The Burning Shadow

by Armentrout, Jennifer L.

  “Peaches—”

  “Except for you,” I told him. “I’m going to let it hit you in the head because you have a thick skull.”

  One side of his mouth curled up. “I’m okay with that.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”

  Placing his hand on my lower back, he leaned down and whispered, “I’d take a thousand chair legs to the head if that meant you stayed out of harm’s way.”

  I had no idea how to respond to that. Saying thanks seemed wrong. Thankfully, I didn’t have to, because Zoe started telling Luc what had gone down, and we made our way into the room next to his, an open space with couches, giant beanbags, and a TV that was obscenely large. Kent joined us, Cokes in hand and his mohawk all perky and upright.

  It occurred to me as Luc and I sat on the couch and Zoe and Kent occupied one of the beanbags that I had never seen any of them in Luc’s room.

  By the time Zoe finished with what happened, I’d drunk almost all my Coke and Kent was staring at her, slowly shaking his head. “That’s impossible,” he said. “RAC drones don’t hit on humans.”

  “I know,” she replied. “But that’s what happened. And if he was wearing contacts and in hiding, I would’ve sensed it.”

  “It was like he had a fever or something. He said he was going to go home after he took an exam. He was talking, and then he just snapped and started throwing up that stuff.” I rested my Coke on my knee as I looked over at Luc. “Is it possible that he might’ve known a Luxen and was healed by one? That he began to mutate?”

  Kent shook his head. “Mutation doesn’t look like that. Yeah, you get sick and all, but you don’t rage out like that. Right, Luc?”

  Luc, who’d been awfully quiet through the whole discussion, leaned forward and rested his hands on his knees. “When the Daedalus was trying to re-create mutation, they were developing serums that were administered to humans who’d been mutated. LH-11 was one of them, as was the Prometheus serum.”

  Muscles in my neck clenched. Those were the serums Luc had set Daemon and Kat up to retrieve for him—for me.

  “The serums were designed to speed up the mutation and enhance it. They often didn’t work, causing the subject to rapidly mutate and, in some cases, rage out,” Luc explained. “So if he was given something like that, then it could explain the strength and the rage.”

  “But how would that be possible?” I asked. “The Daedalus is gone, so even if he was somehow healed by a Luxen on such a level that a mutation began, how would he have been given one of those serums?”

  “We have some of them,” he said, sitting back. “Just in case of emergencies.”

  I really didn’t want to know what kind of emergency would warrant that. “But you’re Luc, and this is Foretoken. I can see you guys getting your hands on these serums, but other Luxen?”

  Luc looked over at me. “It’s not impossible, but yes, it’s unlikely. If that’s what did it, then there’s someone else out there who had ties to the Daedalus.”

  “How bad would that be if that’s the case?” Kent asked, rocking forward into a sitting position.

  “If it was some Luxen who saw the mutation start to take hold and gave the serum, then it really sucks for them,” Luc explained.

  “Wait. If he was healed, wouldn’t he have a trace?” I looked over at Zoe. “Wouldn’t you have seen it?”

  “Traces can fade during mutation. Fever sort of burns them off,” she explained. “But I didn’t see a trace on him at all, and I think I would’ve seen one.”

  Luc’s brows pinched. “Then I really don’t know what could cause a spontaneous mutation with those kinds of results.”

  I stared at him, beyond unsettled that Luc didn’t know, because Luc seemed to know everything.

  “Then maybe we’re looking at this wrong. If it wasn’t a mutation, what could have caused it?” Zoe asked.

  No one answered.

  But I thought of the people in the apartment complex, sickened by some sort of virus that the reporters had tried to insinuate was something passed from Luxen to human. Mom had said that was impossible, but what if she were wrong? The people in Kansas City had gotten sick and died, just like Ryan had a few weeks ago. Granted, Ryan could’ve just had the flu, but what if there were something like the flu that humans were catching from the Luxen?

  9

  No one knew what happened to Coop in the days after he spewed brackish blood all over the class before being shot with three Tasers and a bullet, but local and national news had picked up the story and speculations were wild, ranging from the belief that he had caught this mysterious Luxen virus to the possibility that he was doing some drug called ET, which apparently involved shooting oneself up with alien blood. I was almost 100 percent positive that wasn’t even a thing since neither I nor anyone I knew, including Luc, had ever heard of anyone doing that.

  On the news every evening there were random, middle-aged people with some vague medical background talking about the risks of this new high sweeping the safe suburbs of America. They claimed Luxen blood, when mixed with opioids, became a powerful stimulant that could cause massive internal bleeding and death.

  It all sounded like some kind of sensationalized fictional report, but people believed it.

  We’d learned that Mr. Barker was going to be okay, as was the student who’d hit his head. Neither had returned by the following week, and it was doubtful Mr. Barker was ever going to come back, but they were okay.

  Coop was probably not okay.

  Out of all the media covering what happened at our school, out of the speculation and rumors, no one knew what was being done to Coop, and there were no answers. Not even when his parents appeared on television shortly after the incident, demanding to be allowed to see their son, and that wasn’t just weird.

  There was something very wrong with that.

  “You should come,” Zoe was saying to James as we walked up the hill to the parking lot after school, pulling me from my thoughts. “Everyone will be dressed up. It’s a Halloween party. Come on, it’ll be fun, and we all need a little bit of fun right now.”

  “There is no way in hell I’m going to Foretoken,” James responded. “We could be in the middle of an all-out zombie apocalypse, and that could be the only safe location in the entire world, and I still wouldn’t go there.”

  I snorted as I pulled my camera out of my bag, having spied the gold and burgundy leaves shimmering in the afternoon sun.

  “That seems a bit excessive, don’t you think?” Zoe asked. “I mean, what if the cure were there?”

  “Nope. I’d stick my arm out the window and get bitten by a zombie before I’d step foot—”

  “No more Luxen! No more fear!”

  Stopping, I jerked my head up and stared at the entrance to the parking lot.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” James muttered beside me as we got a good look at what was going down. “Do they ever get tired of this?”

  “I think the answer is no,” I muttered. “And I’m really getting tired of hearing that chant. Like, really tired.”

  A group of students were sitting in the middle of the parking lot, blocking at least a couple dozen cars from leaving. The ring leader of the dumb sit-in stood in the middle, her thin body vibrating with hostility.

  Ugh. April.

  I hadn’t talked to her since that morning in front of the school. Obviously, the conversation had gone nowhere. Worse yet, her protest group had doubled in size since everything had gone down with Coop.

  She was holding a stupid hot-pink sign with an oval-shaped alien face slashed out as she shouted, “No more Luxen! No more fear!”

  Her minions chanted with her, holding their own stupid signs. I recognized my ex among them, and that was, like, double embarrassment for me.

  “We will not live in fear anymore!” April shouted, thrusting her idiot sign in the air above her. “We will not be murdered in our homes and at school! We will not be made sick. We will—”

/>   “Shut up?” I shouted, earning a few chuckles from the peanut gallery behind us, but a lot more looks of scorn.

  April spun toward us, and her bright red lips thinned. “We will not be silenced!”

  I rolled my eyes. “I can’t believe I was ever friends with her.”

  “You know, I’ve thought that a hundred times.” James shifted his book bag up onto a broad shoulder. “I have no idea why you guys were friends with her. She was never nice.”

  “I’m not sure.” I glanced over at Zoe, who was staring at the group with an impressively blank face. James didn’t even know the half of it. I would never know how Zoe had managed to even talk to April all these years, being what she was. Wasn’t like Zoe could draw attention to what she was, but in one of my many fantasies that involved slapping the blond ponytail off her head, all of them included the look on her face when April realized that one of her friends for years was part alien and she’d had no idea.

  That would never happen, but still, picturing it brought a smile to my face.

  “Thank God the three of us are always late and we’re parked in the back.” Zoe shoved her tight, caramel curls out of her face. “We can just ignore them.”

  “Yeah, but they’re not as lucky.” James jerked his chin in the direction of the small group standing to the right of April and her crew.

  My shoulders tightened as I recognized Connor and the younger Luxen, Daniel. There were two others with them, and their cars were completely blocked by the circle.

  “Crap. I didn’t even see them there.” Zoe crossed her arms over her lilac sweater as she looked over her shoulder. “Where are the teachers? They don’t see any of this going on?”

  Considering the huge audience the group was drawing, the teachers had to know something was happening out here.

  Irritation snapped to life. I’d tried talking to April once about her anti-Luxen crap, but that had been as successful as talking to a brick wall. Worst part was that Connor and the other Luxen couldn’t do anything. With the Disablers on their wrists, they were virtually human, but if they stood up for themselves, they would be labeled the aggressors, “proving” whatever crap April was shouting.

  “Hey, April!” I lifted my camera and snapped a picture of her. “How about a picture to commemorate your bigotry?”

  April dropped her pink sign. She stalked toward me, her pale blue eyes narrowed. “I swear to God, Evie, if you take a picture of me, I will break your stupid camera!” She grabbed for it, but I danced backward, keeping it out of her reach. “I’m being serious.”

  “So am I,” I shot back, keeping a good grip on my camera. Probably a good time to mention the fact that I did take a picture. “What? Are you worried about having actual proof of how stupid you are?”

  Zoe snorted. “I doubt she cares.”

  “No one asked you.” April held up her hand, placing her palm inches in front of Zoe’s face. Zoe’s brows flew up, but April zeroed in on me. “You shouldn’t take people’s pictures without their permission.”

  “Are you for real right now?” I demanded. “You’re blocking half the parking lot.”

  “So? That’s our God-given right.” Her head bobbed as she spoke. “Freedom of speech and all. We’re protesting them.” She jabbed a finger in Connor’s direction. “They made Coop sick!”

  “And Ryan!” some girl shouted from April’s group. “They killed him.”

  “They didn’t make anyone sick,” Zoe snapped.

  “You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about!” April volleyed back.

  “Thought you needed a permit for this.” James stepped in.

  “It’s the school parking lot,” April shot back. “We don’t need a permit and, again, it’s our right.”

  “What about their rights?” I demanded.

  “Their rights?” April smirked. “What rights? This isn’t their planet.”

  “Their rights to come to school and be able to leave without having to deal with you all, and yeah, last time I checked, they did have rights.”

  She rolled her eyes. “They don’t deserve them.”

  “Oh my God.” Sickened and yet somehow not surprised that she would say something like that, I wanted to put as much distance between us as possible. “You’re terrible, April. Just go protest someplace else where the rest of us decent human beings and Luxen don’t have to see or hear you. Or better yet, stop being a horrible human being.” I sidestepped her and nearly walked into Brandon.

  “Evie.” He stared down at me, his sign dangling from his fingertips. “Are you really okay with them being here?”

  “She is.” April crossed her arms. “She’s a traitor to her species.”

  I rolled my eyes at her. “Yes, I’m totally okay with them being here, and you didn’t have a problem with them before. What’s changed?”

  Brandon glanced over at the Luxen. The group of protestors were still in front of their cars. “I wised up, that’s what changed.” His blue eyes—eyes that I used to find so pretty—searched mine. “They killed your father—”

  “Shut up,” I snapped, shoving past him as April and Zoe started arguing with each other. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. At all.”

  Brandon caught my arm, yanking me to a stop. “What do you mean I have no idea? Your father died fighting them. Of all people, you should be the last person supporting them.”

  “My father was a shit human being.” My gaze dropped to where his fingers were digging into my arm—the same arm that Micah had broken in this very parking lot.

  Confusion poured into his face. “What? Your father was a hero, Evie.”

  God, I wanted to vomit. He really had no idea. “Let go of me.”

  He frowned. “Why? So you can run over to them and make sure they’re okay? Hold their hands? I heard about you escorting that little Luxen shit to class.”

  “Let go of me so I don’t break my camera on your stupid face,” I said, tugging on my arm. His grip tightened, and I winced as a burst of sharp pain flared up my arm. “I’ll be really pissed if I break my camera, but if you don’t let go, it’ll be worth it.”

  “Really?” Brandon exclaimed. His eyes widened with shock, but he didn’t let go. “You’d hurt me and not them?”

  “I’d prefer to hurt no one, but if push comes to shove, I’d gladly hurt you over them.” I glanced at the group of protestors. They were on their feet, looking at one another nervously. “Want to know why? You’re the one grabbing me. Not them.”

  “Dude, let go.” James was suddenly by my side, and even though he was a nonconfrontational teddy bear, he was bigger and broader than Brandon by far. James snatched my camera from my hands. “I really don’t want you breaking this over his face. You love your camera, Evie.”

  That was true.

  Brandon’s gaze darted to James, and then he dropped my aching arm. “I don’t get you guys. They killed Colleen and Amanda. They killed Andy, and you guys act like it’s not a big deal? What’s wrong with you all?”

  “No, they didn’t, Brandon. They had nothing to do with their deaths.”

  “How do you know that?” he fired back.

  I wished I could tell him exactly how I knew, but I couldn’t. I’d known Brandon since I started going to this school, nearly four years. We hadn’t dated that long, only like three months, but we’d been friends before and after. Brandon had seemed like a good guy—smart and kind—but he looked like a complete stranger to me now. “What happened to you? You were never like this.”

  “What happened to me?” he challenged. “I woke up, Evie. I saw what was really happening—what they’re doing to us.”

  He was so asleep it wasn’t even funny. “What do you think is happening?”

  “They’re taking our rights, Evie. They’re taking our jobs and government assistance from us,” he argued. “They’re making people sick. They’re killers.”

  They could be killers—I’d seen it with my own eyes—and while there was a par
t of me that was beginning to wonder if there was something to this whole Luxen virus thing, Brandon was so wrong. “So are humans,” I told him. “We kill just as much as the Luxen do—more if you look at our history and look at all the diseases we pass to one another, mainly stupidity. They’re not shooting up schools or theaters. They’re not killing unarmed teens and hiding behind a badge. They’re not gassing innocent people or blowing up buildings. They’re not—”

  “Human,” he cut me off. “They’re not human, Evie, and they are killing people—entire families. Watch the news.”

  Disgusted, I shook my head. “They’re more human than you are right now.”

  “Oh my God!” April shrieked, spinning around. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that the Luxen were in their cars, and since the protestors had started to scatter, they were able to get out of the parking lot. “Look! They’re getting away. Dammit!”

  Brandon whipped to the side, his cheeks flushing as the carful of Luxen left the parking lot. His head swung back at me, and I smiled brightly up at him.

  “You guys can’t even protest efficiently.” Zoe flicked her fingers in April’s face, causing the girl to flinch. “Kind of pathetic.”

  “Dammit,” Brandon growled.

  “Just so you know, I have lots of secondhand embarrassment right now,” I told Brandon. “For you guys.” I paused. “And for myself, because I actually dated you.”

  His face turned bright red. “You did more than just date me, you stupid—”

  “Use nice words, Brandon.” James smiled at the smaller guy. “Very nice words.”

  Brandon’s jaw flexed as he snapped his mouth shut, glaring at me. “Whatever,” he said.

  I lifted my hand and extended my middle finger.

  Turning away, he muttered something under his breath that sounded an awful lot like Luxen lover, the edges of his sign crinkling under his fingers.

  “It’s okay.” April hurried to Brandon, looping her arm around his. “They’re not going to be a problem much longer.”