Dawson frowned as he glanced between Kat and me. “What do you mean? He healed her. She’s a hybrid—just like Beth.”

“Yes, but apparently Daedalus gave Beth one serum and tested out the new one, the Prometheus serum, on Kat,” Archer explained. “Which means they aren’t connected like you and Beth.”

As expected, Dawson argued that was impossible, but after I explained what Nancy had told us, my brother sat back, absolutely stunned.

“So, you see? You have too much to risk,” I told him. “You have Beth and you have this baby to worry about.”

Dawson cursed under his breath as he leaned back, rubbing his hands along the back of his neck. “You guys are really going to go after the Arum?”

“Yep.” Sounded crazy, but it was better than doing nothing.

He shook his head. “Never thought the day would come that we’d go to the Arum for help.”

I snickered. “No doubt.”

“Luc is going to stay behind,” Kat said, pushing what was left of her eggs around her plate. “To make sure Nancy behaves herself. We’ll be leaving in a few hours. Then once we get the . . . when we get the Arum to help, we’ll notify General Eaton. I guess at that point we’ll start to head back here.”

“But you have to leave so soon?” Beth shot a nervous glance at Dawson.

“We don’t have a lot of time to get this done,” I said. “But you two will be safe here.”

“I’m not worried about us,” Dawson said, and I wanted to smack him upside the head because he needed to be worried about them. “Letting you guys go off, meeting up with some damn Arum, and trying to convince them to help us out? That’s crazy dangerous.”

It was.

There was no denying that, and I’d never been a liar before, so I wasn’t going to start now.

Archer leaned forward, resting his weight on his arms. His eyes met my brother’s. “I understand you and I don’t really know each other, and you have no reason to believe anything I say, but I promise you I will make sure Daemon and Katy come back with Dee. You can take that to the bank.”

Sitting back, I stared at the Origin.

I’d never admit it, not in a million freaking years, but Archer . . . yeah, sometimes he was pretty cool in my book, and I did like the way he sounded. Hell-bent on fulfilling that promise and bringing back not only us, but Dee. He just didn’t need to know I felt that way.

We finished up breakfast like it was any normal day, trying to forget that no matter what promises Luc and Archer made, it could be the very last time we saw each other. Kat and I packed up the changes of clothes Archer had found for us.

My heart kicked around my chest as I watched her shove the final sweater into a duffel bag we’d found in the closet. Once we left, things were going to happen fast, and I had no idea what we’d face on the road or when we met up with Hunter.

This literally could be the last time Kat and I were alone.

I wasn’t being a pessimist. The truth was we’d be stuck with Archer. The three of us were glued together for the foreseeable future, and if things went south, well, this would truly be the last time we had a handful of minutes together.

Kat zipped up the bag and turned around. Her hair was down, and I always liked it that way. There was a slight pink flush to her cheeks and her dove-gray eyes seemed to take up her whole face.

Her lips tipped up at the corners, and it said something powerful that she could still smile, like, really smile, when all this crap was going down around us. “What?” she asked.

“Nothing.” I took a step forward and then another, until I was standing right in front of her and she had to tip her head back.

I slowly moved my gaze over her face as I cupped her cheeks, memorizing the high sweep of her cheekbones, the heavier fringe of the lashes at the outer corners of her eyes, down to the slight upturn in her nose and the fuller bottom lip.

Damn, I didn’t want to waste these minutes. I wanted to spend them worshipping her. Most of all, I wished our paths had been different. Not that we wouldn’t be together or some crap like that, but for the first time, I wished I were human and that my kind was hers and there was no invading race of aliens. That we’d graduated high school like normal teenagers, gone away to college together, and, instead of packing up to go knee-deep into the lair of sociopaths, we were planning a weekend at a beach or whatever the hell normal humans did when their planet wasn’t at war. But spending time wishing for things that could never happen really was for losers. And I was wasting very limited time.

I lowered my mouth to hers, kissing her softly at first, and when her hands landed on my shoulders, slipping back around my neck, I deepened the kiss. God, I could live on the taste of her.

Taking my time—time we really didn’t have—I traced the pattern of her lips, committing the feel of them to memory. A tiny, breathy moan came from Kat as she leaned into me, her fingers finding their way through the hair at my nape. Need slammed into me, invading every cell.

My hands slid down her sides, lingering around her waist for a moment, and then I smoothed my palm over her hips that rounded out sweetly. I wanted to be closer, all up in her. I was a needy bastard like that, but she liked it.

“Two minutes?” she asked.

I grinned against her mouth, and then forged a path of kisses to her ear. “Mmm, I like the way you think.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“You know me well.”