Two minutes earlier she had barely been able to stand, and now she was moving like a … Daelighter. My head hit something hard as I was shoved into a car, and in the next breath we were screeching away.Shit.So much for stalling them. We’d expected a human to be taking me out, and instead I got…
Light rippled across my mom’s skin; it started to jiggle … like Jell-O, before it split, tears spreading across all the surfaces I could see. I almost vomited as she literally shed her skin, ripping it off in large chunks and throwing it out the window, all the while managing to keep the car on the road.
Within thirty seconds, my mom was gone and another woman was in her place.
Still not the weirdest thing to have happened to me in the last week.
“Who are you?” I asked, trying to place the shaved-headed woman before me. She was clearly a Daelighter … House of Imperial probably. Heavily muscled, with thin lips that were pressed together as she glared at me.
She tilted her head in my direction, expression almost bored. “I’m no one of concern.”
The bomb was gone now, too. It must have been part of her illusion. Dammit. She tricked me … I’d thought for a second my mom was alive. I’d thought I could still save her. All of that hope crashed down. I bit my lip to stop a whimper escaping.
“Get back in your seat,” the woman snapped. “Laous wants you in one piece, and I’m going to be driving fast.”
Reaching out, I snagged the belt and yanked it down just as she pressed her foot to the floor. Whatever car we were in, it was heavily modified, moving at racecar speed. “Where is my mom?” I asked, fearing the answer.
Imperial bitch just laughed. “Stupid, grubber. Your mother is dead, she’s been dead since the first time Laous grabbed her. Heart gave out and she died before we could get anything useful from her. I shaved off some skin, so we could use her cells to build a skinsuit, because Laous knew we might need her as incentive, but other than that … she was left down in Louisiana. I believe she was cremated as a Jane Doe.”
Everything inside of me went cold and numb, like I’d just been sliced with a blade, but the pain hadn’t kicked in yet. I’d toyed with the idea that my mom was dead, but I guess I never truly believed it. Because I couldn’t believe it. She was my mom.
God, Mom, I am so sorry.There was some comfort in knowing she didn’t die horribly in an alien torture chamber. That had been one of my greatest fears. Thinking of her suffering had been killing me. And maybe later, when I came to terms with what happened, I’d be able to smile at her getting one up on the aliens. Dying before they could touch her.
Laous still managed to use her, though, even in death. He really didn’t have to bother. It could have been anyone wearing that bomb and I would have left. I didn’t walk out of that school just to save my mom. I walked out to save everyone. All of the Daelighters, the innocent humans. Every single person in there.
I didn’t ask any more questions. I stared out the window and tried my best to track our path, all the while praying Daniel was behind us somewhere. I didn’t recognize any landmarks, but it looked like we were heading out of the town. It was all trees.
Daniel’s face remained a burning beacon in my mind, the memory of our kiss strong. Being away from him was making me feel weak and clammy, my heart beating far too rapidly as beads of sweat formed on my forehead and along my hairline. My stomach growled, and I couldn’t tell if it was hunger or unease, but whatever was happening, I was all out of whack.
I was going to be at a very real risk of fading away if I didn’t get back to Daniel or House of Imperial soon. The bond was too new for this sort of distance. Before I could freak out further, the bitch wrenched the steering wheel, did something with the clutch and gearstick, and let the car spin in a one-eighty degree turn before coming to a halt on the edge of the forest.
“Get out,” she growled, not looking at me.
Unclipping myself, I stumbled out of the car and she was gone in a flash, tires kicking up gravel.Okay, then.I turned to look around, trying to determine the reason she’d dumped me here, but before I could do more than catch a glimpse of approximately a million trees, a swirl of light appeared before me and Laous stepped out of it. Dressed all in black, there was no expression on his face.
When he crooked his finger at me, I remembered I was supposed to be stalling.
“Why did you bring me here?” I asked, allowing the fear I felt to creep in my voice. No doubt this loser loved the sight of other’s fear, and I wanted him happy and relaxed.
His face crinkled, impatience shining in those cold eyes. “The network is being watched very closely, so the only way I can open a transporter is if I grab a random one. That way it’s too quick for them to get here before I’m gone. Cherise just stopped when she felt the energy. She knew I was almost here.”
Bitchwas a far better name than Cherise.
“Come on, grubber. I need to get you back to my place, so I can extract the blood.”
He waved at me again, but I remained where I was standing. “Will you kill me as soon as you get my blood?”
He’d tried to kill me the last time, so I pretty much already knew the answer to that. This was just to keep the talking going on.
He surprised me though. “Actually, I’ve decided not to kill you keepers. After this last fiasco with your blood, I realize now that my original plan was very shortsighted. I might never have been able to find the third if you had died, and I still don’t know what might be required from me to retrieve the stone once I have the fourth secret keeper. With that in mind, I’m going to hedge all bets and keep the four of you alive. I have people readying right now to pick up the Darken grubber.”
Good freaking luck with that. Lexen was not a dude to be messed with, but then again, neither was Daniel. I’d forced his compliance, but in the end, he hadn’t been able to let me go. Only his friends holding him back gave the changeling a chance to drag me out – using her super Daelighter speed.
“How canCherise…”I growled her name. “Change her shape like that? It’s not a normal Imperial power, right?” I asked, desperately searching for another topic to keep him here.
“Mix of human and Daelighter technology. With the right combination, anyone can become a changeling. The longest part is growing the skin she wore, using a human cell. Unfortunately, it’s a once-only deal. But I got what I needed, so...”
“So, where are you taking me?” Next topic of stalling.
