Rolland listened as the limo rolled along. “Thank you for being so forthcoming, Katy. I would’ve been so disappointed if you’d lied.”
“And we would’ve known.” Sadi’s hand was somewhere around my navel. “You see, we know about their little weapons and the onyx. Those things may still affect us, but we know they are there. We will be prepared for them.”
Confused, I flicked my gaze from her to Rolland. He spread his arms out over the back of his seat, getting all kinds of comfy. “We’ve had help here. I’m pretty sure you’ve realized that by now.”
Pressure seized my chest as I got a real bad feeling about everything. “Someone like her?”
Her throaty laugh raised the hairs on my arms. “Yes, someone like me. Like your Archer. Oh. And who else haven’t you told us about?”
Air leaked out of my lungs.
Rolland tsked softly. “Are you keeping something or someone from us, Katy?”
“She is.” Sadi drew a finger up my arm. Tiny bumps chased the disturbing caress. “His name is Luc, I think.”
Oh God.
“But that’s not all.” Sadi looked over at Rolland.
He grinned. “Of course it isn’t.”
Sadi’s finger trailed over my jaw. “There’s Beth . . . and the baby.”
“Oh dear,” Rolland murmured.
I stared at him, my brain refusing to compute the twist.
He tapped his fingers on the back of the seat. “Did you all really think we’d come here without an invite? That humans, with all their intelligence and advancements, wouldn’t be the source of their own destruction in the end?”
“After all, naming a serum after Prometheus?” Sadi’s breath danced against my cheek. “I mean, isn’t that like self-fulfillment?”
Because in Greek mythology, Prometheus had created man out of clay and, disobeying the gods, gave mankind fire, therefore starting civilization. He had been punished for his own ingenuity.
Just like Daedalus, Sadi’s voice whispered among my turbulent thoughts.
Horror swamped me as I slowly turned my head toward her. Her eyes, the brilliant blue, they weren’t real. Contacts. Just like Archer had hidden his eyes from us, making them appear human. Sadi had gone in the opposite direction, donning lenses that made her look Luxen.
But she wasn’t.
She was an Origin.
And not only had she been able to pick up my thoughts the entire time, she would’ve heard Dawson’s and Daemon’s, in and out of their true forms.
“Yes,” she whispered, her lips brushing the curve of my cheek, sending a shiver down my spine. “You are all so screwed.”
The inside of the limo was suddenly too small. “Why?” I gasped out the only thing I could think.
“Why tell you?” Rolland raised his arms idly. “Or why ask you questions? You see, we couldn’t figure it out. The two brothers were smart. Even when they were in their human forms, they didn’t think anything.”
“They are extraordinarily beautiful, and while most aren’t blessed with good looks and intelligence,” Sadi said, laughing when my jaw clamped down, “I doubted their heads were that empty.”
“There were things that Sadi could pick up every once in a while—brief flashes of thoughts that raised our suspicions when it came to how honest they were being with us,” Rolland went on. “But we couldn’t figure it out—what made those two so resistant to our cause when their sister fell into line so quickly. But then you came along.”
Sadi tapped a nail off the tip of my nose. “How lucky for us.”
“You are the answer. Because you were mutated, an unbreakable bond was formed between you and Daemon.”
“And we knew that Dawson was hiding something from us,” Sadi added. “Or someone. That would be Beth.”
“So now we know that there will be other Luxen out there, some like Daemon and Dawson, who may be bonded to humans in a way that will be problematic to our cause. It’s not like the four of you are unique. There has to be more, and that is what today is all about.”
Crap. Crap. Crap.
Sadi giggled.
“We need to calm the poor little humans, get them to think that their leaders are protecting them, but you and me, well, we know that’s not really going to happen.” He smiled that charming smile of his. “But we also need to give a message to any other Luxen out there who may be thinking that our cause is not something they wish to support.”
My pulse in my throat felt like a hummingbird trying to peck its way out. “And that’s what we are? A message.”
“Smart girl,” he replied as the limo hung a sharp right.
“She wants to know how,” Sadi interjected, and I shot her a dark look. She patted my cheek. “Should we tell her?”
He shrugged.
“You see, there will be Luxen who will be watching, and even through the TV and all the channels it’s broadcast on, they will know what we are,” she explained. “We will toss the brothers right under that bus you were worried about earlier. We’ll expose them as Luxen.”
Holy crap.
“Takes care of two things.” Rolland leaned forward again. “When the humans see beyond a doubt that the Luxen look just like them and that there are humans working alongside some of them, it will cause panic.”
Making it easier for them to take control.
“Exactly,” Sadi murmured, tracing my lower lip with her finger.
“And it also sends a clear message to the Luxen that we will not tolerate any who may have the smallest inkling to stand against us.” The smile slipped from Rolland’s face as his pupils turned to light. “Like I said, serves two interests.”
Good God. The panic they would incite would be astronomical. Even if only a small percentage of the world saw the video at first, it would go viral. If there were Luxen out there like Daemon and Dawson, they’d get the message.
There had to be something I could do.
“There is nothing you can do,” Sadi said, reading my thoughts.
But there was.
She tipped her head back and started laughing, and I started picturing people twerking—everyone in the limo. Quiet Luxen Dude. Rolland. Sadi. All of them bent over, butts in the air, looking like damn fools.
Sadi drew back, frowning. “What are—?”
Twisting in the seat, I acted without much thought behind it, letting instinct take over. The risk was great, but I couldn’t let them reach their destination.
Sadi shouted something as I summoned the Source, pulled from deep within me. Quiet Luxen Dude slammed his hand around my throat as energy rolled down my arm, spinning rapidly as I let the bolt loose.
Air was cut off, and I couldn’t breathe, but the bolt of energy had struck true, slamming into the back of the driver’s head.
The limo swerved sharply to the right and kept going, speeding up when the driver slumped over the wheel. The car went up on two wheels, and as the grip around my throat tightened, the limo went airborne.
9
{ Daemon }
I didn’t like this setup at all. Having Kat in a different car was bad enough, but leaving her with Sadi and Rolland made me want to put my fist through the back of someone’s head.
Dee was sitting in the front, next to one of the newcomers, dressed like a mini-Sadi, wearing a pantsuit. God, that made my skin crawl right off my bones. There were at least a hundred things I didn’t like about that, and all of them made me want to punch myself in the face.
I was in a punching mood.
That was so messed up after the bliss I’d experienced this morning with Kat. The time spent with her, in her, now seemed like forever ago. There was an odd, desperate edge to my thoughts that I couldn’t shake. Like the feel of her lips, and how it almost seemed like it was something in the past.