“Not with me, but you are with Ky. I saw the way you looked at her earlier.”
“What I do with Ky is my business. Not yours.” I gently turn over to see where they are while trying not to make the bed sound. When I rest on my right side, facing the door, the bed makes a slight creak.
Oops.
Collins asks, “Can I become your business?” as Marc looks over his shoulder.
He stands in the doorway with the door half closed. I can’t see her because he’s blocking her from his room. But the light from the hall cuts in, slicing over the bottom half of the bed, though I stay in the darkness.
He looks back at me and back quickly at Collins. “Goodnight Collins. I’ll see you in the AM.”
“Hugs?”
“No,” he says, but not harshly. He probably would hug her if I wasn’t here.
“Okay, Marc. Night,” she says sweetly, and he closes the door.
I watch him walk to his rack and hang his vest and take off his guns and boots. “I’m going to get in the shower. Will you be in here when I return?”
“Yes.”
He grabs some clothes from his top drawer. “I’ll be back.”
He doesn’t take long showering, and when he throws his towel on his rack, I ask, “Collins, huh?”
“Collins and I are none of your business, Ky.”
Hearing that makes me nauseous. I wait before I get up from his bed and walk to him leaning against his dresser. “I am sorry, Marc.” I pondered it enough and decided this would be the best start.
“Sorry for what?” he asks, uncovering me with his shadowed purple eyes.
I swallow hard. “For making you feel you mean less to me than you do. For…” I carry on, “…making you feel like I’m leading you on. For making it seem like I’m juggling you and Cory. And for not being honest with you,” I admit in a voice softer than I’ve ever spoken. The jitters attack my stomach and make my voice and hands shake.
He looks me over, leaning his weight on his elbows, which are propped up against the dresser. “You’re weak for me, Kylie?” he asks.
“I’m not proud of it. But yes.”
Marc rakes his hand through his hair and leaves it cuffed around the back of his neck. He gazes at me for a second. “You didn’t do what I asked you to do.”
“Dreaming about you takes away my nightmares,” I admit, looking away from him to the floor.
He turns my head to face him. “I don’t have an interest in Collins.”
I hold back my smile. “And me?”
“I don’t hate you, but I don’t like you either.”
I grumble, rolling my eyes as I turn away from him. “Your rejection is worse than being turned into a Zombie and craving flesh.”
His eyebrows furrow. “How would you know that?”
“Word got through to the Trade that I was an implant, and they required me to go through some tests. One of those tests was to have me turned into a Zombie to see if the outsiders would help me by removing the infection.”
“And they helped you?”
Lowering my voice, I say, “Cory helped me by calling them. He claimed he healed me by using a cure.” I lift my brows high and grin, anticipating his bewildered response.
But Marc doesn’t allow the shock to show on his face, though he gasps and says, “Cory’s an implant?”
“As well as Floyd, Fein, and, we suspect, Jord and Seits.”
He leans from the dresser and rubs his hand over his beard. “Are you sure, Ky?”
“No.”
He shrugs and holds his shoulders near his ears as he asks, “Why would they suspect you of being an implant?”
“Something Cory said.”
Crossing his arms, he leans back against the dresser. “So he knows.”
“No,” I hurry to say. “He knows nothing. I was proven to not be one. He said he never meant to lead them to me. He didn’t mean for them to misinterpret him being around me as him telling them I was an implant.”
“Wow.” He leans over, and as he rises, he shoves his long hair from his face. He needs a haircut too, but I like its shaggy waves and how untamed it is.
I step closer to him, grabbing him by his sides. “Can we talk about that later?”
Marc tucks my hair behind my ears and holds me gently by my neck. “I think I should still be mad at you.”
“Once someone says sorry, they are to be forgiven. It’s law.” I crack a small smile, but furrow my brows to forgo my seriousness.
“I forgive you, but that doesn’t mean I have to accept you.” I step back and he tugs me back to him. “But I do. So please don’t kiss him.”
“Kiss you?”
“Nope. You’re leaving me alone. It’s law,” he seductively drawls with a smile that melts my spine.
“Stop it, Marc. Kiss me already.”
He follows suit, mending what I’ve broken. I halt our kiss to hug him.
“You’re about to leave?” he asks.
“You won’t let me sleep in here anymore.” I move away from him to his door.
“I haven’t seen you in a while. Tonight, I might make an exception.”
Happy, I try not to let it show. “Don’t let Collins take my spot. I’m going to talk to Luke about something.”
“You don’t have to worry about that.”
Leaving Marc’s room, I run into Collins, who is dumbstruck by my exit. “Is there a problem?” I ask her, crossing my arms in front of my chest.
She glares at me. “You know what, Ky―”
I wave my hand dismissively. “Let me tell you something. The both of them, Marc,” I throw my thumb toward his door behind me, “and Luke are mine.” I point to my chest. “Back off.”
Her evil glower remains intact as she says, “We’ll see, Ky.”
“Challenge me, and we will.”
Luke comes up the stairs, catching our exchange. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing. Collins was just walking away from this door.” She is trying to get under my skin, and it’s working.
Collins looks between me and Luke before she pushes past us, heading for the stairs. Her bedroom is downstairs, and there is no reason she should even be up here.
“You want to finish our talk? Or were you about to go in there?” Luke points to Marc’s door.
“I was coming to find you. I ran into her preparing to go in there.” I look at the door for a second too long, considering what could’ve happened if I hadn’t been here.
“Why?”
I shrug. “I’m tired of Collins. Maybe she’s growing bored. Creations need to stay busy, and they aren’t using us for much, so relationships are the next best thing I suppose.” We walk into Luke’s room and push the door closed. “What were you able to find out?”
“We won’t be able to accomplish this on our own, but I figure if we explain to a few Creations we are going in for destruction, they’ll be willing to help.”
I squint my eyes. “What are you talking about, Luke?”
“You have two marbles, one to get there and another to get back.” He walks to his window and looks out before he says, “We will go there unannounced. Shoot up a few, no, a lot of them with the Creation Zombie bullets and come back the same night.” A light takes his eyes as he talks downright crazy.
“How would we separate the good from the bad?”
His eyes narrow as he says, “They are all bad, Ky. How can you believe any of them are good?”
“I see where you are going with this. But take a minute and think about it.” Crossing the floor to him, I gesture with my hands as I urgently say, “We are going to jump through a pit of colored particles with no idea where we’d arrive, and just shoot up some place in hopes the Zombie bullets work? Have you completely thought this through?”
“Yes,” he states simply, quickly nodding his head.
I throw my hand in my face, disappointed. “Luke, please tell me you have put more thought into this.”
“Ky, what do y
ou suggest we do? Wait for them to come here through their pits of particles and shoot us up?”
I plop down on his bed. “If they come here, we are better prepared, and we have more that will fight with us.”
“We hope. What’s saying these Creations here aren’t working with them? I hate to say it, but I agree with Cory about General Jord holding on to that list for a reason, and it is by no mistake there are implants in his division. Even if our effects are minimal, our rebellion will show them we aren’t toys and we’re not going to stand by while they threaten our planet.”
Luke is going crazy. He wants to ambush the Vojin’s base. That’s a one-way trip, and he knows it. “Hold on, Luke, let’s take a step back here. Why did you suggest using the Creation Zombie bullets?”
“We saw them work on killing a Vojin.”
Now he has my undivided attention. “What? When? How? Why didn’t you start with that?” Excitement builds in me at the thought of new possibilities.
“Harold discovered the bullets worked one day in the labs. Two mixed Creations are being held prisoner in the underground lab. The mixed Creations called the Vojin for the scientists. The Vojin came, and Harold was the first to pull out his gun, packed with the special bullets, and shot both of them. Instantly. It was like he had planned the entire thing out. No one was expecting it. Once they solidified, he pulled his goggles from his face and shot them each twice in the chest.” Luke imitates Harold shooting with his arm out and trigger finger pulling back an invisible trigger. “They didn’t turn into goo. Their bodies’ color faded out, and they dropped to the floor. They turned a dark gray as we witnessed the life literally drain from their bodies. It was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
I bounce on my toes, hands clasped in front of my chest. “Did they bleed?”
“Yes.” He smiles. “They leaked that colorful dust stuff, like smoke. The dust they leak after their bodies die still stays active. The scientist took samples.”
“Wow.”
“Okay. So what do you think?” He looks to me expectantly, already assuming I’m in.
I sit on his bed and lie back. “I think you’re onto something. I have an idea. When the others come back, we should find out the exact time they plan to attack. Doing so will give us an upper hand, and maybe we could go there before they plan to come here. We’ll shoot up the joint with our massive guns and explosives, taking down everything and anyone we see. And just before their reinforcements come, we’ll jet.”
He lies next to me. “Good idea. Because if they come here, it’s all over for us, humans and Creations.”
“I don’t know. They’ll still come here, especially after we attack. They’ll just think about it first. They’ll start thinking their implants have changed sides, and they are really relying on the implants to hold up their side of the bargain.” I sit up. “If they have confirmed an attack, why do you think the Trade hasn’t stepped in? When Trade member Grandin visited, he said they were researching them. Not trying to find a way to stop them.”
“Good question.”
“They seem to be more interested in finding out the implants.”
Luke shrugs. “The heat wave is over. I want to hit the course in the morning. They put the bridges in today, the ones that Seits was telling us about, so a group of us will check them out tomorrow afternoon.”
I stand. “I’ll run with you in the morning. I’m going.”
“Your boyfriend’s back, and you leave your big brother, huh?”
I smile brightly. “Yes. That’s how that works.” I frown as I realize the term Luke used. “But I don’t think he’d call me his girlfriend. ‘We are only hugs and kisses, Ky,’” I mock Marc.
“Right. And stop hugging and kissing,” Luke orders, but he goes ignored as I leave his room.
The house has calmed. There are a couple of voices downstairs in the den, Sean and Fein. The projector light shines into the living room. They must be hanging out in there for the evening.
I cross the hall to Marc’s room and tap before opening the door. He’s lying on his back, watching me enter. “Sorry I walk in your room without an invitation.”
“You’re comfortable.”
“I don’t think that’s it.” I lean my back against the door. “I did that before I became comfortable with you.”
“Are you going to hold up the door or come over here?”
Jitters sink into my stomach, making my legs shake. Nervously, I cross the floor and lie beside him. “Um, I don’t know if this is appropriate or not. But I missed you. A lot.”
“It’s not, but I’ll share that with you.” He pulls me closer to him.
“That’s good.”
He holds me as he rests his head against my neck. “You were turned into a Zombie, huh?”
I adjust to meet his tired gaze. For the second that I stare, I come to terms that this will never end, and it’s pointless for me to continue to try, knowing I’ll always come back here. To his arms. “I don’t really want to talk.”
He touches up my back. “Then what?”
It’s a little tough to breathe as I fight my nerves. I bite the inside of my cheek before deciding to kiss him. Oxygen pushes itself easily through my lungs as we indulge in the contact.
He sits up, and my kiss grows greedy as I climb onto his lap, knees bent at his sides. We lock eyes, and I find serenity in the lighter hue of his purple eyes as he relaxes with me. His relaxation always takes me aback because Creations never relax, and though many will let their hair down sometimes, Marc’s is always tied as tight as a knot.
I look him over and stroke his loose, soft hair. The world slows down as I stare at him, looking back and forth at each of his eyes. I even breathe slower, matching the passing of time.
It remains slow when I return his kiss, and tingles burst throughout my entire body. A sensation I’ve never experienced. It makes me more nervous. But I think I know this feeling. “Marc, I…” I take a slow breath that takes all of me. It’s so hard to breathe, preparing to say this. “I…I’m sure, I mean, I know…I love you,” I utter slowly.
His hooded eyebrows rise a centimeter, but his mouth doesn’t move. He breathes, distressed, “Ky.”
“Just, don’t say anything.” The world takes back its normal rotation of time, and I’m not ready for Marc’s rejection. “I just needed to…to tell you that.” I clear my throat. I needed to say it aloud, at least once, to see if it made more sense coming out of my mouth than staying trapped in my head. It doesn’t. It still sounds ludicrous. I should’ve kept it in. Is it too late to take it back?
“I know, Ky.”
That wasn’t the feedback I was expecting, and it makes me sick. I look him over again, growing more and more uncomfortable by the second. “I’m going to go.”
When I move, he holds me still. “Hold up, Ky. I don’t want you to go.”
“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“Don’t worry about that.” He lies back down and turns us so he’s over me. “You don’t make me uncomfortable. Are you?”
I’m nervous. More nervous than I’ve ever been. But I think it’s because I admitted my feelings that I’m not supposed to acknowledge. I don’t expect him to feel the same as me, but I hoped he would. I swallow hard. “No,” I say quietly.
“You’re okay if I kiss you?”
“Yes. Kiss me.” And take this insecurity away.
Leaning down, he kisses me, holding my affection on his lips and, as I’d hoped, my doubts wash away.
His gentle kisses make me want more, and I can’t take it. I drag him closer to me, and as he kisses my neck, I tell him, “Touch me.”
Against my skin, he asks, “Where?”
I sigh when his tongue slides over my collarbone. “Everywhere,” I purr.
Under my shirt, his hands are icy, sliding over my rib cage to my hips, making me shiver. Electric pricks are on his fingertips and palms, and the tingle in my body makes my legs tighten at his sides and
my breaths shake. I sigh again as he continues to explore my body and kiss against me.
He’s doing nothing, but doing everything to me, and I can’t get enough.
Coming back, he places a kiss to my mouth, and his hips rock against mine. It makes my trembling legs quake. I love it and hate it. Hating that I can’t get a grip on myself when I’m with him.
“Ky,” he mutters, “holding back is getting complicated.”
“Holding back from what?”
“Nothing, I’ll be right back. Don’t leave.” He leaves his room.
I count the seconds he’s gone as I snap myself out of this trance, getting rid of my jitters, nerves and other feelings I can’t explain.
Five minutes later, he returns to lie next to me. “Are you okay?” I ask.
“Yes.” He pushes his arm under and around me, and I lie on his shoulder. “I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable, Ky.”
Well, those tables turned quickly. I’m slightly disappointed. It was getting kind of hot. “I don’t want to talk about it. I’ll work on it tomorrow.”
“Don’t take it the wrong way.”
I ignore him, moving my arm over his stomach and hugging his side. It’s comfortable, and because I’m so tired, I doze off quickly.
Chapter Twenty
The wind is heavy, blowing the morning dew, as Luke and I race across the obstacle course. It’s not as hot as it’s been, and the breeze is refreshing. I left my hair down, and the freedom from allowing the light brown strands to whip around and enjoy the breeze is stimulating.
I hit the wall, quickly climbing it. Luke and I are on each other’s tails, gaining inches on each other.
The ground is hard, despite the moisture in the air. I jump from the wall, landing hard, feeling the shock rack my legs. Up and over or down and under, I clear the six sets of logs and quickly come upon the barbed wire. Relief hits me on the third run when we are crawling through the tunnel.
Finish line in sight, it’s only three feet away from me, but Luke’s zipping past me. I didn’t even see him coming. I bend over on my knees, catching my breath. “I’m done,” I say through heaving breaths. “That’s four laps of this course.”
Salient Invaders: A Young Adult Post-Apocalyptic Dystopian Series (The Separation Trilogy Book 2) Page 16