Oblivion

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  smile did change everything.

  Kat was changing everything.

  Thursday morning, I sat in my car, watching people hurry across the parking lot, toward the gray PHS building. The scent of cinnamon filled the interior, steaming out of the cup I’d picked up for Kat from the coffee and bakery shop down the road.

  “You ready?” I asked.

  In the passenger seat, my brother laughed drily. “Not really.”

  I looked over at him. Dee had managed to get an inch of his hair cut off. It was still longer than mine. People would definitely be able to tell us apart now. “You don’t have to do this today. It can wait.”

  He sat there frozen for a moment. “No.” Reaching between his knees, he picked up his backpack and then opened the door. Cold air rushed in. “It’s better than sitting at home. That’s going to drive me crazy.”

  “Understandable,” I murmured, grabbing the coffee cup.

  Sliding out of the car, my boots crunched on the snow-dusted gravel as I joined Dawson on the other side. His chin was down, and wavy strands of dark hair shielded the sides of his face. We didn’t speak as we walked into the school, and it wasn’t until then that anyone noticed Dawson.

  It started with double takes.

  People would look at me, look at Dawson, and then their heads would swing back toward us sharply, their eyes wide and full of shock.

  Then the low murmur of chatter started. As I walked Dawson to the locker he’d been assigned, some just openly stared. He’d seemed oblivious to it, completely detached from everything around him.

  I quickly scanned his schedule, seeing he had bio with Kat. That was good. I handed the thin slip piece of paper over to him. “You good from here?”

  Dawson nodded as he closed his locker door and faced me. “I’m not going to run off.”

  I arched a brow. “I hope not.”

  His lips twitched into a semblance of a smile. “I’ll see you later.”

  We parted ways at that point, and I swung by my locker, grabbed my books, and then made my way to trig. Kat was already in class. She glanced up with a soft smile as I placed the cup on her desk.

  “Thanks.” She folded her hands around the cup as I sat down and fished the pen out of the spiral along the side of my notebook. “Where’s yours?”

  “Not thirsty this morning,” I said, twirling my pen. Glancing over my shoulder, I grinned at the girl behind me. “Hi, Lesa.”

  She sighed. “I need a Daemon.”

  “You have a Chad,” Kat pointed out, referencing Lesa’s boyfriend.

  Lesa rolled her eyes. “He doesn’t bring me lattes.”

  I chuckled. “Not everyone can be as great as me.”

  “Ego check,” Kat muttered. “Daemon, ego check.”

  From across the aisle, Carissa, the quieter one, fiddled with her glasses, her eyes serious and somber as she peeked up at me. “I just wanted to say I’m glad Dawson’s okay and back.” Two red spots bloomed on her cheeks. “It must be a huge relief.”

  I nodded. “It is.”

  Carissa whirled around in her seat as I sat back, stretching out my legs. Class started, and I scribbled in the margin of my notebook throughout the lecture. When the bell rang, I stood and waited for Kat to gather up her stuff. We headed out into the hall, and in a second, I knew that half if not all of the school had seen Dawson.

  People were standing completely still along the lockers, staring at me. Some appeared struck stupid. Others couldn’t keep their mouths shut. Kat stiffened beside me as she wrapped her hand around my arm.

  “Did you see?”

  “Two of them again…”

  “So weird that he’d come back without Beth…”

  “Where is Beth…?”

  “Maybe he came back because of Adam…”

  My jaw flexed as I cut the voices out. All of this was expected. Still annoying, but expected.

  Kat took a sip of her mocha. “Uh, maybe this wasn’t a good idea.”

  I placed my hand on the small of her back as I held the door open to the stairwell. “Now what makes you think that?”

  “But if he didn’t come back, what was he supposed to do?” she reasoned.

  There really wasn’t a response to that. We knew what Dawson would do if we left him alone.

  The stairwell was cramped, and even though my next class was on the first floor, I walked Kat to hers. Once we were outside of her English class, I leaned down. Her gray eyes met mine. “It was a bad and good idea. He needs to get back into the world. There’s going to be fallout, but it’s worth it.”

  She nodded, obviously relieved

  Cupping her cheek, I kissed her quickly. “See you at lunch.”

  The rest of the morning was pretty much of a repeat of what had happened in the hallway. No one really came up to me. The rumor that Dawson was back had started on Monday, but I guessed seeing us again was another thing. I was used to the stares, though, so whatever.

  After my fourth class, I headed to my locker to dump my books. My heart rate had jumped in the middle of the class, making me think of Kat. It had to be from her, but since she was in bio with Matt teaching and Dawson sitting alongside her, it made no sense.

  I closed the door and pivoted around, frowning when I saw Matthew speed walking toward me, his jaw hard and lips a tense, fierce line. I stiffened and then stepped toward him. “What’s going on?”

  He looked around quickly, at the others milling around us, and then said in a low voice, “Blake is back.”

  Chapter 7

  The words stopped the entire damn world. I stared at Matt for a good five seconds before I could even react.

  “You’re shitting me?” I demanded.

  Matthew shook his head. “No. He showed up in bio class and acted like nothing had happened.”

  Raw fury pounded through me. “Where is he now?”

  “Upstairs. I think he followed Kat,” he said, and my stomach clenched. “I had to stop Dawson. He was putting two and two together based on how Kat was reacting in class and I couldn’t—”

  Dawson appeared behind Matt, looking confused as his gaze bounced back and forth.

  “Shit.” I spun around and headed for the cafeteria first. She wasn’t in there. Then I went to her locker. Nothing. I checked out the whole first floor, and then I found the nearest stairwell. The jump in my heart rate was now explained. It had been Kat, and now that bastard was most likely with her.

  I think I saw Blake.

  Kat had said that on Monday, and I’d chalked it up to paranoia. Shit.

  I bounded up the stairs; Matthew and Dawson were behind me, but I was focused on murdering Blake with my bare hands. In this moment, nothing would give me more pleasure. We’d given that bastard a chance, and he threw it back in our faces.

  Blake was a dead man.

  I burst out of the stairwell and turned, spotting Kat immediately. Relief punched through me. In four steps, I was in front of her. I grasped her shoulders.

  “We’ve been looking everywhere for you,” I said.

  Matthew stepped to my left. “Did you see where he went? Blake?”

  She swallowed. “Yeah, he…wanted to talk.”

  Steel dropped down my spine. The lockers in the hall rattled as energy pulsed through me. “What?”

  She glanced nervously at Matthew. “He’s been watching us. I don’t think he’s ever left.”

  Dropping my hands from her shoulders, I backed off as I struggled to get my anger under control before I blew out every window in the school. “I cannot believe he’s here. He has a death wish.”

  Dawson stepped around me. “Why was he watching us?”

  She drew in a deep breath as she fiddled with the strap on her book bag. “He wants us to help get Chris.”

  I whipped around. “Come again?”

  “He wants us to help him get Chris free from Daedalus and he…” She glanced at Dawson. “He claims he’s being kept in the same place that Bethany is. That helping him will
help us.”

  A shudder of violent anger rolled through me. I couldn’t believe it. Freaking could not wrap my head around the size of Blake’s balls.

  Matthew shook his head. “He…he can’t think we would trust him.”

  “I don’t think he cares if we do,” she said, smoothing a shaking hand over her hair.

  “But does he really know where they are keeping Beth?” When I looked over at Dawson, his eyes were feverish.

  “I don’t know.” She dropped her bag and leaned against a locker. “There’s no telling with him.”

  Dawson shot forward, suddenly in my face. “Did he say anything—anything we can use to find her?”

  “No. Not really. I—”

  “Think,” Dawson ordered. “He had to have said something, Katy.”

  That was enough. I clasped my hand on Dawson’s shoulder, yanking him away from Kat. “Back off, Dawson, I mean it.”

  He shrugged my hand off, body coiled tight. “If he knows—”

  “Don’t go there,” I interrupted him. “He was sent here by the DOD to determine if Kat was a viable subject. To do to her what they are doing to Beth. He killed Adam, Dawson. We are not working with—”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kat sway to the left. I shot toward her, wrapped my arm around her waist, and pulled her close to my side. I frowned. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m okay, really, I am.”

  “You’re lying.” She was pale and weak. Understanding flared. “Did you fight him?” I lowered my voice as my eyes dilated. “Did he try to hurt you? Because I swear right now, I will tear through this state—”

  “I’m okay.” She tried to wiggle free, but I wasn’t letting her go anywhere. “It was more of the attack first, ask questions later,” she said. “I tired myself out, but he didn’t hurt me.”

  I wanted to believe her, needed to, because I was seconds from peeling the roof off the building like it was a tin can. I focused on Dawson. “I know you want to believe that Blake can help us somehow, but he can’t be trusted.”

  Dawson looked away, a muscle ticking in his jaw. Frustration poured off him. Matthew spoke up. “Daemon’s right.” He paused as a door opened at the end of the hall and two teachers stepped out. “But this is not the place to discuss any of this. After school, your house.” He left with one more warning look.

  “I know what you’re going to say.” Dawson’s features were sharp. “I’m not going to do anything reckless. I promised both of you I wouldn’t. I’m keeping my end of the deal. You better keep yours.”

  That wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear from my brother. He walked off in the opposite direction of Matt. Hell, he was so going to back whatever Blake said if he thought there was the smallest chance he could help him find Bethany. “This isn’t good.”

  “You have no idea.” She waited until the two teachers disappeared from the hall. “Trusting Blake may be a moot point.”

  My eyes narrowed as I angled my body toward hers. “What are you saying?”

  She cringed. “Blake confirmed what Will had said. The DOD and Daedalus believe my mutation wore off. Good news, right? But he’s desperate—more so than we realized. If we don’t agree to help him, he plans to turn us over.”

  Spinning around, I slammed my fist in the locker. The metal gave way like butter. Didn’t even feel pain. Kat grabbed my arms and pulled me toward the nearby stairwell. I pulled free once the door closed behind us.

  Shit. Damn. Fuck.

  Thrusting my hands through my hair, I turned away from Kat and gripped the railing. Blake was going to blackmail us. After lying to Kat and me, almost turning her over to Daedalus and killing Adam, and then shoving the chance we—that I gave him, he was going to blackmail us. He was going to force us into what could be a trap.

  Most likely was another trap.

  Energy pulsed out of my hands and rippled across the railing, heating the metal.

  “Daemon…” Kat placed her hand on my back.

  Hanging my head, I worked my jaw. “I want to kill him.”

  “I know.” Coming from behind, she wrapped her arms around me. “I’m totally on board with that idea, but…he has it set up that if anything happens to him, Nancy is notified about the mutation.”

  “Of course he does,” I muttered, turning around in her embrace. Her book bag lay forgotten by the door. We had only a few minutes before lunch was over. I worked at calming myself down as I brushed her hair back. “You really are okay?”

  “I’m the last person you need to worry about right now.”

  “You’re the first person I always worry about.” Folding my arms around her waist, I lifted her so she was standing on my boots. I held her tight in my arms. “This…this is a mess.”

  Kat didn’t respond for a long moment, and then she lifted her chin, her gaze meeting mine. “It is, but we’re…we’re in this together. Always.”

  I dropped my mouth to her forehead. “Always.”

  Sitting through the afternoon classes about drove me out of my skin, but with Dawson just coming back, if we all bailed on school, that would just force more attention on us. I spent the entire time trying to figure out what we could do, and every option I landed on was damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

  Instead of driving my car home, I rode home in Kat’s after I asked Dee to take my car back with Dawson. Kat thought I’d caught a ride to school with Dee, and knowing her, if she knew I was leaving my car in my sister’s hands, she would probably insist that she’d be fine on her own.

  Kat could take care of herself, but it made me feel a whole hell of a lot better to be within ass-kicking length of her. We used the time to talk about what we were going to do about Blake.

  “We have two options: work with him or kill him,” I said.

  Her eyes widened. “And you’d be the one to do that? Not right. It shouldn’t always be you. You’re not the only Luxen who can fight.”

  “I know, but I can’t expect someone else to carry that burden,” I told her. “And I’m not trying to start another argument over whether or not you’d make a good Wonder Woman, but I’d never expect you or my siblings to do that, either. I know you would have done it to…defend yourself and us, Kat, but I don’t want that kind of guilt on your shoulders. Okay?”

  She nodded, her fingers sliding over the steering wheel. “I could handle it…if I had to.”

  I didn’t like that sound of that.

  Stopped at a streetlight, I reached over and placed a hand on her cheek. She took her eyes off the road for a moment. I smiled at her and said the first thing that came to mind, the freaking truth. “You burn bright, to me at least, and I know you could handle it, but the last thing I want is your light to be tainted by something so dark.”

  Tears filled her eyes, and then she gave me a watery smile. We didn’t talk about the messed-up shit the rest of the way, because we were going to be spending all evening knee-deep in this crap.

  We beat everyone back to the house. Kat lingered in the living room, pacing back and forth while I grabbed a bottle of water. I placed it on the end table next to the couch I sat on. I waited until Kat made another pass in front of me and I leaned out, snagging her around the waist.

  I drew her into my lap and pulled her down so her head was resting on my shoulder. “You know what we have to do.”

  She wrapped her arms around my neck. “Kill Blake.”

  I choked on my laugh. “No, Kitten. We’re not going to kill him.”

  “We’re not?”

  I pulled back, because she actually sounded surprised. “We’re going to have to do what he wants.”