Tremble (Denazen #3)(78)
Kale’s lips twisted into an angry scowl as she started down the first set of stairs. “It was all a lie. Something you forced on me. I love Dez. I’ve always loved Dez, and only her. The things that happened between us weren’t real, and they weren’t about love.”
“Maybe not at first, but it turned into something more,” she insisted. There was the slightest crack in her voice. Desperation and betrayal. Despite what she’d done, my heart hurt for her. It didn’t excuse her actions—there was always a choice—but she was hurting.
He shook his head. “No. It didn’t.”
Kiernan stepped onto our landing. “I’m sorry I lied to you, Kale. It was the only way to make you see the truth. Daddy only wants what’s best for us—for you.” She pointed to me, lip curling into a cruel smile. “She doesn’t love you. She’s only using you to take us out.”
Kale once told me that he loved how I never made a big deal out of his social awkwardness. How I accepted him the way he was, even though he didn’t get the jokes others did or sometimes took things too literally. He didn’t understand because he’d been a prisoner at Denazen since his birth, every detail of his life at the mercy of cruel men with their own twisted agendas. But I didn’t accept these things. I loved them. Kale was Kale, and there was no one else on earth like him. He wasn’t your average chocolate chip cookie. No. Kale was a mocha cookie with coffee-flavored chips and a gooey caffeinated center. He was one of a kind—and I wouldn’t have changed that for anything on earth.
“What’s best for me is Dez, not you. You’re—” He tilted his head, lost in thought for a moment. “You’re crackers on crazy,” he declared, proud of the analogy. When he responded in true Kale fashion, the part of me that had shriveled away when he left came bounding back to life, bigger and brighter than before.
It was crazy on a cracker, but God, I loved this guy.
“Fine. Go ahead,” she said with an ugly sneer aimed at me. “Smile. Laugh. Think you won because you turned him against me. How long will your stupid happiness last without this?”
She reached into her pocket and pulled out something small. Balanced between her thumb and pointer was a glass tube filled halfway with thick red liquid. Penny’s blood. The vial.
She was the one who had it.
Kale tensed, ready to pounce, but I stopped him.
Kiernan didn’t miss it. She laughed and wiggled the vial, blowing him a kiss. “I know what you’re thinking, Dez.” The blood coated the inside of the glass, turning it an opaque red. “You’re thinking no big, right? There’s still a chance with that batch of Domination you stole. A fifty percent chance of survival is better than zero, right?”
I opened my mouth, then closed it. How did she know they’d taken the drug? Had Devin been caught?
As if reading my mind, she nodded and I tried not to panic as she tossed the vial into the air, then caught it. “Dad had a feeling you’d go for it so he left an extra-special batch in the lab. I’m sure you guys have snagged it by now.”
“Special?” Kale asked. He inched forward as Kiernan backed away. She was on the second step now, leaning against the railing, and I was terrified that any sudden movement would cause her to drop the vial.
“Very special. Your batch shares some of the same ingredients as ours—only it’s missing a few key elements.”
“It’s lethal,” Kale said, fingers curling around the banister.
“Wickedly so,” she confirmed. “Takes a while, too. Guys in the lab said someone could last up to five days after taking it—and wish for death the entire time.”
I pushed aside the sick feeling in my stomach and stepped up to meet Kale, who’d paused at the base of the stairs. “Why even tell me?”
Kiernan backed up another step. With a smile I’d never forget, she wiggled the vial again over the edge of the railing and said, “Because I wanted the satisfaction of seeing your face when I did this—”
Time slowed. A scream spilled from my lips, the agonized sound bouncing off the walls and echoing through the corridor. I threw myself forward to catch the vial as it dropped over the side of the banister, but it was too far. The tips of my fingers brushed the edge but instead of drawing it closer, I flicked it farther away. Horrified, I watched as it fell, crashing not into the large tank of water but to the concrete floor below and shattering, the small amount of liquid splattering everywhere.
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. My future was there on that floor. On the stairs above me, Kiernan laughed, and when I climbed to my feet and turned, Kale was backing her up against the wall. The tips of his finger swirled black.
I grabbed his arm and pulled back. “Stop—this is between us. Me and her.”
If Kale disagreed, he didn’t show it. With a simple nod, he stepped back to our landing as I took his place in front of the girl who had tried so hard to shred my life to bits. There was no fear in her eyes. Only resentment.
I knew the feeling. Any love or sympathy I had for my sister was officially gone.
“You had everything,” she whispered.
“So you decided to take it?” I countered. “I have a newsflash for you, Kiernan. You didn’t get to grow up with your father—lucky, by the way—but neither did I. Marshal Cross isn’t my dad.”