Oblivion

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  who haven’t been caught by the DOD. You need to know what kind of danger you’re in.”

  “But you don’t even know me,” she argued.

  “And we don’t know you,” I added, eyes narrowed.

  He shrugged. “I like you. Not you, Daemon.” He smiled. “But Katy.”

  “I really, really do not like you at all.”

  Kat pressed a hand to her chest. “Blake…”

  “That wasn’t said to make you say you like me or not. I’m just stating the fact. I like you.” He glanced at her. “And you don’t know what you’ve stepped in. I can help you.”

  “Bullshit,” I said. “If she needs help controlling her abilities, then I can do it.”

  “Can you? What you do is second nature to you. Not to Katy. I had to learn how to rein in my abilities. I can teach her. Stabilize her.”

  “Stabilize me?” Her laugh sounded a bit choked. “What’s going to happen? I’m going to explode or something?”

  “You can seriously end up hurting yourself or others,” he explained. “I’ve heard things, Katy. Some mutated humans… Well, let’s just say it doesn’t end pretty.”

  “You don’t need to scare her,” I said.

  “I’m not trying to. It’s just the truth,” he responded. “And if the DOD finds out about you, they’re going to take you in. And if you can’t control your abilities, they will put you down.”

  She gasped, facing the front of the car. I reached over, placing my hand on hers. She didn’t look at me, and I wanted to punch the douche bag in the face.

  “Katy, I know this is a lot. But you have to be prepared. You leave this town, the Arum are going to be on you. That is, if you can slide by the DOD.”

  “You’re right. This is a lot.” She looked up. “I thought you were normal. And you’re not. You’re telling me that I have the DOD gunning for me. That if I ever decide to leave this place, I’m going to be a Snack Pack for an Arum. And better yet, I may lose complete control of whatever powers I have and wipe out a family of four, then be put down! All I wanted to do today was eat some goddamn fries and be normal!”

  I let out a low whistle, and Blake said, “You’re never going to be normal, Katy. Never again.”

  “No shit,” she snapped. Taking a deep breath, she seemed to pull it together. “What are we going to do?”

  “We don’t need his help,” I said.

  “But you do,” he whispered. “I heard about the window thing with Simon.”

  She glanced at me, and I shook my head, willing her to be quiet, because how in the hell did he hear about that?

  “What do you think will happen next time? Simon ran off, doing God knows what. You won’t get so lucky again.”

  Tipping her head back against the seat, she closed her eyes. Her voice was small as she spoke. “How do you know so much about them?”

  “The girl I was telling you about? She told me everything. I wanted to help her…to get away, but she wouldn’t leave. The DOD had something or someone that meant a lot to her.”

  An odd chill radiated down my spine.

  “Who was she?” she asked.

  “Liz something,” he said. “Don’t know her last name.”

  “You know,” I said, looking over the seat at him. “There’s nothing stopping me from killing you. Right now.”

  “Yes, there is.” He met my stare. “There’s Katy, and the fact that I doubt you’re a cold-blooded killer.”

  Sometimes, like right now, I really wished I were a cold-blooded killer, because he wouldn’t be a problem. “I don’t trust you.”

  He held my gaze. “You don’t have to. Only Katy does.”

  There was no way she could trust him. I looked at her, and I saw that she was actually considering it. Anger flooded me. I placed my hands on the dashboard to stop myself from choking the crap out of…whatever he was.

  “When do we start?” Kat asked, and I closed my eyes.

  “Tomorrow if you can,” he said.

  “My mom leaves for work after five.”

  “I’ll be there,” I said.

  “Not necessary,” he shot back.

  “And I don’t care. You aren’t doing a damn thing with Katy without me being there.” I faced him, lowering my hands to my knees. “I don’t trust you. Just so we’re clear.”

  “Whatever.” He climbed out of the car, causing cold air to rush in.

  “Blake,” Kat called out.

  He stopped with his hand on the door. “What?”

  “How did you get away from the Arum when they attacked you?” she asked.

  Looking away, he squinted at the dark sky. “That’s not something I’m ready to talk about, Katy.” He shut the door and jogged off toward his car.

  Kat stared out the window, and both of us sat there for several moments without saying anything, and then I opened the car door. I stepped out, shutting the door behind me. There were too many things I wanted to say to her right now, and none of them were good. I needed a few moments to myself, to calm my ass down, and maybe by the time she got home, I could have a decent conversation with her.

  Leaving her, I crossed the road and slipped into the woods. I beat her to the house by a good twenty minutes. I came down her porch steps as she slowly approached them.

  Kat shook her head slowly. “Daemon…”

  “I don’t trust him. I don’t trust a damn thing about him, Kat.” I took off my hat and scrubbed my fingers through my hair, and then slammed the cap back down. “He comes out of nowhere and knows everything. Every instinct is telling me he can’t be trusted. He could be anyone, working for any organization. We don’t know anything about him.”

  “I know.” Weariness clung to her. “But at least this way we can keep an eye on him. Right?”

  I gave a short, dry laugh. “There are other ways of dealing with him.”

  “What?” Her voice rose and was carried away by the wind. “Daemon, you can’t be thinking…”

  “I don’t even know what I’m thinking.” I took a step back, obviously not calmed down enough to have this convo. “And dammit, my head is so not in the right place at this moment.” I paused, my jaw working. “Why were you with him in the first place?”

  “We were grabbing something to eat and I was—”

  “You were what?” God, this wasn’t important, not after everything, but I couldn’t stop myself. After last night, after waking up with her in my arms, she went to grab dinner with him? A date? Damn.

  “You went to Bryon after…”

  She shook her head again, her hair flying around her pale face. “Daemon—”

  “You know, I’m not really surprised.” The curve of my lips was bitter. “We kissed. Twice. You spent the night using me as your own body pillow…and liking it. I’m sure that had you freaking out the moment I left. You ran straight to Boris, because he really doesn’t make you feel anything. And feeling something for me scares the hell out of you.”

  Her mouth snapped close. “I did not run straight to Blake. He texted me about getting something to eat, and it wasn’t even a date, Daemon. I went to tell him—”

  “Then what was it, Kitten?” I stepped forward, peering down at her. “He obviously likes you. You’ve kissed him before. He’s willing to risk his own safety to train you.”

  “It’s not what you think. If you’d let me explain…”

  “You don’t know what I think,” I snapped.

  “Daemon—”

  “You know, you’re unbelievable.” Anger grabbed a hold of me, sinking its razor-sharp claws in. “The night of your party, when you thought I was messing around with Ash? You were so pissed that you went outside and blew up windows, exposing yourself.”

  She flinched.

  “And now you’re doing—what? Messing around with him in between kissing me?”

  Her lower lip trembled. “I’m not messing around with him, Daemon! We’re just friends. That’s all.”

  Skepticism drew my lips into a tight line.
“I’m not stupid, Kat.”

  “I didn’t say that you were!” she yelled, her hands forming little fists. “You’re not giving me a chance to explain anything. As usual, you’re acting like a freaking know-it-all and you keep cutting me off!”

  “And as usual, you’re a bigger problem than I could’ve ever imagined.” The moment those words came out of my mouth, I knew I’d gone too far.

  She staggered a step back, her voice cracking as she spoke. “I’m not your problem. Not anymore.”

  “Kat—”

  “No. I was never your problem in the first place.” Anger mingled with the hurt in her voice. “And I’m sure as hell not your problem now.”

  “Hell. This”—I waved my hand around us, losing control—“isn’t even important right now. Just forget it.”

  I couldn’t win with her. No matter what I did, what I said, and I needed to walk away before I really said something I couldn’t take back.

  Before she said something I couldn’t let go of.

  Chapter 18

  I didn’t go home, not for a very long time. I stayed out, patrolling the county into the early-morning hours. If there was one Arum, there were three more. Even though I didn’t feel the presence of one, they wouldn’t be far behind.

  When I came home, it was a little after four in the morning, and my human skin wasn’t too thrilled with spending hours in the near freezing temps. Faint light flickered from the living room, punctuated by a low murmur. Pulling off my cap, I walked into the living room.

  Dee was curled up against the arm of the couch, out cold. Beside her, a sleepy Adam rubbed at his eyes. I didn’t say anything as I made my way into the kitchen. Flipping on the light above the stove, I tossed my cap onto the table and walked to the fridge.

  I pulled out a tub full of turkey and then grabbed a soda. My stomach rumbled as I peeled the lid off. Bypassing the BS of a fork, I started rooting around the bits of meat with my fingers.

  “You’re getting in late,” Adam stated from the doorway. He walked over to the counter, scratching his jaw as he yawned. “Is everything okay?”

  Everything was absolute fubar right now. I shoved a handful of turkey meat into my mouth while I debated what I could tell Adam. The shit with Douche Bag? I wasn’t comfortable telling Adam or any of them about that. I didn’t want to draw them into something that could blow up in our faces.

  Something that would most likely blow up in our faces.

  I shoved in another mouthful of turkey. Lying to my friends, to my family, didn’t sit well on me. But this wasn’t the first and only lie. They didn’t know about me healing Kat. They didn’t know she was changing—mutating. So many lies.

  Adam watched me, waiting.

  Popping the tab on the soda, I swallowed a large gulp. “There was an Arum tonight.”

  All the sleepiness vanished from Adam’s expression. He was tense, alert. “What happened?”

  “The Arum is no longer a problem,” I said, picking up another strip of turkey.

  “But if there’s one then there’s….”

  “There’s three more somewhere close.” I sat the tub of turkey aside. “I know. So just be aware. I’ll let Matthew know, so he can notify the Elders.”

  Adam scrubbed his fingers through his messy hair. “Damn, man, will there ever be a day when we don’t have to worry about the Arum?”

  “Yeah.” My appetite was gone. “When we’re dead.”

  By the time Saturday evening rolled around, some of the anger had burned off. Not all of it, but enough that I was confident I could be around Douche Bag without murdering him. Sort of confident. I did not agree with his training Kat, not at all, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to be there to supervise it.

  My distrust of him grew by the second.

  At five, I walked over. Kat’s mom was already gone. I knocked on the front door, and a few seconds later, what sounded like a herd of wolverines rushed the door. Stepping back, I frowned.

  The door flew open to reveal Kat. She appeared somewhat out of breath and her eyes were a bit swollen and red. “Hey,” she said.

  I arched a brow. “It sounded like you were going to come straight through the door.”

  She flushed. “I, uh, was…looking for my drink.”

  “Looking for your drink?”

  “I lost it.”

  Looking over her shoulder, I spotted the drink on the table just inside the foyer. I smiled slightly. “It’s right there, on the table.”

  Kat turned around. “Oh. Well, thank you.”

  I stepped aside, brushing past her. Stopping a few feet in, I shoved my hands in my pockets to stop myself from touching her, because as she pointed out in the past, I did have boundary problems. Leaning against the wall, I watched her…watch me. Blood was creeping into her cheeks.

  “Kitten…”

  “Daemon…?”

  My gaze moved over her face, lingering on the swollen eyes. “You look tired.”

  She crept closer. “I didn’t sleep well last night.”

  “Thinking about me?”

  There wasn’t a moment of hesitation. “Yes.”

  Surprise flickered through me. Did she just admit that? Were pigs flying outside? “Well, I was preparing this whole speech about how you need to stop denying that I consume your every waking thought and haunt your dreams. Now I’m not sure what to say.”

  Kat leaned against the wall, right in front of me. “You, speechless? That’s one for the record books.”

  I lowered my head and whispered, “I didn’t sleep well last night, either.”

  She moved closer, her arm brushing mine. I stiffened. “Last night—”

  “I wanted to apologize,” I said, and I knew I needed to for what I said about her being a problem. “I’m sorry—”

  Someone cleared his throat.

  My gaze snapped up. So caught up in Kat, I hadn’t heard him walk through the open door. Douche Bag was here.

  “Am I interrupting?” he asked.

  “Yes, Bart, you are always interrupting,” I responded.

  “Sorry it took me so long to get over here,” he said, ignoring me as Kat faced him.

  “Too bad it didn’t take longer.” I stretched idly “And too bad you didn’t get lost or—”

  “Eaten by wild boars or killed in a horrific ten-car pileup. I get it.” he interrupted and then walked past us. “You don’t need to be here, Daemon. No one is forcing you.”

  I pivoted on my heel, following him. “There’s no other place I’d rather be.”

  Kat shuffled into the living room. “So, um, how are we going to do this?”

  “What we need to do first is figure out what you can already do,” he said.

  She tucked her hair back, obviously not entirely comfortable with both of us staring at her. “Uh, I’m not sure there’s much I can do.”

  His lips pursed as I sat on the couch. “Well, you stopped the branch. And the time with the windows. That’s two things.”