Colton~~

My back aches, and my muscles are pulled tight.

"Damnit," I hear someone curse follow by a thud.

I force my eyes open and find myself in the dark. The floor beneath me vibrates. I blink, sleep trying to pull me back under.

One of my legs is propped above me on a firm ledge, and the rest of me has collapsed down into a crack. Erik lies across the ledge above me, his eyes shut.

The two of us are in the back of a car, and I'm stuck in the crack between rows.

From down here, I can see the back of Vienna's head, her blonde hair in disarray. She slams her hand against the wheel, creating the thud I heard.

"We have to—"

"Shut the hell up, Andrew." She grips the wheel. "If we go back, I can promise you we'll be taken, and we'll be no help to him then."

"Basile doesn't have an Expiration Date. They'll kill him."

"This is the fifth time you've said this, and my response is still going to be the same; you despise Expiration Dates."

I try to sit up but barely budge, my limbs still asleep.

The Amoris got Basile? We weren't friends, but I didn't dislike the guy. The only thing I had against him was that he was dating Andrew, but who wouldn't be wary of the guy dating the man who tried to murder—assassinate—their brother?

Other than that, Basile seemed fine.

"If it was Colton, you'd go back."

"Colton isn't Expiring anytime soon. Besides, he'd be angry that I put everything and everyone at risk for him."

"You'd still go back."

Vienna remains quiet, gripping the wheel, her silence damning. She'd go back for me.

Who would I go back for? Vienna? I'd like to think I would, but sensibility and logic have ruled me for a long time. Rebels hurt my mother, my family, invaded my home; they must be crushed. Iris was a threat to the Society; I needed to eliminate her. Vienna betrayed the Society; I told Jonas to exile her.

Lately I haven't been sensible at all. Kissing Vienna, befriending Iris, giving Andrew the time of day.

So maybe I would go back.

I . . . I hope I would.

"Please, Vienna, I'll do anything," Andrew says.

"You're a horrible, wicked man who tried murdering his cousin only because you disliked him." Vienna shoots him a glare the likes of which I would not want to be on the receiving end of. At least when I tried killing Iris, it was because she was a threat. Though I doubt if you asked her, she'd say that made it okay. "I would never do anything for you, only Basile, and I cannot turn around. Now unless you can magically conjure up a phone, I suggest you shut up."

I shift my gaze from them to Erik who I find watching me with a dazed look.

Vienna mutters to herself, pulling at her hair.

"Vienna?" Speaking is like trying to talk around a wad of cotton.

"Colton?" She sounds a bit breathless like after I've just kissed her. "Thank God. I was hoping the darts were only tranquilizers, but I don't really know anything about Amorian tech. I thought . . . For all I knew, you could have been in a coma for the rest of your life."

I manage to sit up, my leg dropping down into the crack with me. Only tranquilizers. They were quite advanced. Definitely useful against people who can't die at this point in time.

"How's Erik?" she asks.

Erik just stares at me.

"Uhh he's awake. What happened?"

"Basile and I got Erik and you in here," Andrew says. "Basile was shot with one of those darts while getting you into the car. They grabbed him before he could get in after you."

Damnit. The two of them rescued me. Now I owe them, and I think that means I have to save Basile from the Amoris. As for Andrew: I'll just consider it a payment to the you-tried-to-kill-my-brother debt.

I grab hold of the seat and haul myself up into it. "Where are we going?"

"No idea," Vienna says.

"Jonas and Iris are going to show up, and we won't be there." Iris is the one they want. The Amoris might lie in wait for them. We can't let them be ambushed.

"Andrew's house is compromised." The blue light from the dashboard, illuminates her tensed knuckles. "I need to find a place to buy a phone. Do you know your brother's new number?"

"It was on a paper in Andrew's basement, but I know Gwen's."

"International calling," Andrew mutters. He really has been away from the Society too long if he thinks a few fees matter.

"We need to go back." I grab hold of Erik, trying to sit him upright. "All our maps are there. If Andrew wants us to find Basile . . ."

"Shut it, Colton," Vienna snaps. "My only priority right now is keeping you and Erik safe."

I'm her priority. It hits me like a plank to the head. France isn't her priority. Not the Society.

Me.

And Erik. But since when has he mattered?

Jonas always took priority over me. If we were in a security detail, he was the team's number one focus. Get him out first. Everyone else second. On paper, I was supposed to be their next priority, but as long as the future Preeminence was safe and not captured by rebels, it didn't seem to matter as much if the future Beta was seized. Erik could have just replaced me. Jonas was less replaceable. He was the only one whose Expiration Date was unknown, just as tradition dictated. There was a time when my parents used to cover up my Mark, but once I was old enough to realize that the Betas before me didn't cover up their Marks, I kept ripping the bandage off, which led to me having my first big compromise at the age of seven. The bandaged stayed off if my Expiration Date remained unlogged in our databases. Expiration Dates are a source of pride in the Society. The Beta to the Douze, and each member in between, have always worn their Marks proudly.

I wasn't going to be any different.

I've always known since then—even if they didn't say it—that Jonas will die before me. No one else may have realized it, but even with my parents, Jonas was their first and foremost priority. He'd be the first they asked about in the morning. The one they'd hug the longest, the tightest. If Jonas got hurt in training, my mother would want to drop what she was doing to coddle him. My father said no to that, but he still gave Jonas almost anything he'd ever asked for.

When Gwen and I would try giving our parents long hugs, our father pushed us away with some dismissive comment about how hugs wouldn't teach us anything. When we got hurt in training, our mother would sigh and shake her head. Unless it was a broken bone. Then her motherly instincts would kick in, and no one would get between her and us.

I lean back in the seat, the only sounds the hum off the car and Vienna muttering about what a pain we're all going to be.

Still. She said it. I'm her priority.

She'd rather Jonas get taken by the Amoris than me. It's an incredibly inane reason, but I fall deeper in love with her.