Exported [Book 3 in the Expiring Series]

27 Shipped

Colton~~

On our fourth day in Erik's cabin, a car pulls into the backyard beside Erik's. Based on my cousin's glance out the window and subsequent shrug, I gather it's Andrew. His nonchalance irritates me because with every second that creeps by, I'm brought closer to being face to face with the man who wanted to end my brother's life, who blew up part of my home, who gave Erik the scar on his jaw.

Even Bently seems nervous, tapping his foot and crossing and uncrossing his arms.

Iris paces between the table and couch, her hands balled into fists. She looks like she's ready to rain down fire and brimstone.

Erik tells us to stay away from the window. We wouldn't want to scare Andrew off, now would we?

That's debatable.

I hear the back door open but can't see it in its spot behind the corner.

"Erik? Is everything all right? I saw your car."

I flinch. I haven't heard his voice since he was dragged screaming out of my father's office, minutes after discovering it was not Jonas's Expiration Date.

Andrew steps around the corner. His face morphs from worried to shocked. His dirty blond curls are wild, just as I remember them but the dark circles under his eyes are new.

I hear the door close, and a tall man with dark skin and buzzed hair appears and steps close beside Andrew. I've never seen him before. He seems young, though probably a few years older than Andrew's twenty-three.

"Colton," Andrew says. "Bently. What a—what are you doing in France?"

"Colton missed his one true love," Erik begins and my hands tighten into fist. "But you'll never—"

Iris walks from the couch to Andrew. He opens his mouth but before he can say anything, she punches him in the face. Andrew's neck pops back, and the man beside him wraps his hand around Andrew's arm, pulling Andrew close to him.

With his free hand, Andrew grabs his nose.

Erik claps.

Andrew pulls his hand away from his nose, his hand splattered in blood. "Don't you know it's rude to hit someone without knowing them?"

Iris opens her mouth, but Bently beats her to it. "This is Jonas's fiancée."

"The miserable lout found someone to love him?" He sneers. "Or is he just paying well?"

I jump in to steer the direction away from Iris and Jonas. "Who's this?" I motion to the man beside him.

"My boyfriend. Basile." Having someone from outside the Society here will only make fighting the Amoris more difficult.

"At least someone's love life is working out." Erik pulls out a chair at the table and sits down.

"Erik." I'm still not any more in the mood for his nonchalance about this whole situation.

"Are these the aliens?" Basile asks Andrew. The blood drains from my face.

"Not exactly. Though Colton and Bently"—he points us out in turn—"are more Amorian than human. Their mothers are Amoris." Andrew spreads out his palms to us. "Did you really expect me not to share the juiciest of secrets?"

Bently takes a step forward. "You mean the one about you trying to kill your cousin?"

Andrew clucks his tongue. "That's not a secret. It isn't as if the Society has many fans."

"We need your help," I force out through gritted teeth

Andrew tilts his head to the side, his forehead wrinkling. "You want my help?"

"Surely you must wonder why the French are after you."

"I thought the Society wanted me for something."

"The Society wants nothing to do with you," Bently says. "I thought we made that abundantly clear when we sent you to another continent."

Andrew doesn't wince, but Erik does. Iris glances at him before coming to stand by my side.

Andrew dabs at his nose with his hand. "So why are the French after me and why do you want my help?"

I take a deep breath, glancing at Basile. "An Amorian is killing people and imprinting them with their Expiration Date."

Andrew stiffens, though his eyes widen while his hands tighten into fists.

"Thirty bodies were found in a barn." Iris rolls her shoulders back. "I witnessed one murder in an alley and another at a ball." Iris explains why it's Erik and Andrew the DGSE is after. I know Iris well enough to know she'd rather give up breakfast for a year than ask Andrew for his help in tracking down the Amoris, but she does it anyway. I think Jonas would be proud. Or horrified. Really it could go either way.

"Besides for Basile, the Amoris can't kill us," I say. Andrew must never know about Iris being Expired. He'd either flaunt her to the world or kill her to hurt Jonas. For him, the Society is evil and anything wicked he does in pursuit of destroying that evil is justified.

What if I had succeeded in my attempts to kill Iris? Where would I be standing right now? Jonas wouldn't be on Amoria. Erik may still be running around Elleany, but surely not in France. I probably wouldn't be here either and then who would there be to stop this rogue Amorian?

Andrew rubs his hands together, smearing blood. "Any chance I get to take down an Amoris sounds worth it." I'm certain he often forgets the fact that he has Amorian in him. He walks past us to the fireplace. "Let the chase commence." He lays his hand over a stone, and it sinks into the wall. The fireplace moves back revealing a set of steps. There's been more space in this damnably small cabin, and Erik kept it from us?

Andrew looks back at us, a fevered look in his eyes. "Who's ready for an adventure?"