Opposition (Lux #5)(19)
Author: J. Lynn

Another finger traveled under the band, and I wasn’t sure I was that worn out. My entire consciousness was focused on his hand—the weight and warmth of it, the exact positioning.

“Kitten?”

“Hmm?”

His voice was deep and smooth. “Just seeing if you’d passed out on me.”

“I’d never do such a thing.”

He was quiet for a moment. “You know what I’ve been thinking?”

With him, it was anyone’s guess. “What?”

“I was thinking about when all of this is over, where we are going to go.” Half of his hand was under the band now. “What we are going to do.”

“You have any idea?”

“I have lots of ideas.”

A hot, sweet feeling swept over me. “I bet you do.”

Daemon chuckled as his thumb moved in a slow, idle circle under my navel. “I was thinking college.”

“You think there’ll be colleges around after all of this?”

“I think so.”

The tips of two fingers delved low, causing my breath to catch. “Why do you think that?”

“Easy answer.” He dropped a kiss on my cheek. “If you’ve taught me anything, it’s that humans are resilient, more so than my kind. No matter what, they’ll keep forging on. So I can’t believe that there won’t be colleges and jobs or anything like that.”

My lips curved into a small smile as I decided to play along. “College would be good, I think.”

“I think you mentioned University of Colorado before,” he said, his fingers creeping farther south, causing the muscles in my lower stomach to clench. “What about that?”

I remembered the first time we’d talked about the university, and I’d been so worried that I’d been overstepping relationship lines. Seemed like forever ago. “I think that’s perfect.”

“I’m sure Dawson and Beth would like it there.” He paused. “So would Dee.”

“Yeah, she would.” Especially if Archer would be around, but then, we kind of needed to get Dee’s head on straight first. “Maybe . . . maybe I could get my mom to move out there, too.”

“Of course,” he murmured, and I bit down on my lip hard enough to taste blood as he managed to get his knee between mine. “Your mom has to be there, because we’re going to do it.”

My eyes widened. “Uh, I’m not sure that’s something I want my mom to be a part of.”

Daemon’s laugh tickled me. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Kitten. We’re going to do a real wedding. The whole thing—bridesmaids, best man, the pretty white gown, and the ceremony. Even a reception. Everything.”

My mouth opened, but there were no words. I got caught in the fantasy of a real wedding—of my mom being there to help me get into a beautiful Cinderella-type gown; of Dee and Lesa standing beside me; of Dawson, Archer, and even Luc as best men. Then there was Daemon in a tux, and damn, that was something I wanted to see again.

And there’d be pictures taken and pot roast served at the reception. There’d be a DJ playing questionable music, and then Daemon and I would have our first dance as husband and wife.

My heart kicked around in my chest, and I hadn’t realized until that moment how badly I wanted that. I was such a girl and I didn’t care.

“Kitten?”

“I like this,” I whispered as my chest squeezed. “Talking about this, I mean. It feels normal. It feels like we have a—”

Daemon had leaned over me, capturing my mouth with his. The kiss reached deep down inside me, lighting up every cell. “We do have a future.”

I stopped thinking as his lips returned to mine, and he eased me onto my back. The rest of the world, all the concerns and dangers, faded away until it was just the two of us. He did crazy insane things with his hand, and there was this rush of sensations that tossed me around like I was riding a wave. And when I came back down, I pushed him onto his back.

Daemon’s brows flew up as I hovered over him. “What are you—?”

He got with the program pretty quickly, and the edges of his body started to glow that luminous whitish-red as his hand curled around my damp hair. Before his lashes drifted down, his eyes were like rough diamonds, and the expression was sort of awed, even though I really had no idea what I was doing. But he seemed to love it, and I think it was because he loved me.

Later, we lay facing each other and we were quiet. I traced the line of his bottom lip, working up the nerve to ask him something I’d been curious about. “Why did you leave with them when they came?”

His eyes were closed, face relaxed. “When they came out of the woods, I could hear everything they were thinking, what they wanted. It was the same for Dawson and Dee. We were immediately connected. And at first, it was overwhelming. I wanted to go with them.” He paused, opening his eyes. Our gazes locked. “It was like I forgot everything except them. They became everything.”

I couldn’t even wrap my head around that. “Do you hear them now?”

“No. If anything, it’s a low hum way in the background.” He paused. “It’s not the first time something like that has happened. When a lot of us are around one another, it can get hard, because it’s like a million-way radio. It’s why we never liked being in the colony. When there are so many of us, we all are connected, almost like one being, and you’re influenced into things you don’t want. You’re not an individual. You’re a whole. I just didn’t know it could be as strong as it was when they came.”

“But you beat it,” I reminded him, because he sounded almost disappointed in himself.

“Because of what I felt for you. Same with Dawson, and obviously any other Luxen who is connected to someone else, but Dee . . .” He trailed off, shaking his head. “Those who came, they are different from the rest of us. I know that’s obvious now, but they . . . they’re so cold. No empathy or compassion.” A sigh shuddered through him. “I don’t remember my parents, but I can’t believe they were like this. I guess we aren’t like that because we’ve been around humans. That lack of compassion and empathy makes them dangerous, Kat. More than I think we even realize.”

As I smoothed my thumb along his jaw, he turned his head, placing a kiss on the center of my palm. “They have to have a weakness, though. Everything in the universe has a weakness.”

Daemon captured my hand, threading his fingers through mine. “In every colony, there is an Elder who pretty much rules over the group. I know that out of those who have arrived, there has to be one who is kind of like . . . like their sergeant. Their queen in a hive. Taking out that person won’t end this, but it will weaken them—the hold they have over other Luxen.”

Like Dee.

“Any idea who that is or where that person is?” I asked.

His lips kicked up on one side. “No. Rolland kept it pretty hidden, and now that makes sense. Because of Sadi, he knew better than to share that little piece of information. Damn Sadi. I had no idea she was an Origin, but I think she’s not the only one who’s been pretending and hiding out among the Luxen.”

I frowned. “Who else?”

“It’s something I never really noticed until I was leaving the colony, when I came for you. Strange thing is, I never trusted this guy. There was also something off about him, and he said some off-the-wall stuff when I left. Things that didn’t make sense then, and I didn’t really put anything together until Archer revealed what he was—you know, the eye coloring.” He rolled onto his back, exhaling slowly. “Ethan Smith.”

It took me a moment to remember who he was. “He’s the Elder from the colony back home?”

He nodded. “His eyes are just like Archer’s and Luc’s.”

“Holy crap,” I breathed. Sitting up, I folded my legs under me. “But if he is an Origin, and if the Origins somehow helped get the rest of the Luxen here, the question is why?”

Daemon’s gaze shifted to mine. “That’s the question of a lifetime, right? Why would some of the Origins be working with the Luxen?”

12

{ Daemon }

Kat looked like her brain hurt.

I couldn’t blame her. There was so much being thrown at us, I felt like I needed to be wearing catcher’s gear.

The whole thing about Ethan kept tossing around in my head as we lay in bed together, trying to get some sort of rest before Archer returned and most likely dumped even more messed-up news in our laps.

I could tell that even though Kat was quiet in my arms, she wasn’t sleeping. Like me, there was too much to dwell on. Thinking about Dee made me want to slam my face through a wall, so I’d rather figure out what the hell Ethan could have to do with the Luxen invasion.

The thing was, it truly was the million-dollar question. Why would the Origins and the Luxen work together? It was something I asked Archer after he showed back up with bags of clothes. When he tossed Kat a chocolate bar, I frowned, wondering just how much he picked up on.

Archer raised a brow at me. “Enough to know you picture knocking my head off my shoulders whenever we’re around each other.”

I smiled at that while Kat looked up from unwrapping her candy bar. “What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I said as I peered into one of the bags and found jeans in my size. That was weird on a disturbing level.

“Back to your question. About Origin and Luxen.” Archer propped himself against the desk and folded his arms. “I honestly have no idea what could be gained by that, other than the typical joining powerful forces for world domination and blah, blah.”

“That’s cliché,” I said.

“And too obvious,” he agreed.

I glanced over at Kat. The look on her face as she devoured the bar, as if she tasted heaven for the first time and was seconds away from having a mouth-gasm, made me wish Archer wasn’t in the room.

His smile went up a notch.

And it also made me wish he’d get the hell out of my head. “Did you know about Ethan?” I asked, refocusing.

He shook his head. “We’re not like you alien freaks, where we mind-meld or know where the others are at every given second.”

“Last I checked, you’re a part of our alien freak family, so . . .”

Kat snapped off a tiny bar and offered it to me. I shook my head, and she popped it between those lips of hers. “So you’ve never met Ethan or heard of him?” she asked.

“There’re a lot of Origins I never came into contact with or haven’t seen since they were transferred to other bases. Daedalus has many set up throughout the world in very powerful positions. If even a few of them are working with the Luxen, we’re really in trouble.”

“Like we aren’t already?” I pointed out.

“Yeah, well, here’s the problem with that. We can pretend to be human or Luxen or even hybrid. We can read your thoughts. You’ve already had your happy ass burned by one you thought was a Luxen. Probably even twice if you count this Ethan you’re talking about, which makes trusting what you think you know or see a real big problem,” Archer explained. “Let’s say a handful of Origins who are politicians, doctors, or members of the military are really working with the Luxen. It’ll turn into a cluster—”

“So what do we do?” Kat scooted off the bed and tossed the wrapper in the trash. “I mean, we can’t be just screwed. There has to be something we can do.”

A hard tension crossed Archer’s face. “Something is being done about it.”

Kat stopped in the middle of the room, her expression a mixture of hope and foreboding. “What?”

Archer glanced over at me, and that one look told me simple words weren’t going to explain anything, and I was so picking up on his vibe that this wasn’t going to be a good thing. “Why don’t you two get changed and meet me out in the hall,” he suggested.

Her little hands balled into fists. “What aren’t you telling us?”

“It’s not that I’m unwilling to tell you.” He pushed off the desk and headed for the door. “It’s just something I think you guys need to see to believe.”

“Well, that’s not unnecessarily mysterious or anything, but whatever.” I stood and reached for the sweats I was wearing. Archer was still at the door, and I arched a brow. “Unless you want to see me in all my glorious nak*dness, I’d suggest you go now.”

Archer’s eyes rolled. “No, thank you.”

Kat and I got changed quickly, and the fact that her jeans fit her perfectly had me picturing the all-too-familiar punching-Archer-in-the-face daydream, but she looked good, more like herself in the dark denim and lightweight gray sweater. Her hair had dried in soft waves, and she looked like we were going out to grab something to eat or maybe a movie.