Chapter 17

“Damn,” Dawson said from the passenger seat. His elbow was resting against the door, and the side of his face was plastered against his hand. “Damn.”

My hand tightened on the steering wheel. “That pretty much sums it up.”

Dawson and I were heading to the store to find some kind of area rug for Kat’s bedroom. Because of the time and where we lived, options were limited. We had to leave Petersburg to hit up the nearest Walmart. Andrew was at the house just in case something else unexpected and insane happened.

“I know I haven’t been around, but I can’t see it being someone from the colony. No way,” he said, shifting in the seat. “Those in the colony don’t get close to humans in that way. Not unless that’s changed.”

I thought of Ethan’s recent visit. “No, that hasn’t changed.” I paused, glancing over at him. His face was shadowed. “You think Daedalus is behind what happened to Carissa?”

He didn’t respond for a few moments. “They’d bring in humans all the time and force us to heal them. It usually didn’t work…and the humans would die, because they were injured. I lost count of how many died in front of me.”

My jaw clenched. “None of that—those deaths—are your fault.”

“Didn’t feel like it then, when you’re the only person who can save them. Anyway…” He cleared his throat. “Sometimes it would kind of work. I…I could heal the human and within a couple of days, the mutation would start, but it didn’t hold. It never held.”

I was quiet as we passed a semitruck, unsure of what the appropriate response to that level of messed-up shit would be. Honestly, I didn’t want to say the wrong thing. Dawson had been becoming more and more like himself with each passing day, but he still wasn’t very talkative, especially not about his time with Daedalus.

“Usually I wouldn’t see those humans again—after they were brought to me to be healed,” he continued, his voice gruff. “Once though, I did. I think Daedalus thought they had a success on their hands. The guy lasted longer than any other subject, but he…he wasn’t right, Daemon. Like when a fever ravages the brain, he was out of control and he did what Kat said Carissa did. Self-destructed. As if there was a bomb inside of him, but instead of exploding, he imploded. Everything caved in…” He trailed off, shaking his head as he dropped his arm into his lap. “They haven’t had much luck with successful mutations. That’s why Beth and I were so…important to them.” He looked over at me, and I already knew what he was going to say. “That’s why you and Kat would be important to them.” Hearing about some of the shit Dawson was forced to do and had seen always made me want to blow something up. I couldn’t even begin to think of Kat ever being in the situation. “I’m sorry,” I said after a couple of moments. “I’m sorry you had to go through any—”

“It’s not your fault, man. Never has been. Never will be.”

I nodded slowly. Trees crowding the road blurred. “Why do you think they’re doing this? Mutating humans? Did they ever say?”

“Not really,” he replied, stretching out his legs. “I always thought they were trying to build an army of hybrids.”

Barking out a laugh, I shook my head. “That’s freaking insane. One hybrid at a time?”

“Yeah.” He tipped his head back against the seat and sighed. “But what other reasons would there be?”

Dawson had a point. Up ahead I saw the exit I needed and I eased into the next lane. I glanced over at him. “So they would mutate someone, knowing it would probably kill them?”

Yellow light from an oncoming car flickered across Dawson’s face. “They’re really capable of anything. They’ll do anything. Daedalus doesn’t have a heart. It doesn’t have a soul.”

Kat had stayed home from school on Tuesday. Even though she’d been asleep while I straightened her room and covered the scorched spot on her floor with the area rug, she looked worn out when I showed up at her house around one. Still the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen, but tired.

“What are you doing here?”

I took her hand, leading her into the living room. “Nice jammies.”

“Shouldn’t you be in school?”

“You shouldn’t be alone right now.” I twisted my baseball cap around.

“I’m all right,” she said.

Kat was the furthest thing from all right after what happened and that was okay, but I needed to be here for her, and that was why I’d left school. I went to the couch, where she’d obviously made a makeshift bed. Sitting down, I stretched out on the couch and tucked her against me.

She twisted around, facing me. We didn’t kiss. We didn’t talk. As the minutes ticked by, we just held each other. At some point, we dozed off in each other’s arms. It was the scent of coffee that woke me around five.

Her mom was standing in the doorway, a steaming cup of coffee in hand and a soft smile on her face. She didn’t appear angry that I’d obviously skipped classes and had fallen asleep on her couch with her daughter.

Kat sat up, smoothing a hand through her disheveled hair as she stared at her mom’s Lucky Charms pajamas. “Where did you get them?”

“What?” She took a sip.

“Those…hideous pajamas.”

She shrugged. “I like them.”

“They’re cute,” I said as I took off my hat, earning me an elbow in the side from Kat. “I’m sorry, Ms. Swartz, I didn’t mean to fall asleep with—”

“It’s okay.” She waved me off. “Katy hasn’t been feeling well, and I’m glad you wanted to be here for her, but I hope you don’t get what she has.”

I cast Kat a sideways look. “I hope you didn’t give me cooties.”

She huffed.

Her mother’s cell went off, and she dug it out of her pajama pockets, sloshing coffee onto the floor. She smiled, her face lighting up. Kat stiffened as her mom turned and headed into the kitchen.

“Will,” Kat whispered, standing.

I stood. “You don’t know that for sure.”

“I do. It’s in her eyes—he makes her glow.” She looked like she wanted to barf. Couldn’t blame her. “I need to tell her why Will got close to her.”

“And tell her what?” I blocked her from running into the kitchen. “That he was here to get close to you—to use you? I don’t think that’s going to lessen any blows.” I placed my hands on her shoulders. “We don’t know if it was him calling or what’s happened to him. Look at Carissa.” I kept my voice low. “Her mutation was unstable. It didn’t take long for it…to do what it did.”

“Then that means it held,” she countered in a whisper.

“Or it means it faded off.” I tried again. “We can’t do anything until we know what we’re dealing with. One at a time. We’re going to deal with things one at a time. That’s all we can do.”

Kat took a deep breath and nodded. “I’m going to go and see if it was him.”

I let her go, but called out, “I like your pajamas better.”

She turned around and glanced down at her pink and purple polka-dot pajamas. Slowly, she raised her gaze to mine.

I grinned.

Her lips twitched. “Shut up.”

I returned to the couch. “I’ll be waiting.”

The moment she disappeared into the kitchen, I let my head fall back on the couch. Sighing, I closed my eyes. Maybe on the outside it didn’t appear that I was too concerned about Will. I didn’t want Kat to stress over the situation involving him more than she already was. Will still in contact with her mom left a sour taste in my mouth. I knew we hadn’t seen the last of him.

I just didn’t know when we’d see him again and what that meant.