Tremble by Jus Accardo
“This is ridiculous,” Kale snapped, making both of us jump. “She’s not my girlfriend and I wasn’t given Domination. This is the way I’ve always been.”
“It’s not,” I said quietly.
“He knows.” Penny took a step closer to him. “I can feel the confusion swirling inside his head. His mind is at war with his emotions.”
Kale froze a foot from the door, pinning her with a dangerous glare. “Shut up.”
She ignored him and turned to me. “Whatever they did goes deep, but you are familiar to him.”
“Stop it,” he said, this time louder. He took a menacing step toward her, and I jumped between them as, at the tips of his fingers, a black mass started swirling.
But Kale’s hostility didn’t faze Penny. She gently nudged me aside and stepped closer. “Think, Kale. This is what you wanted more than anything. To save her. You found your way here—against all odds. Denazen buried everything you knew. You couldn’t remember your own name—or hers—yet you found me. For her.”
“You said it yourself,” I added, as the convulsing mass of black receded. Hesitant, I reached out and took his hand, surprised when he didn’t pull away. Instead, he stared down at our twined fingers, mouth agape, tightening them around mine. The sensation sent tingles of excitement shooting through me. “You don’t know what to believe. She’s right. You found your way here. There has to be a reason for that. Maybe you should at least hear her out before making any rash decisions, okay?”
He thought about it for a minute before nodding once in Penny’s direction. “Fine. I’ll hear you out.”
Penny nodded. “Denazen must never get their hands on more of my blood. They haven’t been able to reproduce it synthetically and, since they need it for the current successful drug trial, it will run out eventually.” She held up her arm. The one with the stunning red bracelet. “Inside this bracelet is a device that, with the push of a button, will destroy this house and everything inside it. I don’t ever leave.”
I blinked. “You’re telling us that you’re essentially wearing a suicide bomb?” That was it. Jury was in. Penny Mills was insane.
“There is so much you don’t know about Denazen. Their influence—their reach—extends much further than you can possibly imagine. If they were able to bring me into custody—a veritable never-ending source of the thing they so desperately need—they could engineer the army they set out to create all those years ago. The economy, world government—nothing would be safe. I am willing to sacrifice myself—and anyone else—to ensure they never get what they’re after.”
A lump formed in my throat. Anyone. The message came across loud and painfully clear. She’d said she brought Kale here to help me, but something had changed. “You changed your mind, didn’t you? You’re not going to give me your blood.”
“Quite the opposite, actually. When I first sensed Kale, I had no intention of helping you. I simply intended to make his transition smoother. Please, don’t take it personally. But this is a war we’re fighting. As with all wars, there are always innocent people caught in the crossfire. Then I realized who Kale was and what you meant to him.” She bowed her head and sighed. When she looked up, her expression was resigned. “I have no choice but to help you.”
Kale shifted from foot to foot. “Who I am?”
Penny smiled and rested her hand on his shoulder. “The fabled Reaper. The young man who will one day be responsible for bringing the Denazen darkness to its knees.”
In all the chaos of the last few months, I’d forgotten the story Kale told me when we first met. The Reaper. The man Mom told him to find if he ever managed to get outside the Denazen walls. It’s what brought us to Ginger and the Underground, and ultimately to the truth: Kale was the Reaper. Seen through Ginger’s ability and spread to the people to give them hope for the future during dark times. We’d looked for someone who hadn’t taken his place in the world. A foretold hero.
That story alone should have given me comfort. Kale was destined to take down Denazen and that meant he would eventually see that Dad and Kiernan were the bad guys—but it didn’t mean he’d recover his memory. Or that the damage done along the way wouldn’t destroy us all.
“I know they’ve darkened your world, but your love for this girl—for Dez—was enough to make me take a chance. If you let them, I believe your true feelings will show you the way home.”
“I—” Kale froze. One minute he was standing beside me, and the next he was on top of me. The breath whooshed from my lungs on impact and we landed in a tangle of limbs and shooting stars on the carpet at Penny’s feet as something behind us shattered.
The picture window.
Penny dropped to the ground, too, and I kept trying to twist to see what had broken the glass, but Kale was too heavy and wouldn’t let me up. “Penny, is there a back door?”
The only response was the sound of more breaking glass and voices outside getting closer.
Finally managing to twist around, I grabbed her shirtsleeve and tugged her closer. She coughed and grabbed my arm, squeezing until I thought it might pop off. “Penny?”
All the air in the room was gone. Sucked away, right along with any hope for the future.
“No,” I whispered. “Nonono!”
Spilling to the floor from an ugly hole in her gut was Penny Mills’s life—as well as my own. Bullets. They were using real bullets.
She raised her arm, cradling the bracelet in her left hand. “If you want to get out alive, run for your life.”
Kale cursed and tried to drag me off the floor, but I pushed him away. “No! We can get you out of here. The hospital—”
She ignored me and, with shaking fingers, popped the small red gem from its prong. Even with the chaos all around us, I could hear the tiny plinking sound as it hit the hardwood and bounced away. Beneath it was a tiny button, and before I could stop her, she pushed it.
“You have sixty seconds. Back door. Through the kitchen,” she wheezed. “G-Go!”
There was no telling Kale twice. Despite my struggling, he hauled me from the floor, threw me over his shoulder, and barreled into the kitchen and out the back door. We got several feet from the house before I managed to wriggle free. It was stupid and pointless, but I started back anyway. I had a better chance risking an explosion than I did getting my hands on whatever blood Denazen had left.
But it was no use. Kale tackled me before I got three steps. A deafening roar split the air and a tremor shook the ground beneath our feet as a bright flash of red and orange swallowed the house—and everything inside.
Including my last hope of survival.
17
I hadn’t said a word since Kale dragged me to the car. Agents had swarmed the backyard as we climbed to our feet, but Kale, who must have had a moment of clarity, fought them off with practiced ease. Now, with the trees zooming by in a blur of green and brown as my foot fell heavily on the accelerator, I went over the important moments in my life.
The first thing I’d mimicked—a stupid Barbie doll at the toy store with Brandt and Uncle Mark. The time Brandt and I smoked our first—and last—cigarette. The moment Dad told me Brandt had been killed. The first time I saw my mom. The moment Sheltie confessed to being Brandt. And Kale. Thousands of freeze-frame moments with Kale. There were some in-between things. Alex, scenes from parties, holidays with friends… None of it was enough.
When Able poisoned me, I’d been terrified of dying. Still, somewhere in the back of my mind, I’d always believed there’d be a way around it. No matter how low I got and how hopeless the whole situation seemed, I believed in my soul I’d make it through. And I had. I’d gotten the antidote and lived to see another day. This time was different. For the first time in my life, I truly felt like I had no hope.
“I’m sorry,” Kale said as we crossed the border back into Ben’s town. He peeked my way every so often but remained silent the entire ride.
“Are you?” I intended to ignore him, but the words slipp
It was late—or early, depending on how you looked at it. The road was empty, and the storefronts lining the sidewalk were dark. The world was slipping away. I didn’t care about manners and niceties. The fact that the engine was still running or that I was standing in the middle of the road in a strange town and nearly blocking a four-way intersection was of no consequence.
On the other side of the car, Kale got out as well.
“Are you sorry because you sucked face with my sister? That you’ve threatened to kill me several times? Or maybe you’re sorry that you’ve essentially kidnapped me?”
There was an edge of hysteria to my voice that, while it scared me, was somewhat comforting. Each day that passed without Kale was like a cancer that ate away my soul. For months it built, the pressure coming so close to consuming me, but I’d kept it together. Now, though, that buildup had finally reached the breaking point.
“Or,” I continued, stomping around the car to stand in front of him, “maybe you’re sorry that you can’t remember me? Could you be sorry because you’re too weak to admit you have strong feelings for me—even though you don’t understand them? Maybe you feel sorry for the poor, lovesick girl who’s sticking around in hopes of getting the most important person in her life back—just in time to die.” I smacked my head and stomped my foot hard. “That’s it! You’re sorry you just condemned me to death? Is that right? Because that’s what you did by dragging me from that house without Penny Mills. I’m as good as dead now. I’m dead. She’s dead. Ashley’s dead. So many innocent people—dead! Is that why you’re sorry?”
He waited. Patiently standing there while I raged in the middle of the road like a raving lunatic. The light had since changed colors—several times—but no other cars had come. Once I finished, breath coming in short rasps and heart hammering like the bass in the back of Brandt’s old jeep, he pushed off the car and was in front of me. Pinning me tightly between the back door and his body, he leaned close.
Intoxicatingly warm breath tickling my neck, he whispered in my ear. “Maybe I’m sorry about none of it.” His lips didn’t touch my skin, but I could feel them, excruciatingly close, as he moved down my neck and then back up again, trailing imaginary kisses all the way to my ear. Skimming the edge of my jaw with the tip of his nose, he pulled back, bright blue eyes affixed to mine. “Or maybe I’m sorry about all of it.”
How fast could the human heart beat before it exploded? How much could the body take before it simply caved?
There was so much going on in that moment. The fierce, hungry look in his eyes. A look that was at war with the language of his body.
Get closer.
Stay far away.
Touch her.
Don’t touch her.
Love her.
Kill her.
I opened my mouth to speak but could only gasp when he leaned even closer. Icy blue eyes kept me rooted as his jaw tightened. It was like he was concentrating. Trying hard to see me—really see me. “You’re right. I am lying. I have very strong feelings for you. I just don’t know if they’re good or—”
He never finished. Instead, he mashed his lips to mine, fingers gripping my hips hard enough to guarantee bruises. I could barely move—barely breathe—but I didn’t care. If I was going to die, then this was how I wanted to go out. He might not be 100 percent my Kale, but Kale was Kale. I would take him any way I could.
One minute we were pressed against the back driver’s side door, the next we were scooting toward the trunk, lost in each other. Our lips never broke contact. Not as he hefted me onto the trunk or as I wrapped my legs around his waist, securing him tightly as his fingers wound through the belt loops of my jeans.
The kiss at Ashley’s hadn’t done my memories justice. Granted, it’d been quick and mainly for shock value, but this… This was the fire I remembered. Even with Kale’s thoughts of me buried out of reach, I seemed to have an effect on him. I’d kissed a lot of guys in my life, but his reactions—even now—were unlike any I’d ever experienced.
He kissed me as though I were life itself. Precious and balanced precariously on the edge of everything. With each passing moment it grew more heated. It were as if he was waking up from an eternity of sleep and trying to make up for the time we’d lost. He was Sleeping Beauty and I was the prince.
God only knew how far we would have taken it if a car hadn’t pulled up behind us and the driver hadn’t leaned on his horn.
We pulled apart, breath labored. The driver swerved around us, screaming a string of colorful phrases, and peeled away, tires squealing as he disappeared down the road into darkness.
When I turned back, Kale was staring at me. “I… That was…”
Something rattled in the alley behind us. The streetlight on the other side of the road was out, so when I turned to look I almost missed it. The subtle flash of something metallic. “Shit,” I breathed. My legs were still wrapped around Kale’s waist, and when I threw myself sideways off the trunk of the car, he followed by default. The dart sailed harmlessly above us.
“Denazen,” I whispered, peering around the edge of the car. Sure. Someone couldn’t drive up now, right? It had to be in the middle of that awesome kiss? It was official. The universe had a grudge against me. Though maybe the driver had done us a favor. If not for him, I was pretty sure Denazen could have danced their way to the car with bells on and tranqued us at close range before we knew what was going on.
Kale dropped to his stomach as something dinged the side of the car. “They’re surrounding us. We need to move.” He grabbed my arm and shoved me toward the back wheel. “Get underneath.”
I slid my body along the blacktop and wedged myself beneath the car as Kale did the same. A small part of me started to panic. If someone came up behind and wasn’t paying attention, what would happen if they hit us? Would we be squashed?
“Here.” Kale pried the manhole cover off and dragged it to the side. The scraping sound it made against the pavement echoed through the streets. There was no way the agents hadn’t heard it. They would know exactly what we were doing—and where we were going. “Hurry. Get in.”
I tried to shimmy around, but the way I was angled, it was headfirst or nothing. Fantastic. Sewer diving. My December was officially complete.
I slipped my torso into the hole, grabbing the ladder tightly with both hands, and crept down several rungs, trying hard not to flinch at the icy metal. When my feet were clear of the opening, I kicked off and flipped. The landing was less than graceful, but nothing was broken and there was no blood. Sometimes that was all you could hope for. A few moments later, Kale’s feet appeared and the sound of the metal lid scraping the pavement as he pulled the cover back over the opening filled the air.
“Move,” he snapped, jumping from the ladder. “They won’t be far behind.”
We followed the wall for a while. The smell was horrific, and I didn’t even want to think about the squishy stuff I was stepping in. For once I was thankful it was freezing outside. If this had been summer, the stench would have been unbearable.
“So…”
“So, what?” Kale didn’t turn, but I could see him glancing at me every few minutes from the corner of his eye. We’d been moving for a few minutes and the silence was driving me crazy.
“You don’t wanna say anything?”
He stopped walking and turned. “Anything?”
“About the kiss?”
“Oh.” He shrugged and started walking again.
“Oh?” I practically squealed. “One minute you hate me, the next you’re sucking the tonsils from my throat and all you have to say is, oh?”
“It was nice.”
“Nice? Oh, that was better than nice and you know it. But did it bring anything up?” When I realized wh
“I remember the feeling.” He sighed. “Something all-consuming. A need I couldn’t get enough of. Someone…”
“Someone?” I asked, hopeful.
He turned, and for a second I was sure he’d lean in and kiss me again. But he didn’t. Instead, he nodded into the darkness ahead. “It’s not safe to stand still. We should keep moving.”
We should keep moving.
Holy crap. What the hell was I thinking? As much as I wanted to know his thoughts on our kiss and if it’d gotten us any closer to a breakthrough, doing it now, with agents so close, was suicide. Worry churned in my stomach, and I tried to push it back. It was getting worse. Each day that went by stole more and more of my focus. Concentration was something that took effort, and it scared me. What if the protein was building faster in my system for some reason? Maybe I’d go over the deep end before hitting eighteen.
“Are you okay?” Kale asked when I didn’t make a move to follow.
“Oh, yeah,” I answered. Not the time to freak out. There’d be plenty of time for that later. I hoped. “Sorry. I turn eighteen soon. I guess the drug is starting to take effect.”
He looked like there was something he wanted to say, but instead, he nodded and held out his hand. “I think we’re almost at the end.”
When we finally emerged onto the street, I was wet, nearly frozen, and suspected my sense of smell might be gone for good.
Kale grabbed my hand to help me up. When I placed my foot on the pavement I wasn’t paying attention. Truthfully, I was watching him. The subtle bulge of muscle beneath his hoodie and the generous tilt of his lips. That kiss… In my defense, I’d been Kale-deprived for months, but I knew my timing was a bit on the stupid side.
I slipped on a patch of ice but Kale, quick as ever, caught me before I toppled completely. Our eyes met, and for a second I forgot how to breathe.