so I won’t deny that the Vital in question is my daughter. The only thing I’ll add is that my deepest wish is to see her again. Despite the delays with our project, regardless of the wider implications, I only wish to speak with her again.” At this, he turned and stared straight into the camera. “Evelyn, you’ve left me no choice but to implore you, to plead with you in such a public way—please, darling. Come home so we can make up for all those years apart. So we can get back to our important work and change people’s lives. So we can make sure you’re safe together.” I wanted to throw something at the TV, at his ugly face. It felt as if he were staring right at me, the fake sincerity infecting the crowd, reporters, and viewers like a disease.
“Is she dangerous?” Someone shouted.
Davis shook his head immediately, but I caught a glimpse of a satisfied smile. He’d been hoping someone would ask this, maybe even planted someone in the crowd. “My daughter would never knowingly harm anyone.” He pressed a hand to his chest, his eyes imploring, then paused, sighed, and leveled everyone with a serious look. “Her Light is incredible, and the glowing is merely a visual representation of how formidably powerful she is. It is this particular brand of Vital Light that allowed us to figure out how to draw the ability from a Variant. But the process can be . . . deadly.”
The reporters erupted in a hectic hubbub of questions, shouting and elbowing one another to coax more information from Davis. But he just waved them off and turned away, wiping a fake tear from the corner of his eye.
That son of a bitch!
“Fuck!” Ethan and Josh cursed at the same time.
This was bad—really bad.
Josh handed me off to Ethan, stood up, and reached for his phone. Ethan’s big arms boxed me in as my heart slowly plummeted, hammering in fear all the way down.
The world’s journalists had already figured out my identity. My photo and real name appeared on the screen now that the press conference had ended and Davis had walked out.
“Did he see it?” Josh barked down the phone. He paced as he talked. “The press conference. You didn’t see it? . . . Good. Make sure he doesn’t turn the TV on in his room . . . I know . . . Fucking bribe the nurse to knock him out if you have to . . . I know . . . I know . . . Yes. OK, thanks, Kyo.”
He was making sure Alec didn’t fly into a rage and rip his stitches open. Because that’s exactly what he’d do if he saw this shit—tear the hospital down to get to me. Josh hung up, and his phone immediately started ringing again.
“Hey.” He rubbed his forehead as he paced. “Yep . . . She’s safe. In Ethan’s lap as we speak . . . No way in hell. We’re never leaving this fucking house again . . . Good. Agreed . . . I know, Gabe . . . I will . . . OK, bye.”
As Josh hung up, Lucian wheeled himself into the room. He flicked on the kitchen light. With the heavy curtains drawn, we’d been sitting in the dark, the glow of the TV the only illumination.
Lucian came to a stop next to the couch. “You saw it?”
“Every damn word,” Ethan growled, his grip on me tightening. Josh lowered himself onto the coffee table, his expression grim. “How did we not know about this?”
“We were told he was calling a press conference,” Lucian said, “but that was only an hour ago. No one, not even the reporters, were given any inside info. We had no way of knowing he would—”
“Paint a target on my back?” I stared at the corner of the coffee table, next to Josh’s knee.
Lucian sighed, but none of them contradicted me.
That’s exactly what he’d done. He’d named me, outed me, and twisted it to make it sound as if I were the bad guy—the petulant teenager preventing scientific advancements with petty temper tantrums. Meanwhile, he’d all but announced I could kill people with a simple touch and left it to people’s imaginations to fill in the horrific details.
Now every person with Variant DNA who’d failed to manifest an ability would see me as the bitch standing in their way. The one person stopping them from getting what they’d wanted