23
{ Daemon }
The bastard strolled on in like he owned the place, completely at ease and with absolutely no fear. His damn black trousers and white shirt even looked pressed.
Shoved in the back of my jeans, the rigged gun burned my skin, but before I could go for it, he spoke.
“Don’t even think about doing anything. I know neither you nor your sister is falling into line. I knew you’d be tough, but your sister surprised me. The game’s over.” He barely passed us a glance as he walked over to the table, straightened a chair, and sat down. “Your sister and the one with her will be slaughtered before you can blink an eye if you displease me. Keep that in mind.”
A deep growl rolled up my throat.
He glanced at the dead Luxen and then his violet eyes slid back to us. He tsked under his breath. “Daemon Black, I had so much hope for you.”
It took everything not to blast his ass into outer space. “Funny. You sound so much like someone I know already. Disappointed her, too.”
One dark eyebrow rose. “Hmm. Let me guess. Nancy Husher?”
I ground down on my molars. “You are on speaking terms with her?”
Ethan idly brushed the backs of his fingers along his pants, and then he hooked one knee over the other. “Not quite, Daemon. Please.” He extended a hand, and two of the chairs flipped upright. “Have a seat.”
“No thank you,” I said as Kat shifted closer to me. I had no idea what kind of frame of mind she was in right now.
Ethan smiled tightly. “I really wasn’t giving either of you an option. Sit or I’ll send the message to the others outside to kill your sister. Slowly.”
Anger was like a bitter acid in my blood as I stared down the Elder or whatever the hell he really was to our kind.
It was Kat who spoke, her voice surprisingly level considering what she’d just been through. “We’ll sit.”
Looking over at her, I saw that her face was pale and eyes slightly swollen, but her gray gaze was sharp. I took her hand.
Ethan chortled as he watched us. “Tell me, Daemon, what made you fall in love with a human?”
How in the hell was I supposed to answer that? I sat in the chair nearest to Ethan, which forced Kat farther away. “Why do you even want to know?”
“I’m curious.” He cocked his head to the side. “Answer me.”
My teeth were going to crack. “What’s there about her not to love?”
“Well, she’s a human.” His gaze flickered over her, his upper lip curling. “She’s mutated, but ultimately, she’s a human underneath it all.”
“So?” challenged Kat.
He ignored her. “She’s human, Daemon.”
“That doesn’t matter to me.”
“Really? Because I remember the Daemon who hated humans, hated what they’d done to his brother and brought onto his family,” Ethan replied. “I remember the Daemon I had such great hope in.”
“I was wrong to hate humans for what happened to Dawson. It wasn’t Beth’s fault or the fact that he fell in love with her. It was Daedalus.”
“An organization run completely by humans.”
I narrowed my eyes. All I could do was keep him talking, keep my brain blank from anything we planned. “Yeah, thanks for the clarification on that.”
He looked unmoved. “You can’t tell me that if your brother had never met that human girl, things would’ve been different. Same with you. Maybe even the whole world would’ve been different. After all, your actions in Vegas gave us the perfect opportunity.”
A muscle along my jaw started to pop. That human girl. I remembered him calling Kat that twice and I hadn’t really sensed the pure hatred then, just distaste, but I got it now. Oh yeah, I was really picking up on it now. “And guess what, Ethan?” I could feel Kat’s eyes on me. “I wouldn’t change a damn thing. Neither would Dawson. So chew on that.”
A flare of white light behind his purple eyes came and went. “What if I told you that your parents were alive when they arrived here?”
For a moment I didn’t think—couldn’t think. His words did not make sense.
“What?” Kat demanded.
Ethan didn’t even look her way. He was locked onto me like he was going to take me out to dinner later. “Your parents, Daemon. What if they came to Earth, but humans killed them? How would you feel about your precious human then? Or any human?”
Unable to stop myself from reacting to what he was saying, I sat back and stared at him. Again, I could feel Kat’s eyes on me, and I didn’t need to look deep to find the answer. “Yes. I would feel the same way.”
He stared at me curiously.
“Were . . . were they alive?” Kat asked.
“That doesn’t matter,” I snapped. And it was true. None of that mattered now. “This is bullshit. All of it.” My hands curled into fists atop the kitchen table. “What do you want, Ethan? Why this? You want to take over the world or something?”
“World domination?” Ethan chuckled. “That’s so cliché. So damn silly. I don’t give a damn about ruling this planet or any planet.”
I raised my brows.
“My parents were killed, Daemon. But you probably already realize that, since you know exactly what I am and I’m sure Nancy told you . . . Well, told you half of the truth.” Ethan folded his hands in his lap. “I was a part of the first group of Origins, before Nancy stepped in at a young and tender age to spearhead Daedalus.”
One of the first groups? Yeah, if what Nancy had said about them was true, the first group really didn’t have a great go at things.
“When they realized that my father had mutated my mother, they captured them. Started doing experiments. Whatever love those two might have had for each other was destroyed by the things they did to them and made them do, including my creation,” he explained without a drop of emotion. “I was a part of a limited group of Origins, and I grew up in a lab.”
“That sucks.”
That tight smile appeared. “You have no idea. I lived for years knowing that they could end my life if I did one thing wrong. Over and over, I watched other Origins, too young to really understand what they were, get taken away and never seen again. They were killed. And then I watched them murder my parents for an infraction that I committed.”
My hands, hell, my whole being itched to end this. “Like I said, that sucks, but I really don’t get why you’re telling me.”
“You don’t?” Ethan laughed, and for the first time, real emotion spread across his face. “I lived in Daedalus’s lab until I was old enough to be placed outside, into a controlled position. Not like some who were placed as senators or doctors. No. I was placed within the Luxen community, ordered to keep an eye on them.” He chuckled. “As if I would help them with anything. Or any Origin of my class would.”
“Class?”
“Yes. There’ve been roughly five classes. I was a part of the first. Your friend outside was in the second batch, and there have been three more.”
I was guessing that the last two were the ones including Luc and those freaking kids. “Are all the Origins from your group like you?”
“Like me,” he huffed, shaking his head. “You mean do they want what I want or are they no longer under the control of Daedalus? The answer is twofold. No Origin can truly be controlled by anyone. We are practically the closest things to gods.”
Wow, mouthed Kat.
“And those who are left of our class, which are few, want just what I do.”
Kat sat forward, sliding her hands off the table. “Few? There aren’t many left of your . . . uh, class?”
His gaze slid her way, and I didn’t like it. Not one freaking bit. “When you two escaped from Daedalus and Vegas happened, Daedalus began cleaning up—eradicating the Origins.”
Her brows pinched. “They said they started that when the Luxen arrived.”
“And you believe anything a human says? Of course you do, because that is what you are.” He sneered, his disgust evident, and he was really starting to piss me off. “They started cleaning house when you all decided to take down Vegas. All across the country, we dropped like flies, and it simply became time to end this.”
“End this.” I was so beginning to see where this was heading. “You found a way to communicate with the Luxen who hadn’t been here.”
“We’d been working on a way, and let’s just say we opened the doors for them. It was perfect timing.” He spread his hands wide. “And here we are. Most of the Luxen, both here and those who’ve arrived recently, answer to me.” His smile went up a notch. “I can be very convincing.”
Kat stared at him. A second ticked by. “You hate humans.”
“Loathe them,” he confirmed. “They disgust me. They are weak and fragile. They are fickle and dangerous. They deserve everything that is coming to them. The Luxen want to rule them, and they will. They already are, and that’s fine by me. I don’t care what they do, as long as humans suffer and experience everything that I have.”