by Grace White
Laker shrugged, rubbing a hand over the back of his head and neck. “She was hot; that’s all I noticed.”
“Jesus, you have no shame.”
“So it was Daiya’s sister? Weird.” His eyes clouded over with a vacant expression on his face.
It was more than weird; it was downright odd. Isaac had explained that Daiya and her sisters were all the same. Lilituria. Half-demons. Which meant she’d been here, with Laker, feeding on him, or trying to. Was that why he couldn’t remember? Some adverse side effect of getting it on with a half-demon.
“Do you feel okay?” I eyed him carefully. Apart from the headache he’d complained about on the walk to the pool house and his inability to recall events, he seemed okay.
“Yeah, things are a bit hazy, but I’m okay.” He paused, tilting his head to the side, his eyes lighting up with recognition. “Ahh, shit, tell me it was a dream? Tell me Myers didn’t walk in on me banging the sister?”
“You forgot? We saw her, right there with …” I avoided saying her name. It had been hard enough to see her. Right now, I had to deal with Laker then I could deal with her. “But I’m pretty sure she got a good look at you and Devlin going at it.”
His hand flattened against the counter, and Laker doubled over like he might puke. I smirked; so much for not being interested in Myers.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
Laker swiped the bottle of water next to him and practically inhaled it. “I’m fine. I just need to sleep it off. Give Bobby and Jack word to shut it down. Party’s over.”
“Okay. You want me to stay?”
“Nah, get out of here. I’m sure you have somewhere more important to be.” He shot me a knowing look that had me pressing my lips together.
Seeing Daiya had thrown me for a loop. It hadn’t occurred to me that she would come, and I’d told Laker as much before the game. Things had gone too far at school when I’d pulled her under the stairs, but I was so amped. And she’d just turned up after three days of just disappearing, acting as if nothing had happened. Cold liquid spilled over my hand and onto the floor as I squeezed the last of the air out of the bottle.
“Something sure is weird about those sisters,” Laker mused, his eyes staring off into the distance again. I couldn’t relate to what he was experiencing, but Isaac had tried to explain it to me. How the demon seduced guys, luring them into a false sense of desire. “Hot, but weird,” he added.
My eyes snapped to his, and a low growl built in my throat. Laker noticed and let out an amused laugh. “Easy tiger, I’m done with that. I like my girls with a little less crazy if you catch my drift.”
Despite the rehydration, he still looked like shit. “Sleep it off,” I ordered. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir.” His mocking tone followed me out of the pool house as I cut across the lawn and around the side of the house, pulled out my cell phone and texted the guys to relay Laker’s instructions to shut down the party. I didn’t want to get sidetracked, not when I had somewhere to be.
It was a mistake.
I’d known it the second her house came into view. But seeing her at Laker’s, watching her stand there in front of me—so close yet so far away—I had to see her again.
Just once.
Or at least, that was what I told myself as I watched her climb out of the cab, leaning back in to pay the driver. The skinny jeans and tank top molded to Daiya’s slender curves, and heat flared through me. God, she was beautiful. Not in the same way that Tamara and those girls thought of themselves, all excessive makeup and hair extensions. No, Daiya had a natural beauty about her. An innocence that pulled you in.
It’s all a lie, an angry voice growled inside me, but I ignored it, unable to take my eyes off her as she walked the short distance to her house. She paused as she reached the door and glanced over her shoulder. Her gaze swept right over the cluster of trees where I was camouflaged. My mouth quirked up in a satisfied smile. She felt me. She always had. Just as I felt her, running through my veins.
My father talked a lot of shit, but he was right about this—we were dangerous for one another. Like two addicts fueling the other’s addiction. He told me to fight it, to resist the urge, but she consumed my mind, my thoughts.
Everything.
Daiya Cattiva had buried herself so far under my skin that I needed one more touch. One more chance to taste her lips on mine.
Just. One. More.
DAIYA
Too lost in my own thoughts, I didn’t realize we were outside my house until the driver told me. After dropping off Poppy at her house, I leaned back against the worn leather seats and let my mind turn to the night’s events. How dare my sister. Just when I thought she was finally coming around, she had to go and screw things up again. And with Laker, no less. What the hell was she thinking? My fist remained clenched at my side as anger rippled through me. The demon was pissed. Well, that made two of us.
I gave him a twenty and climbed out. I doubted Devlin would be home. I’d interrupted her. So when a familiar voice said, “Daiya,” although a part of me hoped to see my sister standing there ready to apologize for her despicable behavior, I knew it wasn’t.
Kai blended into the shadows, his dark shirt barely visible against the black backdrop. But I felt the tension rolling off him. It matched his eyes, the ones currently looking at me like he either wanted to kill me or devour me.
I gulped. We’d already danced this dance, and I had no intention of doing it again, not here, outside my house where someone might see.
“Is she okay?” He broke the silence hanging between us.
“Poppy? She’ll live. I can’t say the same about my sister, though.”
I thought I saw the hint of a smile on his lips, but I couldn’t be sure as I strained to see him.
“Is Laker okay?”
“He thinks he was wasted. You’re good.”
What the hell did that mean?
“Did you want something?”
Kai watched me, his gaze sliding over me. I didn’t have to see it to know because I felt it. My stomach coiled tightly, remembering how it felt to be close to him. In his arms. His lips touching mine. The demon urged me forward, but I fought back, resisting. I couldn’t give it power over me, not here, not now with Kai staring at me like that.
“Okay then, I should go inside. Good night, Kai.” I turned toward the house. Ten steps and I would be at the door. Two more and I would be inside away from his scrutiny. The intensity of his glare. Each step was painful, the demon thrashing inside me, demanding I retreat. But I was learning to control it. Learning that it didn’t make all the decisions where Kai was concerned. I couldn’t keep giving it power over me.
It happened so fast; I didn’t see it coming. A warm hand caught my wrist and yanked me into the darkness at the side of my house. My back hit the wall as Kai crowded me, glaring down at me with his hands pressed either side of my head to cage me in.
“Why were you at the party, Daiya?” His voice was ragged.
What was happening?
“Poppy wanted to go. She loves hockey, the team. You know that.” I pushed back into the wall, trying to put space between us. This wasn’t my Kai. This wasn’t the kind, funny, charming guy I’d met at the start of the semester. This was the hunter.
And I was the prey.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
The air left my lungs. He was angry, and if I didn’t know better, his anger swirled with hatred. I’d felt it before in the closet at school. But part of me had hoped it was just his reaction to finding out the truth. What we had wasn’t just something you could switch on and off. Unless …
“We go to the same school, Kai,” I said as calmly as possible, resisting the urge—the demon’s command—to lean into him. To sink into his warmth. “We have to find a way to be around each other. I won’t come to Laker’s again. Fine. You can have that. But we have to find a way.” My voice cracked, but I swallowed, pushing down the tears
burning my throat. I would not cry. I would not cry.
Kai’s eyes shuttered, and I wanted so badly to know what he was thinking. Did he really hate me now? Hate what I was? The thought splintered my chest, a sharp pain rushing through me.
I waited. My lips pressed into a tight line to stop myself from saying something I might regret. When his eyes opened again, they were as black as night and trained right on me. I gulped again. The way he was looking at me … it should have terrified me. And it did terrify me, but the demon enjoyed it. Basked in it, even.
Kai’s head dipped lower until he almost touched mine. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the strain of his biceps as he held himself against the wall. He was purposely not touching me. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed.
“Kai, I should—”
“Shh,” he hissed. “Just give me a minute.”
A minute for what? It was obvious he couldn’t stand being around me.
“I should go.” I lifted my hand to nudge his arm away, but he was quicker. His fist curled around my wrist, suspending it in midair. Both of us focused on the spot where our hands joined. I wanted to be scared—I should have been. The touch wasn’t gentle or tender. He was literally grabbing me. But I couldn’t find it in me to care. Kai. Was. Touching. Me. He drew in a shaky breath, and then something snapped.
The back of my hand hit the wall just above my head as Kai pinned it there. Not aggressively, but not entirely gentle either. He regarded me for a second, and I saw a flash of indecision in his eyes, but then he’d decided. His mouth slanted over mine. I held my breath waiting for the moment. And then he was right there, kissing me. Moving his lips against mine.
I couldn’t breathe, let alone move. I couldn’t even kiss him back. The guy who I had fallen in love with, the same guy who had spent the past couple of weeks acting as if he didn’t know whether to hurt me, hunt me, or hold me, was kissing me.
“Daiya,” he murmured against my lips, still pressed into a flat line. “Let me in, Daiya.”
I was done for. If the demon hadn’t snapped, demanding that I kiss him back, I would have anyway. There was a vulnerability in his voice, an uncertainty, that tugged at my heart strings. Like he couldn’t believe this was happening. That he thought I might disappear at any second. His other arm, the one still caging me in, loosened off the wall, and he buried his fingers in my hair, anchoring me to him.
My lips parted, meeting Kai’s halfway. God, I’d missed this. How could anything about this be wrong? Still half pinned to the wall, I arched into him, needing to be closer. A soft whimper escaped my mouth as Kai’s tongue swirled against my own. But all too quickly, he pulled away, leaving me breathless and bereft.
“God, I miss you.” His eyes softened as he leaned in and pecked my lips, trailing his mouth over my skin. Jawline to the underside of my ear and down the column of my neck. Heat flickered in my stomach, stoking the fire between us. Until recently. And then it hit me. Kai hadn’t said missed you. He’d said miss. This wasn’t a reconciliation; this was a slip. He was giving himself this moment with me. Only to leave me again.
My hand slid to his chest. “Kai.” It came out far more breathless than I intended. “Stop.”
He lips paused. “No, Daiya. Just give me this, please. I need this.” He moved again, sealing his mouth over mine, stealing my plea. His strong athletic body inched closer until our knees touched. It felt so good; I didn’t want to stop—the demon refused to let me stop. But if I did this, if I let him in, only to have him walk away again, I wasn’t sure I’d survive the fallout. Not again.
Gathering every shred of willpower I could, I pushed hard. Kai stumbled back, raking a hand through his hair. “What the hell, Daiya?”
“What are you doing, Kai?” I ignored the demon’s attempt to take control, pushing it deep down inside.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” His gaze slid over my body again as he pressed his thumb to his bottom lip. His gaze—the same gaze that usually filled my chest with warmth—made my skin break out in gooseflesh.
“Who are you right now?” I lowered my voice.
“You know who I am, Daiya. Just like I know who you are. You want me, don’t you? You want to feed off me; I can sense it. Feel it radiating off you. Well, I’m right here.”
“Kai.” I gasped. He didn’t know what he was saying. He couldn’t. “Please don’t do this.”
He stalked forward, and I flattened my palms against the wall behind me. “Do what? Tell me what I’m doing.” His fingers brushed a line down my cheek, and I shuddered.
“Kai, don’t.”
“I thought this is what you wanted?”
“Not like this. Not while you’re—”
Something flashed in his eyes. “While I’m what? Didn’t you get the memo, this is who I am now. A hunter. A killer.”
Tears burned in the back of my eyes, but I swallowed them down. This was not my Kai. I had to remember that. Slowly, I started to inch my way along the wall, keeping him focused on the sound of my voice. “This isn’t you, Kai. You have to fight it. To resist. I know you feel our connection. I know you do.”
“It isn’t real,” he repeated, the way he had before.
“It is real. Somewhere deep down inside, you know it is. What we have is real. I just need you to trust me.” My hand curled around the edge of the wall. The last thing I wanted to do was anger him further, but I couldn’t stand out here doing this with him. Not while he was so wired.
“I’m sorry, Kai.” I slipped my hand into my pocket, curling my fingers around the key.
“Sorry?”
And then I ran without looking back. It was only a few feet, but it felt like a lifetime. I ripped out the key and jammed it in the lock.
“Daiya,” he called, but I didn’t look back. He was close, but I hadn’t heard his footsteps on the porch. When the door opened, I slipped inside. It wasn’t until I was inside that I risked looking out of the glass arch. On my tiptoes, I craned my neck. Kai stood at the end of the path, watching. He looked so much like the guy I’d fallen for, but something else lived inside him now.
And I had to figure out how to bring him back. If nothing else, I had to save Kai.
KAI
Clenching my fists at my sides, I stood there for at least five minutes after she had run into the house away from me.
Away from us.
The urge to go after her, to demand that she finish what we started, was so strong I had to physically hold myself back.
I craved her. The chase, the back and forth. It had become a game to me. One that I refused to lose.
Isaac had explained that her demon was drawn to my hunter and vice versa. I’d let him believe that I felt it—the urge to hunt, to end the demon living inside her—but it was more than that. I didn’t just want to destroy her; I wanted to consume her.
But the last shred of my humanity fought back, reining in the hunter. I knew deep down this wasn’t who I was. Not with her.
Not with Daiya.
She had given me an ultimatum at school: make a choice. But how could I choose when I didn’t know if I wanted to love her or hurt her? Comfort her or scare her? Kiss her or kill her? A battle raged within me, forcing me to question everything. And for as much as it pained me to admit, my father was right; I was a threat to her and to those around her. And if I couldn’t control my obsession, I knew that loving Daiya was going to destroy us both.
“It’s not working.” I stormed into the derelict building my father and Michael used for whatever it was they did when I wasn’t here.
Sitting behind a big wooden desk, one of the few pieces of furniture decorating the space, Isaac lifted his eyes. “What do you mean it’s not working?” he said.
“Whatever we’ve been doing. The meditation, the talks. It. Isn’t. Working.”
He ran a hand over his face and grimaced. “I see.”
“You see?” I balled my fists. “I need you to do something else. I am losing
my goddamn mind. Every time I see her or sense her, this thing inside me loses it.” I leaned forward, gripping the edge of his desk as I tried to catch my breath. My head dropped, and I admitted the thing I didn’t want to. “I’m scared I’m losing control. That I could hurt her. She’s all I think about, all I see. I can’t sleep, and my game is still off. I can’t function like this.”
“I see.”
“Stop saying that. You see, isn’t helping me. You said you could help.” I looked up, slowly meeting his emotionless expression. “I need your help.”
The thought of seeing Daiya again set my body alight. I couldn’t keep doing this. To her or to myself. Everything was suffering; my schoolwork, my team, my friendships. Not to mention the look in Daiya’s eye every time she caught me watching. Stalking. The fear in her eyes when I pinned her to the wall. It had to stop.
Before I did something I couldn’t take back.
Something I’d regret forever.
“I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this. That with time, the connection would sever.” He paused, something my father rarely did. If I’d learned one thing about him in the short time he’d been back, it was that Isaac Stanton was a decisive man. Quick thinking and measured, he didn’t make decisions based on impulse or emotion. He didn’t work in favors and only saw the bigger picture, a picture I still wasn’t privy to.
I saw the moment he made the decision, when the hard lines around his eyes deepened. “There is a way, but it will come at a price.”
As if I expected anything less.
“Name your price.” I already knew what he wanted. I’d been a fool to think otherwise. So when the words, “Miss Cattiva,” came out of his mouth, I shouldn’t have been surprised.
Still, my face blanched, draining of blood. “I’m listening.” I almost choked on the words. I hated the very idea, and he’d known that. Known that I wouldn’t give her up easily. But if it meant she would be safe, that I could live some semblance of a normal life, then I’d do it.
