An image appeared in my head of Micah, the little boy who’d helped us escape Daedalus. Micah, the little kid who had snapped necks and destroyed brains with a mere thought.
Holy alien babies, she was carrying one of them? One of those creepy children—creepy, dangerous, and extremely deadly? Granted, Archer and Luc had probably been one of those creepy kids at one time, but nothing about that thought was reassuring, because the newest batch of Origins that Daedalus had whipped up were different than the ones Luc and Archer had popped out of.
And Luc and Archer were still kind of creepy.
“You’re staring at me like you’re upset,” she said softly.
I forced a smile onto my face, knowing it probably looked a little crazy. “No. I’m just surprised.”
A faint smile appeared on her lips. “Yeah, we were, too. This is really bad timing, isn’t it?”
Ha. Understatement of the lifetime.
As I watched her, the smile slowly slipped off her lips. I had no idea what to say to her. Congratulations? That didn’t seem appropriate for some reason, but it also seemed wrong not to say it. Did they even know about the Origins, about all those kids Daedalus had?
And would this baby be like Micah?
God, really? Did we not have enough to worry about right now? My chest tightened, and I thought I might be having a panic attack. “How . . . how far along are you?”
“Three months,” she said, swallowing hard.
I needed to sit down.
Hell, I needed an adult.
Visions of dirty diapers and angry, red little faces danced in my head. Would there be one baby or would there be three? That was something we never thought about when it came to the Origins, but the Luxen always popped out in threes.
Oh, holy llama drama, three babies?
Beth’s gaze met mine again, and something in those eyes caused me to shudder. She leaned forward, her hand stilling over her belly. “They’re not coming back the same, are they?”
“What?”
“Them,” she said. “Dawson and Daemon and Dee. They’re not going to come back the same, are they?”
About thirty minutes later, I walked downstairs in a daze. The guys were where I’d left them, sitting on the couch, watching the news. When I entered the room, Luc glanced at me, and Archer looked like someone had shoved a pole up some very uncomfortable place.
And I knew.
“Both of you knew about Beth?” I wanted to hit them when they stared blankly back at me. “And no one thought to tell me?”
Archer shrugged. “We were hoping it wouldn’t become an issue.”
“Oh my God.” Not become an issue? Like being pregnant with an alien hybrid baby wasn’t a big deal and would just, I don’t know, go away? I dropped into the chair, placing my face in my hands. What next? Seriously. “She’s going to have a baby.”
“That’s usually what happens when you have unprotected sex,” Luc commented. “Glad you two talked, though, because I so did not want to be the bearer of that news.”
“She’s going to have one of those creepy kids,” I went on, smoothing the tips of my fingers over my forehead. “She’s going to have a baby and Dawson is not even here and the whole world is going to fall apart.”
“She’s only three months along.” Archer cleared his throat. “Let’s not panic.”
“Panic?” I whispered. The headache was getting worse. “There are things she needs, like, I don’t know, a doctor to make sure the pregnancy is going all right. She needs prenatal vitamins and food and probably saltine crackers and pickles and—”
“And we can get those things for her,” Archer replied, and I lifted my head. “Everything except the doctor. If someone draws her blood, well, that would be problematic, especially given what’s going on.”
I stared at him. “Wait. My mom—”
“No.” Luc’s head whipped toward me. “You cannot contact your mom.”
My spine stiffened. “She could help us. At least give us the general idea of how to take care of Beth.” Once the idea popped into my head, I latched onto it. I was totally honest with myself. Some of the reason why it seemed like such a great idea was because I wanted to talk to her. I needed to talk to her.
“We already know what Beth needs, and unless your mom has the low down on how to care for pregnant hybrids, there’s not much more she can tell us that Google won’t.” Luc pulled his feet off the coffee table and they thumped on the floor. “And it will be dangerous to get in contact with your mom. Her phone could be monitored. It’s too dangerous for us and her.”
“Do you really think Daedalus gives two craps about us right now?”
“Is that something you want to risk?” Archer asked, meeting my gaze. “You willing to put all of us in danger, including Beth, all based on a hope they have their hands full? You willing to do that to your mom?”
My mouth screwed shut as I glared at him, but the fight leaked out of me like a balloon deflating. No. No, I wouldn’t risk that. I wouldn’t do that to us or to my mom. Tears pricked my eyes and I forced a deep breath.
“I’m working on something that will hopefully take care of the Nancy problem,” Luc announced, but the only thing I’d seen him work on was the fine art of sitting on his butt.
“Okay,” I said, voice hoarse as I willed the headache to go away and for the edges of bitter panic to recede. I had to keep it together, but that dark corner was looking better and better. “We need to get stuff for Beth.”
Archer nodded. “We do.”
Less than an hour later, Luc handed over a list of items he’d searched down on the internet. The whole situation made me feel like I was in some kind of twisted after-school special.
I wanted to laugh as I folded the piece of paper into the back pocket of my jeans, but then I probably wouldn’t stop laughing.
Luc was staying behind with Beth in case . . . well, in case something even worse happened, and I was going to go with Archer. Mainly because I thought it would be a good idea to get out of the cabin. At least it felt like I was doing something, and maybe—maybe going into town would give us some clues to where Daemon and his family had disappeared.
My hair was tucked up under a baseball cap that hid most of my face, so the chances I’d be recognized were slim. I had no idea if anyone would, but I didn’t want to take that risk.
It was late afternoon, and the air outside carried a chill that made me grateful I was wearing one of Daemon’s bulky long-sleeve shirts. Even in the heavily pine-scented air, if I breathed in deeply, I could catch his unique scent, a mix of spice and the outdoors.
My lower lip trembled as I climbed into the passenger seat and buckled myself in with shaky hands. Archer passed me a quick glance, and I forced myself to stop thinking about Daemon, about anything I didn’t want to share with Archer, which was pretty much everything right now.
So I thought about belly dancing foxes wearing grass skirts.
Archer snorted. “You’re weird.”
“And you’re rude.” I leaned forward, peering out the window as we traveled down the driveway, straining to see among the trees, but there was nothing.
“I told you before. It’s hard to not do it sometimes.” He stopped at the end of the gravel road, checking both ways before he pulled out. “Trust me. There are times when I wish I couldn’t see into people’s heads.”
“I imagine being stuck with me the last two days has been one of them.”
“Honestly? You haven’t been bad.” He glanced at me when I raised my brows. “You’ve been holding it together.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that at first, because since the other Luxen had arrived, I felt like I was seconds from shattering apart. And I wasn’t sure what exactly was keeping me together. A year ago, I would’ve freaked out and that corner would’ve been my best friend, but I wasn’t the same girl who had knocked on Daemon’s door.
I would probably never be that girl again.
I’d been throug
h a lot, especially when I’d been in the hands of Daedalus. Things I’d experienced that I couldn’t dwell on, but the time with Daemon, and those months with Daedalus, had made me stronger. Or at least I liked to think they had.
“I have to keep it together,” I said finally, folding my arms around me as I stared at the rapidly passing pines. The needled branches all blurred together. “Because I know Daemon didn’t lose it when I . . . when I was gone. So I can’t, either.”
“But—”
“Do you worry about Dee?” I cut him off, turning my attention fully on him.
A muscle thrummed along his jaw, but he didn’t respond, and as we made the quiet trip into the largest city in Idaho, I couldn’t help but think this wasn’t what I really needed to be doing. That instead, I needed to do what Daemon had done for me.
He had come for me when I’d been taken.
“That was different,” Archer said, cutting into my thoughts as he turned toward the closest supermarket. “He knew what he was getting into. You don’t.”
“Did he?” I asked as he found a parking space close to the entrance. “He might have had an idea, but I don’t think he really knew, and he still did it. He was brave.”
Archer cast me a long look as he pulled out the keys. “And you are brave, but you are not stupid. At least I’m hoping you continue to prove you’re not stupid.” He opened the door. “Stay close to me.”
I made a face at him but climbed out. The parking lot was pretty packed, and I wondered if everyone was stocking up for the coming apocalypse. On the news, there’d been rioting in a lot of the major cities after the “meteorites” fell. Local police and military had locked it down, but there was a TV show called Doomsday Preppers for a reason. For the most part, Coeur d’Alene appeared virtually untouched by what was happening, even though so many Luxen had landed in the nearby forests.
There were a lot of people in the store, their carts stacked high with canned goods and bottled water. I tried to keep my gaze down as I pulled out the list and Archer grabbed a basket, though I couldn’t help but notice no one was grabbing toilet paper.
That would be the first thing I grabbed if I thought it was the end of the world.
I stuck close to Archer’s side as we headed to the pharmacy section and started scanning the endless rows of brown bottles with yellow caps.
Sighing, I glanced down at the list. “Couldn’t this crap be in alphabetical order?”
“That would be too easy.” His arm blocked my vision as he picked up a bottle. “Iron on the list, right?”
“Yep.” My fingers hovered over folic acid and I picked it up, having no idea what the hell that even was or what it did.
Archer knelt down. “And the answer is yes to your earlier question.”
“Huh?”
He looked up through his lashes. “You asked if I was worried about Dee. I am.”
My fingers tightened over the bottle as my breath caught. “You like her, don’t you?”
“Yes.” He turned his attention to the oversize bottles of prenatal vitamins. “In spite of the fact that her brother is Daemon.”
As I stared down at him, my lips twitched into the first smile since the Luxen had—
The boom, like a sonic clap of thunder, came out of nowhere, shaking the rack of pills and startling me into taking a step back.
Archer stood fluidly, his shrewd gaze swinging around the crowded market. People stopped in the middle of the aisles, some hands tightening on their carts, others letting go, the wheels creaking as the carts slowly rolled away.
“What was that?” a woman asked a man who stood next to her. She turned, picking up a little girl who had to be no more than three. Holding the child close to her breast, she spun around, her face pale. “What was that—?”
The clap of sound roared through the store again. Someone screamed. Bottles fell from the racks. Footsteps pounded across the linoleum floor. My heart jumped as I twisted toward the front of the store. Something flashed in the parking lot, like lightning striking the ground.
“Dammit,” Archer growled.
The tiny hairs on my arms rose as I walked toward the end of the aisle, forgetting all pretenses of keeping my head down.
A heartbeat of silence passed, and thunder blasted again and again, rattling the bones in my body as streaks of light lit up the parking lot, one after another after another. The glass window in front cracked, and the screams . . . the screams got louder, snapping with terror as the windows shattered, flinging glass at the checkout lanes.
The streaks of blinding light formed shapes in the parking lot, stretching and taking on legs and arms. Their tall, lithe bodies tinged in red, like Daemon’s, but deeper, more crimson.
“Oh God,” I whispered, the bottle of pills slipping from my fingers, smacking off the floor.
They were everywhere, dozens of them. Luxen.
2
{ Katy }
Everyone, including me, seemed to be frozen for a moment, as if time had been stopped, but I knew that hadn’t happened.
The forms in the parking lot turned, their necks stretching and tilting to the side, their steps fluid and snakelike. Their movements were unnatural and nothing like the Luxen who had been on Earth for years.
A red truck squealed its tires as it spun out of a parking space, spilling smoke and the smell of burned rubber into the air. It whirled around, as if the driver planned to plow through the Luxen.
“Oh no,” I whispered, my heart thumping heavily.
Archer grabbed my hand. “We need to get out of here.”
But I was rooted to where I stood, and I finally understood why people rubbernecked car accidents. I knew what was coming, and I knew it was something I didn’t want to see, but I couldn’t look away.
One of the forms stepped forward, the edges of its body pulsing red as it raised a glowing arm.
The truck jerked forward; the shadow of a man behind the wheel and a much smaller body beside it would be forever etched into my memory.
Tiny sparks of electricity flew from the Luxen’s hand as a brilliant light tinged in red curled down its arm. A second later, a bolt of light radiated from it, snapping into the air, smelling like burned ozone. The light—a blast straight from the Source of what had to be the purest kind—smacked into the truck.
The explosion rocked the store as the truck went up in flames, flipping over into the line of cars next to it. An inferno poured out of the busted windshield as the truck crashed down on its roof, tires spinning aimlessly.
Chaos erupted. Screams shattered the silence as people ran from the front of the store. Like a herd, they pushed into carts and other people. Bodies went down on hands and knees, and the screams pitched louder, mingling with the cries of young children.
In a stuttered heartbeat and in the blink of an eye, the Luxen were in the store and they were everywhere. Archer yanked me around the end of the shelf, pressing our bodies against the sharp edges. A teenage boy raced past us, and all I could think was how red his hair was—like scarlet—and then I realized it wasn’t his hair color but blood. He made it to the body-wash section before a burst of light hit him in his back. The boy went down, face-first and unmoving, as a charred hole smoked from the center of his spine.
“Jesus,” I gasped as my stomach roiled.
Archer stared, eyes wide and nostrils flared. “This is bad.”
I inched to the edge of the aisle and peered around, my stomach flopping when I saw the woman who’d been holding the small girl minutes before.
She was standing in front of one of the Luxen, her mouth gaping open, seemingly frozen in fear. The little girl was pressed back against the rack of supermarket books, huddled into a small ball, wailing as she rocked back and forth. It took me a moment to realize what she was shrieking over and over again.
“Daddy! Daddy!”
The man was lying in a pool of blood at her feet.
Energy crackled along my skin, snapping against Archer as the Luxe
n reached out and placed a hand on the center of the woman’s chest.
“What the . . . ?” I whispered.
The woman’s spine straightened as if someone had dropped steel