The Burning Shadow

by Armentrout, Jennifer L.

  “Evie.” Luc said my name as if it were a prayer and a curse.

  I took a breath, but it went nowhere. His forehead touched mine, and I swore my heart stopped right then and there. Low in my stomach, muscles clenched once more.

  Luc was so close that I felt his lips curve into a smile near my mouth, and if I turned my head just the scantest inch, our lips would touch.

  Would he want that?

  Would I want that?

  I wasn’t sure. The night we’d kissed, we’d done more. We’d been chest to chest, our bodies tangled and moving together, but Luc had stopped before it had gone that far, and we weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend. There’d been no labels, no definitions to speak of. Not that we needed to be together to be together. There was just this expectation that there could be more, there could be everything if I’d just reach out and take it.

  I wanted to reach, but I …

  I was afraid.

  Afraid of Luc realizing what I feared I already knew. That he was in love with a girl who no longer existed, and ultimately, wouldn’t he be disappointed? I was terrified of letting myself feel those kinds of emotions that could lead to a broken heart. Scared that I would always be second best, or worse yet, a cheap imitation of the real thing.

  Did Luc even see me when he stared into my eyes, or did he see the ghost of Nadia and didn’t realize it yet? I wasn’t sure if he even knew what he wanted, if he really wanted this with me, whoever I was.

  “I always want that,” he whispered against my lips.

  Startled, I jerked back and broke contact. The lit atoms flickered and then fizzled out in a series of crackles. My gaze swung to Luc’s face.

  One side of his mouth kicked up as his gaze collided with mine. “All you have to do is ask, Peaches. All you have to do is tell me what you want, and it’s yours.”

  I opened my mouth as my cheeks warmed. At a loss, I reached for the soda on the nightstand, taking a huge gulp. A slight tremble rattled the can as I placed it back on the nightstand that was bare except for a silver lamp.

  “So…” I cleared my throat, searching for something to say. “How did you meet Paris?”

  “It’s kind of a funny story,” he replied after a moment. “He tried to kill me.”

  “What?” My head whipped toward him. I had not been expecting that. “How is that funny?”

  He grinned. “It was shortly after I’d escaped the Daedalus. I was around five, I think?”

  I stared at him. “He tried to kill you when you were five?”

  “Well, me at five was like a normal human at sixteen for all intents and purposes, but yeah, he’d been blackmailed into hunting me down with this other group of Luxen. They were supposed to capture and bring me back. That’s not how it went down, though.”

  I had a feeling I could guess what happened.

  “They, of course, weren’t as prepared as they should’ve been when they found me. All of them except Paris had no issue with what was being done. I could tell.” He tapped his finger to the side of his head. “So, I saved Paris.”

  In other words, he’d killed the rest of them … at five years old. I blinked slowly. “How were they blackmailing him?”

  “They had his siblings,” he answered. “A brother and a sister.”

  Oh God. “What happened to them?”

  Luc looked away then. “We tried to find and free them, but they were killed once the Daedalus figured out Paris had teamed up with me instead of killing me.”

  “God,” I whispered, thinking there were a lot of moments like this for him. People trying to kill him or control him, experiment on him and use him. “Are you sure you had good memories?”

  “Many.”

  I wasn’t so sure about that, and I was thinking that maybe it was a little bit of a blessing that I couldn’t remember my childhood. And I wished I could … change that for him.

  I looked away from him, my gaze landing on where my camera sat on my backpack. I’d brought it with me, planning to finally go through the pictures, but it sat untouched.

  There was something I wanted to do, but it was kind of weird. Like, super-weird.

  “Nothing is weird to me.”

  I sighed. “You’re in my head again.”

  “Guilty as charged.” When I looked at him, he arched a brow, utterly unrepentant. “What is it that you want to do, Peaches?”

  “I want to take your picture.” My face felt as if it were on fire. “And I know that sounds creepy—”

  Interest filled his expression. “That sounds hot.”

  “Not that kind of picture!” Now my entire body was burning. “I just … you have such interesting lines. Your face, I mean. I want to capture them on film.” I rose, wiping my suddenly damp palms as I turned away from him. “God, saying that out loud does sound creepy as hell. Just forget—”

  “You can take as many pictures as you want.”

  “Really?” I faced him, clasping my hands together. Excitement thrummed to life. “You don’t think it’s weird?”

  Luc shook his head, sending messy waves tumbling in every direction.

  I glanced at my camera and then back at Luc. The question came out before I could stop myself. “You said Nadia—you said I was always interested in taking pictures?”

  He nodded this time. “You liked to take a lot of the outdoors. Fall was your favorite. Then winter, but only when it had snowed. Otherwise, you didn’t like taking those pictures, because—”

  “Everything looks dead in the middle of the winter,” I whispered, and when he nodded again, I felt a little dizzy. “It’s weird. You know? That there are pieces of Nadia in me. I guess they’ve always been there.” I walked to my bag and picked up the camera, wrapping the strap around my arm. “Do you think there’s any of Evie in me?”

  Luc was quiet for a moment. “I don’t know. I didn’t know her.”

  I fiddled with the buttons on the camera. “I was thinking last night that it seemed wrong to replace her, you know? Like it’s an insult to her memory. It makes me feel gross.”

  “It wasn’t of your choosing, though. You didn’t wake up one day and decide to take over her life. Sylvia—” He cut himself off when I looked over at him. His shoulders were tense, the line of his jaw harsh, turning the beauty of all those lines more brutal than warm.

  I lifted the camera then, snapping a picture before I lost my nerve. He didn’t seem to mind.

  “Don’t put that kind of guilt on yourself,” he said. “You didn’t make that choice.”

  I knew what he was saying. Mom had made that choice, to replace the real Evie with me. She hadn’t needed to do that. A part of me thought it wasn’t wise to talk about Mom with him, especially after what happened the day before, but the words, the truth of it all, bubbled up. “She could’ve given me any other identity.”

  “Yeah, she could’ve.” Luc held still as I slowly approached him. “Kind of makes you wonder why she did that.”

  My fingers halted several inches from his face. “It does.” I drew in a shallow breath and then touched his chin. His entire body gave the slightest jerk, and I pulled my hand back. “Sorry. I was just going to—”

  “No, it’s okay.” His eyes were a brighter shade of violet as he caught my hand and brought my fingers back to his chin.

  Throat inexplicably dry, I tilted his head back and to the left so the sunlight caught the side of his face again. “I think she did it because she missed the real Evie.”

  “People do the strangest things for love.”

  Carefully, I brushed a thick lock of hair back from his face. His eyes closed as the tips of my fingers grazed his forehead. Warmth crept into my cheeks as I stepped back. “Don’t move.”

  “Your wish is my command.”

  My lips twitched as I lifted my camera, adjusting the focus until I snapped a picture of him. I took several as I moved toward the foot of the bed, attempting to capture all the striking angles while feeling incredibly self-conscious.

&n
bsp; Lowering the camera, I walked back to him, turning his chin so he was looking straight at me. I wanted to ask him to smile, but I was too embarrassed to do so.

  “Are you going to look at the ones you just took?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “Not until I’m done.”

  “That’s different.”

  My gaze lifted to his, and I saw that he was smiling. Not a big one. That kind was rare for Luc, but this was a lopsided grin, and when those strands of hair flopped back onto his forehead, there was this adorable rakish look to him.

  I snapped a pic.

  “From before, I mean,” he clarified. “You’d look at every picture after you took it. But you never took portraits. Do you take a lot of them now?”

  “Not a lot, but I’ve taken photos of Zoe and Heidi, even James. But more candid shots, you know? Like when they’re not paying attention to me.” I switched the mode to black-and-white. “I guess that’s something that is all me.”

  “It is.”

  Smiling, I lifted the camera and took another shot of him in black-and-white, and then I went over to him to readjust his angle.

  Luc caught my fingers as he snagged my gaze, and my entire body locked up. He dragged them over the line of his jaw, to his parted lips. His warm breath danced over the tips of my fingers. He pressed a kiss to one finger. A tight, hot shiver curled low.

  “I like this,” he said, kissing my next finger.

  “Like what?” Did I sound as breathless as I felt?

  “You taking pictures.” Another kiss on another finger. “I like that you’re involving me in something you like to do.”

  An incredible whooshing sensation swept through my chest, more than a flutter, like an impossibly sweet swelling. “I like…”

  He stared up at me through thick lashes, his mouth centimeters from my last finger. “What?”

  I felt warm and dizzy as he held my gaze. “I like you … being involved.”

  One side of his mouth kicked up. “I know,” he said, and then before I could respond, he nipped at my pinkie, a quick bite that sent a bolt of awareness through me.

  My stomach hollowed as I sucked in air that seemed to do nothing to alleviate the sudden, intense throbbing.

  Luc’s smile turned downright wicked as he lowered my hand. His gaze flicked over my shoulder. “We’ll have to take more later.”

  I opened my mouth, but a knock at the door silenced me. I stared at him dumbly as he rose, still holding on to my hand. “How do you do that? Know when someone is about to knock?”

  “I’m that special.” Luc led me down the step and into his living room. “Like a snowflake, unique and pure.”

  I snickered as he let go of my hand and went to the door. From where I stood, I saw Kent’s blue mohawk when Luc opened the door.

  “What’s up?” Luc asked, dragging a hand through his hair.

  “We got a problem.”

  4

  Unease churned in my stomach as I sat on the edge of the couch. A problem could be anything from someone stubbing their toe to a raid on the club. Anything was possible here.

  “Sorry to bother you guys.” Kent cocked his head to the side, and I had no idea how the weight of his mohawk didn’t topple him over. He waved at me. “Hi, honeybuns. Glad to see that you’re okay. You dying would’ve sucked.”

  I waved back up at him. I hadn’t seen Kent since before Micah’s attack. He hadn’t been a part of the cleanup.

  He refocused on Luc. “It’s Officer Bromberg. Again. This time, he’s refusing to leave until he speaks to you.”

  “Officer?” My heart plummeted. “Is something going on?”

  “Nothing to worry about, Peaches.” Luc pivoted, heading into the kitchen. “Bromberg is with ART, and he likes to come in here and throw his weight around, because he knows we have unregistered Luxen here.” Luc grinned at me as he pulled out a contact case. “He just can’t prove it.”

  ART? That meant there was an Alien Response Task Force officer down there, and I had no idea why that wasn’t something to worry about.

  “Which is why I’m lingering up here,” came a deep, familiar voice from the doorway. A tall, dark-haired Luxen stood in the doorway beside Kent. Daemon Black. “I’m too lazy to put the contacts in.”

  “Or too afraid,” Luc quipped as he popped the lenses in, changing the color of his eyes from a vibrant purple to a dark brown. “You should’ve seen him the first time he did it. I thought he was going to vomit.”

  Daemon shot him a look.

  “I can’t stand the idea of contacts, either. The whole sticking my finger in my eye—no, thank you,” I chimed in, and one side of Daemon’s mouth quirked up.

  “That’s because you’re not supposed to stick your finger in your eye, Peaches,” Luc replied.

  I ignored that comment. “Are you sure we shouldn’t be concerned with this officer being here?”

  “It’s fine.” He swaggered over to the door. “Thought you were leaving?” he said to Daemon, and as they both stood there, eye to eye, I wondered if Daemon would think it was creepy if I took their picture.

  Probably.

  So, I resisted.

  “I am in a bit.” He strolled into Luc’s apartment as if it were his own. “I’ll keep Evie company while you’re occupied, though.”

  Luc’s eyes narrowed, and I’d swear Daemon’s grin kicked up a notch as he dropped onto the couch beside me, throwing his arm along the back of it.

  “I’ll be back shortly,” Luc said, sending one last, long look before hooking a finger along the back of Kent’s collar, spinning him around.

  Kent waved goodbye, and then the door was swinging shut behind them, and I was sitting side by side with Daemon Black. With his black wavy hair and chiseled features, he was just as stunning to look at as his emerald-green eyes were.

  Alien DNA did a body good.

  Fiddling with the strap of my camera, I stared at the television, unsure of what to say. The TV was turned on to one of the news channels, but the volume was so low that I couldn’t hear what they were saying. There was a breaking news banner along the bottom, something about a quarantine situation in Boulder, Colorado.

  “You don’t have to worry about the officer,” Daemon said, looking over at me. Those emerald-green eyes were so bright, it was slightly unnerving. “Luc has it handled. This is just another normal Monday for him.”

  “I don’t think it’s normal to have ART officers show up like that.” I lowered my camera to my lap. “I mean, what if he were to find proof of any number of unregistered Luxen here?”

  “Then Luc will take care of it.”

  “Take care of it? As in ‘take care of’ the officer?”

  “You probably aren’t ready for that answer.”

  I opened my mouth but promptly snapped it shut. I wasn’t stupid. Didn’t take a genius to figure out what Daemon meant, but suspecting that Luc would silence the officer in the forever-and-ever kind of way was not the same thing as hearing Daemon confirm it.

  So, I changed the subject.

  “You haven’t gone home yet?” I asked.

  Daemon shook his head. “I’ll be leaving tonight, once it’s dark. I would hang around to make sure everything is cool here after that shit with Micah, but I need to get home. My girl is about to have our first baby, and I need to be there with her.”

  “Baby? Congrats!” I immediately pictured Daemon snuggling an infant, and my ovaries might have exploded a little. “Being away has to be really hard right now.”

  “It is. Coming here and getting the packages is something I need to do, but I’m not missing another second of Kat’s pregnancy,” he said. Package was the code word for unregistered Luxen. Daemon and others were moving them from their temporary hideout here at the club to someplace safe, where they could live without fear and without being forced to wear a Disabler. Where they were moving those Luxen to, I had no idea. No one had filled me in on that part yet. “This is the last trip I’ll make for a while, s
o you’ll probably be meeting my brother soon.”

  “Cool,” I murmured, thinking about how dangerous it was, what they did, and the risks they were taking. “Have I met your—”

  “Wife. Her name is Kat, and you two have met a couple of times.” Daemon’s gaze flickered away. “Luc will probably be pissed at me for telling you this, but the first time Kat and I saw you, you were dancing.”

  My heart stuttered. Daemon had seen me dancing? I couldn’t believe it. I loved dancing, but I only did it in the privacy of my bedroom, where I could flail around like a cracked-out Muppet baby and no one could judge me. But Nadia danced in front of people—people like Daemon?

  “I was?” I asked, throat parched.

  He nodded.

  I guessed Nadia—the old, unfamiliar me—had larger lady balls than I did.

  Go figure.

  What little I did know of Nadia’s life told me she was a braver, stronger, and all-around more badass version of me.

  He nodded. “It was at Harbinger, another club Luc owned. It’s no more now, destroyed after the invasion, but we saw you there. You were a couple of years younger than Luc, and you were up on a stage just dancing away. You were really good. That was before…”

  I nodded slowly, processing this little tidbit of information. I knew what before meant. Before the other Luxen, the ones who hadn’t been living here for decades unknown among the human populace, had invaded. Before millions of people and Luxen were killed in an all-out war. Before, when I was known as Nadia Holliday, and before I became so sick that I had been dying of a blood cancer that no Luxen or Origin could heal.

  I hadn’t known there had been another club, and based on the timeline that I knew, I quickly did the math. My eyes widened as I shook my head. “Luc owned a club at thirteen or fourteen?”

  A wry grin appeared. “Yeah, that was about my reaction when I first learned who Luc was. But that was before I even knew Origins existed. Anyway, later that night, while Kat and I were talking with Luc, you popped your head into the room. The way he reacted to us seeing you, to us learning you existed, I knew right then and there, Luc and I had something in common.”