He swooped in, catching me before I fell, half dragging me up the stairs. “I told you not to do it. You didn’t listen to me.”
Something was wrong with my motor function skills. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out except soft moans. My legs wouldn’t work. I couldn’t feel my feet. A metallic taste was in the back of my mouth; blood leaked out of my nose and, I think, my ears, too.
The door swung open in front of us, and he dragged me in. It slammed shut, shaking the pictures on the walls. I kept trying to talk, but only garbled words came out. What did he do to me?
“It’ll wear off,” he said, as if reading my mind. “Hurts, doesn’t it? One of the first things they teach us is to control a concentrated blast of Source so it’s like getting hit with a super-charged Taser. We all have to take a hit, just to know how bad it feels.”
He dropped me on the couch, and my head lolled to the side as I blinked slowly. His face blurred in and out, and then steadied. He looked grim as he leaned over me, brushing the strands of hair off my face. I tried to knock his hand away, but my arm wouldn’t cooperate.
“I know you can hear me. Just give it a couple more minutes, and it will wear off.” He sat back, one hand moving up my leg that was off the couch. He positioned it beside the other. My heart pounded, and I whimpered.
Shaking his head, he slipped his hand into my front pocket and slid out my cell phone. Holding it up between us, the Source flared in his hand, obliterating the fragile piece of electronics. He tossed the remains to the floor. “Now, listen to me, Katy.”
I squeezed my eyes shut against the rush of tears. That quickly, he had subdued me. And I’d been planning on training and fighting Arum—plus the DOD? I was so foolish.
“I didn’t kill Simon. I don’t know what happened to him, but you— youleft me no other choice,” he said, voice grave. “I had to clean up after you, make sure you didn’t expose yourself before they knew what to do with you. If you hadn’t busted those windows in front of him, he’d still be hanging around here and dreaming about college. You didn’t leave me a choice.”
“No,” I croaked out, horrified at what he was saying.
“Yes! He would’ve told the world.”
“You’re…you’re insane. You…didn’t need to kill him.”
“Listen to me!” he yelled, dragging his fingers through his hair, eyes bugging. “After I left the party, I stayed and I saw him leave once you broke the windows. I followed him home, and he was so drunk he pulled over on the side of the road. He was going crazy about it and I had to turn him over. I don’t know what they did with him.”
“There…there was blood on his watch.”
“Simon fought back, but he was alive when I last saw him.”
But those who discovered the truth about the Luxen disappeared. Simon…Simon wasn’t coming back. And there wasn’t enough air in the house. My chest was rising and falling, but I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Tears built in my eyes as I stared up at him.
“Listen to me, Katy. This is bigger than you think.” He grasped my cheeks, forcing me to look at him. “You have no idea who this involves, the lies, and what people will do for power. I didn’thave a choice.”
I could feel my strength sliding back into me. A few more moments… “You’ve lied to me.”
“Not everything is a lie!” His grip dug in painfully, bruising my skin until a strangled cry escaped. He drew in a ragged breath. “You know, this wasn’t how it was supposed to go down. I was supposed to get you ready, to make sure you are a viable subject. And then I turn you in. If I don’t, they’ll kill Chris. I can’t—I won’t let that happen.”
Chris? Brain cells must’ve been damaged because it took a few seconds to remember who Chris was. “Your friend—the one who healed you?”
Blake closed his eyes, nodding. “They have Chris. And if I don’t perform, they’ll hurt him. They’ll kill him. And I can’t let that happen. Not because of what it means for me, because I know—I knowif they kill him I die, but there are things they do…”
They knew… One couldn’t survive without the other. Oh my God, they knew. The kind of power that knowledge wielded was horrific.
“I know you understand how strong that bond is.” Blake opened his eyes. “You won’t tell me who healed you, but you’d do anything to protect that Luxen, wouldn’t you? Anything. Chris… He’s the only real family I have left. And I don’t care about what they do to me, but him?”
As I stared into Blake’s eyes, a thin tendril of sympathy wiggled free. If the DOD was holding Chris, using him to force Blake to do things for them, then he was trapped. There was a moment of stark clarity. Were Dawson and Bethany in the same position?
But there was something else. Blake and I did have something in common. He’d do anything for Chris. And I’d do anything for Daemon.
With a burst of energy, I buckled under him, trying to throw him off. He captured my hands and yanked me off the couch. I hit the floor on my side, knocking the air out of me. Rolling me over, he straddled my hips, lifting my joined wrists so they were above my head.
He pressed his weight down. “I didn’t want to do this. I never wanted anything to do with this.”
I clung to the anger boiling inside me, knowing if I caved to the fear—or worse yet, the compassion—I’d be useless. “Do what, exactly? Lie to me? Work for the DOD—for your uncle?”
Blake blinked. “You know about Brian? Since when?”
I didn’t give him the benefit of my answer.
His grip on my wrists tightened until I could feel the bones rubbing together. “Tell me!”
“I saw the obituary for your parents! I put two and two together.”
“When?” He shook me, snapping my head back. “How long have you known? Who have you told?”
“No one!” I screamed, dizzy and faint. “I haven’t told anyone.”
For several seconds, he stared at me, and then his grip loosened. “I hope so, for their sake. Things are bigger than you realize. Not everything I told you is a lie. The DOD does want humans like us. That’s their ultimate plan.” He eased up a little, but I still felt like I was being smothered by his weight. “I know what you’re doing, Katy. Don’t call upon the Source. I’m stronger than you. Next time you won’t recover so quickly. I will hurt you.”
“I already know that,” I spat.
“I like you. I really do. And I wish things were different. You have no idea how badly I wish things were different, Katy.” He closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them, they glistened with tears. “Everything I told you about my friend was true, but I grew up knowing about the Luxen. My dad worked as liaison to the DOD, on genetic engineering. And, well, you know who my uncle is. I’m not even sure if the whole accident that changed me wasn’t staged.” He laughed grimly. “They knew how close Chris and I were, so maybe they expected him to heal me. And the Arum did find my family. None of that is a lie.”
“But after that? Everything else is a lie.”
“My family was gone, Katy. All I had was my uncle. They trained me and since I’m young, they sent me to areas where they suspected a human around my age had been mutated.”
“Oh my God…” I felt sick, and I wanted him off me. I wanted him to be gone. “So this is what you do? Go around, pretending to be someone’s friend? Setting up others?”
“My job is to discover if they are salvageable.”
“Salvageable?” I whispered, knowing what he meant. “And if they’re not, they get put down.”
He nodded. “Or worse, Katy… There are worse things than death.”
I shuddered. It made sense, his obsession with me being able to control the Source, his escalating recklessness.
“I came here to see if you could control the Source. If you would be an asset to the DOD or a waste, but they already checked you out before I arrived, watching you, following how close you are with the Blacks. I heard they even engineered the Arum attacks on you, hoping one of the Blacks would step in and save you, heal you.”