by JA Huss
“Why is it red?” I ask, watching his hands for clues. The vents are a tightly woven mesh of metal. Flexible, but strong enough to withstand the heat. His arms are bulging with the weaponized attachments that Sheila and Thomas added while he was recovering from when Blue Boar attacked him out at the SkyEye maze. He’s wearing a black, long-sleeved thermal shirt. So I can’t see all the details of his enhancements. But clearly it was a good move to make those alterations. Lincoln has never been saner. Never been more in control.
I’m the unstable one now. Not him.
“The light?” Linc asks me.
“Yeah. What is it?”
He screws up his face, like he’s confused. “What do you mean, what is it? It’s fucking violence, you know this. The patterns reprogram people’s emotions. It’s a way to control people. Mess with their heads. Make them angry, and tired, and fed up. Make them—”
“Riot?” Lulu says. “Like those people downtown?”
I shake my head. “No. The Blue Boar is dead. He can’t—”
“Atticus isn’t,” Thomas says.
“It’s not Atticus,” Molly interjects, angry. “No. I refuse to believe that.”
“You don’t even know him,” Thomas growls. “He’s my fucking brother. I know what he’s capable of.”
“Well, he’s my brother too,” Molly snaps back. “And he warned me that day I went to see my mother at the asylum. Why would he do that if he just wanted to come back and mess with us again? Why?”
“Because he’s his father’s son, Molly Montgomery.” It’s an insult to call Molly a Montgomery, and Thomas knows this. It shuts her up, which was probably his only goal. And then Thomas reaches into his pocket, pulls something out, and throws it at me. It bounces off my chest and falls to the floor in front of my feet.
A prescription bottle.
“Take them, Case,” Thomas says. “It helps.”
I pick up the bottle, rolling it around in my hand as I read the instructions. Take two a day, every day, for the rest of your life. “Yeah, I’ll do that, Thomas. The next time I want to turn into an emotionless dick I’ll pop a few and become you.”
I’m about to toss it back to him when he says, “Emotions, Case. That light inside you is used to control emotions. Did it ever occur to you that you and Linc are not the only ones with that power? Is that getting through your thick fucking skull, brother?”
I glance at Lincoln, who does something like a nod and shrug at the same time. That gesture says, Don’t be hasty.
I sigh and shove the bottle in my pocket.
“I’m gonna grab some coffee,” Thomas says. And then he looks at Lulu. “Talk some sense into this asshole, would you? Because he’s about to fuck up some major shit.” And then Thomas glares at me one more time and leaves.
“Come on,” Molly says, tugging at Lincoln’s sleeve. “I need coffee too. I’m sure Case and Lulu want some time alone.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE - LULU
Molly pulls the door to the media room closed behind her when they leave, and then Case and I are alone.
I turn to look at him, but he’s staring blankly past my shoulder. “What’s happening here?” I ask him.
“I wish I knew,” he says, focusing his gaze on me.
“Well, you certainly know more than me. Who are you people?”
He laughs but it dies in the silence of the big room. “We’re monsters,” he says without emotion. “That’s what we are.”
“I think that explanation requires clarification.”
He chuckles again, but it’s filled with sarcasm, and contempt, and anger. “You wouldn’t believe me.”
“Obviously Molly knows a lot more than I do. So she must’ve believed Lincoln.”
“That’s different. Much different.”
“How?” I ask, getting sick of his bullshit. He’s been lying to me. Ever since we came back together, he’s been lying. Lincoln and his comment about suicidal scientists. Thomas and his comment about Case not fucking up some major shit. The pills are for… what? Controlling emotions? Those hands of Lincoln’s. There’s some kind of metal covering his palms. And all that talk of heat and light, like it’s all normal. And even though Lincoln was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, there are suspicious bumps—or protrusions—jutting out underneath the fabric covering his arms. There is something very wrong with these people.
“Because Molly was there,” he snarls.
“Where, Case?” I ask, grabbing on to his arm tightly, afraid he will bolt and leave me behind. “I’m just trying to understand. Let me in so I can help.” I pause, wait for something, but get nothing. “Please,” I beg. “I just want to help.”
He tries to turn away but I don’t let him get far. “Stop,” I say. “Molly was where?”
“School,” he says, looking down at me. “She believed Lincoln because she’s one of us and you’re not.”
“Oh, that’s nice. I’m not going to let you cultivate an us-versus-them attitude towards me, Case. I’m still here, right? I should be running the other way as fast as I can, but I didn’t. I called your friends. And I came here with you. I just want to help, that’s all. So tell me, and don’t lie, OK? Just tell me… what is this school you’ve been talking about? And what does it have to do with everything that’s happening?”
Case walks over to the couch and takes a seat, leaning over to hold his head in his hands.
I join him, pressing my body as close to his as I possibly can, wrapping my hands around his bicep and resting my head against his shoulder. “Please,” I say in a soft voice. “I want to know more about you. I’m not gonna leave you, I promise. I’m here.”
“For how long?” he asks. And normally that might piss me off. Because it implies that I’m not invested. When I am. But this shit is so out of the realm of normal, I don’t take it personally.
“For as long as you want,” I say. I reach up and place my hand on the side of his jaw, turning his head towards me so he has to see me. “I swear, Case. I like you a lot. I think we’re kinda in this together. And if you don’t like me that way, then OK. I understand. I’ll go away and leave you alone. But if you do like me, then you have to trust me.”
He says nothing for several minutes. And I am patient. I let him work it out in his head. Let him weigh his options with me. Let him come to a decision.
“We were like… ten, I guess.”
“Ten?” I ask. “Years old?”
He nods, sighing. “That’s when the whole kidnapping lie started. I wasn’t kidnapped. I was sent away to a school. Lincoln and I both. Thomas was already there. Molly might’ve been there already too. But we didn’t meet her until later. Couple years later, I guess. They used us, Lulu. They did…” He shakes his head. “They did genetic experiments on us. Changed us. And not just us. There were lots of kids from lots of important families there too.”
“What kind of changes?” I ask.
“Bad ones,” he whispers. “Molly was made into a weapon to control Lincoln. Thomas and I had our own Omegas, like Molly. Kids whose only purpose was to control us. Keep us in line, and then if we didn’t comply, kill us. But Thomas and I…” He chokes on a laugh. “We killed our Omegas every chance we could get. But Lincoln fell in love with his Omega. The school administrators got tired of us wiping out their stock of Omegas, I guess. And they tried something new on Linc.”
“That was… Molly?” I ask, squinting my eyes as I try to process all this.
Case nods his head slowly. “He saved her when Thomas, Atticus, and I decided to kill everyone else.”
“W-w-what?” I ask. Did he just say… kill everyone?
“So she’s the only one left. We set the school on fire. Blew some shit up.” He looks down at me with a crooked smile. “We do seem to enjoy explosives more than most.”
“I don’t understand.”
“No,” he says. “You wouldn’t. No one would. Not if they weren’t there.”
I sigh in frustration. “I’m trying my be
st, Case. But you’re not telling me much.”
“We were tortured, OK?” His voice is loud and angry as he spits the words out like venom. “Is that getting through?”
I squeeze him tighter. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. Your parents didn’t owe bad people a favor and decide to give their only son over to a school that was trying to make us…” He shakes his head. “Turn us into… some kind of fucking bunch of superhuman… asshole… villains.”
I process that for a little while. “It’s not your fault either, Case.”
“It doesn’t fucking matter, Lulu. The only thing that matters is that they succeeded. You want to know who we are?” he asks, turning his whole body so he can look me in the eyes.
I nod my head slowly.
“Freaks. That’s who. We’re a bunch of fucking freaks. We don’t even know what we are, but we know it’s not good, OK? And even though you think we’re the ones behind all this shit happening in Cathedral City, we’re not. There are worse things out there than us, Lulu Lightly. So much worse than us.”
“Blue Corp?” I ask.
“Alastair Montgomery was the head of Prodigy School. He’s Thomas and Molly’s father, for fuck’s sake. They bred Molly, Lulu. They bred her to be what she is. And even though she never told me this, I know. She was born at that school. He made his own children into mutants.” He gets up, making me let go of his arm, and begins to pace the room.
“How can this happen? In this day and age—”
“In this day and age?” Case asks, bewildered. “This is the perfect day and age, Lulu. We have more knowledge and technology than we know what to do with. There’s no ethics in science. You can’t control everyone. There will always be people willing to cross lines to get what they want. And you know what?”
It’s a serious question because he pauses, waiting for me to answer. “What?” I ask, even though there is a voice in my head screaming for me not to let him tell me this.
“I’m one of them. I will cross all the lines to get what I want. We all will. You need to understand that. Because something is happening with us. Not this,” he says, with a gesture out the window. “We’re not the ones fucking shit up in the city, OK?”
He walks towards the door, making an escape. But I stand up and say, “Don’t walk out, Case. Do not walk out.”
He whirls around, snarling. “Why the fuck not?”
“Because,” I say. “I’m one of them too. Not one of you, obviously. But one of the people who might cross a line to get what’s right. And I’m not leaving. You can tell me everything, Case. I’m still not leaving.”
“Then you’re not as smart as you look,” he says. “Because we’ve got a plan, Lulu. Something we’ve been working on a very long time. And if you stick around, you’ll be part of it whether you want to be or not. And believe me when I tell you—what’s about to happen to Cathedral City will be written down and talked about for hundreds of years.”
I know this is it. I’m at a crossroads. There is a choice to be made. I can stay here with him and his friends. Join up with them and become one of them. Or I can walk out, go downtown, find Randy and tell him everything. Put a stop to whatever sick plan they’ve got up their sleeve.
“That’s what I thought,” Case says, turning his back on me.
“Wait,” I demand. “For fuck’s sake, Case. You can give me a minute or two to give the situation some thoughtful consideration.”
“We don’t have time for bet-hedging.”
“I’m not hedging shit,” I snap. “I’m just being rational.”
Case smiles. “Nothing about this is rational, Lulu. Even Thomas would agree with me on this and he takes these damn pills to keep the feelings away.” He withdraws the prescription bottle from his pocket and shakes it. “This is about revenge, and yeah, it’s justice, Lulu. With a capital fucking J. Just not the kind of justice you’re looking for. They gave us these… powers… weaknesses. Whatever you want to call them. And we fully plan on using them to take all those motherfuckers down.”
“Well”—I snicker—“it might be a good idea to learn what these powers and weaknesses are before you go committing the atrocities you’re hinting at, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, I guess it would. Which is why I probably need to say goodbye now and get my ass back down in that lab and let Sheila poke me until we figure it out.”
He turns his back to me and reaches for the door again.
And again, I say, “Wait.”
He doesn’t turn. Just stands there, frozen.
“I’m in.”
Nothing from Case.
“And let me tell you why I’m in, OK?”
He peers over his shoulder at me, giving me a sidelong glare. “Why?”
I stand up and walk over to him, wrap my hands around his waist, enjoy the feeling of his hard muscles underneath his cotton t-shirt, and press myself to his chest. “Because I believe in you, Case. I think you’re a good man.”
“Ha.” He laughs. But I can almost feel his smile. “You’re wrong, Lulu.”
“Nope,” I say. “I know you. You’re still that guy who took me to the Debutante Ball. The one who showed up for rehearsals every week without fail. I knew it wasn’t your thing but you showed up. You did more than show up, you embraced it. And even though you were getting nothing out of that night—like at all”—I chuckle—“you were still reluctant to have sex with me that night when I insisted. You never expected anything from me. It was a favor, sure. But it was one you did with all your heart. You’re good, Case. And even though I might not agree with this plan you guys are cooking up, I do agree that justice must be done. And if we stay together I can help you.”
“Save me from myself?” He laughs. But his arms wrap me up, like he’s desperate to hold on to my offer.
“No,” I say. “Not that. Just… guide you through it, you know?” I pull away from him so I can look into his face. “Be your other half.”
“The good half?” We both smile. “The angel on my shoulder?”
I shrug. “Maybe? I probably see the world differently than you. But I’m not a fanatic. I can see more than one point of view. I’m not a black-and-white-world kind of person.”
“You won’t be able to stop us, so if that’s your motive, it won’t work. Even if I wanted to stop, and I don’t, Thomas will never stop and neither will Lincoln. So if that’s your reason—”
“It’s not,” I insist. “You’re my reason, Case. You.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO - CASE
“You’re gonna regret this.” I say it because there’s this little piece of goodness inside me that feels I should talk her out of staying. She’s too good for me. She’s nice, and smart, and deserves a man who will give her a good life. Not this shitty fucked-up existence filled with hate, and revenge, and evil I’m promising.
“There’s no room for regrets in life, Case. I’m not that kind of woman. I know how to make a decision and I know how to live with it. So don’t try to change my mind. If I say I’m in, then I mean it because I am that kind of woman. The loyal kind. And you’re right about a lot of things. Cathedral City is corrupt. What Blue Corp did to you guys was evil. And if you’re fighting against that, then you’re the opposite of evil. You’re the good guy, Case.”
I wish it was true. I really do. But it’s not. And that little angel on my shoulder is being shouted down by the devil who just… wants what he wants.
“I have always known you as that kind of woman. Since the first time I saw you back in high school. Yeah, my father asked me to take you to the ball as a favor to yours. But that’s not why I said yes, Lulu.”
“I know that,” she says, her voice softer now. Pliant and easy. “No sane twenty-one-year-old man would say yes to mandatory dancing lessons unless he really wanted it. Do you think I just chose you to take my virginity on a whim, Mr. Reider?”
I hug her. Tight. “I was honored, you know.”
She leans up on h
er tiptoes and kisses me on the lips, her hands sliding under my t-shirt, dragging her soft fingertips across my ribs and around my back. Our kiss is soft and innocent at first. But then I take her face in my hands, pressing my palms against her cheeks, and do it right.
Our lips part at the same time. Tongues begin searching for more immediately. And then her hand is on my face. Her light, warm touch makes me want her in all the ways I’ve thought about these past seven years.
When she pulls away, staring into my eyes, I have to stop myself from crushing her to my chest and never letting her go.
I haven’t had a lot of good things in my life but Lulu Lightly is definitely up there on the good list. She smells good, she feels good, she draws me to her in a way I can’t even describe. “The first time we met… do you remember?” I ask.
She nods. Smiles. Her hand still on my cheek. “I was standing outside the rehearsal studio waiting for you to show up. I had seen you before, of course. But it had been years because you were away at college. And I’m not too shy to tell you that when my father said you were my escort, I clapped inside. Well”—she blushes a little and turns her head, definitely a little shyer than she thinks—“I clapped out loud too.”
I chuckle just picturing her teenage self being excited at the thought of me. “I knew who you were too. I’d seen you a few times at cathedral services over the years. You just got prettier and prettier as the years went by.”
“I don’t remember seeing you there,” she says, squinting her eyes. “Or Lincoln, for that matter.”
I laugh kinda loud picturing Linc at cathedral services. “You sat up front with your family. I sat in the back. Alone.”
“Why not with your family?”
I play with a piece of her long blonde hair for a few seconds, trying out my answer in my head. “They never knew I came. They figured I stayed home with Linc. But every now and then I’d just get an urge, you know? To sit and think about things. I never really listened to the sermon or anything. And I didn’t know any of the rituals. Not well, anyway. I missed all that growing up at school.”
