Someone cursed as light exploded from Charity’s fingertips and arced across the room, coming straight at me. There wasn’t even time to scream.
I was going to die.
Without warning, something—no, Luc—crashed into me. The impact knocked the air out of me. He brought me down, twisting in midair and hitting the floor, taking the brunt of the fall. For a brief second I was splayed out on top of him, hip to hip, absolutely stunned. “That was . . . fast.”
Luc rolled quickly, shoving me underneath him as the plaster exploded above us, sending puffs of drywall dust into the air. “God, you still don’t listen to anything I say.”
“Wait. What?” I whispered.
“Stay put,” he said to me, and then sprung up, spinning around. “That was a huge mistake.”
I rolled onto my belly, lifting my chin.
Stalking forward, Luc lifted a hand as I sat up, scrambling to my feet. A rush of air whipped through the corridor, lifting my hair and sending the strands flying across my face. The next second, Wayland was scooting backward, across the dance floor. Sean slammed into the wall and slid up it, pinned several feet off the floor.
“Wow,” I murmured.
Charity charged Luc—straight up charged him like a linebacker.
Gasping, I shot forward, skidding to a halt when Luc stepped into the attack. He dipped as she swung at him. White light crackled from her open palm. Luc caught her outstretched arm as he rose, twisting her backward. She flipped through the air, but Luc caught her before she hit the floor.
Grayson pulled a stool off the table and sat down, shoving the Blow Pop back into his mouth.
Luc held Charity there with one hand around her throat. He lifted her up. “Normally I don’t like to do this, but you just tried to kill Peaches, and I find myself partial to peaches. Even the edible ones. Don’t”—Luc gripped her other hand before it connected with his arm—“even try it.”
Luc threw her back. She hit the floor, rolling several times. He prowled forward as she shot to her feet. Charity slipped into her true form. Her veins lit up. My breath caught. A white sheen filled the club as the light in her veins seeped into her skin, replacing bone and tissue. Heat flared like the air was kicked on, and I shrunk back, pressing against the bar.
The glow was so intense, like staring into the sun. Within moments, Charity was incased in light. She went after him again.
“Wow,” Grayson said, cocking his head to the side. “She does not learn.”
“Nope.” Luc stepped to the side, nothing but a blur. He caught her by the throat again, bringing her to her knees. He was seemingly oblivious to the crackling light stretching out toward him.
Sean fell from the wall, landing in a crouch. He popped up and darted across the dance floor. Without taking his gaze off Charity, Luc threw out his other hand. Sean shot into the air, flipping sideways, right over Grayson’s head. He landed in one of the shadowy alcoves.
“You know, you could help, Gray,” Luc gritted out.
“Nah.” He swirled the stick around in his mouth. “Looks like you got it all handled.”
Luc rolled his eyes as he focused on Charity. “I didn’t want it to come to this.” A different kind of light rippled over his arm as he knelt down. “But you do not threaten what is—”
Charity’s scream drowned out the rest of what Luc was saying. Her arms flailed out as her back bowed. Her light flickered rapidly, like a bulb that was going to burn out.
Sean’s roar sent a bolt of fear through me as he pushed to his feet.
“No!” Wayland shouted a second before he went all Luxen.
It was too late.
Her glow receded just as the brighter light, the light radiating from Luc’s hand, burst from her eyes and open mouth, streaming to the ceiling of the club where it seemed to roll harmlessly across the studs and beams.
Luc let go.
Charity hit the floor, her arms outstretched, her knees bent. I pressed my hand to my mouth. She looked like . . . like what my mom had said, like Chas when he was slipping back and forth between the two forms when he’d been injured. Her skin reminded me of a translucent shell with empty, dull veins and features that were almost human but not quite.
Wayland shot across the floor, making a beeline for Luc, who was stepping over the body. Sean was running out of the alcove, bypassing Grayson, who looked like all he was missing was a bowl of popcorn.
The two male Luxen launched themselves at Luc. I didn’t think. Spinning around, I grabbed the closest thing possible—a heavy bottle of amber liquid. Cocking my arm back, I winged it as hard as possible. The bottle smashed into Sean, shattering upon impact.
“A bottle?” Grayson laughed. “Did you just throw a bottle?”
“At least she’s helping,” Luc shot back, lifting his hand.
“Hey.” Grayson pulled the sucker of his mouth. “I’m here for moral support.”
I cringed as Sean shook the broken glass and liquid off and slipped back into his human form. His eyes narrowed on me.
Luc opened his fist, and it was like an invisible lasso caught Wayland around the waist. Whipped right off the floor, he was thrown into the air and then he just—he levitated there.
Sean shot toward me, and I reached blindly behind me, grabbing for another bottle. Then he wasn’t coming at me. It was like a giant invisible arm swept him across the floor. Sean crashed into the table Grayson sat at. They went down in a tangle of legs, arms, and chairs.
Luc chuckled. “Moral support, my ass.”
With wide eyes, I picked up another bottle as one of the toppled stools flew across the floor, shattering against the wall. Grayson was on his feet, his usually perfectly coifed blond hair falling into his face.
“You made me drop my sucker.” Reaching down, he gripped Sean by the collar of his shirt and lifted him up. “And it was my favorite. Sour apple.”
Striding toward Wayland, Luc cocked his head to the side. “I would say I’m sorry about this, but that would be a lie. I’m not.” Luc closed his hand.
Bones cracked like thunder. Wayland’s body twisted and churned, his arms and legs breaking at impossible angles. His body folded like an accordion, collapsing into itself and squashing Wayland’s light like he was nothing more than a bug.
“Oh my God,” I whispered as horror rose inside me. When Luc said he could do everything a Luxen could do but better, he hadn’t been joking.
Luc’s head whipped around. His pupils glowed like diamonds as he lowered his hand. Wayland fell to the floor, and I knew he was dead before he even landed. Luc’s gaze dropped to where I clutched the bottle. That muscle flexed along his jaw and then he turned away.
Grayson suddenly skidded across the floor, thrown by Sean. “We came to you for help!” shouted Sean. “And this is how you respond?”
Spinning toward Sean, Luc stiffened.
“You’re going to regret this, so help me.” Sean moved so fast, he was nothing more than a bolt of streaking light.
But he didn’t make it far.
I saw him at the door, yanking on the handle. It wouldn’t budge. Luc stalked toward him. In his true form, Sean burst away from the door as Luc stopped in the center of the dance floor. A faint whitish glow appeared over Luc’s form. The air crackled and thinned, as if the oxygen were being sucked out of the entire room. I tried to take a breath, but it burned. I stumbled back, bumping into the shelf. Liquor bottles rattled.
“I am done with this,” Luc said, closing his hand into a fist.
The light around Sean’s body pulsed to an intense, nearly blinding white light. He jerked, falling to his knees. His back bowed as he threw his arms out. The light around him began to flicker rapidly and then it went out. Stopped. Oxygen rushed back into the room as Sean toppled forward, unmoving. A dark pool appeared under him, seeping across the floor.
My wide gaze lifted from the fallen Luxen to where Luc stood. The hazy glow receded back into him. So that was the difference between a Luxen and an Origin. The latter was able to kill by closing its hand.
Dear God.
“Well.” Luc sighed, looking at the floor—at the bodies. “That escalated quickly.”
Grayson shoved a hand over his head, pushing his hair back from his face. “That it did.” He looked over at me. “I think the girl is traumatized.”
Still holding the bottle of liquor, I glanced at the bodies. They looked so . . . weird. Like props from a science-fiction movie.
Luc slowly turned to me. His chest rose with a heavy sigh. “I’m pretty sure I told you to stay in the room.”
“No.” I forced my gaze away from the dead Luxen. “You said I couldn’t come down with you.”
He walked over to me, ignoring the bodies as if they weren’t even there. “You do realize that meant the same thing.” He stopped in front of me and reached out, prying my fingers off the bottle. He placed it back on the bar behind me as his eyes met mine. “Are you okay?”
My hands fell to my sides. “Yeah.”
His gaze flickered over my face and he seemed to draw in another deep breath. His voice was low when he spoke. “I had to, you know? I had to do that. Those Luxen were not good Luxen.”
I swallowed. “I sort of figured that out.”
“I’ve had a few run-ins with Wayland. He knew better than to bring them here.”
“They were invading Luxen, right?” When he nodded, I exhaled roughly. “That’s why you wouldn’t help them?”
His gaze searched mine. “I didn’t help them because they have no respect for human life. That’s why.”
My heart pounded in my chest.
“Wayland knew that any Luxen who would be a threat to a human would not receive my aid.”
“If they knew that, then why did they come to you?”
“Because they were desperate.” Luc looked away then, and I saw that Grayson was no longer on the club floor. “The task forces are ferreting out unregistered Luxen every day, and I have a feeling they’d done things that had brought unnecessary attention to themselves. They were bad.”
Having heard the way they’d spoken told me that, but would things have escalated like they had if I hadn’t been here? Guilt formed an uneasy knot in my stomach. “I should’ve stayed in your room.”
“Yeah.” His gaze slid back to mine. “You should’ve.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, fully understanding that if I’d stayed in the room, things might not have—
“Things would’ve ended the same way,” Luc cut into my thoughts. “Whether you stayed in the room or not, but you could’ve been hurt.”
“Don’t read my mind.”
He stared at me, somewhat unapologetically.
I sighed heavily. “They were scary, Luc.”
“They are. Most Luxen care for humans. Some don’t. Those Luxen were dangerous.” He leaned in, placing one hand on the bar, beside my hip. His lashes lowered. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I’m sorry you could’ve been hurt.”
I really could’ve been.
“She called you Peaches?” A faint smile tugged at his lips as he lifted his gaze. “I kind of like that.”
My nose wrinkled. “I don’t.”
“It works for you.”
“It’s just . . . lotion.”
“No.” He let his head fall back. “It’s more than that.”
I had no idea what to say to that. My gaze started to trek back over to the bodies. “Are all Origins capable of what you did?”
“No.” Two fingertips curled under my chin, guiding my stare away from the fallen Luxen. Luc lifted my head. He didn’t speak as our gazes connected. Silence stretched out between us. I should have been frightened of him, especially after seeing that. I should have been running out that door and screaming at the top of my lungs.
But I wasn’t.
I wanted to be, because that seemed smarter, feeling that way.
But I wasn’t.
“Most weren’t as . . . skilled as I am,” he said, and I couldn’t suppress the shiver skating over me. “But there were a few who were a hell of lot scarier than me. Ones who . . .”
“Who what?” I whispered.
“Origins that lacked all humanity.” His thick lashes lowered, shielding his eyes. “Ones I thought I could change—teach them to be empathetic, to be more human. I learned that even though we want to believe that there is never a lost cause, there are examples of such. There are times when there is nothing we can do to change an outcome.”
“I don’t want to believe that there are people out there who are lost causes,” I admitted. “It feels too defeatist.”
His fingers dipped, barely grazing the center of my throat. A different kind of shiver skated over me. “It’s being realistic, Peaches.”
“Don’t call me that,” I said, pulse thundering as the pupils of his eyes faded into a fuzzy black.
“What in the world did I miss?”
We both turned, finding Kent standing by the stage. Luc stepped back, and I felt like I could breathe again.
“I have to cut our time together short,” Luc said, dragging a hand over his messy bronze hair. “I’ll make sure you get home safe.”
“Wait. Why wouldn’t I get home safe?”
“Luxen come in threes, and from what I know of Sean and Charity, they have a brother. He may be dead already or he may come walking through the doors any minute, looking for his siblings.”
Holy crap, that was right. Luxen were triplets. I’d just never seen a complete set of them.
“Grayson is making sure no one is lingering outside right now, but I’d rather be safe than sorry and have you out of here just in case.”
Kent looked over at us. “Seriously? Why are there dead Luxen on the floor? And better yet, who is cleaning that up? Cuz it ain’t me.”
Luc ignored him. “You’re okay. Just didn’t want to take chances.”
I suddenly remembered what Sean had said about misunderstandings. “Wait. Do you think they have something to do with what happened to Colleen and Amanda?”
A weird look flickered across Luc’s face, one I couldn’t read because it was gone before I had a chance to really figure it out. “They could be,” he said, but for some reason, I didn’t think he believed that. He took my hand, pulling me out from behind the bar. “If there is another one, Grayson will find him.”
“Really? Because Grayson literally just sat there that whole time,” I pointed out. “The only thing he seems capable of finding is a lollipop.”
Kent snorted. “Sounds like Grayson.”
“It’ll be okay,” Luc said, his gaze flickering over me as he led me to Kent. “I’d just rather you be home at the moment and not here.”
Kent’s brows lifted. “Oh wow, tonight sounds like it’s going to be fun. Can’t wait. Still not cleaning up that mess.”
“But—” I paused as Kent patted my shoulder. I shook my head, turning from him. “Wait. We haven’t—”
“We’ll get time,” Luc cut in. “I’ll make sure of it, Peaches.”
My lips thinned. “Don’t call me that.”
“I’ll be in touch,” he insisted. “I promise, but I need you to go.” His hand tightened around mine. A heartbeat passed and then he tugged me to him, chest to chest. He dipped his head and his breath moved against my temple. The contact startled me. “Do this for me. Go home.” His lips brushed my skin. “Please.”
Unsettled and thrown off, because I had a suspicion he didn’t say please a lot, I did what he asked when he let go.
I left.