Sanctuary by Caryn Lix

Author:Caryn Lix [Lix, Caryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

NINETEEN

WE CREPT TO THE EXIT and listened. I strained for any sound in the outside corridor but came up empty. I felt like we’d abandoned a layer of safety in leaving the bedroom—I didn’t know if the creatures had thumbs per se, but they certainly seemed able to operate the keypads opening the doors, and so far none of Sanctuary’s security had presented a barrier. “Let’s give them a few minutes,” I said at last. I didn’t want to waste time, but blundering into the creatures in the corridor wouldn’t help my mother. We were better off waiting, giving them time to move away, and then resuming our search in earnest.

Cage nodded. He shifted uncomfortably, taking in the room’s clean lines, the painting of a forest over the white leather couch. “So. This is where you live, huh?”

“Yeah.” My voice sounded flat to my own ears. In the chaos of the last few hours, I’d almost managed to forget what happened last time my whole family gathered in this room. Honey, we need to talk. “We should get away from the door. Let’s go back in my room—we can hide under the bed again if we have to.”

But once we were in my room again, I saw how small it was. It seemed even smaller with Cage inside, pacing like a restless animal. “Do you want a clean shirt?” I asked suddenly. “I think Dad left a few. They’d probably fit you.”

“Left?” he asked.

I winced. “Um, yeah. My parents are . . . well, it doesn’t matter. You’re covered in blood.”

Sure enough, I found a few of the plain black T-shirts Dad wore under his uniform in the closet he shared with Mom. I grabbed one and returned to find Cage sitting shirtless on my bed, his jumpsuit folded over his waist, hunched over with his head in his hands. I hesitated in the doorway, staring at the tight cording of muscles on his arms—and the scars riddling his back.

He straightened up and half smiled. “Thanks,” he said, reaching for the shirt. He shrugged into it and knotted his jumpsuit sleeves around his waist the way Mia always did. “You want to sit down?”

I sank onto the bed beside him. It wasn’t a very big bed, and our arms almost touched. “What does your tattoo mean?” I asked when the silence became too heavy to bear.

“Which one?”

I nodded to the Chinese characters on his arm. He smiled, softer and more real than his usual broad grin. “It’s Rune’s name,” he explained. “Her Chinese name, I mean. Not ‘Rune.’ ”

“You have a Chinese name too, right? What is it?” I asked. I’d read it in the file but forgotten it. He’d only ever been Hu to me, and now Cage.

“Cheung. We don’t use them, though. No one does in Taipei, at least not where we grew up. You go by your street name.” He nodded over his shoulder. “The dragon on my back, that’s the gang we worked with. Rune has a matching one.

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