The Darkest Star

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  His jaw worked. “You going to be okay with this guy?”

  Luc laughed, and it was a sound of warning. “That’s an interesting question coming from—”

  “I’m fine.” My grip tightened on Luc’s arm.

  “Ow,” he murmured, even though I know it didn’t hurt him.

  “He might not be,” I finished. “Seriously. I’ll text you later. Okay?”

  James didn’t look like he was going to back off, but after a moment he nodded. “Text me.”

  “I will.” I smiled and then pulled on Luc’s arm, tugging him away from James and my locker. I waited until we were halfway down the stairs before I let go of his arm. “Seriously. What are you doing here, Luc?”

  “I kinda like the arm-grabbing thing,” he replied, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Very dominant of you. Maybe I’m the submissive type in, you know, the—”

  “Shut up,” I hissed. “Why are you here?”

  “How can I shut up and answer your question at the same time?”

  I shot him a death glare. “Luc.”

  “I was in the neighborhood.” He opened the door and then held it as I walked outside. Pretty sure he let it swing closed in someone’s face. “Thought I’d stop by and say hi.”

  I had no idea what to say to that, so I dug out my sunglasses and slipped them on. “You’re not seriously thinking about enrolling, are you?” I didn’t even know if that was possible or not.

  Luc snorted as he fell in step with me. “No. I would be so bored out of my mind, I’d probably set the entire school on fire.”

  “Wow.”

  “Just being honest.” He squinted as he glanced over at me. “There really is nothing new I could learn in school.”

  “Really? You know everything?” Gravel crunched under my feet as we neared the area where Amanda’s car had been idling. I focused on Luc, not wanting to think about her sitting in that car.

  “Pretty much.”

  The desire to prove that wasn’t correct got the better of me. “Okay. Who was the twelfth president of the United States?”

  “Zachary Taylor,” he answered immediately. “And he wasn’t president very long. He died of a very upset stomach. Side note, there’s still much debate over what exactly caused his death.”

  “Okay. The fact you know the latter part is odd, but whatever. Tell me the square root of five hundred and thirty-eight?”

  He laughed, which was unnecessary because he was already getting an absurd amount of double takes from nearly everyone passing by us. “Twenty-three point one nine—and you know what? You don’t know the answer to that question.”

  That was true. “How do you know? I’m a math genius.”

  “If that were true, you wouldn’t have asked that question.”

  My eyes narrowed.

  “Taft was one of the last presidents to preside over the addition of a new state. Currently there are eighty-eight known constellations. Beard hair grows twice its normal rate while on a plane.”

  “What?”

  “It’s true. Another thing that’s true? Honey never spoils. Look it up. It’s also hard to access memories without moving your eyes. Try doing that one day,” he said. “Water can boil and freeze at the same time. Cats always land on their feet because of physics. And there’s enough DNA in one human to stretch from the sun to Pluto seventeen times.”

  “School would bore you.” I stopped by my car.

  “Not if you were in class.”

  I ignored the weird flutter in my chest. “Uh-huh.”

  His grin teased at me. “Can I come home with you?”

  “Come again?”

  “Well, that came out kind of wrong, didn’t it?” He chuckled as he stepped forward, and I had to tilt my head back to meet his gaze. “I want to come home with you.”

  My heart did a cartwheel and then face-planted itself against my ribs. “I still don’t think that came out right, Luc.”

  “It came out just the way I wanted it to.”

  That flutter grew, and I did everything in my power to ignore it. “Are you going to finish our conversation from this weekend?”

  “If that’s what you want.”

  “Why else would I talk to you?” I shot back.

  He laughed again under his breath. “I like to think there are other reasons you’d talk to me, Peaches.”

  “Don’t call me that.” I opened my car door. “My mom would flip if she came home and saw you there.”

  “I’d be gone before she got home.”

  I hesitated. “How would you know that?”

  “I’m fast. The moment you heard her pull up, I’d be out of the house.” He paused. “In a jiffy.”

  He was fast. I knew that, but still. “I don’t know.”

  Luc was quiet for a moment. “You came to my place. How is this any different?”

  It didn’t seem like it should be, but it was. Allowing him to come to my house was different.

  “Are you afraid of me?” he asked after a moment.

  His question startled me. I should be afraid of him, especially after seeing exactly what he was capable of, but truth was, I wasn’t afraid of him.

  “No. I’m not.” I took a deep breath. “You can come home with me, but you have to promise you’ll be good before my mom gets home.”

  “Pinkie swear.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Get in the car.”

  Grinning, he walked around to the passenger side and climbed in just as I was turning the car on. I glanced over at him. “So, um, what did you end up doing with your weekend?”

  “Patrolling.”

  I waited until two girls passed my car, and then I pulled out. “What does that mean?”

  “It means I was out making sure we didn’t have a psycho Luxen hanging around, hell-bent on revenge.” He stretched out his long legs, letting his elbow rest on the open window. “Good news is that we didn’t see any signs of Sean and Charity having another sibling.”

  “That’s good.” My stomach tumbled. “Right?”

  “Right.”

  He didn’t sound like it was a good thing. I glanced over at him. Luc was staring out the window. “What are you not telling me?”

  He didn’t answer.

  Anxiety spiked. “Luc.”

  “Everything.” Luc looked at me as we reached a stoplight. “I still have everything to tell you.”

  * * *

  Luc didn’t tell me anything when we got to my place. Once we got to my house, he’d turned on the TV and started searching for alien movies.

  Yep.

  Alien movies.

  For three hours, he raged about how alien invasions in Hollywood almost always got it wrong. He was kind of right. Real aliens didn’t look like giant insects, but when I pointed out Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I’d stumped him.

  It was a weird afternoon, but it had been … amusing. And it had also felt … normal. Like I’d done this before, and honest to God, I’d never sat and argued about which aliens were freakier: the ones from Independence Day or from the old Alien franchise.

  He was skilled at avoiding questions, and talented in the art of distraction. As promised, he’d left right before Mom came home, but he didn’t tell me anything remotely useful.

  Luc didn’t show up at my locker on Tuesday.

  That was a good thing, because if he did, there was a good chance James might’ve punched him, and that would’ve ended badly … for James.

  After school on Tuesday, I’d grabbed something to eat with Zoe and Heidi, and we met up with Emery. I was with them when I got a text from Mom saying that she wouldn’t be home till late, and the girls ended up hanging out at my place until it grew dark outside. Mom came home about twenty minutes after they left.

  Tuesday felt normal, like it used to be before Colleen and Amanda … and Luc, and I didn’t realize how badly I needed time with my friends until then. Where we just ate a ton of junk food and talked about nothing … nothing scary.
r />   Normalcy didn’t last long.

  On Wednesday, April and her minions took to protesting the Luxen at the entrance of the school. Their group had doubled in size since Monday.

  I couldn’t stay quiet any longer. April and I weren’t the closest, and on most days I didn’t consider her a friend, but I had to try to talk some sense into her, because she was getting everyone riled up.

  I waited for her after our third-period class, catching her in the hallway. “Hey.” I slung my backpack over my shoulder. “Can we talk real quick?”

  “Sure.” She was shoving a thick monstrosity of a binder into her bag. “What’s up?”

  My hand tightened around my backpack strap. “What are you doing, April? With the whole protesting thing?”

  She stopped and looked up. “Excuse me?”

  “Why are you doing this? The Luxen here haven’t done anything wrong, and you’re—”

  “I’m what, Evie?” Her face pinched. “Vocalizing my right to be safe in my high school?”

  “You are safe.”

  She laughed as she stepped to the side, continuing to jam her binder into her bag. “You’re an idiot if you think any of us are safe anywhere. You saw Amanda. You know what happened to Colleen.”

  I stiffened. “I clearly remember what I saw, but that doesn’t mean all Luxen are dangerous. Or that any of the Luxen who go here are responsible.”

  “How do you know that? Did you ask them?” she replied.

  “I don’t need to ask them. I don’t walk around assuming every Luxen is a murderer.”

  “Well, you should.” She yanked up the zipper on her bag. “I really thought that you, out of everyone, would be standing with me. Your father—”

  “Stop bringing up my father, April. You didn’t know him.” We were starting to get stares, but I didn’t care. “What you’re doing is wrong and super-disappointing.”

  “Disappointing?” She laughed as she flipped her ponytail over her shoulder.

  “Yeah, that’s what I said.”

  “You know what? You’ve disappointed me.” April pivoted on her heel and stalked off, her sleek ponytail swaying with each step.

  I disappointed her? I almost laughed, but nothing about this was funny.

  Talking with April had gone about as well as expected, but at least I’d tried. Maybe Zoe could try talking to her. She knew April better.

  My conversation failure with April pecked away at me for the rest of the day, only sliding into the back of my mind when I walked out to my car and saw Luc waiting for me, leaning against the car, ankles crossed and hands resting on the hood.

  There was a small group clustered together across from him, openly checking him out. He was grinning like a maniac when I walked up to him, and somehow, thirty minutes later, he was at my house again.

  “Do you want something to drink?” I asked, walking into the kitchen. “I don’t have any Coke.”

  “Whatever you have is fine.” He lingered by the dining room table as I grabbed two fruit punch Capri Suns. Turning, I tossed one to him. He easily caught it. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure.” I pulled the plastic off my straw.

  “Is there trouble at your school?”

  I stabbed my straw through the little hole in the Capri Sun and looked up. “There’ve been protests. You’ve heard about that?”

  “I’ve heard some things.”

  “How?”

  His smile turned secretive.

  “Why do you always do that?”

  “Do what, Peaches?”

  “Seriously. That.”

  He bit down on his lower lip and then let it pop free. “You’re going to have to be more detailed.”

  I slurped up a good amount of the Capri Sun in one gulp. “You’re always evasive. Like, when you talk, it’s only ever half the story. You still haven’t told me anything you promised you would.”

  “I’ve told you a lot.” He finished off his drink. From where he stood he tossed the empty container, and the damn thing actually landed in the garbage. I hated him. “And I’ve actually told you something pretty major that has nothing to do with what I am.”

  “Bull.”

  Luc shrugged. “You just haven’t been paying attention.”

  “That’s not true.” Irritated, I fought the desire to wing my packet at his head. “I’m super-observant.”

  He laughed. “That is not true.”

  “You know, you can leave.” I sucked my drink dry and then tossed it at the trash. It smacked off the trash can and plopped onto the floor. I sighed. “I have homework to do and you’re annoying.”

  “If you actually wanted me to leave, I wouldn’t be here.”

  I picked up the damn packet and placed it in the trash. When I straightened, the movement tugged on the tender skin of my stomach, causing me to suck in a sharp breath.

  “Are you okay?”

  Straightening more carefully, I nodded. “Yeah.”

  His head tilted to the side. “You’re lying.” There was a pause. “What happened to your stomach?”

  My mouth dropped open. “Get out of my head, Luc.”

  He moved too fast. A second later his fingers had a fistful of my shirt, and the next thing I knew, he was pulling the fabric up.

  “Luc!” I shrieked, grabbing his wrists, but it was too late.

  Waves tumbled over his forehead as his chin dipped. “What the hell, Peaches? What happened to your stomach?”

  I tried to pull his hands away, but it was no use. “I don’t know. It’s—”

  “You think this happened at the club, when I took you to the floor?” His gaze shot to mine. “I did this?”

  “Luc! Seriously. Stay out of my head. It’s rude.”

  His jaw hardened. “I didn’t know I hurt you.”

  “I … I didn’t know either. I didn’t notice until later. It’s not a big deal.” I tugged on his wrists again. “They’re just scratches.”

  “Scratches?” His gaze dropped to my stomach, and I sucked in a shallow breath. “Peaches, I think they’re burn marks.”

  “What?” I temporarily forgot about the fact that he was staring at my belly.

  “Burn marks. Like you touched a flame for too long. I must’ve done it when I grabbed you.” He let go of my shirt, but whatever relief it brought was short-lived, because he placed his palm just below the fading scratches.

  I gasped.

  The contact, flesh against flesh, took the air right out of my lungs. The touch was intimate and unnerving. My gaze shot to his, and I thought I saw his eyes widen just a fraction, as if the feeling of his skin against mine had the same intense effect on him. His palm was warm, almost too warm against my skin.

  Luc’s throat worked on a swallow as his lashes lowered halfway. “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “Hurting you,” he said, his voice deeper, rougher, as he lowered his head. “I should’ve been more careful.”

  “It’s okay.” I shivered as his forehead touched mine. It wasn’t a shiver of fear. It was something else. Anticipation? Yes. And it was more. Tension built in the space between us. I closed my eyes. “You were trying to stop me from getting blown up.”

  “Yeah. There was that.” His head tilted just the slightest, and I felt his breath against … against my lips. Was he going to kiss me again?

  Would I let him?

  His hands slipped away, and Luc backed off a good foot, but the tension was still there, crackling in the air between us. Slowly opening my eyes, I pressed my lips together, unsure if I should feel grateful or disappointed that he hadn’t kissed me.

  The corners of his lips tilted up.

  Oh no. “You’re not reading my thoughts right now, are you?”

  “I would never do such a thing.”

  Yeah. Right. “I don’t even know why I let you come home with me.”

  That smile of his was really starting to concern me. “Oh, you know.”

  Luc stepped toward me again,
and I tensed. His gaze never left my face, and I had the distinct urge to run away from him and … and run toward him. The latter made no sense. He stopped, his brows pinching as he reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out his phone. He looked down at it. The frown turned into a scowl as he glanced up. “Do you mind if I turn on your TV?”

  “Uh, sure.”

  As he walked into the living room, Luc extended his arm and the remote flew off the coffee table and landed in his hand.

  My brows lifted. “That’s handy and also incredibly lazy.”

  Luc winked and, of course, looked good doing it. The TV came on and he quickly turned it to one of the local channels. The moment I saw the reporter standing out in front of a brownstone, a somber expression on her face, I knew this was going to be bad news.

  The reporter was speaking and it took a few moments for my brain to catch up with what she was saying. “All four victims, the youngest three years old and the oldest thirty-two years old, lived in this home. Neighbors are saying that they were a quiet family and very hardworking. I’ve learned that the children were close in age, and it is believed that all four of them were murdered sometime last night.”

  Dread filled me as the screen switched to a male reporter behind the news desk.

  “This comes on the heels of the murders of Colleen Shultz and Amanda Kelly, two seniors from Centennial High School. Ms. Shultz was found in the school restroom last Tuesday, and Ms. Kelly was found in her car in the school parking lot on Friday,” he added. “Early reports indicate that all four victims have been murdered in the same manner as Ms. Shultz and Ms. Kelly. It is also believed that an unregistered Luxen committed these horrific crimes. I’m learning that these types of incidents are not isolated to Columbia, or even Maryland. Over the last two months, there have been suspicious deaths in Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. Attacks by unregistered Luxen are on the rise, and many people are asking what, if anything, will be done? How can we be safe—”

  Luc turned off the TV and cursed under his breath. A muscle popped along his jaw. “There’s no way.”

  I sat down on the edge of the couch, horrified by the news and terrified by the implication. “What do you mean?