“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.”
“But it will give us time to get away,” Daemon argued. His pupils were starting to glow. “Or do you have a problem with cutting them off at the knees?”
“A problem?” Luc laughed. “I think it’s brilliant. Honestly, I’d love to see the looks on their faces when there are Luxen walking around on the evening news.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Dawson demanded, giving a quick glance to the line of cars ahead. There wasn’t any movement yet.
Luc smacked the back of the seat. “You all just need to be sure about what you’re planning to unleash. It’s not just Daedalus, but the entire Luxen community that is going to be upset. Me? I’m all about causing a rebellion—and this will be a rebellion.”
“There are others,” Paris added quickly. “They will use this for their own benefit, Daemon. They will take advantage of the chaos.”