Tremble (Denazen #3)(36)

When I yanked myself from thought, Kale was staring at me. “What?”

“I don’t know,” he said, sliding back to his pillow. He rolled onto his side, facing me, and propped himself on his elbow. “You look…almost sorry.”

“It doesn’t excuse what she did, but I am. No one deserves that.”

Lips parting as if he wanted to say more, he bit down and rolled stiffly onto his back in silence.

Apparently the conversation was over.

I did the same, remembering the first time we were in a hotel together. How I’d gone to sleep thinking of our very first kiss. More than anything, I wanted to go back to that moment. To its perfect simplicity and the promise of things to come.

“Good night, Kale,” I whispered.





14


I tried to pull the edge of the blanket up around my shoulders to chase away the chill but it wouldn’t budge. That’s when I remembered I was lying on top of it, not underneath. Without opening my eyes, I gave an internal groan. Kale. Hijacked. Nookie motel. Memory loss.

Ah, crap.

As sleep faded, I stretched my right leg and wiggled my toes. It was much colder in the room than it had been, and every part of me was freezing. My nose and fingertips were nearly numb. Either someone had moved the bed outside to the parking lot, the heat had gone off—

Or the window was open.

Something thumped from the other side of the room. I fought back an icy shiver as my heart kicked into hyper-speed and my eyes flew open. Kale was on the bed next to me, lying very close, eyes wide with a finger held over his lips. He’d heard it, too.

I nodded to show I understood and took a deep, controlling breath as he carefully rolled over and slipped off the bed. Reaching across, he flipped the light switch several times. Nothing happened. Power. The power could be out. That would explain the cold. No power, no heat. And that would have been an awesome theory—if the alarm clock on the nightstand hadn’t glared bright red numbers back at me.

Kale took two steps, then turned and motioned for me to follow. I wasn’t nearly as quiet as he’d been. The mattress creaked twice as I eased myself off, and my foot came down on a particularly creaky board. Typical.

When I finally got around the bed and to his side, he took hold of my arm and dragged me toward the bathroom. We’d almost made it when a soft, annoyingly familiar pop disturbed the eerie silence.

Kale turned to me. There was a spark of worry in his eyes. His gaze traveled over my face, then dipped lower, catching on my arm. I followed it down and all the air rushed from the room in a single, dizzying swirl.

I didn’t know what scared me more. The fact that the dart had embedded itself in my forearm and I hadn’t felt a thing, or the fact that the dart had embedded itself in my forearm and I was possibly moments away from keeling over, helpless.

His fingers gripped the dart and, with one smooth yank, pulled it free. We stood there, eye-to-eye, and then I was flying backward. In a blur, Kale’s arm shot out, knocking me aside as something flew at us. Another dart.

He wasn’t happy about it, either. A feral scream split his lips as the door exploded inward and several agents swarmed the room. Two went for Kale while the third rushed me.

I stumbled narrowly out of my attacker’s path, falling backward onto the bed as he tripped over the tacky shag carpet. He recovered quickly and dove again, this time catching my ankle and yanking hard. I slipped from the bed, landing with a jolt on the floor, breath knocked from my lungs as his other arm made a swipe for anything he could grab.

He probably would have gotten me, too, if one of the other agents hadn’t careened backward into him. They fell sideways, giving me enough time to scramble off the bed and wobble unsteadily in Kale’s direction.

“Ignore her,” the one circling Kale snapped. He nodded to my arm. “She’s as good as down.”

I started forward, determined to help Kale, as the other two regrouped and joined the fight. Kale struck out at the first, gripping a handful of his hair and pulling hard. “What are you doing?” he snapped. “Why are you attacking me!”

When the only response he got was a poorly aimed right hook, he pressed his palm flat against the man’s skin. There was a rush of churning darkness and seconds later, the man was nothing more than dust.

The other two were smarter. They teamed up, coming for him from either side. He ducked, and for a minute I lost track of the fight. Everything started to water around the edges. The sounds of struggle were hollow and far off, and my vision snapped in and out of focus.

When things cleared, one of the agents lay still at Kale’s feet, while the other was in a pile already blowing away in the icy breeze streaming through the open window.

“Denazen,” Kale whispered, face pale. He had one of their guns in his hand and stared at the motionless agent on the floor. “These are agents. They attacked me.”

“Welcome back to—” His face zoomed out of focus and the entire room faded away.

Reality. I’d been about to say reality.

…

When I came to, everything was stiff. My back had a wicked knot and my arms were pins and needles from fingertips to shoulder. Oddly enough, I was happy to feel the pain.

“I know you’re awake,” Kale said. “I can tell by the change in your breathing.”

Of course he could. I opened my eyes and did my best to stretch. We were in Ginger’s car again, parked behind a dark brick building. It wasn’t the nookie motel. “How’d we get here?”