“Oh my God, please feel free whenever you can. I have the opposite of a green thumb. I have a black thumb of death, actually. The garden will need your help.”
“Maybe I can teach you a few tricks to turn your black thumb of death to a muddy-green color.” Kat gave me a tired smile. “Come.” She gestured at the space in front of Dee. “Sit. We figured since Luc was with the guys, we could have some one-on-one time.”
Nervous and wanting to, well, wanting so badly to make a good impression, I got my butt where she wanted me. I sat at the foot of the bed, in front of Dee. “I didn’t know Archer was with them.”
“I don’t think they knew that until Archer invited himself along,” Dee replied dryly.
Kat laughed at that. “But to be honest, I totally had an ulterior motive for inviting you over. I have a ton of questions for you.”
Suspecting what her questions had to do with, I decided not to beat around the bush. “Daemon told you what I did to him in the woods.”
“He did.” Heather-gray eyes met mine. Eyes I knew had seen things weaker people wouldn’t have survived. “And I’m relieved that he’s okay. If not, I’d have to do my best to take you out, pregnant or not.”
Getting the warning loud and clear, I pushed past the embarrassment driven by the uncomfortable truth of what I’d done and nodded. “Understandable.” My cheeks warmed. “I really am sorry about what I did. I don’t expect either you or Daemon to accept that. I just hope you all know that I am genuinely sorry.”
“But I do accept your apology,” Kat said, surprising me. “From what I understand, you had no control over what happened, and Daemon knows that, too.”
Daemon may know that, but I doubted he was as forgiving as Kat. “Part of me wishes you didn’t accept my apology. I know that sounds weird, but…” I trailed off, uncertain of how to explain it.
“But you feel like you should be punished. I get it. Trust me. We’ve all done things that ended badly for others, whether it was unintentional or not.” Kat glanced at Dee, who nodded. “My actions led to the death of one of Dee’s good friends. It wasn’t something I did on purpose. In fact, I thought I was doing the right thing. Dee has forgiven me, but there are still days when it feels like she shouldn’t have.”
“But I did.” Dee leaned into Kat’s shoulder. “Eventually,” she added. “And look, Daemon needs knocking down a peg or five hundred every so often.”
I blinked slowly.
Kat laughed softly. “That is true. Usually, it’s Luc who reserves that special place.”
“They seem to threaten each another a lot,” I acknowledged.
“That’s their version of male bonding.” Dee rolled her eyes. “Throw Archer in the mix, and it’s like who can out-threaten one another.”
“What about Dawson?”
“Dawson is the only normal one out of all of them,” Dee said, and Kat nodded. “So, if he threatens someone, it means some bad stuff is about to go down.”
“Noted,” I murmured, thinking that Dawson and Daemon may appear identical, but their personalities couldn’t be any more different.
“I’m pretty sure this kid has a foot planted in a vital organ.” Kat planted her hands in the mattress and shifted slightly. Once settled, she breathed deeply. “I don’t know if Luc told you this or not, but when I was first mutated, I had no idea what was happening. I was a mess. If I thought about wanting a glass of tea, the jug would open up in the fridge and spill all over the place.”
“No way.”
Resting her hands on her belly, she nodded. “Doors would open before I touched them. Clothing fell off hangers. There were a couple of minutes where I thought maybe my house was possessed.”
Dee laughed.
“It takes a lot for a Luxen to mutate a human, and it’s not something that happens often, so it wasn’t even a thing I considered at first, but when I finally did tell Daemon, he knew what was going on.” She paused. “I think he was as shocked as I was at first.”
“How did it happen?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t being too nosy.
“Short version of a long story, but it can all be boiled down to Daemon healing me one too many times.”
“Okay. That is not even the correct short version. Yes. Daemon healed her a couple of times, but what did it was that Kat was all badass and saved our lives,” Dee jumped in. “Before the invasion and everything, the biggest threat were the Arum.”
“My, how things have changed,” muttered Kat.
“Daemon had taken out this one Arum’s siblings, and the dude was gunning for Daemon and me. Kat and Daemon were like archenemies at this point, and he said some stupid typical Daemon crap to her, and she ended up volunteering to be a human distraction, much to Daemon’s displeasure—”
“Daemon and I didn’t get along in the beginning,” Kat said, grinning. “Actually, I sort of hated him at that point. Okay. I thought he was hot even then, but his hotness did not override his douche-ness.”
“Anyway, she ended up basically sacrificing herself to save Daemon and me. She almost died.”
“I would’ve died if Daemon hadn’t healed me, and it was such a massive healing, it started to change me on a cellular level.” The topknot on Kat’s head slipped to the side. “The rest of what happened is long and convoluted and, to be honest, will just make me mad and depressed.”
“You don’t need to tell me any more,” I rushed to assure her.
Kat’s gray gaze flickered over my face, and silence stretched out between us. “We met a couple of times.”
The next breath got stuck in my throat. “Daemon said as much. He told me you saw me in the club when you first met Luc.”
She nodded. “And I saw you later, during the invasion. Luc had brought you to Malmstrom, an airbase in Montana. All of us were there, including Eaton. Luc tried to keep you hidden from us.”
I frowned. “Why?”
“Have you met Luc?” Dee asked with a short laugh.
“I’m sure you’ve noticed he’s a little protective of you,” Kat said, and then it was I who laughed.
“Just a little,” I said, rubbing my hands over my knees. “Did we talk then?”
She shook her head. “You were … resting most of the time you were there.”
I understood what that meant. It must’ve been while I’d been very sick.
“After the invasion and things settled down, Luc visited us while we were living in Colorado and you weren’t with him. We thought that you’d…”
“Died?” I supplied. When Kat gave an awkward nod, I grinned. “I think in a way, I did. I mean, other than a few brief memories that don’t tell me much, I don’t remember anything about my time as Nadia.”
Kat’s eyes met mine. “That’s probably a good thing.”
My hands stilled on my legs. “Yeah, I’m kind of getting that feeling.” I looked down at my hands. “I mean, I want to know who I was, but I’m thinking it’s a curse and a—” Words left me as a splattering of shimmering black dots spread across the top of my right hand.
“You okay?” Dee asked.
Heart stopping, I blinked. My hand appeared normal a second later. What in the world? I glanced at the girls and then back to my hand. Still normal. Had I seen what I thought I saw? Or was it some sort of trick of the eye? I didn’t know.
Throat dry, I nodded. “Yeah, just thinking about the whole lack-of-memories thing.”
A look of sympathy traveled across Kat’s face. “I can’t imagine what that feels like, not remembering who I was, but I do know what it was like to be trained by the Daedalus and how far they will go to advance their cause.”
That caught enough of my attention that I shoved the weird hand thing aside. “I have … feelings sometimes,” I admitted tentatively, only because I was unsure of how to explain it. “Like emotions tied to those repressed memories. They’re not good, so there’s a part of me that is grateful. A huge part of me, because I think if I did know, I wouldn’t be okay.”
; Kat’s hands stilled on her belly. “Daemon told me about Jason Dasher,” she announced. “He tried to keep it from me, but I knew he was hiding something. I can’t believe he’s alive, but in a way, I’m not surprised. Hardly anything surprises me anymore.” She exhaled roughly. “I knew Jason Dasher. He had a way of almost getting you to believe what they were doing was for the greater good. So did Nancy.”
I zeroed in on that name. “Eaton mentioned her when we first talked to him, and Luc didn’t seem to be happy to hear that name.”
“He wouldn’t be.” Kat raised her eyebrows. “Nancy Husher oversaw the Origins; they were her pet project. She basically raised Luc until he escaped, and she was obsessed with finding the most powerful Luxen, believing that would ensure better Origin offspring. That woman was a—” She clamped her mouth shut, shaking her head while I sat there in stunned silence. “Let’s just say I would’ve loved to have been there when Luc ended her life.”
“Luc never told you about her, did he?” Dee read me like an open book. I shook my head. “Well, he probably would rather not think about her.”
“I know I prefer that,” Kat remarked. “And if Luc hasn’t brought her up, then I should shut my mouth.”
I started to disagree.
“It needs to be Luc who tells you about Nancy,” she cut in before I could demand answers. “I might’ve already said too much.”
“It’s not your fault. You probably thought he’d brought her up.” I didn’t know how to feel about not knowing about all of this, but … “A lot has happened since Luc and I … since we reconnected, and he’s been mostly focused on me and what I’ve been going through. There hasn’t been a lot of time for much beyond that.”
I wanted to pat myself on the back. Look at me being all logical instead of getting my feelings irrationally hurt.
I deserved more peanut butter.
“Which leads me to my super-nosy question.” Kat exchanged a look with Dee. “We want to know more about your abilities.”
I told them what I knew I could do, and I was up-front about the fact I had no control over the few times I was able to use the Source. I left out what had happened the night before, because I just didn’t feel Kat needed to worry about how close I’d come to possibly leveling their house. At no point did either of them make me feel like I was an out-of-control freak, and that bolstered my courage to tell them what I did next.
“Luc is going to work with me to get it under control. I don’t want to risk anyone here, and I want to be able to fight back. I want to take the Daedalus down. Permanently. And if I’m as badass as a Trojan is supposed to be, I can help. I can fight with you all,” I said, and there was no missing the quick looks Dee and Kat sent each other. I rushed on before they could rain on my parade. “I know that people are training in the Yard. I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, but I know that’s what’s happening. And I also know that none of you have a reason to trust me, but if I can control this, you all will need me.”
Kat was silent.
It was Dee who spoke. “You’re right. If you can get control of your abilities, we would need you. I’ve never heard of anyone being able to do what you did.”
Nodding, I didn’t let myself get too excited. I could feel a huge but coming along.
And it did. “But I’m not sure what it will take for us to take that risk.” Dee’s bright green eyes held mine. “It’s not something personal. I like you. Plus, according to Zoe, you have a girl crush on me. You have my vote.”
I was going to punch Zoe.
Seriously.
“But it’s not just me, and to be honest, what you are may be too much of a risk,” Dee continued, and the weight of words sank like stones. “If there is just a small chance that you may link up to the Daedalus, it’s too much of a chance.”
Her words were nothing more than the truth—the raw truth—but before I could really feel the burn of those words, I compartmentalized like a pro and nodded. “I understand, but aren’t I already a risk?”
“You are,” Kat admitted. “If you were to link up and report back what you already know, we’d be screwed. All the innocent people here would be screwed.”
“I know—”
“Then you have to know what we’d be forced to do,” Kat cut me off, her gaze steady. “We won’t let you take any information back to the Daedalus.”
My heart turned over heavily as I held her stare, and I was surprised by how calm my next words were. “You’d kill me?”
“There was a time I wouldn’t even think for a second that ending someone’s life was a decision or an act I could be a part of,” she said, her hand slowly rubbing her swollen stomach. “That it was something I would hate to decide but would do nonetheless. But that was a long time ago. That was a different life. We would not allow you to take any information back to the Daedalus.”
I knew she was only speaking another uncomfortable truth. I also knew it wasn’t personal and that she didn’t want to have to say any of this to me. And like with Cekiah, if the shoes were on the other feet, I’d say the same and do the same. The warning still burned like I had face-planted in asphalt and slid, and it hurt in that spot of my heart that wanted nothing more than to belong here, to be friends with Kat and Dee, and to be a part of their plans to take down the organization that had undoubtedly done terrible things to all of us. And it hurt because I knew it meant I would never have any of those things, not beyond the superficial.
But I swallowed the thick knot of emotion and said, “If you all managed to be successful, you’d have Luc to deal with.”
“We know,” Kat said with a sad smile. “We know that none of us would live longer than the second it takes Luc to realize what we’ve done, but protecting the people and what we’re doing here is worth our lives. And he knows even now what we’d do, but he believes it won’t happen. I hope it doesn’t, so let’s hope together that day never comes for any of us.”
* * *
Shortly after Kat told me I was as good as dead if I ever linked up with the rest of the Trojans, I left her place. Strangely enough, it wasn’t because of that comment. Dee had quickly and smoothly shifted the conversation to her next on-air interview with Senator Freeman, and by then, Kat was fading out. I was betting she was napping before I even made it to the front door.
Troubled by what the future possibly held here and somehow hungry, I all but dragged myself into the silent house. With that jar of peanut butter in mind, I walked into the kitchen, the room lit only by the wide window over the sink. I heard the sharp inhale of breath that wasn’t mine.
My head jerked in the direction of the small pantry. A kid stood there, several cans of vegetables gathered to his chest and the small bag of baked bread dangling from between his teeth. The moment my eyes connected with his wide, brown ones, I knew the boy hadn’t been at the school. I would’ve recognized that shocking red hair that stuck up in every direction, but it was more than that. The kid was scrawny. Deep hollows under his cheeks and too-sharp collarbones jutting out above the collar of his dirty green shirt. That wasn’t the only thing soiled. The fingers gripping the cans of food were covered with dust and dirt. His torn jeans were filthy, and those kids at the school had been clean and well fed. Not this kid.
He’d been frozen, just like me, but he snapped out of it. The cans slipped from his arms and clattered to the floor, rolling in every which direction. The bag fell next.
The kid bolted.
10
“Stop!” I yelled.
The kid didn’t listen, rushing around the small kitchen island. I darted toward the back door, blocking his path. He spun around, starting for the entrance I’d come through, but I moved so I was in between the two exits. He jerked to a halt, behind the island, his frail chest rising and falling rapidly.
Heart thumping, my gaze swept over him once more. I had no idea who this kid was, but it was obvious why he was in the kitchen with his arms full of food. The kid looked like he hadn’t had a good meal
in weeks, if not longer, and I knew that meant he couldn’t be living in this community unless he was being kept somewhere by someone who didn’t allow him access to food or water to bathe.
Man, my mind went to some really dark places, but the world and the people in it could be darker than anything my imagination could drum up.
More importantly, though, the thing inside me hadn’t come alive, so I was guessing that meant it didn’t recognize him as a threat. The kid was definitely human, that much I just knew, but I wasn’t naïve enough to believe that didn’t mean he couldn’t become one, but at this moment, I was going to listen to instinct or whatever was inside me.
I kept my eyes on him, preparing for him to try to make a run for it. “Who are you?”
The kid didn’t answer as his gaze darted between the entrance and the back door.
“It’s okay.” I raised my hands, thinking that would help.
It didn’t.
The kid threw his arms up over his head and bent, shielding himself as if he expected me to throw something or to use the Source against him.
Holy crap.
What had happened to this boy? I quickly lowered my hands. “It’s okay,” I repeated. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
He didn’t move, but his small body trembled. The kid was beyond afraid, and while I had no idea what had caused him to be in such a condition, I said the only thing I thought could help.
“I’m not an alien,” I told him, and that wasn’t exactly a lie.
The kid didn’t move for a long moment, but slowly, he lowered his arms. He didn’t look at me, though. “If you’re here, then you’re friends with one of them. You’re with one of them.”
“I am friends with them,” I answered. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to hurt you.”
“Why would I believe that?” He stared at the door as if it were a lifeline, and I had a feeling he would bolt again the moment he felt remotely threatened by me.
The Brightest Night Page 12