Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy (71 page)

“Who are you?” I inched closer. He couldn’t have been more than three or four years old. His hair looked brown in the dim light and his skin was extremely fair.

The child glanced up at me and I flinched when our gazes
met.

His eyes were different colors. I couldn’t tell which colors,
exactly, in the poor lighting, but one was darker than the other. I could see that much.

“Solus is shy,” Lucy replied, grinning. “But he showed me pictures.”

Solus?

I was confused by what she had just said, and then I was even more confused by how calm she was acting, despite his nakedness. She’d always been very intelligent and composed for her age, though.

“Showed you?” I leaned closer to her but kept my eyes locked on the frail little boy. “How? How did he show you?”

Kareena stood beside us, watching from the edge of the bed.

The boy brought a hand toward my face and I drew back.
He
froze, hand hovering midair, and stared at me. His expression was gentle. Inquisitive. I was more confused than fri
ghtened. Unnerved by the soft white glow that radiated from the boy before Kareena had switched on the lamp.

I didn’t feel threatened by him now that I could see that he was, presumably, human.

Still…

“It’s okay,” Lucy said, taking me by the hand to coax me closer. “Don’t be scared.”

I held my breath and leaned closer to the boy,
permitting his fingers to rise toward my brow again. Three fingertips
pressed against my temple and everything around me vanished.

Chapter 8

T
he Solus Child.

That’s what the Saviors had been calling him.

Solus’ fingers lifted away from my temple and the room came back into view.

“David?” Kareena came up beside me and set her hand on my shoulder. “There’s something I need to tell you. Right now.”

“I think I already know,” I whispered.

Solus had showed me everything.

He was the only one of his kind, the only true hybrid—the authentic offspring of two Fluorescent Ones. He also showed me what should have been his twin sister, the one
who died early on in development upon exposure to the virus.

“This is wrong
!” Kareena exclaimed, her fingernails
starting to dig into my skin. “I don’t know how the hell they did it, but I can see it in him. In his face. His color. Holy shit.” She threaded her fingers through her hair and tangled them together at the back of her head. “This is so damn wrong. Brian and Alice are going to—”

“Calm down, Kareena,” I grabbed her by the wrist when she paced past me.

“Don’t you get it!?” She pointed toward the wall separating our room from Brian and Alice’s. “This kid is theirs!”

“Shh.” I gently tugged her closer. “I know. Now stop
freaking out or you’re going to scare the crap outta the poor kid.”

Solus watched us with widened eyes until Lucy reached over to cup her hands around one of his. His face veered toward her.

“It’s okay,” she said softly. “Don’t be afraid.”

Somehow, I didn’t think he was afraid
.
Confused like the
rest of us, maybe.

“How did you survive?” Kareena asked, her voice wavering. “We thought you were dead—that the Saviors exposed you to the disease and you…”

Solus lifted his free hand up toward Kareena’s face and she gasped, staggering back. “What does he want from me?” Her wrist wriggled and worked its way out of my grasp. “David?”

“It’s okay, Kareena,” I said, adjusting my hold on her so I could try to bring her nearer to the bedside, toward Solus.
“
He only wants to show you what he knows
. He already showed me and I’m fine. Just let him touch you for a moment.”

Kareena glared at me like I was crazy, and the
judgmental crinkle in her brow made me feel like she didn’t trust
me as much as I had hoped. But she conjured up some
courage, swallowed hard, and approached Solus. She bent slightly
at the waist and let him move his hand up until his pale fingertips made contact with her left temple.

I watched closely, expecting some kind of light or aura
to be emitted from the point of contact, but nothing changed
—that I could see. Seconds later, Kareena pulled away.

“Jesus!” Her jaw dropped and she backed up and flopped
down onto the edge of her bed. “What the hell kind of freaks
would do something like this!? What
the hell were they thinking?” Then her gaze shot toward me. “Did he show you everything?” she asked, exasperated. “Did he show you what those sick bastards did to Alice and Brian?”

I shook my head. “The only things I saw in the visions
were of Solus, his twin, and the Saviors.” I saw enough to put
two and two together, but nothing more. “Why? What happened?”

“About a year ago,” Kareena started, “I saw a new color inside of Alice—bright turquoise. Which meant…”

Mixed colors. That made sense to me. Like the flame-red our own fluorescence made when we…

“So they slept together,” I replied with a shrug. “So?”

“Actually, they hadn’t… at the time. The Saviors wanted
Alice and Brian to, well, hook up and make some kind of GMO
baby. And when they didn’t, the Saviors stepped in and…”

“Impregnated her?” My stomach started to feel uneasy.

“Yes. But things changed. The Saviors kept screwing with
us and they ended up taking the fetus out of her after a few months. It was exposed to the disease and…”

“That’s insane.” I glanced at Solus, who was now being introduced to a coloring book by Lucy. The tilt of his head as she tried to explain her connect-the-dot work to him convinced me the kid had never touched a marker in his life.

“I mean, they kind of thought they were actually going
to have a baby together,” Kareena added, looking down at her lap.
“Then shit happened. She was pretty messed up for a while after that.”

Brian, too, no doubt. I know how it feels to have a child snatched away from you.

“Who wouldn’t be?” I replied.

I flexed my fingers, made a fist, and knocked lightly on the hotel door.

I heard movement, then a slow turn of the deadbolt lock.
My heart jumped into my throat and the pounding in my chest made my breath shudder.

The door opened.

“David?” Brian’s half-open eyes looked up at me. “Wh-what is it?”

“We need you to come to our room. There’s something we need to talk to you about.” Thinking of Solus put my stomach
in knots. I didn’t know Brian nearly as well as the others, but I knew him well enough to predict how much this was going to tear his heart open. “Bring Alice, too,” I added. “Please.”

Like it had happened yesterday, I recalled exactly how I
felt the moment I realized Lucy was my baby girl. She filled a place in my heart I never even knew was empty, and I learned to
love her with all of my heart and soul. Then I remembered how pissed off, scared, confused, and hurt I was, too. How, at the time, I couldn’t begin to imagine what life with a kid might be like for a guy like me.

“Oh, okay,” Brian muttered, cocking an eyebrow.

“Alice,” he turned and called to her. She came shuffling up
beside him and he opened the door wider so she could see me.

“Come with me, please,” I said softly to her. “Just… try to stay
calm.”

At this point, I noticed Brian’s adrenaline beginning to
kick in as his expression became more alert. His eyes opened
wider. His posture straightened.

“Calm?” Brian repeated.

“You’ll understand soon,” I added, then turned and headed back to the others.

Solus was sitting with Lucy at the far end of the room, looking out the window at the night sky. As I approached, he turned toward me and blinked a few times.

“Come with me,” I said.

I offered him my hand and he studied it for a moment. His grasp was feathery soft, like a baby’s. Gentle. Warm. I led him to the other side of the room where Brian and Alice stood. Kareena remained tucked off to the side, watching in silence.

“Who is that?” Alice asked, taking a few steps in front of Brian.

Solus let go of my hand and walked up to her, his
colorful irises sparkling with awe. He tipped his head and blinked
some more, narrowing his eyes in deep study. Then a look of surprise erupted across his face and he gasped.

The sight made my heart skip a beat.

Alice knelt down in front of him and lifted her fingers
toward his cheek, sweeping a lock of his unkempt light-brown hair away from his eyes and over his ear. The two stared at each other for several moments. Silent. Unmoving. I held
my breath in anticipation of her next words. I think Brian did, too.

Solus raised a hand toward her brow and pressed three fingertips against her unflinching temple.

Alice snapped her eyes closed and grunted, then her eyes opened and she took in a deep, trembling breath.

She turned. Tears glistened in her eyes. The reaction sent
Brian dashing to her side.

“Alice?” He came down onto his knees and looked at the boy. “What is it?” He glanced at Alice and then at Solus. Alice covered her mouth with her hands and started weeping more heavily, hunching over, burying her face behind a curtain of her hair as she sobbed.

“Alice?” Brian tried again, but she only kept crying into her hands, ignoring him. “Tell me what’s going on. Please!”

Alice turned her head and muttered something to Brian. I could barely read her lips as she said it.

“Oh my God.” Brian sat back on his heels. “How? How the hell? I thought…” His breaths hastened.

The pain on his face got to me, making my eyes burn
with sympathy. I knew exactly what he was feeling right then
and there. My own heart pulsed with memories of the day I found Lucy.

I glanced at Kareena, who was looking off to the side, uncomfortable, and upset, too. Her short, fleeting breaths were a sign that she fighting back her own emotions.

Solus reached out to take Brian’s head into his hands, his slender fingers weaving into Brian’s hair. He pulled him into an embrace, wrapping his arms around Brian’s neck.

Brian softened into the hug and embraced him back, bringing his arms around Solus. Alice shuffled closer and threw her arms around the two of them, tears still pouring from her eyes.

This time, I heard the muffled words come from her mouth.

“He’s ours,” she murmured, and sucked in another labored breath.

“I… know,” Brian replied, his voice breaking.

I knew the Saviors were keeping secrets from us, but for
them to hide something so important—so incredibly personal
and monumental—from these two was beyond comprehension. I could only begin to imagine the anger and confusion welling up inside Brian and Alice as they discovered the truth about what the Saviors had done.

Solus: the son they didn’t know they had.

Chapter 9

A
lice wiped tears from her cheeks. “I don’t understand. If he’s ours—which we both know he is,” she said, glancing at Brian, “why is he so big already? He’s more than a year old, right?” She looked at me for an answer.

“Oh, yeah,” I replied with a nod. “He’s definitely at least three. Maybe four. I can’t tell.”

“It’s the time difference,” Brian said. “I don’t know what it is, exactly, but I remember back when I was with the Jamesons.” He looked at me. “They were a temporary foster
family I was with while Alice’s mom, Jane, tried to get custody
of me after my mom, well, tried to kill herself.”

I grimaced. “Christ. I didn’t know you’d been through something like that, too.” Kareena shot me a curious look. “I mean… Nothing. Sorry. Go on.”

I didn’t feel like sharing.

My father died from a mid-life crisis—he committed suicide.

Makes you feel like absolute shit, that’s for sure—when you lose someone that way. Especially when it happens a few days before you’re able to introduce them to their new grandchild.

“When I was with them at breakfast one morning,” Brian
continued, “the Saviors abducted me and then threw me back down minutes later, but it had literally only been about a second. The Jamesons didn’t even notice I had disappeared. So…
if they can do that, maybe time passes differently there.
So much that if Solus were raised with them, it would explain
why he’s a lot older than he would be if had remained down here with us.”

“I second that theory, actually,” Kareena interjected. I
focused my attention on her as she continued. “That happened
to me back at the hotel.” She looked sheepishly toward me. “
That, uh, morning… after… um, the earthquake. We were talking and I spaced out. You know what I’m talking about, David. Right?”

“Oh? That was them?” I remembered that morning vividly,
because it was the morning after we’d hooked up. When we were talking, she froze for a second or two and then
came back. I thought she was just lost in thought, but apparently not.

“Whatever the reason,” Brian interrupted, “we both know
who he is.”

“
Yeah.” I turned around. Lucy and Solus were on the other side of the room on the bed. Lucy had fallen back to sleep on my
pillow and Solus was sitting up beside her, forking his fingers through her long black hair as if he were stroking a kitten’s fur. I couldn’t understand how the kid had grown fond of my little girl so quickly. He seemed very gentle for a boy his age. Typically, they’re running around, day or night, looking for trouble as soon as they are old enough to walk.

Solus had an almost angelic calmness to his demeanor. The way his hand drifted over Lucy’s hair and he cocked his head curiously as he watched her sleep.