Deviation (Clone Chronicles #2)(57)

I look over at Linc. “What is GI Joe?”

He gives me a withering look, shakes his head, and turns to Daniel. “We need to talk,” Linc says.

“Funny. Last time you were here, that’s the last thing you were interested in doing,” Daniel replies.

Linc glares at him. “You were forcing yourself on an unwilling, underage girl. You weren’t doing much talking either.”

“So chivalrous.” Daniel rolls his eyes. “Is that what you saw? Are you one hundred percent sure about that? Or are you accepting what the old man shows you as truth, just like the rest of the world?”

Linc growls. “Your hand was up her shirt when I walked in and she was fighting you.”

Daniel snorts. “If I had a nickel for every time I heard that one.”

“I need to talk to you about Raven,” I say.

His gaze sharpens and his mouth twists. “No.”

“No?”

“I don’t care if you say he’s gone. Even if you aren’t lying, he can still hear us. He can always hear us.”

Exasperated, I look to Linc. “A little help?” He lets go of my hand and begins a sweep of the room. No one speaks as we wait for him to find whatever evidence exists that Daniel is right.

A few minutes later, Linc comes up empty and heads for the door, key card in hand. He pauses with his hand on the knob and sends Daniel a look that pins him in place. “I’m going to check next door. I will see you the entire time. And if you touch her, there is no one on this Earth to stop me from killing you.”

Daniel rolls his eyes. “Relax, Terminator. I don’t want to hurt her.”

Linc’s scowl darkens. I gulp, positive I never, ever want to end up on the wrong side of that look. “That’s not what I meant.” He is gone before Daniel can come back with a snide remark.

When the door clicks shut, Daniel rises and makes his way toward me.

Linc is next door, I remind myself. I am safe. And Daniel’s eyes are clear.

I tell myself to calm down, to breathe normal. And I force myself to hold my ground. “Ven,” he says, as if we’re two friends meeting over coffee. I pause, my fingertips brushing the edge of the table, ready to retreat around it if he comes any closer. “What did you call me?” I ask.

“Your name. It’s Ven, isn’t it?” He shrugs like it’s no big deal but my pulse accelerates.

“How do you know that name?” I ask.

“I know more about you than you think,” he says.

“I saw her,” I blurt, before he can distract me with his cryptic teasers.

“You …. Where?” His entire demeanor instantly shifts. The shutters on his expression lift and I can read him. He is open and intent and completely sane. Harmless—unless it means getting to her.

“Titus took me to Twig City tonight. I saw her in a room there. She’s locked up.”

“You saw her,” he repeats. “You’re sure?”

I hesitate for only a second. Which Raven did I see? Morton’s or Daniel’s or some other version? “Yes.”

He frowns and then springs into action. I jump at his sudden response but he only steps forward to slide a chair out from the table. He gestures toward it just as Linc slips back into the room. Daniel ignores him and pulls out a chair for himself opposite mine and sits. He folds his hands on the table in front of him and he leans forward in earnest. “Tell me everything.”

I look to Linc, who nods, and then I begin.

When I am finished, the first thing Daniel does is rub his face with his palm and then refold his hands in front of him. “Are you sure?” he repeats.

“I think I know what I look like,” I snap, irritated at being asked again.

Daniel’s lips quirk and the lines creasing his forehead smooth out. “Okay, I believe you. Calm down, kitten.”

Linc’s hand tightens on my shoulder and he spews a curse that involves shoving a kitten into one of Daniel’s cavities. I glare at Daniel. “Don’t call me kitten,” I tell him. “And I know what I saw. She was right in front of me, six inches away through that glass.”

He lapses into silence. I chew my lip for almost ten seconds before I can’t take it anymore. “Well? Say something.”

“Like what?” he asks.

“I don’t know. Something not creepy. Something about what all of it means and what we should do.”

“We?” he echoes, his brows rising.

I exhale, ignoring the sound effects coming from Linc, and lean across the table. “I know you want to take him down just like we do. Tell me how.”

“Why?”

It isn’t the answer I expected. I blink. “Why what?”

“Why do you want to take him down?”

“I would think it’s obvious.”

“Pretend it isn’t.”

I sit forward, intent on my answer. Conviction heats my face. “Because he never once took into consideration the very real and basic needs of his creations. I might not be human but I have an emotional range that includes enough love for Linc and enough hatred for the Creator. Because he takes it for granted that we exist for him. And because he abuses people in the most exploitive ways possible.”

Daniel grunts. I don’t know whether that means he agrees or not, but I’m heated enough that I no longer care. “I want to take away the one thing he never gave us,” I continue. “Freedom to choose.”