“You don’t understand,” Daemon replied. “Right now, you can lead an Arum right to my sister. And I have to protect her. She’s all I have left. And I have to protect the others here. I’m the strongest. That is what I do. And while you’re carrying the trace on you, I don’t want you going anywhere with Dee if I’m not with you.” Sitting up, I glanced toward the shore. “I think it’s time I head back.”
His fingers wrapped around my arm. The skin tingled. “Right now, you can’t be out there by yourself. I need to be with you until the trace fades.”
“I don’t need you to play babysitter.” My jaw ached from how hard I was clenching it. The whole staying away from Dee pissed me off, but I understood. Doesn’t mean his words didn’t hurt. “I’ll stay away from Dee until it fades.”
“You’re still not getting it.” His grip didn’t tighten, but I had a feeling he wanted to shake the crap out of me even though I knew he never would. “If an Arum gets ahold of you, they aren’t going to kill you. The one at the library — he was playing with you. He was going to get you to the point that you’d beg for your life and then force you to take him back to one of us.” I swallowed. “Daemon—”
“You don’t have a choice. Right now, you’re a huge risk with the trace. You are a danger to my sister. I will not let anything happen to her.”
His love for his sister was admirable, but did nothing to stop the flow of anger rushing through my veins. “And then after the trace fades? Then what?”
“I prefer that you’d stay the hell away from all of us, but I doubt that’s going to happen. And my sister does care for you.” He let go of my arm and leaned back, resting on his elbows. “As long as you don’t end up with another trace, then I don’t have a problem with you being friends with her.” My hands balled into fists. “I’m so grateful to have your approval.”
His little half smile didn’t reach his eyes. His smiles rarely did. “I’ve already lost one sibling because of how he felt for a human. I’m not going to lose another.”
Anger was still simmering in me, but his words caught my attention. “You’re talking about your brother and Bethany.”
There was a pause and then, “My brother fell in love with a human…and now they’re both dead.”
Chapter 19
Like he’d turned off my bitch switch, all I could do was stare at him. There was a feeling in my gut that told me I already knew this stuff but hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it. God, he was such a jerk, but my anger eased off, lessening and leaving uncertainty in its wake.
“What happened?” I asked.
He was staring over my shoulder, focused on the trees behind me. “Dawson met Bethany, and I swear to you, it was like love at first sight. Everything for him became about her. Matthew — Mr. Garrison — warned him. I warned him that it wasn’t going to work. There was no way we can have a relationship with a human.” Pressing his lips together, he took a moment. “You don’t know how hard it is, Kat. We have to hide what we are all the time, and even among our own kind, we have to be careful. There are many rules. The DOD and Luxen don’t like the idea of us messing with humans.” He paused, shaking his head. “It’s as if they think we’re animals, beneath them.”
“But you’re not animals,” I said. They were definitely not like us, but they weren’t beneath us.
“Do you know anytime we apply for something, it’s tracked by the DOD?” He glanced at me, eyes troubled. Angry. “Driver’s license, they know. If we apply for college, they see it. Marriage license to a human? Forget it. We even have a registration we have to go through if we want to move.” I blinked. “Can they do that?”
He laughed humorlessly. “This is your planet, not ours. You even said it. And they keep us in place by funding our lives. We have random check-ins, so we can’t hide or anything. Once they know we’re here, that’s it.” Not sure what to say, I remained quiet. Everything about their life seemed controlled, chronicled. It was frightening and sad.
“And that’s not all. We’re expected to find another Luxen, and to stay there.”
Alarm trickled through my system. Was he obligated to Ash? It seemed the wrong time to ask. And it seemed even more wrong that I wanted to ask. “That doesn’t seem fair.”
“It’s not.” Daemon sat up in one fluid motion, dropping his arms over his bent knees. “It’s easy to feel human. I know I’m not, but I want the same things that all humans want.” He stopped, shaking his head. “Anyway, something happened between Dawson and Bethany. I don’t know what. He never said. They went out hiking one Saturday and he came back late, his clothing torn and covered with blood. They were closer than ever. If Matt and the Thompsons didn’t have their suspicions before, they did then. That following weekend, Dawson and Bethany went out to the movies. They never came back.” I squeezed my eyes shut.
“The DOD found him the next day in Moorefield, his body dumped in a field like garbage.” His voice was low, rough. “I didn’t get to say good-bye. They took his body before I could even see him, because of the risk of exposure. When we die or get hurt, we resort back to our true form.” I ached for that — for him and Dee. “Are you sure he’s…dead then, if you’ve never seen his body?”
“I know an Arum got him. Drained him of his abilities and killed him. If he were still alive, he would’ve found a way to contact us. Both his and Bethany’s bodies were taken away before anyone could see. Her parents will never know what happened to her. And all we know is that he had to have done something that left a trace on her, enabling the Arum to find him. That’s the only way. They can’t sense us here. He had to have done something major.” My chest squeezed. I couldn’t imagine what he and Dee had to have felt. My father’s death had been expected. It hurt — it had felt like his sickness and eventual death was killing me — but he hadn’t been murdered.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I know there’s nothing I can say. I’m just so sorry.”
He shifted slightly, lifting his head to the sky. In a second, the mask he wore slipped down. And there was the real Daemon. Still a total badass, but there was pain in him, a vulnerability in the lines of his face that I doubted anyone ever got to see. And suddenly, I felt like I was intruding, witnessing this moment. For it to be me, of all people, to see beneath the layers of attitude didn’t seem right. It should’ve been someone he cared about, someone important to him.
“I…I miss the idiot,” he said raggedly.
My heart clenched. The pain in his voice pricked at me. Not thinking, I turned and reached over, wrapping my arms around his all too stiff body. I hugged him, squeezing him as tightly as I could. And then I let him go before he overreacted and threw me off the rock.
Daemon still didn’t move. He stared at me, eyes wide, like he’d never been hugged before. Maybe the Luxen didn’t believe in hugs.
I lowered my gaze. “I miss my dad, too. It doesn’t get any easier.”
His breath expelled harshly. “Dee said he was sick but not what was wrong with him. I’m sorry…for you loss. Sickness isn’t something we’re accustomed to. What was it?”
I told him about my dad’s cancer, which was surprisingly easy. And then I told him about better things — things my dad and I shared before he got sick. How I used to garden with him and we’d spend Saturday mornings during the spring searching for new plants and flowers.
And he shared memories of Dawson. The first time they hiked the Seneca Rocks. And the time that Dawson had morphed into someone else and couldn’t figure out how to change back. We stayed there, somehow finding a peace in talking about them until the sun started to fade and the rock lost its warmth. And it was just me and him, in the dusk, staring at the stars filling the sky.
I was reluctant to leave, not because the water would be cold, but because I knew— I knew—that this little piece of the world we created, where we weren’t arguing or hating one another, wouldn’t last. It seemed that Daemon…needed someone to talk to, and I happened to be here. I asked the right quest
ions. And it was the same for me. He was here. At least, that’s what I was telling myself, because I knew tomorrow would be no different than the week before.
We had to go back to the real world. And Daemon wishing he’d never met me.
Neither of us spoke until we were on my porch. The light was on in the living room, so when I did speak, I kept my voice low. “What happens now?”
Daemon’s hands were fists at his side as he looked away, not answering.
I started to turn, but in the time that it took for me to blink my eyes, Daemon was already gone.
…
“You didn’t do anything for Labor Day?” Lesa pointed at Carissa behind her. “You live a life as exciting as Carissa.”
Carissa rolled her eyes as she straightened her glasses. “Not all of us have parents who whisk us away for a quick weekend in North Carolina. We aren’t as cool as you.”
It wasn’t like I could tell them I did have an exciting weekend, one involving almost getting hit by a truck and proving the existence of extraterrestrial life forms, so I shrugged and scribbled in my notebook. “Just hung out at home.”
“I can see why.” Lesa tipped her chin toward the front of the classroom. “I would too if I lived next to that.”
“You should’ve been born as a man,” Carissa remarked, and I hid a smile. Those two were a riot; one as oppressed as the other was ballsy. I always felt like I was watching an insane tennis match between the angel on my left shoulder and the devil on my right.
But I didn’t need to look up to see they were talking about Daemon. Last night I’d barely slept. Only thing I was certain come Tuesday morning, I wouldn’t act like anything was different. I ignored him, which was what I did before I found out he was from far, far away.
And it worked right up until he sat behind me and I felt his pen poking against my back. Slowly, I set my pen down and casually turned around. “Yes?”
Sooty lashes lowered, but not before I saw the sparkle in his eyes. “My house. After school.”
Lesa’s audible intake of breath was sort of embarrassing.
I knew I had to hang out with Daemon until the damn trace thing faded, but I didn’t take well to being ordered around. “I have plans.”
His head moved an inch to the side. “Excuse me?”
A small, evil part of me reveled in his surprise. “I said I have plans.”
A second of silence passed, and then he smiled. It wasn’t as devastating as I expected, but pretty damn close. “You don’t have plans.”
“How would you know?”
“I do.”
“Well, you’re wrong.” He wasn’t. I didn’t have any plans.
His gaze slid to the girls. “Is she hanging out with either of you after school?”
Carissa opened her mouth, but Lesa cut her off. “Nope.”
Some friends. “Maybe I wasn’t hanging out with them.”
Daemon tipped his desk forward, closing the space between us. “Besides them and Dee, what other friends do you have?”
I cut him a death look. “I have other friends.”
“Yeah, name one.”
Dammit. He called my bluff. “Fine. Whatever.”
He gave me a sexy smirk and settled back in his seat, tapping his pen on his desk. Sending him one more look of pure hatred, I turned back around. Yeah, nothing had changed.
…
Daemon followed me home after school. Literally. He tailed me in his new Infiniti SUV. My old Camry, with its leaky exhaust and loud muffler, was no match for the speeds he wanted to go.
I’d brake-checked him several times.
He’d blown his horn.
It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
As soon as I stepped outside of my car, he was right in front of the driver’s side. “Jesus!” I rubbed my chest. “Would you please stop doing that?”
“Why?” He leaned his head down. “You know about us now.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you can’t walk like a normal human being. What if my mom saw you?”
He grinned. “I’d charm her into believing she was seeing things.”
I shoved past him. “I’m having dinner with my mom.”
Daemon popped in front of me, causing me to shriek. I swung at him, but he moved to the side. “God! I think you like to do that to piss me off.”
“Who? Me?” His eyes were wide with innocence. “What time is dinner?”
“Six.” I stomped up the steps. “And you are not invited.”
“Like I want to eat dinner with you,” he retorted.
I flipped him off without looking back.
“You have until 6:30 to be next door, or I’m coming after you.”
“Yeah. Yeah.” I went inside without looking back.
Mom was standing by the window in the living room, holding a picture frame she was dusting. It was her favorite picture of us. She’d stopped a random teenager and asked him to take our picture while we’d been at the beach. One smile from her and the kid couldn’t help but obey. I remembered being embarrassed she’d stopped the boy. I looked sullen next to her, put out and frustrated. I hated that picture.
“How long have you been standing there?”
“Just long enough to see you give Daemon the middle finger.”
“He deserved it,” I grumbled, dropping my backpack on the floor. “I’m going over there after dinner.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Do I even want to know?”
I sighed. “Not in a million years.”
…
When I did show up next door, at 6:34, it sounded like World War III had erupted in the house. I’d let myself in since no one answered the damn door.
“I can’t believe you ate all the ice cream, Daemon!”
I cringed and stopped inside the dining room. There was no way I was going into that kitchen.
“I didn’t eat all of it.”
“Oh, so it ate itself?” Dee shrieked so loudly I thought I heard the rafters in the ceiling shake. “Did the spoon eat it? Oh wait, I know. The carton ate it.”
“Actually, I think the freezer ate it,” Daemon responded dryly.
I grinned when I heard what sounded like the empty container hitting what suspiciously sounded like flesh.
Turning, I went back into the living room and piddled around until I heard footfalls behind me.
Daemon lounged against the frame of the door that led from the dining room to the living room. I slowly took him in. His hair carelessly disheveled and the faint light from the lamp bouncing over high cheekbones. His lips curved into a half smile, and even in the simple shirt and jeans, he looked…well, beyond words.
He took up the whole room, and he wasn’t even in it.
One brow rose as he waited. “Kat?”
Mentally kicking myself, I looked away. “Did you get hit by an ice cream carton?”
“Yes.”
“Damn. And I missed that.”
“I’m sure Dee would love to do a replay for you.”
I smiled a little at that.
“Oh, you think this is funny.” Dee burst into the living room, car keys in hand. “I should be making you go to the store and get me Rocky Road, but because I like Katy and value her well-being, I’m going to get it myself.” That would mean I’d be left alone…Oh hell to the no. “Can’t Daemon go?”
Daemon smiled at me.
“No. If the Arum comes around, he’s only going to see your trace.” Dee grabbed her purse. “You need to be with Daemon. He’s stronger than me.”
My shoulders fell. “Can’t I go next door?”
“You do realize your trace can be seen from the outside?” Daemon pushed out of the doorway. “It’s your funeral, though.”
“Daemon,” Dee snapped. “This is all your fault. My ice cream is not your ice cream.”
“Ice cream must be very important,” I said.
“It is my life.” Dee swung her purse at Daemon but missed. “And you took it from me.”
>
Daemon rolled his eyes. “Just get going and come right back.”
“Yes, sir!” She saluted him. “You guys want anything?”
I shook my head.
Daemon did the blinking out and reappearing thing. He was now beside Dee and pulled her in for a quick hug. “Be careful.”
There was no doubt in my mind that Daemon loved and cherished his sister. He’d gladly give his life for her. The way he was always looking out for her was more than admirable. There wasn’t a good enough word for it. And it made me wish I had a sibling.
“As always.” She smiled, gave me a quick wave, and darted out the door.
“Wow. Remind me never to eat her ice cream.”
“If you do, even I wouldn’t be able to save you.” He flashed a sardonic grin. “So, Kitten, if I’m going to be your babysitter for the evening, what’s in it for me?”
My eyes immediately narrowed. “First off, I didn’t ask you to babysit me. And you made me come over here. And don’t call me Kitten.”
Daemon tipped his head back and laughed. The sound sent shivers through me, reminding me of waking up with him, my head in his lap. “Aren’t you feisty tonight?”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Still chuckling, he turned toward the kitchen. “I can believe that. Never a dull moment when you’re around.” He paused. “Are you coming or not?”
I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Going where?”
He pushed open the kitchen door. “I’m hungry.”
“Didn’t you just eat all of the ice cream?”
“Yeah, still hungry.”
“Good Lord, aliens can eat.” I stayed put.
Daemon glanced over his broad shoulder. “I have this strong inclination that I need to keep an eye on you. Where I go you go.” He waited for me to move, and when I didn’t, his smile turned devilish. “Or I can forcibly move you.” I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know how he planned to do that. “All right, let’s go.” I shuffled past him and plopped down in a seat at the table.
Daemon grabbed a plate of leftover chicken. “Want some?”
I shook my head. Unlike them, I didn’t eat ten square meals a day.
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