The Brightest Night (Origin 3)

“Talk about what? He’s supposed to be dead. He needs to be dead, and there is no way in hell he’s not going to be.” A white glow emanated from Daemon as he stalked down the steps. “There’s nothing to discuss.”

Luc stepped in front of the clearly enraged Luxen. “You need to calm down.”

“You need to get out of my way.”

“I’m going to ignore that, because I get it. You’re mad. You have every right to be mad, but we need to know how he’s alive.”

“Right now, I don’t care. Whatever he tells us cannot be trusted.” Daemon was losing hold of his human form. “You know that, Luc. None of us can trust him.”

“I’m not suggesting anyone does.”

Daemon looked to the side, the light flaring around him. He started to turn from Luc, but spun back. “Do you have any idea what he’s done to Kat? Do you?”

“I know enough,” Luc said quietly. “But we need to talk to him. We need to know how he ended up here and what he’s up to. He recognized Evie. He was with her while she was at the Daedalus. We need to learn what he knows.”

“What part of I don’t care do you not understand?” Daemon growled.

“I’m not asking you to care, but before you kill him, I need to talk to him,” Luc reasoned, and a shudder rolled through me. “He can’t lie to me.”

That was the wrong thing to say.

Daemon’s head swung back to Luc as the Source pulsed around him. Fine hairs raised all over my body as he said, “And he’s never been able to, has he?”

Blake’s words came back to me, and my knotted stomach sank even further as Daemon continued, “You always knew what he was—what he was going to do.” He stepped into Luc, and I saw Grayson peel away from the shadows of the porch. “You knew Blake was going to betray us, but you needed access to those serums. We were just your delivery system. He killed Adam, Luc. He’s killed others, but you don’t care. Because only she mattered, right?”

“As if you wouldn’t have done the same if you were trying to save Kat’s life.” Luc didn’t even deny it.

“You know damn well I would’ve,” Daemon admitted. “But that’s not what happened.”

“The Daedalus would’ve gotten their hands on you with or without me.” Luc’s pupils started to glow. “But with me, I had you both protected as much as I could on the inside, or are you conveniently forgetting that?”

“Your protection only went so far, Luc. They tortured Kat!” Daemon shouted, and lightning streaked across the sky. “They used her to force me to mutate others. They cut her open, Luc. The things she saw still wake her up in the middle of the night.”

“And for that, I will never forgive myself,” Luc said, and it was then that I realized all the humans, including Heidi, had been shuffled inside. Only those with some sort of alien DNA remained outside.

“But you wouldn’t change a damn thing, would you?”

“No,” he admitted, and I closed my eyes.

“Those serums didn’t even heal her.” Daemon sounded astonished.

“Those serums gave her at least a few more months!” Luc yelled, and I saw a crack of lightning behind my closed eyes. “They gave her enough time to be healed. If you all hadn’t gotten them, she would be dead.”

A bitter taste filled the back of my mouth as I opened my eyes. I’d known that Luc had put Daemon and Kat in jeopardy in his attempts to save my life. Daemon had told me as much. Back then, I hadn’t known how to really process that, and right now, all I could feel was horror. I hadn’t known what they’d done to them. I had ideas, terrible ones, but I never really knew.

Zoe appeared to my side, curling her hand around my arm. She tugged on it, but I couldn’t move. It really hit me like a hundred-ton truck that I was the reason they’d been captured by the Daedalus. It didn’t matter if the Daedalus would’ve gotten to them eventually. It happened then because of me.

Because of Luc.

And now, it was me again that was going to cause Daemon and Kat more pain.

“And if she had died, she wouldn’t have ended up in the hands of Jason Dasher, going through God knows what while being turned into something designed to kill us all,” Daemon shot back. “You did that, Luc. Congrats.”

I sucked in a sharp breath, and Luc simply moved too fast. His fist slammed into Daemon’s jaw. The Luxen’s head snapped back, but he didn’t fall. Dawson shouted, but it was too late.

“Stop it!” I yelled.

They crashed into each other like freight trains. Each of them landed a blow before both went down, Daemon on top for half of a second before Luc flipped him, fisting Daemon’s shirt.