What Are You?

"Fuck, that hurts like hell! It hurts more than a broken heart," Lucas takes the bits of the broken plate out of the cut in my left sole, and I curse under my breath.

"Watch your language! You need to rinse your mouth with holy water," Lucas snorts while putting a bandage over the freshly cleaned-up cut.

"Says someone whose life is derived from a Holy book of profanity," I scoff at him.

"And you never had a boyfriend. How would you even know what it feels like to be heartbroken?"

"Shut up!" I give up throwing mockery in his teeth because he will make me his laughingstock as a payback.

We don't say anything after that for a solid hour until Daisy comes home.

"What did I miss?" she says, looking back and forth between Lucas and me.

Lucas was leaning back against the kitchen counter after he washed the dishes when Daisy walked in on us while I sat on the dining chair across from that muscle head. Then Lucas walks out of the house without saying a word, making this situation more awkward between Daisy and me. She glances at me, and I shrug.

"Were you two fighting?" asks Daisy to me from the fridge while she's rummaging for something inside it.

I shake my head even though she can't see it, "no...Well, goodnight!" I get up and leave her to solve the confusion on her own.

Where is Lucas going? I contemplate following him when I walk out of the kitchen. But instead, I go back to my room.

I almost told Lucas about his brother tonight. What if I did tell him? What would he do, find Liam? Threaten to kick me out of the Camp if I don't show him where Liam is? Will finding out about my blood shock him more than about Liam's whereabouts?

***

It is midnight, and the snow is covering half of the street. As I'm playing with the bandage on my foot, I put a little pressure on the wound using my finger. It hurts, but at least it's not bleeding anymore. Is it weird that I like the way it hurts?

I climb off of my bed and walk to the window. I open it to let the cold wind enters my room the way I always do back at home whenever I can't sleep, and I sit on the windowsill.

The wooden floor outside my room creaks and followed by a knock on my door.

"Ava, are you awake?" Lucas's voice echoes from behind the piece of oak wood that separates my room with the rest of the cottage.

I limp to the door and crack it open a little. "Yes," I poke out to see Lucas in his pajamas. Looking at his fit figure in fitted checkered trouser makes me blush a little, and I don't know why. Well, at least he's not topless right now.

"Can I come in?" he says merely in a whisper. "We need to talk," Lucas sighs before pushing the door wider. It's unfair that he can open the door, which I hold with my mighty strength, without struggling. He shuts the door behind him, and he walks towards my bed.

"What is it?" I follow him, but I return to the windowsill instead of taking the vacant seat next to him.

"First, how do you know Liam was trying to find me? Second, why is your blood different? And third, why are you annoying?"

I arch my brows at him, shocked by his last question. I raise my hands in defense before I start answering, "I'm just going to assume that the third question is rhetorical, so I'm not going to answer that."

Lucas shrugs.

"The answers to your first and second questions are related. Although, the answer to your second question is-" I bite my bottom lip. "I don't know."

He stays silent for a moment and frowns at me like he's suspicious of something I just said.

"Liam," so I start speaking again before he gets more confused. "He was acting strange since you left. He was... different. Then we were supposed to go to the movie one weekend, but he never came to pick me up at home. I called your residence, but no one answered. So, I knocked on the door, but nobody opened it. Liam was not at school the next day, then I decided to go to your house again, and nobody was there.

Then I went on a hike on my own to look for him up on that hill in the forest behind our house where Liam would usually go whenever he was stressing out about something, but somehow I lost my footing. I slipped and fell down the ravine, hitting my head several times on the way to the bottom. I couldn't open my eyes but still heard everything around me. That was the day I discovered the change in my blood. Well, Aiden did... because he found me there first.

I thought I would die that night, but Liam's voice echoed like a dream. I know he was there, and I didn't imagine his voice. He said something about not looking for him, which meant he intended to run away. What would his purpose in doing that if it is not to find you, Lucas?"

I stop talking because I'm out of breath. Lucas's eyes drift away from me, looking down at his legs. He shakes his head and chuckles.

Somehow, I feel like there is something he is not telling me. I can't be all too suspicious, and maybe he's just hurt knowing his brother is missing. But I can't help being skeptical towards him.

"Your blood," he finally says after a moment. "I thought you were an Obel."

This time I'm the one shaking my head. "I am," I say.

Lucas refuses to stay silent, "you're not! Don't lie to me-"

"I'm not lying!"

"Then why was your blood hot when I touched it?" Lucas looks almost frustrated. "Ava, your blood is not normal! What are you?"

I nibble on my lower lip, unsure if I should lie or admit that my guess is as good as his. In the end I choose the latter, "I don't even know what I am, Lucas!" there's no point in telling the him the answer I don't have.

"Is that the reason why you're running away from home?" Lucas hops off my bed and walks around the room aimlessly, as if trying to look for a clue on the floor. "Daisy told me that Wanda instructed her to take you in! She was worried that the Monarch would take you away. But why would they do that?"

"Wait, Daisy knew Wanda? How?" I have never been so confused in my life as of now. I'm refusing the fact that Daisy is acquainted with Wanda. But the again, I remember Wanda's last instruction about people she knew would be waiting for me at the bust stop. Could Daisy be one of them?

"That's a story for another time, Ava! I need to know why would the Monarch take you-"

"Because I'm on the Test Subject list, Lucas!" I chime in, cutting him off. My voice comes out shaky from my mixed feelings. When he mentioned Wanda, another one of his secrets had just got unveiled. So, he knew I would be in this Camp before I even set foot here that day. The way he's terrorizing me with his question about what I am is only to stall his time from telling me everything he's hiding. He hasn't once admitted that he's no different.

I didn't mean to yell, but I did it anyway. A tear rolls down my cheek as I clench my hand into a fist.

"What?" Lucas turns around to face me from across the room. "How did they even put you on the list?"

"The hospital sent my blood as a sample after I fell down the ravine and almost died," I look down at my feet, worried that I might cry for real if I keep staring at his anxious eyes.

"So, you're one of those people, huh?" he chuckles as if it is meant as sarcasm.

"Those people?" It urges me to be angry at the way he said it. The disgust in his voice is so thick I can feel it slaping my senses back to reality. I stand up and walk to my bedside table. "You are one of those people like me! We're the same, Lucas. Stop pretending I'm the only one who doesn't belong in any bloodlines here! When will you tell me about it? or are you going to deny it now?"

"How did you know that?" asks Lucas as he leaps across the room toward me.

"Because thanks to you and your little ego, I am on the List! My name is a replacement for your absence," I open the drawer and take a pin I use for sewing. It's become a new hobby and a distraction from thinking too much about Liam.

I poke the tip of my finger with the pin.

"What are you doing?" he snatches my arm away from the bloodied needle, but he's too late.

The sharp end digs into the skin, and my Rebel blood starts to stream down my finger. I take one of his fingers and put the tip of my bloody finger onto his.

"It's cold," Lucas says as if it is his first time discovering that fact.

"Yes," I nod my head while pulling my hand back. "Even though I am angry right now, I was calm before you came in. But my blood is still-"

"I know," he takes my arm, which is sticky from the red ooze drying on my palm. He peels off my fist, loosening my fingers one by one until we can see the Obel's blood on my hand. "I'm sorry that I put you in this situation," he lifts my hand slowly to his face.

My breath is caught up in the back of my throat, "it's okay!" I try to say, but my voice trembles as my heart beats faster.

"How can I make it up to you?" he brings my opened palm to his lips before kissing it.

His warm breath brushes my skin, making me shudder.

"Lucas-" I want to yank my hand away, but he grips it tighter when I try to.

"Tell me," says Lucas, licking the blood on my palm. "What can I do to make you forgive me, Ava?"

Goosebumps start to crawl all over me as my knees suddenly limp under my weight. I feel something strange with my body... something I have never felt before.

The way my name echoed faintly from his mouth, the gentle tone of his husky voice. He's doing something to my head as if holding me under a spell. This intoxicating sensation inside my belly, what is this?

"Nothing" is what I meant to say, but instead of saying the word, I'm only mumbling nonsense.

He grazes his soft lips on my wrist, tracing along the inside of my arm up to my shoulder. I accidentally let out an embarrassing sigh, a sound of thrill and satisfaction from the ecstasy of his fleeting touch on my skin.

He kisses the inner of my collarbone, then my neck, "Ava..." he whispers my name as he reaches my ear.

I catch myself losing control of my voice. I suddenly don't remember how to speak.

He pulled away from me right when I closed my eyes. He catches my face with his hand.

"Ava," he calls out my name again in a muted tone. He stares into my eyes, and at first, I thought he would tell me something. But after a second, which feels like an eternity, he suddenly leans his face closer to me.

His lips are suddenly pressed against mine, and it takes too long for me to process what is happening.

When I was about to open my mouth to welcome his kiss, the image of Liam's face suddenly passed through my mind.

I push Lucas away, and it shocks both of us.

"Lucas, no-" I cover my mouth to prevent myself from yelling at him. I can feel the tears flood the corner of my eyes, and when I blink, the tears stream down my cheeks.

"I-" says Lucas, as dumbfounded as I am. "I'm sorry..."

Is it too late now to take everything back?