Opal aln-3

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  It seemed obvious to me. “We’re a bunch of teenagers, and we thought we could break into a facility run by Homeland Security and the DOD? I mean, come on. This was bound to go wrong— Wait!” The thermal was halfway up my stomach. My chilled fingers circled his wrists. “What are you doing?”

  “Getting you naked.”

  My mouth dropped open at the same time my heart did a backflip. A heady warmth cascaded through my veins. “Uh, wow. Way to cut to the point.”

  A lopsided grin teased his lips. “Your shirt and pants are soaked and cold. And there are probably traces of onyx still on them. You need to get out of your clothes.”

  I smacked his hands away. “I can do that myself.”

  Daemon leaned in, speaking into my ear. “Where’s the fun in that?” He let go, though, and headed for his dresser. “You really think we were doomed to fail?”

  Since he’d turned his back, I made haste with removing my clothes. Everything beside the cold piece of obsidian hanging around my neck was ruined and had to come off. The clothing smelled like musky river water. Shivering, I folded my arms across my chest. “Don’t…don’t turn around.”

  His shoulders shook with silent laughter as he rummaged around for something for me to wear. Hopefully.

  “I don’t know,” I said, finally answering his question. “It was a huge undertaking for trained spies. We’re in over our heads.”

  “But we were fine until we hit those doors.” He pulled out a shirt. “I hate to say this, but I really don’t think Blake knew about them. The look on his face when you and Dawson went down—it was too real.”

  “Then why did you punch him in the face?”

  “I wanted to.” He turned around, one hand over his eyes as he offered me a shirt. “Here you go.”

  I snatched it away and quickly tugged it over my head. The soft, worn material billowed around me, ending at my thighs. When I glanced up, I saw his fingers split over his eyes. “You were peeking.”

  “Maybe.” He took my hand, pulling me toward his bed. “Get in. I’m going to check on Dawson and I’ll be back.”

  I really should have headed next door to my own bed, but I reasoned that tonight was different. Besides, Mom wouldn’t be home before school started and I didn’t want to be alone. Doing as he requested, I climbed in and yanked the comforter up to my chin. It smelled of fresh linen and Daemon. He wasn’t gone long, but in that short time, my lids fluttered shut. The onyx had zapped most of my energy, as it was meant to. We’d been so damn lucky to even make it out of there before the guard came to.

  Daemon returned, moving around the room silently, and I was feeling way too lazy to open my eyes and see what he was up to. Clothing rustled to the floor and my temperature went up a degree. Another drawer opened and then he was tugging back the covers, sliding in.

  Lying on his side, he wrapped an arm around my waist and tucked me against his bare chest. The flannel of his pajama bottoms teased my legs, and I let out a contented sigh.

  “How’s Dawson?” I asked, wiggling closer so I was pretty much plastered to him.

  “He’s doing okay.” Daemon brushed the hair back from my cheek, his hand lingering. “He’s not a happy camper, though.”

  I could imagine. We’d come so close to Beth only to have to turn around. That is, if Beth had really been there. Blake may’ve not known about the onyx defense system from hell, but I didn’t trust him. None of us did.

  “Thank you for getting us out of there.” I tilted my head back, searching out his face in the darkness. His eyes glowed softly.

  “I had help.” He pressed his lips against my forehead and his arm tightened around me. “You feeling okay?”

  “I feel fine. Stop worrying about me.”

  His eyes met mine. “Don’t ever walk through a door first again, okay? And don’t argue with me about it or accuse me of being chauvinistic. I don’t ever want to see you in that kind of pain again.”

  Instead of arguing, I twisted in his embrace and placed my lips on his, kissing him softly. His lashes lowered, shielding his eyes. He returned the kiss and it was sweet and tender and so perfect that there was a good chance I’d start bawling like a baby.

  But then the kisses, well, they changed. They deepened as I rolled onto my back and he followed, his weight a delicious feeling against my legs, and these kisses were anything but sweet. They scorched deep inside me, washing away the events of the last couple of hours like the river had taken away the unholy burn of the onyx. When he kissed like this, every muscle in his body coiling into a tight spring, he undid me.

  His hand smoothed the shirt down, baring a shoulder, and his mouth followed. Static built in the air and a tremble coursed through his body. In that moment, after everything that happened, I wanted the feel of him against me with no barriers, nothing getting in the way. Lifting up, I raised my arms and Daemon didn’t hesitate. He took what was offered. With nothing there, his hands were everywhere, tracing the slender piece of obsidian, smoothing down the curve of my stomach, over my hips, and I was pretty sure there would be no other moment as perfect as this.

  Or maybe it was how close we came to losing it all tonight that propelled us both? I didn’t know, nor was I sure how we’d come to this point, but all that mattered was we were both here and ready. Really ready. And when his clothing joined mine on the floor, there was no going back.

  “Don’t stop,” I said, just in case he had any doubts about what I wanted.

  There was a flash of a grin, and then he kissed me again and I was drowning in the rawness of what was building between us. Electricity coursed over our skin, throwing dancing shadows over the walls as he reared up, reaching for the small bedside table beside us.

  I flushed, realizing what he was going for. When he sat up and our eyes met, I started to giggle. A wide, beautiful smile broke out across his face, softening lines that held a harsh beauty.

  Daemon spoke in his language. The lyrical quality of his words made no sense to me, but they were beautiful, like spoken music that the alien part of me danced to.

  “What did you say?” I asked.

  He peered up through thick lashes, the foil package in his fist. “There’s really no translation for it,” he said, “but the closest human words would be, you are beautiful to me.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath and our gazes locked. Tears built in my eyes. I reached for him, sinking my fingers into his silky hair. My heart was pounding fast, and I knew his was, too.

  This was it. And it was right. Perfect without the dinner, movies, and flowers, because how could you really plan something like this? You couldn’t.

  Daemon sat back—

  A fist pounded on the door, and Andrew’s voice intruded. “Daemon, are you awake?”

  We stared at each other in disbelief. “If I ignore him,” he whispered, “do you think he’ll go away?”

  My hands dropped to my sides. “Maybe.”

  The pounding came again. “Daemon, I really need you downstairs. Dawson is ready to go back to Mount Weather. Nothing Dee or I are saying to him is making a bit of difference. He’s like a suicidal Energizer bunny.”

  Daemon squeezed his eyes shut. “Son of a bitch…”

  “It’s okay.” I started to sit up. “He needs you.”

  He let out a ragged sigh. “Stay here and get some rest. I’ll talk—or beat some sense into him.” He kissed me briefly and then gently pushed me back down. “I’ll be back.”

  Settling in, I smiled. “Try not to kill him.”

  “No promises.” He stood, pulled on his pajama bottoms, and headed for the door. Stopping short, he looked over his shoulder, his intense gaze melting my bones. “Dammit.”

  A few seconds after he stepped out into the hallway and closed the door behind him, there was a fleshly smack and then Andrew yelling, “Ouch. What in the hell was that for?”

  “Your timing sucks on an epic level,” Daemon shot back.

  Smiling sleepily, I rolled onto my side and orde
red myself to stay awake, but as my breathing returned to normal, sleep dragged me under. Sometime later, I heard the door open and then Daemon was beside me, pulling me back against him. It wasn’t long before the steady rise and fall of his chest lulled me back into the rhythm of sleep. Every so often I’d wake up when his arms clenched around me, his embrace so tight I thought he’d cut off my circulation, holding me as if even in his sleep he was haunted by the fear of losing me.

  Chapter 23

  Daemon and I rode together to school on Monday. The car still carried a musty, wet scent to it, a painful reminder of where our mission had ended—in a river. On the way, Daemon was convinced that his brother had been talked down from bum-rushing Mount Weather, but I knew we needed to come up with another way to get to Beth and Chris. Dawson couldn’t wait forever, and I could understand that. If it were Daemon locked up, I don’t think anyone would be able to stop me.

  As soon as we stepped out, I saw Blake leaning against his truck a few spaces down. He pushed off and trotted over the moment he spotted us.

  Daemon groaned. “He is not who I want to see as soon as I get to school.”

  “Agreed,” I said, wrapping my hand around Daemon’s. “Just remember we are in public.”

  “No fun.”

  Blake slowed as he reached us, his gaze dipping to our joined hands and then quickly sweeping up. “We all need to talk.”

  We kept walking—or Daemon kept walking. “Talking to you is the last thing I want to do.”

  “I can understand that.” He caught up to us. “But I seriously didn’t know about the onyx shields in the doors. I had no idea.”

  “I believe you,” Daemon said.

  Blake’s step faltered. “You punched me.”

  “That’s because he wanted to,” I answered for Daemon, earning a wink from him. “Look, I don’t trust you, but maybe you didn’t know about the shields. It doesn’t change the fact that we’re not going to be able to get in there.”

  “I talked to Luc last night. He didn’t know about the shields, either.” Blake shoved his hands into his pockets and stopped in front of us. He was lucky Daemon didn’t lay him out right there. “He’s willing to do it again—take down the cameras and stuff.”

  Daemon blew out a long breath. “And what good does that do us? We can’t get past those doors.”

  “Or if every door is set up like that,” I added, shivering. I couldn’t imagine going through that three or four times. Sure, I’d been in that cage longer, but the airborne onyx had covered everything.

  The three of us were huddled along the fence surrounding the track, careful of keeping our voices low so other students didn’t overhear us and wonder what the heck.

  “Well, I was thinking about that,” Blake said, shifting from one foot to the other. “While I was with Daedalus, they used to expose us to this stone each day. Our forks and silverware were encased in it. A lot of stuff was, almost everything we came into contact with. Burned like holy hell to touch, but we didn’t have any other choice. I’ve walked through the doors before and recently. Nothing happened.”

  Daemon laughed as he looked away from Blake. “And you now just thought this was a good thing to tell us?”

  “I didn’t know what it was. None of us did.” Blake’s gaze pleaded with mine. “I didn’t think much about it.”

  Dumbfounded, I realized they’d been conditioning Blake. Probably exposing him and others to the onyx over and over but like last night, something wasn’t right. Why would they expose them to it? Sick and twisted punishment or for tolerance? And why would they want Luxen or hybrids to develop a tolerance to the one weapon that could be used against them?

  “You can’t tell me you never knew about the onyx and what it could do,” I said.

  He met me dead-on. “I didn’t know that it could incapacitate us.”

  I pressed my lips together. “You know, there’s so much we have to just trust you with. That you really are working against Daedalus and not for them. That Beth and Chris are where you’re saying they are, and now, that you didn’t really know about onyx.”

  “I know how this looks.”

  “I don’t think you do,” Daemon said, letting go of my hand as he propped his hip against the fence. “We have no reason to trust you.”

  “And you’ve blackmailed us into helping you,” I added.

  Blake exhaled roughly. “Okay. I don’t have a glowing history, but I want nothing more than to get my friend away from them. That’s why I’m here.”

  “And why are you here right this instant?” Daemon asked, obviously at his patience threshold.

  “I think we can get around the onyx,” he said, pulling his hands out of his pockets and holding them in front of him. “Now, hear me out. This is going to sound crazy.”

  “Oh, goodie,” Daemon muttered.

  “I think we need to build up a tolerance. If that was what Daedalus was doing, then that makes sense. Hybrids have to go in and out of those doors. If we expose ourselves to it—”

  “Are you insane?” Daemon turned around, running his hand through his hair, clasping the back of his neck. “You want us to expose ourselves to onyx?”

  “Do you see any other option?”

  Yeah, there was one—we didn’t go back. But was it really an option? Daemon was starting to pace. Not a good sign. “Can we do this later? We’re going to be late.”

  “Sure.” He sidestepped Daemon. “After school?”

  “Maybe,” I said, focusing on Daemon. “We’ll talk later.”

  Taking the hint, Blake skedaddled out of there. I had no idea what to say to any of this. “Expose ourselves to onyx?”

  Daemon huffed. “He’s insane.”

  He was. “Do you think it would work?”

  “You’re not…?”

  “I don’t know.” I switched my backpack to the other shoulder and we started toward the school. “I really don’t know. We can’t give up, but what other options do we have?”

  “We don’t even know if it will work.”

  “But if Blake really is sort of immune to it, then we can test it out on him.”

  A wide grin spread across his face. “I like the sound of that.”

  I laughed. “Why doesn’t that surprise me? But seriously, if he has a tolerance to it, then shouldn’t we be able to? It’s something. We’d just need to figure out how to get some.” Daemon was quiet for a few seconds “What?” I asked.

  He squinted. “I think I have the onyx part covered.”

  “What do you mean?” I stopped again, ignoring the faint warning bell.

  “After Will got you and a couple of days after Dawson came back, I returned to the warehouse and stripped most of the onyx from the outside.”

  My jaw hit the ground. “What?”

  “Yeah, I don’t know why I did it. Kind of like my big FU to the establishment.” He laughed. “Imagine their faces when they went back and saw it was all gone.”

  I was speechless.

  He tweaked my nose. I smacked his hand away. “You’re insane. You could’ve gotten caught!”

  “But I didn’t.”

  I smacked him again, this time harder. “You’re crazy.”

  “But you love my craziness.” He leaned down, kissing the corner of my lip. “Come on, we’re late. The last thing we need is detention.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, like that would be the biggest of our problems.”

  …

  Carissa still hadn’t returned to school on Monday. The flu must’ve been kicking her butt. Lesa seemed a bit jealous over the whole thing. “I’m, like, five pounds from my goal weight,” she said before trig started. “Why can’t I come down with something? Geesh.”

  I giggled and we moved on to some gossip. For a little while, I forgot about everything. It was nice and much needed downtime even though we were in school. The morning blew by and when Blake entered bio, I refused to let him ruin my mood.

  But then he opened his mouth and the big “what
the hell” statement came out. “You didn’t tell Daemon about what I said to you in the woods? About me liking you?”

  Ah, what the frig, man? “Um, no. He’d kill you.”

  Blake laughed.

  I frowned. “I’m being serious.”

  “Oh.” His smile faded and he paled. I imagined that he was playing that scenario out in his head: me telling Daemon about his dirty little secret and Daemon going ape poo poo over it. He came to the same conclusion as me. “Yeah, good call.

  “Anyway,” he continued. “About what I said this morning—”

  “Not now.” I opened my notebook. “I really don’t want to talk about that right now.”

  I smiled when Lesa sat down and luckily, Blake respected my request. He chatted it up with Lesa like a normal person would. He was good at that—pretending.

  A knot formed in my stomach as I looked at him sharply. He was telling Lesa about different kinds of surfing techniques. I was pretty sure she wasn’t even listening, considering her gaze was trained on how his shirt strained over his biceps.

  He laughed easily, blending in perfectly. Like a good implant would, and I knew from previous experience that Blake was skilled at faking it. There really was no way of telling what side Blake was truly on, and it was stupid to even guess.

  At the front of the class, Matthew pulled out his roll book. His eyes met mine briefly and then shifted to the boy beside me. I wondered how Matthew did it—kept calm all the time. How he stayed the glue that kept everyone together.

  …

  I stopped at my locker and grabbed my US history text at the end of the day. The chances of a pop quiz tomorrow were high. Mrs. Kerns had a schedule, which really didn’t make the quiz a big surprise. I closed my locker door and turned, shoving my book into the bag. The crowd was thinning out as everyone rushed to get out of the school. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to rush or not. Blake had already texted me during gym about getting everyone together to talk about the onyx situation, and I really didn’t want to.

  I wanted one day to go home and do nothing—no plotting or dealing with alien shenanigans. Books needed reading and reviewing and my poor blog could really use a makeover. I couldn’t think of a better way to finish out a Monday.