Oblivion

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  Without looking up, I muttered, “Someone wants to die.”

  Andrew laughed, unaffected by the statement. “What were you doing talking to Simon?”

  I shrugged. “Just saying hi.”

  Beside me, Adam sent me a long look. “That’s…odd.”

  “It’s nothing,” I said, and then started flipping the pages of my textbook. A few moments later, I felt holes being burned into the top of my head and glanced up, finding Ash scowling at me. “What?”

  “Why are you being a dick?”

  I raised my brows. That really didn’t even warrant a response. About to turn back to whatever the hell I was looking at in the textbook, I found myself searching the tables until I saw a certain gray-eyed human girl.

  Kat was smiling as she picked up her drink, her pink lips moving as she said something to Lesa. The girls laughed. Kat picked up the slice of pizza as Dee angled her body slightly, and then Kat’s gaze roamed over our table and our eyes collided—met and then held.

  Space separated us, but it didn’t feel that way. I waited for her to look away. She didn’t. I knew I should before Ash or Andrew noticed, because they would, but I didn’t look away, either. Oh no, I continued eyeballing her, thinking of last night in my kitchen, how she had been waiting for me to kiss her. I knew that she had been.

  And I knew that she wouldn’t have stopped me.

  Even from where I sat, I could see her lips part and her cheeks turn pink.

  “You are really starting to bother me,” Ash said, voice low, and when I didn’t respond, her foot slammed into my shin. “Hello. Am I invisible?”

  Frowning, I dragged my gaze away from Kat and looked at Ash. Her eyes burned like sapphires. “How could you ever be invisible?”

  Her lips curled up in a tight smile. “I don’t know. I’m feeling like I am right now.”

  “Huh,” I murmured, taking a drink of my milk.

  The small smile faded. “Don’t sound too concerned,” she said drily. “Wouldn’t want you to stress yourself out over there.”

  I didn’t reply as I placed the carton of milk down and returned to…chapter oh-who-the-hell-cares? I lasted about three minutes before I looked up and was staring at Kat again. Just like last night.

  Screw me.

  “How are things going with your new neighbors?”

  Leaning against the side of my SUV, I stared down the empty back road several miles from the base of Seneca Rocks. Officer Lane had been waiting for me when I left school Thursday afternoon. With one flash of the Expedition’s headlights, I knew he wanted me to go to our regular meeting place.

  The only thing not regular was the timing of the check-in and the fact that Vaughn wasn’t with him. Couldn’t be too disappointed about Vaughn. Maybe he fell off the face of the earth.

  I raised one shoulder in response to Lane’s question, keeping it casual even though I didn’t like the line of questioning. Wasn’t the first time I’d been asked, but it was usually Vaughn doing the asking. “It’s going. They seem pretty cool.”

  “No problems then?” Dark glasses shielded Lane’s eyes.

  Defining the word “problem” would be interesting. “Nope.”

  “That’s good.” Lane looked down the road. “I was worried.”

  Unease stirred in my gut. “Why?”

  “You don’t like humans,” he answered honestly. “And with one moving in right next door, I figured you’d be pissed about that.”

  I snorted at Lane’s frank honesty. Can’t say I actually liked Lane, but he was better than Vaughn. When Dawson…when he died, Lane had seemed genuinely upset, unlike Vaughn, who obviously hadn’t cared. “I wasn’t happy. You knew that when I asked you and Vaughn about why they were allowed to move in, but what can I do?”

  “Nothing,” replied Lane. He folded his arms as his chin turned toward me.

  I shrugged again. “Where’s your buddy?”

  “Vaughn?” One side of Lane’s lips curled, almost like the idea of him being friends with Vaughn disgusted him. I knew there was a reason I tolerated Lane. “He’s off doing something with Husher.”

  Now it was my turn. My lips curled in revulsion. Nancy Husher. Man, I disliked that woman. Didn’t trust her, which was bad, because she was pretty high up there in the DOD, but luckily, we didn’t have to deal with her often.

  “A couple of weeks ago, there was an abnormal burst of energy around here,” Lane stated, changing the subject to something else I didn’t want to talk about. “It was tracked back to the main access road outside of your house.”

  I was betting “a couple of weeks ago” was code word for Kat stepping in front of a speeding truck.

  Lane shifted his weight, which was slight. “You all playing football again?”

  I almost laughed. Dee had made that up the last time we’d been asked about unusual activity. We didn’t play any Luxen form of football and we sure as hell didn’t toss around balls of energy, but it had been the perfect excuse. I nodded. “With the Thompsons. We got a little out of hand.”

  “Your new neighbors didn’t see this, did they?”

  I clenched my jaw. “We’re not stupid. They weren’t home.”

  Lane nodded. “Good to hear.”

  Pushing off the side of my SUV, I unfolded my arms. “Anything else?”

  Officer Lane shook his head.

  I opened the driver’s door and was about to climb in when he stopped me. “Be careful, Daemon. With your new neighbors, it’s not just going to be me or Vaughn keeping an eye on you. You might want to lay off the football.”

  Saturday evening was going to be the night that I locked Kat in her house. Swear to God, deities, and whoever else, it was going to happen.

  “You’re going to let me do this,” she said, her eyes a stormy gray as she glared at me. “Because I’m not just going to sit here and do nothing.”

  “I never said you have to sit here. I don’t want to sit here, either.”

  Her chin raised a notch. “No one is making you stay here, then!”

  “Really?” Derision dripped from my voice. “I think you know why I’m here.”

  Kat tossed her head back and groaned. “I just want to go to this bookstore Carissa was telling me about. It’s in town.”

  I knew which one she was talking about. Not like it was hard. There was only one bookstore in town. It was a used one, and the owner sometimes had no idea what they had in their store or its value. “And while the last thing I want to do is spend Friday night in a bookstore, all I’m saying is that I’m going with you.”

  Her little hands balled into fists. “Can’t you see why I don’t want you to go? You don’t want to, and you’re going to make it a terrible experience.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I will not.”

  She crossed her arms and stared at me pointedly.

  “Seriously.”

  Looking over my shoulder, toward the woods, Kat sighed heavily. “Look, I get that I shouldn’t go by myself. That it’s—”

  “Dangerous and stupid,” I supplied helpfully.

  The line of her jaw hardened, and a moment passed. “Yeah, I get that it’s dangerous, but—”

  “That should be the end of the conversation right there.”

  Kat lowered her frustrated gaze to mine. “But it’s Friday evening, and Dee went to the movies with Adam, and I’m…I’m stuck here with—”

  “With me?” I raised both brows as I crossed my arms, mirroring her stance.

  She sighed again. “I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but I don’t…you don’t even like me most of the time. I mean, one minute you’re really cool and are actually fun to be around and the next—like the last couple of days—you have been such a jerk.”

  I hadn’t been the friendliest since the day in the cafeteria. I didn’t like the shit with Lane and the questions he’d been asking. I didn’t like the shit with Simon. I didn’t like that I didn’t like the shit with Simon. I didn’t like the shit with the Thompsons, namely Andr
ew and Ash, who were not at all secretive about their growing contempt when it came to Kat. I didn’t like the shit with Matthew, whose paranoia was damn near contagious. I didn’t like the shit with Dee, because she acted like nothing was wrong and everything was unicorns vomiting rainbows.

  I didn’t like the shit with Kat in general.

  Needless to say, my mood was shit.

  The center of Kat’s cheeks were slightly pinker than the rest of her face, and even though her gaze was steady, I knew my mood swings affected her. The girl was mentally strong—an emotional powerhouse—but I wasn’t easy on her. No way, nohow. And even though it was her who moved into this house and it was her who walked out in front of that truck, none of this was her fault.

  Rubbing my palm along my jaw, I met her gaze. “I promise I’ll behave.”

  She cocked her head to the side. “I don’t believe you.”

  “You really don’t have to.” Reaching into the pocket of my jeans, I pulled out my car keys. “Come on. I know what bookstore Carissa was talking about. If you want to see it, we’re going to have to leave now before it closes.”

  Kat didn’t move.

  “You’re gonna want to see it.” I jumped off the porch, landing nimbly in front of the steps. “They have like a bunch of books they sell for like fifty cents a piece.” Her eyes lit up like the faint glow around her.

  I backed up toward my driveway. “If you’re lucky, the actual owner will be there.”

  She uncurled her arms. “Why would that make me lucky?”

  “Because he looks like Santa Claus.”

  Kat blinked, and then a surprised laugh burst out of her. The sound did a weird thing to my chest, something I ignored as I opened the driver’s car door. “You’re coming, right?”

  Finally, after what felt like forever, she got into the SUV and immediately turned up the radio, the universal sign that indicated “don’t talk.” The ride into town was quiet, and I kept my mouth shut as we walked into the tiny used bookstore that smelled like dust and old pages.

  Unfortunately, the owner wasn’t working, but Kat didn’t seem to care. The moment she stepped inside, it was like Christmas morning to her. A smile appeared and it didn’t leave as she buzzed from one overstocked shelf to the next, oblivious to the clouds of dust she stirred up every time she pulled a book out of a pile. There was no one else in the narrow shop besides the older lady behind the register, who had her nose in a book.

  I stood back, out of her way, and I’d pulled out my phone, opening up Candy Crush, but I wasn’t paying attention to the game. Hell, I was still on the damn candy trail. I was watching her. I couldn’t help it. Especially when she bent over, scanning the lower shelves.

  Uncomfortable, I shifted my legs. Didn’t help. Images flooded me. Kat starred in all of them. The costar was the red bikini. Heat moved under my skin, and I ground my molars. I needed to think about something—anything else.

  Kat stretched up, reaching for a book several shelves above her, and the shirt she wore rode up, revealing a thin slice of skin above her jeans.

  Aw, hell…

  She clutched a book to her chest, and I was really, really envious of that book.

  I shifted again. Still didn’t help.

  She spun around, heading for a wire bin full of small paperbacks covered with bare-chested men and women in fancy, old-school dresses. She dug around until she stacked a pile of them on the outside and then looked at me. “Can you help me?”

  Slipping my phone in my pocket, my walk toward her was a bit…awkward. “What’s up?”

  “Hold your arms out, please.”

  I did what she asked.

  And a few moments later, I was holding a pile of romance books.

  I had no idea how my life veered so far off track that this was what I was doing on a Friday night, but a part of me wasn’t all that upset. Which of course upset me even more.

  Kat ended up leaving the store with more books than any human needed, and the whole way home she smiled that…that beautiful smile I rarely ever saw. She chattered about the books, and even though I didn’t respond to anything she said, she kept going on.

  She was actually happy.

  I knew the moment I opened my mouth I was going to ruin that, like I always did. I thought about the fact that I knew none of this was her fault. And I thought about the fact that this whole time Dee had been careful around her and I hadn’t. In my attempts to keep Dee safe and Kat in the dark, I put Dee at risk and exposed what we were.

  In reality, I was the problem.

  And my attraction to Kat didn’t help the situation. Made it all the more dangerous.

  Kat’s trace was going to fade soon, less than a week. After that, I needed to keep my space. For real this time. No more broken record shit.

  No more shit.

  Chapter 18

  Days became shorter, and with each day that passed, the warm breeze swirling through the valley chilled. Leaves turned into bright shades of gold and red before sifting to the ground, announcing the arrival of autumn.

  By mid-October, Kat’s trace had completely faded. It had done so four days after our trip to the used bookstore in town, and I’d done what I told myself I needed to do.

  With the exception of seeing her in class and whenever Dee had her over at the house, I stayed away from her. Of course, I still annoyed the hell out of her when I had a chance. Because really, there were very few things that amused me as greatly as poking her with my pen in trig and watching her gray eyes turn stormy.

  I was really beginning to wonder if the pen was subconsciously symbolic for something else. That “something else” didn’t amuse me. Oh no, it did something else.

  I knew she was spending more time with the girls from our class. Therefore so was Dee, and while it irked me that my sister was becoming more and more involved with humans, there was nothing I could do to stop that.

  The reality was, unless she eventually moved into one of the colonies, she would always be surrounded by humans. She would always grow close to one of them. Hell, if Adam and her didn’t work out, she could end up…falling for one.

  Just thinking about that made me want to punch a hole through the ozone.

  There was one other thing that made me want to do that.

  Simon Cutters.

  The over-touchy jackass was getting on my bad side, and I might have lost my cool just a tad bit when he started talking to Kat in trig class. His backpack took a trip to the floor, and being the good guy that I was, I tried to warn Kat about Simon. That conversation hadn’t ended well.

  Kat had accused me of being jealous. Me? Of Simon? Was she insane? There was no way I was jealous of any human. Whatever. If she wanted to help the guy most likely voted to knock someone up on prom night study, then it was her planned parenthood. Not mine.

  Up until Dee had informed me between classes, with a downright devilish gleam to her eyes, that Simon had asked Kat to homecoming and she had accepted. Fire coated the inside of my mouth as my sister bounced away, so pleased one would think she was just awarded a lifetime supply of rocky road. Why would she be happy about that? Everyone knew how Simon was and no one, not even Kat, could be that naive.

  There were more important things I could focus on, like if there was a new episode of Ghost Investigators this week or not, but when I spotted Kat walking all the way to the back of the parking lot after school, near the football field and track, I couldn’t let it go. “Kat!”

  She turned around, squinting as a gust of chilled air blew the long strands of dark hair across her face. I approached her slowly, realizing that this was the first time in…in weeks that we were actually somewhat alone.

  The strap on her bag was twisted, cutting into her shoulder. I reached out and fixed it, straightening the strap. “You know how to pick a parking spot.”