Lost in Starlight (Starlight Saga) (26 page)

Hayden moves so fast, it’s almost a blur, and stands in front of me, shielding me from the barrel of the gun.

“Oops. I forgot all about the creepy boyfriend waiting in the car,” I say.

Hayden sighs. “That info could’ve come in handy sooner, Sloane.”

“Next time.”

He glances over his shoulder. “There’s going to be a next time?”

Darion’s face pales and his hand quivers around the handle of the weapon. “What the hell have you done to Tama?”

“Nothing that she didn’t deserve,” I say over Hayden’s shoulder.

“Shut up!” Tama yells from the floor, her hands still covering the bloody injury. “Shoot her, Darion!”

“Settle down, baby.” Darion squeezes the handle of the gun, his knuckles turning white. “And don’t even think about teleporting out of here, Hayden. No one’s faster than a speeding bullet,” he warns, and then glances at Tama. “You all right?”

“I’m fine. Just kill
her
,” Tama says with a soft moan. Her skin is ashen and sweat dampens her forehead. Her eyes close and her body goes limp. She sure doesn’t look fine. More like Tama’s already knocking on the grim reaper’s door.

“No, you’re not.” Hayden takes a cautious step forward. “Tama’s going to bleed to death if we don’t help her. No one else needs to get hurt, Darion. But if you murder Sloane, I’ll have no problem ending your life.”

“First get Tama help,” Darion says.

“She’ll get it soon enough.” Hayden’s body is coiled tight, his shoulders tense. “Just let Sloane go and we’ll talk.” He jerks his head at Tama. “If she doesn’t get to one of Sector Thirteen’s medical clinics soon, she’ll die…so you have a choice to make here, Darion.”

The air feels charged with hostility and apprehension. My gaze settles on Darion and the gun, my heart pounding.

Darion glances from Tama, lying in a pond of red, then back at us. The sleek weapon shakes in his outstretched hands. “Tell me what to do, baby.”

“Dammit, Darion! She’s dying.” Hayden rubs his nape as if to ease a pinch of tension in his neck muscles.

“Execute the human,” Tama whispers, her eyelids heavy.

Darion raises the weapon and points it at Hayden’s forehead. A kill shot. This is
not
the time to find out if my superhuman boyfriend is faster than a bullet. And even if he is, I’ll have to duck with my slower reflexes or I might be shot in the face.

“Move away from the human, Hayden,” Darion says. “Or I’ll kill you both.”

Hayden inches closer to our enemy, but I stay put. Not sure what I can do to help get us out of this colossal mess. My skin chills, as if my flesh misses Hayden’s warmth in the damp room. Our death chamber. Every muscle in my body tenses as the distance between us grows. If only I can find a way to make things right.

With a shaky turn, I scan the small room, noting the only escape is the doorway blocked by Darion and the gun in his hand.

“If I kill the girl, then we can all walk away from this, Cousin,” Darion says, his voice shaky. “We’ll dump her body and no one will ever have to know.”

Hayden closes his eyes for a second. I’m no mind reader, but I know what he’s thinking. He has one of two choices: kill his cousin or teleport us out of here and pray he’s fast enough to dodge a bullet.

“Wait!” I say. “Hayden, don’t do anything reckless, please. He’s right. If not Darion then someone else will come along and want to erase my memories. The hybrids won’t risk exposure.” I skirt past Hayden, slowly and warily until I’m standing in front of Darion. “Spare his life and take mine. Tell the others it was all my fault. And don’t let them hurt Hayden. Do we have a deal?”

Darion aims the weapon at my head, his finger hovering over the trigger. “You’d die for him?”

Stupid question.

I nod. “Yes. Please. Just do it.”

Tama leans up on one elbow. “You heard her. Kill the sub-human.”

Darion glances at her, and then says to me, “Get down.”

I drop to my knees and say a silent prayer. At least I’ll get to see Grandma again.

A rush of air and bluish light consume the room. Hayden teleports in a blinding flash of wind and power, and within an instant, he’s standing behind Darion. He knocks the gun from Darion’s hand. The weapon skids across the floor and crashes into the far wall safely out of reach. Hayden’s right arm snakes over his shoulder, and grips the back of his cousin’s head in a classic chokehold. His other arm comes over Darion’s left shoulder, reaches across his neck, and grabs his own forearm. He applies pressure while Darion thrashes his legs, but Hayden has him locked down tight. After a few seconds, Darion’s body goes limp and Hayden flings him facedown onto the cement floor. His head makes a dull cracking sound.

“No!” Tama is loudly blubbering and clutching her stomach.

Grabbing some rags in the corner that appear somewhat clean, I kneel beside Tama and press the fabric into her stab wound. “Hold these tight to slow the bleeding.”

With a glare, Tama melts into the icy concrete, holding the cloth over her injury. “I still hate you,” she mutters.

Hayden and I stare at each other, neither of us speaking.

“Great reflexes, Daryl Dixon,” I joke, and a small smile flits across his face at
The Walking Dead
reference. I pull away from him and glance over at Darion. “Is he dead?”

He moves closer to me, pulling my head against his chest, and I inhale the calming scent that is unique only to Hayden.

“No. Just unconscious. When he wakes up, he’s going to have one helluva headache.”

“What will happen to them?” I ask.

“Darion and Tama will be taken to a special prison for hybrids where they can’t teleport.”

“That’s it?” My blood begins to boil. Shoving Hayden away, my chest clenches painfully. “What the hell? They weren’t just trying to wipe my mind—they were going to blow my brains out!” I bite my lip, trying to control the sudden rush of anger that surfaces.

Hayden’s arms go around me tight. “That’s
not
our way, Sloane. Advanced species aren’t supposed to resort to murder. These hybrids have obviously gone rogue. Usually, the Brotherhood only erases the human’s memories. Not that that doesn’t suck…” He sighs. “Let’s go.”

“
Hel-lo!
Have you read my column?” I roll my eyes. “This is like a total gun cliché in scary movies. You cannot leave the firearm behind in the same room as the killer…or any type of sharp stabby weapon.”

He throws his hands up. “Okay! Okay! I see your point. We’ll take the Glock with us.”

“And the knife.”

He grabs the gun off the floor, pushes the safety back on, and tucks the weapon into the back of his pants. Then he picks up the bloody knife, wipes the blade off with a rag, and slips it into his back pocket. “Happy now?”

“Very.” I slightly relax and the tension in my shoulders dissolves. “But I’ll feel better if you give me the gun.”

Hayden jerks his head, looking at me quizzically. “Why?”

“I’m the
final girl
—duh. And I’m human, less evolved, and I’ll have no trouble shooting either of them, if they try to attack us again.” I reach around him and pull the gun out of his pocket.

I can feel the daggers Tama is visually throwing at me as I rise up on my tiptoes and briefly lock lips with Hayden.

He takes the weapon from my hands and puts it back into his pants, pulling his shirt over the gun. “You don’t need it. I’m here now. And
I’ll
feel better holding onto the gun. You might be the horror movie expert, but I’ve had some weapons training.”

“You continue to surprise me, Mr. Lancaster.”

“Right back at ya, Miss Masterson.” He kisses my forehead, and with one arm still securely around me, he slips his cell from his pocket and dials a number. Lifting it to his ear, he says, “Dixon, how soon can you get to the docks? We’re in the warehouse.” He listens to something the agent says, and then hangs up the phone. “The Calvary is on their way.”

“Goody. But can’t Darion and Tama just teleport and escape?”

“Not in their weakened conditions. And Sector Thirteen has the means to permanently restrain them.” He takes my hand, leading me out the door, and into the dim corridor of the warehouse. “We can wait out here.”

Still holding me close, I close my eyes and his mouth presses to mine feather-light. Hayden kisses me with uncertainty, his hands gentle on my waist as though I’m made of glass. He deepens the kiss, and it gets hotter and more intense. My mouth opens and his tongue lightly touches mine, causing the world to fall away. He tastes of exotic spices and cool peppermint. I wind my arms around his neck and pull him even closer until there’s not an inch of space between our bodies. Clinging to him, I kiss him with all the passionate emotions swirling inside my heart. I’m so happy that he’s alive and he still wants me that feelings of euphoria and lightheadedness strike hard. It’s another great movie moment, and this one lasts a good ten minutes. PG-rated, of course.

Maybe victims, especially the “final girl,”
can
have a happy ending.

I could stay in this cold, ugly place kissing him until my lips are swollen, but Tama’s loud whimpering is like cold water hitting me in the face.

Hayden pulls back. “Shit. Dixon and his team should be here soon,” he says. “We need to be careful for a little while longer until I can talk to Dixon alone. He still owes me a favor…”

While Dixon and three other special agents go inside the building to take Tama and Darion into custody, then to a secret hybrid prison, a grim looking Arcane enters the warehouse. While Hayden is explaining everything that went down to Dixon, Arcane grips my elbow and pulls me aside.

We step through the rollup metal door and into the brightness. The rising sun throws orange, gold, and yellow hues across the land. I turn back to look at the warehouse that was meant to be my tomb. Graffiti covers the derelict building. Broken windows peer down at us, just remnants of shattered glass in rotting wooden frames. A rickety dock lies to the north, water rippling beneath its legs. Two black SUVs, Hayden’s Range Rover, and a burgundy Lexus are parked near the doorway. Hayden must have driven over here and then teleported inside the warehouse to rescue me. Good thing, too. Not sure I could handle traveling that way again so soon.

“Sloane, I’d like to speak candidly for a moment if I may,” Arcane says.

“Go for it.” Like I really have a choice.

“The real reason my companions and I came to Winter Haven was because we had an anonymous tip that a rogue hybrid was in the area. He had married outside our species, and now we’re trying to track him down,” Arcane says with the calm voice of authority. “When we went to pay a social visit on the Lancasters, Zach told me his concerns regarding your relationship. After we spoke to Hayden about it, he assured us that you were only friends.”

Blood pounds in my temples. “And you believed him until you saw us at the club, right?”

“No, I noticed this look of yearning in his eyes long before that.”

“Then why didn’t you expose us?”

Arcane shrugs. “Because I’d hoped it would be short-lived.”

“But we’re the real deal. We care about each other.”

“That might be the case, but our rules are in place to protect ourselves as well as sub-humans,” he explains. “Did Hayden tell you that if a human is pregnant with a hybrid offspring, the mother dies in childbirth?”

“Yes, but how do you know it’s true?”

“I just do,” he replies firmly, then looks downward to adjust his shirt cuffs. “So, if you and Hayden entered into a sexual relationship and you were to accidentally get pregnant, it could have dire consequences for yourself and the child.”

A slight blush warms my face. If he starts giving me the “birds and the bees” speech, I’m going to feign a stomachache and go hide in Hayden’s car.

He clears his throat, one hand moving to rest on his chest. “Please consider doing the right thing and end the relationship before things become too serious. You’re still young, and you’ll find another man to love. One that can give you a real future and a family someday—”

“Whoa! I’m not even thinking about marriage or kids yet.”

“You’re almost eighteen, Sloane, and you
will
be contemplating these things sooner than you think. Don’t be selfish and ruin Hayden’s chance at happiness, too. If he disobeys our laws, then he becomes an outcast among our people.”

But I
am
that selfish. I want Hayden. He
is
my future. I might only be seventeen, but I now know with my whole heart and soul that Hayden is
The One.

“How can I give him up?” My voice sounds strange when I speak, thick and unsteady. “I-I care about him too much.”

“If you don’t, then the Galactic Brotherhood will have to erase your memories, but I’m giving you a choice here…I just hope you make the right one.”

No horrible shock therapy? No awful mind wiping? I get to keep my memories intact. For now. Must be my lucky day.

“Maybe someday things will change. Your laws will change,” I say.

Before Arcane can respond with more reasons why Hayden and I cannot continue dating, my secret boyfriend walks out of the warehouse. Hayden’s arm goes around my waist and I automatically lean into his side.

“Dixon is heading out now and I need to get Sloane home,” Hayden says.

Arcane puts a hand on Hayden’s shoulder and squeezes once. “I’ll meet you back at the house.” He faces me and says, “I am glad you’re all right, Sloane. And I trust you’ll keep our secrets intact?”

“Of course. I’d never tell anyone. You have my word,” I say.

“Well, then I guess I’ll just have to trust you as much as Hayden does,” Arcane says quietly. “I gave Hayden my word not to harm you, but I can’t say the same for the other members of the Brotherhood.”

“I understand…and thanks,” I say.

Dixon walks out of the warehouse and silently hands me my shoes and belt. He pulls Arcane aside to speak in hushed voices, nodding and glancing in my direction. After a few minutes, Arcane strolls to his Lexus and drives away. The other agents escort Darion, restrained in titanium handcuffs, to one of the SUVs and put him into the backseat. They bring an unconscious Tama out on a stretcher and load her into the back of the other vehicle.

Agent Dixon marches over to us. “Sloane, can we count on your discretion?”

“
Yes
,” I say, putting extra stress on the word. “What do you guys want me to do? Write it in blood?”

Dixon taps his chin as if considering it. “Not just yet.” He cracks a small smile. “But if the rest of the hybrid clan hears about your
friendship,
I can’t promise you that they won’t take drastic measures to keep their secrets intact. Do you understand?”

I nod my head. “Got it. I talk and they mind-erase me.”

Dixon looks quizzically at me and nods mutely. He shakes hands with Hayden, and then gets into one of the SUVs while the other agents get into the other. Both vehicles burn rubber out of there, leaving Hayden and me alone.

“Cheer up, Peaches. We survived.” Hayden smiles and opens up his arms for a hug. “Who needs some alien lovin’ right now?”

Like the ending of some epic drama, I look up at Hayden with a tearstained face and go into his arms. I kiss him, melting soft. As cheesy as it sounds, it’s just like in the movies when the music swells through a big crescendo. For that single moment, time stops and there’s only the two of us with his mouth pressed to mine. A kiss that I feel straight down to my toes. My entire being quivers from the deep, slow kisses infused with passion and promise. Our eyes flutter closed, both of us enjoying the moment. Hayden’s other hand tangles in my hair, cradling my head. The kiss deepens and warmth spreads throughout my body. Hayden’s lips part and his tongue moves against mine. His hands wrap around my waist and mine lock around his neck. He pulls me hard against his chest, as if he can’t get me close enough and his long kisses become scorching and fierce. I slip my hands under his shirt and run my fingers down his back. Hard muscles under firm, warm skin. Mmmm. He kisses me thoroughly as if savoring it for the rest of his life. It seems like we haven’t been alone together in weeks, even though it’s only been days, and from the frantic touch of his hands and lips, I can tell he feels the same way.

Finally, he pulls back, smoothly extricating himself by removing my arms from around his neck. His face is flushed, his lips swollen. “I’m falling in love with you, Sloane…you’ve snuck into my heart in a way no other girl ever has before.”

“I’m falling hard for you, too,” I whisper.

“And I’m so sorry about everything. I know this is worse than hell, and I hate that I’ve dragged you into all this stupid hybrid politics shit—”

“Hayden—”

“Because you deserve so much more. More than all this sneaking around and almost getting killed. Don’t you understand? I—”

“Hayden,” I repeat, but he still zips past my words.

“I’m going to make this right.” He kisses the top of my head. “I don’t know how yet, but I will. One way or another.”

Suddenly, the distance between us feels like a deep ocean of unspoken words.

Hayden and I get into the Range Rover, and he drives the speed limit for a change. My purse sits near my feet. Thankfully, Hayden thought to bring it with him when he came to my rescue. I check my phone and there are a hundred messages from Viola and Tanisha asking where I am and why I abruptly left the club. I’m too exhausted to explain, so I send them both a brief text saying I’m fine and with Hayden. Then I take out a tissue and clean up my face.

We stay quiet, just holding hands and listening to the radio while
Thirty Seconds to Mars’s
“Stay” plays softly in the background. The song is so heartbreakingly beautiful and perfectly reflects our relationship.

As we turn the corner, I spot a dirty Taurus parked in front of my house. Devin. Terrific.

“I wonder what he wants,” I mumble.

“Don’t worry. I’ll go with you.”

“Nah. I can handle him. Go home and get some sleep. Smooth things over with your parents.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yup. My family is inside the house and its broad daylight. What harm can he do?”

“Okay. I’ll call you later.” He leans across the console and kisses me hard on the mouth.

I slip from the SUV and straighten my spine. Showtime.

The minute Hayden’s vehicle pulls away, Devin opens his car door and gets out.

“Hey, Sloane.” He looks me up and down. “What happened to you?”

“I’m tired and grumpy and it’s been a long night, Devin. What do you want?”

“Is that blood on your shirt?”

Shit. I glance down at my clothes. “No. I spilled fruit punch on myself.”

Devin is quiet for a moment, then his brown eyes narrow and his lips pull downward at the corners. “Did you two spend the night together?” he asks accusingly. “How could you, Sloane?”

My jaw clenches. “It’s not what you think.” There’s no need to explain myself to him, anyway, so I ask, “Why are you even here?”

“I need those notes on Hayden and the hacker story today,” Devin says, clearly out of patience.

My heart lurches, but I can’t look away from his resolute gaze. “I already told you that there’s nothing to tell.”

“Well, if you’d been doing your job, then you would know that’s not true.” Devin wears a smug grin and I want to punch him in the face. “I went through Haven High’s computer tech’s files, and it confirmed that the system
had
been hacked. And the evidence leads back to Hayden Lancaster. So, I did some digging, and get this, his parents somehow managed to bribe the school board into not expelling him because Hayden’s dad is some bigshot lawyer.”

Crap. Crap. Crap!

I shuffle over to the porch and plop down on the top step, setting my purse next to me. I’m drained and exhausted and achy all over. I just want to curl in bed with Jinx and sleep for two days. But I need to get rid of Devin first.

I rub my eyes and yawn. “You can’t run the Lancaster story, you’ll get into trouble, and you might even embarrass the school. If someone was bribed, there’s no way they’ll approve the article. Principal Allen is super nice and she’s not going to like—”

“Who cares? This is the biggest scandal we’ve had in years! And I don’t
need
their approval if I run the story without telling them.” He rocks back and forth on his heels. “Now please, Sloane, give me your notes.”

The front door opens, and my mom pokes her head out. “Sloane? You’re home from Viola’s already? Is everything all right, honey?”

“Fine. Couldn’t sleep, so I asked Hayden to bring me home. He just dropped me off.”

“That was nice of him. But it’s barely eight o’clock.”

“He’s an early riser,” I say.

She glances from me to Devin with raised brows. “And who’s your friend?’

“Mom, this is the editor of the school paper, Devin Greenspan. He stopped by to talk about an article that I’m working on. I’ll be inside in a minute.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” Devin says with a toothy smile.

Gag me.

“You too,” my mom says, then looks at me. “If you’re going to stay out here, Sloane, at least come in and put on a jacket. It’s chilly this morning.”

I hadn’t even noticed the brisk air until she mentioned it.

“I’ll be right back,” I tell Devin and follow my mom inside the house. On the coat rack near the door hangs my warm Hell Bunny Sofia coat. I slip it on and button up.

With a resigned sigh, I head back out to convince Devin to drop the article and go home. But when I step outside, he’s in his car and driving away.

At least I’d won
that
battle without getting myself drugged, kidnapped, and almost killed.