Chapter 23
While Yorro, Fyrow, Lanzar, and Eilee headed outside, the rest of the gang crowded in the kitchen.
“It’s good to see you again, friend,” Kinzer said, shaking Treycore’s hand before giving him a hug.
“You too,” Treycore replied.
Kid enjoyed seeing them at ease with one another. That certainly wasn’t the way they’d acted around each other the first time Kid had met Treycore—when Trey was an ass to Kinzer in that strip club. That was when Kid had first felt that attraction to Treycore…so powerful…so intense…so inexplicable.
“Come here, Kid,” Kinzer said. He pulled away from Trey and wrapped his arms around Kid, offering a friendly, sincere, and much-needed hug. “God, I was worried about you, you feisty motherfucker.”
“You and me both,” Kid assured him before they pulled away.
Hayde approached him. In a leather jacket, open, revealing his sexy physique. He had a five-o’clock shadow, his hair was a mess, and even though he had some bruises and welts on him that made him look like he’d taken a good beating or two, he was still sexy as fuck. He just looked tired.
But he figured Hayde and Kinzer hadn’t gotten much sleep since that day at the mansion. He felt bad for Hayde, who had held Maggie in his arms as she took her last breath, begged him not to tell anyone about her death. He wondered if Hayde had kept that secret or told Kinzer the truth.
As Kid shook Hayde’s hand, he noticed an odd expression on Hayde’s face, like he wanted to tell Kid something. Kid’s eyes flashed to a collar around Hayde’s neck, something he’d noticed when he’d first seen him come down the stairs after Eilee had attacked Treycore.
He was going to ask about it, when Kinzer announced, “Now that we’re all together, we need to strategize. Just so everyone’s on the same page, Hayde has the intel that can get us into a tower Janka created, where he and the Christ are hiding. It’s not far from here, which is why Quintz chose this place for us all to meet. We’ve heard about the monsters—grundars—that are already starting to attack mortals, so I assume we’re all in agreement that we need to get there and take him on sooner rather than later. But I think it’s safe to say that we need to know what we have to work with, and since Quintz’s supposed Antichrist bomb isn’t an option, we have to make do.”
Aerysn was eyeing a blond who wore glasses, the one Kid had heard someone call Quintz. He was standing on the other side of the kitchen table. Since he was the only one Kid hadn’t recognized, he assumed that was the contact Aerysn had referred to.
“Wait. You don’t have the weapon?” Treycore asked. “You mean all this fucking work, and we don’t have shit on Janka?”
“I wasn’t entirely honest about that,” Quintz said. “We actually do have the weapon here. Kinzer, I lied to you about the weapon being at our facilities. And, Treycore, you’ve had the weapon with you for far longer than you’ve realized.”
His gaze shifted to Kid, who wondered why he was looking at him like that.
“It’s you, Kid.”
Kid’s mouth dropped open. “What the fuck?” pushed past his lips.
Maybe this Quintz guy they’d been with wasn’t so trustworthy after all. Or maybe he had the same issues as Eilee—he’d lost his mind. That had to be the only explanation for why he’d said that.
Kid looked to Aerysn, waiting for him to contradict his supposed contact, but he stared at Kid, serious as ever, not like he objected or was surprised by the news at all.
“Have you guys been drinking the same water as Eilee or something?” Kid asked.
“He’s right, Kid,” Aerysn said.
“’Scuse you?” Treycore asked, balling his hands into fists, as though the news was about to have him slinging punches. He draped his arm over Kid’s shoulders before saying, “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, but you better clarify this real fucking quick before I start kicking some asses.”
Quintz explained, “Aerysn was sent into the Nest not to retrieve you, but Kid. He’s our secret to winning this war.”
Suddenly, Aerysn’s motive for helping him made so much more sense. Why he was there for Kid. Why he protected him rather than Treycore.
Kinzer tensed his jaw. “That stupid thing you showed me back at your hideout?” Kinzer directed his words at Quintz. “What was that?”
“It was a bomb from the War,” Quintz explained. “Not at all related to the Antichrist, though. Just a decoy to keep the secret. Kinzer, we had to keep this under wraps for as long as possible. You can’t imagine how sensitive this information is.”
“Well, I think some answers right now would be nice, after every fucking thing we’ve been through.”
“We always intended on giving you answers,” Quintz said. “We just needed to wait to make sure we were all together. I told you we have to keep secrets, and this is one we’ve had to keep for a very long time. Aerysn and I were the early engineers on the Antichrist project, which was designed to put an end to the Christ. We’d seen the Almighty’s plans, obtained them through some incredible intel. We saw His designs, His plans for it. It was a monster that would generate enough of those grundars to annihilate all the mortals on Earth.”
“And,” Aerysn added, “to combat this, we created a weapon that could destroy it. Designed a series of Antichrists that would be easily disguised as mortals. We placed them on Earth, in women who wouldn’t be able to figure out the child wasn’t their own. Kid was one of these weapons. His design was—”
“You keep talking about him like he’s some machine,” Treycore said, “and I’m going to kick your fucking asses.”
