The Other Side of Truth (The Marked Ones Trilogy Book 3) (20 page)

Can you say one more thing to her?
Aku asked with a devastated sadness coating his voice.

I think she’s stopped listening.

Please, Patrick.

I let out a heavy sigh.
Okay.

Kira,
mai Chan
, if I could have burned down the world to save you, I would have.

I looked at Kira and repeated what Aku had said.

I watched Kira’s back for a long time until my eyes became too heavy.

So what does it mean?
I finally asked Aku.

You mean, ‘
aku rona kira okuno chan-rin’
?
he asked.

Yes.

Eight plus six equals fourteen.

I know that. I meant, what does it
really
mean?

Ah
, Aku said with an exhausted sigh that made me wonder if it was difficult for him to do this.

To everyone else aku rona kira okuno chan-rin is just an equation in Daemotic. But to us—Kira, Chan-rin and me—it means…family.

Family?
I asked in confusion.

Family.

That’s…

I know it’s stupid but—

I don’t think it’s stupid.

Aku was silent for a long time, and I began to wonder if he was still there. And it was so strange to be worried that he was gone. Because I had basically spent the last eleven weeks scared to death that if I let my guard down even for a moment that I might lose me and only be left with
him
. Because the sad, fucked up truth was that I had been him—Aku—far longer than I had ever been Patrick. That everything that was me was just some cobbled-together facade of genetic engineering, memory manipulation, and lies. But when I had finally let him in, it wasn’t the obliterating storm I had been expecting. Instead, it was more like remembering details of a dream you thought you had forgotten. Like I had been broken before with missing pieces and now those pieces were being slowly set back into place.

When I was in that space between dreams and reality, Aku finally spoke again.
Patrick?

Yeah?
I replied groggily.

Thank you.

For what?

For not sending me back there.

The Worst Hangover in the World

Friday, November 16th

TRAVIS

I
woke up groggily, my head
pounding. I really had to stop drinking so much, it wasn’t good for my—

I stopped rubbing the sleep from my eyes abruptly. There was a black lacy bra flung over my bedside lamp. Which I didn’t register as strange for all of five seconds before I heard a soft moan. I froze, my eyebrows shooting up as I turned slowly to look for the source of the moan.

There was a girl in my bed. A blond girl. A blond
naked
girl. A blond naked girl with red horns—
Oh FUCK!

NUALLA

I
sat on the edge of
Ms. Navarro’s class, the seat closest to the door, just in case Roy needed me. It was ironic that I spent so little time in class nowadays not because I was ditching, but because Roy had to keep pulling me out for meetings or other problems that needed
chancellarius
approval. I had known that my dad was basically the center of our government, but I hadn’t thought it was so literal. Just thinking about it all was a little exhausting, and I wasn’t getting a whole hell of a lot of sleep in the first place.

Ms. Navarro was a good half hour into a lecture on the sections of
The Kalo Book of Law
that could not be altered by any
chancellarius
without approval by the Avaya Chancellarius, when Travis burst through the door. He looked down at me, panic filling his eyes, and opened his mouth to say something. Then he seemed to notice the rest of the room was full of students.

“Uh…can I borrow Arius Nualla for awhile?” he asked Ms. Navarro in an anxious voice.

“We
are
in the middle of class, Director Centrina Viliyata,” Ms. Navarro stated sternly, a hand on her hip.

“It’s
really
important,” Travis all but pleaded.

“Is it official Embassy business?” Ms. Navarro asked skeptically, folding her arms.

“You could say that?” he replied quickly as he grabbed my hand and all but dragged me out from behind the desk. Not giving her an opportunity to object again.

Travis walked quickly down the hall with me barely able to keep up as he towed me along. Which was saying a lot considering I had damn near impeccable balance.

“Travis, where are we
going
? Your lab’s that way,” I pointed out as I gestured toward the opposite direction from where we were currently heading.

He didn’t look at me, didn’t stop, didn’t even slow down. “We aren’t going to my lab. Akiko’s in my lab. We’re going to the roof.”

“The
roof
?!” I asked in startled disbelief. We used to go to the roof a lot before Emmy and Travis graduated high school, but since then we hadn’t really been up there much, if at all.

A sick twisting feeling settled in my stomach. Something was very,
very
wrong.

When we burst through the door and onto the roof, Travis finally let my hand go. He walked on a few more steps and ran both his hands back through his hair. Halting them just at the base of his skull, his back to me.

“Travis, what’s
wrong
?” I asked in a deadly still voice as I took a step closer.

He finally looked at me, his hands dropping to his sides. “Wrong? Who said anything was wrong?”

I folded my arms under my chest and glared at him dubiously, because he wasn’t fooling anyone. “You’re wearing two different shoes, your shirt is on backwards and you just pulled me out of the middle of class for ‘official Embassy business.’”

His mouth fell open and then closed quickly as he swallowed hard.

“
Travis
,” I said as I tapped my foot impatiently.

He held up a finger and opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but then he turned and started pacing back and forth.

“Travis, will you
please
just tell me what the hell is going on?”

He covered his face with his hands as he continued pacing. “I fucked up, and I mean
really
fucked up and—”

“Travis, just spit it out already!” I snapped in exasperation because his anxiousness was really starting to scare me.

He stopped abruptly. “I slept with Parker and she’s a Kakodaemon,” he said in such a hurried rush I almost didn’t understand him. As it was, I just stood there blinking at him for a few moments.

“
Excuse me
?!”

“I slept with Parker, and she’s a Kakodaemon,” he repeated in a voice that almost made it seem like it was a question.

“You slept with a
Kakodaemon
?!” I asked in horror, my eyes going huge.

“Well I didn’t
know
she was one when I was—”

“How could you
not
know?! Were you fucking blindfolded or something? Because last time I checked, sleeping with someone generally involves them being naked!” I shouted at him.

“I swear to the
gods
Parker had blue horns last night, but this morning they were red.”

My mind raced in a thousand different directions that made my head hurt.

“Oh,
gods
, Travis, this is bad,” I said as I ran both my hands over my face. This was a fucking disaster. Maybe I had fallen asleep in Ms. Navarro’s class and this was all just some terrible dream.

“You think I don’t fucking know that?!” Travis snapped a little hysterically. And that, more than anything, told me I wasn’t dreaming. Because in my dreams—even my nightmares—Travis was never an irrational mess.

“What did she say?” I asked, looking over at him.

Travis’ brow furrowed, but the manic gleam in his eyes didn’t lessen. “What do you mean?
Today
? Today she didn’t say anything.”

“Okay, well, then what did
you
say?”

“I…kinda just ran out without saying anything,” Travis admitted, looking at his shoes.

“You
left
her there?! Travis, are you
insane
?!”

You Are So on Your Own

Friday, November 16th

TRAVIS

“P
arker?” I called out uncertainly
as I pushed the door to my apartment open.

There was no answer.

I shrugged at Nualla and we both stepped cautiously into the apartment. Something crunched under Nualla’s boot and she looked down. The shattered remains of the tequila bottle covered the dark wooden floor along with my now-cracked iPhone, a book on mixing sci-fi inspired cocktails, and a few DVDs. Her eyebrows shot up, and then her eyes darted around, surveying the rest of the wreckage.

“From the looks of this place, I’d say Parker was pissed with you when she woke up and realized you’d bailed,” Nualla stated as she lifted her boot back up off the sticky floor.

”No…I’m pretty sure this is all from last night,” I admitted, avoiding her eyes as the blush crept across my cheeks.

“Kinky,” Nualla snorted, unable to conceal her smirk.

I rolled my eyes at her. “Shut up.”

“I can’t believe you just left her here,” Nualla said as she leaned down and picked up a picture of me, her, and Emmy at the Coffee Press. The corner of the frame was smashed, but the glass was miraculously still intact.

“I panicked,
okay
? Geez,” I said sourly as I picked the collection of DVDs off the floor and shoved them back onto the bookcase. “What would
you
do if you woke up and found you were in bed with—”

“Is that the shower running?” Nualla asked abruptly.

I looked up in the direction of my bedroom and sure enough, a sound like distant rain was coming from down the hall.

“Uh…”

“You are
so
on your own with this one,” Nualla stated as she shoved the picture frame at me and turned on her heel. I clutched it with numb fingers as she stalked past me back toward the front door of the apartment.

“But what if she’s a Kakodemoss assassin?” I pleaded as I turned and took a few steps after her.

Nualla spun around quickly, and I nearly collided with her. “One, you should have thought about that
before
you slept with her,” she pointed out as she jabbed a finger in my chest. “Two, if she was a Kakodaemon assassin why the
frak
would she stick around to take a shower?”

“Uh…” I really had no fucking answer for that.

“
Bye
, Travis,” Nualla called out over her shoulder as she walked out of my apartment, waving. “See you at lunch if you’re not dead.”

I stared after Nualla for a long moment before I finally shut my apartment door. Then I turned slowly back toward my room.

Oh gods, I was so royally screwed.

I crept through my room to the open door of the bathroom, and peered in cautiously. The curvy shape of a girl moved behind the steamy glass of the shower, and I froze. The memories of her soft, beautiful body moving against mine made my heart slam harder in my chest and my breath come up short.

As if she sensed that someone was watching her, Parker stilled, but only for a second before she went back to running her hands through her hair.

“If you’re someone
other
than Travis Centrina, know that I’m well-practiced in a dozen forms of combat and could snap you like a twig. If you
are
Travis Centrina, I might just do that anyway,” Parker stated with a deadly calm.

“I…deserved that,” I breathed out on a shaky breath.

Parker looked over at me and even through the foggy glass I could see the fierceness burning in her eyes. “You
left
me,” she stated accusingly before she turned her back on me.

“I…I’m sorry,” I said heavily.

“So what do you have to say for yourself?” she asked as she clenched her hands into fists at her sides, her back still to me.

“Apparently you’re a Kakodaemon?” I said with a nervous shrug.

She turned around quickly, and opened the shower door. “Is
that
why you ran off?”

I just gaped at her in disbelief. “Of
course
! It scared the fuck out of me to wake up with a red-horned girl in my bed.”

She let out a sigh, and folded her arms under her bare chest. “Oh, good, I thought it was something else.”

“Like
what
?!” I yelped.

Parker looked to the side, and ran her teeth over her bottom lip uncertainly. “I thought maybe you regretted last night.”

“Oh hells
fucking
no, last night was amazing!” I blurted out stupidly.

“Really?” Parker asked as she looked up at me shyly from beneath her lashes.

“If you couldn’t tell, then I did a really shitty job and I’m sorry.”

Parker snorted a small laugh, and I grinned along with her. Then it finally seemed to register in my brain that she was standing in front of me in all her wet, naked glory.

I coughed, and swallowed hard as I tried desperately to not trace her naked shape with my eyes. But as the blush started to creep across my cheeks, I gave up and looked away as I ran my hand back through my hair.

“Just to ease my anxiety, you weren’t sent here to kill me or anything were you?”

“Of
course
not,” she sighed, rolling her eyes at me before she ducked her head back into the water stream of the shower. “And before you ask,
yes
, Kiskei knows what I am—
and
Alex.”

“Oh, that’s good. Because explaining to them how I found out is really low on my list of things I ever want to have to do.”

Parker giggled, and I cracked a crooked grin.

The conversation drifted to silence, and I just stood there unsure of what to do or say next. I ran my sweaty palms down my jeans before I leaned against the wall.

Parker leaned back, and peered out the still open shower door. “Why are you just standing out there? Are you waiting for a formal invitation or something?”

“Sorry, I was just a tad bit concerned that you might kill me,” I said wryly as I pulled my shirt over my head.

“Trust me, if it was my intention to kill you, you would already be dead,” Parker stated with a mischievous grin.

“’Cause that makes me feel
so
much better,” I said sarcastically as I leaned against the counter to unlace my shoes.

I stood awkwardly in the corner of the shower against the wall, watching the streams of water snake their way down Parker’s perfectly formed—

Breathe, Travis, just breathe. You’ve seen her naked before. This is nothing to get so worked up about.

I needed a distraction—
any
distraction. I looked up at the ceiling and asked, “So how did it happen?”

“Hmm?”

“You being a Kakodaemon, how did it happen?” I asked again as I forced myself to keep my eyes on her face.

Parker froze and her hands slipped slowly down from her head. “I’m not actually Kakodaemon, or Kalodaemon. I’m something in between.”

“Oh.” I opened my mouth to ask how something like that could even happen, but stopped. There was something about her in this moment—naked and wet in the warm cocoon of the shower steam—that made asking such a question seem wrong. So I asked something else—something that seemed far less…
private
.

“How is it that you appear Kalodaemon? I mean, do you always look that way unless you’ve just slept with someone? Like some weird chemical reaction or something?” I babbled nervously as I rubbed shampoo into my hair.

Parker looked at me, and I immediately felt stupid. “You come up with the weirdest things,” she said with a hint of a smile that grew broader with each heartbeat. “If you
must
know, I have a pendant that alters my appearance so I appear Kalodaemon.”

“Oh,” I said as I traded places with her and stuck my head under the stream of water. “Is it that one you always wear?” It was probably like the ones Tylia had found on the black market.

Parker didn’t answer, and when I emerged from the water she was watching me. “What?” I asked uneasily.

Parker just gaped at me, a bit startled. “You have a Mark on your back.”

“Well probably, I mean you
did
dig your nails in there pretty good last night as I remem—” she was shaking her head. “—ber.”

“No, I meant like a Marked Ones’ Mark,” she clarified as she traced the pattern of the Mark in the air in front of her.

“
What
?” I said, slowly dropping my hands down to my sides.

“You have a Marked Ones’ Mark right in the center of your back. In the exact same place as your brother. It’s much fainter, but it’s there, clear as day.”

A million thoughts raced through my head, and then collided.

“You’re going to make me go back to your labs and run me through a bunch of tests again, aren’t you?” I asked flatly.

“Oh, most definitely,” she confirmed with a slight smirk. “Just not right this moment.”

“Oh
fabulous
, because I was hoping to finish with this shower and maybe put some clothes on first,” I said sarcastically as I rinsed off the remaining soap suds that were still clinging to my ribs.

Parker ran a finger down my chest and abs until she reached the crest of my hip bone. “Well…I guess you
could
put clothes on. Or…”

My brow furrowed. “Or? Or
what
?”

In answer Parker ran the inside of her thigh across my leg and slipped her hands behind my neck. The entire length of her body pressing up against mine.

“
Oh
,” I said, my eyebrows shooting up in surprise as I caught her meaning. “I like,
or
. Let’s go with
or
.”