by Tara Brown
“Yeah.” I sigh.
“So you would like to date?”
“Yes!” I clasp my hands together. “Totally. I totes wanna date and chill and get to know you and—”
“Stop. You’re ruining it with your valley-girl totes and not pronouncing all the syllables in the words.” He smiles as he mocks me. “But I accept your offer, Miss Stoddard. I would like to date you and get to know you and find out if I even like the new you.” He carefully lifts his hand and brushes my hair to the side and tucks it behind my ear. “Because I think you’re correct. I don’t like it, I hate it actually. I want to know what I’m doing and be in control and have everything be smooth and understood, but there’s a chance who I am and who I was and what the bots did to me, has altered my personality. And I might have attributed that to you.”
“You’re way too smart for me.” I wrinkle my nose.
“Would agreeing with you put your opinion of me at risk?”
“What?” I tilt my head and give it some thought. “Yes. Don’t agree with a girl who’s shit talking herself. That’s going to be lesson number one. You’ve spent a lot of time on the inside. Maybe we should cover some of the other important things to avoid. The pitfalls of dating, if you will.”
He smiles but there’s some hesitation.
“You don’t want me to talk about before? I’m so sorry. That was stupid.” I close my eyes and shake my head.
“No.” He places a hand under my chin. “It’s okay. It’s just weird for me. You know everything, don’t you?” his voice cracks and it mimics the sound in my chest of my heart cracking.
“I’m so sorry. When I absorbed the bots, I took yours first and so your story was—”
“It’s okay,” he reassures me and pulls me into a warm embrace where my cheek is resting against his chest. I hear his heart for the first time since the old bots left me. He keeps talking, saying something about how he’s sorry I have to know, but I’m not listening to his words. I’m consumed by his heart.
It’s singing to me the same as it used to.
The sound of the beat is everything I need to remember.
Pressing my eyes shut more, I listen to the rhythm and the beat and the strength of it all. Hot tears burst from my eyes. They must touch him because he pulls back, and his tone becomes even softer, “Hey, are you okay?”
I open my eyes and there he is.
A smile spreads across my face, opposite to the look he’s giving me.
“What?”
“I remember you. I remember this.” I point between me and him. “I needed to hear your heart.”
“What?” He lifts an eyebrow and offers a skeptical look.
“Just listen.” I grab his face and plant his head against my breast. I try to breathe as softly as I can and hope he hears the same thing.
But when he lifts his head, he doesn’t seem to have had the same moment as I did with his heart.
“Did you hear it?”
“Yeah, but I already heard it. I felt it. Whatever it is you’re feeling right now, I never lost it. That’s not true. I forgot it when I woke up. In fact, I was on a mission to find you and kill you for ruining the bot thing for us all. But by the time I saw your body in the wreckage, it was back. There was no heartbeat, but the second I touched your skin, everything was back. Except the evil I think you sucked out of me. For the most part.” He cups my cheek and I close my eyes and lean into it. “Now that we have that squared away, we need to find Joey. She needs to see you. As do the Littles. And Leah and Erin and Lee and Miles and all those other annoying people you managed to bring here with your siren call.”
He turns and walks me to the open door, leading me down the hall.
Joey’s room is right next to his.
He opens the door and brings a candle from the hallway so we can see. Gus pushes his way into the room, sniffing the heads of the girls in the massive bed.
Julia lifts her head first. She squints and then smiles, crawling to me. “I knew it! I said Gus knew you were still alive!” She dashes into my arms and hugs tightly.
Joey and Lissie wake together, both of them are crying before they reach me.
“I told you I would come back,” I say to them all, clinging to the bodies of the girls as their small fingers dig into my arms and back. “I told you I wouldn’t leave you.”
Liam’s right about one thing: the girls do not let me leave. I end up sleeping with them in my bed and he sleeps in the chair with the dog, refusing to leave either.
31
Tanya
I wake with a sharp inhale and a stabbing pain in my chest. It’s over so fast I’m reacting to nothing. It’s minutes before I catch my breath. I lie still, confused and blinking multiple times before anything registers. Light filters into my eyes but I can’t place it. It’s an inconstant glow. Is it heaven? Did I die?
The question is answered the moment I think it.
Buster’s tongue washes my entire face in two sweeps. I groan and the rest of the room comes to life.
“I told you!” Mason says excitedly in the background. “Tan!” He shrieks and his little hands dig into my ribs and arms. He’s hugging me with the dog.
“I made it?” I whisper, scared to move because I’m certain I’m going to discover something hideous, an injury that will never heal. Or better yet, that this was all a nightmare and Lou’s at her place and I’m at mine. Maybe I was in a car accident and it’s all part of the coma, a bad dream.
“Don’t try to move too quickly,” my mom says soothingly. “I can’t believe you’re okay,” her voice cracks as she rests her head on my shoulder. She’s crying and the dog is licking us all.
The last thing I remember is pain, but it doesn't hurt to be touched or to be in this position. My throat’s dry and my eyes struggle to focus, but there is no more pain. I’m thankful for that.
The memory of Lou holding me down and puking her bloody bots into my mouth makes me shudder.
“You cold?” Mom moves blankets, but I’m not.
“No. I just don't understand how we’re here. I was so certain I was gonna die. Is Lou okay?” I force my eyes to open and stay that way as I lift my head a little and see I’m in the castle. I’m in a bed in one of the rooms. It has the same smell as when I was here before. “Does Liam know we’re here? Is he angry?”
Mom bites her lip, holding something back. But Mason speaks as if this is a casual discussion of no real importance, “King Liam is with Joey. He was sad.”
“Sad? Why? What happened to Lou?” I’m terrified of the answer. “Where is she?”
Mom’s eyes tell me everything I need to know. Lou is dead. She is dead and I lived, and chances are she somehow made that happen. She sacrificed herself so I would make it.
“Where’s Joey?”
“Asleep, finally.” Mom sighs, rubbing Buster’s long beagle ears. “She and Liam are both asleep. It was a bad night, Tan. We were certain you were both dead. I checked your pulse myself. There wasn't one. But it must have been so faint I couldn't hear it or feel it. Mason was certain he saw you move. I got Mitch and Jeff to carry you in here. Just in case.”
“Where are they?”
“Sleeping. It’s late, middle of the night. Mason and I were about to go to bed ourselves, but he heard you make a noise again.”
“What happened?” I can’t recall the details clearly.
“We don't know. It was chaos. The people with the bots were everywhere, thousands of them. And they were convulsing and the bots were leaving their bodies, fleeing like they were under Lou’s spell or command or whatever you want to call it. You girls got into the helicopter. It lifted off, hovered for a long time. I thought everyone on the ground was dead. I was trying to find Joey and Lissie and Julia. It was madness.”
“Mom was dragging me everywhere!” Mason puts his hands on his hips, making me smile.
“I was, truly.” Mom laughs and for the first time in a while it’s almost like we’re in our own house and s
he’s tired from work but still happy. Happy to be home with us. “And then the next thing I knew, the helicopter was on fire and it crashed. It was insane.”
“And Lou?”
“Pulled from the wreckage same as you, Liam dragged her out. She was burned a bit, her cheek and her hands.”
“What about the splits in her skin and the blood?” It’s the last image I have of Lou. She was bursting at the seams.
“No, just some burns.” Mom shakes her head. “Her clothes were singed and covered in blood. Same as you.”
“We didn't have injuries?” That piques my interest.
“Just the burns. Why?”
“Where are my burns now?” I hold up my hands and inspect them. Everything is the same as it was, before the accident and the bots.
“Oh,” Mom mutters, lifting my hand and inspecting me. “Where are they?”
“The bots,” I whisper. “If they healed me, they healed her. Where is she?”
“They’re going to burn the bodies—”
“Get Mitch!” I shout and sit up. My head spins for a second, but I force myself up from the bed. I wobble and take deep breaths as Mason runs from the room. He’s back in a second with Mitch whose swollen eyes widen when they see me.
“Tanya?” He’s confused. I see it on his face. I bet he’s wondering if this is a dream.
“We can catch up after we find Lou. We have to make sure they don't burn her body.” I grab his hand, but he drags me into his arms and buries his head in my hair. He breathes deeply for several minutes, like he’s fighting a heart attack, then pulls me back. He’s crying again.
“Don't you ever do that to me again.”
“Promise I won’t.” I slip my hand in his and drag him from the room. “Now take me to Lou!”
We run through the castle and out the front doors with Buster hot on our heels. When we leave the gates, he sprints ahead as though he knows where we’re going.
It’s still dark out and the air outside is crisp and dry. Exactly how I like it. The field is filled with torches and people walking slowly amongst weird hay beds. It takes me a second to realize they’re pyres and this is a funeral watch.
“She’s this way.” He drags me across the field but when we reach the hay beds, there is no one there. “She was.”
“Maybe she’s awake too.” I glance back at the castle.
“If she is, she’s with King Liam.” Mitch wrinkles his nose. “That guy’s strange. Jeff doesn’t like him, and we both know Jeff likes everyone.”
“He’s Canadian,” I joke with a small shrug.
“Exactly.” Mitch steps closer, placing his forehead against mine. “You killed me. Dead.”
“Sorry.” I snuggle into his arms. “I honestly thought it was best for everyone. Dr. Jacquard’s plan from the start didn’t include me surviving it.”
“You didn’t think to tell me that?” He pulls back, cocking an eyebrow.
“No. You wouldn’t have let me do it.”
“No, I wouldn’t have. It was craziness. I’m all for the greater good, I think we both know that, but your survival is everything.” He kisses my nose.
“I survived.” I roll my eyes. “Let’s go find Lou!” I slip my hand back in his and make my way to the castle.
“Some of your other friends are staying in this room,” Mitch says when we’re back on the floor with the bedrooms. He knocks at a door lightly.
“Come in,” a voice I’d recognize anywhere answers.
I push the door open and smile at Jamie and Sasha who are sitting in the large canopy bed with swollen eyes and red noses.
“Holy shit, do you see that too?” Sasha asks softly.
“Tan?” Jamie gulps.
“Hi.” I smile wide and brace myself for the attack.
It takes a second for them to realize this is real and they start screaming. They rush me, hugging and kissing and crying some more. I close my eyes, making tears pop from them.
“You’re alive!” Sasha shouts, kissing my head and wrapping herself around me completely.
“I think Lou is too but I can’t find her room,” I mutter into an armpit and a breast.
“What?” Jamie pulls back, flinging her red hair from her face. “Are you sure?”
“No, but I think so—” Sasha is already running down the hall before I finish my thought. We turn and follow, watching her barrel into a room. It’s huge and the bed is filled with Joey, Julia, Lissie, and Lou. Gus jumps up, sniffing Buster who is entangling himself in feet.
We launch onto the bed, grabbing Lou and waking her from her sleep.
“You made it and you didn’t tell us?” Sasha shouts, shaking her a little.
“I thought everyone was sleeping,” Lou says groggily, rubbing her eyes as Jamie clings to her and sobs.
“I didn’t even know you guys were here,” I say to Sasha and Jamie.
“We got here with Davis, Leah’s husband as shit was going down.” Sasha lies back, pulling Lou with her.
“You okay?” Lou asks me.
“Weirdly okay. You?”
“Same.” She nods. “But the bots are different. They healed me, but they’re not doing anything else.”
“Base programming,” a voice from the dark corner joins the conversation. It’s King Liam. He is wrapped in a blanket and looks different than the last time I saw him. “They must have reset completely. Something must have caused a full programming reset. They are at their most basic software design, which was always to heal. It was the bots’ initial purpose.”
“But they also changed so they worked on me? Because bots have never affected me before.” I don’t understand any of this bot craziness.
“Must have.” He walks to the edge of the bed and stares at Lou. The reverence in his gaze is weird. He looks at her the way I imagined he might look at himself.
Joey and Lissie stir and roll over but Julia’s eyes open. She stares at us like she is looking through us and mutters, “Shhhhhhh.”
We all smile.
Lou grips me and sighs. “I can’t believe we’re both alive.”
My eyes dart to Liam and I nod. “You’re telling me.”
The group of us is quiet for a moment before we all laugh.
There isn’t really anything else to do.
32
One week later
Tanya
We walk into the great hall where the feast will be. I’m nervous because I don’t trust Liam as far as I can throw him, and I can’t even lift his ass.
Mitch’s fingers lightly brush against the insides of my palms as we find a seat at one of the massive wooden tables. Sasha, Jamie, Miles, and Erin are already seated and saving spots for us. Erin lifts an eyebrow when she catches a glimpse of Jeff as he and Bev make their way in with us.
I don’t know anything about her, but that wandering eye is bothersome. Especially, considering how hot she is. She might be the sexiest woman I have ever seen. Including any Hollywood babes.
“What do you think this is?” Mitch asks quietly. “Did Lee say anything?”
“Princess Leelee said nada,” Erin remarks with an eye roll, shifting in her chair and sitting in a way that flashes her perfect cleavage at Jeff. I should feel sorry for Miles, but I’ve known him way too long to have any pity for him.
“Did Lou say anything to you guys?” I ask Jamie and Sasha.
“Just that we have to be here, or else.” Sasha chuckles. “The question I have is where’s Kyle?”
“He’s been mourning his broken heart with that weird moonshine some of the guys found on a farm they raided in the North.” Miles scoffs. “So if we don’t see him tonight that might be for the best.”
“So him and Lou were a thing?” Bev asks the question we all want to know more about but might be too polite to bring up.
“They were fully together for like seven months. He saved her life.” Jamie’s tone suggests she isn’t impressed by the great betrayal.
“Then she meets Liam and it’
s ‘adios, Kyle.’” Miles shrugs.
“Well, it wasn’t quite that quick and easy,” Sasha says with a defensive tone. “Lou was on the road away from us for like—ever. And when she met Liam, she told me there was something about him that made her crazy.”
“She said she hated him and wanted to gut him like a fish.” Erin leans in and growls her words, “And I wanted that too.”
“You didn’t notice how much she talked about him?” Sasha sighs. “Clearly, you weren’t paying attention. Or that Lee was crazy about Kyle from day one?”
“Kyle should be so lucky!” Erin is a weird girl. One minute she mocks her sister and the next defends her.
“Anyway, then she spent like five weeks here or something with Liam, who her bots had already decided was her soul mate. She couldn’t fight it. Lee told me she couldn’t either. And apparently, they were soul mates all along. Liam is different with her, even Leah agrees with that.” Sasha nods her head toward the table with the gorgeous brunette and her beefy husband. They’re sitting with my mom and surrounded by kids. Mason, Joey, Lissie, and Julia have glommed onto them. Mason follows Leah’s adorable son around like he has a crush on him. It’s so sweet.
“I’m so tired of the whole Lou and Liam craziness,” Jamie moans. “Can we just talk about something else?” Her eyes land on me. “How did you two meet again?”
“Us?” I ask and glance at Mitch.
“I switched all my classes to be in hers, hoping and praying she might notice who I was. When she finally did, we were lab partners and I blew all my chances to get her alone. I was nervous.” He smiles and my heart swells. I’ve never heard this story before. “Then I blackmailed Ms. Mara, my earth sciences teacher, who I happened to see on a date with the basketball coach, into letting Tanya come on our field trip.” He loses some of the smile. “And instead of winning her over on the rocky shores of the West Coast, I endangered her life, and everyone in the class died except me and Bev.”
“We think they died,” Bev adds.