Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

see Claire’s lips still curved up in a gentle smile. Like she hadn’t a care in the world. Like it wasn’t
her
fault he’d been raised the way he had. So he could protect the rest of the world from Nulls.
    Still gasping for breath, Nix slammed a door on the memory and concentrated on the present. “I shouldn’t have brought you here,” he told the sleeping girl in front of him. “I should have let you die.”
    But he hadn’t. He’d propped her up and forced her to drink water. He’d taped her ribs. He’d covered her with blankets and put them back when she kicked them off.
    “If you think I’m weak, you’re wrong. If you think I care, you’re wrong.” Nobodies weren’t allowed to care. They weren’t allowed to ask questions. All they were allowed to do was kill.
    Kill. Claire
.
    Beautiful, sleeping, breathing, dreaming Claire.
    She’s shifting onto her other side. Her hair is falling into her eyes. Her legs are stretching out. The muscles in her throat are moving
.
    As he documented Claire’s movements, Nix felt his own throat clench. This was the most she’d moved since they’d been here, and there were sounds in her mouth, trying to get out. Not cries. Not whimpers.
    Words.
    “Where am I?”
    It figured that one of the first words out of her mouth was
I
. Nulls existed at the centers of their own universes, puppeteers to hundreds of others. No one else mattered to them.
    “I wish you’d stayed asleep,” Nix said, each word as sharp as broken glass. While she’d slept, he’d crooned to her. Soothed her. Said things he shouldn’t have even thought. But now she’d ruined it. Ruined everything.
    “Asleep? How long have I been asleep?” Claire scrambled to a sitting position.
    Claire is scared. I am scaring Claire
.
    Nix’s target looked frantically down at her own body. Like she’d never seen it before. Like she didn’t know how perfect it was.
    Liar
.
    “What’s wrong with me?” she asked, her voice hoarse.
    “You’re defective. You’re a monster. You got hit by a van.”
    Her face went through a flurry of changes, so quickly that he could not keep up with them all: she sucked a breath in, and her entire face—
eyes, cheekbones, lips
—threatened to cave in on itself. Crumble.
    This Null didn’t like being told she was defective.
    Eventually, her lips stopped trembling and settled into a thin and desperate line, and Nix wondered how many facial expressions a single person could have. He had never wanted to touch another person’s face more.
    She’s doing this to you. She’s
making
you think about her. She’s
making
you want—
    “Do. Not. Move.” Nix’s voice strained against his vocal cords, like an animal caged. “Don’t try anything. Don’t think you can use your abilities to escape. I’m immune.”
    If only that were true
.
    “My abilities? What abilities?” Her lips and eyes rearranged themselves once more, this time into an expression of pure bafflement—a testament to her abilities as an actress, the ultimate master of the art of deception. “I don’t have abilities. I’m not good at anything.”
    Simple words, but they seemed hard-won. Like it hurt her to lower herself and pretend that she was nothing special.
    “I’m not who you think I am,” she said. “I’m really not.” Only a Null could use that voice. Make herself sound as if part of her wished that she was the one he was looking for.
    His.
    Strapped to an exam table. Eyes closed
. Nix forced the memory to the surface of his mind, like a man jamming his fingers down his throat to hurl.
    “You can drop the act,” he said, loathing and longing battling for supremacy in his tone. “No one will ever find you here, and there’s no one within range for you to use.”
    “Use? What are you talking about? Use how?”
    Don’t
, he told her silently.
Don’t pretend you don’t know.Don’t act the innocent, unaware of the effect you have on everyone and everything
.
    Don’t pretend you don’t know