Project Integrate Series Boxed Set

by Campbell, Jamie

“Lochie, what’s wrong?” I asked, even though I didn’t want to hear the answer. All I wanted to hear was that everything was fine, that he loved me, and rainbows of sunshine were everywhere.

  “I’ve… I’ve come to say goodbye.”

  “What? Why?”

  “I’m leaving for summer school. My mom got them to hold my place, and if I leave now, I’ve only lost a week. They’ll let me catch up.” His words all poured out like one long sentence.

  I tried to stay composed while inside my heart smashed into a thousand pieces. “So you want to go then?”

  “I’m still not sure. But after everything that happened, disappearing like that, I need to make it up to my mom. And she wants me to go.”

  “Well, if she wants it…”

  “It’s not like that, Ame. You know that.” His gaze fell to the floor, he couldn’t hold my eye contact. “My mom has worked her butt off for me ever since I was born. She’s done it all on her own with no help. She’s gone without so much so I could have the future that she didn’t get. I need to do this, not just for her and Jordan, but for me too.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lola catch a glimpse of us from the kitchen doorway. She had probably heard everything we had just said.

  My composure was slipping. “Did I do something wrong? Is that why you want to leave?”

  “No, no, nothing like that.” His gaze shot back to me again as he gave me a look of sincerity. “I’m not leaving you, I’m just… going towards something.”

  “Are we breaking up?” I wasn’t going to make any assumptions this time. I needed him to say the words, he owed me that much.

  “I don’t want to. Do you?” I shook my head because I didn’t trust my voice to answer him. I wanted to fight for him, for us. I wanted to beg him to stay. I wanted him to be holding me tight and kissing me, promising we would be together forever.

  But I couldn’t hold him back. Going to summer school was the smart thing to do. It was what was best for him, and I couldn’t stand in the way of that. It was selfish of me to want him to stay. I knew I had to let him go.

  Lochie took my hands in his again. They were warm and sweaty as his thumbs caressed my knuckles. “Amery, we can do this. We can make the long distance thing work. It’s not forever.”

  Except it could be forever. Once he went out in the world and saw all the regular, human girls out there, he would realize what a drag it was dealing with me and my baggage. He would work out that there were hundreds of other girls so much prettier, smarter, and funnier than me. Girls like him that had a bright future ahead of them.

  My words were choked in my throat. I couldn’t say all the things I wanted to. Like how I wished I could go with him. How much I loved him. How much every minute spent with him meant to me. That I would do anything in the world to keep us together.

  But I was silent. I may as well have been a mute for all the good my voice was doing for me. It was hard enough blinking back the tears, but talking at the same time was impossible.

  Lochie leaned down and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll call you when I get there. I’m sorry, Ame. I love you.” He let go of my hands and stood at the door, giving me one last look before he walked out of my life. Probably for good.

  He made it to the end of the porch before I gasped. “Lochie, I love you too. Please don’t forget about me.”

  Lochie turned around and gave me one last smile. “I could never forget you, Jones.” We locked eyes for just a moment before he continued on down the yard.

  I closed the door and gasped again for breath. It felt like all the oxygen in the universe had been sucked out of my lungs. Before I could move, arms wrapped around me. Lola hugged me, exactly as I had done for her. Good pair we were.

  “I’m okay,” I assured her. Except I was pretty sure that I wasn’t okay. But Lola’s pain had to be worse than mine. I had to suck it up for her, otherwise I was a terrible best friend. “Let’s get that ice cream now.”

  “A double scoop.”

  “Let’s make it a triple.” We consoled ourselves with chocolate ice cream sprinkled with chocolate flakes. I would have drowned it in chocolate syrup if we’d had any.

  Just as we were ready to lick the remnants from the bottom of our bowls, my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number. I was tempted not to answer it but could have used the distraction. “Hello?”

  “Is that Amery?” A female voice. I recognized it, but couldn’t quite place it.

  “Yes. And you are?”

  “It’s Rubette. I hope you don’t mind me calling you.” The settlers rarely called me, I was instantly on full alert as my mind raced with all the reasons for the call. I couldn’t take any more bad news that morning. Seriously.

  “Of course I don’t mind,” I replied quickly. “Is there something wrong?”

  “There’s a meeting going on, you need to come.” Rubette’s voice suddenly sounded panicked. That dreaded feeling I had been experiencing all morning got a dozen times worse.

  “What’s the meeting about?”

  “I don’t have time to explain, please hurry and come down. We’re at the corner of Mindy and Elliott Street.” She hung up on me before I could say another word. I stared at the phone.

  “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Lola said.

  “There’s something going on.” Why did I even bother getting out of bed that morning? I could have avoided the entire day’s events. “Feel like a drive?”

  “Better than sitting around here piling on the pounds.”

  I picked up my keys and we headed for the car. If nothing else, Rubette’s cryptic phone call was enough to switch my mind to something else. Even though that horrible dreaded feeling was threatening to consume me, at least it took my mind off Lochie. And Lola’s off Asher.

  As it turned out, there was a dance studio at the corner of Mindy and Elliott Street. For a moment I wondered if Rubette was playing some kind of a prank on me. The Truconian settlers weren’t exactly known for their practical jokes but there had to be a first time for everything.

  Parking on the street, we entered to find the front door of the studio being guarded by one of the settlers. I knew him only as Bren, a guy in his thirties. I held up my left arm so he could see my triangle tattoo, it spoke volumes amongst the Truconians. He nodded to me as I entered, but gave Lola a suspicious look and stepped in front of her. “You’re not a Truconian.”

  “It’s okay, she’s with me,” I said, grabbing Lola’s hand so it was clear we were a package deal.

  They had a stare off between them. If only Bren knew how long Lola could stare someone down, he wouldn’t even have bothered.

  “Bren, it’s okay. Seriously,” I repeated, trying to sound more insistent this time.

  “She’s human.”

  “Hey, I’ve been to Trucon,” Lola said brusquely.

  “She’s probably more alien than human at this point,” I stated. I was getting impatient, I needed to find out what was going on inside. Surely it had to be something big to warrant this kind of paranoia.

  Bren sighed and stepped aside when he realized there was no way Lola was going to stay outside. He nodded us through and we didn’t hesitate to move.

  Inside was standing room only. The small hall was completely packed with settlers. It was either a fun reunion or there was much more going on. I really feared it was the latter.

  The meeting seemed to be being run by a woman at the front. I had seen her around before but she wasn’t one of the families I visited regularly. Her name was Senph, I was pretty sure she had three children that were only young – maybe middle school age. Her black hair bobbed when she talked.

  “If we continue on, we will spend our lives in menial jobs that the humans don’t even want to do. They will oppress us until we are nothing more than gutter scum, slaves. I don’t want that for my children. Do you?” She stared down the audience with a determined gaze and fierce green eyes. Some actually recoiled from her look, others nodded in a
greement.

  I spotted Rubette a few people away from where Lola and I were standing. She waved when she saw me, obviously she had been keeping an eye on the door.

  “We have to do something,” someone shouted. I wasn’t tall enough to see who it was.

  Senph nodded, pleased with the reaction. “Exactly. We may not be strong in numbers, but we are strong with powers. We can demand our place here.”

  So that’s what the meeting was about. Some of the Truconians were tired of being treated like a lesser race by the humans. I could think of a hundred examples that would justify their feelings. What happened every time Lochie and I were out in public together was just one of them. But surely time would fix that? All we had to do was prove ourselves, earn some respect.

  Even as those thoughts popped into my head, another voice in the back of my mind was reminding me that project members had already given seventeen years of their lives to prove themselves and apparently that wasn’t long enough for some.

  A male Truconian put up his hand about a second before he spoke. “But we have been forbidden from using our powers. It is against our leaders’ direct orders.” He earned a few head nods too. Powers? I assumed only the leaders like Krom had active powers. Nobody had ever mentioned them to me.

  The project members all had their powers suppressed when they were babies so we didn’t give ourselves away to the humans inadvertently. But nobody had ever explained exactly what we should have been capable of if we weren’t in the project. I always just thought the powers would be something lame like being double jointed. Perhaps the ability to turn a light off with our mind, at best.

  “Our leaders are too caught up in politics to see what is going on,” Senph replied, getting fired up. “They have been blinded by the humans and their hands bound. Which is why it is time the people spoke. It is time we found our voice.”

  “Yeah!” Several of her audience members called out together. Judging solely on the number of people nodding, it seemed she had the majority of everyone on her side. I wasn’t entirely convinced that was a good thing.

  “Our powers are going to waste,” a woman down the front yelled. “It’s like we’re not ourselves anymore. They’re holding us back on purpose. They don’t want us to be special.”

  Senph pointed to her. “Jillac is right. We are Truconians, we are a proud race. We need to rise up and show the humans who we really are. We have the power. We can do this.”

  Lola leaned in and whispered in my ear. “Am I safe here?” She was only joking but a tattoo on her wrist wouldn’t have gone astray. If I had a marker pen on me, I would have drawn one on her just to make sure. I never thought being a human on Earth would be a bad thing.

  “I don’t know if I’m safe here,” I teased back, nervously laughing.

  Without warning, a woman’s arm shot into the air and a loud bang rang out above her. It gave me a freaking heart attack. It was like someone had lit a firework as colorful sparks rained down on her. If that was a taste of a power, then I wondered what all the Truconians hid inside them and were forbidden from using. Perhaps the suppression order wasn’t entirely a foolish law.

  “We will fight back,” Senph declared.

  Everyone joined her as sparks flew everywhere, lighting up the dim hall. People cheered, they clapped, they stomped their feet with excitement. The energy was charged like I had never before seen amongst the Truconians.

  My mind reeled as Senph’s words sunk in. Rise up. Fight back. Use their powers. I got the feeling something was coming, something that was being started in that dance studio on an ordinary suburban street in Portview.

  And I was terrified.

  RISE

  “I am a human being; nothing human can be alien to me.”

  - Terence.

  CHAPTER 1

  Nobody else in the universe existed except Lochie and I. It was just the two of us, stealing time alone while the rest of the world went about their business.

  He cradled my head with both of his hands, one just underneath my ear, the other tangled in my hair. His beautiful blue eyes drilled into me like I was the only thing he saw, the only thing he could imagine seeing.

  The only thing he needed.

  “I love you so much, Ame,” he whispered. He leaned down, our lips meeting. He kissed me softly, gently, before becoming hungry. The heat rose as the intensity increased. All my thoughts went away until I was just feeling and nothing else.

  My whole body was like jelly as his was pressed against me. Our bodies fit so perfectly together that I was certain we were made for each other. We may have been born on different planets, but our fate was destined to be together.

  We were both breathless by the time the kiss ended. His face remained next to mine as our eyes found each other once again.

  “I love you too, Lochie,” I finally replied. A smile crept over his lips, dimpling his cheek. God, that dimple. What I would do for that dimple.

  “I’m so glad we ran away. We don’t need anyone else.”

  I nodded as he kissed my forehead. He rolled over onto his back, the contours of his bare chest shadowed in the moonlight. We lay staring the ceiling. I pulled the sheet up to cover myself, already missing the warmth of his body on mine.

  I moved so my head rested on his chest, his arm snaking around my shoulders to cradle me there. The hotel room was only small. We had been on the run for an indeterminable amount of time. It was like we were stuck in a haze, a fog where nothing else mattered. Lochie was my drug and I was an addict.

  My fingers lazily traced over his muscles. He caught my hand in his, letting out a breathy laugh. “If you keep doing that, I’m not going to be able to control myself.”

  “Who said I wanted you to control yourself?” I looked up just in time to see that dimple again. It sent all the butterflies fluttering in my stomach. It should have been illegal the way Lochie made me feel. Surely something that good couldn’t be right.

  “You’re dangerous, Jones. You do all sorts of things to my thoughts.”

  “What are you thinking right now?” I asked, genuinely curious. There was a hint of danger to our conversation and I loved it. I felt like being daring that night and Lochie was giving me all the ammunition I needed.

  He pursed his lips as he thought about what he would tell me, how much of his mind he would allow me to see. “I’m remembering what we just did.”

  Those thoughts made me smile too. The way Lochie caressed my skin, the jolts of electricity he sent through me, the kisses he planted everywhere. “We could do it again. Then you wouldn’t have to rely on the memories.”

  He pulled me closer to his side. His arms were so strong, they made me feel so safe there. It didn’t matter who came for us, or what happened, I knew it would be okay if he was the one holding me.

  Oh God, I was such a lovestruck sap. I blamed Lochie entirely for that. I had been a sensible person before I fell in love with him. I used to be so devoted to my mission, Project Integrate. He brought out my rebelliousness, gave me a reason to question everything. Damn him.

  “You’re insatiable tonight,” he said, his eyes sparkling with mischief.

  “I don’t hear you complaining,” I pointed out.

  “Well, Jones, prepare to be amazed.” He pushed me over and covered my mouth with his. Our bodies intertwined once again. All I knew was that I would never get enough of Lochie Mercury.

  Never. Ever.

  I stopped thinking again, letting his hands be my guide as they slid down my body. I shivered with his touch, feeling more alive than I had ever felt in my entire life.

  And then it was gone.

  Darkness surrounded me. I blinked a few times and sat up, still feeling Lochie’s hands on my skin. I had to gulp in air to get my lungs to work again.

  I was alone in my bedroom. The tree was scratching against the window, making a sound like nails on a chalkboard. Reality started rushing in, assaulting my brain with the horrible truth.

  Lochie was gone.
He had been for weeks. He wasn’t even answering his cell phone anymore. I had been completely shut out of his new life. And it was making me miserable.

  It was like a part of me was gone now. I hadn’t felt whole since he left. I never wanted to be one of those girls who needed a guy in her life. And I didn’t need him. I was perfectly capable of living without Lochie.

  But I didn’t want to. I still loved him just as much as I did three weeks ago when he said he was leaving to attend summer school at his college campus. Nothing had changed in my mind, but obviously it had in Lochie’s.

  I lay back in bed, trying to remove all traces of that dream from my brain. Instead, my traitorous thoughts wanted to keep replaying it. Over and over again.

  The entire scene had all seemed so real, like Lochie was lying right next to me in the bed. I could still feel his lips on mine. It was exactly like he used to kiss me.

  Used to. Not anymore.

  I waited until the sun peeked over the horizon and no longer. I couldn’t sit around and do nothing and I certainly couldn’t go back to sleep. Not after that dream. It made me blush just remembering it.

  I changed into some shorts and a tank top and put on my trainers. I left the house and started running. I found exercise was the best way for me to deal with things, it helped reduce the frustration building inside me. Frustration over Lochie, all those sexy dreams I kept having about him, everything that was going on with the Truconians, Lola’s campaign to forget about Asher. I had a lot to be frustrated about.

  My feet pounded along the pavement with no destination in mind. I just needed to run, to feel the burn in my lungs so it replaced the ache in my heart.

  The side benefit of so much running was the strength growing in my body. A few months ago, when Project Integrate had started going bad, I had vowed to myself I would exercise more if I survived everything. I needed to be strong and fit so I would have a chance of surviving if anything happened again.

  Considering what was secretly going on behind closed doors in the Trucon community, there was a very real possibility I would need to use that strength in the near future.