Insurrection
Page 5

But this was Tibor Xared.
Xed.
A boy she’d grown up with. They had played tag in his yard. He’d come to see her all the times she’d been sick as a girl, and had been confined to bed rest because of a rare illness that ran in her family.
When she’d been too afraid to start school because of her markings that made her “special” that she knew would make others resent her, he’d taken her hand and told her not to fret, that he would beat up anyone who said anything mean to her.
I’m here for you, Darus. Anytime. Anywhere.
All her life, she’d had Xed to depend on.
And she had betrayed him.
Like a human would do.
I’m no better than one of their lowly species.
She felt unclean and disgusting.
“Daria?”
She stared blankly at her mother, wishing herself anywhere else in the universe. “You haven’t heard?”
Her mother frowned. “Heard what?”
Their comm began a frantic buzzing, like a bumblebee seeking its hive. Daria knew that sound.
Xed’s mother, Tibor Cardea was calling hers. Calling to tell what had happened.
What she’d done to their family.
“I’ll be right back.”
She didn’t move as her mother answered it. And Daria knew the moment she’d been outted. There was no missing that sharp intake of breath that caused her own to stall in her throat. The startled gasp that made her stomach lurch.
How could her insides cramp so much, and hurt this badly?
“Is there anything I can ...” Her mother hung up and returned to the room to kneel in front of her.
By the grim expression on her face and the pallor on her cheeks, Daria knew there was no need to explain herself.
Her mother knew the horror.
Still, she couldn’t move. It was as if she were a bird on a branch, looking down at them. Seeing herself sitting here, detached and unable to feel anything. Her disgust at her own actions was just too great.
Was this shock?
She hoped so.
More than that, she hoped that whatever this cessation of emotion was, it stayed here. Because her worst fear was for this numbness to leave and for her real emotions to return.
When that happened, she had no doubt that she would start screaming and never stop.
“Daria?”
She blinked at her mother. “I am the lowliest life form in all the universe, Maja. I might as well be human, too.”
Where’s Daria?”
“Keep your voice down. She’s upstairs in her room.”
Daria sighed as she heard her parents through the thin, orange walls of her room that were decorated with moving posters of the bands she’d listened to with Xed. Tears of guilt and sorrow choked her as her parents continued speaking in that low, whispered tone. They always did that. Neither of them knew that whenever they were in the kitchen below her room, she could hear them plainly.
Didn’t matter if they whispered or not. Their voices came straight up the air duct, into her private space.
“Did she really do it?” Her father’s voice carried the same condemnation she felt.
“Yeah, she did.”
“Oh my God, Zarrah! How could she?”
“Shh, Zadriel. Don’t you dare make her feel any worse than she already does. She’s devastated!”
“She should be! More than that, she should be ashamed of what she’s done to that poor boy! Has she any idea what they’ll do to him and his family? Our friends?”
Her mother sighed. “She knows. But she had no choice. Frayne would have turned her in, too, had she not. She did what she did to save us.”
“I told her to stay away from the Erianes! You see what happens when you mix with their kind!”
Her mother let out a tired sigh. “Our kind. Their kind. I get so sick of that talk! Why must everything and everyone be split into sides? Haven’t we learned our lesson as to where that gets us? We should be pulling together. Not breaking apart.”
“Zar—”
“Don’t, Zadriel. Just don’t. There’s nothing to be done for it now. Maybe Joey can—”
“Zzz!” Her father made a peculiar hissing noise. “Never say that. Not here and not now. Not ever. Forget what you’re thinking. And don’t you dare risk it. Not for anything!”
Daria scowled at her father’s untoward reaction to the unusual name, and wondered who Joey was. She’d never heard that name before.
Was it a male or female?
Were they family or friend?
“You’re right. Sorry. I wasn’t thinking. It’s been a frightening day and my head’s not in the right place.”
“I know, my love. This has us all rattled.”
As if they heard her father’s words, someone pounded on their kitchen door. Which they never did. The rapid fire knocking thundered through the house and left her heart racing and her body trembling. More than that, it left her parents silent.
That sudden silence was terrifying.
She sat up in bed and listened for any sign of life. What’s going on?
“Are you sure?” Her mother’s voice barely reached her eager ears.
No response whatsoever.
Not until she heard feet shuffling up the stairs, coming closer to her room.
“Daria?”
“Pala?” she gasped, thinking it was her father come to get her.
As she moved to unlock her door, it opened. Instead of her father, there was a man there covered from head to foot in a black uniform. She could see nothing of his features.
Gasping, she stepped back toward her dresser to look for a weapon.
“It’s all right, Daria.” Her father came in behind the man with two women who were also garbed completely in black. “They’re friends. And they’re—”
Someone shined lights into their front windows.
“Zadriel!”
The man in black cursed. “We’re too late. They’re here.”
Her father’s eyes widened. “Get Daria to safety. We’ll hold them off.”
Daria went weak at his words. “What?”
“Mia?” The man growled.
“On it.” The shorter woman grabbed Daria as she headed for her father.
One moment she was almost to him. In the next, everything went black.
Daria panted in panic as she tried her best to get her bearings in an ever-shifting darkness.