Then Dawson flung an arm over his face as he bent one leg. “Crap.”
Relief made my knees weak. I cradled her cheeks again, turning her head toward mine. “Are you okay? Say something, Kitten. Please.”
“Wow,” she croaked out.
I stared at her a moment. Wow? Then I was moving without thinking. Folding my arms around her, I lifted her into my arms as I fell back on my ass, holding her so tightly she let out a hoarse squeal.
“God, I don’t even know…” I cupped the back of her head. “I was scared to death.”
“I’m okay.” Her voice was muffled. “What about you? You had to have—”
“It’s all off me. Don’t even worry about that.” A shudder rocked me. “Damn, Kitten…”
Kat clutched the front of my wet sweater as I ran my hands over her, making sure there were no injuries I hadn’t seen. When I found none, I kissed her forehead, then each eyelid. I couldn’t get my hands to stop trembling.
Two sets of headlights appeared, and out of the stream of questions, Dee dropped to her knees beside Dawson, clutching his hand. “What happened? Someone tell us what happened.”
Matthew and Ash walked up behind her as Andrew did his best to explain what happened. “I don’t know. They had something that came out of the doors when they opened. It was some kind of spray, but it had no smell and we couldn’t see it.”
“It hurt like a bitch.” Dawson rubbed his arms. “And there’s only one thing that feels like that. Onyx. But I’ve never seen it like that before.” With stiff movements and Ash and Dee’s help, he climbed to his feet. “It was airborne. Insane. I think I swallowed some.”
“Are you okay? Katy?” Matthew asked.
Kat nodded. “How did you know to get us to the river?”
Lifting my hand, I knocked the wet hair off my forehead. “I guessed it was onyx when I didn’t see any visible wounds and it was on your clothes and skin. I remembered passing the river. Thought it was the best place to go.”
“We didn’t even make it past the first set of doors.” Andrew barked out a laugh. “What the hell were we thinking? They have that place wired against Luxen and apparently hybrids.”
Come to think of it, how did Blake not know about this? He’d been to Mount Weather before. How did he not know about the onyx?
Helping Kat stand, I dropped my arms and then stalked over to where Blake sat. “You’ve been to Mount Weather before, right?”
Slowly, Blake pushed to his feet. “Yeah, but nothing—”
I slammed my fist into Blake’s jaw, knocking him back down. He leaned over, planting his elbow in the dirt as he spit out a mouthful of blood. “I didn’t know—I didn’t know they had something like that!”
“I’m finding that hard to believe.”
Blake lifted his head. “You have to believe me! Nothing like that ever happened before. I don’t understand.”
“Bullshit,” Andrew said. “You set us up.”
“No. No way.” Blake staggered to his feet, his back to the river. He placed a hand to his jaw. “Why would I set you guys up? My friend is—”
“I don’t care about your friend!” Andrew shouted. “You’ve been there! How could you not know they had the doors rigged with that stuff?”
Blake turned to Kat. “You have got to believe me. I had no idea that was going to happen. I wouldn’t lead you guys into a trap.”
“And Luc didn’t know?” she asked, sounding doubtful.
“If he did, he would’ve told us. Katy—”
“Don’t,” I warned as the edges of my anger started to shimmer. “Don’t talk to her. Don’t even talk to any of us right now.”
Blake opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He shook his head as he stalked back to the cars.
There was a gap of silence, and then Ash asked, “What do we do now?”
“I don’t know.” I watched Dawson pace. “I really don’t know.”
Dee rose. “This sucks. This sucks donkey butt.”
“We’re back at square one,” Andrew said. “Hell, we’re at negative one.”
Dawson whipped toward me. “We can’t give up. Promise me we won’t give up.”
“We won’t,” I assured him. “We’re not giving up.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Matthew walk out from his car and drape a blanket over Kat’s shoulders. He said something to her, and Kat hunkered down in the blanket. A second later, he guided her back to the SUV. I heard the door close and the engine come on.
Exhaling roughly, I faced Dawson. Our gazes locked. “I’m not giving up.”
Dawson lifted his chin, his mouth pressed in a flat line. He didn’t say anything as he stalked back to the SUV. I looked up. Stars blanketed the sky, as endless and unforgiving as our rescue mission had been.
Kat had stopped shivering halfway back to Petersburg, but I was still worried about her. She might be a hybrid, but she’d been doused with onyx, and I’d nearly drowned her in the Shenandoah River. There was no way I was letting her out of my sight tonight.
Near midnight, I pulled into the driveway. Blake had slunk off without so much as a word, and I hoped he walked off a cliff somewhere. I didn’t care. Catching Kat before she could head next door, I steered her inside. Everyone was talking, but again, I didn’t care. Still shrouded in Matthew’s blanket, Kat looked numb and exhausted.
I took her hand. “Let’s get you into some dry clothes.”
She waved me off at the bottom of thestairs when I went to pick her up. “I’m fine.”
I made a disgruntled sound, but stayed behind her as she slowly climbed the steps, just in case she went ass over teakettle. Once in my bedroom, I closed the door behind us.
Kat sighed. “We kind of deserved this.”
Walking over to where she stood, I pried the blanket off her. “How so?”
“We’re a bunch of teenagers, and we thought we could break into a facility run by Homeland Security and the DOD? I mean, come on. This was bound to go wrong—wait!” she said, grabbing my wrists as I grabbed the hem of the thermal. “What are you doing?”
“Getting you naked.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Uh, wow. Way to cut to the point.”
I gave her a half grin. “Your clothing is soaked and cold. And there are probably traces of onyx still on them. You need to get out of them.”
She smacked my hands away. “I can do that myself.”
Leaning in, I spoke directly in her ear. “Where’s the fun in that?” I let go, though, and walked over to my dresser. “You really think we were doomed to fail?”
The following rustle of clothing being stripped off really made it hard to not look.
“Don’t…don’t turn around.”
Considering I’d seen it before, I shook my head as I rooted around for something she could wear.
“I don’t know,” she said finally. “It was a huge undertaking for trained spies. We’re in over our heads.”
“But we were fine until we hit those doors.” I pulled out a shirt that would work like a gown on her, albeit a short gown. “I hate to say this, but I really don’t think Blake knew about them. The look on his face when you and Dawson went down—it was too real.”
“Then why did you punch him in the face?”
“I wanted to.” Placing a hand over my eyes, I turned around and offered her the shirt. “Here you go.”
She grabbed it quickly and for a moment, I split my fingers, catching the shirt billowing around her thighs.
“You were peeking,” she said.
“Maybe.” I took her hand and led her to the bed. “Get in. I’m going to check on Dawson and I’ll be back.”
Kat climbed onto the bed and made her way to what was turning out to be her side. She grabbed the comforter and tugged it all the way up to her chin. I headed out into the hallway, stopping at the top of the stairs. I could hear Dawson and Dee. Andrew’s voice was in the mix. Matthew had probably already left.
I needed to go down and check on Dawson, but as I stood there at the top of the stairs, I told myself that Dee had it handled; so did Andrew. I wasn’t always…needed. I didn’t have to be the one to always take care of everything.