Chapter 15
Something woke me up again, but it wasn’t the AI this time. I frowned, reaching around blindly in the dark to find my glasses, when they suddenly seemed to slide themselves onto my nose.
“What—”
I yelped as my eyes adjusted to the dark room, only to discover exactly what had woken me up.
The freaking Forgotten was sitting on the edge of my king-size bed, and had clearly been the one to slide my glasses on my face.
So much for him not being able to get to me on the Neurovance campus.
I opened my mouth to scream, but before I knew it, he was straddling me, and his gloved hand slammed over my mouth.
“Quiet. Don’t you dare fucking scream.”
Wide-eyed and terrified, I sucked in a breath through my nose and nodded against his hand. I lay completely still beneath the weight of him, so afraid I wasn’t sure I could move if I wanted to.
“I am not fucking happy with you, Milo,” the man growled through the voice modifier in his mask.
I squeaked, squirming in terror against the firm pressure of his glove, but he just pressed me more firmly into the pillows.
“Could you possibly imagine why?”
I shook my head slightly, and he leaned forward. His black mask prevented me from feeling the warmth of his breath as he growled over me like some sort of mechanical animal.
“I gave you one job, Milo. One, simple fucking job. How is it that you’ve managed to be here for less than twelve hours, and I’ve already needed to interrupt my very important work to keep Sebastian fucking Stevens from shoving his tongue down your damn throat?”
I didn’t think my eyes could get any wider, but they did.
How did he know about that?
I shivered as he slid the hand that wasn’t slapped over my mouth down my arm. He paused over the scar I’d received from the car accident, and it seemed to cause him to immediately soften, which confused me.
“I’m going to let you go, if you scream, I will drag Sebastian back in here and cut his fucking dick off in front of you, do you understand me?”
The blood drained from my face, and I forced myself to nod again, and he held me for a beat longer before releasing me.
I scrambled up and away from him, leaning back against the headboard and watching as his towering form turned away from the bed in frustration to look out the window at the midnight skyline of the Neurovance campus.
“Fucking ridiculous…” The Forgotten was muttering to himself.
“It won’t be much longer. Try to keep it together.” The soft, feminine voice of his portable AI—I think I heard him call her NOVA—responded from his mask. The glowing ring pulsed as she talked, punctuating each of her words with a ripple of blue light.
“It’s hard when he’s fucking goading me like this.”
“You know this is all Luke. Seb’s basically a puppet.”
“Yeah, well, he did that entirely chip-free. It’s like he wants me to fucking kill him.”
“Come on. You know what it’s like to be… lonely. He’s probably so desperate for companionship. Try to cut him some slack.”
“No! Not when it comes to—”
The AI let out a long-suffering sigh, as if this was an argument she had with her user often, and I cleared my throat loudly.
“Not to—uhm, interrupt… but… could you maybe… get out of my condo?” I meeped.
“I’m sure this place is under heavy surveillance, and Luke Stevens is…
scary. If you want me to… you know, do that thing tomorrow, this is probably a good way to make sure they never take me to that cave place.
It was a near miss already after I failed the security scan. ”
The Forgotten tensed, then slowly turned to face me.
His matte-black hooded tactical jacket was strapped close to his athletic frame with a utility harness.
His matching pants were structured and just as full of straps and tiny pouches as his jacket was.
My attention caught on a tiny glint, and I realized with a start that he had Melanie’s chili pepper keychain secured to one of the straps wrapped around his thigh.
I expected him to lash out at me for asking him to leave, but instead, he chuckled softly.
“Brave, brave, little Milo,” he purred, stepping back up to the bed.
I inched away from him until my back was pressed up against the headboard.
“Not brave… just… practical.”
“And here I thought you said you weren’t up for the challenge of… what did you call it? Corporate espionage?”
I wrinkled my nose at how amused he sounded.
“I’m not, but you haven’t given me a choice.”
The Forgotten planted his fists on the bed, leaning forward so his mask was inches from my nose again.
His proximity sent a rush of adrenaline through me, though it felt much different than the zing of anticipation I’d felt from Sebastian earlier.
“You can have anything you want, Milo. All you need to do is ask.”
I was hit again with a strong sense of deja vu.
I shook my head aggressively, trying to shake away the strange feelings that didn’t make any sense. Everything smelled like birch and oak, and it was making me… Why did my chest hurt?
“I—”
This odd rush of feeling was welling up so quickly, and I felt like I wanted to choke on the amount of emotion that was flooding my throat.
I jumped slightly as The Forgotten reached out and brushed a stray tear off my cheek with his gloved thumb.
When had I started crying?
“Tell me, Milo.”
“Wh-what?”
“What do you want?”
My mind was racing, and for once, I couldn’t seem to get a hold of my own thoughts.
Usually, I could work through complex math problems in seconds.
I could dissect multi-layered theories and organize my dissertations into rational, easy-to-understand theses.
But this… this raw, powerful emotion that felt so random and baseless, I didn’t understand it.
I couldn’t quantify it or find its origin.
What did I want?
I should be saying I wanted my mother back, that I wanted to be reunited with her. But for some reason, I just… had this strong and profound feeling that there was nothing to worry about.
Abruptly, it was like a dam broke somewhere deep inside me, and this unfathomable trust for this stranger bloomed out of nowhere.
Which was… insane.
He’d murdered my friend right in front of me… he’d blackmailed me, and kidnapped my mother to hold her hostage… but… there was something… this black hole that kept begging me to look closer, but every time I did, nothing of substance echoed back.
“Do you want that kiss I stole from you earlier? Hmm?” he hummed, and I blinked in shock, confused by the way my entire body reacted positively to his offer.
“I… I—uhm…”
“You lonely, baby? I know it’s been a while.
Two years is a long time, sweet boy. I can’t blame you for wanting to feel close to someone.
..” He let out a low chuckle and ran his knuckles tenderly over my warm, damp cheek.
“Though, you could maybe choose someone a little less miserable than Sebastian.”
“How did you—”
“Oh, Milo… I know everything about you. I know everything that happens on this campus. There is nothing you or anyone else can do to hide from me. The devil knows they tried.”
I was quivering, and for once it wasn’t with fear.
A strange heat and a sense of longing were erupting through me, and I found myself reaching out with shaking fingers for his mask.
He jerked back, shaking his head.
“Nuh-uh. Not yet.”
“I just… I need to see you… You don’t understand. There’s something about you… Something about Seb. It’s driving me crazy…” I choked on the word ‘crazy,’ and more tears spilled down my cheeks.
Why did it feel like my heart was breaking?
The Forgotten hung frozen before me, and I heard his AI whisper a warning in his ear.
“Don’t do it. Not yet,” NOVA warned, but The Forgotten growled a firm ‘Shut up, NOVA’ before reaching forward and slipping my glasses off my nose.
My world collapsed into smudges of black and navy. The light of the moon illuminated the now smoky and featureless form that made up The Forgotten. Shadow and light seemed to bloom and bleed with every small movement he made before me.
“Okay, Milo. You can take it off now,” he whispered, and I reached through the blurry blacks and blues and hooked my fingers around the edges of his mask.