Opal

”

I kept quiet as he squeezed me again, patted me down like he was checking to make sure I still had arms and fingers. When he kissed my eyelids, though, I thought I would cry, because his hands were trembling.

Four sets of headlights bore down on us and then there was a stream of voices and questions. Dee was the first on the scene. She dropped beside Dawson, grabbing his hand.

“What happened?” she demanded. “Someone tell us what happened.”

Matthew and Ash appeared, curious and concerned. It was Andrew who spoke up. “I don’t know. They had something that came out of the doors when they opened. It was some kind of spray, but it had no smell and we couldn’t see it.”

“It hurt like a bitch.” Dawson sat up, rubbing his arms. “And there’s only one thing that feels like that. Onyx.”

Of course he’d also know what it was. I shuddered. God knows how many times it had been used against him.

“But I’ve never seen it like that before,” he continued, slowly climbing to his feet with Ash’s and Dee’s help. “It was airborne. Insane. I think I swallowed some.”

“Are you okay? Katy?” Matthew asked.

We both nodded. My skin ached a little, but the worst of it had passed. “How did you know to get us to the river?”

Daemon brushed wet curls off his forehead. “I guessed it was onyx when I didn’t see any visible wounds, figured it was on your clothes and skin. I remembered passing the river. Thought it was the best place to go.”

“Good thinking,” Matthew said. “Hell

”

“We didn’t even make it past the first set of doors.” Andrew barked out a laugh. “What the hell were we thinking? They have that place wired against Luxen and, apparently, hybrids.”

Daemon disentangled his arms from me and stalked over to where the rest stood. He stopped behind Blake. “You’ve been to Mount Weather before, right?”

Slowly, Blake pushed to his feet. His cheeks were pale in the silvery moonlight. “Yeah, but nothing-”

Daemon was like a cobra striking. His fist came out, slamming into Blake’s jaw. Blake stumbled back and fell, hitting the ground on his butt. Leaning over, he spit out a mouthful of blood. “I didn’t know-I didn’t know they had something like that!”

“I’m finding that hard to believe.” Daemon stalked the boy’s movements.

Blake lifted his head. “You have to believe me! Nothing like that ever happened before. I don’t understand.”

“Bullshit,” Andrew said. “You set us up.”

“No. No way.” Blake stood with his back to the calm river. He placed a hand to his jaw. “Why would I set you guys up? My friend is-”

“I don’t care about your friend!” Andrew shouted. “You’ve been there! How could you not know they had the doors rigged with that stuff?”

Blake turned to me. “You have got to believe me. I had no idea that was going to happen. I wouldn’t lead you guys into a trap.”

I stared at the river, unsure of what to believe. It seemed stupid for him to set us up this way and if he had, wouldn’t the DOD be surrounding us now? Something wasn’t right. “And Luc didn’t know?”

“If he did, he would’ve told us. Katy-”

“Don’t,” Daemon warned and his voice was so low it caught my attention. The lines of his body shimmered. “Don’t talk to her. Don’t even talk to any of us right now.”

Blake opened his mouth but nothing came out. He shook his head as he stalked back to the cars.

There was a gap of silence and then Ash asked, “What do we do now?”

“I don’t know.” Half of Daemon’s face was shadowed as he watched his brother pace. “I really don’t know.”

Dee rose. “This sucks. This sucks donkey butt.”

“We’re back at square one,” Andrew said. “Hell, we’re at negative one.”

Dawson whipped toward his brother. “We can’t give up. Promise me we won’t give up.”

“We won’t.” Daemon was quick to reassure him. “We’re not giving up.”

I didn’t even realize I was shaking until Matthew draped a blanket over my shoulders. He met my eyes and then focused on the headlight beams. “I always carry a blanket just in case.”

Teeth chattering, I hunkered down in the blanket. “Thank you.”

He nodded as he placed a hand on my shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get you in the car where it’s warm. We’re done for the night.”

I let him steer me toward Daemon’s SUV and the welcoming blast of heat felt wonderful, but there wasn’t anything to rejoice in. Disappointment swelled. Unless we figured out a way around the onyx, we weren’t just done for the night.

We were circling the drain. We were done period.

In Dee’s words, the ride home sucked donkey butt. It was near midnight when we pulled into the driveway. Blake said nothing as he slipped out of the SUV and headed toward his truck. The engine roared and tires peeled as he pulled out of the driveway.

I started toward my own house, but Daemon cut me off and guided me toward his. “You’re not leaving yet,” he said.

My brows rose at that and the glint in his eyes, but I wasn’t in the mood to argue. It was late, school was tomorrow, and tonight had been one giant fail boat.

I went into their house, still shrouded in Matthew’s blanket. My skin was so chilled underneath my damp clothes that I was numb. Exhausted, my legs shook to keep me standing, but everyone was talking-Dee, Andrew, Ash, and Dawson. Matthew was trying to keep them calm, but that wasn’t happening. Everyone was hyped up on anger and residual adrenaline, and I think Dawson kept talking because if he stopped then he had to deal with what happened tonight.

Beth was still with Daedalus.

“Let’s get you into some dry clothes,” Daemon said quietly, taking my hand.

At the bottom of the stairs, Daemon went to pick me up, but I waved him off. “I’m fine.”

He made a sound in the back of his throat that reminded me of a disgruntled lion, but he followed my slow ascension. Once inside his bedroom, he closed his door. Determination seeped from his pores.

I sighed. Tonight had been a tragedy. “We kind of deserved this.”

He prowled over to me, catching the edges of the blanket, pulling it off. Then he took ahold of my borrowed thermal. “How so?”

It seemed obvious to me. “We’re a bunch of teenagers, and we thought we could break into a facility run by Homeland Security and the DOD? I mean, come on. This was bound to go wrong-Wait!” The thermal was halfway up my stomach. My chilled fingers circled his wrists. “What are you doing?”

“Getting you naked.”

My mouth dropped open at the same time my heart did a backflip. A heady warmth cascaded through my veins. “Uh, wow. Way to cut to the point.”

A lopsided grin teased his lips. “Your shirt and pants are soaked and cold. And there are probably traces of onyx still on them. You need to get out of your clothes.”

I smacked his hands away. “I can do that myself.”

Daemon leaned in, speaking into my ear. “Where’s the fun in that?” He let go, though, and headed for his dresser. “You really think we were doomed to fail?”

Since he’d turned his back, I made haste with removing my clothes. Everything beside the cold piece of obsidian hanging around my neck was ruined and had to come off. The clothing smelled like musky river water. Shivering, I folded my arms across my chest. “Don’t

don’t turn around.”

His shoulders shook with silent laughter as he rummaged around for something for me to wear. Hopefully.

“I don’t know,” I said, finally answering his question. “It was a huge undertaking for trained spies. We’re in over our heads.”

“But we were fine until we hit those doors.” He pulled out a shirt. “I hate to say this, but I really don’t think Blake knew about them. The look on his face when you and Dawson went down-it was too real.”

“Then why did you punch him in the face?”

“I wanted to.” He turned around, one hand over his eyes as he offered me a shirt. “Here you go.”