Opposition (Lux, #5)(96)

Now my back and chest were on fire.

“Daemon?” she whispered.

Oh shit.

My lungs tried to expand but seemed to get stuck. I didn’t look away from her eyes as I lifted myself off her, tried to stand, but realized that my brain wasn’t connecting to my legs. I went down on one hand, feeling the warm wetness traveling down my stomach. My arm gave out and I landed on my side.

Kat was suddenly above me, and I was on my back and all I could see were her beautiful gray eyes—eyes that had become my whole life, probably before I even realized they had.

But those eyes were wide with fear and shining in a way that made me want to touch her, to make sure she was okay. I managed to lift my arm and trail the tips of my fingers across her cheek, but I couldn’t hold it up. It was like dead meat.

“Daemon!”

I tried to respond, but all I could do was focus on those eyes. As she leaned over me, her sweet lips so close to mine, my name on her tongue, I thought that if I had to die, if this would be the end, then at least I was seeing her and nothing else.





25


{ Katy }

“Daemon?” My heart was pounding against my ribs, but it felt wrong—it felt worn out and sluggish. Fire traveled up and down my back, but I knew I wasn’t hurt. It was Daemon.

Oh God, it was him.

I slid my hand over his chest, crying out as my hand came back soaked with the reddish-blue blood. “Oh. No . . .”

My name was called out. So was Daemon’s, but I didn’t look to see what was happening. My eyes were locked with Daemon’s. His lips, leached of all color, moved, but there were no words.

This wasn’t happening!

This could not be happening!

We hadn’t survived everything that we’d faced, on top of an alien invasion, for Daemon to die like this.

“No! No. No!” I searched for the source of the wound, but he’d taken the shot in the back.

It hadn’t been a normal gun.

Daemon’s form started to flicker, and horror kicked me in the chest. I grabbed his cheeks as my lungs desperately tried to force air in. His eyes were closed. “Open your eyes! Dammit, open your eyes!”

My legs started to shake with the effort to hold myself up in a kneeling position, and then Archer and Dee were there, and I couldn’t help but think of that horrible time in my house, when the situation had been flipped and it had been me lying on the floor. Then we thought we were purely connected, and if one died, so did the other, but now we knew the truth.

I ignored the pain roaring through my body and the weakness creeping into my muscles, invading my very being, followed by coldness, a chill of death. My overworked heart turned over.

“No!” Dee cried out, dropping down by Daemon’s head. Her hands landed on her brother’s shoulders and she immediately shifted into her true form. Her light was brilliant, much like an angel’s halo.

“Fix him, please.” My vision blurred as I started to tilt toward the ground. “Please, please fix him.”

Archer caught me, but I shrugged him off, clinging to Daemon as tears streamed down my face. “What . . . do we do?” I couldn’t look away as Daemon continued to flicker in and out, his beautifully strong light dulling, and the coldness spread like a disease inside me. “It wasn’t a . . . normal gun. It was one of those . . . weapons we were given. Please . . . do something . . .”

“It’s the modified PEP weapon.” Archer placed his hands above mine, his face twisting in concentration. “Dammit. We need to make sure the bullet is out. If it’s not, then . . .”

The words sank in as I slid down to my side, unable to hold myself up. One of my hands slipped off his cheek. I could no longer get my tongue to work, and I labored for breath. I threw everything in me into reaching Daemon. Don’t . . . leave me. Oh God . . . please don’t . . . leave me. I love you. Daemon, I love you. Please don’t let go. Please!

Archer cursed under his breath as his gaze bounced between Dee and me. “Kat, I . . .”

I didn’t feel myself falling, but I was suddenly flat on my back and staring up at the cloudless blue sky. Such a beautiful sky, but my heart hurt. My chest seized, and my entire body went rigid.

No. No. No.

We were supposed to have tonight and tomorrow, and many weeks and months, but we didn’t have even another minute. My face was wet, soaked, and my heart was slowing. The world started to slip away.

I love you. I love you. I love you.

Then Daemon and I . . . we had nothing and there was nothing.



My body came back online slowly, tingling and aching as if I’d run a zombie marathon and gotten chewed on in the process. There was an odd beeping sound. It annoyed me, because all I wanted to do was slip back into the oblivion where there was nothing. I didn’t want to remember exactly why I didn’t want to open my eyes.

Reality existed on the fringes of my consciousness, a reality that would be cold and shattering and heartbreaking, and I didn’t want to go there. I wanted to stay where there was nothing.

The beeping wouldn’t let me slip away, though. It was faint, and every beep was accompanied by another beep, as if it were chasing mine or I was chasing the other beep, so I listened as my fingers twitched. A tremor coursed up my arm and then made its way through my body.

“Katy?”