Origin

Chapter 12

Katy

Building B? I vaguely remembered hearing someone mention another building attached to this one underground but had no idea what or who was housed there. I was 100 percent ready to find out, though. Whatever it was, it appeared dire, because Sergeant Dasher left the room without further word.

Nancy was right on his heels. “Take them back to their rooms. Doctor?” She paused. “You will probably want to join us.” And then they were gone.

I turned to Archer. “What’s going on?”

He gave me a look that said I was dumb for asking. I scowled. “What’s in building B?”

The other soldier stepped forward. “You ask too many questions and need to learn when to shut up.”

I blinked. That was all it took, and Daemon had the stocky guard by the neck and pinned to the wall. My eyes popped.

“And you need to learn to speak to the ladies with a little bit of manners,” he snarled.

“Daemon!” I screeched, preparing myself for the onyx.

But it never came.

Daemon pried his fingers off the gasping soldier’s throat, one by one, and stepped back. The soldier slumped against the wall. Archer had done nothing.

“You let him do that?” the guard accused, pointing at Archer. “What the hell, man?”

Archer shrugged. “He had a point. You need to learn manners.”

I squelched the urge to laugh because Daemon was eyeballing the soldier like he wanted to snap his neck. Hurrying to Daemon’s side, I wrapped my hand around his and squeezed.

He looked down, not seeing me at first. Then he lowered his head, brushing his lips across my forehead. My shoulders slumped in relief. I doubted Archer would’ve allowed a round two.

“Whatever,” the man spat, then spun on his heel, exiting the room and leaving Archer to fend for himself with the two of us.

He didn’t look concerned.

The trip back to our cells was uneventful up until the moment Archer said, “Nope. You two are not going in one of them together.”

I whirled on him. “Why not?”

“My orders are to put you two in your rooms—plural.” He punched in the code. “Don’t make this hard. If you do, all they’re going to do is keep you apart longer.”

I started to protest, but the hard set to his mouth told me that he wouldn’t be convinced. I took a ragged breath. “Will you at least tell us what’s in building B?”

Archer looked at Daemon and then me. Finally he muttered a curse and stepped forward, chin lowered. Beside me Daemon stiffened, and Archer shot him a warning glare. Voice low, he said, “I’m sure they’ll show you eventually, and you’ll probably wish they hadn’t. Origins are kept in that building.”

“Origins?” Daemon repeated, brows furrowing. “What the hell is that?”

Archer shrugged. “That’s all I can tell you. Now please, Katy, go into your room.”

Daemon’s hand tightened around mine, and then he swooped down, catching my chin in his other hand and tilting my head back. His mouth was on mine, and the kiss…the kiss was fierce, hard and branding, curling my toes inside my sneakers and stealing my breath. My free hand fell to his chest as the touch of our mouths rearranged my insides. In spite of the audience, luscious heat rose as he angled the kiss, pulling me hard against him.

Archer exhaled loudly.

Lifting his head, Daemon winked at me. “It’ll be okay.”

I nodded and barely remembered walking into my room, but there I was, staring at the bed Daemon had been sitting on earlier, as the door closed and locked behind me.

I smacked my hands over my face, stunned for a minute or two. When I’d fallen asleep the day before, I had been physically exhausted from using the Source and emotionally devastated from what I’d done. As I’d lain on that damn bed, staring at the ceiling, hopelessness had crept in, and even now it still had a hold on me.

But things were different. I had to keep telling myself that, to stop the bleakness from taking complete control. Pushing down what I’d done probably wasn’t something therapists across the nation would suggest as a healthy practice, but I had to. Those hours before I’d fallen asleep…

I shook my head.

Things were different now. Daemon was here. Speaking of which, I had this feeling that he was still nearby. The tingling had died off, but I just knew that he was still close; I felt it on a cellular level.

I turned, eyeing the wall. Then I remembered the door in the bathroom. Spinning around, I hurried into the bathroom and tried the knob on the door. Locked. Hoping my suspicions were correct, I knocked. “Daemon?”

Nothing.

I pressed my cheek against the cool wood, closing my eyes as I flattened my palms on the door. Did I really believe that they’d put us in two cells joined by a bathroom? Then again, they had kept Dawson and Bethany together in the beginning—hadn’t that been what Dawson had said? But my luck wasn’t that—

The door opened, and I tumbled forward. Strong arms and a hard chest caught me before I toppled right over.

“Whoa, Kitten…”

I looked up, heart pounding. “We share a bathroom!”

“I see.” A small grin appeared, his eyes sparkling.

Grabbing fistfuls of his shirt, I rocked back on the heels of my sneakers. “I can’t believe it. You’re in the cell beside me! All we—”

Daemon’s hands landed on my hips, his grip tight and sure, and then his mouth was on mine, picking up that soul-shattering kiss we’d started in the hallway. He was moving me backward at the same time. Somehow, and I really didn’t know how other than that he had skills, he managed to shut the door behind us without taking his hands off me.

Those lips of his…they moved over mine, tantalizingly slow and deep, as if we were kissing for the very first time. His hands slid around, and when my back hit the sink, he lifted me so that I perched on the edge, and he kept pressing forward, pushing my knees apart with his hips. The smoldering heat was back, a flame that burned brighter at the slow, thorough kiss.

My chest rose and fell rapidly as I clutched his shoulders, almost completely lost in him. I’d read enough romance novels in my day to know that a bathroom and Daemon were things fantasies were made of, but…

I managed to break contact—though not much. Our lips brushed when I spoke. “Wait. We need to—”

“I know,” he cut in.

“Good.” I placed my trembling hands on his chest. “We’re on the same page—”

Daemon kissed me again, spinning my senses. He was leisurely in his exploration of the kiss, pulling back and nipping at my lip until a breathy moan that would’ve embarrassed me any other time escaped me.

“Daemon—”

He caught whatever else I was going to say with his mouth. His hands slid up my waist, stopping when the tips of his fingers brushed the underside of my chest. My whole body jerked, and I knew right then that if I didn’t stop this, we were going to waste very valuable time.

I pulled back, dragging in air that tasted of Daemon. “We really should be talking.”

“I know.” That half grin appeared. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

My mouth dropped open. “What? You haven’t been talking! You’ve been—”

“Kissing you senseless?” he asked innocently. “Sorry. It’s all I want to do while you’re here. Well, not all I want to do, but pretty close to everything else I—”

“I get it.” I groaned, wanting to fan my face. Leaning back against the plastic mirror, I dropped my hands into my lap. Touching him wasn’t helping, either. Neither was that smug half grin of his. “Wow.”

With his hands exactly where they stopped under my chest, he leaned in and pressed his forehead against mine. In a low voice he said, “I want to make sure your hand is okay.”

I frowned. “It is.”

“I need to make sure.” He leaned back a little, his eyes meeting mine meaningfully, and then I got it. When he saw the understanding cross my face, he grinned. A second later, he was in his true form—so bright in the small room, I had to close my eyes. They say there are no cameras in here, but I know the room has to be bugged, he said. Besides, I also don’t trust the fact that they’re letting us have access to each other. They have to know we’ll do this, so there’s probably a reason.

I shuddered. I know, but they did let Dawson and Bethany stay together until… I forced that thought out of my head. We were wasting time. What did Luc tell you?

He said he can help us get out of here, but he really didn’t go into detail. He apparently has people on the payroll here and said they’d find me once I get something for him—something you’ve mentioned. LH-11.

Shock rippled through me. Why would he want that?

Don’t know. Daemon’s hands moved back to my hips, and then he tugged me off the sink. Moving too fast for me to comprehend, he sat on the closed lid of the toilet and settled me in his lap. His hand came up my back, pressing down on the nape of my neck until my cheek rested against his shoulder. The heat from him in his true form wasn’t overwhelming like it had been the first time. And it doesn’t really matter, right?

I savored his embrace. Does it? That stuff is being given to humans who are sick. Why would Luc want that?

Honestly, it can’t be any worse than what Daedalus is doing with it, no matter how many good things they claim to be using it for.

Very true. I sighed. I didn’t dare be hopeful about this. If Luc really was on our side and he could help us, there were still a lot of obstacles in our way. Almost impossible ones. I’ve seen it before. Maybe we’ll be close to it again.

We need to be. A couple of moments passed, and then he said, We can’t stay in here forever. I have a feeling they are allowing this, and if we abuse it, then they’ll separate us.

I nodded. What I didn’t understand was why they would allow this unsupervised visit? Something that we could do whenever we wanted. Were they trying to show us that they weren’t going to keep us apart? After all, they’d claimed they weren’t the enemies here, but there was so much about Daedalus I didn’t understand, like with Blake…

Shuddering, I turned my head in to his shoulder and breathed deeply. I wanted to force the memory of Blake out of my head, make as if he never existed.

“Kat?”

Lifting my head, I opened my eyes and realized he was no longer in his true form. “Daemon?”

His eyes drifted over my face. “What have they been doing to you in here?”

I froze, our gazes locking for an instant, and then I pushed off him, retreating a couple of steps. “Nothing really. Just tests.”

He dropped his hands to his bent knees and softly said, “I know it’s more than that, Kat. How did you get those bruises on your face?”

I glanced at the mirror. My complexion was pale, but there wasn’t a trace left from the fights. “We shouldn’t talk about this.”

“I don’t think they care that we’re talking about this. The bruises are gone now, from when I healed you, but they were there before—faint but there.” He stood, though he didn’t come any closer. “You can talk to me. You should know that by now.”

My eyes swung back to him. God, I did know that. I’d learned the hard way over the past winter. If I had trusted him with my secrets, Adam would still be alive and neither of us would probably be in this situation.

Guilt soured my stomach, but this was different. Telling him about the exams and the stress tests would only upset him, and he’d act upon it. Plus, admitting that I had killed Blake—and not so much in self-defense—was horrifying to even consider. I didn’t want to think about it, let alone talk about it.

Daemon sighed. “Don’t you trust me?”

“I do.” My eyes went wide. “I trust you with my life, but I just… There’s nothing to say about what has been going on in here.”

“I think there’s a lot to say.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want to argue about this.”

“We’re not arguing.” He crossed the distance, placing his hands on my shoulders. “You’re just being stubborn as hell, as usual.”

“Look who’s talking.”

“Great movie,” he replied. “I watched a lot of old movies in my spare time.”

I rolled my eyes but cracked a grin.

He cupped my cheek as he lowered his chin, peering at me through thick lashes. “I’m worried about you, Kitten.”

Pressure clamped down on my chest. Rarely did he admit to being worried about anything, and that was the last thing I wanted him to be doing. “I’m okay. I promise.”

He continued to stare, as if he could see right through me, right through my lies.

…

Daemon

Hours had passed since Kat and I parted ways and some poor excuse for dinner had been brought to my room. I tried to watch TV and even tried to sleep, but it was damn hard when I knew she was right next door, or when I heard her moving around in the bathroom. Once, in what might have been the middle of the night, I’d heard her footsteps at the door, and I knew she had been standing there, fighting the same need I was. But we had to be careful. Whatever reason they had for putting us in a space we could share couldn’t be a good thing, and I didn’t want to risk them relocating us, forcing us apart.

But I was worried about her. I knew she was hiding stuff, keeping whatever had gone on there before I arrived to herself. So like an idiot with no self-control whatsoever, I had gotten up and opened the bathroom door.

It had been dark and quiet, but I’d been correct. Kat was standing there, arms at her sides and so incredibly still. Seeing her like that punched a hole in my chest. She couldn’t stand or sit still for longer than twenty seconds, but now…

I’d kissed her gently and had said, “Go to sleep, Kitten. So we both can rest.”

She nodded and then said those three little words that never failed to bring me to my knees. “I love you.”

And then she was back in her room, and I was in mine. Finally, I did sleep.

When morning came, so did Nancy. Nothing like seeing her prim face and plastic smile first thing to start the day off right.

I’d expected to be reunited with Kat, but I was taken to the med floor for more blood tests and then shown the hospital room Kat had spoken of.

“Where is the little girl?” I asked, scanning the chairs for the small child Kat had mentioned but not seeing one. “I think her name was Lori or something.”

Nancy’s expression remained blank. “Unfortunately, she didn’t respond as we’d hoped. She passed a few days ago.”

Shit. I hoped Kat didn’t learn that. “You guys were giving her the LH-11?”

“Yes.”

“And it didn’t work?”

Her gaze sharpened. “You’re asking a lot of questions, Daemon.”

“Hey, you have me here, most likely using my DNA for this. Don’t you think I’m going to be a little curious about it?”

She held my stare for a moment and then turned back to one of the patients who was having a fluid bag changed out. “You think too much, and you know what they say about curiosity.”

“That it’s possibly the most cliché and stupid saying ever?”

One side of her lips tipped up. “I like you, Daemon. You’re a pain in the ass and a smart-mouth, but I like you.”

I smiled tightly. “No one can deny my charm.”

“I’m sure that’s true.” She paused as the sergeant entered the room, conversing quietly with one of the doctors. “Lori was given LH-11, but her reaction was not favorable.”

“What?” he asked. “It didn’t heal the cancer?”

Nancy didn’t respond, and that was that. Somehow I figured the unfavorable reaction was due to more than the cancer not healing. “You know what I think?” I said.

She tipped her head to the side. “I can only imagine.”

“Messing with human, hybrid, and alien DNA is probably asking for a world of trouble. You guys really don’t know what you have.”

“But we’re learning.”

“And making mistakes?” I asked.

She smiled. “There are no such things as mistakes, Daemon.”

I wasn’t so sure about that, but then my attention shifted to the window at the end of the room. My eyes narrowed. I could see other Luxen in there. Many of them looked as happy as a kid at Disneyland.

“Ah.” Nancy smiled, nodding at the window. “I see you’ve noticed. They are here because they want to help. If only you’d be that accommodating.”

I snorted. Who knew why the other Luxen were here, happy as clams, and I really didn’t care. I got that there were parts of Daedalus that were actually attempting to do something good, but I also knew what they did to my brother in the process.

All around me, doctors and lab technicians milled about. Some of the bags hooked up to the patients had a strange glittering liquid in them that vaguely resembled what we bled in our true form. “Is that LH-11?” I asked, gesturing at one of the bags.

Nancy nodded. “One of the versions—the newest—but that really isn’t a concern of yours. We have—”

A siren sounded, cutting off her words with an ear-piercing shrill. Lights on the ceilings flashed red. Patients and doctors looked around in alarm. Sergeant Dasher stormed out of the room.

Nancy cursed under her breath as she spun toward the door. “Washington, escort Mr. Black back to his room immediately.” She pointed at another guard. “Williamson, shut this room down. No one goes in or out.”

“What’s going on?” I asked.

She shot me a look before stomping past. Like hell I wanted to go back to my room when things were obviously just getting fun. Out in the hall, lighting was dim and the blinking red light caused an annoying strobe effect.

The Guard of the Moment took one step, and chaos stormed into the corridor.

Soldiers poured out of rooms, locking them down and taking up guard in front of them. Another came down the hall, clutching a walkie-talkie in a knuckle-white grip. “We have activity on elevator ten, coming out of building B. Lock it down now.”

Huh, the infamous building B strikes again.

Farther down the hall, another door opened, and I saw Archer first and then Kat. She had a hand pressed over the fleshy part of her elbow. Behind her was Dr. Roth. My eyes narrowed when I saw a wicked-looking syringe in his hand. He brushed past Kat and Archer, heading straight for the guy on the walkie-talkie.

Kat turned, her gaze finding me. I started forward. No way was I not going to be beside her when the shit hit the fan, which apparently was happening.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Washington demanded, hand going to the weapon on his thigh. “I have orders to take you back to your room.”

I turned to him slowly, then back to the three elevators across from us. All of them were stopped on different floors, the lights red. “Exactly how are we supposed to get to my room?”

His eyes narrowed. “Stairwell?”

Tool had a point, but like I cared. I turned away, but his hand clamped down on my shoulder. “You stop me, and I will end you,” I warned.

Whatever Washington saw in my face must’ve assured him that I wasn’t fooling around, because he didn’t interfere when I shrugged off his grip and went to Kat, dropping an arm around her shoulders. Her body was tense.

“You okay?” I asked, eyeing Archer. He also had his hand on his weapon, but he wasn’t watching us. His eyes were on the middle elevator. He was hearing something in his earpiece and, by the look on his face, he wasn’t happy.

She nodded, pushing a strand of hair that had escaped her ponytail out of her face. “Any idea what’s going on?”

“Something about building B.” Instinct suddenly told me that maybe being in our rooms would be a good thing. “This has never happened before?”

Kat shook her head. “No. Maybe it’s a drill.”

Double doors at the end of the hall suddenly burst open, and a swarm of officers in SWAT gear came through, armed to the teeth with rifles, faces shielded.

Reacting immediately, I swept an arm around Kat’s waist and shoved her back against the wall, shielding her with my body. “I don’t think this is a drill.”

“It’s not,” Archer said, drawing his weapon.

The light above the middle elevator blinked from floor seven to floor six and then floor five.

“I thought the elevators were locked down?” someone demanded.

The men dressed in black shuffled forward, going down on their knees in front of the elevator. Someone else said, “Locking down the elevators ain’t going to stop it. You know that.”

“I don’t care,” the man yelled into the radio. “Shut down the damn elevator before it reaches the top level. Drop cement down the shaft if you need to. Stop the damn elevator!”

“Stop what?” I glanced at Archer.

The red light blinked on the fourth floor.

“Origin,” he said, a muscle popping in his chin. “There’s a stairway to the right, all the way down the hall. I’d suggest getting there now.”

My gaze swung back to the elevator. Part of me wanted to stay to see what the hell an origin was and why they were acting like the Cloverfield monster was going to come out of the elevator shaft, but Kat was here, and obviously whatever was about to rain down on us wasn’t a friendly.

“What the hell is up with them recently?” one of the men in black gear muttered. “They’ve been acting up nonstop.”

I started to turn, but Kat smacked me. “No,” she said, her gray eyes wide. “I want to see this.”

My muscles clenched. “Absolutely not.”

A ding ricocheted through the floor, signaling that the elevator had arrived. I was seconds from just picking Kat up and throwing her over my shoulder. She saw it, too, and her look became challenging.

But then her gaze shot over my shoulder, and I turned my head. The elevator doors slid open slowly. Guns were clicked, safeties going off.

“Don’t shoot!” Dr. Roth ordered, waving the syringe around like a white flag. “I can take care of this. Whatever you do, don’t shoot. Don’t—”

A small shadow fell out of the elevator, and then one leg appeared, covered in black sweats, and then a torso and tiny shoulders.

My mouth dropped open.

It was a kid—a kid. Probably no older than five, and he stepped out in front of all the grown men with really big guns trained on him.

The kid smiled.

And then the proverbial poo hit the fan.