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Authors: P. Anastasia

Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy (90 page)

BOOK: Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy

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“Oh. I’ll miss you,” she said.

He reached up to give her a hug. She threw her arms around him and held him tightly. They stayed that way for a few moments, little Solus’ face fighting back sadness. A tiny whimper escaped him.

“Bye, Lucy,” he squeaked, his arms slipping from around her.

“Bye, Solus.” She embraced him again briefly. “You’ll always be my best friend in the whoooole world.”

That made him smile big.

“You need to get back to your parents,” I said, not
wanting to interrupt, but knowing Brian and Alice would be scared
if they found him missing for even a second.

He acknowledged me and sighed.

Lucy patted him lovingly on the head, fluffing his light brown hair with her fingers.

He turned and disappeared into the portal. It closed behind him.

Lucy sloshed over to my side and took my hand. “Will we see him again, Daddy?”

The kid could make his own portals at will to any place he wanted. He had transported himself to Hawaii in the blink of an eye without any adult help.

“I think so, Lucy.”

“Yay!” Her other hand shot up over her head. I reached down to scoop her up.

“I love you, Lucy. You know that?”

“I love you, too, Daddy.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me.

Lucy may not have been a Fluorescent One, but to Solus—the child who saved the world barely saying a
word—
she was something very special. They shared a bond I couldn’t
explain. They understood each other at a deeper level than I could comprehend.

Maybe, finally, I would be there in my little girl’s life to learn everything about her—to watch her grow. Laugh. Cry. I’d be there for her and we’d finally be a family. We could start fresh. Have a new life. A new home.

I’d find a way.

I always found a way.

Kareena

Brian died.

It cut me deep. Real deep.

And so did Alice’s words.

Then, just like that, I was free. My heart was released from
whatever net had ensnared it. I thought I loved Brian, and maybe I did at one time, but after his fluorescence faded, so did my feelings for him…

Then there was David—the only light left
in the
darkness. And he turned me down. How? How could he be so damn
cold? We’ve all been through shit. We’ve all suffered and paid the price for this sin called fluorescence. Maybe we could have been something together. I know I told him that I didn’t want things getting messy, but I wanted him now. He was powerful, and together, we burned brighter.

Then his kid had to become part of all of this. Lucy. If he’d have just told me about her from the beginning, maybe things would have been different.

Hell. I didn’t want kids. I didn’t have time to be held back.

But now, what was I supposed to do with myself?

After Solus released the cure, I went home to check on my parents. Dad was released from the hospital—recovered.
They were happy to see me, but the happiness was short-
lived.

People were going to ask questions. Lots of questions.

How can I be safe?

How can I ever have a normal life again?

Friends?

A lover?

What do I have to do to be free of this curse?

Would I have to die?

Brian

What does it feel like to die?

Well, I can’t really tell you because I was never actually dead. Okay, maybe I was for a few minutes, at least by legal
and medical definitions. But to me, death is the end of life, and what happened to me was anything but the end. My soul lived.
Untethered from my earthly body, but alive in every sense of the word.

I felt emotions—I felt hope. Hope for a future that would
be much brighter thanks to us and the sacrifices we made for the people we loved. Hope for a world recovering from the brink of extinction. And I felt love—love for my son, Solus, and
love for the beautiful, selfless woman I gave up everything for. Alice. My Alice.

After Solus revived me, I began to understand how very limited and fragile our mortal bodies were. I was human again—and I’d lost the ability to heal. Life is a gift, and we only have so much time to live it.

My heart is fixed, but there’s another hole in me now because I know what it’s like to be invincible. How powerful and endless the soul really is. Alice was wrong to think I had
left her, because even in death, I was going to stay by her side. My energy and hers, always together, even if she
couldn’t see
me. She’d feel me—guarding her while I waited for my
chance for our colorful souls to reunite.

Now that I had heard the true nature of Kareena’s feelings, it was harder for me to look away. But I had to.

Day one of school, she’d been there. Even before Alice had touched me. But I thought she was just trying to sample
the new menu. A superficial fetish. I never knew she actually
had genuine feelings for me. That she…
loved
me.

But David had a point. Kareena didn’t have to be a bitch about everything. No matter what feelings she had for me, she didn’t have to treat
everyone
like crap.

I wonder if I’ll ever see David again.

We hit a rough patch in the beginning, but I grew to like
him. He held some small admiration for me in his heart over my relationship with Alice, I think. I sometimes noticed it in the way he looked at us. It wasn’t jealously. Just… awe.

He wanted to be loved, and he was—by his beautiful daughter, Lucy.

Even the strongest man needs love to keep him going. I know this better than anyone.

Alice

People say children are our future. That they will lead the way to a better tomorrow. That the things we teach
them—the lives we show them how to live—will shape the destiny of mankind for centuries to come.

It’s never been truer than it is today.

Our son, Solus, changed the world. He wasn’t just a child
of circumstance, he was a child of love.

I’ve been thinking about what Kareena said to David—about not wanting Brian anymore—and it got me thinking about how our love had changed over the years.

I fell in love with Brian early on.

Earlier than I should have, maybe.

Before he opened up his notebooks and showed me his sacred drawings.

Before the dance that changed him. That changed
us
.

Before the night his light made my skin tingle and my heart flutter, and the kiss that left me dizzy and sick with happiness.

We didn’t expect or want a child so soon, but it happened, and we didn’t let it tear us apart. We grew closer. Stronger.

I don’t know how long it will be before we can make a
new life for ourselves, but we’ll figure something out. It’s going
to be hard—probably the hardest time we’ll ever face in our entire life.

But nothing will stand in our way. Together, we stopped
our world from dying. We did something amazing. We saved
David’s life and we saved his daughter years of sorrow from not having a father to love her.

Our son changed the future.

Some people believe teens can’t fall in love. Not for real, at least. But Brian and I have a child—one who needs us to
stay together. A beautiful, radiant child with glistening green
and blue eyes. With light brown hair that mirrors his father’s
and a chubby, round face like an angel.

A fluorescent angel.

Now there’s a little part of him in all of us.

And in
you
.

W
orlds collide when a young woman with a dark past encounters a young man with an even darker one. More human than vampire,
Dark Diary
is a quaint, sophisticated romance detailing the accounts of two lovers who have paid
the
ultimate price…

A
forbidden romance in the vein of classics like
Wuthering Heights
, frosted with the seductive allure of the original
Dark Shadows
, Dark Diary documents a pair torn apart by time. The story is told by a 400-year-old immortal and a 21-year-old modern-day artist.

He’s
trapped in a never-ending circle of guilt over the loss of a friend and lover—the daughter of an English Baron in 17th century Ireland.

She’s
haunted nightly by vi
sions of her own untimely death.

Together
, they find solace by sharing secrets beneath the light of the moon.