Origin (Lux #4)(41)
Author: J. Lynn

“All right, family bonding time aside, anyone who gets into one of these cars outside is in it for the long haul,” Paris said, shaking a set of car keys. “If you even think you’re not ready to put your life on the line for everyone here, then you stay behind. If you screw us out there, I will end you.” He flashed a rather charming smile. “And I will probably enjoy it.”

Daemon cut him a dark look but said, “I second that.”

“I’m already in it this far,” Andrew said, shrugging. “Might as well go all the way.”

Everyone looked at Ash.

“What?” she said, tucking short strands of hair behind her ears. “Look. If I didn’t want to take part in this craziness, I would’ve stayed home, but I’m here.”

She had a point, but I wanted to ask why she or Andrew would risk everything when they weren’t fans of Beth or me. Then it hit me. It wasn’t about us. It was about Daemon and Dawson—it was about family.

I could get behind that.

We hurried toward the front door, but at the last second, I grabbed Daemon’s arm. “Wait a minute! I need to go upstairs.”

Archer whirled around. “Whatever it is, we can leave it. It’s not important.”

“Daemon…” My fingers dug in. I assumed everyone else had their IDs. I didn’t know, but we needed our papers. We had to have them.

“Shit.” He got what I was talking about. “Go ahead outside. I’ll be faster.”

Nodding, I darted around him and rejoined Archer. “Really?” he growled in a low voice. “Those papers are that important.”

“Yes.” We didn’t have rings. We didn’t have a certificate under our real names and, yeah, it wasn’t real, but we had that license, our fake IDs, and right now those things meant everything. They were our future.

Dawson already had Beth loaded in the backseat of an SUV. Ash and Andrew were climbing in with them.

“Go with them,” I told Archer, knowing he’d keep them safe. “We’ll go with Paris and Luc.”

Archer didn’t hesitate. He intercepted Dawson and got behind the wheel. “You want me driving in case stuff goes down. Trust me.”

Dawson didn’t look convinced, and in that moment he was an exact replica of his brother, but he did something Daemon pretty much never did. He didn’t argue. Just got in the passenger side and shut up.

A second later, Daemon appeared behind me. “They’re in my back pocket.”

“Thank you.”

We climbed into the Hummer, Paris behind the wheel and Luc in the front. Luc twisted around as we slammed the doors shut. “Sorry about Matthew,” he said to Daemon. “I know you were close. He was family. That sucked. But people do sucky things when they’re desperate.”

“And dumb,” Paris muttered under his breath.

Daemon nodded as he settled back against the seat. He glanced at me and lifted the arm closest to me. I didn’t hesitate. Heart aching something fierce, I scooted over and pressed against his side. His arm came around me, his fingers digging into my arm.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered to him. “I’m so sorry.”

“Shh,” he murmured. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”

There was a lot to be sorry for. Things I couldn’t really even wrap my head around as we peeled out of the driveway. And the other things, like the fact that Daedalus was most likely en route right now? Yeah, I couldn’t think about that. Panic was already simmering inside, wanting to sink its claws in me. I’d be useless freaking out.

The gate up ahead wasn’t opening. Daemon held on tight as Paris didn’t break. He plowed through the metal gate.

“Good thing we’re in a Hummer,” Luc said.

Daemon reached for the seat belt. “You really should be wearing this.”

“What about you?” I let him buckle me in the middle seat.

“I’m harder to kill.”

“Actually…” Luc drawled the word out. “I’m probably the hardest thing to kill.”

“Special snowflake syndrome strikes again,” Daemon muttered.

Luc snorted as Paris hit breakneck speed on the narrow road, Archer close behind us. “Did Daedalus ever show you their neatest weapon?”

“They showed us a lot of things,” I said, lurching sideways as Paris hit a curve.

“How about that special gun of theirs?” Luc put a foot up on the dashboard, and I hoped the airbag didn’t deploy anytime soon. “The one that can take out a Luxen with one shot—the PEP? Pure Energy Projectile.”

“What?” My stomach dipped as I glanced back and forth between Luc and Daemon. “What kind of weapon is that?”

“It’s some kind of energy pulse that disrupts light waves—high tech. Kind of like onyx, but much worse.” Daemon’s brows lowered. “I didn’t see it, but Nancy told me about it.”

“It’s an electromagnetic weapon,” Luc explained. “And it’s very dangerous to anything around it. If they break it out, they aren’t messing around. The damn thing will disrupt signals and can even hurt humans since the brains, lungs, and heart are all controlled by low-voltage electricity. The Pulse Energy Projectile isn’t fatal for humans in a low frequency, but it is catastrophic to our kind at any frequency.”

Ice drenched me. “One shot?”

“One shot,” Luc repeated gravely. “You two probably have nothing to worry about, since they want you alive, but you need to realize that if they bring out the big guns, people are going to die.”

I froze, unable to drag in a breath. More people would die. “We can’t let that happen.” I twisted toward Daemon, going as far as the seat belt let me. “We can’t let people die because—”

“I know.” Daemon’s jaw set with determination. “We can’t go back, either. We just have to get out of here before we need to worry about anything like that.”

My heart pounded in my chest as I glanced at Luc. He didn’t look so convinced. I knew Daemon was trying to reassure me. I appreciated that, but guilt piled on top of the terror. If anyone died…

“Don’t,” Daemon said quietly. “I know what you’re thinking. Don’t.”

“How can I not think about that?”

Daemon didn’t have an answer. The creeping terror was like an endless hole, growing in size as we neared the teeming city at dusk. The red and blue neon lights of the billboards and flashing lights were harsh instead of welcoming.

Traffic had ground to a halt south of the Boulevard, an endless stream of vehicles that was more parking lot than road.

“Well, shoot.” Paris smacked his hands on the steering wheel. “This is inconvenient.”

“Inconvenient? Understatement of the year.” Daemon gripped the back of his seat. “We need to get out of traffic. We’re sitting ducks here.”

Paris snorted. “Unless you have a hovercraft in your back pocket, I don’t see how I’m supposed to get us out of here. There are side roads we can take, but they’re farther down this road.”

With shaky fingers, I unbuckled the seat belt and scooted forward until my knees pressed against the center console. A quick glance back confirmed that Archer was there. “Why isn’t the traffic moving at all? Look.” I pointed. The line of cars heading out of the city stretched all the way from the Caesar’s Palace sign and down. “It’s completely stopped.”

“There’s no need to panic yet,” Paris said. A cheerful smile crossed his face. “It’s probably just an accident or a nak*d person running through traffic. It happens. We’re in Vegas, after all.”

Someone outside laid on a horn. “Or the more likely scenario is that they have the traffic blocked at the interstate exit. I’m just saying,” I said.

“I think he’s trying to look on the bright and stupid side of things, Kitten. Who are we to bring a dose of reality into the mix?”

Running my sweaty palms over my thighs, I started to respond when a hushed sound caught my attention. Leaning back, I peered out the passenger window. “Oh, crap.”

A black helicopter flew over the city, incredibly low. It looked like the whirling blades would clip a building at any second. It could be any helicopter, but I had a sinking feeling that it was Daedalus.

“I’m going to check this out,” Luc said, reaching for the door. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

Luc was out of the Hummer and slinking around cars before any of us could respond. Irritation flashed across Daemon’s face. “Do you think that was smart?”

Paris laughed. “No. But Luc does what Luc wants. He’ll be back. He’s good like that.”

A soft knock on the back window caused me to jump out of my skin. It was only Dawson.

Daemon rolled the window down. “We got problems.”

“Figured. Traffic not moving at all? Not good.” Dawson leaned in. As always, seeing them together was a little disconcerting at first. “Luc up there?”

“Yeah,” I said, pressing my hands between my knees.

Someone behind Dawson, in the other lane, whistled. He ignored it.

Luc returned. As he climbed into the Hummer, he tugged his loose hair into a stubby ponytail. “Guys, I have bad news and I have good news. What do you want first?”

Daemon’s knuckles turned white from where he was gripping the seat. I knew he was about two seconds from smacking one of the guys up front. “I don’t know. How about you start with the good?”

“Well, there is a barricade up the road about a mile in. That gives us some time to think of something.”

My words came out hoarse. “That’s the good news? What in the hell is the bad news?”

Luc grimaced. “The bad news is they got, like, a SWAT team moving up the line of cars, checking each one, so the time to make a decision is sort of limited.”

I stared at him.

Daemon made a masterpiece out of F bombs. He pushed back from the seat, rocking the car. A muscle flexed in his jaw. “This is not how we’re going to go down.”

“I would like to think it’s not,” Luc replied. He looked out the front window, shaking his head slowly. “But even I’m thinking the best case is to ditch the cars and run.”

“Run where?” Dawson asked, eyes narrowing. “There’s nothing but desert on either side of Vegas, and Beth—” He pushed off the car, thrusting his fingers through his hair. “Beth can’t run for miles. We need another plan.”

“You got one?” Paris quipped. “Because we’re all ears.”

“I can’t.” Dawson dropped his hand to the window. “If you guys want to run, I understand, but Beth and I will have to hole up somewhere here. You leave—”

“We’re not splitting up,” Daemon cut in, his voice sharp with anger. “Not again. We all stay together, no matter what. I have to think of something. There has to be something…” He trailed off.

My heart skipped. “What?”

Daemon blinked slowly, and then he laughed. I frowned. “I have an idea,” he said.

“Waiting.” Luc snapped his fingers.

Daemon’s eyes narrowed on the kid. “You snap your fingers at me and I’ll—”

“Daemon!” I shouted. “Focus. What’s your idea?”

He turned to me. “It’s risky, and it’s completely insane.”

“Okay.” I pulled my hands free. “Sounds like something you’d come up with.”

Daemon smirked, and then his gaze focused on Luc. “It’s something you said before. About their strength being in the fact that no one knows about them—no one knows about us. We change that, we get the upper hand. They’re going to be too busy doing damage control to look for us.”

My brain hardly digested that. “Are you suggesting that we expose ourselves?”

“Yes. We go out there, and we make the hugest scene possible. Get the humans wound up. Create a big enough scene to cause a diversion.”

“Like at Area 51? Except this time…” This would be epic and completely uncontrollable.

Dawson smacked his hands down on the side of the Hummer, earning an outraged look from Luc. “Then let’s do it.”

“Wait,” Paris said.

Ignoring him, Daemon reached for the door handle. There was a series of clicks, and Daemon got nowhere. He turned a stunned look on Paris. “Did you just hit the childproof locks on me?”

“I did.” Paris threw his hands up. “You need to think about this first.”

“We don’t need to think about anything,” Dawson said. “It’s a good enough plan. We cause enough chaos, we should be able to slip out.”

Luc leaned over his seat, on his knees. His amethyst eyes fixed on the brothers. “Once we do this, there’s no going back. Daedalus will be even more pissed and gunning for us.”