The Arum rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I have my own problems.” He started back toward the hall and then stopped, glancing at me. “See you on the flip side.”
I gave him the middle finger good-bye.
When he disappeared down the corridor, Luc turned toward me and folded his arms. “What happened?”
Seeing that I had nothing to lose, I told him what went down at Mount Weather. Luc gave a low whistle and shook his head. “Man, I’m sorry. Truly I am. If Daedalus has her, then I don’t—”
“Don’t say it,” I growled. “She’s not lost to me. We got Bethany out. You got out.”
Luc blinked. “Yeah, you got Bethany out, but Katy got caught in the process. And I’m…I’m not like Katy.”
I didn’t know what the hell that meant. Turning from him, I thrust my fingers through my hair. “Did you know that Blake would betray us?”
There was a pause. “And if I did, what would you do?”
A bitter laugh snuck out. “I’d kill you.”
“Understandable,” he replied evenly. “Let me ask you a question. Would you have still helped your brother rescue Bethany if you knew Blake would betray you?”
Facing Luc, I slowly shook my head as the truth hit me square in the chest. If I’d known that Kat wouldn’t be coming home, I don’t think I could say yes, and I couldn’t put to words the fact that I would choose her over my brother.
He tipped his head to the side. “I didn’t know. That doesn’t mean I trusted Blake. I don’t trust anyone.”
“Anyone?”
He ignored the question. “What do you want from me, since you obviously aren’t going to try to kill me? Do you want me to take down the security again? I can do that. It’ll be a freebie for you, but it’ll also be a suicide mission. They’ll be expecting you.”
“I don’t want you to take anything down.”
He looked at me, confused. “But you’re going after her?”
“Yes.”
“You’ll get caught.”
“I know.”
Luc stared at me so long I thought the kid might’ve had a seizure. “So you really were coming here to kick my ass?”
My lips twitched. “Yeah, I was.”
The kid shook his head. “Do you have any idea what you’re getting yourself into?”
“I know.” I folded my arms. “And I know once they have me, they are going to want me to make hybrids.”
“Have you ever had to watch people die, over and over again? No? Ask your brother.”
I didn’t hesitate. “She’s worth whatever I have to go through.”
“There are worse things,” he said quietly. “If you and Hunter could put away your differences for two seconds, he’d probably tell you himself. There are things that they are doing there that will blow your mind.”
“Even more reason for me to get Kat out.”
“And what’s your plan? How are you going to get her out?” he asked, curious.
Good question. “I haven’t gotten that far yet.”
Luc watched me a moment, then busted into laughter. “Good plan. I like it. Only a few things could go wrong with that.”
“How did you get out, Luc?”
He tilted his head to the side. “You don’t want to know what I did. And you won’t do what I did.”
A cold shiver crawled over my skin. I believed the kid.
Luc stepped back. “I got to take care of this other issue, so…”
My gaze slid to the hallway. “Working with Arum, huh?”
His mouth twitched. “Arum and Luxen aren’t that different. They’re just as screwed as you guys are.”
Funny. I didn’t see it that way.
Luc tipped his chin down and swore. Looking up at me, he said, “Daedalus’s biggest weakness is their arrogance. Their need to create what should never be created. Their need to control what can never be controlled. They’re tinkering with evolution, my friend. That never ends well in the movies, does it?”
“No. It doesn’t.” I started to turn away.
“Wait,” he called out, stopping me. “I can help you.”
I faced him, head tilted to the side. “What do you mean?”
Luc’s amethyst eyes, so like Ethan’s that it was disturbing, latched onto mine. There was something a little off about his, though, with the line around the pupils. “Their biggest defense is that the world doesn’t know they exist. They don’t know we exist.”
I couldn’t look away, and I decided that this Luc kid was kind of creepy.
He smiled then. “They have something that I want, and I bet it’s where they’re keeping Katy.”
My eyes narrowed. Tit for tat never sat well with me. “What do you want?”
“They have something called LH-11. I want that.”
“LH-11?” I frowned. “What the hell is that?”
“The beginning of everything and the end of the beginning,” he said mysteriously, and a strange gleam filled his purplish eyes. “You’ll know it when you see it. Get it for me, and I’ll make sure you get out of wherever it is you’re at.”
I stared at him. “I don’t doubt your awesomeness, but how can you get Kat and me out of a place if you don’t even know where it is?”
He arched a brow. “You must doubt my awesomeness if you’re asking, and you shouldn’t. I have people everywhere, Daemon. I’ll check around with them, and they’ll let me know when you show up.”
Laughing softly, I shook my head. “Why should I trust you?”
“I’ve never asked you to trust me. You also have no other choice.” He paused, and hell if he didn’t have a point. “Get me the LH-11, and I’ll make sure you and your Kitten get out of whatever hellhole they have you in. It’s a promise.”
Chapter 7
Katy
It felt like forever since I was given a lunch of mashed potatoes and Salisbury steak. I was too amped up to check out the TV. Waiting in the silence drove me to pace the length of my cell. My nerves were stretched to the point that every time I heard footsteps outside the room, my heart leapt into my throat and I moved back from the door.
I was skittish, reacting to every sound. Having no concept of the amount of time that was passing or even what day it was, I felt like I was trapped in an airless bubble.
Making my hundredth pass in front of the bed, I mulled over what I did know. There were people here who wanted to be here—humans and Luxen, probably even a few hybrids. They were testing LH-11 on cancer patients, and God knew what LH-11 really was. A part of me could get behind that—if the Luxen really were here because they wanted to help. Finding the cure to deadly diseases was important. If Daedalus had simply asked me and hadn’t wanted to keep me in a cell, I would’ve gladly given up my blood.
I couldn’t shake what Sergeant Dasher had told me. Were there really nine thousand or so Luxen out there plotting against humans? Hundreds of thousands who could come to Earth at any time? Daemon had mentioned others before, but never once had he said anything about his kind, even a small enclave, wanting to take over.
What if that were true?
It couldn’t be.
The Luxen weren’t the bad guys here. The Arum and Daedalus were. The organization might have pretty packaging, but it was rotten inside.
Footsteps sounded outside the room, and I jumped a good couple of inches into the air. The door opened. It was Archer.
“What’s going on?” I asked, immediately wary.
The beret that seemed permanently attached to his head hid his eyes, but his jaw was tight. “I’m to take you to the training rooms.”