Toxic (Denazen #2)(85)

Before either of them could stop me, I flew around the corner and charged. Knocking her back against the couch, I pinned Kiernan down. “Lemme guess—ordering pizza?”

She dropped the cell. It bounced off the cushion and landed on the floor. “It’s not what it sounds like, Dez! I can totally explain.”

“Oh, so you weren’t on the phone with Denazen?”

“Denazen? Those tools? Of course not. I was on the phone with my dad.”

She kicked up, catching me off guard. I toppled to the side, allowing her to jump up. “Who just happens to work for Denazen. Oh. Wait. I guess it was what it looked like.”

“It would be foolish of you to think you could fight both of us,” Kale said, stepping up beside me. With a chuckle, he added, “It would be foolish to think you could fight Dez. Me, well, that would be ridiculous.”

I rolled my eyes. Poor guy didn’t have any idea how insulting that sounded…

“Fight you? I don’t need to fight you.” She snapped her fingers—purely for show—and disappeared. “I can do this.”

“Shit.”

Something slammed into my left side, knocking me to the ground. Vision blurred as my eyes watered, and I struggled to catch my breath. A few seconds later, the front door swung open.

“Oh, and Dez? There really is a cure for the Supremacy side effects—and it does work. They gave it to me first. Daddy always did like me better.”





32


“Dax will be by to get us in fifteen. We’re all going to shack up at his place.”

I cringed, wrapping both arms around myself. I had the chills again. They were almost bad enough to take my mind away from the pain, which had gotten significantly worse in the last few hours. “Dax’s apartment? That’s insane. There probably isn’t enough floor space.”

Alex shook his head. “Not the apartment. The house.”

I blinked. “He has a house?”

“He’s got, like, four of them, actually.”

“If he has four houses, why the hell is he living in a crappy apartment in the Parkview dumps?”

Alex shrugged and pushed aside the curtains to keep watch. “It belonged to a friend of his.”

I sank onto the couch, pulling Kale’s hoodie tighter. “I can’t believe this. It’s getting to be a seriously freaky trend.”

Kale kneeled in front of me, hand resting on my knee. I almost wished I’d kept the jeans on. The warmth from his fingers didn’t make it through the leather pants. “What is?”

“Am I that easy to fool? I go how many years living in the same house as Dad, having no clue what he’s about or the horrible things he does. This is like the same thing all over again. Kiernan and I were tight. How did I not see this?”

“No one saw this,” Alex said.

“But my sister? How is that even possible?”

Alex sighed. “Well, when a man and a woman lo—”

One look and he shut up.

The chill started to fade, and I shed the hoodie. The heat was taking its place. Of the two, this was the worst. The chill eased some of the pain. Made everything feel somewhat numb. But the heat… The heat intensified everything. Each little throb, every single pang, all amplified. I gritted my teeth against the pain, and said, “I feel like Lois Lane. Completely oblivious.”

Alex glanced over his shoulder from his post by the front window. “Lois Lane?”

“Sure. I mean she was the poster child for clueless. Clark Kent and Superman—the same dude, only without the glasses! Come on.”

“Superman?” Kale asked.

“The ultimate comic book badass,” Alex answered, turning back to the window.

I snorted and tried to flex my fingers. They wouldn’t move. “Not even,” I managed. “He got his powers from being an alien. Total cop-out. Frank Castle—he was a badass comic book guy.”

Alex whirled around again. He looked annoyed. I should have known better. We’d had this debate a million times before. “The Punisher? Seriously? The guy was a *. When are you gonna get over that?”

Kale looked slightly annoyed. “This is what Jade meant? Your history?”

Alex gave a satisfied chuckle and went back to watching for Dax.

“Sort of,” I said as the heat faded. I pulled the discarded hoodie back over my head and welcomed the chill. Making sure my voice was loud enough, I finished with, “But don’t stress over it. Alex’s and my shared history doesn’t have any bearing on our future.”

Alex’s shoulders stiffened. Fingers curling in irritation, he said, “Let’s go. Dax is here.”

When we stepped outside, Dax was in the driveway, behind the wheel of a jet black Hummer. With frantic motions, he waved us over. “Hurry. I doubt Cross will send someone here, but let’s not take chances.”

Alex took the front seat, while Kale helped me into the back. “Dax! Did you steal this Hummer?”

He glared at me through his rearview mirror. “I should really be offended. Your mother asked me the same question.”

He threw the truck in reverse, and, with a surge of gas, we were flying into the darkness and down the road.

I must have dozed off because the next thing I knew, the Hummer was going down an unpaved driveway. When I glanced out the back window, I saw small pebbles bouncing through the trail of dust illuminated by the red gleam of the brake lights. It seemed to stretch forever into the night.