Tremble (Denazen #3)(68)
“You had a home and a father who loved you. You had friends. Food. Clothing. All you ever did was try to push him away. To make him angry. I would have given anything to be in your place. I had nothing!”
The hate in her voice made me cringe, and my heart broke just a little. “I don’t know what happened to you before we met, Kiernan, but I promise you my life was not the stuff of Disney fairy tales. He didn’t love me. Never did.”
“You’re a liar. An ungrateful, hateful liar,” she said with a menacing step forward. “Where did the Underground go after the hotel burned down?”
Arguing with her over Dad was pointless. She was convinced I’d lived the perfect life and was somehow betraying him. If she was ever going to see his true colors, it had to be in her own time. “Seriously? You really think I’m gonna tell you?”
The smile on her face grew wider, and from her back pocket, she pulled out a small black thing. At first it looked like a garage door opener. But as she got closer I realized it was a Taser. Tossing it into the air and catching it again, she winked at me.
“Yep. I really do.”
…
We’d been at it for a while now, and although I couldn’t see it, I was pretty sure she’d given me a black eye. I hadn’t gone down without a fight, though. Her bottom lip was swollen, and she favored her right arm. I’d bent the left one back on her last try. Something had popped and she’d let out a horrible wail right before jamming the Taser against my hip.
She’d retreated to her side of the room and me to mine. “I can go at this all day. Can you?”
I shrugged and forced a smile without answering. The truth was, I didn’t know how much longer I could do this. I was sure there were no cameras in the room. There was a point where I’d almost completely overpowered her, nearly wrenching the Taser from her fingers. If there’d been a camera, surely someone would have come running.
Kale was out there somewhere, risking his neck to get me the vial. While I hadn’t really expected us to be in and out in ten minutes, I was starting to worry. When Kiernan came at me again, I had a plan. I didn’t know how good it was or if it’d even work with how weak I was, but it was worth a try.
“I’m gonna ask one more time. Where’s the Underground?”
Instead of replying, I busied myself by skimming the dirt from under my fingernails, whistling the theme from Tree Busters—a local brush removal service. When I looked up, she’d stopped about a foot away.
“No? Then maybe I’ll go get Kale.” She waggled her brow and flashed a wicked grin. With each step closer, it grew bigger. “I’m sure he’d love to help, since, you know, you’re the reason he almost died and all.”
She waved the Taser like a Fourth of July sparkler, but she was cocky and too careless. Lightning fast, I sprang to my feet, grabbing her wrist and twisting it around so the tip of the device angled at her instead of me. She tried to squirm away but there wasn’t enough time. My other hand covered hers and I jammed her finger down over the button.
Kiernan yelped and crumpled to the floor, surprised. She’d always been too cocky for her own good. Thank God some things never changed. I regained my balance and turned the dial one click higher, then hit her again. She twitched, eyes rolling back then closing, her breath evening out to tell me I hadn’t—unfortunately—killed her.
Grounding her was the easy part of my plan. What came next would either make or break the whole thing. Falling to my knees, I grabbed her hand and took a deep breath. At first nothing happened and I panicked. Frustrated, I concentrated harder, picturing my own face as it was when I looked in the mirror this morning. It wasn’t a big surprise. When we’d gone to the airport for Ben, I’d done two major mimics in a short span. Granted, I’d gotten some rest, but apparently that hadn’t been enough.
Determined, I closed my eyes and tried again. I felt a cool sweat break out across the back of my neck, and after a second, a familiar snap. When I opened my eyes I was relieved to see I’d effectively swapped us. It was my body lying on the floor, unconscious, as I moved to the door in Kiernan’s. A part of me felt weirdly vindicated. Not that I had a desire to spend time inside her skin, but she’d swapped us and tried to steal Kale. This felt, at least a little, like payback. Maybe I’d walk through the hall digging deep for nose-nuggets or pretend to pick at an atomic wedgie. Hell, maybe I’d strip down and run through the halls singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm!” I might be Dez on the inside, but it technically wouldn’t be my goods on display for all to see.
I wobbled a bit getting to my feet but got my balance under control and headed for the door. As awesome as it would have been to disparage my sister’s reputation, I had something more important to do. I reached for the handle, breath held and determined to find Kale, but the door pushed in, knocking me back in surprise. Kale poked his head through and looked from me to Kiernan-as-me lying motionless on the floor, then frowned. “Can’t get information out of her if she can’t speak.”
I stepped through the door and he followed, locking it behind him. “She had it coming,” I said simply, taking his hand.
He looked down at our hands, smiled, then shoved me hard against the wall. “I missed you,” he growled in my ear, warm breath sending shivers of excitement throughout my body, before he claimed my lips. It started out as something savage. The kind of kiss you see between two tortured souls who hate each other yet are undeniably attracted. But then it changed. It became less controlling and more needy. It felt like I was the air and Kale was a suffocating man desperate for breath.