Opposition (Lux #5)(2)
Author: J. Lynn

“Sounds like a plan,” commented Luc.

Ignoring him, I rounded the stairs and all but stomped up them. I hated sitting around and doing nothing. I hated that every time I opened that front door, Luc or Archer was there to stop me. And what I hated most of all was the fact that they could stop me.

I might be a hybrid, mutated with all that special Luxen goodness, but they were Origins, and they could kick my butt from here to California if it came down to it.

The upstairs was quiet and dark, and I didn’t like being here. Wasn’t sure why, but the tiny hairs on the back of my neck rose every time I came up here and walked down the long, narrow hall.

Beth and Dawson had commandeered the last bedroom on the right the first night here, and that’s where Beth had holed herself up since he . . . since he left. I didn’t know the girl well, but I knew she’d been through a lot when she was under the control of Daedalus, and I also didn’t believe that she was the most stable of all hybrids out there, but that wasn’t her fault. And I hated to admit this, but sometimes, she kind of freaked me out.

Stopping in front of the door, I rapped my knuckles on it instead of busting up into the room.

“Yes?” came the thin and reedy voice.

I winced as I pushed open the door. Beth sounded terrible, and when I got an eyeful of her, she looked just as bad. Sitting up against the headboard with a mountain of blankets piled around her, she had dark circles under her eyes. Her pale, waiflike features were sharp, and her hair was an unwashed, tangled mess. I tried not to breathe too deeply, because the room smelled of vomit and sweat.

I halted at the bed, shocked to my core. “Are you sick?”

Her unfocused gaze drifted away from me, landing on the door to the adjoined bathroom. It didn’t make sense. Hybrids—we couldn’t get sick. Not the common cold or the most dangerous cancer. Like the Luxen, we were immune to everything out there in terms of disease, but Beth? Yeah, she wasn’t looking too good.

A great sense of unease blossomed in my belly, stiffening my muscles. “Beth?”

Her watery stare finally drifted back to me. “Is Dawson back yet?”

My heart turned over heavily, almost painfully. The two of them had been through so much, more than Daemon and I had, and this . . . God, this wasn’t fair. “No, he’s not back yet, but you? You look sick.”

She raised a slim, pale hand to her throat as she swallowed. “I’m not feeling very well.”

I didn’t know what level of bad this was, and I was almost afraid to find out. “What’s wrong?”

One shoulder rose, and it looked like it had taken great effort. “You shouldn’t be worried,” she said, voice low as she picked at the hem of a blanket. “It’s not a big deal. I’ll be okay once Dawson comes back.” Her gaze floated off again, and as she dropped the edge of the blanket, she reached down, put her hand over her blanket-covered belly, and said, “We’ll be okay once Dawson comes back.”

“We’ll be . . . ?” I trailed off as my eyes widened. My jaw came unhinged and dropped as I gaped at her.

I stared at where her hand was and watched in dawning horror as she rubbed her belly in slow, steady circles.

Oh no. Oh, hell to the no to the tenth power.

I started forward and then stopped. “Beth, are you . . . are you pregnant?”

She tipped her head back against the wall and squeezed her eyes shut. “We should’ve been more careful.”

My legs suddenly felt weak. The sleeping. The exhaustion. All of it made sense. Beth was pregnant, but at first, like a total idiot, I didn’t understand how. Then common sense took over, and I wanted to scream, Where were the condoms? But that was kind of a moot point.

An image appeared in my head of Micah, the little boy who’d helped us escape Daedalus. Micah, the little kid who had snapped necks and destroyed brains with a mere thought.

Holy alien babies, she was carrying one of them? One of those creepy children—creepy, dangerous, and extremely deadly? Granted, Archer and Luc had probably been one of those creepy kids at one time, but nothing about that thought was reassuring, because the newest batch of Origins that Daedalus had whipped up were different than the ones Luc and Archer had popped out of.

And Luc and Archer were still kind of creepy.

“You’re staring at me like you’re upset,” she said softly.

I forced a smile onto my face, knowing it probably looked a little crazy. “No. I’m just surprised.”

A faint smile appeared on her lips. “Yeah, we were, too. This is really bad timing, isn’t it?”

Ha. Understatement of the lifetime.

As I watched her, the smile slowly slipped off her lips. I had no idea what to say to her. Congratulations? That didn’t seem appropriate for some reason, but it also seemed wrong not to say it. Did they even know about the Origins, about all those kids Daedalus had?

And would this baby be like Micah?

God, really? Did we not have enough to worry about right now? My chest tightened, and I thought I might be having a panic attack. “How . . . how far along are you?”

“Three months,” she said, swallowing hard.

I needed to sit down.

Hell, I needed an adult.

Visions of dirty diapers and angry, red little faces danced in my head. Would there be one baby or would there be three? That was something we never thought about when it came to the Origins, but the Luxen always popped out in threes.

Oh, holy llama drama, three babies?

Beth’s gaze met mine again, and something in those eyes caused me to shudder. She leaned forward, her hand stilling over her belly. “They’re not coming back the same, are they?”

“What?”

“Them,” she said. “Dawson and Daemon and Dee. They’re not going to come back the same, are they?”

About thirty minutes later, I walked downstairs in a daze. The guys were where I’d left them, sitting on the couch, watching the news. When I entered the room, Luc glanced at me, and Archer looked like someone had shoved a pole up some very uncomfortable place.

And I knew.

“Both of you knew about Beth?” I wanted to hit them when they stared blankly back at me. “And no one thought to tell me?”

Archer shrugged. “We were hoping it wouldn’t become an issue.”

“Oh my God.” Not become an issue? Like being pregnant with an alien hybrid baby wasn’t a big deal and would just, I don’t know, go away? I dropped into the chair, placing my face in my hands. What next? Seriously. “She’s going to have a baby.”

“That’s usually what happens when you have unprotected sex,” Luc commented. “Glad you two talked, though, because I so did not want to be the bearer of that news.”

“She’s going to have one of those creepy kids,” I went on, smoothing the tips of my fingers over my forehead. “She’s going to have a baby and Dawson is not even here and the whole world is going to fall apart.”

“She’s only three months along.” Archer cleared his throat. “Let’s not panic.”

“Panic?” I whispered. The headache was getting worse. “There are things she needs, like, I don’t know, a doctor to make sure the pregnancy is going all right. She needs prenatal vitamins and food and probably saltine crackers and pickles and—”

“And we can get those things for her,” Archer replied, and I lifted my head. “Everything except the doctor. If someone draws her blood, well, that would be problematic, especially given what’s going on.”

I stared at him. “Wait. My mom—”

“No.” Luc’s head whipped toward me. “You cannot contact your mom.”

My spine stiffened. “She could help us. At least give us the general idea of how to take care of Beth.” Once the idea popped into my head, I latched onto it. I was totally honest with myself. Some of the reason why it seemed like such a great idea was because I wanted to talk to her. I needed to talk to her.

“We already know what Beth needs, and unless your mom has the low down on how to care for pregnant hybrids, there’s not much more she can tell us that Google won’t.” Luc pulled his feet off the coffee table and they thumped on the floor. “And it will be dangerous to get in contact with your mom. Her phone could be monitored. It’s too dangerous for us and her.”

“Do you really think Daedalus gives two craps about us right now?”

“Is that something you want to risk?” Archer asked, meeting my gaze. “You willing to put all of us in danger, including Beth, all based on a hope they have their hands full? You willing to do that to your mom?”

My mouth screwed shut as I glared at him, but the fight leaked out of me like a balloon deflating. No. No, I wouldn’t risk that. I wouldn’t do that to us or to my mom. Tears pricked my eyes and I forced a deep breath.

“I’m working on something that will hopefully take care of the Nancy problem,” Luc announced, but the only thing I’d seen him work on was the fine art of sitting on his butt.

“Okay,” I said, voice hoarse as I willed the headache to go away and for the edges of bitter panic to recede. I had to keep it together, but that dark corner was looking better and better. “We need to get stuff for Beth.”

Archer nodded. “We do.”

Less than an hour later, Luc handed over a list of items he’d searched down on the internet. The whole situation made me feel like I was in some kind of twisted after-school special.

I wanted to laugh as I folded the piece of paper into the back pocket of my jeans, but then I probably wouldn’t stop laughing.

Luc was staying behind with Beth in case . . . well, in case something even worse happened, and I was going to go with Archer. Mainly because I thought it would be a good idea to get out of the cabin. At least it felt like I was doing something, and maybe—maybe going into town would give us some clues to where Daemon and his family had disappeared.

My hair was tucked up under a baseball cap that hid most of my face, so the chances I’d be recognized were slim. I had no idea if anyone would, but I didn’t want to take that risk.

It was late afternoon, and the air outside carried a chill that made me grateful I was wearing one of Daemon’s bulky long-sleeve shirts. Even in the heavily pine-scented air, if I breathed in deeply, I could catch his unique scent, a mix of spice and the outdoors.

My lower lip trembled as I climbed into the passenger seat and buckled myself in with shaky hands. Archer passed me a quick glance, and I forced myself to stop thinking about Daemon, about anything I didn’t want to share with Archer, which was pretty much everything right now.

So I thought about belly dancing foxes wearing grass skirts.

Archer snorted. “You’re weird.”

“And you’re rude.” I leaned forward, peering out the window as we traveled down the driveway, straining to see among the trees, but there was nothing.

“I told you before. It’s hard to not do it sometimes.” He stopped at the end of the gravel road, checking both ways before he pulled out. “Trust me. There are times when I wish I couldn’t see into people’s heads.”

“I imagine being stuck with me the last two days has been one of them.”

“Honestly? You haven’t been bad.” He glanced at me when I raised my brows. “You’ve been holding it together.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that at first, because since the other Luxen had arrived, I felt like I was seconds from shattering apart. And I wasn’t sure what exactly was keeping me together. A year ago, I would’ve freaked out and that corner would’ve been my best friend, but I wasn’t the same girl who had knocked on Daemon’s door.

I would probably never be that girl again.

I’d been through a lot, especially when I’d been in the hands of Daedalus. Things I’d experienced that I couldn’t dwell on, but the time with Daemon, and those months with Daedalus, had made me stronger. Or at least I liked to think they had.

“I have to keep it together,” I said finally, folding my arms around me as I stared at the rapidly passing pines. The needled branches all blurred together. “Because I know Daemon didn’t lose it when I . . . when I was gone. So I can’t, either.”

“But—”

“Do you worry about Dee?” I cut him off, turning my attention fully on him.

A muscle thrummed along his jaw, but he didn’t respond, and as we made the quiet trip into the largest city in Idaho, I couldn’t help but think this wasn’t what I really needed to be doing. That instead, I needed to do what Daemon had done for me.

He had come for me when I’d been taken.

“That was different,” Archer said, cutting into my thoughts as he turned toward the closest supermarket. “He knew what he was getting into. You don’t.”

“Did he?” I asked as he found a parking space close to the entrance. “He might have had an idea, but I don’t think he really knew, and he still did it. He was brave.”