Tremble (Denazen #3)(65)

No. It was the word that repeated over and over again inside my head. Like a CD on skip. NoNoNoNo.

I shoved Kale away and rose up onto my knees, crawling several feet before falling back. The room started to swim. “It can’t—”

Kale was right there beside me, trying to pull me away, but I wouldn’t be moved.

“Alex— He—” And that was all. I couldn’t push any more words past my lips.

“It’s not him,” he said quietly. “It’s Simmons.”

It was horrible, and I knew in the back of my mind I should be appalled, but the joy that swept through me was overwhelming. Alex and I had our differences, but a part of me would always love him.

“I was on my way back. I made the call. You weren’t in the living room so I came here.” He cupped my face, thumb passing lightly under my eye to catch a tear. “He was on top of Alex when I entered. I separated them. I hit him, but not hard. He was fine—and then he just fell down.”

“Heart failure,” Dax said, frowning. “His body couldn’t fight it anymore—that would be my guess.”

“Insanity then death,” I said with a shiver. “Where’s Alex?”

“By the time I arrived, Alex had stopped screaming. I pulled Ben off but I think I was too—”

“No,” I snapped, turning to Mom. “Where is he? Where is Alex?”

“They’re doing everything they can.”

…

“Hey,” someone said from the doorway.

I rolled my eyes. Jade. “Don’t you knock?”

She snorted and closed the door behind her. “You wouldn’t have answered. Would you?”

“Of course not. Maybe that should be a hint?”

She settled in the chair by my desk, picked up my favorite bottle of nail polish—Passion Purple—and started painting her nails. After a moment, she asked, “Where’s Kale?”

“Hoping his lack of memory gives you another chance to play kissy face?”

“Please,” she said, waving the bottle in my direction. “It was obvious before all this went down that the boy has no taste. He picked you.”

I sighed. “Was there something you actually wanted, or did you just come in here to piss me off?”

She flipped her hair but avoided my gaze. “Just wanted to see how you were holding up.”

Jade and I hadn’t become friends over the past few months—I doubted that would ever happen—but our relationship had warmed to cordial. Most of the time. In the beginning, right after Kale went back, she’d bring me coffee in the middle of the night, sometimes just sitting with me in silence until dawn. We never spoke about it and I’d never thanked her, but really, I think she liked it that way.

“It’s getting better. He’s starting to remember. Little by little, I think.”

“What about you? How are you feeling?”

It was funny. I didn’t feel the need to sugarcoat things with Jade. Maybe because I’d convinced myself she really didn’t care. “The decline is starting to show. Nothing major yet, but it’s there.”

“I met the scientist guy. Wentz. He’s…different.”

I looked up. “Different?”

“He introduced himself—then immediately after assured me he loved animals.”

“Um, okay.”

She finished painting her right hand and moved on to the left. “Yeah. The brilliant ones are always a little weird.”

It was Jade’s way of telling me not to worry, that we’d find a cure. While I wasn’t sure I believed it at this point, I appreciated the gesture. “Don’t you have something else to do? Other people’s guys to chase? Small children to scare?”

She screwed the cap onto the polish and held her hand up in admiration. Without a word, she went to the door and pulled it open. “I can see it in his eyes, you know. Whenever he looks at you.”

“What?”

“He might not remember everything, but his heart does.”

And she was gone.

…

I’d asked Kale to stop for a moment so I could get it together. A part of me demanded I make him turn back. A little voice telling me this was the very definition of insanity. I’d infiltrated Denazen once disguised as Dad’s head interviewer, Mercy. I’d been lucky and managed to get myself—and Kale—out alive. This time I wasn’t so sure. I was going in as myself. And aside from being one of their Supremacy science projects, I’d done more than my fair share to piss Dad off. I had no doubt he was looking for a little payback.

When Kale and I left the cabin, Alex still hadn’t woken up. Without Ben’s ability, there was no way to know the true extent of the damage until he did. Ginger assured me his vitals were strong and other than a few bumps and bruises, he was fine. Physically, at least.

Sure. Fine—except half his brain might very well have been sucked out.

“I’ll get you out of there—with the vial. I swear,” Kale said.

“I believe you.” But would I be in one piece when he did?

“I know this is hard, especially with everything that just happened.”

I was in love with Kale. That would never change. But I loved Alex, too. It was a different kind of love—it always had been, even if I hadn’t realized it at the time—but he was important to me. Still, there were things that needed to be done. Life didn’t stop. My future wasn’t the only one hanging in the balance. Brandt and the others counted on me. I wouldn’t let them down. “It’s fine. We can do this.” I turned to him. “We will do this.”