Entropy (The Countenance Trilogy 3) (20 page)

“There is a way.” My lips curve at the idea. “You in the mood to do a little interdimensional exploration?”

“
Coop
,” she says it low, seductive. “I’m in if you are.”

I close my eyes and bend my head back. “Paragon,” I whisper, and the room shifts and warps beneath our feet. “Take us to Skyla.”

The scent of damp soil fills the air. A periwinkle sky hovers overhead as a blanket of fog sinks around us. Laken and I find ourselves in a thicket—nothing but a field of evergreens to our left and right.

A house sits up ahead with the lights on.

“Stay here. I’ll run up and see what’s going on inside.”

“Go ahead.” She warms her arms with her hands while I make a beeline for the oversized cabin. I’m guessing this is Skyla’s house since Edinger all but dropped us off at the doorstep.

I hop up the wooden porch, stealth, trying to keep low to the ground, and peer in through the sliding glass door. A group of teenagers sit around the table. I spot Skyla looking distressed in the back. The Wes lookalike is there as well. He looks out the window at me, squinting as if he were unsure if I was just a shadow. I turn around and jump down the stairs before running over to Laken.

“What did you see?” She catches me by the waist as I pant into her.

“She’s got a bunch of friends over. I think we need to find a better time to speak with her.” I look up at the ever-darkening sky. “You hear that? Let’s try it again. Make it work this time.”

The sky spins in a dirty shade of navy. The world rebuilds itself, and this time Laken and I hold one another on a dance floor as dozens of people move to the music.

“Looks like prom.” Laken takes a breath.

“At least one of us is dressed for the occasion.” I pull back and marvel at how hot Laken looks tonight. “You’re downright gorgeous. I don’t need to see another soul to know you’re the most beautiful girl in this room.”

“All right, Flanders.” She bites down on her lip. “You can give me all the compliments you want once we get back to your room. Let’s find Skyla.”

A dark-haired girl bumps into Laken as she dances with her friends. “Sorry.” She snarls as if she’s anything but.

“That’s okay. You wouldn’t happen to know where I could find Skyla Messenger would you?”

“Skyla?” She elongates her body at the sound of Skyla’s name. Her lips stretch into a dark, brooding smile. “Why, yes, I do.” She cuts her eyes over to me. She swallows down a laugh as if she knows more than she’s letting on. There’s an inherent evil about her and instinctually I think we should run far and fast. “You guys aren’t from around here, are you?”

“Not really. I’m Laken, this is Coop.”

“Chloe Bishop.” She holds out a hand, her body still grinding to the music. “So what’s up with Skyla? You’re not holding back some life or death information, are you? I could certainly relay it.” Her eyes roll back a moment as if she were dreaming up exactly what that might be—filling in the blanks with her own life or death scenarios.

Some blond guy comes over with a girl who looks vaguely familiar.

“It’s the mermaid from Halloween!” Laken whispers.

“That’s right, the girl with two names.”

“Effing, Coop!” The dude slaps me some skin. “It’s me,
Ellis
. We were kicking ass and taking names in the faction war, dude.”

“Faction war?” Laken looks to me for answers, and I shake my head. I’ve got no freaking clue, but I remember Skyla mentioning it the last time we were here.

“Whoa!” The Wes lookalike jumps between us. “Coop.” He slaps my shoulder. “What’s going on?” He looks around nervously as if the last thing he’s in the mood for is small talk.

Laken steps into him, touches his face as if he were a statue. “Who are you?”

He gives a nervous smile in lieu of an answer. “I take it you’re here for Skyla. She sort of has her hands full at the moment.” He cuts a dirty look to Chloe who’s grinding her hips into his backside. “Look, I gotta go. There’s someone special here that both Skyla and I need to talk to. Can you guys come back? Say in a few weeks? Things are pretty tough right now.”

I take a breath. “Yeah, sure.” Not what we wanted, but I guess it’s not the right time.

Laken pulls him in by the arm before he takes off. “Do you have any relatives in Cider Plains
—
anywhere
in Kansas?”

“No, I’m pretty sure I don’t.” He shakes his head apologetically. “We’ll catch up, soon, okay?” He taps a finger in the air as he takes off into the crowd—in a hurry to find Skyla and whoever that special guest might be.

“Looks like we’re out of luck,” I say as the music crawls down to a slow, melodic pace. “Or we’re
very
lucky.” I hold out a hand, and Laken latches on.

“It’s creepy here.” She lays her head over my shoulder as we sway to the music.

“Then by all means, let’s go home.”

The scenery shifts, the crowded dance floor is traded for my tiny, cloistered bedroom.

“We’re back.” Laken glances around at the humble surroundings. “Right here in my favorite place.”

My heart thunders against hers at the thought of my bedroom being her favorite place. It’s my favorite place when she’s in it. Anyplace she goes is my favorite. I never feel more alive than I do when Laken is around.

“Stay tonight.” I bounce my lips off her forehead. “I promise I won’t push things.”

She looks up at me with that tiny dimple digging into her cheek as if daring me to do exactly that. “Of course, I’ll stay.”

I kill the music and the lights before pulling Laken to the bed. We glide in next to one another, kicking off our shoes and smiling sweetly as I pull the comforter over us.

Laken scoots in and stares up at me with those wide eyes, and for the first time I see a level of hopelessness in them. A stabbing pain ignites in my chest because, deep down, I’m feeling it, too.

“Thank you for believing in me when nobody else would,” she whispers.

Here it is—one final moment to share our intimate thoughts.

“I still believe in you.” Somewhere in those words I was sending her a message, a code in plain text that screamed,
pick
me
. I’ve reduced my heart and logic to that of Marky, and all I could ever want in this moment is for Laken to
pick
me.

“I know you still believe in me.” She burrows in close, her hands rubbing freely over my chest. “Would you do me a favor, Coop?” Tears light up her eyes like shards.

“Anything. I’d rearrange the constellations for you, Laken.”

“That’s awful sweet of you, Coop.” She tucks her chin, bearing into my eyes from under her lashes. “But what I really want is for you to forgive me.”

“There’s nothing to forgive.”

She nods as if she understands. I’m not accepting an apology from her.

“Whoever you end up with,” her words scratch out of her throat lower than a whisper. “Whoever she is, she’s a very lucky girl.”

My gut cinches because with all my body and soul I want that to be Laken.

I suppose this is the part where I tell her the same about Wes, that I wish them all the best and that I’ll be cheering for them the rest of my life, but my ego and my budding hard-on refuse to let me sing the accolades of some other guy when I know, with all my heart, I’m the only one for Laken.

“I’m not looking for anyone else.” Not on earth, not in the tunnels. “I’m sort of closing up shop in that arena of my life.” The future is a poem I wrote and buried in Laken’s heart.

“Please don’t.” She flexes a weak smile, touching the outline of my lips. “You are too beautiful. I command you populate the planet with at least a dozen mini-Coopers.”

“Mini-Coopers, huh?” My dick ticks like a bomb, but I resist where it wants to land next. “I think the world will be okay without them.”

“Not true.” She presses in until we’re a breath away. “Please, I love you so much. I’d die if you weren’t happy.”

I want to say, I’m already dying, so we’d make quite a pair, but don’t.

“I’m happy right now, and that’s all that matters.” I touch my cheek to hers until her breathing grows shallow and even.

The night wears on, but I can’t sleep. I’d try counting sheep, but I know for a fact they’d all morph into Laken.

Her thigh brushes over mine as she scoots back into me. “You asleep?”

“Are you kidding?” I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her in tight until we’re spooning. “And miss a moment of you by my side?” Way to sound desperate and sarcastic all rolled into one. I guess it doesn’t matter. She and I both know these moments are fleeting. But I meant it. I don’t want to miss a single minute with Laken.

She reaches back and touches my cheek. “I don’t want to miss a moment with you either, Coop.”

But we’re going to miss a lot of moments.

In fact, this might be the last one we ever get to share.

When the sun finally yawns to life, we head downstairs, and I make us a big breakfast
—
pancakes, eggs, bacon, the works.

Afterwards, Laken sits on the couch, braiding Marky’s hair while I catch up on the college football draft on my laptop. It all feels so natural, so easy—right. To me it seems pretty clear we should be together, and if last night was any indication, she feels the same way. I’m hopped up on the fantasy that there’s some other way to get our families out of the tunnels without losing one another for a lifetime. Not that she still wouldn’t choose Wes, but my ego likes to think otherwise.

“Will you come again tomorrow?” Marky doesn’t waste any time in setting up our next meeting.

“Yes, I will.” Laken glances over at me. “I might even bring some special guests if you don’t mind. My sister should be in town, and she’s just your age.”

“Really?” Marky squeals, straightening in her seat. “I can’t wait! I’d better go clean my room, or she’s going to think I’m a huge slob.” She shoots up the stairs like a missile.

“You
are
a slob,” I shout after her half-heartedly.

“She is not.” Laken swats me with a pillow.

“You want to do a crossword puzzle?” I pick up my dad’s infamous book of brain strain off the table.

“I thought you’d never ask.” She pats a seat beside her. “My life is complete now.”

I fall next to her on the couch, and her hip grazes against mine. We solve the first three without a hitch before freezing out on an eleven-letter word for a Ned Buntline hero. Laken looks it up on her phone.

“It’s Buffalo Bill.”

“Mmm, I think you’re right, but then four across make no sense whatsoever. Something tells me this is going to take forever.”

Laken runs her finger over my hand then right down the pencil as if it were a phallic extension. “I’m good with slow. There are some things in life you just shouldn’t rush.”

My body throbs hot and ready to love her just as slow and long as she’d like.

A pair of steady footsteps make their way over.

“Coop?” Dad calls as he emerges from his office.

“Right here.”

Laken’s hair is rumpled. She’s still wearing her shiny red dress from last night. I’m pretty sure this reeks of “spent the night,” and I cringe at the thought of my dad tossing condoms at us like he did a few weeks back. Although this is one time I wouldn’t have minded impregnating anyone. It would have been my one and only chance to have a mini-Cooper running around even if he were being raised with Wesley playing the fatherly role. My stomach turns just thinking about it.

“I finished running those tests.” He stops short once he spots Laken, and his eyes bug out before he employs something just this side of a smile. “Good morning. Did you stay the night?” That smile glides right back off.

He likes to get to the point, I’ll give him that.

“I’m sorry.” Laken shrinks three inches.

“No, please don’t apologize.” He holds up a hand. “Everything okay?” He looks genuinely worried for her, and this warms me. I like the fact my father cares about her welfare. Laken already feels like family to me in so many ways. We would have been perfect together. A small voice inside me insists we still can be—that we will.

“Everything’s great,” she says it soft, less than convincingly, and my father, wisely, doesn’t press the issue.

“What about the blood tests?” I’m eager to find out if there’s any news.

“I don’t know.” He shakes his head. “Without a hint of what I’m looking for, the angelic bloodlines all add up to the same five factions.”