Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy (86 page)

“I didn’t know you could—” I rolled my shirt down. “Th-thank you.”

My entire body cooled and the sweat on my forehead
dissipated. A serene calmness flushed through every muscle and
tiredness swept over me. My eyelids became heavy.

Everything around me softened out of focus. I wanted to panic in fear, but there was no fear within me.

“Solus,” the name barely came out of my mouth. I fell backward onto the bed and tried to fight back the heaviness in my bones.

Every thought zipping through my brain vanished and I was sucked into a deep, dark sleep.

I awoke, unable to recall when I’d fallen asleep. Lucy sat beside me on the bed, combing her fingers through my hair lovingly.

“Morning, Daddy.” She smiled. My heart melted.

“Hey.” I pushed up from the bed and looked around. “Where’s Solus?”

“He’s upstairs with his mommy and daddy.”

“Oh.” Then I gasped. “Where’s Judas!?”

“Solus said he had to go home.”

“What? Do the others know?”

“He went to tell them, but he said I should let you sleep because you needed it.”

I assumed when Lucy said Solus
told
her things, she meant he
showed
her, because I still hadn’t heard another word from his mouth since he had called her name.

I went upstairs with Lucy. The others were eating breakfast at the kitchen table. Alice’s mother sat on one end and Kareena on the other. Brian and Alice sat beside each other and Solus sat in a chair across from them with a bowl, pushing cereal hoops around with a spoon. Getting Solus to eat was almost as much trouble as getting him to sleep.

I pulled out the chair beside Solus and gestured for Lucy to sit there. Immediately, Kareena pushed her chair out and stood. She scooped up the plate and fork from her place and stormed off into the living room.

I sat in the chair she had relinquished.

“
Would you like me to make you something
?” Jane asked.

Brian and Alice had eggs and toast. Nicest breakfast we’d
had in a long time. Lucy took the empty bowl at her place setting and dumped cereal into it. She reached for the half-gallon of milk and I scrambled to grab it before she could.

“I’ll get that,” I said, twisting off the cap and pouring just a little milk into the bowl on top of her cereal.

“
Thanks.” She flashed a toothy grin and then
started eating. Solus suddenly took a greater interest in his own cereal.

Jane got up and went over to the stove. She grabbed a pan from the sink and started cleaning it with a sponge and soap.

“Hey, it’s okay.” I waved at her. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me right now. I’ll just have cereal.”

“You sure?” Brian looked up from his plate. “I can make you something.” He twisted in his chair to look back. “Jane, you should sit down and relax.”

She scuttled back over to the table and sat in her seat. “Is, uh, she going to be okay?” Her eyes darted toward Kareena.

“
Yeah,” I replied, taking a clean bowl from Jane. I poured
some cereal and drowned it in milk. I glanced behind me into the living room. Kareena sat on the couch, leaning over her plate, picking at her food with a fork. “I think she’ll be okay. Things have been rough for us all lately.”

“I of all people know that,” Jane replied with a nod. “Things haven’t been the same since you two left. The police asked a lot of questions.” She gestured at Brian and Alice. “Part of me wanted to tell them the truth—that some crazy alien race had implanted in you all glowing DNA and that you ran away from home to get away from other people. But then I realized how ridiculous that sounded. I didn’t need to be put away with your mother, Brian.”

“How is she? Do you know?” Brian stacked his fork and crumpled paper towels on top of his plate and pushed all of it aside. “Have you heard anything at all about her?”

“No, Brian. I’m sorry, I haven’t. Since I’m not family, they don’t send updates. I don’t think she liked me much anyway.”

“She didn’t,” Brian said. “I don’t know why, but she didn’t. I’m sorry, Jane.”

“We aren’t obligated to like everyone,” Alice muttered, chewing the last piece of her toast.

“No, we’re not,” I agreed and ate the last scoop of cereal
from my bowl. “Excuse me.” I pushed out my chair and walked
into the living room. “Kareena?”

“I don’t want to talk to you.” She crossed her arms.

“Kareena, come on.”

“No.” She looked up and then away. Then up again. Her jaw dropped. “Your light!”

“What about it?”

“The corrupted light—it’s gone!”

Solus.

“What?” she asked.

“Solus touched me last night and his light started glowing. I don’t know what he did, but it knocked me out cold.”

“Did he heal you?” She set her plate on the coffee table and stood. “Do you feel—wait—it’s still there. I can see it. It’s just smaller. Maybe it’s in remission?”

“Judas told me Solus carries Healer DNA, but he also said Solus couldn’t stop the corruption from…
taking me
.”

“Anything that buys us more time is better than nothing, right?”

“I guess, but we can’t go around letting Solus touch every
person in the world. That’s too risky for us all.”

“My dad. Can he touch my dad? Maybe it will slow the progression of the disease until we can find a cure.”

“Maybe. I don’t know if that’s the safest idea right now, though.”

“Why not? You know damn well you’d do anything for Lucy, but now that I’m asking for one tiny little favor, you’re gonna shut me down just like that?”

“It’s not that simple.”

“I think it is, David. I think you just don’t want to—” She sucked in a breath and her eyes widened. “What do you want!?” she shrieked, squeezing her eyes closed.

Everyone came rushing in from the kitchen. My bangle grew warm and emitted iridescent, colored light.

“
Bring the child,”
an ethereal voice reverberated through
my head.
“We will help you.”

Prism.

A dazzling portal of light appeared before us.

The decision was instant. “I’m going,” I said, turning to Brian and Alice. “Kareena?”

She was holding her head in her hands.

“Kareena?” I pressed a hand onto her shoulder. “Let’s go.”

She looked up at me, squinting. “My head… Ugh.” She groaned.

“I know. I’m sorry, but we need to hurry. The Prism may be able to help your dad.”

My words seemed to give her strength. She straightened up and wiped a fresh tear from the corner of her eye.

Brian and Alice went through first, Solus’ hands in theirs.
Then I ushered Kareena through and turned to Jane, who was staring toward the portal with huge eyes.

“Can you see it?” I asked.

“No… Where did they all go?”

“All you need to know is we’ll be in good hands, Jane. Thank you for what you’ve done for us.”

She smiled for half a second before her expression curved
back into one of worry.

I took Lucy by the hand and pulled her through with me.

Chapter 27

W
e were transported to the white room—the one with
the enormous window looking out over Earth and the glowing
white orb floating in the center.

“The Saviors, though few remain, are coming for you,”
the Prism announced in their fluttery, echo-like voice. “They
want the Solus Child.”

“We know,” Brian said. “Judas—I mean the translator—went back to them in the middle of the night. He said he wouldn’t hurt Solus while he was with us, but I don’t know what he told the others when he got back.”

“Your bracelets have been altered to harness the ability
to create portals,” the Prism added. “This is a valuable asset.”

“Only two of us can do it, though,” I said. “Does that mean we’ll always be the only two with the ability?”

“Yes. We are unable to manipulate energy in such ways. The Saviors have always been creators. They thrive on experiments and the study of energy use and binding. This is how they created a Variant and this is how they changed all of you.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lucy walk over to Solus
and sit in front of the huge window to watch Earth.

“So the Saviors are scientists?” I approached the glowing
orb. “Judas said something about separating from you—the Prism—but having to take physical bodies in order to do that. Why?”

“The Saviors believe their fluorescence is more viable than ours
and less vulnerable to discrepancies and weak
ness. However, the onset of the virus proved them wrong, and that we were stronger as a single entity. When you separate a life force into various parts of its whole, it is easier
to understand how the dissection could cause vulnerability.”

“What do they want to do with Solus?” Brian asked. “Take
him apart or…”

“They will study his inherited immunity in an attempt to
create a vaccine which can be distributed among the remaining Saviors. But time is short and they have become desperate
now with very few survivors left. It is not like their race to understand death. This desperation has made them reckless
and dangerous, and we believe they may have hastily infected
more humans with the light after the virus mutated.”

“What!?” I looked back at the others. “Doesn’t that mean
more people will die?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“
They’re not getting Solus,” Alice snapped. “No way.
We’ll fight back… somehow. They’re going to have to go through me first.”

“They’re going to have to go through
all
of us,” I added.

“We know Solus slowed the progression of your infection,
David,” the Prism said. “His Healer light combined with his mother’s Starter DNA made it possible to share a small portion of his energy with you. This is not enough to stop the virus from spreading or from taking others.”

“Could you help us?” Alice asked. “If we stayed here, would you be able to use Solus to find a cure?”

“We have been watching him closely since the moment we retrieved him from the Saviors,” the Prism started, “but we have been unable to formulate a solution that will resist evolutions of the virus on your planet. His genetic makeup
defies logic. He is the child of two humans who have
fluorescence intertwined with their DNA, and yet he has partially acquired Savior abilities. We cannot explain this, nor comprehend how he has been able to resist the outbreak altogether.”

“If we can’t stop it,” Kareena spoke up, “will we all… die?”

“That is likely.”

She tried to resist frowning and turned away. I didn’t need to see her face to hear her angst manifest as shuddering breaths.

“We’ll find a way to help your dad,” I said, trying to be optimistic. I reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, but
she pulled away. I didn’t want to see her in pain, and if I could have done something to help her dad, I would have, but I was dying, too. Maybe Solus had slowed down the progression
of the corrupted light, but in reality—I didn’t have much time left. I didn’t know how much time I had to be with Lucy or how she’d cope when—

The floor quaked and I teetered, fighting to catch my balance.

Kareena shrieked and stumbled into me.

“What was that!?” Brian shouted, taking Alice and Solus by the hand.

I lunged for Lucy and scooped her into my arms just as the floor rumbled again.

“The Saviors,” the Prism echoed.

A thunderous boom pierced my ears and a blast of white light flashed against the window. A fiery wave of yellow-orange sparks tore through it, fracturing the material into a mosaic of flaming red cracks.

“Guys!” Kareena darted toward me and grabbed onto my arm. “Make a portal and get us the hell out of here, David!
Hurry!”

“I…I can’t!”

“What do you mean, you can’t? Why not?” Her eyes kept
darting between the fracturing window and me. “You have the bracelet!”

“Yeah, I know! But I haven’t tested it since Judas fixed it. I don’t even know if it’s safe—”

“We’re about to die!”

Ripples of light the color of molten lava skittered across the window, leaving behind a trail of jagged, singed, smoldering lines.

If that window shattered, we’d all die. Instantly.

Alice attempted to conjure a portal, but her light kept flickering in and out. Solus reached up to help her channel her power.

Something ripped Lucy out of my grasp. I lunged forward,
flailing and reaching for her. The ground disappeared from beneath my feet and blinding white light swallowed me up.

I fell, tumbling, drifting through nothingness. Unable to breathe. Suffocating as my body spun, freefalling. I couldn’t tell which way was up. Which way I was—

I hit the ground hard and let out a gruff moan of pain. My jaw and ribs ached from impact and my head spun from
the disorientating fall. I opened my eyes and groaned, blinking
several times to try to bring the room into focus.

“Where…?” I came onto my forearms and pushed myself up off the ground. Standing hurt. My stomach throbbed with sickness. Every time I took a breath, I strained
to bring in enough air. Like breathing through a straw…

Where am I?

I heard someone struggling and turned.

Alice! She was face down on the ground with her hair fanned out around her.

“Alice!” I bent down and touched her.

“No!” she yelped, cringing.

“It’s me, David!” I could hardly speak as my vocal cords tightened.

She craned her neck up to look at me and relief washed over her face.

“Oh. Thank God.” She lifted her arm toward me and I helped pull her to her feet. “Th-Thank you,” she whispered.

“Save your breath.” I wheezed.

She nodded.