The Darkest Star (Origin 1)

I couldn’t help it. I thought about what Chas had said to me, and look where I was?

“What did Chas say to you?”

My head swung in his direction. It took me a moment to process the question. “You’re reading my thoughts!”

He stepped toward me. “You were practically screaming them at me.”

I shot up from the couch. “You shouldn’t do that, Luc. Seriously.”

“Okay. I’m sorry. My bad, but he . . .” His head tilted to the side. “He told you to stay away from me?”

I threw up my hands, feeling terrible that Luc now knew what Chas had said to me. I wasn’t even sure why I felt bad about it. “Obviously you know that answer.”

“What the hell?” he muttered, thrusting his hand through his hair.

Crossing my arms, I stared at him. “Do you happen to know why he would say that to me?”

He dropped his hand. “Not exactly, but I’m going to find out.”

“I don’t think he was trying to start something—”

“You don’t know him well enough to make that assumption.”

“And I don’t know you well enough to know if I should’ve listened to him,” I snapped back.

Luc was quiet for a moment. “But I think you do. You’re here. Are you regretting that?”

“I . . .” How could I answer that? I sat back down. “I don’t know. Some really crazy stuff has been happening and I make bad life choices.”

His lips twitched and the line of his jaw softened. A moment passed. “The next time someone says something like that, tell me.”

“You think it’s going to happen again?”

“I hope not.”

“Well, you seemed busy, and I—”

“Didn’t want to get Chas in trouble? And no, I’m not reading your thoughts to pick up on that.” He sighed as he pulled his phone out of his back pocket and placed it on the kitchen counter. “Chas won’t be in trouble. You don’t need to worry about that. He and I will just have a chat.”

“You really have no idea why he’d say that to me?”

Luc was quiet for a long moment. “Do you know what I’m doing here?”

I had a good idea of what went on here. “Uh, well, I guess you’re hiding Luxen—unregistered Luxen.”

“I’m not just hiding them. I arrange for them to leave, to go someplace safe. The guys who were here on Saturday? Daemon and Archer? They help transfer the Luxen.”

“So ‘the package’ is the unregistered Luxen?” I rubbed my palms over my bent knee. “Why . . . why are you moving them someplace safe? Does it have to do with the changes the president wants to make to the registration program?”

“I think you know that history has proven that anytime a certain group of people has been placed in their own communities, bad things come from that.”

History had proven that. Knots twisted up my stomach. “Do you think it will go through? Those changes?”

“I think anything is possible when the public is being fed nothing but fear,” he said, and I thought about Colleen and Amanda. What had happened to them surely wasn’t helping how humans viewed Luxen. “We want to be prepared for if and when those changes are implemented.”

I stopped moving my hands and clenched my knees. “How can I help?”

Luc’s brows lifted in surprise. “You want to help Luxen?”

Did I? “The Luxen have been here forever, right? Most of them just want to live their lives like we do.” I thought about what my mom had said. “And there’re bad Luxen just like they’re bad humans. That doesn’t mean all of them are bad.”

“Right,” he murmured, tilting his head.

“And I . . . I don’t want to be on the wrong side of history, you know?” I felt my cheeks warm.

Those odd eyes fixed on mine. “You can help by doing what you’re doing. Keeping what I am a secret. Keeping what I do here a secret.”

I thought there was way more I could be doing. “I’d never tell anyone about this.” I lowered my gaze and thought of something. “Do the task forces know what you are? Do they know about Origins?”

“Very few do. Higher-ups? Yes. The ones who do the raids? Most likely not.”

I was weirdly reassured about that and I didn’t want to look too closely at the whys. “So, something went wrong with the moving of the Luxen?”

He nodded. “Someone tipped off the task force. They were ambushed. The family you saw? They were captured.”

“God.” My stomach twisted. I didn’t like the fact that the dude had choked me, but it sucked hearing that they had been captured. “What about Daemon and Archer?”

“They got away. They’re actually on their way back here, since they need to lie low before they attempt to go home.”

“And it’ll be safe for them to come here?” I asked. “You guys were raided.”

“I’d rather shoulder that risk than their homes be jeopardized.”