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None of them had messaged me all day. Which wasn't overly surprising really. They were probably trying to give me time to cool off, though I wasn't completely sure needed it. Sure, at first, I'd been kind of pissed off that they'd deceived me the way they had, I mean it would have been easy for Aaron and Adrian to tell me their names when we'd met, but more of me was intrigued. Why me? What was it I had that they wanted, and why had they gone to such lengths to get it?

  My ability to invent did kind of make sense more than any other option. I mean, what else was I good for? Maybe there weren't actually a lot of people who could do what I can? I wouldn't know, it's not something easily looked into really. I mean, what would I search for? People that make shit? That probably wasn't going to turn up anything like what I wanted to find. Nor was it going to be good for my eyes, it might even disturb me.

  But realistically, was a twenty-something who'd never left her apartment, really going to be able to do something that unique? I didn't buy it. There was something more, and they needed to tell me what it was.

  I looked into the full length mirror that’d been in my room for as long as I could remember, though I had no idea why it was there. I mean, I never went anywhere, so why did I need something to check how I looked?

  A sharp crack drew my attention away from the mirror. I spun around, surprised to find Aaron’s dark eyes boring into me from across the room.

  “Did you override the security system again?” I asked with a sigh, not feeling nearly as bothered as I maybe should be. But despite the lies, a part of me did seem to trust them still. I suppose that was what happened when you talked for people every day for months. Aaron chuckled, his face lightening up and becoming that bit more attractive. Weird how that worked.

  “I think you’ll find it’s Adrian who does the hacking.”

  “Did he?” I asked, not too sure what to make of his laughter. He calmed slightly, leaving a slight smirk on his face and nothing else.

  "Not this time no. I may have used his tools to do it while he was distracted." He seemed pleased with himself, and I couldn't help the slight smile that crept over my face. When he wasn't being ridiculously sullen, he wasn't actually that bad. I just hoped no one would tell him I said that.

  "You seem proud of yourself," I observed, but it didn't rid him of his smile.

  "Oh, I am. It's not often Adrian allows himself to be distracted, but apparently the mere thought of you was enough. Kind of cute don't you think?"

  My mouth gaped open in a highly unattractive way, but I was at a complete loss for what to say. "Me?" I squeaked eventually.

  "Yes, you," he responded within seconds. "I have to admit, you're more than a little distracting, Zel." He took a step forward and my feet felt like they'd become stuck to the floor. I should be backing away, this man had been giving off vibes like he hated me just last night, yet here he was walking towards me with a very different look on his face. A look that I'd never personally seen until I'd met Asher on roof.

  "But you hate me," I squeaked. He was just a hairsbreadth away from me now, within easy touching distance without a doubt, and part of me was longing to just that. It'd be so easy to raise a hand and brush it across the stubble of his jaw. Luckily, I just about managed to refrain.

  "I don't hate you."

  "Then why were you so angry with me last night?" I asked, cocking my head to the side and still trying to ignore how close he was to me. It wouldn't do to give in to what my body seemed to want when really I needed some answers.

  "I wasn't angry with you."

  "Sure as hell felt like it," I muttered, making him chuckle again.

  "I'm sorry it came across that way." He frowned. "I wasn't angry at you, Zel. More at the other two. I know we had to tell you about us, but I didn't think you were ready for the rest of it."

  "What rest of it?" I tried to ignore the rest of what he was saying, and the implication that his surliness was actually protection. I didn't know how I felt about that, so ignoring it was by far the better option. "You're not going to tell me, are you?" I asked, reading the confused frown on his face.

  "I am. I did a lot of thinking since you left. You need to know. And you're going to have to be ready soon, so why not now?" The question was definitely rhetorical, but filled me with a sense of dread anyway.

  "And?"

  "Do you trust me?" He said the words so earnestly that it was absolutely impossible for me to resist.

  "Yes. I shouldn't. But yes." He nodded, probably acknowledging I was right. But instead of saying anything, he took my hand gently in his, the warmth of his palm in mine was comforting. Gently, he tugged me over so we were stood in front of the window that'd been sealed shut years ago. It didn't seem to phase Aaron, and he reached forward to place his free hand on the latch.

  "Ready?" he asked. I looked at him, my confusion written all over my face. I had no idea what he was on about, or even if I wanted to know. It seemed there was a high likelihood that I wouldn't be happy with whatever he had planned. Stupidly, instead of asking, I just nodded, and he took that moment to flip the latch.

  "No!" I shouted louder than I intended to, before slapping my hand over my mouth and holding my breath. I couldn't let the air touch my lungs. I had no idea what would happen if that actually occurred, but I imagine that it probably wasn't good. No one could call death that. The urge to take another breath was building, and it was taking all I could to keep holding it. I wasn't ready to die. Not when I hadn't had a chance to live.

  "Zel, you're fine. You can breathe." I looked at him oddly, temporarily forgetting that I did in fact have a way of contacting him that didn't include opening my mouth. I should probably blame the oxygen deprivation. I shook his hand off mine and stepped away from him, intending to go over to my desk where I'd left the mask when I'd removed it the night before. "Zel, please?" he repeated, but I ignored him, my mind going a little fuzzy and actually thinking was a bit beyond me.

  To my surprise, his hand closed around my wrist, and he tugged me back towards him. Pulling me close, he pressed his lips to mine, the warmth of them taking me back and causing me to take a deep breath. I panicked for a second, before a firm hand on my lower back pulled me closer, and Aaron's gentle lips distracted me.

  I'd never been kissed before, but this was something completely unexpected. He was firm, but I didn't feel him pushing. He was clearly being considerate of my lack of knowledge, but the kiss definitely didn't feel like it was coming from someone that hated me.

  We broke apart, and I was surprised to find I was breathing heavily. Wait, no. I was surprised to discover I was breathing at all. I touched my hand to my throat, and then looked between Aaron and the window a few times, not quite able to work out what the hell was going on. I could breathe. That was unexpected to say the least.

  "Convinced yet?" he asked softly, without a hint of amusement in his voice.

  "I can breathe?" I asked, looking up into his eyes and finding his reassuring dark gaze boring into me.

  "You've always been able to breathe, Zel."

  "Outside I mean."

  "So do I. You've always been able to breathe outside." He spoke calmly, watching me intently as the words sunk in. Or didn't as the case may be. It was taking a little while for the truth to sink in.

  "But..."

  "Why did you think you couldn't?" he asked softly.

  "My Mother told me," I whispered.

  "No other reason?"

  I shook my head, shocked that I hadn't noticed that before. I liked to think I was a logical person, which meant I shouldn't be taking anything at face value and without any proof of anything. So why had I been so accepting of the fact I couldn't breathe outside? It seemed...surprising to say the least.

  "I...how long have you known?" I asked, changing tack almost as soon as I'd started to speak.

  "Since the first day we talked to you."

  "Did you talk to me because of this?" Maybe I shouldn't have asked, but it was the first thing that had rushed through my
head, and the words had escaped before I could really stop them.

  "Sort of," he admitted, looking a little sheepish. I waited for him to continue, hoping he'd elaborate. Aaron just sighed. "There's more to it. You've always been able to breathe outside, but you were also born with something far far more precious."

  Well that did sound good. Or it did, but then it opened up a whole new set of possibilities, none of which were particularly pleasant in my mind. "What?" The word caught in my throat, and I had to swallow down the nerves. I had a bad feeling about this.

  "There's something in your genetics that make you special. Kind of like an antidote."

  "To what?" I asked, till not quite processing what he was saying. There was something in me that was different from everyone else? That was difficult to process, especially when I'd already had one shock recently. Two if you included the fact that Asher was actually three men.

  "A lot of things. Cancer, some kidney diseases, even some deficiencies."

  "What? How? I thought they were gone from the world?" I rattled off the questions while trying to contain the rest of them that were rattling around in my head. Aaron chuckled again.

  "Which would you like me to answer first?"

  "All of them, I don't care." It was only then that I noticed we were still standing so close together. Tugging on his arm, I pulled him towards my bed, sitting on it and expecting him to follow, which thankfully, he did. Maybe I should be freaking out about the fact there was a man sat on my bed, but then it was probably too late for that given I hadn't really freaked out about him being in my room at all.

  "We don't know how, or why, before you ask. Something like one in seventeen hundred thousand people is born with what you have. Most of them are taken into government protection the moment they're born, and that's where they stay. You slipped under the radar. We've been looking for you since you were born," he explained, he was almost calm enough for me to think he'd rehearsed what he was going to say, though I hoped not, it would make it far less genuine if he had.

  "We?" I think I had the rest of it covered, but not who he was referring to.

  "Asher, Adrian and I."

  "You're not old enough to have been looking for me since I was born," I pointed out. At least, they weren't if they were to be believed about their age.

  "It hasn't always been us personally, but there's always been someone, Zel. You're both too precious to get away, and too dangerous to let be free."

  "Dangerous? Precious?" Okay, that was it, I was officially as confused as a snowman in summer.

  "You hold the cure to so many things inside you, if you don't think that makes you both, then you have another thing coming."

  "Cures to diseases that have been gone for years?" I reminded him. He hadn't answered that the first time I'd asked, but then again, that may be my own fault, I did distract him with other questions.

  "People are told they're gone so they don't panic about them. They're very much still about." He looked away from me, almost as if he was ashamed to admit that there remained such atrocities in the world. I kind of got it, I mean it was sad that people were still dying of things they had no control over.

  "So wait, is not being able to breathe outside even a thing?" I was horrified to think that I'd been suffering from an ailment that wasn't just a lie, but was completely made up in the first place too.

  "Yes, there are really people who can't. They're trying to find a solution for it, but so far no one's come up with anything. Well, until you. Don't think your talents there aren't another reason we want you. One of many." A wistful expression crossed his face as he said that, and I looked on, slightly perplexed by what he was getting at here.

  "And the others are?" I prodded. I probably shouldn't have, but he'd awoken my curiosity now, there was no undoing that.

  "Our job is to find you."

  "Yes, you already said that one."

  "And you."

  "Wanting me for my genetics and my talents is the same thing," I pointed out. Aaron turned slightly so that he was facing me more squarely, and lifted a hand to brush a strand of hair away from my face.

  "Not you for what you can do, you for who you are."

  "What do you mean?" My voice was a breathy whisper, but I couldn't get more than that out. His gaze was locked on my lips, and his attention wasn't wavering from them as I spoke. It was doing funny things to me, the least of which being that it made me want him to kiss me again. Or maybe I should kiss him first this time? But I wasn't too sure on that one. I didn't have enough experience to be able to know whether or not he actually wanted that.

  "You're special to us, Zel. We've spent the past few months getting to know you, and coming to care for you. We don't want any harm to come to you. So yes, we want you. But that's not we, the government behind us, that's we, Asher, Adrian and I."

  "My three As?" I asked, as slight smile feeling like it was playing at the corners of my lips.

  "Yes."

  "The As to my Z." He laughed loudly and I shh-ed him. I couldn't have Mother waking up and discovering I had a man in my room. She'd do...something. Though what that would be was beyond me. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad now that I could point out she'd lied about the fact I could actually breathe if I went outside.

  "Yes, the As to your Z. Always."

  "So if I've been used for this genetics thing, what does that actually mean?" I asked the question slowly, already knowing I wasn't going to like the answer. Not one bit. And the uneasy look on Aaron's face wasn't doing anything to reassure me in the slightest.

  "Are you sure you want to know?" He gnawed on his bottom lip after asking. Damn, he really was nervous.

  "I need to," I replied, not really sure that I wanted to know in reality, but knowing that I needed to.

  "We're not completely sure, not without doing some tests, but we suspect that you've been having your organs slowly removed and replaced with robotics."

  "What?" I snapped, looking at him like he was crazy. Because he was crazy. Surely I'd have noticed if my insides had been swapped into the parts of a robot. I mean that seemed unlikely, right?

  "I suspect you're at least part robot now."

  "How? Why? What?" I wasn't sure which of those questions I was actually asking, and which I wanted answers for first.

  "Think it through, Zel. Think how fast you think, how you can sense emotions when you're speaking via text. I bet there's other things too, aren't there?"

  "How do you know about the emotions?" I asked immediately, latching onto the one thing I couldn't deny. The rest of what he said made sense too, but I wanted to stay in denial about that.

  "Because I'm that way too." I stared at him, my mouth gaping open as I tried to process what he was saying. "And Asher and Adrian," he added when I said nothing.

  "So if I'd been taken as a baby..." I prompted.

  "Then you'd be like this anyway. But it'd have been done while you knew about it. They explained it to us when we were seven, told us that what we were doing was saving humanity."

  "It's not a choice at seven," I bit out automatically. He laughed bitterly.

  "It's more of a choice than taking your organs while you sleep is any more choice?"

  Oh. He had a point there. "But what do I do?" I half-wailed and instantly cursed myself for it.

  "Leave it with me, and hold in there for another couple of days. We knew when you met Asher that it'd be time to get you out of here. We just need a little longer to get everything in line." Aaron leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead. "I'll see you later, but Adrian will message you in the morning. We won't let anyone hurt you anymore, Zel. You're ours and we'll do everything we can to protect you."

  "Thank you," I mouthed, my words not quite working.

  "But do one thing for me?" I nodded the moment he asked. "Keep your mask with you at all times. If we have to get you out of here quick, then I don't want you losing all that work in the process."

  "You think that's likely?" I hop
ed he didn't. It was more than a little worrying to think that there'd be a reason for a quick extraction.

  Chapter 6

  How're you feeling today? Adrian's message flashed across my eye and I smiled, partly because I recognised it as his without him even saying much. I suppose some of that was because Aaron had told me it'd be Adrian messaging me. I liked to think not though.

  Better than I've felt in a while actually, I responded. I'd even lost the groggy feeling I'd gotten used to over the past few years. Given Aaron's revelations the night before, I did have to wonder if that was anything to do with what he said had been done to me.

  But that did raise another issue in my mind. If what he said was true, then someone was doing that to me. And the only person it could be was...no. No. I refused to believe it. She was cold, sure, but that cold? I refused to believe it. I couldn't believe it. Then my whole life would have been a lie. Well, more of a lie than I'd already realised it was. Hell, it'd been a bad week for learning truths.

  Are you sure? You seem awfully quiet? I could hear his concern down our connection and it warmed my heart a little. I may have only kissed Aaron, but that hadn't changed the connection I felt to the other two, even if that connection was more to do with the interactions we'd had before than the ones since. I'm not so sure, it was a strange situation for me to be in, yet I almost loved it already.

  Just thinking, it's a lot to take in. I sighed.

  Yes, Aaron told us you two had a talk.

  A talk...I trailed off, thinking about something that definitely wasn't talking. That had been the best bit. I heard Adrian laugh down the line.

  Yes, he told us about the kiss too.

  And you're okay with that? I asked, more curious than anything else. Clearly they were close. They had to be when they were using the same system to communicate, but that close? Maybe a little unexpected.

  It was a little confusing at first, but he used his infuriating logic to point out that we'd built the relationship with you together, and so it was all of ours anyway.