Oblivion

  Mountain Man continued to stare at me as he reached for the door, opening it. Music blasted from the inside. “Welcome to the Harbinger. Have fun.”

  With my hand still on Kat’s back, we stepped inside. The door shut behind us and Blake said, “I think he liked you, Daemon.”

  “Shut up,” I said.

  He let out a low laugh as he slipped past us in the tight, dark hallway. A few steps in and then we were in the club.

  Jesus, I would never have expected this place to be here.

  Dizzying blue, red, and white strobe lights flashed continuously. The dance floor was packed, and there was no escaping the scent of perfume, bitter alcohol, and sweat. Cages hung from the ceiling. Occupied cages. On the other side of the dance floor, near a bar, was a raised stage. People were everywhere, and not just humans. My senses were firing left and right. I could feel other Luxen, but among that, the darkness of nearby Arum slipped over my skin like oil.

  Not liking this at all, I went on alert as I scanned the cavernous room. There were a lot of shadows, a lot of couches with…uh, questionable things taking place on them.

  I glanced down at Kat and almost laughed at her wide-eyed expression. I spoke in her ear. “A little out of your element, Kitten?”

  “I think you should’ve gone with the eyeliner,” she replied.

  I smirked. “Not ever going to happen.”

  Heavy drums pounded as we skirted the edge of the dance floor, and then everyone stopped—the ones on the dance floor and the chicks in the cages. Their fists shot in the air as they chanted in unison, “Safe from pain and truth and choice and other poisoned devils…” The yells picked up, drowning out everything except the drums.

  Alrighty then.

  We entered a narrow hall, leaving that mess behind. Kat was doing her hardest to stare straight ahead, studiously ignoring the couples along the walls. We stopped at a door that had the word Freaks scribbled over what used to be Personnel Only.

  Sounded about right.

  Blake started to knock on the door, but it cracked open. I couldn’t see who was behind the door, but I had a feeling it was a Luxen.

  “We’re here to see Luc,” Blake said. There was a pause, and the back of his neck turned red. Nice. “Tell him it’s Blake, and he owes me.” Another pause. “I don’t care what he’s doing, I need to see him.”

  “Great,” I muttered. “He’s friendless as usual.”

  Whoever was behind the door said something, and Blake growled. “Dammit, he owes me. These people are cool. Trust me. No bugs here.” Finally, after forever, he turned to us, brows drawn tight. “He wants to talk to me first. Alone.”

  I drew up to my full height. “Yeah, not gonna happen.”

  Blake shook down. “Then nothing’s going to happen. Either you do as he wants and someone will come for you, or we made this trip for nothing.”

  Yeah, I was so not cool with that.

  Kat rose onto her toes and pressed against my back. “Let’s dance.”

  I turned halfway and stared down at her.

  She bit down on her lip as she tugged on my hand. “Come on.”

  Not a smart idea, but how was I supposed to turn down that lip? Or that sweater.

  Or those tights?

  I let her guide me back out to the dance floor, around the twisting and turning bodies. Once she found a spot she seemed to like, she stopped in front of me, and I watched her curiously, wondering if we were going to do this.

  This wasn’t like homecoming.

  Closing her eyes, she stretched up and wrapped one arm around my neck and placed her other hand on my hip. We were close, very close, so I liked where this was heading already.

  And then she started moving against me.

  For a moment, I was still, because Kat…she knew how to move every part of her body—her shoulders and those hips. My mouth dried as her thighs rubbed against mine. I circled my arm around her waist and my chin grazed her neck. “Okay,” I said into her ear. “I might have to thank Blake for being friendless.”

  Kat smiled.

  My arm tightened as she swayed against me, the move fluid and sensual. “I think I like this.”

  That was the understatement of the year.

  A fine sheen of sweat dotted Kat’s face as she whirled around, pressing her back against my front. My hand slid to her stomach, and we moved together. Hell, I didn’t have to do much of anything, because Kat had the lead on this. She danced away from me, and I caught her arm, spinning her back.

  We were front to front, her on the tips of her boots and our bodies twisted together. Pure instinct and a near-primal need drove me to lower my mouth to hers. Our lips brushed, and power pulsed through me and over Kat. It created a flash of light that blended in.

  Our hearts pounded in unity and our bodies surged with the music, fitting together, and when my lips pressed more firmly against hers, she opened up. We didn’t stop moving, but her hand was sliding over my chest and lower, and mine was coasting over the curve of her back. Static crackled over our skin, and I was thinking about those couches I’d seen when we first came in and how incredibly useful—

  A heavy hand landed on my shoulder, drawing me out of everything that was Kat. I let her go and spun, realizing it was Douche Bag. Before I could knock him into next year, Kat caught my arm.

  Blake smiled as he yelled over the blaring music, “Are you guys having sex or dancing?”

  “Do you want to ever have sex?” I shot back. “Because I’m about to fix it so you never can.”

  He stepped back, throwing his hands up. “Sorry. Geez.”

  My cheeks flared. Okay, maybe right now I’d be embarrassed.

  “He’s ready to see us if you’re done eating each other’s faces,” Blake said.

  One of these days, I was going to do more than seriously harm him.

  Reaching down, I took Kat’s small hand in mine, and we followed Blake back through the maze of people. I took the time to get my head on straight. Namely, start thinking with the head on my shoulders, which wasn’t easy, considering.

  When Blake went to knock on the door at the end of the hall again, the one marked Freaks , it opened before he could rap his knuckles off it.

  The room was large and the air scented with vanilla. Several couches lined the walls, and one of them was occupied. A younger boy with shoulder-length brown hair was stretched out on the center couch, legs crossed at the ankles and his fingers flying over a handheld game. Around his wrist was a silver cuff that held a black stone with a reddish-orange flame in the center. The stone also had flecks of blue and green.

  The kid glanced up, and purplish-colored eyes drifted over us, lingering on Kat for a second and then moving to the blond-haired man sitting behind a desk covered with stacks of money. The silver-eyed guy was definitely a Luxen, and he was shocked to see me there.

  I stepped forward, and the Luxen male stood. “What’s going on?” Kat asked.

  From the couch, the kid coughed out a laugh as he tossed the game on the cushion beside him. “Aliens. They have this wacky internal system that lets them sniff each other out. Guess neither of them was expecting to see the other.”

  Kat twisted toward the kid.

  He sat up, swinging lanky legs off the couch. “So, you crazy kids want to break into Daedalus stronghold and you want my help?”

  My head cocked to the side, and I almost laughed out loud. Luc, the person Blake had dragged us here to meet, was practically a toddler.

  Chapter 10

  Okay. A toddler was pushing it, but he couldn’t have been older than fourteen or fifteen years old, and right now, our age difference felt as vast as the damn universe. This was who Blake brought us to see? Who could help us get into Daedalus?

  A tween?

  Luc smiled. “Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Surprised about anything, that is.” Standing, I was shocked to see he was almost as tall as me. “I was six when I decided to play chicken with a speeding cab. It won. Lost the coolest bike
evah and a lot of blood, but lucky me, my childhood friend was an alien.”

  I eyed him, not sure if I believed the story he was spinning, because there was something about him that reminded me of someone else. Couldn’t put my finger on it, but I immediately knew something wasn’t right.

  “How…how did you get away from Daedalus?” Kat asked.

  Luc walked over to the table. “I was their star pupil.” His grin was unnerving. “Never trust the one who excels. Isn’t that right, Blake?”

  Leaning against the wall, Blake gave a lopsided shrug. “Sounds about right.”

  “Why?” Luc sat on the edge of the desk. “Because eventually the pupil becomes smarter than the teacher, and I had some really, really intelligent teachers. So”—he clapped his hands together—“you must be Daemon Black.”

  I arched a brow. “That would be me.”

  “I’ve heard of you. Blake’s a big fan,” he said.

  Blake raised a middle finger.

  “Glad to know my fan club is far-reaching.”

  Luc tilted his head to the side. “And what a fan club—oh, my bad, I didn’t introduce you to your fellow Luxen all-star. This guy goes by Paris. Why? I don’t know.”

  The Luxen smiled tightly as he extended a hand toward me. “Always nice to meet another not bound by old beliefs and unnecessary rules.”

  I shook his hand. “Same. How did you fall in with him?”

  Luc laughed. “Long story for a different day—if there’s a different day.” He looked at Kat. “Do you have any idea what they will do to you if they realize you’re a fully functional hybrid?” He tipped his head down, grinning. “We are so very rare. Three of us together is actually quite amazing.”

  “I have a good imagination,” she said.

  “Do you?” Luc’s brows rose. “I doubt Blake has even told you the half of it—the worst of it.”

  She glanced at Blake.

  “But you know that.” Luc stood and stretched. “And still you are willing to take the huge risk of going into the hornet’s nest.”

  “We really don’t have a choice,” I said. “So are you going to give us the codes or not?”

  Luc shrugged as he ran his hands over the stacks of money. “What’s in it for me?”

  Kat exhaled roughly. “Other than pissing off Daedalus, we really don’t have much to offer.”

  “Hmm, I don’t know about that.” He picked up a cluster of hundreds secured with a rubber band. A second later, the edges of the bills curled inward, paper melting until the scorched scent filled the air and nothing remained.

  Really?

  “What can we do for you?” Kat asked

  “Obviously money’s not an issue,” I added drily.

  Luc’s lips twitched. “Money isn’t needed.” He brushed his fingers off on his jeans. “Power isn’t either. Honestly, the only thing I need is a favor.”

  Blake snapped off the wall. “Luc—”

  The young boy’s eyes narrowed in warning. “A favor is all I want—one that I can collect at any time. That’s all I want in return, and I’ll give you all you want to know.”

  Kat frowned. “O—”

  “Wait,” I cut her off, not liking this. “You want us to agree to a favor without knowing what that favor is?”

  Luc nodded. “Where’s the risk if you know everything?”

  “Where’s the intelligence if we don’t?” I shot back.

  The kid laughed. “I like you. A lot. But my help doesn’t come without its own peril for exchange.”

  “God, you’re like the preteen mafia,” Kat muttered.

  “Something like that.” He flashed a bright smile, and it was clear he was enjoying himself. “What you—all of you—don’t understand is there are things much, much bigger than a brother’s girlfriend or a friend…or even ending up under the Man’s thumb. There’s change brewing behind the winds, and the winds are going to be fierce.” He looked at me. “The government fears the Luxen, because they represent mankind’s fall from the top of the food chain. To fix that, they’ve created something much stronger than a Luxen. And I’m not talking about ordinary little baby hybrids.”

  “What are you talking about?” Kat asked.

  Luc didn’t answer.

  Paris folded his arms. “Not to be rude, but if you’re not willing to deal, there’s the door.”

  I looked over at Kat, seeing she shared my concerns. She’d nailed it. It was like we were making the deal with the mafia, the hybrid mafia, and we didn’t have all the necessary info.

  “Guys,” Blake said. “He’s our only chance.”

  “Christ,” I muttered, but he was right. “Fine. We owe you a favor.”

  Luc’s eyes gleamed. “And you?”

  She sighed. “Sure. Why not.”

  “Awesome! Paris?” He held out his hand. Paris bent over, grabbed a small MacBook Air, and handed it over. “Give me a sec.”

  I watched him punch away at the keyboard, his brows drawn in concentration. A door behind the desk opened and a young girl peeked in.

  Luc’s head jerked up sharply. “Not now.”

  The girl frowned, and for a moment I thought she was going to refuse, but she closed the door.

  Kat’s eyes widened. “She’s the—”

  “Don’t finish that sentence if you want me to continue,” Luc said, eyes fastened on the screen again. “All deals will be off.”

  Okay then.

  After a few moments, Luc placed the laptop on the desk, facing us. The screen was split into four sections, black and white, also grainy, like security film. One image contained woods. Another was of a tall fence and gate, another was of a security booth, and the final one showed a man in uniform patrolling another section of fence.

  “Say hello to Mount Weather—owned by FEMA, secured by Homeland Security. Nestled away in the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains, it’s used as a training facility and hideaway for all the pretty officials in case someone bombs us,” Luc said, snickering. “Also known as a complete front for the DOD and Daedalus, because underground, there are six-hundred-thousand-mother-effin’ square feet of training and torture.”

  Blake stared at the screen. “You hacked into their security systems?”

  He shrugged. “Like I said, star pupil and all. See this section here.” He pointed to the screen where a guard patrolled the fence, almost blending into the grainy background. “This is the ‘secret’ entrance that doesn’t exist. Very few people are aware of it—Blakey-boy is.” Pausing, he tapped the space bar, and the camera inched over to the right until a gate came into view. “Here’s the dealo: Sunday evening at 9:00 p.m. is going to be your best bet—it’s a shift change and staffing is at the minimal—only two guards will be patrolling this gate. ’Cuz, you know, Sunday is kind of down day.”

  Paris pulled out a pad and a pen.

  “This gate is your first obstacle of choice. You’ll need to take out the guards, but that’s a duh. I’ll make sure the cameras are down between nine and nine fifteen—you know, pull a Jurassic Park moment. You’ll have fifteen minutes to get in, get your buddies, and get the hell out. So don’t let a spitting dragon take you down.”

  I choked on a laugh. Kind of liked this kid.

  “Fifteen minutes,” Blake murmured, nodding. “Doable. Once inside the compound, the entrance leads to elevators. We can take them down to the sixth floor, go right up to the cell.”

  “Great.” Luc tapped his finger off the screen, over the gate. “The code to this gate is Icarus. See a trend?” He laughed. “You get inside the compound; you’ll see three doors side by side.”

  Blake nodded again. “The middle door—I know. The code?”