The Skylar Experiment : Beginnings

Chapter Thirty-Eight - Lost Sister

Luc stalked closer, hands still in his pockets. He'd placed me barely above his head. 

"What the hell, dude?" I legitimately couldn't move a muscle. "Put me down! This is so not funny."

This was beyond degrading for a harmless tease. My puny arms and legs strained against a steel band. He smiled broader, fiercer at my attempt, and it drew him even closer. Every inch of his body was braced, all up to the unforgiving lines of his face.

Then, he cocked his head to the side.  

"You really want to push it today, don't you? So let's get some things straight between you and me. Ready?" He took my acid glower at face value, seeming to commit it to memory for a few seconds. "I need you alive to bait these motherfuckers who aren't behaving like anything I've ever seen before. I'm not here to make friends. I have friends like me who I don't have to watch with eyes behind my head in case they tell their government-connected parent about us. Friends I can trust. You, on the other hand..."

My heart stuttered, but I made it a point to meet his challenging stare, even when mine became watery. "I'll never tell him. You said it yourself that it'd put him in danger."

Luc angled his body away like he wanted to walk off and leave me there. "Good intentions are often not enough, Sunshine. If you've seen some of the shit people do with good intentions, you'd understand how little it matters. And you don't understand any of this." He bent his head down. "I hope for your sake that you never will."

"So I'm just a means to an end. Got it." 

Loud and clear. 

His head shook from side to side and he looked back toward the waning sun. "No. This plan is insane, but you should come out of this alive and I can see that through." He gazed down through dark strands of hair, searching me. "I can also see to it that if you ever pose a threat, a pack of Wanderers will be the least of your problems."

Those last words prickled my skin. It was so unnecessary. I'd never do that to them after the way they worked to save my life—begrudgingly so, but still. I swallowed hard. 

"I won't." Damn it, I hated how choked I sounded. 

"Even if he catches on and tries to get it out of you? Can Daddy's girl resist that kind of pressure?"

A huge ball of fire radiated in my chest as he snorted. I thought I loathed him before, but never as much as I did now. "You're the absolute worst. And no, I'm not going to let him find out and you know why. Now please put me down so you can get the fuck out of my face."

His sneer dimmed but that didn't temper the razor-sharpness of his eyes. "Right. Fun's over."

I slid down gently enough to catch my weight, and a big part of me wanted to kick the head off his shoulders. The other part wanted to burst into tears as soon as I'd regain my room. Orange sunrays splayed over the top branches. 

"Sun's setting," he declared before I could. "Time to skedaddle."

And I didn't argue there. 

Nothing to see here, I thought, just Luc having a normal day.

To some extent, I understood how chafing it could be to monitor someone he didn't trust out of fear for their safety. It shocked me to imagine I had that power over them as one regular person. But to them, I was a tear in an airtight chamber. 

I quietly tossed up all these things in my head until I returned home. His asshattery wasn't personal, for the most part. As D-day loomed around the corner, I wasn't the only rustling bag of nerves. I tried real hard to change my feelings and muster enough patience, yet the reasoning did jack for me.