Free A Perfect Darkness by Jaime Rush

reason I wanted to meet you is that Lucas is alive.”
    That got their attention. Hope sparked on Petra’s face while Eric looked skeptical.
    Petra grabbed Eric’s hand. “He’s not dead!”
    â€œAnd you know this how?” he asked Amy. “You said they shot him in the neck.”
    She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, trying to assemble her thoughts. Now they’d really think she was crazy, and she didn’t want them to think that because she needed them. It didn’t help that she had to scream over the music. “Lucas comes to me in my dreams. The paintings that he does…they’re my dreams.”
    Eric said, “Comes to you?”
    â€œYeah. We…talk. And stuff.”
    Now they both looked skeptical.
    â€œLucas and I don’t know each other as adults. So how did I end up in his paintings? You can’t deny that’s my face.”
    They reluctantly nodded. Eric said, “But how?”
    â€œI don’t know. Until I saw the paintings, I thought they were just normal dreams.” Well, sort of normal.
    â€œSo how does that prove he’s alive?”
    â€œHe came to me earlier today. He said they shot him with a tranquilizer gun. I asked where he was, but he didn’t want me involved.”
    Eric narrowed his eyes. “Lucas never mentioned any of this dream stuff to us.”
    â€œGood,” she blurted out. “I mean, they’re rather personal. Look, what matters is that he’s alive.” A group of people walked by, and she waited until they passed before saying, “We have to save him.”
    Eric said, “No.”
    â€œWhat?” both Petra and Amy said.
    Petra’s hopeful expression sagged. “But—”
    He pointed at Amy. “This is why we can’t get emotionally involved. It makes people do crazy things. Stupid things. We agreed not to approach Amy or Bill, and Lucas broke the rules. He’s on his own.”
    â€œBut he broke the rules to warn me,” Amy said.
    â€œSo? He took the risk; why should I put my ass on the line to save him?”
    Petra said, “Eric, you can’t—”
    â€œI can. We don’t even know what we’re up against yet.”
    â€œHe’s our family,” Petra said. At Amy’s questioning look, she explained, “We grew up together, after Lucas’s mother died. Our dad sort of adopted him.” She turned to Eric. “He’s like a brother to you. We can’t—”
    â€œDrop it. He’s the one who had to go to his precious girlfriend here. He didn’t think of us when he did that.”
    Amy saw that Petra was about to say something before she drooped in defeat. Her pain over Lucas was apparent. Eric was obviously a formidable force to goup against. If Petra, who knew and was trusted by him, couldn’t sway him, how could she?
    To hell with that, she thought, and got up into his face, or as close as she could get on tiptoes. “Lucas is alive, dammit, and if we don’t do something, he won’t be for much longer. They’re injecting him with something—drugs, he wasn’t sure. He kept flickering in and out.” Emotion rose into her voice. “We’re the only ones who can save him. I don’t care if you don’t trust me or if you don’t like me. There’s no way in hell we can abandon him while they do God-knows-what to him until he dies!” The music had stopped before she screamed the last line.
    Through the applause Petra said, “She’s right. We’re family, Eric. We don’t abandon family.”
    His expression grew dark. “He abandoned us, remember?”
    â€œHe didn’t leave us to die. He left because of you. I know at least that much. If we find Lucas, we can find the truth about what we are. If you want nothing else, you want that.”
    He faced them, his body stiff with stubborn anger. Amy didn’t back down. She flicked