Текст книги "Oblivion"

Автор книги: Jennifer L. Armentrout

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Текущая страница: 47 (всего у книги 51 страниц)

Chapter 17

“Damn,” Dawson said from the passenger seat. His elbow was resting against the door, and the side of his face was plastered against his hand. “Damn.”

My hand tightened on the steering wheel. “That pretty much sums it up.”

Dawson and I were heading to the store to find some kind of area rug for Kat’s bedroom. Because of the time and where we lived, options were limited. We had to leave Petersburg to hit up the nearest Walmart. Andrew was at the house just in case something else unexpected and insane happened.

“I know I haven’t been around, but I can’t see it being someone from the colony. No way,” he said, shifting in the seat. “Those in the colony don’t get close to humans in that way. Not unless that’s changed.”

I thought of Ethan’s recent visit. “No, that hasn’t changed.” I paused, glancing over at him. His face was shadowed. “You think Daedalus is behind what happened to Carissa?”

He didn’t respond for a few moments. “They’d bring in humans all the time and force us to heal them. It usually didn’t work…and the humans would die, because they were injured. I lost count of how many died in front of me.”

My jaw clenched. “None of that—those deaths—are your fault.”

“Didn’t feel like it then, when you’re the only person who can save them. Anyway…” He cleared his throat. “Sometimes it would kind of work. I…I could heal the human and within a couple of days, the mutation would start, but it didn’t hold. It never held.”

I was quiet as we passed a semitruck, unsure of what the appropriate response to that level of messed-up shit would be. Honestly, I didn’t want to say the wrong thing. Dawson had been becoming more and more like himself with each passing day, but he still wasn’t very talkative, especially not about his time with Daedalus.

“Usually I wouldn’t see those humans again—after they were brought to me to be healed,” he continued, his voice gruff. “Once though, I did. I think Daedalus thought they had a success on their hands. The guy lasted longer than any other subject, but he…he wasn’t right, Daemon. Like when a fever ravages the brain, he was out of control and he did what Kat said Carissa did. Self-destructed. As if there was a bomb inside of him, but instead of exploding, he imploded. Everything caved in…” He trailed off, shaking his head as he dropped his arm into his lap. “They haven’t had much luck with successful mutations. That’s why Beth and I were so…important to them.” He looked over at me, and I already knew what he was going to say. “That’s why you and Kat would be important to them.” Hearing about some of the shit Dawson was forced to do and had seen always made me want to blow something up. I couldn’t even begin to think of Kat ever being in the situation. “I’m sorry,” I said after a couple of moments. “I’m sorry you had to go through any—”

“It’s not your fault, man. Never has been. Never will be.”

I nodded slowly. Trees crowding the road blurred. “Why do you think they’re doing this? Mutating humans? Did they ever say?”

“Not really,” he replied, stretching out his legs. “I always thought they were trying to build an army of hybrids.”

Barking out a laugh, I shook my head. “That’s freaking insane. One hybrid at a time?”

“Yeah.” He tipped his head back against the seat and sighed. “But what other reasons would there be?”

Dawson had a point. Up ahead I saw the exit I needed and I eased into the next lane. I glanced over at him. “So they would mutate someone, knowing it would probably kill them?”

Yellow light from an oncoming car flickered across Dawson’s face. “They’re really capable of anything. They’ll do anything. Daedalus doesn’t have a heart. It doesn’t have a soul.”

Kat had stayed home from school on Tuesday. Even though she’d been asleep while I straightened her room and covered the scorched spot on her floor with the area rug, she looked worn out when I showed up at her house around one. Still the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen, but tired.

“What are you doing here?”

I took her hand, leading her into the living room. “Nice jammies.”

“Shouldn’t you be in school?”

“You shouldn’t be alone right now.” I twisted my baseball cap around.

“I’m all right,” she said.

Kat was the furthest thing from all right after what happened and that was okay, but I needed to be here for her, and that was why I’d left school. I went to the couch, where she’d obviously made a makeshift bed. Sitting down, I stretched out on the couch and tucked her against me.

She twisted around, facing me. We didn’t kiss. We didn’t talk. As the minutes ticked by, we just held each other. At some point, we dozed off in each other’s arms. It was the scent of coffee that woke me around five.

Her mom was standing in the doorway, a steaming cup of coffee in hand and a soft smile on her face. She didn’t appear angry that I’d obviously skipped classes and had fallen asleep on her couch with her daughter.

Kat sat up, smoothing a hand through her disheveled hair as she stared at her mom’s Lucky Charms pajamas. “Where did you get them?”

“What?” She took a sip.

“Those…hideous pajamas.”

She shrugged. “I like them.”

“They’re cute,” I said as I took off my hat, earning me an elbow in the side from Kat. “I’m sorry, Ms. Swartz, I didn’t mean to fall asleep with—”

“It’s okay.” She waved me off. “Katy hasn’t been feeling well, and I’m glad you wanted to be here for her, but I hope you don’t get what she has.”

I cast Kat a sideways look. “I hope you didn’t give me cooties.”

She huffed.

Her mother’s cell went off, and she dug it out of her pajama pockets, sloshing coffee onto the floor. She smiled, her face lighting up. Kat stiffened as her mom turned and headed into the kitchen.

“Will,” Kat whispered, standing.

I stood. “You don’t know that for sure.”

“I do. It’s in her eyes—he makes her glow.” She looked like she wanted to barf. Couldn’t blame her. “I need to tell her why Will got close to her.”

“And tell her what?” I blocked her from running into the kitchen. “That he was here to get close to you—to use you? I don’t think that’s going to lessen any blows.” I placed my hands on her shoulders. “We don’t know if it was him calling or what’s happened to him. Look at Carissa.” I kept my voice low. “Her mutation was unstable. It didn’t take long for it…to do what it did.”

“Then that means it held,” she countered in a whisper.

“Or it means it faded off.” I tried again. “We can’t do anything until we know what we’re dealing with. One at a time. We’re going to deal with things one at a time. That’s all we can do.”

Kat took a deep breath and nodded. “I’m going to go and see if it was him.”

I let her go, but called out, “I like your pajamas better.”

She turned around and glanced down at her pink and purple polka-dot pajamas. Slowly, she raised her gaze to mine.

I grinned.

Her lips twitched. “Shut up.”

I returned to the couch. “I’ll be waiting.”

The moment she disappeared into the kitchen, I let my head fall back on the couch. Sighing, I closed my eyes. Maybe on the outside it didn’t appear that I was too concerned about Will. I didn’t want Kat to stress over the situation involving him more than she already was. Will still in contact with her mom left a sour taste in my mouth. I knew we hadn’t seen the last of him.

I just didn’t know when we’d see him again and what that meant.

Issues with Will had to be shoved aside, because after Kat’s mom left for work, we found ourselves standing at the lake, staring down on a glittering pile of onyx I’d buried.

All of us were there, and everyone knew what had happened the night before with Carissa. I knew that was why Dawson was keeping close to Kat.

Using a pair of thick leather gloves, I picked up a broken piece of onyx and turned to Blake. “This is your show.”

Blake took a deep breath and nodded. “I think the first thing to test out is if I do have a tolerance to onyx. If I do, then that gives us a starting point, right? At least then we know that we can build up a tolerance.”

I glanced down at the onyx and then shrugged. Shooting forward, I pressed the piece of onyx against Blake’s cheek.

Kat’s mouth dropped open while Matthew stepped back, uttering, “God.”

Dawson laughed under his breath.

Nothing happened, though.

Blake knocked the piece of onyx aside, his nostrils flared. “What the hell?”

Huh, that was disappointing. I was hoping to send him to the ground, withering in pain. I tossed the stone in the pile. “Well, apparently you have a tolerance to onyx, and here I was hoping you didn’t.”

Kat covered her mouth, stifling a giggle that still managed to escape.

“What if I didn’t have a tolerance to it?” Blake demanded, and I’m pretty sure my expression said I didn’t care. “Good God, I kind of wanted to prepare myself for that.”

“I know.” I smirked.

Matthew shook his head. “Okay, back on track, boys. How do you suggest doing this?”

Shooting me a dark look, Blake stalked over to the pile of onyx. “I suggest Daemon go first. We hold it to the skin until you drop. No longer.”

“Oh, dear Lord,” Kat muttered.

Whatever. I stripped off my gloves and held my arms out. “Bring it.”

Of course, Blake was jonesing for payback. Springing forward, he placed the onyx against my palm. Being prepared wouldn’t have changed a damn thing. It was like cupping fire and keeping your damn hand over the flame. Red-hot pain rippled over my hand and up my arm. A tremor rocked me and then the pain was whipping out, scattering cells, and it became—

Blake removed the piece of onyx.

I hit the ground, on my hands and knees. “Crap…”

Kat was at my side, touching my shoulders. “Are you okay?”

“He’s fine,” Blake said, placing the onyx on the ground. I looked up, seeing his right hand shake. “It started to burn. There must be a limit to my tolerance…”

Unsteady, I pushed to my feet. “I’m okay.” Turning, I saw my brother staring at Blake like he was seconds from tearing the hybrid apart with his bare hands. “I’m fine, Dawson.”

“How do we know this will work?” Matthew demanded. “Touching onyx is completely different from being sprayed all over with it.”

“I’ve walked out of those doors before and nothing happened. And it’s not like they’ve sprayed onyx in my face before,” Blake said. “This has to be it.”

“Okay.” Kat stepped forward. “Let’s do this.”

Locking my jaw down was the only way to stop myself from telling Kat not to do this. Wasn’t easy standing there and watching Blake slip on the gloves and pick up the piece of onyx. Instead of bringing the jagged shard of onyx to Kat, he went to Matthew. Within seconds, the older Luxen was on his knees, gasping for air. Then it was Dawson’s turn, and I forced myself not to look away or intervene when Blake placed the onyx against Dawson’s hand.

It took a little longer for it to affect him, which would make sense if Daedalus had been prepping Dawson with it. But then he, too, was on his knees. The curse words I let loose pinked the tips of Kat’s ears.

But then it was her turn.

Blake started toward her, but I couldn’t let him be the one to do it. He was not going to hurt her again. Swiping the other glove off the ground, I took the piece of onyx from him.

“No,” Kat said, stepping back. “I don’t want you to do this.”

“I’m not letting him do this.”

“Then let someone else do this. Please.” She looked away, but no one stepped forward. “This isn’t right.”

None of this was right, but I didn’t trust anyone else to do this. “It’s either me or no one.”

Her gaze sharpened and a moment passed. “Do it.”

Shit. A part of me was hoping she wouldn’t let me do it. Anger dug in as she met my gaze. “I hate this,” I said, my voice low.

“I do, too.” She took a deep breath. “Just do it.”

Once again, I wanted to look away, but I wouldn’t let myself. I was going to be here with her for this, but she lowered her gaze, and for that I was grateful. I didn’t want to stare into her eyes while I was handing her unimaginable pain. Hating everything about this, I placed the onyx against her hand.

A moment passed and then her brow creased. Her lashes slammed down, fanning her cheeks. Her jaw jutted out. My stomach churned. She bit down on her lip. Her body jerked, and then she was on her knees.

Fuck.

Throwing the rock aside, I knelt down next to Kat. She shuddered. “All right…okay…not too bad.”

“Bull.” I hauled her to her feet. I couldn’t do this—watch her in pain every damn day to build up tolerance. My skin was crawling. “Kat—”

She tugged free, dragging in air. “Really, I’m okay. We need to keep going.”

Looking away, I counted to ten in my head, then fifty, and I made it to a hundred without it doing any good, because all of us went through the same process again. None of us were able to withstand the onyx any longer than the first time.

“It’s like getting hit with a Taser,” Matthew said, as he dropped a sheet of plywood over the onyx, then placed two heavy rocks on the board. It was late, and all of us were feeling the pain. “Not that I’ve ever been Tased, but I image that’s how it feels.”

We started to head back to the house, and I was a few steps in front of Kat. Blake was trailing her, and I was close enough to hear what he was saying.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I liked Carissa. I wish…”

“If wishes were fishes, we’d all throw nets, right? Isn’t that what they say?” Bitterness sharpened Kat’s tone, and I hated hearing that.

“Yeah, that’s what they say.” Blake paused. “Things are gonna get crazy at school.”

“Why do you care?” she fired back. “You’re going to leave as soon as you get Chris. You’ll just be another one of those kids who vanished into thin air.”

“I would stay if I could. I can’t, though.”

I slowed down. That bastard was not staying. If I had to hog-tie him and this Luxen and ship them out to the West Coast in one big box, I would.

“I would stay,” I heard Blake say again. “I—”

That was it. Spinning around, I saw him place his hand on her shoulder. I was in front of him in under a heartbeat, prying his fingers off her shoulder. “Don’t touch her.”

Blood drained from his face as he stepped back. “Dude, I wasn’t doing anything. Overprotective, much?”

“I thought we had an understanding. You’re here because we don’t have a choice,” I reminded him. “You’re still alive because she is better than me. You’re not here to comfort her. Got that?”

Blake’s jaw popped as he stalked around us. “Whatever. I’ll see you guys later.”

“That was a little overprotective,” Kat said, peering up at me.

“I don’t like him touching you. I don’t like him even being in the same time zone as you. I don’t trust him.”

Stretching up, she kissed my cheek. “No one trusts him, but you can’t threaten him every five seconds.”

I snorted. “Yes, I can.”

Kat laughed as she stepped in, wrapping her arms around my waist. She rested her cheek against my chest, above my heart. My hands slid down her back, and we stood there for a few minutes. “Do you really want to do more days like this? An endless stretch of days filled with pain?”

“It serves as a pretty good distraction, and I need that right now.”

This was a good distraction? Jesus. This was what our lives had come down to. Almost laughable. My gaze flickered to where the moonlight filtered through the bare limbs. Except nothing about any of this was funny.

My hand curled around her thick hair. “We need a date night soon.”

She snuggled in closer. “I don’t think we have time for that.”

“There is always time for date night.” I lowered my gaze. She was peering up at me now. “Remember? Time management?”

Kat smiled a little, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I do.”

“Tomorrow night, we’re supposed to head into Martinsburg to see Luc. That doesn’t really count as a date night.”

“It doesn’t?”

“Hanging out with the preteen mafia leader? Uh, no.” I grinned when she laughed. “But there is no excuse for us to not make time to do the normal stuff. Right?”

“Right,” she murmured. “It doesn’t…feel wrong, though? Like we’re being selfish?”

“If wanting to enjoy you and the time I have with you makes me selfish, so be it.” I lifted my other hand, cupping her other cheek. “Look,” I said after a moment. “Who knows what is waiting for us tomorrow or next week.”

She wrapped her hand around my wrist. “We don’t know.”

“We need a couple of hours here and there.”

“You’re right.” She stretched up again and kissed me. “I hate it when you’re right.”

Laughing, I stepped to the side and draped my arm over her shoulders. She leaned into me as we started back to the house, the moonlight lighting our paths. For a…a normal couple, this would be a romantic walk, but for us it seemed like that moonlit path was foreshadowing that there was more darkness than light in store for us.

Chapter 18

Wednesday night, while everyone was down at the lake playing with onyx, Kat and I were on the way back to Martinsburg. There was a chance that Luc wouldn’t see us. Hell, the kid might not even be there, but since Kat was wearing this sweater that was like a second skin, I considered it a win no matter what.

Getting to Martinsburg was a lot easier this time around without any of the snow or Blake running his mouth nonstop.

Kat wasn’t smiling a lot, though, and I couldn’t blame her. After school, we’d joined the hastily-thrown-together search party for Carissa. Even though both of us knew there would be no finding Carissa, it was cathartic for Kat, I thought, for her to take part. To distract her, we started to play I Spy, and although she claimed that I cheated, she was smiling and laughing.

When we finally reached the door leading up to the club, cars lined the field like they had last time. I couldn’t understand how this place stayed off the map with this kind of traffic.

Kat shed the loose sweater she’d worn over the tighter one as soon as I parked the SUV. We climbed out and started around the rows of cars. She stopped in the first row, bent over, and tossed her hair over her head, shaking it out, and that was an instant turn-on.

“This reminds me of a Whitesnake video,” I said.

“Huh?” She straightened, running her hands over her hair. The waves fell in a sexy tousle down her back.

I swallowed a groan. “If you start climbing on car hoods, I think I might marry you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Done.”

Staring at her, I felt pressure in my chest. A good kind. Also a frightening kind. “You’re cute.”

“You’re weird.” She stretched up and kissed my cheek, and then I watched her teeter through the high grass that hadn’t been there the last time we’d been there.

Mountain Man, the bouncer I was sure really liked me, like really liked me, appeared out of the shadows, blocking the door. He folded massive arms over his chest. “I thought I told ya two to forget this place?”

I stepped in front of Kat. “We need to see Luc.”

“I need a lot of things in life. Like I wish I could find a decent stock trader who wouldn’t lose half of my money.”

Um, all right.

Kat cleared her throat. “We won’t be here long, but please, we really need to see him.”

“Sorry,” Mountain Man replied.

Sighing, I tipped my head to the side. Obviously, Luc was here. “There’s got to be something that we can do to convince you.”

Mountain Man raised a brow and waited.

I smiled, and the bouncer’s brows rose even further, but before he could respond, his cell phone went off. He pulled it out of the pocket of his overalls. “What’s up?”

Kat elbowed me, and I glanced down at her. “What? It was working.”

The bouncer laughed. “I ain’t doin’ much. Just talkin’ to a douche and a pretty lady.”

“Excuse me?” I said, surprised.

Kat choked out a laugh.

Mountain Man smiled broadly and then sighed. “Yep, they’re here for ya.” There was a pause. “Sure.” He clicked the phone shut. “Luc will see you. Go in and go straight to him. No dancing tonight or whatever it was the two of ya did last time.”

I didn’t need to even look at Kat to know she was blushing, because what we’d done last time on that dance floor sure as hell wasn’t just dancing. Placing my hand on her lower back, we started toward the door.

Mountain Man stopped me with a wink as he handed over a business card. “Ya not normally my type, but I can make an exception.”

I took the card with a smile and then ushered a gaping Kat inside. “Told you.”

Kat snapped her mouth shut and faced forward. Like last time, the dance floor was packed, but we skirted the edges, heading straight for the hallway.

Standing at the door to Luc’s office was Paris. He nodded at me and then stepped aside, opening the door, and the scent of peaches welcomed us. I focused right on the couch. Luc wasn’t there. The stacks of hundreds were gone, but Luc was behind the desk, his fingers flying over the keyboard.

“Please sit.” Luc didn’t look up as he waved at the nearby couch.

Kat glanced at me, and then we went to the couch. She sat close to me, her leg pressed to mine.

“Heard you guys didn’t get very far at Mount Weather last time.” Luc closed the laptop after a moment and then folded his hands under his chin.

“About that.” I leaned forward. “You didn’t know about the onyx shields?”

Luc’s weird purple eyes met mine, and there was an intellect to them that was far beyond his age. “I warned you that there may be things I’m unaware of. Even I don’t know everything about Daedalus. But I think Blake’s on the right track. He is right about everything being encased in a shiny blackish-red material. Perhaps we did build a tolerance so we were not affected by the onyx shields.”

“And what if that’s not it?” Kat asked.

“What if it’s not? I have a feeling that’s not going to stop you from trying again. It’s a risk, and everything has risks. You’re lucky you got out of there last time before anyone realized what happened,” he said. “You get another chance. Most people don’t.”

“You’re right,” she said. “We’re still going to try.”

“But not knowing all the perils ahead seems unfair?” He tucked a strand of brown hair back, his expression impassive. “Life’s not fair, babe.”

I stiffened. “Why do I have a feeling there’s a lot you’re not telling us?”

Luc’s lips formed a half smile. “Anyway, you came here for a reason other than those onyx shields. Let’s get to the point.”

Annoyance rose. “An unstable hybrid attacked Kat.”

“That’s what unstable people do, hybrid or not.”

“Yeah, we figured that much, but she was my friend.” Kat drew in a shallow breath. “She gave no indication that she knew anything about the Luxen. She was fine, got sick, and then came to my house and went nuts.”

“You didn’t give any indication you know ET didn’t phone home.”

What a little asshole.

“I get that, but this was out of the blue,” Kat argued.

Luc leaned back in his chair, kicking his legs onto the desk. He crossed them at the ankles. “I don’t know what to tell you about that. She may’ve known about the Luxen, got hurt, and some poor sap tried and failed to heal her. Or the Man pulled her off the street like they do at times. And unless you know some darn good torture techniques and are willing to employ them on an officer of Daedalus, I don’t see how you’ll ever know.”

“I refuse to accept that,” she whispered.

He shrugged. “What happened to her?”

Kat’s hands balled into fists. “She’s no longer…”

“Ah,” Luc murmured. “She did the whole spontaneous combustion thing? Sick. Sorry about that. A twisted history lesson for you—you know all those unexplained cases of spontaneous combustion throughout history?”

I grimaced. “I’m afraid to ask.”

“Funny how there’s not many cases known, but they do happen out in the noob world.” He spread his arms wide. “Hybrids—my theory at least, and it makes sense if you think about. Most hybrids do the self-destruction thing in the facilities, but a few do outside. That’s why the occurrence is rare to humans.”

“My friend was wearing a bracelet—”

“Tiffany’s?” he asked and smirked.

“No.” She smiled tightly. “It was just like the one you’re wearing.”

Surprise crawled over his face, and it was the first time I’d seen the little punk caught off guard by anything. “Not good.”

“Why is that not good?” I demanded.

Luc glanced up at the ceiling and then shrugged. “Oh, what the hell. You’ll owe me, hope you realize. But what you see here?” Luc tapped his finger off the stone in the cuff around his wrist. “It’s a black opal—so rare that only a few mines can even unearth these babies. And it’s only these kinds.”

“The ones that look like they have fire in them?” Kat stretched to get a better look. “Where are they mined?”

“Australia, usually. There’s something in the composition of a black opal that’s like a power booster. You know, like Mario gets when he hits a mushroom. Imagine that sound. That’s what a black opal does.”

Now this was interesting, Mario sounds aside. “What kind of composition?”

Luc unhooked the bracelet and held it up in the dim light. “Opals have this remarkable ability to refract and reflect specific wavelengths of light.”

Holy shit.

“No way,” I breathed.

“Yes.” Luc smiled at the stone. “I don’t know who discovered it. Someone in Daedalus I’m sure. Once they figured out what it could do, they kept it away from the Luxen and ones like us.”

“Why?” Kat glanced between us, her brow furrowing. “What? I don’t have a degree in alien mineralogy. Geez.”

I patted her thigh. “It’s okay. Refracting and reflecting wavelengths of lights affects us, like the obsidian affects Arum and onyx affects us.”

“Okay,” she said slowly.

Luc tilted his chin up. “Refracting light changes the direction and speed. Our friendly neighborhood aliens are made of light—well, made of more than that, but let me explain it this way: Let’s say their DNA is light. And let’s say that once a human is mutated, their DNA is now encased in wavelengths of light.”

She nodded. “And onyx disrupts those wave lengths of light, right? Kind of makes them bounce around and go crazy.”

“Opal’s ability to refract allows a Luxen or a hybrid to be more powerful—it enhances our ability to refract light,” Luc explained.

“And the reflection part—wow.” I grinned. Kat still looked unimpressed. I nudged her with my elbow. “We flicker or fade sometimes because we move fast. And sometimes you see us just fade in and out—it’s just reflection. Something all of us have to work at to control when we’re younger.”

“And it’s hard when you’re excited or upset?” Kat asked.

I nodded. “Among other things, but to control reflection?” I looked at Luc. “Are you saying you can do what I think you can?”

Laughing, Luc hooked the bracelet around his wrist and sat back, dropping his legs on the desk again. “Hybrids are good. We can move faster than humans, but with the obesity rates nowadays, turtles can move faster than most humans. Sometimes we’re even stronger than the average Luxen when it comes to the Source—it’s the mixture of human and alien DNA that can create something powerful, but that’s not standard.” He smiled, clearly enjoying himself. “But give a Luxen one of these, and they can completely reflect light.”

Kat’s lips parted. “You mean…like invisible?”

“So cool,” I said, wanting one of those stones like yesterday. “We can change the way we look, but become invisible? Yeah, that’s new.”

“Can we be invisible?”

“No. Our human DNA gets in the way of that, but it makes us just as powerful as the strongest Luxen and then some.” Luc shifted in his seat. “So you can imagine that they wouldn’t want any of us having these…especially one that hasn’t been proven to be stable, unless…”

Kat shuddered. “Unless what?”

The smile slipped from his face. “Unless they didn’t care what kind of damage the hybrid caused. Maybe your friend was a test run for a bigger incident.”

“What?” I tensed. “You think they did this on person? Hooked up an unstable hybrid and sent her out into the wild to see what happens?”

“Paris thinks I’m a conspiracy theorist with a hint of schizophrenic paranoia.” He shrugged. “But you can’t tell me that Daedalus doesn’t have a master plan up their sleeves. I wouldn’t put a single thing past them.”

“But why would she come after me? Blake says they don’t know the mutation held. So it wasn’t like they’d send her after me.” Kat paused. “And, well, that’s if Blake’s telling the truth.”

“I’m sure he is about the mutation,” Luc responded. “If he wasn’t, you wouldn’t be sitting here. See, I’m not sure even Daedalus knows everything that this stone is capable of and how it affects us. I’m still learning.”

“And what have you learned?” I asked.

“For starters, before I got my grubby paws on one of these, I couldn’t pick out another hybrid if one did a jig in front of me. I knew the moment you and Blake arrived in Martinsburg, Katy. It was weird, like a breath washing over my entire body. Your friend probably sensed you. That’s the least terrible probability.”

I blew out a long breath, concerned with what he was saying. Carissa’s going after Kat could’ve been a pure accident. Then I thought of something else. “Do you know if it can enhance the Arum’s abilities?”

Luc’s gaze sharpened. “I imagine it could if they’re bloated on a Luxen’s powers.”

Kat started to sit back, but then jerked forward. “Do you think the opal can, like, counteract the onyx?”

“It’s possible, but I don’t know.” Luc’s lips twisted in a wry grin. “Haven’t played with any onyx recently.”

“Where can we get some of the opal?”

Luc laughed. “Unless you have about thirty thousand dollars lying around and someone who mines opals or want to ask Daedalus for some, you’re out of luck. And I’m not giving you mine.”

Kat’s shoulders slumped. Damn. Having at least one piece of opal would come in handy.

“Anyway, it’s about time for you guys to hit the road.” He tipped his head back, closing his eyes. “I’m assuming I won’t hear from you two again until you’re ready to go to Mount Weather?”

“Is there anything else you can tell me?” I asked as Kat and I stood.

“Sure, I have something else.” Luc lowered his head and looked up at us. “You really shouldn’t trust a soul in this game. Not when everyone has something to gain or lose.”