The Brightest Night Read online

  “I took it so you didn’t stupidly kill yourself.”

  “And I thank you for that, but you could’ve left off the stupid part,” I told him, and he just stared down at me with eyes full of white flames. “You also told me that you could easily take me out now—”

  “What I can do and what I would do are two separate entities.”

  “Yes, I know that, Mr. Cold Logic, but that doesn’t make it any less creepy to hear.” My hands were tense at my sides, fingers digging into the blanket. It was the only way I could stop myself from punching him. “And in case you don’t know, you look like the Human Torch right now.”

  “But I am still Luc.” He dipped his head just the slightest, and I had to lower my gaze to shield my eyes from the brightness. “I am still yours.”

  My heart gave a happy little flop as my fingers eased off their death grip. “Yes. You are.”

  One of his hands shifted to the space beside my shoulder, and the heat he threw off should’ve been unbearable but wasn’t. “I wish you didn’t fear me,” he repeated. “Because I want to remove the taste of what your memories held with something beautiful.”

  What my heart did next put the silly flop to shame. Filled with the bitter sweetness of his words, it swelled so much I felt like I could float off the bed. He wanted to erase what I knew he felt, because it had been in me first, and honestly, I wanted nothing more than to wash that taint away. I was scared of what he was right now, but not of him.

  Never of him.

  I couldn’t count how many times he’d intervened and saved my life, only because I was sure there were times I didn’t even know about. I couldn’t fathom how he’d walked away and stayed away from me, because I knew I wouldn’t have been able to do that. I was entirely too selfish, and that was where Luc was wrong about him and me. He’d do anything to make sure I lived, and I would do anything to make sure he stayed by my side.

  Luc started to pull back, and I stopped lying there and I stopped thinking, because Luc needed me. I lifted my hands, knowing that the Source surrounding him would not harm me.

  Electricity traveled across my fingers and down my arms as my hands slipped through the heated glow. I pressed my palms against his cheeks, turning his head back to mine. Tears crowded my eyes, and I wasn’t sure if it was from the light or something else, but I closed them as I raised my head to his.

  The moment our mouths touched, a much stronger current of energy washed over me, leaving my lips and throat tingling. I didn’t pull away from the strong sensation or from the heat that now flared around him. I parted my lips and deepened the kiss, proving to Luc that I didn’t fear him and doing my best to erase what we both felt, what we both now shared.

  But then he slipped a hand to the back of my head, seeking for control of the kiss, and I happily handed it over.

  A low rumbling noise came from the back of his throat; it curled my toes and twisted my stomach into tiny delicious knots.

  Evie.

  I swore I heard him say my name even as his lips moved over mine, and it had been his voice, not the frigid, apathetic one that had worried me—but that wasn’t possible, and then I wasn’t thinking about that at all. A hand on my hip tugged my body under his, and I gasped at the riot of sensation. The heat and the hardness pressed into me, obliterating all thoughts except for how he felt—how I felt.

  Wherever he touched, static followed, dancing after the hand that slid down my arm, over my waist, and then lower, stopping to clutch my hip in a way that left me breathless, and then he gripped my thigh. His hips settled into me, and when he lifted my leg, I hooked it around his.

  He didn’t taste like bad memories or haunting nightmares. He tasted of sunshine and summer midnights. I was falling and falling into his warmth and in him, and when he moved against me, I gasped, “Luc.”

  “The way you say my name like that? It’s going to kill me,” he said, his tone still that strange, power-heavy, cold one, but his words? They were all Luc as he caught my lower lip between his teeth. “You have no idea.”

  I didn’t think he knew what he was doing to me as his mouth blazed a path of kisses down my throat. He dragged his teeth along that incredibly sensitive place just above my shoulders, causing my back to arch.

  Okay.

  Maybe he did know exactly what he was doing.

  Luc chuckled as one of his hands slipped under my shirt, his hand a brand against the bare skin of my stomach.

  “You’re in my head again.” I barely recognized my own voice.

  “I am.” No shame. “And it’s not the only thing I want to be inside of.”

  My entire body flushed at the boldness of his words. “Shocker,” I managed to whisper as his hand skated up my ribs, over the thin cups of my bra. The material did nothing to shield my skin from the heat of his hand.

  His mouth returned to mine. “You want the same thing.”

  It wasn’t a question. It didn’t need to be. I did. I wanted the same so badly it was almost painful, but this …

  This was Luc, but it also wasn’t.

  He kissed me then like he was staking a claim, like he never had the luxury of doing so before, and I was thoroughly claimed.

  Things spun a little out of control as the intense glow that consumed Luc pulsed and flared, creating flickering shadows along the bed and the wall. His shirt came off, and his hair felt like strands of flames between my fingers as he kissed his way down my body, over clothing and then against skin.

  How my pants and shirt came off had to be due to some nifty ability of Luc’s, because I was completely unaware of it happening until I felt inches of heated, bare skin tangling with mine. The bra I was completely present for, because his fingers and then his lips chased the straps down my arms, and when it fell to the bed and clothing no longer provided a barrier between me and his hands, his mouth, I felt like I couldn’t breathe past the way my pulse pounded all over my body. Our hands were everywhere, and I knew where this was heading. The intent was heavy in the air, a tangible third entity, and when I pushed at the last clothing Luc wore, I did so without really thinking. I just wanted to feel—to feel him, to relish in these precious, stolen moments while everything beyond us felt like it was on the brink of falling apart. We had no idea what was going to happen from hour to hour, and I just wanted the beauty of this, of him, of us together, and there wasn’t a single thing wrong with that.

  For one thing.

  Our first time together should be ours, and not Luc’s, mine, and whatever it was he’d pulled out of me.

  Luc drew his mouth from mine in a slow, savoring kiss. “Evie?”

  Opening my eyes, I saw that the radiance of power around Luc had faded just enough that I could make out the diamond brightness of his pupils. He was staring down at me, unblinking, his gaze familiar and yet not.

  I placed one trembling finger against his shining cheek. “I want you. I want this,” I whispered, and Luc shook. The Source flared brightly. “But not like this.”

  He was still for only a moment. “Not like this,” he agreed, touching my chin. The Source crackled softly, spreading across my cheek. “You know what, though?”

  “What?”

  He dropped his hand to my hip. “There’s a whole lot of stuff we can do instead.”

  My stomach dipped in the most exquisite way. We’d done other things, and I really liked those things. So did Luc. “Yes.” The corners of my lips started to tip up. “There is.”

  Luc kissed me, and then, with one unbelievably quick move, I was half on my belly, half on my side, and the long, almost burning length of Luc was pressed to my back a heartbeat later.

  Surprised by the sudden move, I let out a stunned laugh. “That was impressive.”

  “I know.” The wet warmth of his mouth touched my shoulder.

  I bit back a moan. “And here I thought you couldn’t get any more arrogant.”

  “Is it arrogance if it’s the truth?”

  “Yes.”

  “Dis
agree.” Stretching over me, his hand splayed over mine where it rested on the bed, the glow of the Source turning my own flesh iridescent, and as his fingers slid up my arm, sparks drenched my skin. “And you already know.”

  “Know what?” I tipped my head back against his chest, biting down on my lip as his hand roamed more freely.

  “I’m always right.”

  My laugh ended in a sound that scorched my cheeks, but I got payback when I tipped my hips back, and he let out a ragged groan that sounded part curse. All laughter died within the next couple of seconds, because I simply didn’t have the air in my lungs to do so.

  His heated fingers slid over my belly, past my navel, and then halted. He waited.

  Luc, still in there, still in control, waited for me.

  I nodded as I whispered, “Yes.”

  He shuddered against me, and then there was nothing but raw, stunning tension as his hand drifted lower with unerring accuracy.

  In those moments, we drove both of us to the point where neither of us were capable of coherent words. When he finally, really touched me, I lost all sense of time. I moved against his palm. He moved against me, both of us seeking, chasing after the explosion, and when it came, his hoarse shout joined my own sharp cry.

  And it was then, when fine tremors rolled through me in waves that were mirrored in Luc, I realized that what had started out being about Luc had ended being about both of us. I didn’t think until our breathing and hearts slowed that either of us realized how badly we needed the reminder that memories and the past, even the parts not remembered, didn’t define us.

  We wouldn’t let it.

  Ever.

  5

  Sometime later, a few hours shy of dawn, Luc no longer looked like the Human Torch. It had to have happened while I’d dozed, because when I opened my eyes, there was no glow, only shadows.

  Luc had gotten an arm underneath my head, and I was currently using his biceps as a pillow. He was still curled around me, his chest warm against my back, but nowhere near as hot as it had been hours earlier.

  “Your arm must be dead,” I murmured.

  He was tracing idle shapes along my waist. “My arm has never been better.”

  At the sound of his voice, I let out a tiny breath of relief. “You sound normal.”

  “You mean when I’m only a little scary?”

  I cringed. “You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?”

  “Nope.” His finger moved, and I thought he was drawing a figure eight.

  Tilting my head to the side, I tried to see his face in the darkness, but all I saw was his neck. “You know I’m not afraid of you, right? Not even when you were looking a lot like a Luxen on steroids.”

  “I know.” He shifted slightly, and his lips touched the tip of my nose.

  “I mean, I was a little freaked out. You kind of reminded me of a robot. A horny robot, which are two words I never thought I’d say in my entire life, but you were … different,” I rambled on. “And I’d be shocked if I don’t end up with sunburn in some very uncomfortable places.”

  “Horny robot?” Luc laughed, his lips briefly touching mine. He settled back, his finger moving again. “I don’t think you have to worry about any uncomfortable burns in unmentionable places.”

  “Good to know.” I rubbed my cheek against his arm. “I’m glad you’re not glowing anymore.”

  He didn’t respond, instead drawing on my hip what felt like a … pair of lips?

  Finding his other hand, I curled my fingers through his and squeezed. “I know I said thank you already, but—”

  “You didn’t need to thank me the first time, and you sure as hell don’t need to thank me again. I would do anything to keep you safe, Peaches. It’s just the way it is.”

  “That doesn’t mean I don’t have to thank you,” I told him. “If you hadn’t, I would’ve, well, you know what would’ve happened. I just couldn’t calm down. I tried. I really did.” I stared at the shadows across the bed. “I just couldn’t pull myself out of it.”

  “It’s good news, though.”

  My brows lifted. “How do you figure that?”

  “Because now we know that the Source doesn’t just respond to you feeling threatened. Extreme emotion can bring it out.”

  “And again, how is that good news?”

  “Well, for starters, I don’t have to make you feel threatened by me,” he replied, tone dry.

  “Oh. Yeah. Good point there.”

  “And I think…” He exhaled heavily. “I think working with it being emotion based gives us a better chance of pulling it out and controlling it.”

  I did a real bang-up job at controlling it.

  “The Source seems to be reacting like a defensive mechanism in you, triggered if you’re threatened or under extreme duress, and that makes sense. Like I said before, young Luxen or Origins have the same lack of control, but the thing is, you should be able to tap into it at least, use it when you want to. That’s the part I don’t get.”

  Maybe I was defective.

  “You’re not defective,” he said quietly. “And don’t yell at me for reading your thoughts. You practically screamed that one at me.”

  I sighed, and it was a while before I spoke my current innermost fear. “It was just a nightmare, Luc. And maybe some repressed memories coming through.” Definitely some repressed memories, but whatever. “Could this happen anytime I go to sleep? What if this is something I just can’t control?”

  “What if you can’t? Does that mean you’d rather just not do anything?”

  I frowned. “No. But you can’t take the Source from me every time I lose it. I don’t want you turning into Robotic Luc—”

  “But what if it’s Horny Robotic Luc?”

  “Oh my God,” I moaned.

  He chuckled again, and God, I was happy to hear it even though he was doing his level best to embarrass me. “We do it someplace safer. There are a lot of fields and abandoned areas where if you have to let it out, it’s not a big deal.”

  “Not a big deal? What about you getting hurt?”

  “I won’t get hurt.”

  I cocked my head to the side again. “I’m going to remind you what Robotic Luc said. That you were wrong about being invincible.”

  “Besides the fact I’d be prepared for you to blow and will be able to take precautions, it’ll take more than a building or two coming down on me to do any damage.”

  A building or two?

  I really had no words for that.

  But I had other words. “And if I go super-villain? The way you talked about my power.” I looked away. “You made it sound like you knew I could take you.”

  “Evie? I don’t know if you realize this or not, but from the moment everything went down in those woods, I knew you could take me out if you really wanted to. I wouldn’t make it easy, but that’s a fight you’d win.”

  I already knew that, but hearing Luc confirm it was frightening.

  Now, if I could control it, it would be pretty badass, but until then? It was terrifying to know I could lose control and kill the person I loved with every bit of me.

  “And that doesn’t bother you? At all?”

  “Honestly?” He rolled me onto my back, and even after what we just shared, I folded an arm over my chest. “I actually find it really hot. Like, I was a little turned on when you were peeling my skin off my bones.”

  Um …

  “Yeah, that might be TMI, but look, it would be nice if someone else could take care of the bad guys while I got caught up on Jersey Shore.”

  I stared at his shadowed face. “Are you being serious? Because I can’t tell. I hope you’re not, but all of that sounds like something idiotic that you’d really mean.”

  His palm came to rest on my stomach, just below my navel. “Half of that was true. Well, ninety percent of it was. I think Jersey Shore is highly underrated.”

  Every time I was struck speechless, honest to God, I didn’t think he could s
hock me into silence again. Each time I was completely wrong.

  “But I won’t let it get to the point where my life or yours is in jeopardy,” he went on. “I will stop it before it gets to that.”

  “How? You going to keep sucking the power out of me?”

  Tracing his finger around my belly button, he was quiet for several long moments. “I don’t think that would be wise.”

  Unnerved, I asked, “Why?”

  “I’m the only Origin that can do that—well, I’m the only Origin alive that can. In a way, it’s similar to how an Arum feeds off the Source and how it heightens existing strengths and abilities, but it’s not the same.” He was drawing an invisibly squiggly line now. “Now I know why you refer to it as ‘it’ or something other in you,” he said. “The Source felt like a separate entity.”

  “It doesn’t normally feel like that?”

  “It feels like an intricate part of me. What came out of you felt different. Maybe it’s because I was engineered from birth. I don’t think it’s like that with hybrids, either. Probably because they have a Luxen to anchor the mutation. Maybe it feels that way because it’s in you, but you’re not really a part of it, at least intentionally? Each time you’ve used it, it was forced upon you, either by physical threat or emotional distress. Maybe that will change as you grow more accustomed to it. I don’t know. Either way, I’ve never felt anything like that before.” His voice grew quieter. “That kind of power? What I felt with it in me? That could be addictive. I’m a smart enough boy to acknowledge that, but it was more than that. Like it was … I don’t know, attempting to meld to me at a cellular level.”

  “That sounds really bad.”

  “Yeah, and it doesn’t sound possible, either. It’s not, so I could be reading what I felt completely wrong,” he said. “But instinct is telling me if I did it often, it would change me, and my instinct is never wrong.”

  Ice drenched my insides. “You mean, like, you’d become Robotic Luc and stay that way?”

  “I think I would become far worse than that,” he said, and in the darkness, his eyes found mine. “I would become something to truly fear. It should only be the option of last resort.”