Catalyst (35 page)

             
"I didn't mean for her to sleep on me. Sorry."

             
"It's ok. It
kind of
pissed me off to watch you two snuggle all night and it helped me stay awake."

             
"I said, I'm sorry-"

             
"And I said, it's fine. I needed to stay awake. I've never watched her sleep for so long like that." He half sm
iled. "She makes little noises, and she kept saying something about chocolate, and she was
wrapping her hands in your shirt. I bet she does that to me when I'm asleep
,
too."

             
"I'm sure she does."

             
He shook his head sadly and after a long pause he said, "I'd give anything to be a human right now."

             
"What? Why?"

             
"Because you can do things for her that I can't. I couldn’t even take her into the doctor last night, because of what I am. I'm a liability to her."

             
"She's a Muse. The Lighters
detect her just like they can detect you. And they despise her just as much if not more than you."

             
"Is that sup
posed to make me feel better?" h
e asked in annoyance.

             
"I'm saying that you are pretty equal on the spectrum. You're both supernatural beings who love each other. So what…you're not from this planet. Who cares? Marissa doesn't and she's the one that matters right?
Besides, y
ou guys have the whole ebony and ivory thing down.
"

             
Ok, I was already over the Dr. Phil session.
             

             
He looked confused at first
,
but ultimately just shrugged and said,
"
I guess. But I just hate it that I can't take
care
of her the way
that
she deserves."

             
"You were doing a pretty good job of that when I tried to take her from you. A human man couldn't do any better, trust me." I pointed to my chest. "I am one."

             
"But she told me what you did for her
last night after you passed out
; h
ow you protected her inside
the hospital
when they were drawing her blood and then when the Lighter came."

             
"I was just doing what I knew you'd do for me if the situation were reversed and it was Lillian."

             
E
xcept that kissing part. Grrr. It ticked
me off just thinking about her lips on alien boy.

             
"I don't understand why I feel this way. I mean it's like my stomach is in knots just watching her lay on you, even though I know nothing is going on. I feel protective
,
but it's more than that. Like I want to smash something.
" He snarled - snarled!
- and tugged at his hair with his hand.
"
I feel like a Neanderthal."

             
I laughed as I said, "You are a Neanderthal! Guys are that way with their girls. Some call it being high-handed or cave man syndrome. I just call it good manners."

             
"So it's normal for humans to be…possessive?" he said as a gruff confession.

             
"Yep. I'm possessive as all get out. In fact, let's stop talking about it because it's making me itch to get home."

             
"Well, let's go home then," he replied and stretched. "I'm so done with this trip and we’re still alive which means we weren't followed."

             
"Sweet
." I leaned over to shake Marissa
,
but he stopped me.

             
"Please, just let her sleep if you don’t mind. She'd been so restless and odd since she helped Margo and I'm really worried
that maybe she pushed it too far
. Maybe rest was what she needed and she'll wake up feeling better."

             
"I'm dandy. You drive us to the casa and I'll lullaby your girl." He sent me a wry look that said 'cheap shot'. I grinned. "I know, sorry.
And by the way, what you're doing, letting her be comfortable
and
sleep on me even though you don't like it…proves you're not a Neanderthal." He smiled and chuckled silently. He opened his mouth and I knew what would spew out. "Are we almost done with the male bonding? Because I'm ready to go home, big man."

             
"Fine," he said and rolled his eyes in his Jeff way. "Fine, fine." He got in the driver's seat
. The engine
was already on
and the heat kicked on
higher
.
"It snowed all night. It might be a rough ride," he told me.

             
"Whatever. As long as we don't end up in the ditch, I'm good."

             
We stayed quiet and dr
o
ve
. I had almost fa
llen back asleep when I felt him jerk the van
to a stop. I wanted to sit u
p to see what was going on
,
but f
igured Jeff would bite my head off. But then I heard Jeff
's
angry breath
s
. Then he exited the van. I knew something was up. So I slid slowly and gently out of from under Marissa's head. She didn't even notice. She kept right at it.

             
I crawled over Simon and Billings. As soon as I opened the door and hopped out I pulled it closed
,
but didn't latch it so the noise wouldn't wake anyone. I straightened and cursed to myself. Jeff was standing in the middle of the snow covered road, in a short sleeve t-shirt like a freak show, as he stared down three enforcers. Two guys and one female. And they looked strangely familiar.

             
I made my way to them and they looked me over quickly before going back to Jeff.

             
"We have to do an ear check to let you pass through. We've had lots of rebel break-ins lately and Malachi is cracking down," one of them was saying.

             
"Here," I told them and thrust my head to the side for them to see. "All human and anti-rebelliony. Let's get going, big guy," I told Jeff
, but it was a no-go
as I knew it would be. But a guy can hope can't he?

             
"Not so fast. We have to check for marks on every person that passes through." He looked at me and did a double take.  "You look so familiar."

             
"I was thinking…wait. I met you
at the enforcement facility. My mentor was Billings."

             
"Oh yeah," he drawled and smiled
,
but then stopped. "Wait. We never saw you or Billings again after the explosion. We've all been reassigned to other facilities. We thought you died with the casualties."
             

             
"Nope, s
till kicking. But no offense, we got blew up the first day, man. I figured that job wasn't for me."

             
They laughed and nodded.

             
"Yeah, I guess that wasn’t really in the job description was it."

             
"They left that part out of the manual, and I don't blame them," I said. They chuckled again and I prayed it was working.

             
"Well, we've always got spots if you're open to coming back one day."

             
"I'll think about it. So, can we get through? Heat's broken in the van and it's freezing, man."

             
Jeff got the hint and crossed his arms over his chest, he pretended to shiver.

             
"I guess so. It's not like you would work for the enforcers if you were a rebel right?" he joked and I laughed to placate him.

             
"Nah, man. I don't think that would work out. Thanks. Maybe we'll see you around."

             
"Yep."

             
I waved and we made our way back to the van. But when Jeff started to drive passed, the woman yelled and pointed.
The enforcers drew their guns and I started to tell Jeff to gun the gas
,
but knew they'd follow us. I rolled down my window and heard her yelling, "That's our van. They are the ones who stole our van."

             
That's where I recognized her from. She was Lily's mom! The ones who ran Sherry and them off the bridge putting their van at the bottom of the river.

             
Wow, what a witch.
I wondered where her husband was.

             
I leaned out the window, though they fired a couple shots at us, and let my magic hands work. I blasted the two enforcer cars that were parked beside each other on either side of the road. They both landed on their tops as the enforcers scattered and glared at the van li
k
e we'd been unprovoked.

             
"Now, they won't follow."

             
"Nice work," Jeff said as he looked back to see what I'd done, and then slammed on the brakes once more.

             
There was big guy standing in the ro
ad. Lily's dad, that crazy lady'
s husband. He had on a Kevlar vest stacked with
bullets and a huge gun that mad
e me wonder what he was compensating for. Then he pointed it at the van and started shooting.

Rally The Troops

Chapter 28
- Lillian

             
I watched as Daniel rallied our troops, so to speak.
He was so focused, even though he was getting glares and rolled eyes
in
undulated waves throughout our group.

             
He kept glancing at me and I kept pretending like he wasn't.

             
He had been fighting the Lighter right in this spot before and the Lighter saw me as I looked on helplessly as to what to do. He had thrown Daniel and came at me so fast I didn’t know what to do. As he held me and made his way up the stairs backwards, Daniel, Max and Ryan had spoken quickly. The
n
when I was dragged outside I figured Daniel was coming to save me
,
but I never saw him. Strange, I thought.

             
Then they'd all showed up on the roof and ambushed the Lighters. The first place he'd looked when he landed was a quick flick of the eyes to me and then on with his work.

             
Now, after he dragged me back down in to bunker, he was attempting to explain to everyone how the Lighters operated. They said they had called
for
back-up and Daniel confirmed that they had.

             
We had no idea what that meant though. Did they have CB radios in their heads or something? He said they have a way to reach out and communicate with others but it was on an individual basis. They can't broadcast to a wide audience of Lighters, only the Taker can do that. So they had called a few reinforcements
,
but no one knew how many or how long it would take to get here. But as long as we took them all out, our location should be safe.

             
He told them in brief detail what the Taker was doing. Malachi was tricking people into turning 'rebels' in and instead of getting the reward money, he was consuming them after torturing them for information. He was also consuming all the 'rebels' who were brought in too. So far, from Daniels rough calculation, he'd killed over two thousand humans, just this past month alone.

             
My stomach rolled with that thought.

             
I tried to pay really close attention to what he was saying. I needed to know what was happening.

             
"You'll need to keep things quiet and dark so they won't be aware of your ambush. They need to think they are sneaking up on you."

             
"Why do you keep saying 'you' and 'your' like you're not one of us now?" Max said miffed. "You
are
one of us now, right?"

             
"I apologize. Thousands of years of talking about Keepers and humans as 'them' and 'you' are hard to break." Max nodded and waved for him to continue. "
We
need to
be
quiet and ready when they come. I can't hear them anymore, I can't listen to their call or hear their minds, I can't even read yours anymore. So I won't be able to help you much with that respect."