Opal (30 page)

“Is he…” I caught myself. “Is he from around here?”

Dee bit down on her lip. “He’s a freshman at Frostburg. She met him at the mall in Cumberland a few weeks back.”

But that didn’t answer the question burning to be asked. Was he human? Dee must’ve read what I was dying to know in my eyes, because she nodded and grinned.

I almost dropped my soda.

Holy country roads take me home, because this was an alternate reality if Ash was going to prom with a human—a subpar, ordinary old human.

Ash rolled cerulean eyes. “I don’t know why you guys are staring at me like you’re on the wrong side of special.” She popped another fry into her mouth. “I would never go to the prom alone. For example—”

“Ash,” Dee said, eyes narrowing.

“I went with Daemon to the prom last year,” she went on, and my stomach twisted into knots, which was made worse by the secretive smile that graced her full lips. “That was a night I’ll never forget.”

I wanted to punch her.

Taking a deep breath, I forced a smile. “Funny because Daemon hasn’t mentioned that night.”

Ash’s eyes flashed in warning. “He isn’t the kiss and tell type, dear.”

My smile turned brittle. “
That
I know.”

She got my message and that conversation was thankfully dropped and Dee started talking about some TV show she was watching, which somehow sparked another argument between Ash and Lesa over who was the hottest guy on the show. I’m pretty sure those two would argue over the color of the sky.

I took Lesa’s side.

In the car ride back, Lesa turned to me. “So, are you and Daemon getting a hotel room or anything?”

“Uh, no. Do people really do that?”

Lesa leaned back and laughed. “Yes. Chad and I are getting one at Fort Hill.”

In the front passenger seat, Ash snickered.

“What are you doing, Ash?” Lesa asked, her eyes sharpening. “Planning to stay at prom and beat up the prom queen?”

Ash laughed in her seat but said nothing.

“Anyway,” Lesa drawled. “You and Daemon haven’t done it yet, right? Prom—”

“Hey!” Dee shrieked, startling us. “I’m sitting here, remember? I don’t want to hear about this.”

“Neither do I,” Ash muttered.

Oblivious to them, Lesa stared and waited. There was no way I was answering that question. If I lied and said yes, I’d scar Dee for life and if I told the truth, I was sure Ash would go into a detailed synopsis of their past sexual activities.

Finally Lesa dropped it, but it was all I thought about thanks to her. I sighed, staring out the window. It wasn’t like we weren’t ready. I guess. I mean, how do you know you’re really ready? I don’t think anyone seriously does. Sex wasn’t something you could plan. It either happened or it didn’t.

Getting a hotel room with the expectation of having sex? Hotels were so…so skeevy.

Part of me wondered if I’d been living in a cave or something, but I hadn’t. At school, in-between classes, I’d heard other girls talking about the things they hoped and planned to happen after prom. I’d heard guys talking, too. But I had my mind on other things, I supposed.

And who was I to judge? A few days ago I’d really believed the reason Daemon wanted to come over to my house afterschool was to…do it. But heck, at the rate we were going, we’d be fifty before anything like that happened.

Pushing the whole subject out of my mind by the time we got home, I said goodbye to Lesa and even Ash. I couldn’t wait until I saw this human college boy.

Dee and I were left alone.

She started toward her house while I stood there like an idiot, unsure of what to say. But she stopped and then turned around. Her lashes were lowered as she fidgeted with the edges of her hair. “I had fun today. I’m glad you came.”

“Me, too.”

She shifted her weight. “Daemon’s going to love that dress.”

“You think?” I lifted up the garment bag.

“It
is
red.” She smiled, taking a step back. “Maybe before prom we can get together and get ready…like with Homecoming?”

“I’d love that.” My smile spread so fast I bet I looked a little crazy.

She nodded, and I wanted to run up and hug her, but I wasn’t sure if we were there yet. With a little wave, she spun around and headed up her porch. For a moment, I stood there with my dress and let out a happy sigh.

This was progress. Maybe things would never be like they were, but this was really good.

Heading inside, I hugged my dress bag close and kicked the door shut. Mom had already left for work, so as I took my dress upstairs and hung it on my closet door. I wondered what I was going to make myself for dinner.

Pulling out my cell phone, I sent Daemon a quick text.
What R U doing?

He responded a few moments later.
With Andrew & Matthew, getting dinner. Want smthing?

I glanced at the bag, recalling how flirty the dress was. Feeling naughty, I texted him:
You
.

The response was lightning quick, and I laughed.
Really?
And then,
Of course, I alrdy knew that
. And before I could respond, my phone rang. It was Daemon.

I answered, grinning like an idiot. “Hey.”

“I wish I were home,” he said, and a car honked. “I can be there in seconds.”

Heading down the steps, I stopped and leaned against the wall. “No. You rarely get guy time. Stay with them.”

“I don’t need guy time. I need Kitten time.”

My face flushed. “Well, you can get Kitten time when you come home.”

He grumbled and then, “Did you get a dress?”

“Yes.”

“Will I like it?”

I smiled and then rolled my eyes when I realized I was twirling my hair. “It’s red, so I think so.”

“Hot damn.” Someone yelled his name—sounded like Andrew—and he sighed. “Okay. I’m going back in. Want me to pick you up anything? Andrew, Dawson, and I are going to Smoke Hole.”

I thought about the hamburger I just ate. I’d be hungry later. “Do they have chicken fried steak?”

“Yes.”

“With homemade gravy?” I inquired, starting back down the steps.

Daemon’s laugh was husky. “The best gravy around.”

“Perfect. I want that.”

He promised to bring me home a hungry man’s portion and then hung up. I went into the living room first and dropped my cell on the coffee table. Then I swiped up one of the books I’d gotten this past week for review and headed to the kitchen for something to drink.

Flipping over the book, I read the blurb and had to slow down because I almost walked into a wall. Laughing at myself, I stepped through the doorway and looked up.

Will sat at the kitchen table.

Chapter 32

The book slipped from my lifeless fingers, falling to the floor. The
smack
reverberated inside me, all around me. I sucked in a breath but it got stuck around my heart pounding off my ribs.

My eyes had to be deceiving me. He couldn’t be here. And he couldn’t look the way he did. It was Will… It was but it
wasn’t
. Something was dreadfully wrong with the man.

Will sat hunched over the table with his back to the fridge. The last time I’d seen him, his dark brown hair had been thick and wavy, with a hint of gray at the temples. Patches of his skull shone under a thin layer of mousy hair now.

Will… Will had been a handsome man, but this man who sat before me had aged dramatically. His skin was sallow and drawn tight across his face. No fat or form whatsoever, and he reminded me of the skeleton decorations used to scare children at Halloween. Some sort of rash affected his forehead, looking like a blotch of raspberries. His lips were incredibly thin, as were his arms and his shoulders.

Only his eyes were what I remembered. Pale blue, full of strength and determination, they fixed on mine. Something else sharpened them. Resolve? Hatred? I wasn’t sure, but what shone deep in them was more frightening than staring down a horde of Arum.

Will let out a dry, painful-sounding laugh. “I’m a sight for sore eyes, aren’t I?”

I didn’t know what to do or say. As scary as hell as it was that he was here, he was in no shape to do a thing to me. That gave me a little confidence.

He sat back against the chair; the movement looked like it hurt and winded him.

“What happened to you?” I asked.

Will stared back a long moment before sliding a hand over the table. “You’re smarter than that, Katy. It’s obvious. The mutation didn’t hold.”

That
I got, but it didn’t explain why he looked like the crypt keeper.

“I did plan on coming back here after a few weeks. I knew the sickness would be rough—I knew I needed time to get control of it. Then I’d come and we’d be one big, happy family.”

I choked. “There would be no way I’d let that happen.”

“Your mother wanted that.”

My hands curled into fists.

“It seemed to hold at first.” A cough racked his frail body and I almost expected him to topple over. “Weeks went by and the things I could do…” A weak, brittle smile split his dry lips. “Moving objects with a wave of my hand, running miles without breaking a sweat…I felt better than I ever had. Everything had fallen into place just like I planned, just like I
paid
for.”

My horrified gaze flickered over his sunken chest. “Then what happened to you?”

His left arm twitched. “The mutation didn’t hold, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t change me on a cellular level. Something I’d wanted to prevent ended up being…propelled by the mutation. My cancer,” he said, lip curling. “My cancer was in remission. The statistics of a complete recovery were high, but when the mutation faded, this…” He waved a weak hand around himself. “This happened.”

I blinked, stunned. “Your cancer came back?”

“With a vengeance,” he said, laughing that terrible, fragile laugh. “There’s nothing that can be done. My blood is like a toxin. My organs are failing at an abnormal rate. Apparently, the whole theory of cancer being linked to DNA may have some basis to it.”

Each word he spoke seemed to exhaust him and there was no doubt he was one step, maybe two, away from death. Reluctant sympathy flooded me. How crappy was it that everything he’d done to secure his health had ultimately led to his death?

I shook my head. Irony was such a witch. “If you had just left everything alone, you’d be fine.”

His eyes met mine. “You want to rub that in?”

“No.” And I really didn’t. If anything, I was sickened by this. “It’s just sad, really sad.”

He stiffened. “I don’t want your pity.”

Okay. I crossed my arms. “Then what do you want?”

“I want revenge.”

My brows shot up. “For what? You brought this on yourself.”

“I did everything right!” He slammed his fist down on the table, rattling it and surprising me. Well, he was stronger than he looked. “I did everything right. It was him—Daemon. He didn’t do what he was supposed to.”

“He healed you like you wanted.”

“Yes! He healed me! And that gave me a temporary mutation.” Another fit of coughing stole his words. “He…he didn’t mutate me. What he did…was he gave himself what he wanted and enough time for him to think he got away with it.”

I stared at him. “The whole healing and mutation thing isn’t an exact science.”

“You’re correct. The DOD has dedicated entire organizations to discovering how a successful hybrid is created.” No big announcement there. “But Daemon is the strongest. There was no reason why it wouldn’t have held.”

“There’s no way of knowing what would’ve happened.”

“Don’t pretend that you don’t know,” he spat. “That punk knew what he was doing. I saw it in his eyes. I just didn’t know what it meant then.”

I looked away and then faced him. “There has to be a true want behind the healing for it to work. Anything else won’t do the job…or at least that’s what we’ve learned.”

“That’s mystical BS.”

“Is it?” My gaze drifted over him. Yeah, I was being a bitch, but he locked me in a cage, tortured me, and had slept with my mom to get what he wanted. I felt sympathy for the guy, but in a twisted way, he’d gotten what he deserved. “Sure doesn’t seem that way.”

“You’re so cocky, Katy. The last I saw of you, you were screaming your head off.” He smiled again, his head wobbling on his neck.

And there went my sympathy. “What do you want, Will?”

“I told you.” He stood awkwardly, swaying to the left of the table. “I want revenge.”

I arched a brow. “Not sure how you’re going to pull that off.”

He placed one hand on the counter, supporting himself. “This is your fault—Daemon’s fault. I made a deal. I held up my end of the bargain.”

“Dawson wasn’t where you said he was.”

“No. I had him released from the office building.” His smug smile came off as a grimace. “I had to give myself more time to get away. I knew Daemon would come after me.”

“No. He wouldn’t have, because he really didn’t know if it worked or not. If so…” I stopped.

“We’d be joined, and there’d be nothing he could do?” he supplied. “That’s what I hoped.”

I watched him place a hand on his bony hip, all at once grateful that Mom would never see him like this. Will would remind her of Dad. Part of me felt like I should help Will sit down or something.

He bared yellow teeth. “But you two are joined, right? One life split into two. One of you dies, so does the other.”

I snapped to attention. My stomach lurched.

He caught my reaction. “If I had to pick what I’d want to accomplish here, it would be to make him suffer, to live on without the thing he cherishes most, but…he’s not going to die instantaneously, right? He’ll know—and those seconds of him knowing…”

His intentions sunk in slowly. A buzzing filled my ears and my mouth dried. He wanted to kill us. With what? His evil-eye power?

Will pulled a gun out from underneath his loose shirt.

Oh, yeah, that would do it.

“You can’t be serious,” I said, shaking my head.

“I’m as serious as they come.” He took a breath, and his chest rattled a death sound. “And then I’m going to sit here and wait for your pretty mom to come home. She’s going to see your dead body first and then she’ll see the business end of my gun.”

My heart tripped up. Ice water slipped over my skin. The buzzing roared now. Like a switch being thrown inside me, something else took over. It wasn’t timid, gullible Katy who followed him into a car. It wasn’t the one who stood in the kitchen seconds ago feeling sorry for him.

This was the girl who stood before Vaughn and watched the life seep out of him.

Maybe later I would be bothered by how quickly the change came over me. How easy it was for me to go from the girl who’d just bought her prom dress and flirted with her boyfriend to this stranger who now occupied my body, ready to do anything to protect those I loved.

But right now, I didn’t care.

“You’re not going to hurt Daemon. You’re not going to hurt me,” I said. “And you are sure as hell not going to hurt my mother.”

Will lifted the gun. The metal looked too heavy for his feeble hand. “What are you going to do, Katy?”

“What do you think?” I took a bold step forward, my brain and mouth propelled by this stranger. “Come on, Will, you’re smart enough to figure it out on your own.”

“You don’t have it in you.”

Calmness settled over me, and I felt my lips spread into a smile. “You don’t know what I’m capable of.”

Up until then, I hadn’t known what I was capable of, not truly, but seeing Will, staring down the barrel of that gun, I knew exactly what I
was
capable of. And as wrong as it may be, I was okay with what I was going to have to do.

Completely accepting of it.

There was a part of me that was scared of how easy that acceptance was and I wanted to cling to the old Katy, because she would’ve had a problem with this. She would’ve been sickened by this and the words I was saying.

“You do look a little ill, Will. You might want to get checked out. Oh, wait.” I widened my eyes innocently. “You can’t go to a regular doctor because even though the mutation
obviously
didn’t stick, I’m sure it changed you and you can’t go to the DOD, because that would be like suicide.”

The hand around the gun trembled. “You think you’re so smart and brave, don’t you, little girl?”

I shrugged. “Perhaps, but I do know I’m completely healthy. What about you, Will?”

“Shut up,” he hissed.

Stepping next to the kitchen table, I eyed the gun. If I could distract him, then I could take him out. I really didn’t want to test the whole stopping-a-bullet theory.

“Just think of all that money you paid, and it didn’t even work out in the end,” I said. “And you’ve lost everything—your career, your money, my mom, and your health. Karma’s a tool, isn’t it?”

“You stupid bitch.” Spittle flew from between his chapped lips. “I’m going to kill you, and you’ll die knowing that your precious freak will be dead, too. And then I’m going to sit here and wait for your mother to come home.”

My humanity clicked off. I was
so
done with this.

Will smiled. “Where’s your smart mouth now?”

My gaze dropped to the gun, and I felt the Source soar over my skin. My fingers splayed, their tips already tingling. Drawing in the power, I focused on the gun. His hand shook again. The muzzle of the gun swayed to the left. The trigger finger twitched.

Will’s throat spasmed as he swallowed. “What… What are you doing?”

I lifted my gaze, and I smiled.

His bloodshot eyes widened. “You—”

I waved my hand to the left and several things happened next. There was a popping sound, like a cork being pulled from a champagne bottle, but the sound and everything else was lost in the roar of electricity that flowed outward and then the gun flew from his hand.

It was like a bolt of lightning—pure and raw.

The stream of whitish-red light arced across the room, slamming into Will’s chest. Maybe—maybe if he wasn’t so ill, it wouldn’t have done much, but the man was weak and I wasn’t.

He flew backward, bouncing off the wall next to the fridge, his head flopping on his neck like a rag doll. He made no sound as he hit the floor in a boneless heap. That was it—it was over. No more wondering about Will or where he was, what he was doing. This part of our lives was closed.

My house is like the killing fields
, I thought.

I exhaled and something—I don’t know, something went wrong. Air was stuck in my throat, in my lungs, but when I dragged in a breath, there was this burning pain I hadn’t noticed before. But as the Source receded back into me, the burning grew across my chest, spread over my stomach.

I looked down.

A red inkblot had formed on the pale blue shirt and it spread…larger and larger, an irregular circle that bled.

I pressed my hands against the circle—it was damp, warm, and sticky. Blood. It was blood—my blood. My head swam.

“Daemon,” I whispered.