Jennifer Armentrout: Opposition

Wincing, I rubbed my temples. I hadn’t believed Dr. Roth when he’d told me how the Luxen were actually the cause of the war between them and the Arum—a war that had destroyed both of their planets. And I’d thought Sergeant Dasher and Nancy Husher, the head bitch in charge of Daedalus, were crazy freaks.

I’d been wrong.

So had Daemon.

Luc arched a brow as he coughed out a laugh. “Oh, I don’t know, might have to do with the very public spectacle we put on in Vegas. We know there were implants here, Luxen who aren’t that fond of humans. How they communicated with the Luxen not on this planet is beyond me, but is that really important now? This was the perfect moment to make an entrance.”

My eyes narrowed. “You said it was a brilliant idea.”

“I think lots of things are brilliant ideas. Like nuclear weapons, zero-calorie soft drinks, and blue jean vests,” he replied. “That doesn’t mean we should nuke people, or that diet drinks taste good, or that you should run out to the local Walmart and buy a jean vest. You people shouldn’t always listen to me.”

My eyes rolled so hard they almost fell out of the back of my head. “Well, what else were we supposed to do? If Daemon and the others hadn’t exposed themselves, we would’ve been captured.”

Neither of the guys replied, but the unspoken words hung between us. If we’d been captured, it would’ve sucked donkey butt and then some, but Paris, Ash, and Andrew would probably still be alive. So would the innocent humans who had lost their lives when everything went to crap.

But there was nothing we could do about that now. Time could be frozen for short periods, but no one could go back and change things. What was done was done, and Daemon had made that decision to protect all of us. I’d be damned if anyone threw him under the spaceship.

“You look exhausted,” commented Archer, and it took a moment for me to realize he was talking to me.

Luc turned those unnerving eyes on me. “Actually, you look like crap.”

Gee. Thanks.

Archer ignored him. “I think you should try to sleep. Just for a little while. If anything happens, we will get you.”

“No.” I shook my head just in case my verbal cue wasn’t enough. “I’m fine.” The truth was I was far from being fine. I was probably one step away from going to that dark corner in the room and rocking back and forth, but I couldn’t break down, and I couldn’t sleep. Not when Daemon was out there somewhere, and not when the whole world was on the verge of . . . hell, turning into a dystopia, like one of those novels I used to read.

Sigh. Books. I missed them.

Archer frowned, and it turned his handsome face a little scary, but before he could lay into me, Luc pushed off of the doorway and spoke. “I think she needs to go talk to Beth, actually.”

Surprised, I glanced at the stairwell in the hall outside the room. The last I checked, the girl had been sleeping. That was all Beth seemed to do. I was almost envious of her ability to sleep all of this away.

“Why?” I asked. “Is she awake?”

Luc ambled into the living room. “I think you two need some girl-talk time.”

My shoulders slumped as I sighed. “Luc, I really don’t think this is the time for girl bonding.”

“It isn’t?” He dropped onto the couch beside Archer and kicked his feet up on the coffee table. “What else are you doing besides staring out the window and trying to sneak past us so you can go off into the woods, look for Daemon, and probably get eaten by a mountain lion?”

Anger punched through me as I flipped my long ponytail over my shoulder. “First off, I wouldn’t get eaten by a mountain lion. Second, at least I’d be trying to do something other than sitting on my ass.”

Archer sighed.

But Luc just smiled brightly up at me. “Are we going to have this argument again?” He glanced at a stone-faced Archer. “Because I like it when you two get into it. It’s like watching a mom and dad have a marital disagreement. I feel like I need to go hide in a bedroom or something to make it more authentic. Maybe slam a door shut or—”

“Shut up, Luc,” Archer growled, and then he turned his glare on me. “We’ve been down this road more times than I care to even think about. Going after them isn’t smart. There will be too many of them, and we don’t know if—”

“Daemon is not one of them!” I shouted, jumping to my feet and breathing heavily. “He hasn’t joined them. Neither would Dee or Dawson. I don’t know what’s going on.” My voice cracked, and a swell of emotion rose in my throat. “But they wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t.”

Archer leaned forward, eyes glittering. “You don’t know that. We don’t.”

“You just said they’d be back!” I fired at him.

He didn’t say anything as he cast his gaze back to the TV, and that told me what I already knew deep down. Archer didn’t expect Daemon or any of them to come back.

Clamping my lips together, I shook my head so fast my ponytail turned into a whip. I turned away, stalking toward the doorway before we did get knee-deep in this argument again.

“Where are you going?” asked Archer.

I resisted the urge to flip him off. “I’m going to have girl talk with Beth, apparently.”

“Sounds like a plan,” commented Luc.

Ignoring him, I rounded the stairs and all but stomped up them. I hated sitting around and doing nothing. I hated that every time I opened that front door, Luc or Archer was there to stop me. And what I hated most of all was the fact that they could stop me.

I might be a hybrid, mutated with all that special Luxen goodness, but they were Origins, and they could kick my butt from here to California if it came down to it.

The upstairs was quiet and dark, and I didn’t like being here. Wasn’t sure why, but the tiny hairs on the back of my neck rose every time I came up here and walked down the long, narrow hall.

Beth and Dawson had commandeered the last bedroom on the right the first night here, and that’s where Beth had holed herself up since he . . . since he left. I didn’t know the girl well, but I knew she’d been through a lot when she was under the control of Daedalus, and I also didn’t believe that she was the most stable of all hybrids out there, but that wasn’t her fault. And I hated to admit this, but sometimes, she kind of freaked me out.

Stopping in front of the door, I rapped my knuckles on it instead of busting up into the room.

“Yes?” came the thin and reedy voice.

I winced as I pushed open the door. Beth sounded terrible, and when I got an eyeful of her, she looked just as bad. Sitting up against the headboard with a mountain of blankets piled around her, she had dark circles under her eyes. Her pale, waiflike features were sharp, and her hair was an unwashed, tangled mess. I tried not to breathe too deeply, because the room smelled of vomit and sweat.

I halted at the bed, shocked to my core. “Are you sick?”

Her unfocused gaze drifted away from me, landing on the door to the adjoined bathroom. It didn’t make sense. Hybrids—we couldn’t get sick. Not the common cold or the most dangerous cancer. Like the Luxen, we were immune to everything out there in terms of disease, but Beth? Yeah, she wasn’t looking too good.

A great sense of unease blossomed in my belly, stiffening my muscles. “Beth?”

Her watery stare finally drifted back to me. “Is Dawson back yet?”

My heart turned over heavily, almost painfully. The two of them had been through so much, more than Daemon and I had, and this . . . God, this wasn’t fair. “No, he’s not back yet, but you? You look sick.”

She raised a slim, pale hand to her throat as she swallowed. “I’m not feeling very well.”