Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes Page A

themselves The Society. And they did send me here to kill you, Claire.” Nix paused, letting her absorb his words. “They made me think that you were something you weren’t. A Null.”He could tell by the look on her face that he was getting ahead of himself, confusing her, so he forced himself to take a step back, to explain the things he’d been taught from the cradle, the things she’d never known.
    “The kind of energy The Society studies isn’t like gravity or electricity or heat. It’s a substance, a
glow
, maybe even a person’s soul. But sometimes people are born wrong. They have too much energy, or not enough, and either way, it’s
wrong
.” Nix struggled to keep his tone neutral, to fight back the flashes that wanted to come—of lessons learned and words spoken, of bodies and blood. “Under normal circumstances, when two people interact, they trade energy. Not all of it, just a little. And then they’re connected. They mark each other. Sometimes, the mark fades after a while, if they don’t see each other again. But sometimes it grows. And then you get stuff like love.”
    “Stuff like love,” Claire repeated.
    Nix hated himself then. Everyone else’s indifference he’d been given. But her revulsion, the way she’d look at him once she knew what he was and what he’d taken her for—that, he’d earned.
    “Normals—that’s what The Society calls people who are born right—they can give their energy to people, and they can take energy from others. They can love, and they can be loved.”
    “But some people are born wrong,” Claire whispered,repeating his words, her tone laced with understanding—and horror. “They can’t be loved.”
    The part of Nix’s brain that had gotten used to seeing her as the villain wondered if she’d guessed what he was, and was twisting the knife on purpose.
    “Some people are born wrong, but most of them aren’t unlovable. They’re worse. They can give their energy to other people. In fact, they’re really good at it. They can mark someone just by thinking about them, and their marks take a really long time to fade. People think they’re great. They think they’re nice and normal. But underneath it all, they’re empty, because nothing anyone else says or does can ever have a real effect on them.”
    “That’s awful.” Claire’s reaction was so genuine—and so much of an understatement—that Nix almost smiled.
    Almost.
    “They don’t care about anyone else. Sometimes they kill animals just to watch them die. Sometimes, they graduate to people. Some of them don’t really mean to do anything wrong, but they just can’t wrap their minds around the fact that other people matter, too. They’re dead inside.”
    “So you kill them.” Claire made the leap of logic herself, but she couldn’t keep a horrified look from taking over her face, and when he met her eyes, she jerked her gaze away from him.
    Backing away, like he knew she would.
    Like she should.
    “These people are called Nulls, and they’re the enemy. The Society tracks them down, and once they get a lock on a Null’s location, they hand the file over to me. Because I’m not right either, Claire. I’m not a Null, but I’m not right.”
    She opened her mouth, but he didn’t let her speak. “I can slip in and out of any building. I can stand screaming in the middle of a street without anyone noticing or caring. I’m forgettable. I can kill without ever arousing fear.”
    Claire looked up. Looked at him. Into him.
    “You’re the other kind of wrong,” she said, each word another twist of the knife. “And so am I.”

9
    It was one thing to think, during your worst moments, that you were unlovable. That it wasn’t your parents’ fault that they couldn’t be bothered to stick around. That the kids at school would always stare straight through you. It was one thing to feel completely inconsequential.
    It was another thing to find out that you were right.
    Some people are born