The Brightest Night (Origin 3)

Even knowing what he was up to, he still managed to lead me right off the topic at hand. “All of that won’t matter if Dasher has a way to take control or if I lose it again and don’t come back.”

“You’re right,” he agreed. “When April used the Cassio Wave on you, it awakened your abilities, but it didn’t give control to her or Dasher. And in the woods, you may have been triggered and didn’t know who you were, but you weren’t attempting to get back to Dasher like a child called home, right?”

I thought about that. In the woods, I hadn’t been me, but I also hadn’t been a Trojan programmed to return to Dasher. I had been something … other. But who knows what I would’ve done had I succeeded in taking out Daemon and Luc? Would I have then gone on to attack the rest of the group, eventually returning to Dasher? I didn’t know.

We needed to figure out if that was the case, because if I were triggered again, we all needed to know what we were dealing with. Not only was I a danger in the physical sense once I went full super-villain, Zone 3 was chock-full of unregistered Luxen and more. That knowledge in the wrong hands would be deadly.

“You’re not going to betray the people here,” Luc said softly, cupping the back of my head with his hand.

He was reading my mind again.

“Sorry.” He grinned. “You were being loud then.”

“Look, we need to talk about all of that, too, but to get back on point, I know Eaton was thinking something you didn’t want me to hear. And I get you’re probably protecting me, but whatever it is, I need to know.”

Luc lifted our still-joined hands, pressing them to his chest, above his heart. My stomach took that moment to remind me and the entire world that I was still hungry, grumbling loudly. “Peaches,” he murmured, lips twitching. “What you need right now is food.”

“What I need right now is for you to stop being evasive.” And maybe a hamburger, but considering where we were, I doubted that would be on the menu anytime soon.

“You’d be surprised. There’s a lot of cattle here, and they have ice cellars and iceboxes,” Luc explained. “If you behave, I’m sure I can grill you up a juicy hamburger.”

My stomach was all about that idea. “If you don’t answer my question, I’m sure I’m going to punch you somewhere it will hurt you.”

“You’re so aggressive,” he murmured, dipping his head as he tilted me farther back. His breath danced over my lips when he spoke, sending a shiver through me. “I like it.”

My pulse kicked up, flushing my skin. “You will not like it. Trust me.”

He sighed even as he brushed his lips along the corner of mine. The breath I took caught as razor-sharp anticipation swelled, but he didn’t kiss me. “Eaton is just worried that you’re going to lose control.”

Although I wasn’t surprised to hear that, my shoulders still sank. “That’s not breaking news, so why did you react the way you did?”

Luc was quiet for a long moment. “Eaton has a way of thinking things.” He lifted his head. “He’s a paranoid old man. Not that he doesn’t have justifiable reasons for being just that, but his paranoia doesn’t need to infect you.”

Studying him, I wished the damn serum had given me the ability to read thoughts. Then again, not all Origins could do it. As far as I knew, only Luc and Archer could.

“As I told Eaton, there is no one like me.”

I glared at him. “I’m going to punch you.”

“I might like it.”

“There’s something wrong with you.”

“Maybe.” He started to lower his head, but I managed to evade him. Barely. If he kissed me, there’d be nothing but muddied thoughts and liquid bones.

“Eaton has a right to be paranoid,” I told him. “I may not return to Dasher like a programmed toy, but that doesn’t make me any less dangerous if I snap again.”

“Then we just have to make sure you’re not in a situation that can lead to you snapping.”

“We don’t even know what kind of situation will cause that.”

“I’m thinking someone trying to kill you is the kind of situation we need to avoid,” he reasoned.

“Uh, that would be great and all, but I have a sinking feeling with the Sons of Liberty out there and the Daedalus searching for me, that’s going to be a hard situation to avoid.”

Luc’s jaw tensed. “I will keep you safe.”

“I know you will.” I squeezed his hand. “But I also need to keep myself safe. And we need to keep others safe.”

He didn’t respond to that, so I pressed on. “And we really don’t know if that’s the only thing that will trigger it. You told Eaton you would help me get it under control.”