He looked at me skeptically. “You know what Prometheus was in Greek mythology. I can’t believe you haven’t figured it out yet.”
Gee, way to make me feel stupid.
He laughed.
I glared at him. “You’re reading my thoughts, aren’t you?”
“Sorry.” He didn’t look sorry at all. “You said it yourself. Prometheus was credited with creating mankind. Think about it. What is Daedalus doing?”
“Trying to create the perfect species, but that really doesn’t tell me anything.”
He shook his head as he reached over and tapped a finger along the fleshy part of my elbow. “When you first mutated, you were given a serum. It was the first serum that Daedalus created, but they want something better, something faster. Prometheus is what’s being tested now, and not just on humans healed by Luxen.”
“I…” I didn’t get it at first, and then I thought about those bags in the room where the sick patients were receiving Daedalus’s own breed of medication. “They’re giving it to humans who are sick, aren’t they?”
He nodded.
“Then that means Prometheus is LH-11?” When he nodded again, I forced myself not to go any further with the realization, lest Archer was being nosy. “Why are you telling me this?”
He pivoted slightly and restarted the elevator. Casting me a long look, he simply said, “We have a mutual friend, Katy.”
Chapter 17
Katy
I could barely contain myself waiting for a few moments alone with Daemon. We hadn’t been abusing the bathroom privileges, knowing that’s what they wanted us to do. It took forever before I felt the familiar tingle along my neck. Holding off a couple of minutes, I then bum-rushed the bathroom and knocked softly on the door to his cell.
He was there within a second. “Miss me?”
“Do your Lite-Brite thing.” I moved from one foot to the other. “Come on.”
He looked at me strangely, but a second later he was a glowing comet. What’s up?
In a rush, I told him everything about the creepy kid in the hallway, what Archer had said about them, what Prometheus really was, and what Archer had said about us sharing a mutual friend. I don’t trust any of this, but either Archer hasn’t told anyone what he’s picked up from you or me or he has, and for some reason we haven’t been called out on it.
Daemon’s light pulsed. Jesus, this just keeps getting more and more bizarre.
You’re telling me. I leaned against the sink. If they decide to shoot someone up with it again… I shuddered. Maybe they’ll just wait until the mutation takes hold this time.
That, or I have a feeling they’re going to have a really hefty cleanup bill.
Ew. That was really…
One light-encased arm stretched out. Warm fingers brushed my cheek. I’m sorry you had to see that.
I’m sorry you had to be a part of that. I took a deep breath. But you know what happened to Largent isn’t on your conscience, right?
Yes. I know. Trust me, Kitten, I’m not going to take on any unnecessary guilt. His sigh shuttled through me. So, about Archer…
We talked a couple more minutes about Archer. Both of us agreed that there was a good chance he was Luc’s inside guy, but it didn’t make sense. Archer obviously had access to the LH-11 and could’ve gotten it for Luc. We couldn’t trust him—we weren’t going to make the mistake of trusting anyone again.
But I did have an idea. One that Daemon was also interested in. Once we got our hands on the LH-11, we had only one chance to escape. And if the origins really were like raptors, then they could become the perfect distraction, allowing us a small shot to bust out of there.
No matter what we did, it would be risky, with about a 99 percent fail rate. But both Daemon and I felt more confident relying on each other than just Luc—and possibly Archer. We’d been burned way too many times before.
Daemon took his human form and kissed me quickly before we went back into our rooms. This was always the hardest—forcing ourselves to go to our own beds—but the last thing we needed was to risk getting caught up in the moment…in each other. Because that always seemed to happen when we were together. And we also didn’t fully trust that they’d allow us to come and go from each other’s rooms—everything felt like a test.
I headed back to my bed. Sitting down, I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my chin on them. Those quiet moments of doing nothing were the worst. In no time, things I didn’t want to think about crept in and pushed away the stuff I needed to focus on.
I really wanted Daemon to see that I was holding it together, that none of this was messing with my head. I didn’t want him to worry about me.
Closing my eyes, I shifted until my forehead was against my knees. I told myself the cheesiest thing possible: there was a light at the end of this dark tunnel. I followed that up with the ever faithful: every dark cloud had a silver lining.
I wondered how long I could keep telling myself that.
…
Daemon
The wondrous team behind Daedalus actually waited until the mutation took hold this time around. It was another recruit who apparently had been all kinds of gung ho. This one stabbed himself in the chest, right below the heart instead of the gut. Still messy. Kat had been there to witness it again. I had healed the idiot. Overall it was a relative success, except I couldn’t get near the LH-11. A damn shame, because there had been serum left over in the syringe.
Kat and I weren’t relying on Luc, but if we could get the LH-11, and if it turned out that someone, whether it was Archer or not, could help us get out, I was going to take it. Kat’s plan of letting the kids loose was the best we had, but the technicalities of how we could do that remained to be seen. Not to mention we had no idea what we’d actually be unleashing. As much as I hated to admit it, there were innocent people in these buildings.