Tremble (Denazen #3)(62)
24
Everyone’s mouth opened in protest, but I held up my hand. Sure. Now they spoke up.
“I know, I know. This is crazy, but hear me out at least, okay? I think Vince is on to something here. Dad is a douche but he’s smart. He’s going to figure Kale’s already been corrupted. Think about it. There’s no way they didn’t see us together at the airport. Hell—the whole place saw us. If he shows up back at home base, they’re going to wanna be sure he hasn’t switched sides. But,” I said, taking a deep breath. “If he shows up toting the one thing Dad wants—me—and says it was all an act, I bet my board they won’t question him. Denazen wants to silence the Underground. If he thinks I can tell him where we’ve been hiding, and that Kale is still loyal, he’s going to shit rainbows of happy.”
Mom frowned, apparently not sold on the idea. “What about the Resident using her ability to keep Kale’s memories at bay?”
“Like Brandt said, hopefully we won’t need that much time,” Vince said. He turned to Kale with an encouraging nod. “Stall them. Make excuses. Tell them you let Dez remove the tracker to gain her trust.”
Dead silence.
“I don’t like it,” Kale said quietly. “But she’s right. They’re less likely to suspect something’s wrong if I don’t show up empty-handed. Without, as Dez said, a show of good faith, I might not be able to get anywhere near the blood.” He turned to Vince and nodded. “There’s something very familiar about you. Are we friends?”
“Vince was the last person we visited over the summer to warn about Denazen,” I said, smiling. “See? Things are starting to come back.”
“That must be it,” Kale said, but something about the way he watched Vince didn’t leave me convinced.
Unfortunately, now wasn’t the time to worry about it because Alex was going berserk. “This proves you’ve flipped to the other side of the moon,” he growled at Kale, stomping his foot. “There’s no way you’d let her do this if you were in your right mind.”
“Let me?” I choked. “Are you serious? Since when—”
“I won’t let anything happen to her.” Kale stood and leaned across the coffee table, expression loaded.
“Why? Because you love her? You can’t even remember how much you hate me, and brother man, that’s saying something.”
“I may not remember any of you, but let me guess. You’re the ex, right? The one who can’t let go?” He glanced back at me and I fought a shiver. There was a gleam of something feral in his eyes. Something possessive. It was a hint of the old Kale mingled with something new. Something darker. “Seems like she made her choice.”
“You’re a dick,” Alex spat.
“Something tells me I feel the same way about you,” Kale countered, straightening and folding his arms.
“And something tells me this is going to lead to a migraine,” I said, standing. No one looked happy, and I couldn’t blame them, but we were kind of low on options and time was running out. “Like it or not, this is our best bet.”
“We need to move quickly,” Kale agreed. “She’s showing signs of decay.”
I groaned and let my head fall back into my hands.
“I knew you didn’t feel that cut at the party,” Alex snapped.
I picked my head up. “We knew it was inevitable. My ability already spiked and changed. It was only a matter of time.”
“How bad is it?” Brandt asked. He looked a little pale.
I tried to shrug it off. “It’s not. Little things here and there—nothing major. Some issues like keeping focus and”—I turned to Alex—“occasionally a lack of physical pain.”
Kale frowned. “It will only go downhill from here.”
“But walking straight into hell?” Mom practically squealed, frantic. Well, Mom’s version—which looked a lot like annoyed with a side of homicidal anger. It had taken some time, but I pretty much had her moods and expressions pinned, not that she had many. She shot Vince a furious scowl, then turned it on Kale. “I know what goes on behind those walls. You may not remember, but I do. The idea of letting my daughter willingly walk into the devil’s den isn’t something I can agree to.”
“Do you think I want to go?”
“Yes.” She folded her arms and hit me with her best Mom stare. She had perfected it over the last few months. She’d gotten pretty good, too. “I think you probably see it as a challenge.”
Ouch. She knew me so well. But she had to see it was more than that. This was about survival. Adrenaline junkie or not, even I wasn’t willing to skip through Denazen’s doors without a really good life or death reason—and that’s what this was now. Life or death. Mine and a whole lot of others, too.
“Last call for brilliant ideas.” I looked at Mom. “If you can come up with something better, believe me, I’d be thrilled to hear it.”
But she had nothing. I could see it in her eyes. Defeat and, ultimately, acceptance.
Looking back to Kale, I said, “How should we do this?”
He didn’t answer me. Only stared. I’ll admit it. In that moment, I started having doubts. There was something foreign in his eyes. A spark of something I didn’t recognize. It was dark, but worse than that, it was angry—and I didn’t know if that anger was directed at the situation or me.