To make matters worse, he’d seen that plastic case she’d accidentally dropped in the quad. If that blue case was what he thought it was, then she was either very smart or very stupid. Either way, carrying that crap around could get a girl killed. What the hell was she thinking?
Of course he couldn’t ask her that. For now, he was stuck playing dumb and vulnerable.
He could tell she hadn’t bought his story about how things had gone down at the military school. He had hoped to have a few days to work himself into her good graces before telling her the whole truth. He hadn’t counted on her being so tough. So suspicious. But he kind of admired her for it, even if it made his job harder.
He was going to have to handle the next few days very carefully. If she knew why he was really here and what he really wanted from her . . . if she knew he was playing her, she’d probably slit his throat in the night. For the first time in his life, his motives were selfless and noble—he was trying to save the world, for cripe’s sake—but since saving the world involved manipulating Lily, he didn’t think it would win him any points with her.
For now, he was just happy he’d found her. After months of searching for her, he’d found her. She and Mel were in the next room. They were both alive and safe. And now that he was here, he could protect them.
Still, lurking outside her door like some sort of pervert probably wasn’t the best way to convince her to trust him. So he left the lab room. Out in the hall, he considered his options. Leaving her alone wasn’t one of them. It had taken him too damn long to find her. He wasn’t going to risk losing her again.
Tonight while they were asleep, he’d find the fuse box and get the elevator shut down so no one could sneak up on them. Then he’d have to rig an alarm on the doors to the stairwells. That should be easy enough.
Later, he might figure out a way to rig her door so he’d hear it if she tried to sneak out, but for now, he’d settle for simple line-of-sight surveillance from the room directly across the hall.
It was a lecture hall, with maybe fifty seats mounted to the floor, set up stadium-style behind rows of narrow desks. With the door to his room open, he sat, back propped against the lectern, arms clenched around his knees, and drew in a series of long breaths, until his heart rate slowed.
Sebastian may have been full of crap about a lot of things, but when it came to taking the edge off an adrenaline rush, the guy knew what he was talking about. Of course, Sebastian would have told him to twist his body into some crazy full-on yoga pose to meditate. Carter, however, wasn’t quite ready to risk taking his eyes off the door to Lily’s room.
He’d try quieting his mind and being receptive to the universe and all those other Jedi mind tricks some other day. Someday when he hadn’t just had his ass handed to him. By a girl.
He’d have thought that the eighteen months of combat training he’d had in military school might have given him an edge, but no, he’d had to resort to playing dead like a frickin’ possum. Ah, Sebastian would be so proud.
Though, in Carter’s defense, she’d been trying to kill him and he’d been doing his damnedest not to actually hurt her, because if he was right and Lily Price really was the key to defeating the Ticks, he sure as hell didn’t want to be the one to accidentally kill the savior of all humanity.
When he felt sure he could talk without Sebastian reading his emotions in his voice, Carter pulled up the right leg of his jeans to where he had a cell phone case strapped to the ankle of his boot. All the cell towers had been knocked out when the Ticks first took over, but his satellite phone still worked. Thank God he hadn’t broken it in the fight. Or worse, lost it. The last thing he needed was for her to know he had it. She was smart enough that his phone would have raised a major flag for her.
He had a tiny mirror in his survival kit strapped to his other leg. He set it up on the ground beside the lectern, angled just slightly. Then he retreated to a corner of the room, sitting on the floor with his back against the far wall. If the door to Lily’s room opened, he’d see it in the mirror.
He scrubbed a hand down his face. Jesus, he was tired. He hadn’t lied to Lily about how little sleep he’d gotten in the past few days. He’d only lied about why.
There was only one number programmed into the sat phone and it didn’t take him long to pull it up and dial it. The phone was clunkier than the old iPhone he’d had in the Before, but he’d been using it so long it was second nature by now. Sebastian answered on the first ring.
“You found them.”
“Didn’t you tell me not to call until I had?”
If Carter hadn’t been calling with such good news, Sebastian probably wouldn’t have put up with the attitude. Today, he just asked, “What’s their status?”
Grumpy. Pissed off. Suspicious. Bruised, if his own status was anything to go by. “Fine,” he said aloud.
“Were you right about her?” There was a tension in Sebastian’s voice that Carter had never heard before.
If he’d thought—even for an instant—that Sebastian might be capable of emotion, Carter would have called it excitement.
Carter rubbed a hand down his face and considered the question. Was she the one? It had been a long time since he’d last seen her in person. There’d been a chance—a damn good one—that his memory had played tricks on him. That maybe there was nothing special about Lily at all.
He let himself think about her now, not the girl he’d known back in the Before, but the girl she was now. Suspicious. Wary. Tough as hell. But she’d always had a sort of leery reserve to her. Yet even in their brief conversation, even bracing himself against it, he’d felt the pull of her personality. Felt the sway she had over his emotions. He thought of the desire he’d had to comfort her. The way he’d constantly wanted to touch her. The way he’d actually offered to leave if she asked him to.
What had that been about? And what the hell would he have done if she hadn’t told him he could stay?
He guessed he would have left. He’d have set up surveillance outside her building and prayed like hell he didn’t lose her. But the very fact that he’d offered was proof enough. She made him feel things no one ever had. In short, she made him feel things that she felt.
If anything, his memory had diminished the effect she had on him. If she could control his emotions without even trying to, then, yeah, she was the abductura Sebastian was looking for.
Once she learned how to control her power, she would be able to control the emotions of everyone around her. She was the one person who could turn the tide in the war against the Ticks.
Finally, Carter said aloud, “Yes. We were right.”
“Excellent.”
“Look, I have them under surveillance. I don’t want to leave, but I need a few things.” He rattled them off quickly. “I’m up on the seventh floor of the Walker building. A couple floors down, there should be some wooden chairs in one of the offices. Can you have someone bring one up, leave it in the stairwell? Also some sort of motion-activated camera that I can link into my phone, so I’ll know if they try to leave. And see if you can find me a razor and some shaving cream.”
“Certainly,” Sebastian said, his accent even more droll than usual. “Do you need anything else? Fresh towels? Maybe some hot cocoa from room service?”
Carter pretended not to hear the sarcasm. There’d been few enough times when Carter actually had something Sebastian needed. “Yeah. See if you can find some bubble gum.”
“And why would I do that?”
“Because Mel likes it.” Back in school, she’d had special permission to chew gum in class because it was quieter than her Slinky. It had always seemed a little unfair that she could chew gum and blow the curve on every math test. “If I’m going to worm my way into their life, I need every advantage I can find.”
“You told me you were their friend.”
“I said I knew them. And if you’ve anyone else who can give you that, then you’re welcome to cut me off and do this without me.”
He could practically hear Sebastian grinding his long incisors in annoyance. A second later, he ended the call and slid the phone back into the case on his leg. Sebastian would text him when things were in place. He was clearly too annoyed to bother calling Carter.
Alone with his thoughts, he was suddenly exhausted. And achy.
Not wanting to get too comfortable and risk falling asleep, he pulled his hoodie off and then a moment later also took off the plain white T-shirt he wore beneath it. It was cool enough in the room to help keep him awake.
He just hoped that Lily didn’t try to sneak out on him. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure he’d win round two.
When he’d known her in the Before, Lily had had a natural suspicious prickliness to her. What she’d been through since then had only reinforced those qualities. He was going to have to work hard to win her over. She wouldn’t easily trust him. That was okay. He had all the time in the world.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Lily
Mel was waiting at the door of the storage closet, peering wordlessly through the opening. I wasn’t sure how long she’d been there and how much she’d seen.
She stepped aside to let me enter and I pushed open the door, scanning the tiny space. Well, at least she hadn’t done any more damage while I’d been trying to kill Carter.
Mel stood there, staring at me. For once, I could offer her absolutely no reassurances. I didn’t even have the energy to be sorry.
All I could do was gently shut the door and wedge the chair under the knob, giving us a shred of security. Then, leaning against the bare patch of wall beside the door, I sank to the floor. Pulling my legs to my chest, I wrapped my arms around them and dropped my forehead to my knees.
Adrenaline pumped through my veins and now that I wasn’t using all my strength to defend myself, my muscles started trembling. My skin had gone icy cold and my hands shook so hard I almost had trouble holding on to my legs. I wished, desperately, that I hadn’t taken my hoodie off and left it out in the science lab. Or that I had a blanket. Something reassuring and cuddly to cling to.