AllFreeNovel
Share Us
DAISY LAZARUS
Daisy saton the roof for longer than necessary, but the weight of responsibility tugged at her. More shouts and sirens rended the night. She supposed she should do as Parker said, but while she was up here with a bird’s eye view of the mayhem, she couldn’t help running scenarios in her mind. It was how her brain was trained. This was a perfect sniper spot. She picked out multiple easy targets on the ground.
Maybe that was how she could be useful—take replicates or criminals down one by one. Still, nothing felt right. Nothing felt enough.
Eventually she forced her legs to walk back to the basement. The baby was gone, but Liza, Flint and Mary were still there. Dressed in her Deadly suit, Liza spotted Daisy and rushed over.
Daisy braced.
“You should be out there helping,” Liza said with a bleakness in her eyes. “Not wandering the halls of Lazarus House.”
“I would help if I knew how.”
Liza shoved a floppy Deadly suit into Daisy’s hands. “Just put it on and get out there. Do whatever you think is right to help settle the situation. It’s the least you can do.”
Daisy stared at the dormant suit and wanted to laugh. Each of her siblings had a different colored face scarf so they could mark each other in the field. They’d given her white. It was a flash of her old life, of the old white leather suit she wore to become the Falcon—the Syndicate’s enforcer. It was a reminder that she would fail if they put their trust in her. She stared at it as she spoke.
“My first instinct when I walk into a room isn’t to assess the exits and know where to escape. It’s to get up high, find a position of power, and put down the weak.” She lifted her gaze to her sister. “If you put me out there in the field to help, whatever I think is right is wrong. Dead wrong.”
They all gaped at her but it was the truth.
“Mija,” Mary sighed. “Believe me, I understand a lifetime of training to kill. It takes time, but those instincts can be repurposed.”
“Don’t call me daughter,” Daisy clipped, “in any language. You lost the right to that title the day you left me to the fire.”
Mary backed up. A sadness entered her eyes and the sensed despair made Daisy sick. She had hurt Mary’s feelings and now she felt bad. And that made her angry. Daisy knew what Mary meant to the family, but the truth of it was, Mary would never mean the same to Daisy. The woman was singularly responsible for her fate over the past few decades.
Daisy tossed her challenging gaze to Mary’s husband, Flint. She remembered him vaguely from her childhood. She’d felt his sadness through the one-way glass separating them from the scientists in the lab. She supposed he was also to blame for Daisy’s lot in life.
“That’s not fair,” Liza said, eyes flashing. “Mary did what she had to. At least she’s trying to make amends. You’re so stubborn. You won’t let us help you. You’re just—”
Daisy stepped toward her younger sister then clenched her fists and stifled her instinct to retaliate. Liza was right, and that pissed Daisy off even more. Liza—the entire family—wanted to help Daisy. And that was the problem. Everything Daisy remembered about being in this family revolved around her being the one helping them. As the eldest, she’d caught them when they fell, not the other way around.
But right now, Daisy didn’t care about the poison in Liza’s mouth or the dark circles under her eyes because she feared for her mate. In that moment, Liza was simply an obstacle to Daisy’s path out of there. Liza moved to block Daisy, to force her to stay.
“Don’t, Liza,” Flint warned. “Let Daisy have her feelings. She’s entitled to them. She needs time.” He turned to Daisy and added, “I know what it’s like to be thrust into a new world. It’s tough. But don’t shut us all out while you’re adjusting.”
It was the opposite to what Parker had said, and for that Daisy was grateful.
Liza glared but stepped back. “FYI, you need to earn the title of sister, too.”
Daisy dumped the suit on the table and stalked out. She wasn’t sure where she was going, but knew she needed to leave. Whatever she was doing here wasn’t working. The rush of emotions coursing through her body was new. With Julius, she’d blocked everything out until she’d been cold and empty. Now, her brain hurt, and she didn’t know how to make sense of it. The worst part of these feelings was that deep down, Daisy wanted the same things as her family. But how could she earn her place as a sister to a family of heroes when she’d never truly been one?
Fuck it. It was all too hard.
“I’m out of here.”
No one stopped her this time. She had no idea where she was going, but away was a good idea. She couldn’t stand the pressure. Confusion still whirled in her head as she stormed out of the elevator leading into the ground floor lobby. There used to be a doorman there, but they’d put him on paid leave until the city was safe. He might never come back.
She had a clean path down a dark hallway toward the street exit. The nightclub on the left was dormant, and the restaurant on the right was boarded up. They had extra security at this entrance, a metal door instead of the old glass. It made the lobby feel like the inside of a box at the bottom of the sea.
There was a time when the destruction of this city was all Daisy wanted. It was the gold medal in Julius’s race to create a new utopia. Now the madness was here, she knew it had never been something she’d wanted. But it felt too late to stop.
She punched the exit button at the door and burst out into the fresh night air—and slammed into a tall, hard body.
“Whoa.” Two hands gripped her shoulders and held her steady.
Daisy froze. It was Axel, the very man Parker had bidden her to get in touch with. Her mate. And he was touching her. He was here.
