Daemon ignored that. “She and Archer are out. She has several interviews.”
My little old ears pricked right up. “With that stupid senator?”
“Among other stupid people.” A brief grin appeared, but it quickly faded. “Remember that Sons of Liberty guy? Steven? He was talking about a flu?”
“The one weaponized with the mutation,” I said. “He said it had been released in small batches.”
Daemon nodded. “Well, it appears it’s been released more widely. A lot of people are getting sick. Some are acting violent. Some are dying.”
My stomach dropped, and immediately, I thought of James, of everyone I’d seen day in and day out at Centennial High. “How widely?”
“From what Dee has learned, the initial outbreaks in Kansas City and Boulder have spread. I don’t know how many are sick, but it’s enough that people aren’t able to leave or enter the cities,” Daemon said, and I pressed my hand to the center of my chest. “There’s been another in Orlando, one in New Orleans, and…”
My breath caught as dread exploded inside me. “Where?”
There was a quick glance at Luc before Daemon answered. “Columbia, Maryland, and some of the surrounding cities.”
“No,” I whispered, my knees suddenly wobbly. I wanted to turn right around and find my way back to Columbia. It sounded crazy. What could I do? But I wanted to make sure that James and my friends were okay.
“How bad is it?” Luc demanded.
“Same as the other cities. They’re locked down, trying to stop the potential spread.” Kat’s hand stilled on the center of the baby’s back. Adam was asleep. “Or so they claim, but if the Daedalus is responsible for the flu, you know there’s either a reason they’re containing it right now or it’s a lie.”
“There are no estimates on how many are sickened?” Luc asked.
“The only thing Dee has heard is that in Boulder they’re saying it’s about three percent of the population, but it’s higher there because of the large Luxen population.” Daemon’s jaw worked. “That’s what the officials are saying, and that’s probably a little over three thousand based on when we lived there.”
“Dear God,” I gasped. “If less than fifty percent get the flu vaccine and you use those statistics, that could mean at least fifteen hundred of them will die or mutate.”
Daemon said something, but I wasn’t tracking. A steady stream of faces flashed before me, some of them I knew, others nameless, and then that stream turned into a river of faceless people, all of them innocent. Nausea twisted up my insides.
“And let me guess, the Luxen are being blamed and the public is buying it hook, line, and sinker?”
“Yep,” Daemon clipped out.
“We have to do something,” I said, heart thumping.
“There’s nothing we can do.” Luc faced me.
“There has to be something.” My thoughts raced for an answer, settling on the one thing Mom had always stressed. “Flu shots. Dee could get a message out there to make sure people are getting their flu shots. It would be some protection—”
“There’s a nationwide shortage,” Daemon cut in. “A very convenient one. If people haven’t gotten their shot, they won’t get one.”
I lifted a hand, running it over my brow. “There’s got to be something else. People are going to mutate or they’re going to die.”
“Something is being done,” Luc said.
“You just said there’s nothing—”
“We can do,” he repeated. “As in you and me, and everyone in this room, including the adorable sleeping baby. We can’t fight a flu virus, Peaches. Not with our fists or the Source, unless we use the latter to firebomb the hell out of cities, and I don’t think anyone wants that.”
“I know that.”
“Dee is doing everything to get the word out there that the Luxen aren’t making humans sick,” Daemon explained. “That the flu is spreading like any other flu, through human-to-human contact. She’s not blaming the Daedalus or the government. If she went at them like that, she’d be shut out. No one would hear her. We have to hope that people are listening to her and taking the right precautions instead of buying into catchy nicknames.”
“We have to believe that,” Kat corrected. “There are a lot of humans out there that aren’t afraid of Luxen, who have to see through this BS.”
“And then what?” I asked, looking between the two of them. “What if they do listen? What if they don’t? Once the flu does its damage and kills or mutates millions, or even if there are no more outbreaks, what are we going to do?”
Neither Kat nor Daemon answered.
I sucked in a sharp breath. I knew what that meant—what it still meant even though Daemon was willing to give me another chance and even be there to help Luc stop me before things got out of hand. Neither of them trusted me, not with what they planned to do.
That still stung and it still angered me, but what crushed me was the knowledge that I had yet to give them any real reasons to trust me.
I could feel Luc’s gaze on me when he asked, “What is this catchy nickname for the flu?”
“It’s the most uninventive thing you could imagine.” Disgust dripped from Daemon’s tone. “They’re calling it ET.”
21
Three days after learning the flu with the stupidest nickname ever was spreading and the only thing any of us could do was hope that people would listen to Dee, I caught the stuffed banana that flew out of Zoe’s hand, winging straight for my palm instead of my face.
“Aha!” I shouted, thrusting the toy Luc had stolen from Daemon and Kat’s house into the air.
“You did it again!” Zoe clapped, a much more helpful and enthusiastic audience than Grayson.
“Congratulations,” came the gruff voice that was surprisingly more irritating than Grayson’s dry one. “You stopped a stuffed banana from physically assaulting your face.” A pregnant pause. “After twenty-three attempts.”
I counted to ten as my gaze slid past Luc’s bemused expression to the old man sitting in the folded metal chair.
Unfortunately, Zoe hadn’t come alone the last two days.
General Eaton sat there, rubbing the knee of his stiff leg. He had more comments than a sports broadcaster. When he’d showed up yesterday with Zoe, he’d claimed he’d wanted to see for himself that I was—how had he put it? “Awake and breathing and not trying to kill everyone in sight.”
Lovely.
“It was not twenty-three times,” I snapped, resisting the urge to turn the banana into a real projectile and launch it toward his head.
“It was more like fifteen,” Luc interjected.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re so not helping.”
Luc grinned, but there was something off about it. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was or if there was anything truly off about it. You’re hot when you’re mad.
Don’t try to sweet-talk me.
Chuckling, Luc lifted his hand, and the banana flew from mine straight to his. Over the last couple of days, Luc constantly shifted from speaking out loud to not, and while it was still a shock to hear his voice so clearly, sending what I wanted him to hear had gotten easier. And despite Eaton’s less-than-supportive attitude, I was significantly better at using the Source. Yes, my aim was sometimes a wee bit off, but from day one, as Luc was referring to the first day after waking up, there been a marked improvement. No more misfires when I was attempting to move something. I didn’t have to concentrate as hard, and I was feeling pretty darn kick-ass, to be honest.
“We’re going to try to do something harder,” Luc announced, tossing the banana into Eaton’s lap. The general frowned down at it. “I want you to move animate objects—something that can fight back.”
Zoe lifted her hand. “I volunteer as tribute.”
I crossed my arms. “Not sure I’m comfortable with that.”
“I am.” Slipping the hair band off her wrist, she pulled the mass of tight curls back from
her face. “Move me. I dare you.”
Eaton arched his brow.
I looked to Luc. His shoulders were tense. Moving a stolen stuffed banana was one thing. Forcing my friend to do something was entirely another.
It’s okay. You’re not going to hurt her, Luc’s voice came to me.
How can you be sure?
Because I’m not asking you to toss her through a window.
My lips thinned as I shifted my gaze to Zoe. “Are you sure about this?”
She nodded. “We used to do this all the time when we were training. It’s how we learned to work with the Source.”
Well, that didn’t really make me feel that much better. “And you’re okay with doing this again?”
“Get on with it, girl.” Eaton scratched at his chin. “The day isn’t getting any longer.”
“If you’re bored, you can always go find something else,” I suggested nicely.
He tipped forward. “I got a piece of advice for you.”
“You do?”
“That’s why I’m here,” he replied. “If you want to take what was done to you and do something good with it, you’ve got to get over yourself.”
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Eaton,” Luc sighed, turning to the older man.
“Naw, hear me out.” He held up a hand. “You keep thinking like you’re a human—like you’re surrounded by fragile, little humans. You aren’t human. Not anymore. And these two have never been human. You need to stop thinking and acting that way.”
“He has a point,” Zoe said after a moment. “You’re not going to hurt me.”
Luc said nothing as I shifted my weight from foot to foot. The thing was, I could hurt Zoe, but Luc was right. I wasn’t going to try to throw her out a window or anything. And Eaton was also correct. I was still thinking like a human. Kind of hard not to.
“Okay.” I unfolded my arms. “Let’s do this.”
“I want you to push Zoe back without touching her,” Luc instructed.
Zoe skipped her way over to where I stood, stopping in front of me, smiling brightly. “Move me.”
I stared at her.
“Do it. You know what to do. Make me move.” She pushed my shoulder, and I rolled my eyes. “Make. Me. Move.”
“You don’t have to be this annoying.”
“Oh, you know you haven’t seen anything yet,” she replied. “I can be way more annoying than this. Remember that time you and Heidi wanted to watch that creepy show about bugs inside people and I was not about that kind of life?”
I grinned as the memory surfaced. “You started dancing in front of the TV, doing a really bad interpretative dance routine.”
“Oh yeah.” She lifted her brows. “I can be a tree again. A tree being knocked down.” Raising her arms above her head, she started to sway back and forth. “A sad tree, being knocked down.”
“What in the hell,” muttered Luc.
Trying not to laugh as Zoe started to dip to the right and then the left, I tapped into the hum of energy in my chest and pictured Zoe moving—“Oh, shit!”
Zoe’s feet skidded along the floor as she flew backward, her shirt rippling around her. Throwing a hand out, she caught herself before she slammed into the wall.
Eaton chuckled. “Well, hot damn, things just got interesting.”
“Oh my God, I’m sorry!” I started toward Zoe.
“That was freaking amazing!” Zoe exclaimed, and I drew up short. “Holy crap, it was like being hit by hurricane-force winds.” Her wide-eyed gaze swung toward Luc. “Did you see that?”
“I saw it.” A faint smile marked his lips. “Do it again, but this time, Zoe, fight back.”
“I did.” She straightened her shirt as she walked back to where I stood. “I fought back.”
“Fight harder.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Okay.” Facing me, she was all business this time around. No interpretative dance routines. Chin dipped, arms at her sides, she nodded. “Move me.”
I did what I did before, picturing her moving, but this time Zoe’s pupils flared white and she didn’t fly backward. She scooted back several inches.
“Push her back,” Luc ordered, his jaw clenching.
I pushed, fingers curling inward. Zoe’s lips pressed together, and white veins appeared underneath her skin even as she moved another foot.
“Dammit,” she growled, her tank top plastering to her stomach and chest.
A second later, she lost the battle, sliding backward. Letting up, I looked to Luc.
He was frowning. “Are you really resisting, Zoe?”
“Yes!” She threw up her arms. “I thought I had it for a moment, but she’s…” Zoe shifted her gaze to me. “Dude, you’re strong.” Her gaze flickered over me. “And your skin right now? It looks pretty damn cool.”
A wealth of pride swelled in my chest, and Zoe and I squared off once more. Zoe was able to resist for a handful of seconds the next couple of times, but after that, I pushed harder, and there was no resisting.
Zoe had to tap out shortly after that, and Luc took her place. She had volunteered to help the doc carry out general wellness checks on all the humans. I had a feeling they were checking and double-checking for any signs of a flu, even though it was highly unlikely that anyone would’ve come into contact with it.
Luc stood in front of me, legs wide and braced. I pushed—pushed hard. His shirt blew back against his body as his hair whipped over his forehead. His pupils flared intensely, and for several seconds, he didn’t move.
And then he did.
Luc slid about a foot before catching himself. White burst to life, lighting up a network of veins along his cheeks and throat. He didn’t budge after that.
Sucking in air, I shook out my arms. “That’s all I can do.”
Luc straightened, the light receding from his veins. Brackets of tension formed around his mouth. “You are powerful. We already know that, but you know what else I know?”
“What?” I caught the water he tossed me and took a drink.
“I know you are way more powerful than that.” He stalked toward me, taking the bottle I offered. “I have firsthand knowledge of that.”
My stomach tumbled a little as I watched him take a drink. “What I’m doing right now isn’t what I did in the woods.”
“True, but you have that kind of strength in you. You should be able to send me flying across the room.”
I smothered a yawn, wondering why Luc was so eager to be thrown across a room.
“Tired?” Luc stepped closer, his voice low.
Sleep hadn’t come easily since I’d awakened from my short-term coma. Well, staying asleep was the problem. Falling asleep had been all too easy. I had no idea if it had to do with the whole mutating thing waking me up, worrying about Heidi and Emery, or learning about the flu, but either way, I’d spent a lot of quiet hours thinking everything over. Dee and Archer were slated to return today, and I hoped she carried with her some update about the flu and what was really happening.
But there was something that kept nagging at me, existing just out of my reach. I kept thinking it was something Kat had said when we’d visited her, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
“I’m fine,” I told him, and then privately I added, I promised you that I would tell you if I’m feeling weird or anything. I’m not. “I don’t want to toss you across a room.”
Luc set the bottle aside. “And that is the problem.”
I stiffened.
He curled his fingers around the hem of my shirt, straightening it. “Eaton could’ve said it better.”
“I thought I said it just perfectly,” the general muttered.
Luc ignored him. “But you are thinking like a human. You’re treating us like we’re humans. You held back on Zoe. I know you did,” he said when I opened my mouth to disagree. “She shouldn’t have been able to resist at all. And you didn’t push as hard as I know you can with me. You need to stop worrying about hurting me or Zoe.�
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I placed my hands on my hips. “Easier said than done, Luc. I am capable of hurting you, and I don’t know exactly what the limit is.”
“Knowing your limit is easy.” His eyes met mine. “You don’t want to hurt me, then you don’t hurt me.”
My brows lifted. “That may sound like it makes sense to you, but it doesn’t to me.”
White light erupted from his palm, and he lifted his hand. Energy crackled softly as he cupped my cheek. His palm and the Source were warm as he touched me, sending soft jolts of energy skittering over my skin.
“Does that hurt?” he asked.
“No.”
“But you’ve seen me use this to kill, haven’t you? You’ve seen me place this very hand on someone and burn them from the inside out, right?”
Chest tightening, I nodded. “Not like I’m going to forget that.”
“The Source is the Source, Peaches. The only difference is the will behind it—the who behind it. I don’t want to hurt you, so I don’t. You don’t want to hurt me, so you don’t.”
He switched to a much more private form of conversation. The night of the nightmare, you panicked and lost control. You had no will behind what was happening, and when the Source is left on its own, it often just becomes pure, raw destruction.
“Try it,” he said, lowering his hand. The Source flickered out. “Summon the Source and touch me.”
The mere idea of doing that caused my heart to speed up.
“I have a feeling you two are doing that thing Kat and Daemon do all the time,” Eaton grumbled. “Talking to each other the way you all do.”
Luc held my gaze. “Someone sounds jealous.” Try it, Evie. I trust you.
Pulse pounding, I knew I had to try. You’ll stop me if it hurts you?
It won’t. A pause. But I will if it does.
Taking a deep and calming breath, I summoned the Source as I lifted a hand. A mass of churning light and darkness blossomed from my palm. Eaton muttered a sharp curse as the energy licked over and between my fingers. Under the Source, glittering dots appeared like shards of onyx embedded in my skin. I don’t want to hurt him. I don’t want to hurt him. I kept repeating that as I reached out, placing my hand on his arm. Luc jerked a little, and I started to lift my hand.
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