Origin

Chapter 29

Daemon

Panic erupted, the kind of which I’d never witnessed before. People streamed out of the hotel—the ones who’d been able to escape—and spilled into the pavilion and the streets.

Still in my true form, I pulled Kat off the street. She was saying something, but her words were lost in the screams. Christ. I never expected this—I never thought they’d go after humans, but I had underestimated the extent to which they’d go to keep us secret.

“But it’s too late,” Luc said, grabbing the arm of a woman who’d tripped and went down on her hands and knees. He pulled her up. The side of her face was a mess of raw tissue and burns. “There’s no stopping what has already been seen. And look.”

I twisted around, bringing Kat with me. She’d been staring at the woman’s mangled face for too long. The man who’d been in the car Dee had jumped on was still filming everything—us—on his phone.

Shielding Kat, I turned back to Luc. He had his hand on the woman’s forehead, and she stood as still as a statue. He was healing her.

“Go,” Luc ordered when he finished. The woman stared back at him. She was in some kind of costume—leather bra and skirt. “Go.”

She scrambled off.

Archer swung around. “They’re coming.”

They were.

Men dressed in SWAT gear edged along the sides of the street—not Vegas SWAT. Daedalus—military. And their guns were big.

PEP.

They shot first—a flare of red light aiming straight for Andrew.

Andrew avoided the hit, flying off the retaining wall and rearing back. A bolt of energy streaked out from him, slamming into the ground before the advancing men. The pavement cracked and rolled, knocking several of them off their feet. Guns fired. Red light flashed into the sky.

There were more—men in camo behind those in black.

“Shit,” Archer groaned. “This is about to get bad.”

Thanks for the update, Captain Dickhead. Shoving Kat behind me, I slammed my foot down, sending a fissure through the road. Raising my arms, I let the Source roll through me.

Placing my hands on the bumper of a Mercedes in front of me, I sent a shock of electricity dancing over the exterior. I lifted it up, tossing it like a Frisbee toward the advancing soldiers, who scattered like cockroaches. It flew through the air, rolling and rolling until it smacked into a palm tree, taking it out.

Red light pulsed, flying over our heads and between Archer and me, narrowly missing Luc. I turned slowly. Oh no, no you did not.

Energy burst from me in a tumultuous wave, smacking into four of the five soldiers, throwing them back into the tourist bus.

Another blast went off to our right, and I spun, grabbing Kat as I saw Paris dart in front of me. He slammed into Luc, knocking him out of the path of the PEP.

Paris took a direct hit.

He jerked to a stop, his body spasming as his form shifted from human to Luxen, back and forth. Electricity crawled across his body, blowing out at his elbows and kneecaps. He went still, his light dulling until he crumbled to the ground. Shimmering blue liquid pooled underneath him.

Dead.

Luc let out an inhuman sound, and a bright glow swallowed him. He rose several feet into the air, static and little fingers of light crackling out from under his body. His light flared once, as bright as the sun at noon, and then there were screams. The smell of burned flesh permeated the air.

Shots rang out, zinging past my head and smacking into the cars. The cavalry had arrived, it appeared, with good old-fashioned guns.

Dawson zipped up to my side, his fingers brushing the back of a sedan. It was flung at the bus, pinning the soldiers.

Stay behind me, I warned when I felt Kat inching around me.

I can help.

You can die. So stay behind me.

Anger radiated from her, but she gritted her teeth and stayed back. There were bigger problems. The grinding of heavy tires drew our attention. Clearing the road had worked against us. A fleet of Humvees came out of the smoke, and a— Is that a tank?

“You have got to be kidding me,” Kat said. “What do they plan on doing with that?”

Its gun moved toward where we all stood, glowing like damn Hit Me Now, Please and Thank You signs.

“Crap,” Archer said.

Racing across the cars, Andrew slammed his fist into the hood of a truck. Flames erupted as he used the truck to Molotov the tank. Soldiers streamed out of the hull, scrambling away seconds before the thing blew. The M1 went up in the air like a firecracker, flinging across the Boulevard. Hitting the gardens in front of the Venetian, it rolled across the parking lot.

Heart pounding like a jackhammer, I willed the pieces of broken asphalt off the ground. I flung them toward the cops, forcing them back. Everything was happening fast. Soldiers were coming out of everywhere, and Luc was going after them, holding nothing back. Cops were coming down the Boulevard shooting at just about anything that breathed. People—innocent people—were hiding behind cars, screaming. Dee was trying to usher them off the road, out of harm’s way, but they were all frozen in fear. After all, she was glowing like a damn disco ball.

Dee slipped into her human form in front of a man and woman clutching two children. “Get out of here!” she screamed. “Go! Go now!”

They hesitated a second, and then the couple picked up their kids and raced back toward the median where Ash still stood guard before Beth.

Red light streamed past my face, spinning me around. A bolt of white light arced, and I heard a body hit the ground behind me. I saw Kat before me, her pupils glowing. I turned slowly, finding a soldier on the ground, a PEP weapon by his lifeless hand.

“I can help,” she said.

You saved my life. I turned back to her. That is so hot.

She shook her head and lifted her chin. “We need to get— Oh my God, Daemon. Daemon.”

My heart tripped in response to the fear in her voice. I started toward her, and then I felt it. I felt it deep and in every part of my being. I saw Dawson stop. I saw Andrew spin back.

Over the neon signs for Caesar’s Palace and the Bellagio hotel, dark clouds moved incredibly fast, blocking out the stars. But they weren’t clouds…or a swarm of bats.

They were Arum.

…

Katy

Things went from bad to craptastic in a matter of seconds.

At no point from the second Daemon had announced his plan, up until the military took down the chopper full of innocent humans, had I believed that it would go down like this. All we’d wanted was to throw them off guard—to cause a little bit of chaos to make our escape.

We hadn’t planned on starting a war.

Now Paris was dead and something worse than monsters under the bed was coming our way.

At no point did I doubt that the shadows racing across the sky were not here on accident. Yeah, there was a lot of Luxen mojo going on right now, but the likelihood of Arum just popping up and joining the fun? Not likely.

They were here because of Daedalus, because they worked with them.

The dark cloud broke apart, streaming across the sky like blotches of insidious oil. It dipped behind Caesar’s Palace, disappearing for a second, and then exploded out of the side of the hotel. Shards of glass and debris flew into the air.

I opened my mouth to scream, but there was no sound.

An Arum came down the Boulevard, moving so fast I couldn’t even say it took a second to get where it was going.

Flying over the back of the Hummer, it slammed into Andrew, lifting him several feet into the air. Ash’s horror-filled scream ricocheted through me. The Arum took shape mid-flight, its skin black and shiny like obsidian. It threw Andrew like he was a rag doll and nothing more.

Another Arum shot down the strip, zipping in and around the cars. It rose, catching Andrew, and the two of them nosedived into the Treasure Island pool.

Daemon leaped off the ground—a burst of bright light and then he was in the air—slamming into the other Arum, cutting him off from the pool. They collided, a mixture of darkness and light, rolling through the sky like a cannonball. Dawson raced forward, dodging the blasts of red light.

The Arum and Andrew resurfaced in the pool and, rearing back, the Arum slammed its hand into Andrew’s chest. He jerked, his light flickering like a lightning bug.

I started forward, but arms circled my waist.

It wasn’t a friendly hug.

Panic sliced through me as my feet were lifted off the ground just as I saw the Arum lift Andrew into the air. Another pulse of light, and then Andrew… Oh God…

Ash’s scream confirmed what I suspected. I saw her switch into her true form and then back out again, like she couldn’t control it. A wave of energy rolled across the lanes.

A second later I was on my back, the air knocked from my lungs, and I was staring up into a shielded face. My breath faltered, and for a moment I had no idea what to do. I was frozen, caught between disbelief and terror. Paris was dead. Andrew was dead.

The muzzle of a strange-looking gun was pointed right at my face.

“Don’t even think about moving,” the muffled voice said.

My brain stopped processing things at a normal level and speed. As I stared up, my own wide eyes reflected in the tactical helmet, the human part of me switched off. Rage boiled up in me, and it felt good. It wasn’t fear or panic or grief. It was power.

The scream that had been building inside me, the kind of scream that left an imprint on its surroundings decades later, let loose. I don’t know how I did it, but the soldier and his gun were no longer above me. All around me, vehicles rattled and slid forward, overturning. Glass cracked and then exploded, pelting the road and me with tiny shards. The little nicks of pain were nothing.

Who knew where the soldier went? He was simply gone, and that was all that mattered.

I pushed myself up, looking around. Fire poured out of Treasure Island and Caesar’s Palace. The Mirage was smoking. Windows were knocked out of cars. Bodies were lying in the street. I’d never seen such destruction before, not in real life. I searched for Daemon and my friends, finding him first. He was battling an Arum, and they were nothing more than a blur of black and white. Archer was wrestling with the Arum from the pool, and Dee was pulling Andrew’s lifeless body from its depths. Water streamed off her face and clung to her hair. She got him over the retaining wall and wrapped her arms around him. The scene…it made every part of me hurt.

I turned to where Ash was still guarding Beth. She was in her human form and looked torn between doing what she promised Dawson and going to her brother. That was something I could do. I could keep Beth safe, and Ash could go where she needed to be.

The military chopper circled back around, halting my progress. Archer appeared out of nowhere. The Source radiated over him like a wave of light, and he threw out his arms. A bolt of pure white light hit the belly of the chopper, sending it spinning back toward one of the casinos.

The impact was deafening, and the resulting fireball lit up the night sky.

I turned back to where he had been standing, but he was gone, like a ninja. Jesus.

Digging my toes into the cracked pavement, I eyed the path to Beth and Ash. Luc had the soldiers occupied. Or what was left of them. There was this god-awful smell that turned my stomach, and I remembered what the origins could do. Apparently, evil little fire-starters could be added to their list of freakish descriptors. I pushed out, running around an overturned truck.

Beth’s head swung in my direction. Her arms were wrapped around her waist protectively. She looked terrified. I made it around a downed palm tree and was so close.

And then I was off my feet, flying backward.

I hit the side of a van; the impact rocked my body and snapped my head back. Darts of pain shot down my spine. My sight clouded as I slid to the road. Criminy. That hurt. I blinked slowly, trying to clear my vision.

Groaning, I rolled onto my side and placed my hands on the split asphalt. My arm shook as I attempted to push myself up. My insides felt rattled and rearranged. I needed to get—

Darkness crept along the edge of my vision. There was a second before I realized it wasn’t because I was on the verge of passing out. Goose bumps rose along my arms. Something cold pressed along me.

Arum.

I flattened my body and wiggled under the van, seeking a few extra seconds to regain my strength and bearings. The smell of oil and fumes clogged my throat. I squeezed my eyes shut as I slid over the road, ignoring how the asphalt abraded my skin. I made it out on the other side and crawled around a sedan, gripping the bumper to lift myself.

The van started to shake, and then it slid out of the way.

The Arum stood in his human form, pale and eerily beautiful, a cold and apathetic beauty that stole my breath and repelled me. A slow, unnerving smile twisted his lips, and it was like being hit with frigid air.

He didn’t speak as he raised his arms.

Air stirred around me as I stumbled backward. Behind me, the palms shook and metal groaned. Wind roared, and at the last second I ducked. The trees were uprooted, spinning toward the Arum. The car slipped out of my grasp as if he were sucking it in. A tourist brochure rack spun in the air. Pieces of the road rose up, hovered for a second, and then flew to him. There was a sharp scream that pierced my ears.

A woman was flung past me, disappearing behind the Arum. Another crumpled body joined those on the ground.

He was like his own personal black hole, sucking up everything around and drawing it to him. I was no exception. No matter how hard I dug in, my feet dragged over the ground.

His icy fingers wrapped around my throat, and he lowered his head to mine. I couldn’t remember seeing an Arum’s eyes before. They were the palest shade of blue, like all the color had been leeched from them.

“What do we have here?” The Arum spoke out loud. He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes as if he could taste me. “A hybrid. Tasty.”

I was so not down with being an intergalactic late-night snack.

I threw my arm back, pulling on the Source, but the Arum’s free hand clamped down on my wrist, his grip punishing. My heart leaped in my throat as his cold cheek pressed against mine. His lips moved near my ear, sending a shudder of revulsion through me.

“This might hurt. A little,” he said, and then he laughed harshly. “Okay. It might hurt a lot.”

He was going to feed.

And that little part of my brain that still functioned thought this was a hell of a way to go out. After everything—Daedalus, the guns, the bullets, and everything else—I was going to be sucked dry.

Everything tightened inside me, a mixture of fear and rage, disgust and panic. It unraveled like a compressed Slinky, lashing out from the inside.

Energy roared through me, heightened my senses. I felt the Arum against me. I felt him align his mouth with mine, a scant few inches apart. I felt the breath he took, the deep shudder of power opening up inside him. And I felt the chilling, sucking pull that reached deep inside me, digging in with tiny hooks.

I placed my hand on the Arum’s chest, and that rush of energy left me like a sucker punch. There was no space between it and the Arum, nothing to lessen the effect. The Source exploded from me and immediately went into the Arum. The flare of light from me to him was intense. Energy imploded, throwing us apart.

The stars did cartwheels.

I hit the pavement on my side and rolled onto my back. The Arum was suspended in the air, his arms and legs spread wide. His body trembled once, then twice. A spot of light over his chest, the mark the Source had left behind, raced across his body in tiny fissures of white cracks, encompassing his entire body.

He burst into a thousand little pieces.

Holy alien babies…

As I staggered to my feet and twisted at the waist, my eyes met that of a young man. He looked like someone who was on autopilot, seeing everything but not really understanding what he was witnessing. I kind of sympathized with the dude. I was sure I’d had that same WTF look on my face when I saw Daemon stop the truck and realized I wasn’t dealing with something human.

I probably had that WTF look on my face right now.

My gaze dipped.

In his white-knuckled grip was a smartphone. Everything—he had captured everything on his cell phone. Namely my face. Such a stupid thing to worry about in that moment, especially considering everything else he must’ve captured, but I thought of this video being loaded on the Internet, going viral like those damn Hey Girl memes.

This wasn’t how I’d wanted my mom to discover that I was alive. Maybe not alive and well, but definitely kicking around.

But it was really too late.

I started toward the guy to get the phone, but he snapped out of it and took off. I could’ve run after him, but there were bigger problems to deal with.

The stench of smoke and death was everywhere. I staggered back to where I knew I had seen everyone last, using the red tourist bus as a destination, aching on a cellular level as I took in the damage. The guns—those PEP weapons—weren’t harmless if they didn’t hit a Luxen or hybrid. Lampposts were broken in two or melted, about to collapse. Pockets of fire lit up the entire Strip.

There were bodies littering the road.

I shuffled around them, grimacing at the melted and burned clothes, the ragged holes and scorched skin. It seemed unnecessary that there’d be so many innocent deaths. The Luxen were glowing like walking lightbulbs, and even we hybrids were pretty obvious. It was like the military didn’t care how many were taken out in friendly fire. Were they insane?

And I knew how the government would spin this—that it was our fault, that the Luxen were to blame, even though they had made the first strike, taking innocent lives.

Looking at all the bodies turned my stomach, but I kept picking my way through them until I felt the warmth skittering over the nape of my neck. Lifting my head, I saw Daemon in his human form fighting hand to hand with a soldier. My heart leaped when the soldier got a right hook in, but Daemon rebounded, taking him out with one punch.

He looked over, his gaze locking onto mine. His hair was damp, clinging to his forehead and temples. His eyes glowed like diamonds. Relief shot across his face, and he shook his head, the emotion in his eyes unbearable.

There was a flare of red farther down the Strip, reminding me of how incredibly dangerous the streets still were. I took another step forward, seeing Ash and Beth rounding an overturned Humvee. I was happy to see them still standing, even though tears were flowing freely from Ash’s eyes. Her brother…

I sucked in a breath. So much—

“Kat!” roared Daemon.

Strong arms circled me from behind. The instinct to fight and struggle kicked in, but I was pulled back an instant before a red pulse shot past right where I’d been standing. The PEP zoomed by, heading straight for Beth. I heard Dawson’s enraged shout, and time slowed down until it was a near crawl. The arms around me loosened enough. Archer’s voice was yelling in my ear. Daemon was running, leaping cars.

Ash spun toward Beth, moving incredibly fast, as fast as a bullet. Her arms went around the girl and she twisted, shoving Beth out of the way.

The shot hit Ash in the back.

Light exploded up her spine, following the network of veins. Her head snapped back and her knees folded under her. She fell forward, lacking the grace that always seemed natural to her.

She didn’t move.

I broke free from Archer’s hold, reaching her side the moment Daemon did. He grasped her shoulders, turning her over. Shimmery blue liquid spilled out of her mouth as her head flopped back over Daemon’s arm.

Somewhere, a man’s scream was cut short by a sickening crunch.

“Ash,” Daemon said, giving her a little shake. “Ash.”

Her eyes were fixed on the endless sky above. Part of me already knew it, but my brain refused to accept it. Ash and I would never be friends. We probably would never be upgraded to frenemy status, either, but she was incredibly strong, stubborn, and I honestly thought she’d be like a cockroach, outliving nuclear fallout.

But that beautiful human form—those painfully stunning features—faded in the soft glow that quickly dulled. There was nothing of Ash in Daemon’s arms, just a shell of translucent skin and narrow veins.

“No,” I whispered, staring at Daemon.

His body shuddered.

“Dammit,” Dawson said. His arms were around a softly crying Beth. “She…”

Beth gulped. “She saved my life.”

Standing beside Dawson, Dee pressed her hands to her mouth. She said nothing, but it was all etched upon her face.

“Guys, we really need to…” Luc appeared behind Daemon, pausing with a severe frown. “Damn.”

I lifted my head, having no idea what to say. And it would be pointless if I had. A car or something exploded somewhere.

“I’ve got a big SUV about a block down the road—all of us will fit in it,” Luc started. “We’ve got to go while the road is clear. They’ll send more soldiers, and I won’t be able to take them out again. Neither will all of you. We’re running out of steam.”

“We can’t leave them here,” Daemon argued fiercely.

Archer chimed in. “We don’t have a choice. We stay here a second longer and we join them—Kat joins them.”

A muscle flexed in Daemon’s jaw, and my heart ached for him. They’d grown up with the Thompsons, and I knew a part of Daemon did love Ash. Not the same way he loved me, but no less important.

“I don’t want to leave Paris here,” Luc said, catching Daemon’s eyes. “He doesn’t deserve to be left behind, but we have no choice.”

Something must’ve connected in Daemon’s head, because he laid Ash down gently and stood. I followed his lead. “Where’s the car?” he asked, his voice hard.

Luc gestured down the road.

I reached out to Daemon, and he took my hand. There had been ten of us however many minutes ago. Now only seven raced across the dark road strewn with burned-out cars, bodies, and debris. I kept my legs moving, refusing to allow myself to really think about things.

Luc had found a Dodge Journey and a truck, but we only needed one of them now. That realization sent a pang of grief through me. Archer got in the driver’s seat of the Journey and Luc in the front.

“Hurry,” Luc urged. “There’s still some traffic up ahead, but it’s moving, and the blockade is gone. People are fleeing the city. We should get lost among them.”

Dawson helped Beth into one side while Daemon and I went to the other. We climbed into the very back, and Dee joined Dawson and Beth in the middle row. The doors weren’t even shut before Archer peeled off.

Numbness settled into my body as I twisted in the seat, staring out the back window as we raced around cars and narrowly avoided panicked people in the streets. We were leaving the city behind—leaving Paris, Andrew, and Ash behind.

I kept staring out the back window, watching Vegas burn.