I lifted my head, breathing heavily as I peered around Daemon and . . . and I got a look at Mom, a real good look.
My whole world imploded—shattered into broken little pieces that were jagged and cut deep, slicing my insides into shreds and ripping me apart.
Her eyes—they were a bright, unnatural blue.
So blue that they looked like two polished sapphires, and Mom’s eyes . . . they should’ve been hazel, more green than brown, depending on her mood.
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head. “No. No.”
Mom tilted her head to the side as she looked from me to Daemon, and then she moved her lips into a smile that lacked any warmth. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
No. No. No.
I wrenched free of Daemon, backing up as I stared at Mom—no, not Mom. This wasn’t Mom. It wasn’t her. The cold blue eyes followed my movements and her lips continued to curl up as she watched me with such apathy I could taste it.
“No.” My voice was a broken record. It was all I could say as my chest split right open when the horror of the reality set in.
Mom wasn’t here.
She would never be here. Never again.
Because she had been assimilated. Mom was gone. Forever.
{ Daemon }
I should’ve known.
In the back of my head, that was all I could think. I should’ve known that this was possible. That the invading Luxen would get to Kat’s mom and do something so horrific in hopes that Kat or I or someone would come back here. Or maybe they hadn’t really been waiting for us but had done this just to be cruel, because Ethan would’ve known Kat’s mom, would’ve foreseen what it would’ve done.
The moment Kat’s heart broke open, I felt it in my chest like it had been my own, and I’d experienced that kind of raw pain before when I was told that Dawson had died. I’d never wanted her to go through what she was feeling, but there was no stopping it.
Her eyes were wide as she stumbled back, bouncing into the wall like she didn’t even know it was there, and she kept saying the same word over and over again.
No.
Tears streamed down her face as she raised her hands, like she wanted to fend off reality, hold it back. Then she doubled over, folding her arms around her midsection.
My gaze swung on the Luxen standing at the sink, smiling coldly as she watched Kat lose it. The bastards did this to her.
Rage lit me up from the inside, infusing every cell in my body. I didn’t use the gun—the shot, the sound of it was too wrong to use in this situation, because even though this wasn’t her mom, she looked like her. The female in front of me recognized what was about to happen a second too late. She started to shift as I let the fury go and a blast of the Source smacked into her chest, spinning her against the counter. She gripped the sink, staggered, but I let go another bolt and it hit the back of her head.
The Luxen’s light flared a bright white once, and then twice, before dulling like a lightbulb going out. She fell over a bag of potatoes, smacking on the floor with a heavy thud. In her true form, the last of the light faded out of the network of veins, leaving behind a shell of a humanoid form.
Kat dropped to her knees, crying out as she dipped her chin against her chest.
I whipped toward her. “Katy . . . baby, I’m . . .” There really were no words except: “I’m so . . . so sorry.”
She moved suddenly, planting her hands against the kitchen floor. Throwing back her head, she screamed, and that sound was full of sorrow and heartbreak.
It started as a low tremble under my feet and then increased, shaking the kitchen table and rattling the plates and cups in the cabinets. Then it was a rumble, causing the house to groan and small clouds of dust to drop from the ceiling. The table scuttled over the floor. A chair toppled over and then another. Somewhere in the living room, a window shattered.
Kat was going to bring the house down.
“Shit.”
I dropped to her side, folding my arms around her and gathering her close. Her entire body shook as I sat back, landing on my ass. I pulled her into my lap, thrusting a hand into her hair, pressing her face against my chest. It did nothing to muffle the powerful sobs racking her entire body.
God, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to ease this, which was the only thing I cared about at the moment.
“Baby, it’s going to be okay,” I said into the top of her head. “I’m here, Kitten. I got you. I’m here.”
There was no sign that she heard me as she burrowed into me, her chest rising and falling sharply, her pulse pounding way too fast. She curled into herself, her cries ragged and broken-sounding, tearing me up.
I should’ve known.
But there had been no way to decipher the presence of a Luxen in here or outside. Others would be coming, but all I could do was hold her, getting her as close as possible as I glanced at the ceiling. A crack had opened, cutting across the middle of the ceiling, but the house had settled, aside from a slight shiver of the foundation every few seconds.
I smoothed my hand up and down her back and pressed a kiss to the top of her head despite the feeling of another Luxen drawing close. When the front door slammed, I heard Dee calling out my name.
“In here.”
Kat was still shaking in my arms, and while her sobs had quieted down, the burst of raw emotion was nowhere near over.
“What’s going on . . . ?” Dee skidded to a halt outside of the kitchen, in the hall. Her gaze darted from the dead Luxen to where we sat on the floor. “Kat?”
Archer was behind her, curling a hand over her shoulder. He picked up on what had gone down here as I returned my attention to Kat. Curving my one hand along the back of her head, I lowered mine to rest on top of hers and just held on.
I knew the moment Archer told Dee what happened, because she cried out and then she was behind Kat, placing her hands on her, trying to wiggle her way in, but I couldn’t let Kat go.
“We felt the house shaking,” Dee said as her eyes met mine over Kat’s head. “I know I shouldn’t have come over here. That wasn’t the plan, but I was worried.”
The plan was out the window. There was no way I could continue to go through with any of this after what had just happened. I couldn’t treat her like I would need to. I had to get her out of here.
“Screw this,” Archer said in a gruff voice, echoing my thoughts. “We need to get out of here, get someplace safe and regroup. We can’t . . .”
We couldn’t put Kat through this, however it would turn out. I was ready to get in the Explorer and get her the hell away from here. Screw not only the plan but everything with it. We’d done our part. The Arum were coming, and all we had succeeded in doing now—all I had done—was exposing Kat to one of the worst pains there was, that of losing a loved one, of seeing it firsthand.
As Dee slowly backed away, I slid my hands to Kat’s arms. “We have to go,” I told her as I gradually stood, pulling her up.
Her legs didn’t seem to be working once I got her standing, and her face was red from crying, lips trembling as she lifted her head. Those beautiful eyes were glassed over.
“Leaving?” Her voice cracked.
I started to nod, but Kat jerked free suddenly. She wheeled around, and when I grabbed for her, she turned and socked me right in the stomach. I barely felt it. “Kat . . .”
“No,” she said, striking out again. Her hand connected with my arm. “No!” She swung again, her palm glancing off my cheek.
Eyes wide, Dee started toward her, but I held up my hand, warding her off. She shook her head as another one of Kat’s mostly ineffective punches connected with another part of my body.
“It’s all right,” I told them. “I’ll meet you outside.”
Dee’s brows pinched. “But—”
“Go!”
Dee hesitated, but Archer stepped forward and took her hand. They started for the door as I focused on Kat. I wasn’t even sure she saw me. The pupils of her eye
s glowed white. She moved to hit me again and I let her have it.
“Do what you need to do,” I said, meaning it.
Kat’s fists pounded my chest, first with some oomph behind them, but I stood there, and I let her work it out until her punches slowed and her shoulders shook. There was no amount of pain she could inflict on me that would equal what she was feeling.
“Oh God,” she whispered, dropping her forehead to my chest. “Oh God, she’s dead, she’s really dead.” Her arms fell to her sides. “They did . . . this to her. Why?”
I circled my arms around her. “I don’t know, baby, but I’m sorry—I’m so sorry.”
She shuddered as she stood there, and I hated that I couldn’t give her time to adjust, to mourn. “We’ve got to—”
The shiver of awareness skated over my skin, and there it was, the ever-present hum increasing in my skull. Shit. I whipped around, shielding Kat’s body with mine as the front door slammed again.
Heavy footsteps made their way through the hall, into the dining room. I tensed, knowing it wasn’t Dee or Archer. The plan of going home and them coming to us had worked too well.
Ethan Smith walked into the kitchen.
23
{ Daemon }
The bastard strolled on in like he owned the place, completely at ease and with absolutely no fear. His damn black trousers and white shirt even looked pressed.
Shoved in the back of my jeans, the rigged gun burned my skin, but before I could go for it, he spoke.
“Don’t even think about doing anything. I know neither you nor your sister is falling into line. I knew you’d be tough, but your sister surprised me. The game’s over.” He barely passed us a glance as he walked over to the table, straightened a chair, and sat down. “Your sister and the one with her will be slaughtered before you can blink an eye if you displease me. Keep that in mind.”
A deep growl rolled up my throat.
He glanced at the dead Luxen and then his violet eyes slid back to us. He tsked under his breath. “Daemon Black, I had so much hope for you.”
It took everything not to blast his ass into outer space. “Funny. You sound so much like someone I know already. Disappointed her, too.”
One dark eyebrow rose. “Hmm. Let me guess. Nancy Husher?”
I ground down on my molars. “You are on speaking terms with her?”
Ethan idly brushed the backs of his fingers along his pants, and then he hooked one knee over the other. “Not quite, Daemon. Please.” He extended a hand, and two of the chairs flipped upright. “Have a seat.”
“No thank you,” I said as Kat shifted closer to me. I had no idea what kind of frame of mind she was in right now.
Ethan smiled tightly. “I really wasn’t giving either of you an option. Sit or I’ll send the message to the others outside to kill your sister. Slowly.”
Anger was like a bitter acid in my blood as I stared down the Elder or whatever the hell he really was to our kind.
It was Kat who spoke, her voice surprisingly level considering what she’d just been through. “We’ll sit.”
Looking over at her, I saw that her face was pale and eyes slightly swollen, but her gray gaze was sharp. I took her hand.
Ethan chortled as he watched us. “Tell me, Daemon, what made you fall in love with a human?”
How in the hell was I supposed to answer that? I sat in the chair nearest to Ethan, which forced Kat farther away. “Why do you even want to know?”
“I’m curious.” He cocked his head to the side. “Answer me.”
My teeth were going to crack. “What’s there about her not to love?”
“Well, she’s a human.” His gaze flickered over her, his upper lip curling. “She’s mutated, but ultimately, she’s a human underneath it all.”
“So?” challenged Kat.
He ignored her. “She’s human, Daemon.”
“That doesn’t matter to me.”
“Really? Because I remember the Daemon who hated humans, hated what they’d done to his brother and brought onto his family,” Ethan replied. “I remember the Daemon I had such great hope in.”
“I was wrong to hate humans for what happened to Dawson. It wasn’t Beth’s fault or the fact that he fell in love with her. It was Daedalus.”
“An organization run completely by humans.”
I narrowed my eyes. All I could do was keep him talking, keep my brain blank from anything we planned. “Yeah, thanks for the clarification on that.”
He looked unmoved. “You can’t tell me that if your brother had never met that human girl, things would’ve been different. Same with you. Maybe even the whole world would’ve been different. After all, your actions in Vegas gave us the perfect opportunity.”
A muscle along my jaw started to pop. That human girl. I remembered him calling Kat that twice and I hadn’t really sensed the pure hatred then, just distaste, but I got it now. Oh yeah, I was really picking up on it now. “And guess what, Ethan?” I could feel Kat’s eyes on me. “I wouldn’t change a damn thing. Neither would Dawson. So chew on that.”
A flare of white light behind his purple eyes came and went. “What if I told you that your parents were alive when they arrived here?”
For a moment I didn’t think—couldn’t think. His words did not make sense.
“What?” Kat demanded.
Ethan didn’t even look her way. He was locked onto me like he was going to take me out to dinner later. “Your parents, Daemon. What if they came to Earth, but humans killed them? How would you feel about your precious human then? Or any human?”
Unable to stop myself from reacting to what he was saying, I sat back and stared at him. Again, I could feel Kat’s eyes on me, and I didn’t need to look deep to find the answer. “Yes. I would feel the same way.”
He stared at me curiously.
“Were . . . were they alive?” Kat asked.
“That doesn’t matter,” I snapped. And it was true. None of that mattered now. “This is bullshit. All of it.” My hands curled into fists atop the kitchen table. “What do you want, Ethan? Why this? You want to take over the world or something?”
“World domination?” Ethan chuckled. “That’s so cliché. So damn silly. I don’t give a damn about ruling this planet or any planet.”
I raised my brows.
“My parents were killed, Daemon. But you probably already realize that, since you know exactly what I am and I’m sure Nancy told you . . . Well, told you half of the truth.” Ethan folded his hands in his lap. “I was a part of the first group of Origins, before Nancy stepped in at a young and tender age to spearhead Daedalus.”
One of the first groups? Yeah, if what Nancy had said about them was true, the first group really didn’t have a great go at things.
“When they realized that my father had mutated my mother, they captured them. Started doing experiments. Whatever love those two might have had for each other was destroyed by the things they did to them and made them do, including my creation,” he explained without a drop of emotion. “I was a part of a limited group of Origins, and I grew up in a lab.”
“That sucks.”
That tight smile appeared. “You have no idea. I lived for years knowing that they could end my life if I did one thing wrong. Over and over, I watched other Origins, too young to really understand what they were, get taken away and never seen again. They were killed. And then I watched them murder my parents for an infraction that I committed.”
My hands, hell, my whole being itched to end this. “Like I said, that sucks, but I really don’t get why you’re telling me.”
“You don’t?” Ethan laughed, and for the first time, real emotion spread across his face. “I lived in Daedalus’s lab until I was old enough to be placed outside, into a controlled position. Not like some who were placed as senators or doctors. No. I was placed within the Luxen community, ordered to keep an eye on them.” He chuckled. “As if I would help them with anything. Or any Origin of my class wo
uld.”
“Class?”