Page 13 of The Program

Her resulting laughter was weak and half-hearted, and I suddenly remembered the events leading up to my destructive actions.

‘Oh, L,’ I cried, immediately wrapping her in my arms. I wished I could pull her in tighter, but my strength had still yet to fully return.

She buried her face in my neck and cried while I stroked her back in soothing circles. I knew it wouldn’t bring Bal back, but it was all I could do in that moment.

‘They took him, A. They took my baby.’

‘We’ll get him back,’ I told her and meant every word.

She pulled away from me then, fury and frustration twisting her features into something almost unrecognisable. ‘How? How are we going to do that? They’rethem,and we’re just… useless.’

I thought back to how that metallic substance had encased my body in a protective layer, preventing the darts from penetrating my skin. How the plasma from Demari’s gun couldn’t breach that invisible barrier that had randomly and shockingly appeared. A smile slowly spread across my cheeks reminiscent of the same smile I’d had when the realisation hit that they couldn’t touch me.

But Libby had been unconscious. She didn’t know what I was now capable of. She didn’t understand yet.

‘Libs…’ I began, but she cut me off.

‘He’sgone,A. There’s no way of knowing where they took him. And even if we did find him, he’d be under so much security that getting to him wouldbe impossible. Fuck, A. I’m never going to get my baby back,’ she wailed, falling in a heap into my arms again.

‘Shh, Libs. We’re getting him back, I promise. I can get him back.’

She sniffed and looked up at me from underneath tear-clumped lashes.‘How?’

The smile I gave her then was less manic and more compassionate and knowing. ‘Because they fucked up.’

Her brows dipped low enough to touch her eyelashes, wetness transferring onto them and turning them a darker blonde. ‘What do you mean?’

I pressed a kiss to her forehead before answering, needing the connection to her after remembering the fear I’d felt when trying to protect her unconscious form. ‘The experiments. They did something to me.’

She sat up then, her attention laser-like in its intensity. ‘What did they do?’

I raised a hand and studied it contemplatively. I didn’t know how it worked, but I knew that itdidwork. I just had to figure out how.

Except merely thinking of it made it happen. Libby’s jaw dropped to her chest as she watched the metal spread from my newest tattoo to encompass my entire hand, though it stopped at my wrist. I figured it was the lack of energy that prevented it from spreading further, but that was easily remedied.

‘What’s that?’

‘I’m not sure. But I do know that it acts as a sort of shield.’

‘A shield?’

I grinned at her then, pleased with the information I was about to impart. ‘Their darts can’t get through.’

Her eyes widened even further. ‘Just the darts?’

My grin stretched so far I imagined the corners touching my ears. ‘Not just that. I was also able to erect some sort of invisible shield from a distance. The plasma guns couldn’t get through that, either.’

Her eyelids pulled back so far I feared her eyeballs would pop right out of her head. ‘A,’ she breathed. ‘Do you know what this means?’

I nodded.

‘They can’t touch you.’

‘They can’t touch me, L.’

‘What else can you do?’

‘I don’t know,’ I admitted with a shake of my head. ‘But I do know that I can get Bal back.’

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