Chapter 5 Diamonds #4
Her chin trembled, but she swallowed the emotions down like poison as she said:
"There’s nothing to think through." She looked at him, then Kit, then her eyes unfocused, staring into the early morning light cast across the tile floor from the opened blinds. A new beginning. Out there was where she was truly meant to be. Not trapped. "I’ve made my decision a long time ago."
Lucien opened his mouth as if to speak again, but Kit stopped him. "She’s tired, Lucien, let her rest."
Rin was too focused on the window—thoughts of escape and exploration, all the places she may never get to see—to pay mind to the familiarity that Kit addressed her doctor with.
"Very well," Lucien said coolly, returning to the stoic man she knew him as. He picked up his clipboard and walked to the door, the soles of his shoes clicking across the tile. "Kiton, a word?" Lucien inclined his head to the hall outside her room.
Kit stood, patting her shoulder as he went. "Be right back. Guess you’re coming back home with me."
Rin gave a tired smile, watching as the door shut behind both men.
Alone, her mind spun. She had meant every word she had said: her mind was made; no going back. She would die either way. Better to die a Hunter. At least she could save someone in the process.
She had to get stronger, to get back to it.
No use wallowing. Throwing her legs over the side of the hospital bed, Rin wobbled but braced a hand on the wall to support herself as she carefully and slowly walked to the small dresser built into the wall.
She opened the far right cabinet, finding a set of clothes neatly folded that Kit had brought for her, along with a fresh pair of panties and a comfortable, pale grey sports bra.
Rin lifted the stack of clothes from the cabinet and placed it on the bed, unfurling the top shirt—a cozy, oversized, distressed tee. Perfect. She didn’t want constricting fabric. Just comfort.
Kit knew her too well.
Papers spilled onto the tile floor, dropping on top of her bare feet.
"What?" Rin questioned aloud. She kept a hand on the mattress as she slowly bent, dark spots clouding her vision as she gathered the papers up and stood. They had fallen out of a simple file folder.
She frowned, righting one that had been turned upside down. The font was small, but at the top, in large, blocky letters, Classified.
Under that, slightly smaller:
Aetherborn and Artificial Nova Implantation.
Rin’s eyes widened the longer she read. "This couldn’t be…"
Subject 03: Aetherborn organ stability declining. Recommend termination of Nova implantation procedures.
At the bottom, a scrawl she was well familiar with, seeing as it was the same on her prescription bottles, Lucien Quenlan.
"Fuck."
A noise from the door made her shove the paper in the file hurriedly, finding a small sticky note stuck to the top, which she tucked in the waistband of her sweatpants, shoving the folder under her pile of clothes.
The door opened slightly, a kind nurse poking her head in. "Dr. Quenlan said you’re good to go. Need help changing?"
"No," Rin croaked, concealing her panic with a strained smile, "thank you."
The door clicked shut, and Rin’s heart was racing, her hands shaking.
She yanked the crumpled note from her waistband, smoothing out the wrinkles as she read:
To the girl with Stars in her eyes.
Stars in her eyes…
Her already erratic pulse skipped. She knew that line. Had heard it—recently.
A certain blonde-haired, enigmatic Soul Searcher.
He had left this for her? Why? What did he want her to know?
In Rin’s hands, she held something that she wasn’t ready to uncover: a betrayal etched in ink and paper, stamped with the approval of her doctor—someone she was meant to trust.
Lucien slowed his steps, aware of Kiton trailing him.
He stopped, casting a look down the white halls of the hospital. This floor was relatively quiet, with private rooms for recovery. Placing a hand on a cracked door, he pushed it open, revealing the vacated room. The blinds were drawn, the bed pristine.
Lucien walked inside, not daring a look behind him.
He left the door cracked. An invitation.
One that was accepted quickly.
The doctor stared at the closed blinds, running a pale, long finger over the slats and parting them, staring out at downtown Solar City.
The soft clicking of the door to the room alerted him to a presence.
Then:
"I thought you didn’t want her to know you cared."
Lucien turned at the words, finding Kiton standing by the unused hospital bed, a hand braced on the guardrail, fingers tapping against it.
Lucien didn’t acknowledge his statement; he merely said, "You need sleep."
Kiton shook his head. "I can’t sleep." He ran a hand through his hair, disheveling it further. His face was twisted up with anguish. Freckles on his nose stood stark against his bloodless face. "Every time I close my eyes, I think I’ll wake up and it all will have been a dream—that she died, and I can’t save her this time. "
Lucien knew the feeling well. He released the blinds and crossed to Kiton, resting a hand on his shoulder. "She’s alive. And she needs us to ensure she stays that way."
"Right." Kiton exhaled sharply. "I’ve been doing this just as long as you have, Lucien. From the very first day I met her. It hurts me"—he thumped a fist over his chest—"knowing that she doesn’t know the lengths I’ve gone for her."
Lucien shook his head. "You think you’re the only one who feels that way?
" He let his hand fall from Kiton’s shoulder.
"It’s hell looking at her and knowing that she doesn’t feel the same way.
Doesn’t know the depth of my—what I feel for her.
It is not just you who has gone to such lengths.
" Lucien held Kiton’s eyes, noting the deep shadows underneath.
"Do not forget yourself, Kiton Blackfall. "
"Don’t ever use my family name against me," Kiton seethed. "I fucking hate them for everything they’ve done. They are to blame for her memories."
He stepped closer, until he was nearly nose-to-nose with Lucien, rage flickering hotly across his features.
Lucien often forgot that this man was a well-trained Fleet pilot, and his razor-thin control was clearly evident in the way in which he held himself, jaw ticking as he stared Lucien down.
"They used me, too. Hurt me," said Kiton. The thin streams of light coming in through the tiny cracks in the blinds cast shifting shadows across his face, making the hollows under his eyes appear starker.
Lucien knew—god, did he ever. Kiton was as much a victim as Vesperin.
It was Blackfall Industries that was the villain here.
After Vesperin’s world had been upended when she had been seventeen, the Blackfalls, ever opportunistic, had stepped in as her saviors. But Lucien knew better.
The experiments had started long before that, tucked in the shadows of childhood sleepovers with Kiton.
Back then, Kiton had revealed his parents would drug them both—him, to sleep deeply and be unaware; and her, to be unconscious so they could take her to their basement and run tests on her Stella.
Lucien surmised that those early experiments were to blame for why she didn’t remember their past life when their hands brushed that day.
It wasn’t until she took the Blackfall last name and moved into their home for good that they truly revealed the depths of their depravity.
Starting with bloodied syringes and ending with selective pieces of her memories being wiped.
Still, Lucien would not be walked on. Not by his Soulbond’s other piece.
Kiton and Lucien were both Vesperin’s Soulbonds. They should get along, and they did—sometimes. But they only did so knowing it was for her benefit.
That was why Lucien swallowed his pride.
"I am sorry. You’re right. It is easy to become blinded by rage, knowing how thin a line we truly walk.
" He sat on the edge of the hospital bed with a heavy sigh, taking off his glasses and scrubbing a hand over his weary eyes.
"I thought we had discussed this, though. You said you were going to keep your distance once she entered the Hunter’s Guild Academy.
If your parents realize you still remember… " He let his words linger.
Kiton leaned against the wall, crossing his arms as he stared down at Lucien.
"You think I don’t know that, doctor? After they wiped Rin’s memories and tried to wipe mine, I’ve had to act like the very sight of her doesn’t make me weak.
But trust me, they have no clue the experiment didn’t work on me.
" His lips tipped into a sardonic smirk.
"I can be a good actor when I want. Same couldn’t be said for you—the people in this room care about you. "
Lucien grimaced, but remained quiet.
Kiton continued:
"It was you who expressed how important it is for both of us to keep our distance. Remember that the next time you berate me for caring about her."
The other man was hot and cold. For Vesperin, only hot—hotter than the sun. But to everyone else? He was stoic and closed off. From more than his training for the Fleet.
What his parents had done had irrefutably changed him. Lucien didn’t blame the man. He doubted anyone could face such psychological torture from a young age and not come out on the other side unchanged.
Vesperin was changed, too. Even though her memories had been wiped, the hurt was still there, bubbling underneath the layers of her skin like magma.
Lucien could see it in the pale grey of her eyes, the way she tensed when anyone got too close, how she softened only around Kiton.
The man claimed she did not remember—but a part of her did. Or else she wouldn’t be so sweet with him and so poisonously aloof with others. Even Lucien.
The procedures that had wiped selective memories had been experimental.
It hadn’t worked on Kiton, even when they tried and tried again.
Tried so many times that he showed up at Lucien’s apartment with dried blood under his nose and trembling limbs, unable to hold himself upright as he cried and pleaded, banging his fist against Lucien’s chest.
Vesperin had never known, then. Totally unaware with no memories of any of it—she did not remember that Kiton was her Soulbond.
It had been five years, and Lucien felt like each day brought them nearer to the close of their act.
It had to come to an end, eventually.
They couldn’t keep this up forever.
After Vesperin’s parents had died in the Rogue attack—after his own had died—Kiton’s parents had been so willing to step in for her.
Kiton hadn’t shared everything with Lucien, just enough for him to understand how bad it had been.
How, as soon as Vesperin moved in, they had pounced, shedding their sheep’s clothing and revealing their wolven faces.
As an Aetherborn, everyone wanted a piece of her, and Blackfall Industries had gotten it, no matter the cost.
It had never been proven, but Lucien sometimes wondered if they had orchestrated the attack on Vesperin’s neighborhood.
To make her an orphan and open the door for being her savior—only to pounce and strap her to tables in the dead of night and inject her with things that Kiton told him made her back bow off the metal and the tendons in her neck strain as she screamed with pain.
They would receive their reckoning one day. Lucien would make sure of it. And now, he had Kiton. Together, they would make this life one they could all live safely.
For her.
"Have you heard from your parents?" Lucien asked.
Kiton scoffed. "No. Of course not. I told her they called, though. She just… needs to feel cared for. If she starts to question them, they’ll see right through it."
He was rambling, making excuses, and Lucien knew he would never say it, but it hurt not to have your parents’ affection, to be viewed as a means to an end.
Lucien’s own had been distant with him—nothing like Kiton’s—but to them, if he didn’t go to medical school, he was worthless. And now that Lucien was one of the top doctors in Solar City? They were dead and didn’t know.
"You did the right thing," said Lucien. "If her behavior raises any flags, they could take her right back to the labs." The very thought made him shudder. "They must think everything is normal."
"What about what happened? How can we keep this from them?"
Lucien put his glasses back on and stood.
He had been away long enough not to raise any questions.
Straightening his doctor’s coat, he said, "I’ve spoken with them already.
They know. Just enough. And it will stay that way.
" He held Kiton’s eyes. "I have the situation handled.
Take her home, let her rest, and this stays between us. "
Kiton dipped his chin in acknowledgment, understanding that, already, Lucien was donning the cool persona of the near-famous doctor everyone knew.
He would bear the brunt of this, all so Kiton could keep her safe and in the dark.
This was his penance for the wrongs he had done, and he would face it time and time again—life, after life—if it meant she could live freely.