Origin (Lux 4)

Suddenly, Kat’s chin jerked up, and she sprang to her feet, racing around a tall man in a military uniform. The next second, she hit the floor. I stared in open horror as Kat withered, and then one of the men unhooked a water hose from the wall.

Nancy flicked a button, and there was a different image. It took me a second to recover from the last scene and get what was going on now, but when I did, pure, red-hot rage lit me up.

On the screen were Kat and freaking Blake, squaring off. She whirled, grabbing for a lamp, but he darted in front, blocking her. When she swung on him, pride swelled in me. That was my Kitten, claws and all.

But the next thing had me searching for a way out of the room. Blake had intercepted her punch, twisted her arm, and swung her around. Pain registered on Kat’s face, and then he had her down on her back, pinned to the bed.

I saw red.

“This isn’t happening now,” Nancy said calmly. “This was a while ago, when she first arrived. It’s muted.”

Breathing heavily, I turned back to the TV. They were struggling, and Blake had obviously overpowered her. She was still fighting, though, her back bowing and her body twisting under his. Violence rose in me, powered by potent rage and a level of helplessness I’d never felt before, and it tasted like Blake’s blood. My hands formed fists, and I wanted to smash them in the monitor, since his face wasn’t in front of me.

When he had pulled her off the bed, and I saw him dragging her across the floor and off the screen, I spun toward Nancy. “What happened? Where did he take her?”

“Into the bathroom, where there are no cameras. We do believe in some sort of privacy.” She clicked something and the video fast-forwarded a couple of minutes, and Blake entered from the right. He sat on the bed—her bed—and Kat appeared a few seconds later, absolutely soaked.

I stepped forward, exhaling out of my nose. Words were exchanged between them, and then Kat whirled, opened a dresser, and grabbed clothes. She disappeared back into the bathroom.

Blake dropped his head into his hands.

“I’m going to f**king kill him,” I promised to no one in particular, but it was one I was going to keep. He would pay for this—all of this—one way or another.

The soldier cleared his throat. “Blake isn’t an issue anymore.”

I faced him, breathing raggedly. “Care to tell me why?”

He pressed his lips together. “Blake’s dead.”

“What?”

“He’s dead,” the guy repeated. “Katy killed him two days ago.”

The floor felt like it dropped out from underneath me. My first response was to deny it, because I didn’t want to believe that Kat would have had to do something like that—that she had to go through it.

The monitor was turned off, and Nancy watched me. “The reason I’m showing you this isn’t to upset you or to make you mad. You need to see with your own eyes that Katy has proven to be dangerous.”

“I have no doubt in my mind that if Kat really did do that, she had a reason.” My heart thudded in my chest. I needed to see her. If she had done this… I couldn’t bear to think about what she had to be going through. “And I would’ve done it, too, if I were in her shoes.”

Nancy tsked softly, and I added her to my Going to Die Painfully list. “I hate to think of you as being unstable, too,” she said.

“Kat isn’t unstable. All these videos show is her defending herself, or that she was scared.”

Nancy made a sound of disagreement. “Hybrids can be so unpredictable.”

I met her gaze and held it. “So can Luxen.”

Chapter 10

Daemon

They let me clean up in an empty communal area. At first I didn’t want to waste the time. I needed to get to Kat, but they weren’t giving me much of a choice, which turned out to be a good thing because I looked like something straight out of the mountains. The growth on my face was out of control. After a shave and a quick shower, I put on the black sweats and white shirt that had been left behind. Same standard uniform they had used years ago. Nothing like dressing everyone the same to make them feel like a nameless face in a crowd of nameless faces.

It was all about control and keeping everyone in line when I’d been here before. To me it looked like Daedalus was no different.

I almost laughed when realization kicked in. It probably had always been Daedalus running the show, even when I’d been assimilated here so many years ago.

When the guard returned, it was the tool from earlier, and the first thing he did was check the plastic razor for the blade.

I cocked an eyebrow at him. “I’m not that stupid.”

“Good to know,” was the reply. “Ready?”

“Been.”

He stepped aside, allowing me back into the hallway. As we headed to another elevator, he was glued to my hip. “As close as you’re riding me, man, I feel like I need to take you out to dinner or something. At least I should get your name.”

He punched in a floor. “People call me Archer.”

My eyes narrowed. There was something about him that reminded me of Luc, and hell if that boded well. “Is that your name?”

“That’s what I was born with.”

The dude was as charming as…well, as me on a bad day. Flipping my gaze to the red number on the elevator, I watched it steadily go down. My gut twisted. If Nancy was screwing with me and Kat wasn’t here, I was about to find out.

I didn’t know what I’d do if she wasn’t. Probably go insane.

I couldn’t stop what came out of my mouth next. “Have you seen her—Kat?”