A Perfect Darkness by Jaime Rush

steps.
    â€œI can’t wait for a good time.” He looked just as weary as she felt—and resolute.
    She nodded, too tired to argue. She didn’t even begin to hope he would tell her the truth about any of this.
    He followed her inside, and she closed the door and leaned against it.
    â€œSit, please,” he said, nodding toward the Grape.
    This was going to be bad.
    She walked in and draped the orange blanket Orn’ry had become attached to over the cage. “Uh-oh,” he said in his small voice, which would have been comical in other circumstances.
    Cyrus gave her those moments when he was clearly agitated. He’d always been patient. Or maybe controlled. Though he masked his glow colors, she could see a jagged shadow all around his head.
    Robotically, she walked over to where he stood. “I’m not sitting.”
    â€œAmy, you don’t know what you’re into here.”
    â€œYou’re right. Tell me.”
    Oddly, he got a wistful look on his face. “When you were a girl, you were scared of things you didn’t understand. Remember when I took you to Disney World, how you wouldn’t go into the Haunted Mansion?”
    â€œI’m not a little girl anymore.”
    â€œI know.” He said that on a sigh. “This is something you should be afraid of.”
    â€œAre there spooks?” she said, taunting him with a reference to the CIA.
    â€œMore than that,” he replied, not taking the bait. “You need to trust me. Tell me what you know.”
    â€œTell me what you know.” She remembered the listening devices and went to the stereo. “Wait a minute.” A few seconds later Green Day’s lead singer belted out “American Idiot.” She returned to stand in front of Cyrus. “Okay, we can talk now.”
    â€œAmy…” He closed his eyes and rubbed them hard with his thumb and forefinger. “You don’t have to live this way, sneaking around, going to gay festivals, for God’s sake.”
    â€œYou’ve been following me.”
    â€œFor your own good. I don’t know what you think is going on, what Eric and Petra Aruda told you, but this has nothing to do with you.”
    â€œThen tell me what it does have to do with, Cyrus. Let me decide. You want honesty, well, you go first.” She’d learned that much from dealing with Eric and Petra.
    She saw his frustration, even without seeing his glow. “All I can say is that you’re in dangerous territory and you have to back off.” He gestured toward her office. “Go back to being your little hermit self saving hard drives and sanity. Forget this.”
    The second person to tell her that. Of course, that would be the sane and undoubtedly safe thing to do. There was one hitch in that escape hatch: Lucas.
    â€œNot until I see Lucas…Lucas Vanderwyck. ” She aimed an accusatory look at him.
    â€œI didn’t want you digging.” A puzzled expression crossed his face. “Why do I get the impression that you care about him? The guy broke into your apartment. I’m having a hard time understanding why he matters so much to you.”
    â€œI would have an even harder time explaining it—” She felt a catch in her throat. “But I need to see him.”
    â€œI told you, he died here.”
    â€œNo, he didn’t. He’s alive, and they’re doing something to him, they’re hurting him ! I want him released, and I can’t let this go until that happens.”
    â€œEric and Petra told you that, didn’t they? They’re lying.”
    â€œThey didn’t tell me.” Emotion strained her voice. “Don’t ask me how I know, I just do!”
    He blew out a breath. “Amy, you can’t save him. I don’t know what they’re doing to him, but neither one of us can save him. If he is still alive, he’s going to die, and you’re going to have to let him