by D. Laine
“No. It was difficult to understand at times,” Jake said. “The voice—”
“There was a girl,” I cut in. “She was in there, fighting to break free of . . .” I trailed off before I gave something away.
I wished I could let Maria go. I wished I could forget what I had seen and heard before she was killed. But I couldn’t. It ate at me, devouring me from the inside.
Anderson’s shoulders squared as he faced me. “They’re called Watchers. There are a few dozen on Earth that we know of. Most are located in the northeast, where conditions following the eruption are better, where there are more survivors in close quarters seeking refuge from the flesh eaters. The Watchers infiltrated safety camps established by the military, and have begun the process of taking slaves. What they plan to do with these slaves, we do not know. But this isn’t the first time we have heard mention of breeding.
“There are pockets of military and civilians much like we have here scattered across the northeast, and they’re fighting back. This is the first encounter we have had with one in this area. For some reason, they have left us alone. Or they’ve yet to make their presence known.”
No one spoke during the long silence that followed. I barely breathed while I waited for Anderson to label us as Watchers in hiding. But he never did.
“I suspect you will encounter more in the days ahead,” he said. “We need to be prepared. You need to be prepared.”
He reached behind his back, and I tensed when he withdrew two small handguns. “These were designed specifically for the Watchers. From what we understand, they are immune to most weapons. They are resilient, and very strong. Do not hesitate to shoot the next time you see one.”
I accepted the gun, and the responsibility, with a nod. And I couldn’t help but smirk at the irony of the last two Watcher vessels in the area being handed the only thing that could destroy them.
OUR TINY APARTMENT above the laundromat was surprisingly quiet when we wandered in a few moments later. Robbie lay curled up under a mound of blankets on one of the mattresses, nothing but a stream of blonde visible in the waning light filtering through the window. She stirred when Jake powered on one of the flashlights.
“Sorry,” he whispered with a grimace. “Didn’t want to wake you.”
“It’s okay.” She stretched awake and peered out the window. “From the looks of it, I was due to get up for the night shift soon anyway.”
I plopped down on the sliver of mattress unofficially considered mine, and glanced at Jake, since it was his turn to speak. Proper communication etiquette and all. Instead, he stared at the floor and said nothing.
Awkward. I really wanted to know what was going on between them. Someday I would ask, but not today.
Robbie turned to me with a forced smile. “How did the supply run go?”
And just like that, the uncomfortable cloud hovering over the room thickened to a suffocating level. Like Jake, I lost the ability to speak.
Robbie’s brows pinched together. Her eyes darted between Jake and me, and her mouth formed around a silent, “Oh.” Before she could ask for details, a thunder of feet sounded on the stairwell.
“I wonder who that could be.” I smirked at Jake.
“Sounds like both of them,” he said. “You better watch out.”
Seconds later, both Thea and Sadie stormed into the room. While Thea stopped in the doorway to sweep observant eyes over both Jake and me, Sadie launched herself across the room at me. Her slender arms wrapped around my neck with surprising strength, nearly knocking me over.
“What happened?” Thea demanded. “We lost our connections, to both of you, for a few minutes. That was hours ago.”
Sadie pulled back to look at me. “You’ve been locked up like a vault ever since so I know something happened.”
“It was a Watcher, wasn’t it?” Thea asked.
I glanced at Jake, silently pleading with him to take the reins and say the words I knew would catch in my throat.
He nodded. “It was Maria.”
All three girls inhaled sharply. Thea’s eyes darted to mine, and I saw the moment she realized the answer to the question she was afraid to ask. Head hung low, she silently crossed the room to sit beside me while Robbie and Sadie fired off question after question.
“What happened?”
“Did she say anything?”
“What did she want?”
“Did anyone get hurt?”
I raked my hands over my face with a groan. “We don’t really know what she wanted because we didn’t get a chance to find out before they shot her.”
Sadie jumped to her feet. I knew she only did it because she was shocked to the point of not being able to sit still, but the way she loomed over me made my palms sweat. My pulse hammered as the walls closed in around me.
“Who killed her?” Sadie demanded.
“I didn’t see who pulled the trigger,” Jake said, “but they all know about Watchers. They have weapons that can kill them.”
Special weapons with special bullets filled with something I doubted was simple gunpowder. Jake and I had already looked, the moment Anderson left us. Though the bullets appeared normal from the outside, we weren’t about to try breaking them apart to see what was inside that made them unique. We weren’t suicidal.
“Oh, my God.” Sadie paced the floor directly in front of me, causing my skin to crawl with anxiety. “They don’t know about the two of you, do they?”
“No. They don’t think we’re involved,” Jake answered.
“There are other Watchers in the northeast,” I added. “They’re already taking human prisoners as slaves, preparing for world domination or whatever. Jake and I are the only ones close enough to stop Lucifer, and he’s about to make his big move. At least, according to the Watcher that took Maria. Without her, it’s just us now.”
Sadie stopped pacing. After several silent, tense moments, she finally spoke. “We still have time to take out his vessel before then. Lucifer is strong, but his vessel is vulnerable. We can—”
“We have to find him first,” I muttered.
“So we find him,” Thea insisted, nodding along with Sadie. “Enough screwing around with subtlety. Let’s go out there and track him down. We’ll find the gate, and—”
“Or we can just make sure he comes to us first.”
Everyone stiffened at the grave tone of Jake’s voice. He didn’t need to elaborate. I knew what he meant by that, and I thought everyone else got the meaning too. Though we had known all along that one of us may have to be sacrificed in the end, this was the first either of us admitted it out loud.
In front of the girls. Who were currently competing over who could stare Jake down the hardest.
“No way.” Thea split a severe look equally between Jake and me. “You can’t do that. You can’t just—”
“You had to have known that this was a possibility.” I cut her off softly.
“Well, yeah. But I didn’t think either of you would seriously consider it.” She held her breath, then released it slowly before leveling her eyes on me. Her voice dropped to a near whisper. “You promised me you wouldn’t do something stupid. This is the definition of stupid.”
I shook my head softly. “I promised you I would try.”
Those words were nearly my last. Death by angry girlfriend was not the way I wanted to go out, so I stood in preparation of deflecting an attack, or possibly running away. While I managed to avoid direct eye contact with her, I felt her heated gaze on me.
“No one is going to do anything brash yet,” I said, nodding toward Jake. “We’re still going to try to get to Calvin first. I really believe he knows who the vessel is.”
“Assuming it isn’t him,” Jake tacked on.
“But the Duggies know about the Watchers,” Sadie pointed out. “What if they figure out that the two of you are vessels?”
“They’ll kill you,” Robbie murmured.
“We need to get out of here,” Sadie said.
“Now.”
“They’re not going to figure it out,” I dismissed. “But they do know more than we thought they knew. I say we stay here and figure out what their role is in all of this. How they know, what all they know, and whether or not they can be trusted.”
“And I’m tired,” Jake added with a sigh. “Really, really tired.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “I don’t want to run either.”
Robbie got to her feet with a defeated sigh. “I have to go relieve Ewing from his patrol duty.”
“Yes. Please, hurry,” I muttered. “I can’t wait for him to join us.”
Sadie shot me a scathing look, which I ignored. Behind her, Robbie stopped at Jake’s side. I eagerly awaited a display of affection, the exchange of whispered words, or something to hint at what was going on between them. All I saw was an awkward hug that reminded me of two distant family members unsure about how to greet one another on the street.
Thea saw it, too. For a moment, she forgot she was mad at me and met my questioning gaze with a shrug of her shoulders.
Then she remembered, and her eyes narrowed. One look said it all.
I was in trouble.
19
THEA
I had never felt more conflicted in my entire life. I wanted to strangle Dylan. And hug him. I wanted to beat some goddamn sense into him. Then kiss him madly.
Because, oh boy, was I mad.
Not just at him. But at my brother.
I knew—I knew—they had considered giving themselves up to the Watchers. But I assumed their senses would have kicked in by now.
Apparently, they were bigger morons than I thought.
But I couldn’t stay mad at them forever.
Not when I saw the anguish in both of their eyes when someone said Maria’s name. Not when I realized that, out of all of us, they were the ones carrying the most weight on their shoulders. They had been molded for this sort of self-sacrifice their entire lives. I should have expected them to reach this conclusion.
I was the stupid one for believing them when they told me otherwise.
By the time Dylan left the room, a few minutes after Ewing arrived, I saw things clearly.
“How bad was it?” I cut Ewing off mid-sentence the moment I heard the door shut behind Dylan. My question was targeted at Jake. “Be honest.”
“It was bad,” he said. “They shot her right in front of us. Dylan was less than a foot away from her, and her blood . . .”
As insistent as Dylan had been to save Maria from a life controlled by Watchers, there would be no chance now. She was gone. Forever. He had to have been crushed.
I made my escape a few moments later, following Dylan down the stairs. He was long gone by the time I pushed through the door to the laundromat. The scent of damp fabric and soap hung heavily in the air. Puddles covered the floor and the occasional splash of water dripping from the clothing and sheets hanging from above cut through the silence.
I pushed between layers of wet sheets as I hurried toward the door that led to the street. I didn’t realize I wasn’t alone until I heard his voice drift out of the shadows behind me.
“Come down here to yell at me?”
I stopped and spun to the right. I saw nothing but suspended white bed sheets. “No.”
“Really?”
I turned, following the sound of his voice as he moved. Barely a hint of light filtered through three large windows behind me, creating a sea of tricky shadows that took on a life of their own. Dylan hid among them.
“I figured you would have plenty to say,” he said.
I took a tentative step forward, inching in his direction. “I have plenty to say. Just probably not what you expect to hear.”
Nothing. Not a footstep. Not a breath. Only the occasional drip of water, and the dance of shadows around me.
“Dylan?”
“Let’s hear it.”
He moved again, forcing me to spin in a circle.
“Can you come out here so I can see you?”
“Nope.” Damn, he wouldn’t stay still. “I want to hear what you have to say first.”
“Fine.” I gave up trying to find him among the maze of suspended fabric and shadows. “I’m not mad, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I’m not worried.”
“Okay . . .” I took a breath and counted backwards from ten. “I realized I should have expected the two of you to consider what it is you’re considering.”
His shoes squeaked on the floor, cluing me in to his location. I started in that direction. Seconds later, his voice came from behind me. “And what is that, Thea?”
“Ugh. Dammit! Will you stand still?”
“Say the words, Thea,” he insisted, ignoring my outburst. “Tell me exactly what it is Jake and I are considering.”
“Why?” My voice caught on the lump that suddenly grew in my throat.
I got no answer. I didn’t need one. I knew what he wanted me to say, and I knew why he wanted me to say it. He wasn’t playing fair.
The lump expanded, joining company with the unshed tears welling in my eyes.
“You . . .” I stopped to clear my throat. It didn’t help. “Dylan, please come out here where I can see you.”
I swatted at the offending tears as they trickled down my face, and peered at the blurry blend of colors that surrounded me, desperately searching for a sign of him. Frustration grew, but would never reach the level of sadness that gripped me. I sucked in a shaky breath, convinced that I was seconds from having a panic attack.
And then I heard him directly behind me. “I’m right here.”
I spun around, coming face-to-face with him. Finally.
One of his hands reached up to thumb away a tear. “I still need you to say it.”
“What? That I know one of you may have to sacrifice yourself? That one of you may die? That one of you is going to leave me?” I sniffed softly. “Yeah, I understand all of that.”
He was uncharacteristically still and quiet as he stared at me. Finally, he said, “Jake wants it to be him.”
My eyes slammed shut, squeezing every last bit of liquid onto my lashes. It raced down my cheeks, joining the water on the floor.
Not that I was surprised. Not that I expected anything less of my brother.
“I told him I don’t know if I can . . .” Dylan trailed off, giving away his own emotion. “How can I live with myself if I let him do that?”
I didn’t have an answer to that question. What I did have was intuition. And it was firing off one alert after another. My eyes pried open, and I fixed my gaze on Dylan. My mouth opened, then snapped shut when I couldn’t find the right words.
What was I supposed to say? I couldn’t choose. I loved them both. In different ways, obviously, but love was love. There was a chance I would lose one of them. But both? I couldn’t stomach the thought.
“If Jake . . .” I choked on the words as if my body rejected them. “He would want you to live. He wouldn’t want you to follow him.”
“Yeah. I know.” He offered me the hint of a smile.
“But it’s not going to matter, right?” I sniffed, shaking away the grief in favor of optimism. “Because we’re going to stop Lucifer. All of us. It won’t . . .”
“It won’t come down to that,” he whispered when I couldn’t finish.
Then he leaned in, ever so slowly, to press his lips to mine. All the dark and heavy thoughts vanished at his gentle touch. One hand lowered to my waist, the other rose to my face, as our lips danced in perfect harmony. We moved together as if in slow motion, as if even time wanted to savor this moment forever in case it was our last.
“Wait.” I put a palm to his chest, abruptly breaking the kiss. “You’re not doing this to me now. You’re not kissing me like you’re never going to kiss me again. I’m not going to let you do that. I’m not going to let you say goodbye like that.”
“I’m not saying goodbye.” One corner of his mouth quirked up as he leaned i
n, brushing his lips against mine again. “I’m just trying to kiss my girlfriend. And maybe have some sex, if that’s okay with you.”
I blinked, surprised, though I probably shouldn’t have been. This was Dylan, after all.
Suddenly, he whipped me around, and my back slammed into a washing machine with a metallic bang. Then his mouth came down on mine, hard and demanding, and I couldn’t have objected if I wanted to. With Dylan’s hands branding me and his tongue invading my mouth, I definitely didn’t want to.
Sandwiched tightly between him and the machine, the length of his body pressed to mine, I had no doubt of his intentions. I was definitely game. There was only one problem.
I pulled away to toss a wary glance toward the door that led to the stairs. I couldn’t see it thanks to all the sheets hanging around us, but I knew it was there. We were bathed in shadows, with barely any light coming through the windows now, but that didn’t make me feel better. “What if somebody comes down here?”
Dylan’s fingers grazed my stomach when he gripped the hem of my shirt. His eyes greedily soaked me in as he lifted the fabric over my head, inch by agonizing inch. Finally tossing it aside, he said, “Shoot Jake a mental warning to stay away. Stay far, far away.”
“Umm . . . that’s . . .” I trailed off with a sigh when his palms glided over the cups covering my breasts. One thumb slipped beneath the soft material to touch me. Then the other.
“Too weird for you?” he guessed. “I’ll take care of it then. Sadie is already traumatized from the last time.”
He kissed me again. Rougher. More demanding. Too brief to steal my breath, yet I couldn’t catch it. His hands shot to my hips long enough to lift me onto the machine, and he wedged between my parted knees. The motion, the feel of him pressed between my legs as his hands inched up my sensitive sides, and the dark look in his hooded eyes when they met mine, flipped a switch in me.
When I came down here, I had only one thought on my mind: Dylan’s emotional well-being. I meant to talk, to make sure he was okay, to be the shoulder he needed to lean on. But he didn’t need any of that. He needed me in a different way now, and he was going to take it.