option, but that shows they didn’t trust us.
Collins shouts behind me, “You’re so damn stubborn and selfish, Kylie. The real enemy is out there, and you’re mad at us!”
“I’m mad at the world, Collins. Don’t feel special.”
Jord, Seits, Marc, Sean, and Arletta enter the hall from the lobby, coming in our direction. I halt when their eyes fall on me and their narrowed glances sober. It’s evident they’ve been looking for me.
Jord begins, “We are preparing to leave. You all should be getting ready. The cargo has been loaded and we have enough artillery to take on anything that tries to attack us when we land back in Arizona. Does everyone have everything they need?” He looks Collins and I over before shifting his gaze
to Marc and Sean, nodding.
Arletta is staring at me. Her red-smeared eyelids sit low over her gray eyes as she surveys me. Seits is also eyeing me, her fixed gaze a lot more pronounced with her brows pulled taught and her eyes narrowed. The slight shine in her purple eyes, though, brings a little comfort. She holds a small duffel bag in her left hand, and the right is balled into a fist that’s propped on her hip. They both await my final decision. Do I stay and find out what the hell has been going on for the past eighteen years of my life? Or do I go off to war and fight this threat with the Creations?
Everyone but me has responded to Jord. I swallow uneasily and wipe my sweaty palms over my pant legs. Drawing my shoulders back and straightening my neck, I say, “I’m not going back,” sternly and confidently so I’m not questioned on my decision.
“What?” Marc says, stunned. The duffel bag once clutched in his hand falls to the floor.
Seits leans over and whispers in Jord’s ear. His pad falls, and the pen in his free hand snaps. As she concludes her reveal, she leans away from him, gaze still locked on me. Jord nods once and pins his gaze on me also. His tone is firm and authoritative when he says, “Kylie.” He pauses and the muscles in his face tighten. “You want to give up your position to stay here and become a—” his face contorts, twisting angrily as if the word boiled his insides and was about to spew up his throat and from his mouth, “—a goddamn sidekick?”
“I beg your pardon,” Arletta cuts in. “Kylie is of as much value here as she is with you,” she says peacefully.
“I am not staying to become consort to Carden although I understand this may come in the future.”
“Ky,” Marc cuts me off. “What are you saying?” he asks in a tremulous, croaky voice. He’s used this voice once before, and I wasn’t able to place the feeling then, but now I am. The muscles in his face are relaxed, and his dark hair sweeps his shoulders. We’d have to be alone for me to see his true expression, but his tone is enough to tell me I’ve deceived him with this news.
Looking away from him, I say to Jord, “I’m staying here. If the offer still stands,” I say to Arletta.
Her shoulders rise, and she gives me a single clap as she shrieks, “Of course.” A grin takes over her face. “Carden will be so pleased when he hears the news.”
I give her a small smile. “I’ll tell him, if that’s okay.”
“Oh, a surprise,” she sings. “My son is a joy for surprises. Please find me after you two have spoken. Well, if he doesn’t find me first!” She bellows a laugh, throwing her head back and holding her stomach. “Carden is quite infatuated with you, Kylie Alexander.”
I’m unsure why the news is so entertaining, but I smile and nod, because that’s what a human would do instead of staring at her like she’s off her rocker as the Creations around us are doing.
“Kylie,” Marc says from behind me. “Let me talk to you.”
Arletta taps my arm. “I will let you all talk. Excuse me.” She trots down the hall, back the way they came.
I turn my attention to Marc. “We already talked about this last night.”
“You can’t stay here,” he says.
“Actually,” I retort, “I can.”
“You can’t. I won’t let it happen.”
Collins smacks her lips and rolls her eyes. “She doesn’t want to stay. She’s just doing it to get back at you. She’s a vengeful bitch.”
I step toward Collins, and Jord’s arm shoots out between us and pushes me back.
“I know what she’s doing,” Marc says. “You don’t have to do this, Ky. I get it. I swear I do. You don’t have to stay here and marry this guy you don’t know at all just to get back at us. Yes, it stings like a bitch, but in the end, you’re hurting yourself. You’re hurting all of us.”
I shake my head and offer Marc a soft smile. “My decision has nothing to do with any of you.” But I see how it can be perceived that way. After the recent events, I would assume I’m running away from my problems too if I were on the outside looking in. And if I were to tell them the entire truth, they, too, would want to stay. I can’t have that. They would get in my way and be an unneeded distraction.
“Kylie?” I face Jord, and he says, “You have considered all your options here, and you are certain this is what you want to do?”
As my general, he’s right to double check, to give me the options available and ensure I’m making the right decision, but he can’t talk me out of this. “Yes, sir. I’m staying.”
Marc grabs me by the muscles of my upper arms and pulls me down the hall, away from everyone. He tucks us behind a gold pillar, out of sight from our group, but in plain sight if someone were to come down this end of the hall that opens to another area of the building. His back is to the hall, and with his height and him standing directly in front of me, it’s hard to see anything but him.
“Please, Ky. Come back with us. Don’t stay here.”
“I’ve already told them I’ll stay, Marc. I can’t change my mind now.”
“Yes, you can!” His brows tug together, and sorrow steals his sober eyes. “I’m begging you, Kylie. I’ll get down on my hands and knees if I have to.”
“I,” I stammer, fighting the truth. “I’m doing it. I warned you last night that I wasn’t going back.”
Marc cuffs my cheek, and I bite my lips and lock my knees to contain the feebleness that travels over my body. His free hand moves to my side and grabs me for support as if he knows I crumble at his touch. “I’ll miss you, Ky. There will be no more of this.” Magnetically, our lips align, and he kisses me hard and long. I exhale against his mouth, never wanting to break away and hating that I’ll have to. Marc’s forehead presses to mine. It takes me a minute to open my eyes as I push down the growing burn working its way up my stomach to my throat.
I pant, clutching his sides.
“Open your eyes,” he says, voice even hoarser than his usual rasp.
I part my lids, meeting his violet gaze, inches from my face.
“You’re okay with never seeing me again? I’ll never see you again, and I’m not okay with that, Kylie.” He pecks my lips once. “If you’re trying to break me, Ky, I’m broken.” He takes a step away from me, brows furrowed, fists balled. “If you’re trying to prove something to me, I fucking get it. If you’re this pissed at me, I promise I’ll do anything to make it up to you, everything you’re mad at me for.” Marc drops to his knees and grabs me by the back of mine. “Are you listening? Kylie, say you won’t stay.”
I swipe the tear from my eye that I was trying to keep from falling. “You don’t understand. I’m going back to nothing, Marc.” The denial I’ve been trying to bury breaks from me.
“You’re going back to me. What is it that I don’t understand? I got you. While you sleep and are awake. I am not trying to replace Luke, but I’m here for you too.”
I try to shuffle from his hold, but he’s got me tight by the legs. The plea in his eyes is like a bullet driving through my heart—murder. “I don’t want that. I told you, I need to find myself, and I can’t do that if I’m relying on someone else to help me sleep at night or watch my back while I’m fighting. I need to learn how to be a Creation. Or human…on my own. I need to find out who I truly am, and going back isn’t going to help me with this. I love you, Marc. Everything about you. But you must let me do this. Let me go.”
He lays his forehead to my thighs. “I don’t want to.” He clears his throat, but it only worsens the rasp. “I’m sorry, Ky.”
“Me too.”
When his grip loosens, I break from the force field that pulls me to Marc, step around him and leave the hall. As I pass Sean, Seits, and Jord, I break into a run. It takes all the will within me to not look back at him, at them. But I have to do this for me.
Chapter Sixteen
*Marc*
Once I’m on my feet, I turn away from Kylie. A growl charges up my throat, and I release a grunt as I ram my fist into the pillar. It splits in two. The top te
ars away from the ceiling, and wall plaster crumbles to the floor. “Shit,” I groan. That’ll cost me.
“Marc.” Sean shakes his head, gesturing toward my disaster. “What the hell are you doing?” he asks when I return. “You good?”
I pull my hood over my head and stuff my hands in the pockets of my hoodie. “Yeah.”
“We need to go. Our plane will be setting up for departure shortly,” Jord informs.
The lot of us march out of the hotel to a truck awaiting our arrival. It drives us to a landing field where a commercial, wide-body airliner is being loaded with crates, and Normals are climbing the stairs for entry.
Sean glares out the window, frowning. “Why aren’t we flying solo?”
Jord adjusts in the passenger seat of our chauffeured transportation. “It was the next flight out. We needed the space, and these citizens are traveling to Arizona. It’s a way of killing two birds with one stone.”
The truck comes to a stop as our silent driver hits the locks. We exit the truck and board the plane with the Normals.
From the second we walked out of the Inn, I was hoping Kylie would change her mind at the last minute. That she would even find her way to the airstrip and board this plane. We’d find her waiting for us in one of these seats with a smile. But she was set on staying, and I can’t stand in her way of finding herself. We rely on our twins from the day we’re created, and I can’t put myself in her shoes to say she’ll be fine without Luke. It’s noble though, that she wants to be the best she can be on her own. I’m just selfish. I’ve grown used to her company and comfortable with her smile. I don’t want to miss it, but I must.
I watch the passengers get settled and wait for the plane to prepare for takeoff.
“Don’t trip, Marc,” Sean tells me.
“Shut up about it, Sean.” I lean my head against the headrest and close my eyes, trying to drown out the chatter and crying baby.
“I’m only trying to help. Don’t be mad at me. I didn’t do it.” His seatbelt clicks, and he continues his nagging. “I told you that was going to happen, but you just wanted to believe otherwise. There was no way she was coming back.”
The Separation Trilogy Box Set: Books 1 -3 Page 71