Page 87 of Lust
Liza scanned the room and found two dead soldiers by the door, each bleeding from a throat wound, their rifles two feet away from them.
Standing in the middle of it all was Daisy with a knife to Julius’s throat. She hadn’t blacked out as Liza had thought. No, she was in her right mind as she threatened the man who’d ruined her life.
His touch-screen device blinked in his hand, as though he’d activated something—the release of the replicates. The scientist was gone, and the back door was open.
Julius stood stoically, calmly, and hadn’t flinched when Liza had entered. As far as those two were concerned, no one else existed.
“If you kill me, it won’t change a thing,” Julius snarled at Daisy.
“I won’t kill you, just your precious family.” Daisy held up the locket.
Julius’s hand went to his throat, realized it had been removed, and then glared at Daisy. With one hand still holding the knife to his throat, she thumbed open the locket with the other. Julius jerked, attempting to escape, but he nicked his neck and stilled. He eyed the locket as though there was still hope. Two strands of hair poked out from the metal rim. Daisy’s nostrils flared, and then she tipped her head back and swallowed the strands, never once shifting her raging eyes from their father.
“You fucking bitch,” Julius growled, but she held the knife firm.
“I’m not a bitch. I’m the killer you made me.”
His face contorted with rage. “I’ll kill you for this. I’ll make you suffer.”
Desperation was a wonderful thing. It could turn men into gods, if only for a minute. Julius somehow twisted in Daisy’s grip, used his device to block her slice at his neck, and attacked his eldest daughter. Her knife glanced off the hard, robust screen.
A slurping sound stole Liza’s attention. Two replicates were now standing, testing and flexing their muscles. Ignoring the battle, Liza crept toward the discarded rifles on the floor.
“You kill me,” Julius snarled, “and others will come. You know the data exists around the world in labs just like these. I’m the only thing holding the Syndicate at bay. If it were up to them, the war would have started years ago. YouknowI kept you safe from them.”
Daisy hesitated. Julius used the opportunity to tap something into his device, somehow still functional. The two replicates that had awoken straightened their spines as though receiving a jolt of electricity, or an electrical command.
For fuck’s sake.
Liza aimed her rifles, one in each hand. If they healed like the Seven, then a bullet might not kill them. But it would slow them the fuck down. Just like her poison.
“Call your dogs off,” she warned. “Or I kill them.”
Julius laughed. He hit more keys on the device. More replicate tanks exploded, more bodies spilled out.
“Take her,” he barked at the two sentient clones. He pointed at Liza. “Secure her and bring her to me.”
Liza fired, shooting straight into a clone. He jerked. Then kept coming.
Daisy glanced at Liza and a pained look ghosted her expression.
“Whatever you’re thinking, Daisy, no,” she shouted.
But her sister refused to listen. Daisy muttered something to Julius just as a loud crash shook the foundations and everyone stumbled. Her family was coming. Liza had to hold on a little longer.
She shut her eyes and let in every iota of panic she’d been holding at bay. All the fear, pain, hurt, and confusion that swamped her when her family was threatened, and welcomed it. Because it triggered her ability. Yellow mist oozed from her mouth. Her aching hands heated, ready to disperse the poison stored beneath her skin.
She inched toward Julius, but his eyes darted between Liza and Daisy, contemplating, and then he nodded as though reaching a decision.
Time seemed to stand still. Horror filled Liza. Daisy had done something. Offered him something.
“Daisy!” Liza shouted.
Daisy let go of her knife. Resigned misty eyes met Liza’s and with the drop of her beating heart, Lizaknew. Her plan to turn Daisy had worked… too well. Daisy had flipped sides. She was making the sacrifice play.
“No.” Liza’s throat clogged up.No!
Daisy whispered, “This is me catching you.”
