Tremble (Denazen #3)(47)

“I guess,” I said, swallowing a lump. “I guess I’d have to go with purple.” I was blue and Kiernan was his purple.

“Correct.”

I swallowed and flicked the point again. This time, the edge caught the chip and it moved a little closer to the surface. “Can you… Would you tell me what happened? After you woke up, I mean?”

“There’s not much to tell. At least not much I remember. I woke up and Marshal was there. He told me I’d been in an accident and that I’d gotten hurt trying to save my girlfriend—his daughter. Roz.”

The chip moved another centimeter. “And you knew who he was? Cross?”

Kale shrugged to cover up another flinch. Typical boy. “It was hazy. I remembered his face and that he was somehow a large part of my life. Other than that, there was nothing.” Another flinch.

“What about her?”

“He told me her name. It sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. When she came in and I saw her, it was strange… I didn’t recognize her. Not really. But little things screamed familiarity.”

“Like what?” With one last flick of the blade, I finally saw the chip. Gripping the edge between my thumbnail and pointer, I took a deep breath and pulled. The gloves made it difficult, but after slipping a few times, I was able to wriggle it free.

Kale still hadn’t answered the question, so I looked up from my work to find him staring. “Amazing,” he said, reaching out to finger a strand of blond hair. “This. I saw this crazy hair—blond with black tips—and somehow I knew everything was okay.”

I had a much better handle on my ability than I had several months ago. Right before Kale went back to Denazen it changed, becoming uncontrollable. I mimicked parts of myself at random without trying. Specifically, my hair. It still happened once in a while when I was under a lot of stress or feeling overly emotional. Now was obviously one of those times, since a moment ago it’d been brown.

“I change my hair a lot—normally with dye. This is how I had it when we met in June.”

“I like it,” he said, letting the strand slip between his fingers. “This is silly, but it makes me feel calm.”

I dropped the chip to the floor and smashed it with the heel of my shoe, then dumped some of the antiseptic over the wound and recapped the bottle. Bandage held securely over the incision, I ripped a long piece of tape from the roll and slapped it across. When I was done, I stepped back and sank into the seat next to his. Kale was still staring at me. It was like he’d never seen me before, while at the same time there was a spark of something raw in his eyes. Something familiar. “I think it was my fault.”

“What?”

“They gave the order for your retirement. It was only after I started asking questions that they changed their minds about wanting you brought in alive. I believe that’s why they used real guns at Penny Mills’s house.”

“Of course,” I said, feeling sick. Penny was dead because Kale saved me. The bullet that killed her had my name on it, not hers. “They didn’t want her dead—they wanted me dead. I wouldn’t be a threat to your memory if I wasn’t breathing anymore.”

“They’ve been keeping tabs, and they guessed your next move based on the names left on the list. Two others were sent to one location, while Aubrey and I were sent to Thom Morris’s. We were instructed to kill you on sight.”

“I didn’t see Aubrey.”

“At the last minute, he said he’d found another lead.” Kale picked up another strand of my hair, shaking his head in wonder.

“And you decided to hijack me.” I couldn’t help the sarcasm in my voice—which was stupid, really. Hijacked was better than dead any day of the week.

“I saw you come out of the house and get into your car—”

“You saw me? I sat there waiting for you to show for hours.”

“I know. I was just watching you.”

I forced a smile. “That’s a little creepy.”

“Marshal’s last words to me before I left kept replaying in my head. Over and over. ‘Kill her. Make it fast.’ I tried a thousand times to move.” He moved away and held up his hand. A churning black mass gathered at his fingertips. “I didn’t even have to come any closer. I could have done it from where I stood. There was no need to speak or look you in the eye. You would have been there one moment and simply gone the next.”

“But you saw the picture on the phone and wanted the truth.” I pulled off the gloves and grabbed the empty, discarded Starbucks cup rolling on the floor at my feet. Depositing the bloody plastic, as well as the remnants of the chip inside, I put the cover back on. More than anything, I would have loved to toss it out the window but, since we were in a moving train, that wasn’t an option.

“Aubrey said he found the phone in the woods. I saw the photograph and it confused me, but it was more than that. I kept thinking about that kiss at Ashley Conner’s house.”

I threw the cup down and kicked it across the car. It rolled until it hit the wall, then slipped under the last seat by the door. “I am an expert kisser.”

“I thought I loved her—Roz. That’s what they told me, anyway. But when I kissed you back there on the street…I never felt like that with her.”