I roll my eyes, pushing him away from me. “I wanted a night where I didn’t need to focus on this! I wanted to stay away from words like Creations, Separation, Vojin, Trade, implant,” I complain.
“Welcome to Separation, Kylie, where as a Creation, you are now obligated to battle against Vojin and implants as ordered by the Trade.” He smiles. “Now watch your mouth and never bring up what Mom said again.”
“Thanks for nothing, Luke.” I punch his chest. It’s not like he nor I know anything about it. Except one day when mom grabbed our hands, the night before she and dad were murdered, and said, “There’s a light within you two that someone will want one day. Protect each other and let no one steal it away.” We never heard another thing about it after that. So we never bring it up because we don’t know if it’s incriminating.
“Good. I’ll see you later.”
No, he won’t, but I don’t want to continue our talk. He leaves, and not thirty seconds after he closes the door, it opens.
“I’m not waiting until a quarter to nine,” Marc says, closing the door behind him. He crosses the floor to me and stands near my bed.
I smile and push away all thoughts except this night I plan to experience with him. “Very impatient you are, Marcain.”
“Yes, I am.” He sits on my bed. “You were also gone for a while. I missed your voice.” He waves me over.
Giddily, I go and kiss him without him asking or trying to kiss me first. He leans back, and we lie across my bed, me straddling his legs.
I clutch his shirt tightly in my fist, holding myself back from getting too deep into his kiss. Warmth blossoms in my chest, making my nerves erratic. His hand slips beneath my shirt and rubs over the part of my hips that dip in from my muscles. He tugs me closer.
I kiss his neck. “You are special.”
“You too,” he says as his rough hands scrape over my back, inching up to my neck and back down.
I lean away. “You want me to show you what I got?”
“Is it better than you?”
I smile. “Maybe.”
“Nothing is better than you.”
“If it enhances me, it might be.”
He turns down the corners of his mouth and shrugs. “What’ve you got?”
I climb off the bed and gesture for him to do the same, saying. “Stand up and face the wall. Don’t look until I say.”
He gets up without question and faces the wall. I quickly shuffle through the drawer where the dress is neatly folded so it wouldn’t wrinkle. I grab the dress and the shoes I put next to it. I quickly change and slip on the shoes. Going to the window in my room, I use the reflection as a mirror to see if I look okay. Today I wore my hair in two French braids so it will be wavy when I let it loose. I unbraid them and comb my fingers through my long hair. It waves past my shoulders to the middle of my back and came out just the way I hoped.
My hands shake as I stare at the beautiful girl looking back at me. I’m so far out of my comfort zone, trading my suit and boots for this gorgeous dress and flats. I hope he thinks it’s cute.
Going back to the middle of the floor, I stand a few feet behind him. I breathe and say, “Okay, turn around.”
He peeks over his shoulder, and his hooded eyes open wider as he turns around. He grins brightly. My dress is almost the same purple of his eyes, and it fits me perfectly.
“That dress is amazing, Kylie,” he says in his heavy rasp.
I look down over the dress. “You like it?”
He crosses the floor, picks me up by my waist, and spins us around. “You look amazing.” Placing me back down, he adds, “And your legs are phenomenal.”
I swallow the giggle but can’t stop blushing. “This is part one of three.”
He’s reaching up to grab me but stops midway. “Part one of three?”
Going back to the dresser, I pull out his clothes. “Okay, I didn’t know what size you wear, so I got you three of the same things in different sizes.” I lay the clothes out on my bed. “I had to describe you to the sales associate, and she said one of these should work.”
He comes up behind me, first touching my sides, then wrapping his hands around my middle. “What made you do all this? And what’s part three?”
“We were talking about it, so I went out to buy it. It’s amazing, right?” I spin around on my toes and face him. My cheeks warm as my smile grows wider when I see the delight in his eyes.
He shoves his hand through his hair, smile growing wider than mine. “It is, Ky.”
“Pick which one is your right size. And go change. You will, unfortunately, have to wear boots because there was no way I could guess the size of your feet.”
“It’s fine,” he says, looking at the first outfit I laid out. “You wanted to get the things we talked about?”
“Especially the dress.”
He picks up the second outfit and shows it to me. “This is my size.”
“Great! Don’t be seen because we can’t let anyone see us leave in these clothes.”
“Can you tell me how you plan on pulling all of this off?”
I bounce on my toes, and let my widest, brightest grin break through. “A lot of nervous jitters, some help from Seits, and your cooperation.”
He kisses my cheek. “You have my cooperation. You have whatever you want from me as long as you’re standing here in this dress.”
I press my palms together and fight my overgrowing grin. “Even better.”
“What are you going to do with the other clothes?”
I shrug. “I don’t know yet, but it’s not my concern right now.”
He nods and leaves my room. I look back in the window to see what he sees when he looks at me. I’m blushing; even my arms are red. But he liked it. Yay! He liked it!
After ten minutes pass, I leave to his room. I knock and wait for an answer.
“Yeah?”
“It’s just me,” I tell him, walking in.
He spreads his arms out to his sides and does a three-sixty. “Do I look as nice as you?”
Marc looks phenomenal no matter what he has on. He could wear a chicken suit with feathers scattered about his head, and I’d think he’d look great. Nevertheless, he does look nice out of his suit, t-shirts, and hooded sweatshirts. “Yes. Handsome, with your long hair waving around like that.” His hair sweeps his shoulders and blankets his neck. He shoves his fingers through it, pushing the strands from his face.
“You want to touch it?” he asks when he is closer to me.
“Yes.” I push my hands past his ears. His hair’s so soft, slipping between my fingers. As I make it to the back of his head, he moves in closer. I retract until my back is to the door, and his body is pressed to mine. Marc comes in for a kiss, but I press my index finger against his lips, holding him back. “This is not a part of our mission,” I whisper, fighting the temptation.
“Right.” He puts a little distance between us. “I’m excited to see what is. Go ahead, I’ll be right behind you.”
I leave his room.
The hall is quiet, and the lights are out. After he comes out, we sneak from the house, and I stop on our stoop, sickened by the red dirt covering every inch of everything.
“What’s wrong?”
“My shoes will get dirty, and my feet will be covered in dirt.”
He scoops me up in his arms. “No longer a problem. Now, where are we going?”
“You are awesome, Marc.”
“And you are heavy. You want to tell me?”
“To the smaller rec hall, Prince Charming. I saw a princess say that in a movie once when a man held her like this.”
“I bet.” He starts forward, saving my shoes from the dirt. “I hope we don’t get attacked by Zombies.”
“Me too, because I’m not armed.”
“I am, but I can’t reach my gun.”
“We’ll be fine.” I hope.
He walks us to the smaller rec hall, and Seits has our table set with plates and glasses.
She’s not in here, thankfully. “This is half of part three,” I tell him. “You are really going to love this part.” I pull him to the table, and we sit in front of a plate, silverware, and glasses. “Alright. I’ve never had a Chicago-style Polish, but Seits knew what I was talking about. We got everything, even the mustard. And white shakes!” I cheer.
Marc holds my hand resting atop the table. “You in the business of making dreams come true, Ky?”
“No.” I frown. “I don’t have grass, sneakers, or the path by the water.”
“What you have is good enough. You made something out of nothing, and I wasn’t expecting any of this in this dump.”
One of the cooks sets a plate with the Chicago-style Polishes on the already placed plates, and from a pitcher, he pours our shake in only one of the glasses. He gives us two straws.
After he leaves, I say, “I’m happy you’re enjoying it.”
“What’s the second half of part three?”
I smile. “You will see after you get me smelling like onions.”
“If I didn’t like surprises, I would have a problem with your secrets.”
“Eat your food so we can move on. But don’t rush, these moments can last all night.”
“Are we sharing your vanilla shake?”
Laughing, I nod. “Yep! Our white shake is being shared.” I separate the straws so one is face him too.
Again today, he gazes at me with brimming happiness. Marc’s eyes are lighter, and his cheeks are lifted. “I really like seeing you this free and light-hearted.”
He nods and looks away. We eat our food and drink our shake. The cook refills it, and we finish the second one over small talk and laughs.
Standing, I pull him from his seat. “I do not enjoy smelling like onions,” I tell him.
He wipes his mouth, coming with me. “You’ll be fine. It’s just me.”
“You need to pick me back up because we are leaving here.”
“To where?”
“The auditorium hall.”
“A movie?”
“Something like that.”
He picks me up and quietly walks us to the hall. It’s peaceful outside, no snarls or blazing gunshots.
As Seits advised, she removed the roof. On the stage are blankets and pillows Seits laid out earlier. We climb the stairs and walk to center stage.
“Wow, Ky,” Marc admires Seits’s work.
I pull him to sit with me, and I gesture up at the starlit sky. “Now,” I begin, “we have to talk about birds and fish. Surfing and snowboarding. Hang gliding and skydiving. And hold hands while we sweep each other away from Separation.”
Marc continues to admire our venue, tone awed and light as he asks, “Seits helped you do all this?”
“Yeah, she was really nice about it.”
“That’s so cool. Thank you for putting all this together.”
“Anything you want to talk about?”
“No. I’m speechless.”
“We can lie here in silence. I get the room for three hours. Then our date night is over, and we go home, back into our lives of Separation, where you don’t date, or love, or have someone other than your twin you care about.”
“Hmmm, Ky.” I scoot closer to him, resting my head on his shoulder. “You are special.”
“I only try with you.”
“What did you all do while you were gone?”
Why does he want to talk about work? This is supposed to be a Creation-free zone. “Tonight, Marc, there’s no talking about work or Separation. We’re Normals on a date.”
“Then you’re not doing all this as an act of persuasion?”
And here we go. “No,” I say, sitting up. “I did all this because I cared about making you happy. I wanted to make us comfortable for once.”
“You sure?
“Yes.” Waving my hand, I reject his accusation. “I don’t want to talk about that. This was something I wanted to do for us. I promise one has nothing to do with the other.”
“Collins came and asked me.”
I prop up my knees and throw my hands in my face. “They didn’t tell her to do that,” I bemoan, muffled.
“I told her no.”
“Okay.” I drag my hands down my face and prop my elbows on my bare knees. “Like I said, I don’t want to talk about that tonight.”
He looks up at the sky. “But to answer your question…” he says, continuing to ruin the mood, “Sean and I will help.”
I draw my lips to the side, not wanting to give off my relief and excitement and still not wanting him to think this topic is why I’m giving us tonight. “Okay. Thanks. But—”
“I heard you. You got dressed up and fed me onions because you love me.” He flashes a Marcain smile my way, and I look away from him, fighting to prevent my cheeks from blushing.
“So what happened here while we were gone?”
“Nothing. A few Zombie attacks. They found out a few Normals were implants. Lady Helen, from the draft eight years ago, she was standing in for Jord. She ordered Cory to execute both of them.”
“Ouch.”
“They whimpered and cried until he got the nerve to pull the trigger. He was hesitant, and they noticed. He hasn’t been around yesterday or today.”
“Eh.” I shrug.
I lean down and kiss him as he’s speaking, but he pushes me back. “I think you should stop kissing me.”
I knit my brows. “Why?” I thought things were going fine. The moment calls for a kiss.
“Because,” he stalls. “I can’t keep it that simple.”
“Oh.” I get it.
“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. Or go too far when I know it may not be something you want.”
“I get it.” I lie back against his chest, and he strokes my hair.
“What you did tonight was amazing, Kylie. I wish I would have thought of it.
“Thanks. Next date is on you.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
“Were you able to talk to Marc, Ky?” Jord asks me as he, Seits, Luke, and I stand around his office.
“I have. He and Sean will help.”
“Good,” Jord says with a clap. “We also have Collins and Cecilia on board. Tomorrow will be a good day. We will meet with everyone tonight to discuss the mission. To everyone, we are only Creations with a plan to invade the Vojin’s realm, that’s it.”
Luke and I nod.
“Today, work on target practice. Remember where they told us to shoot them.” He points to the center of his chest. “Your groups can also work on target practice.”
We nod again.
“You are dismissed.”
We leave, closing the door behind us. “I couldn’t find you last night, Ky.”
“I didn’t know you were looking for me. How were you able to convince Collins so quickly?”
Luke shrugs “I kissed her cheek and asked her to fight with me. She said okay.”
“And Cecilia?”
“I kissed her cheek too. And she said she wanted to fight with me.”
I shake my head. “You are ridiculous, Luke.”
“How’d you get Marc and Sean?”
“He told me he would. I didn’t have to kiss his cheek.”
“Good. You want to train together today?”
“Sure.” We go to the group’s rec hall and gather them for target practice in the fields. “You all have it easy today,” I tell forty-plus people. “Shoot your targets, talk amongst yourselves, be civilized, and when they call for lunch, leave and come back to do the same thing.” I look at Luke. “You okay with that?”
“No. But you’ve already told it to them now.” Luke works his team to death. They deserve a day’s break.
“Okay, don’t shoot each other and enjoy target practice.” Luke grumbles, resenting the cheerful faces of his team as they hurry to the field. We follow behind them. “Get over it, Luke. We’ve got more important things to focus on than shouting orders at our groups.” I push Luke tow
ard our gelatin targets. “Where are we supposed to shoot them again?”
“The chest, left side, eight inches down from the neck, five inches from the pit of their left arms.” Luke lifts his gun, narrows his eyes as he lines the barrel with his target and fires.
“That’s simple.”
“Unless they’re moving.” Lowering his gun, he clips on the safety and stuffs it into the holster at his back.
Good point. “When we go,” I begin as I load my regular handgun, “I want us to make it back. I’m not afraid of dying or anything, and if I go in action, I’m okay with that. But I’m not ready to die right now.”
“I want us to make it back too.” He pulls a black tablet from his back pocket and taps on the screen, turning on the moving targets only on our side. “We should go in quiet and undetectable. Be invaders on their turf and bring them inconvenience. We will turn their bodies into time-ticking explosives like they turned our brothers and sisters here into brain-eating Zombies.” He fires at the targets, hitting a few and missing a couple. “Then we should try to make it to the headquarters, to whoever the guy is up there calling the shots, and we will shoot him in his head. Soval, I think was his name. At that point, who cares what his magical dust calls out to. We’ll leave after we take out whatever comes after us. Everything we encounter, we kill. That way no one knows it was us.” He reloads and shoots again, hitting all the moving targets in the perfect spots.
I nod. “I want to find the ones responsible for killing mom and dad.” I aim, lining my barrel with the jolting targets moving one way and then the other. Firing, I miss.
“There is no way we’ll be able to find that out, Ky. No one will admit it. And by us questioning it, they’ll know it’s us, and we’ll probably end up dead the next morning.”
I try again, firing three shots. Two hit. “You’re right. I just want to know what’s going on with them and the Trade and the Vojin. Aren’t you the least bit curious about these letters that’ve been popping up in our rooms of all places?” I fire off three more shots, none hit. “Crap!”
“Come on, Ky. You got this. Remember, we can’t waste bullets so every shot must count. Concentrate. By the time we get there, you’re going to be under far more pressure than right now. Focus. Your mission is aim and fire. You will make every shot count. Say it.”
Salient Invaders: A Young Adult Post-Apocalyptic Dystopian Series (The Separation Trilogy Book 2) Page 28