HE BLINKED AND IT WAS GONE. The hue of his eyes was pale and diluted, with no intensity. "Not now. We need to leave." He gazed around then back at me. "Can you get up?"
I nodded and clumsily unfolded my legs, supporting myself on the bark. I was tired, but it felt like a small wave of energy had been zapped into me, just enough to keep me going a little longer. The soreness was still present, but as bearable as regular muscle ache. I looked at my muddied top, then noticed the beads on the shorts were gone.
A bitter, disturbed chuckle escaped me.
"How am I going to explain this to my father?"
"You won't have to yet," Luc said, standing up. "It's probably better if you don't tonight, actually."
"What do you mean?"
"They're very angry. I don't think they'd let you survive the night if I let you out of my sight, and you lost a lot of blood. You can't walk all the way back to your house."
I shook my head, unable to grasp what he was saying. "Well, what can I do? My dad's going to wonder where I am, and..." Something cold and numbing engulfed me, raising my heart rate again. My voice turned uneven. "What if they'll go after him next?"
I'd seen with my own eyes how these animals could think like no other. They worked in teams, like a pack of wolves. It knew how to lure me, knew where I lived as they'd marked the SUV. They had to know I didn't live alone.
"I can have Emma cover for you and call him to say you're sleeping at her place. As for his safety..." Luc drawled. "I can make a few calls, have the house on perimeter for the night."
"You would do that? How?"
"I know people."
I said nothing to that, my mind going blank. I didn't know and I didn't want to find out.
"So... that means I'll be sleeping at your place?"
His face twisted up. "Don't really have a choice if you want to stay alive. I have to keep an eye on you. I've never healed such an injured person before. There's an extra room with a bed, and I'll let you leave first thing in the morning."
After what I'd just gone through, the idea of sleeping in a guest room meant anything. If it could stop the creatures from attacking my dad, then there was no objection, even if that meant putting up with Luc. After everything, it didn't matter anymore.
▲▲▲
Searching for the bag with my phone and change of clothes was a task Luc didn't plan for, and it showed in his unhappy shuffles around the bush. He'd made me sit and wait for him to come back. That did nothing to keep me calm as he dove under the tree line, visible only through the light he emitted on occasion.
He resurfaced with the bag in his grip, even though no fast was fast enough for me.
We'd walked—and by walking, I meant him tracking my wobbly steps—on a beaten track, in complete silence. At times, an isolated echo resounded through the mountains. They were still somewhere nearby. I didn't have to ask in order to know.
I tried to compute in the shower all that happened over the last hours. The scalding water flowed from my scalp all the way to my toes, washing away the grime and blood. I scrubbed with soap vigorously, making sure the dirt under my nails would wash away, too.
I lingered under the stream for so long that I came out lobster red. The bathroom was full of steam, clouding the mirror.
I felt stripped bare until there was nothing left. Wiping the condensation off the glass, I stared at my ghastly reflection. The skin on my face was pulled taut and bleak, with stubborn traces of makeup along the lash line that all the soap in the world couldn't eliminate.
There were no marks of strangulation around my neck. Probably a product of Luc's mojo.
With my fingertips, I skimmed the bumpy, small and deep holes marking my right forearm. It had scarred already, but it was sensitive to the touch, swollen and red. My arm would never be the same.
The need to cry resurfaced, bringing along a strangling knot in my throat.
I leaned over the sink, splashing icy water on my face to get rid of it. Everything felt delusive, like I would wake up in my bed from my old house, back in California. But this was reality, and I was thousands of miles away.
I grabbed the towel to dry myself, then wrapped it around me and stepped out of the bathroom.
Luc's place had three floors. It resembled more of a giant, luxurious tree house than a home with its slanted felt roof and its elevated position over the steep land. Upon arriving, I'd been momentarily stunned at the floor-to-ceiling windows of the foyer and living room. Valleys and valleys rolled before us, right underneath the night sky.
Despite the neat layout, the place was warm and cozy—carpeted with thick rugs. I crossed the hallway and slipped inside the room, finding folded pajamas on the bed.
Perplexed, I closed the door and unfolded them. They were undoubtedly 'girlie' pj's, with watermelon print on the shirt and cupcake print on the pants. It seemed to have belonged to a young girl, most likely taller than I was judging by the length.
It struck me that when Luc and I arrived at his cabin, there had been no one else. I'd expected to see parents or something. Could it be that he was the owner?
I tried not to think too much about it as I changed. There was no point to that.
I sat on the bed and gazed out the window, where the moon cast its pale glow on the pines and elms. I couldn't help but worry about Dad. Who guarded the house? Would they really try to get revenge through him?
The most terrifying of it all was that there were no immediate answers to my questions. It was out of my control. I lied down on the mattress and tried to unwind, failing miserably at the task.
There were so many things I couldn't even begin to understand and explanations I wanted. I knew Luc hadn't gone to sleep. I'd heard something clink in the sink. More than anything, I just couldn't bear being alone right now.
The floorboards didn't even crack under my feet as I moved downstairs. I found him in the living room, lounging on the sofa with a bowl of Maltesers on the coffee table. He'd changed into a tank and sweats. Facing the ceiling, eyes shut, he rubbed his temples in lazy circles.
"Aren't you supposed to rest?" he questioned in a grunt.
I shrunk back a little. "I can't sleep. But never mind, you clearly don't want to talk, so..."
"You can stay," he said harshly. "If you want."
As he took the whole length of the sofa, I settled wordlessly on a chair next to the burning fireplace. I tucked my legs, reveling in the warmth emanating from it. I figured pissing him off just now wouldn't do any good, and nor did I have the energy to test my luck, so I didn't speak.
Minutes went by without us saying anything over the crackling fire. Luc ended up breaking the ice with a weary voice.
"Ask away."
That wasn't ready, from what I judged. "You don't seem up for it."
He turned his head at me, finally opening his eyes but barely. "I might not answer all of them, but it's worth a shot."
"Seriously, what are you?"
His mouth curved into a sly grin. He chuckled a little, then rested his arm on his stomach. "As you can tell, I'm not quite like the other kids at school. We... uh, we're basically mutants."
Huh.
"You mean, like in X-men? There are more of you?"
He sent me a dirty look. "Not really, no. We control energy, its different forms. Light, heat, kinetic and potential, electric... any of it. Depends on our strengths and weaknesses." He shrugged, looking up at the ceiling. "We're physically stronger and faster, too."
Wow... If I hadn't seen so much already, I would have considered him nuts. But I'd witnessed the power he was capable of not long ago.
"And how did you, like," my hands did a vague gesture, "happen? Do you guys turn into mutants or...?"
"No." It was categorical. "You can't become a mutant unless you're mutated from the womb or before you learn to walk. You're born one, nowadays. It's genetic."
Luc sat up straight and faced me, taking a handful of Maltesers and popping them in his mouth. I'd never noticed until now how bad the bleached quality of his eyes had gotten. A little more, and he'd look sick.
"We were never supposed to exist, so to speak. Decades ago, leaders demanded a new weapon that would surpass all others. A weapon with a mind of its own. They approved a classified project and began experimenting on babies, children, pregnant women, or even teenagers. Very few survived, but they made progress with the youngest." He stopped for a moment to let that soak. "And they gradually turned those people into what we are today."
Jesus, I felt like I'd fallen headfirst into a science-fiction book. If I hadn't had the chair, I probably would have buckled. I held onto what I'd seen out in the woods to remind myself he wasn't joking. The Luc I saw now was tense, uneasy, gauging my reaction. A complete contrast with the one I usually saw at school—the arrogant one.
"So... you're a pawn of the government, some kind of new and improved soldier?"
"We were supposed to be. But those people had lived in labs their entire lives, isolated from the world. They burned the whole compound to ashes and vanished from the system. That was the first generation, our parents."
✩