“No. I want you to remember,” she said. “I want you to remember everything that was done to you because these Luxen—the ones who just got here—they are the kind that totally screwed you over. Not Daemon. Not me. Not most of the Luxen who have been living here. The invaders are your enemies. I want you to remember that.”
His lip curled. “As if there is a difference between them.”
Kat shook her head in disbelief. “Things aren’t always black and white. And if you really think that going after the invading Luxen isn’t in your best interest, then . . . well, good luck with that.”
Lotho looked away, his gaze traveling over the mass of his minions. He was as still as the air around us for a moment. Tiny hairs along my arms rose, and then he shot forward, going straight for Kat.
I whirled around, shifting into my true form as Lotho grabbed hold of Kat. He slammed her into the nearby wall with his hand around her neck.
Red-hot rage exploded inside of me. The sound that rose from my throat was raw and animalistic. I shot forward, shouting out in fury as Hunter’s brother and another Arum clutched my arms. A heartbeat later, an additional Arum was at my back, pushing me down onto the slimy, cold floor. I didn’t need to look to know that Archer was also surrounded.
I struggled, drawing in the Source, but these three Arum were big guys—definitely not young—and they were strong, as if they’d recently fed on a few Luxen. Light pulsed and flared, snapping into the air. I lifted my head, seeing the world in white and red.
“What do you think is stopping me from ending your life right now?” Lotho snarled, inches from her face.
“Nothing,” she gasped out. “But what does . . . killing me solve?”
“It’ll amuse me.” Lotho leaned into her, like all up in her personal space. He tilted his head to the side, and even from where I was, I could see his gaze move down the length of her. “And I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy it.”
I lost my shit.
Pure energy rippled through me, expanding into a burst of light. The Arum at my back was flung like a beanbag. I rose, dragging Hunter’s brother and his sidekick along with me. Power rolled from me in a tumultuous wave as I slammed my arms inward, knocking the two Arum’s heads together.
Down they went.
I started forward, stopping long enough to drop-kick a rapidly shifting Arum into next week, and then another I caught under the chin, knocking him into the crowd of Arum.
“Let her go,” I said, shifting into my human form as the Source crackled and roared down my arm. My heart pounded as the floor under my feet began to shake. “Or I will bring this whole damn place down on all of us.”
Lotho glanced over his shoulder at me. “Look at you and your big, bad self. Rawr.”
“You haven’t see anything yet,” I growled. “I’m giving you five seconds to back the hell off her. One. Four. Fi—”
He dropped her and faced me fully. “I don’t think you know how to count.”
“And I don’t think you want to live.”
Lotho stared at me a moment and then threw his head back, letting out a loud laugh as Hunter’s brother picked himself up.
“Uh . . .” Hunter frowned, glancing at his brother as he staggered to the side. “Not expecting that.”
Neither was I, but I didn’t take my eyes off Lotho as I stalked forward, hitting his shoulder with mine when I reached Kat’s side. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, swallowing hard as she watched Lotho. “He’s laughing . . . ?”
I started toward Lotho, my vision still tinted in whitish-red. I was going to put my hand through his chest, but Kat clutched my arm, forcing me to stop.
“I kind of like them,” Lotho said to Hunter, who appeared just as confused as the rest of us. “Which is great news for you, since I won’t kill you for bringing them here.”
Hunter scowled deeply as he folded his arms across his chest. “Good to know.”
“Back up off of the freak,” he ordered those surrounding Archer. He strode up the steps to the makeshift throne and then dropped down in an arrogant sprawl, thighs spread wide. “Okay, then. You want an army. I’ll give you an army.”
The mass of Arum around us shifted as some, but not nearly all, of the tension seeped out of my shoulders. I felt like I should say thank you, but those words wouldn’t even form on my tongue.
“I give you my word, but there is one condition,” he said, raising his chin.
“Of course,” I muttered.
Lotho eyed me like I was some kind of insect under a microscope. “It’s just one little thing that I demand.”
Archer nodded, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hunter’s shoulders square up as he squeezed his eyes shut. He muttered a curse under his breath.
“You let me feed off her.”
I started. “I know I heard you wrong.”
“No. You didn’t,” Lotho replied coolly. “You let me feed off her.” He nodded at Kat. The blood drained from her face, but it rushed to every part of my body like a fiery flood. “I won’t kill her. Just a taste. Or two. Maybe three.”
A long moment passed as I stared at the soon-to-be-dead son of a bitch. Part of my head couldn’t register that he’d dared to even make that request. Fury simmered in my gut, spreading into an inferno. My vision blurred as the world shifted colors.
Hunter shook his head as he rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s so messed up, man.”
“Yeah. I’m completely screwed up like that.” Lotho smiled, and my rage knew no limit at that point. “That’s my condition. Take it or get the hell out.”
18
{ Katy }
I was going to hurl all over my sneakers.
This . . . this thing wanted to feed off me? That was his condition? Panic rose swiftly, sinking its poisonous venom into my bloodstream.
Daemon exploded. He shot forward, reaching the first step before Hunter and Archer got hold of him. The words that streamed out of his mouth were a steady onslaught of various F-bomb combinations I didn’t even know were possible.
“You’re out of your fucking mind,” Daemon shouted. His eyes were all white, bright as diamonds, as he strained against the two guys. “You sick son of a bitch!”
Lotho arched a brow.
The edges of Daemon’s body thrummed, casting frantic slivers of light into the gloom of this underworld. “Forget it. That’s never going to happen, and you’re never going to fucking walk again when I’m done with you.”
One broad shoulder rose as Lotho stared down at him dispassionately. “Like I said, take it—”
Another ripe F-bomb was tossed in his direction. “If you think you’re going to get anywhere near her, you’re insane.”
My stomach tumbled as Lotho continued to smirk. “Hey, if you don’t want to play along, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.”
Daemon lurched forward, nearly dragging Archer and Hunter to the ground. Another explosive tirade ripped from him as my heart pounded like thunder in my chest.
“That’s really your condition?” My voice was hoarse. “You’re not going to help without that condition being met?”
He nodded. His lifeless eyes landed on me, and I knew he wasn’t going to cave. We would leave with no Arum support. The military would drop their e-bombs all across the United States. Innocent humans and Luxen would die, along with hybrids and Origins. Dee would be lost, most likely killed. The world would rapidly rewind to the past, losing hundreds of years of technology and advancement.
We couldn’t let that happen.
My stomach turned as reality slammed into me with the force of a freight truck packed full of dynamite. I was . . . I was going to have to let him do this. That was it. We had no other choice.
Archer and Hunter had managed to drag Daemon back a few steps, but the expression on his face was downright murderous as he glared at the Arum leader. I knew if he got free, he was going to go at him with everything he had. Maybe that was what Lo
tho really wanted.
Or maybe Lotho was seriously just a sick bastard.
I didn’t know, and it really didn’t matter.
My hands shook as I smoothed them down my sides. “Daemon.”
It was like he didn’t hear me; he was so focused on the Arum. Violence poured into the air around him. His chest heaved with every deep, ragged breath he took. He was a bottle with the lid about to be completely screwed off.
“Can you give us a few moments?” I asked.
Lotho gave a noncommittal wave of his hand. “I have all the time in the world. You all? Not so much.”
Daemon started to shift. “You have less time than you think, you stupid freak of a mother—”
“Daemon!” I placed my hand on his arm, and his head whipped toward me, eyes blazing. “We need—”
“We don’t need jack,” he growled. “But I need to end his life right—”
“Stop,” I said, staring into his burning eyes. “We need to talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.” His gaze swung back to Lotho. “Unless you want to hear in detail what I plan to do to the bastard. Then we can talk all you want.”
Archer’s eyes met mine from the other side of Daemon. It’s our only choice.
I know, I sent back.
Then you need to get him on board.
What the hell did Archer think I was doing? “Can you guys help me get him outside of this room?” Talking in here would just decline into him cussing out Lotho again.
Hunter nodded. “Come on, big boy. Let’s take a walk and let you cool down.”
It took a god-awful amount of time to get Daemon out into the tunnel leading into the main room. Both of the guys hesitated leaving him alone with me, as if they thought he’d bum-rush Lotho in the main room.
The way he was staring at the closed metal door, there was a good chance he might blast a hole right through it and go all Rambo on steroids on Lotho.
I watched him stand a few feet from me, his chest rising and falling deeply. The edges of his body were still blurred, and I could practically feel the bitter metallic taste of his anger.
“I can’t believe he’d even suggest that,” he said, his voice as razor sharp as broken glass.
“I can’t either, but . . .” I took a deep breath when his luminous gaze found mine. “But that’s his condition.”
Daemon opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. “I don’t care if he could twitch his fucking nose and make the Luxen disappear; he’s not going to feed off you.”
“If he doesn’t, then he’s not going to help us,” I reasoned carefully. “None of the Arum are going to help us.”
“I. Don’t. Care.”
“Yes, you do. I know you care. There’s too much at stake for you to not care.”
He laughed harshly as he faced me. “You know me better than that.”
“Exactly! I know you, and I know you’re angry right now—”
“‘Angry’ isn’t a strong enough word for what I’m feeling right now,” he shot back.
“Okay.” I raised my hands. “But we have to get him to help us.”
“Not if it means you have to go through with that.” He started to pace. “I can’t allow it. There’s no way I can let you go through being fed on. Nothing in this world is worth that. You have no idea—”
“I know what it’s like to be fed on,” I reminded him, and he flinched. I swore it was the first time I’d ever seen him do that. “When I got caught in Mount Weather, I was fed on. I know it’s not fun and it won’t be pretty and it’s going to hurt, but—”
“No!” he shouted, hands curling into fists. He cursed again, thrusting his fingers through his hair as he twisted his upper body toward me. “It kills me that you even know what it feels like, that you had to experience it and I couldn’t protect you.”
“Daemon—”
“I’m not going to allow that to happen to you again. No way, so don’t even think you can convince me.”
“Then what do we do? Just say screw it?”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
I stared at him.
“What? We can go live in a damn cave,” he said, pacing once more. “Look, I’m a selfish person. You know that. And I don’t want you to go through that, so I’m willing to say screw it and we cut our losses.”
“Really? What kind of life would that give us?”
“Don’t bring logic into this conversation.”
Frustration whirled inside me as I stepped in front of him, clasping his cheeks. The stubble grazed my palms. “Daemon, there is no life for any of us if we don’t get them to help us.”
“We can make it work. I know we can.”
“Daemon . . .”
He broke away. “I can’t even believe we’re having this conversation.”
“I know the idea is upsetting.”
“Do you? Sounds like you don’t.”
My eyes narrowed and I planted my hands on my hips. “Come on, you know I don’t want to do this. The very idea of—of feeling something like that again terrifies me and makes me sick, but if that’s what it takes to get them to help us, then that’s what I need to do. That’s what we need to do.”
“You do not need to,” he snapped.
I dragged in several deep breaths. “We need to. For your sister.”
“You’re going to make me choose between you and her?” he shouted, eyes a vehement white.
“I’m not making you choose.” I followed him around the tight circle he paced. “You are making that choice. By trying to protect me, you’re letting her go.”
He stopped and stared at me. I thought he’d lash out again, but he closed his eyes, his striking face taut and his body rigid.
I knew in that moment I had him thinking instead of feeling. I latched onto it. “Are you ready to do that? Because she’ll probably die. I hate saying so, even thinking about it, but it’s the truth.”
Mashing his lips together, he turned away from me, his head bowed. Several moments passed. “He’ll be touching you. He’ll be—”
“It’s not like Lotho wants to have sex with me.”
He faced me, nostrils flared. “God, I’m going to kill him. Just even hearing his name and the word ‘sex’ in the same sentence—”
“Daemon.”
“What?” He turned, thrusting both of his hands through his hair. “How can you ask me to be okay with this?”
“I’m not! I’m not asking you to be okay with it, but I’m asking you to understand why we have to do it, to acknowledge how much is at stake and who is at stake. I’m asking you to not think about me or think about yourself in this. I’m asking—”
“You’re asking for the impossible.”
Daemon lunged forward, and a second later, my back was flush against the wall and his mouth was on mine. The kiss . . . holy alien babies, the kiss was a raw combination of lust and possession. There was a taste of desperation and anger as our teeth clanged, but the hand against my cheek was so gentle, barely there, and all those emotions were in the kiss, but the love was far stronger than anything else.
As his mouth moved over mine and the deep sound from the back of his throat reverberated through my skull, I didn’t feel the cold press of the damp wall or the bitter edge of panic that had started clawing at my insides the moment Lotho stated his condition.
Daemon kissed like he was staking a claim, but he already had me—all of me. My heart. My soul. My whole being.
When he lifted his head, his breath was warm against my lips. “I can’t promise you that I’m going to let this happen. I also can’t promise that I’m not going to walk back in that room and try
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