Oblivion

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  The human girl stared at Ash. “Okay. It’s not like we look alike. I’m white with an awesome touch of Hispanic, and Carissa is half black and half Asian. Kind of hard to get us confused.”

  Well, Lesa had a point, and this just got real awkward, and Ash stared at her, apparently oblivious. “Anyway,” Lesa drew the word out. “Why are we talking about how good-looking Blake is? Not that I don’t mind chatting about that.”

  “He was here with Kat.” Ash’s hand snapped out, and she plucked a fresh cup out of some random person’s grip. She eyed the contents. “She kissed him.”

  “On the cheek,” I repeated.

  Lesa snickered. “I would totally be kissing him someplace else.”

  I looked at her.

  “And you, too,” she added quickly, and I frowned. She giggled. “Well, if I didn’t have a boyfriend, that is.”

  “Uh, that’s good to know.” My heart started pounding as if I’d just run a mile. Concern bloomed in my gut. “Have you seen Kat?”

  Lesa sipped her drink. “She went outside to get some fresh air. Didn’t look too happy.”

  “Hmm,” Ash murmured.

  I was so going to duct tape her mouth shut. “Thanks,” I said to Lesa and then shot Ash a look that warned her not to follow.

  It was Lesa this time who stopped me at the back door. She placed her hand on my upper arm, and when I glanced down at her, sincerity was etched into her expression. “God, she’s going to kill me for saying this,” she said. “But Katy does like you. She really does. Just remember that.”

  The corner of my lips twitched. “I know.”

  Cool night air washed over me. The door swung shut, muting some of the sounds. Walking off the deck, I cut between the houses. It didn’t look like she was at her place. Stopping near the porch, I scanned the endless stream of cars. It went all the way down to the empty house at the end of the street.

  I glanced back at Kat’s house. Good thing her mom was working tonight.

  Would her mom also be working for her birthday—tomorrow? From what I could gather, her mom usually worked Saturday nights. The idea of Kat spending her birthday alone didn’t sit well with me. But that wasn’t the issue at hand. Where in the world could she have—?

  The distant sound of glass shattering stopped me. My eyes narrowed. A couple of car doors slammed shut, but the sound was farther away. I walked past the cars and about halfway down the driveway, the back of my neck starting to tingle.

  Bingo.

  Kat was near the empty house.

  I cut over to the wooded area and then picked up speed, coming up around the back of the house. I slowed down as I spotted her walking back. Pushing a low-hanging branch aside, I stepped out of the woods. “What are you doing out here, Kat?”

  Her shoulders were hunched. “I just blew up a bunch of windows.”

  “What?” I moved closer. “You’re bleeding. What happened?” I paused. “Where are your shoes?”

  She glanced down at her feet. “I took them off.”

  I shot to her side, seeing tiny pieces of glass clinging to the sweater. I began picking them off.

  “Kat, what happened?”

  Lifting her head, she sucked in a sharp breath. “I was walking and I ran into Simon—”

  “Did he do this to you?” My hands stilled, and I swear to all the stars in the sky, someone was going to be dead by the end of the night.

  “No. No! I ran into him, and he was upset about you.” Her eyes met mine. “He said you beat him up?”

  “Yeah, I did.” And I had a feeling I was going to do it again.

  “Daemon, you can’t beat up guys because they talk bad about me.”

  “Actually, I can.” Getting all the glass I could see, I lowered my hands to my sides. “He deserved it. I’m not going to lie. I did it because of what he was saying. It was bullshit. He knows what he did—what he tried to do—and to spin that around on you?” My hands curled into fists as my gaze flickered to the woods. “I’m not going to let some punk-ass human talk about you like that, especially him or his friends.”

  “Wow,” she murmured. “I don’t think I’m supposed to say thank you, because that seems wrong, but, um, thanks.”

  “Anyway, that’s not important. What happened?”

  She drew in several deep breaths, and then it came out in a rush. “I just needed fresh air, so I came out here and I started walking. I don’t know. I was just angry and feeling…I just was so angry, and I’m frustrated, because I don’t know what is going on with me.” Her voice started to rise. “And the next thing I know, the window back there blew up, and I know it was me. I did that somehow, and Simon—oh my God, he was outside. I don’t even really know what he was doing. He was really drunk, but he saw me do it. I freaked out and another window shattered. I didn’t mean to do it on purpose. I really didn’t, Daemon. I—”

  Chest aching, I wrapped my arms around her and tugged her against my chest. She didn’t resist, burrowing her face into me. I lowered my chin to the top of her head and held her tight. Her heart was pounding. So was mine, which explained why it had started doing that in the kitchen.

  “I know you didn’t do it on purpose, Kitten.” I pressed my hand against her back, rubbing in a circle as my mind raced around yet another new problem. “Simon was drunk, so there’s a good chance he won’t even remember. And if he does, no one will believe him.”

  “You think?” she whispered.

  “Yes.” I pulled back, lowering my head so we were eye to eye. “People will think he’s crazy. No one will believe him, okay? And if he starts to talk, I’ll—”

  “You’ll do nothing.” She tugged herself free, drawing in another heavy breath. “I think you’ve already scarred the boy for life.”

  “Obviously not,” I muttered. “What were you thinking back there? You were upset. Why?”

  Kat stared at me a moment and then spun around. She started walking back, through the woods.

  And here we were, back to the silent treatment. I easily caught up with her. “Kat, talk to me.”

  I held a branch out of the way for her. “I can make it back home without your help, thank you very much.”

  “I would hope so,” I said drily. “It is right there.”

  “Shouldn’t you be making out with Ash right now anyway?”

  I nearly stopped walking as understanding hit me. “That’s what all of this is about?”

  “No.” She was walking faster. “It had nothing to do with you—or her.”

  “You’re jealous.” Oddly, happiness flooded me. “I’m so going to win this bet.”

  She stomped forward. “Me? Jealous? You’ve lost your mind. I wasn’t the one trying to scare off Blake.”

  I caught a hold of Kat’s arm, stopping her just as her porch came into sight. “Who cares about Ben?”

  “Blake,” she corrected.

  “Whatever. I thought you didn’t like me?”

  Her hand curled around empty air. “You’re right. I don’t like you.”

  And the happiness was vanquished like chalk in a downpour. “You’re lying—blushing cheeks and all.”

  Her mouth opened, and then it all just came out. “You were kissing me a few days ago and now you were having fun with Ash? Is this what you normally do? Jump from one girl to the next?”

  “No.” I dropped her arm, actually offended. “That’s not what I do. I don’t.”

  “Yeah, I hate to break it to you, but you are doing it.” She drew back, her brows knitting, and then she shook her head “God, I am being such a whiny girl. Just forget I said anything. You can do whatever you want and I don’t have any right—”

  “Okay. You have no idea what was going on between Ash and me. We were only talking. She was messing with you, Kat.”

  “Whatever.” She whirled around, walking again. “I’m not jealous. I don’t care if you and Ash make alien babies together. I don’t care. And honestly, if it weren’t for this stupid connection, you wouldn’t even
enjoy kissing me. You probably already don’t.”

  Unable to believe what I was hearing, I flew around her, stopping her. “Do you think I didn’t enjoy kissing you? That I haven’t thought about it every second since then? And I know you have. Just admit it.”

  Her chest rose sharply. “What is the point of this?”

  “Have you?” I demanded, wanting—needing to hear her admit it.

  “Oh, for crap’s sake, yes, I have. I do!” she shouted. “Do you want me to write it down for you? Send you an email or a text? Will that make you feel better?”

  I arched a brow, slightly mollified. “You don’t need to be sarcastic.”

  “And you don’t need to be here. Ash is waiting for you.”

  A grunt of exasperation left me. “Do you really think I’m going to go to her?”

  “Uh, yeah, I do.”

  “Kat.” Disappointed, I shook my head. She really thought that? After everything we’d been through, everything we’d shared, she’d honestly think I’d be interested in Ash?

  “It doesn’t matter.” She tugged her fingers through her hair, pulling it back from her face. “Can we just forget this? Please?”

  Lifting my hand, I smoothed a finger over my brow. The disappointment burned and sat in my stomach like sour cream. “I can’t forget this, and neither can you.”

  Chapter 11

  Adam was on his second helping of stacked pancakes. His head was bowed over his plate, blond hair sticking up in every direction as he shoved the fluffy goodness into his mouth.

  I sat across from him at the kitchen table, idly rubbing my palm along my jaw while I stared out the window. Prickly stubble grazed my hand. I needed to shave.

  It had been a long night.

  The last of the partygoers left around two in the morning, and then the great cleanup began. Dee, Adam, and I managed to straighten up most of the house, and then I’d tackled the kitchen this morning. It was a little past four in the afternoon, and Dee was back in bed. She’d probably sleep the entire day away.

  Adam had stayed the night.

  My brain was too fried to even deal with that, but he at least helped clean up.

  “Did you even sleep last night?” Adam paused in his record-breaking pancake buffet.

  I raised a shoulder. “A little.”

  “Looks like it.”

  Truth be told, I might’ve gotten two hours tops, and it really had nothing to do with cleaning the house. Had a lot to do with Kat. Not just our argument. If I’d lost sleep every time we argued, I’d never get any shut-eye. Granted, there was a huge part of me that was still hella disappointed and pissed over what she thought. I also felt…yeah, I felt bad, because I’d seen that flash of hurt in Kat’s eyes when she thought I was hooking up with Ash. That didn’t sit well with me, but that wasn’t my main beef. Had a lot to do with her breaking those windows; not the reason behind it, but the fact that she had been able to do it in the first place.

  We needed to accept that Kat was changing. The why behind it wasn’t the most important part of what was going down. We needed to get her…her abilities under control before it was too late.

  Today was her birthday.

  And I knew she had gotten a new laptop because I’d received an email alert this morning signaling that she’d posted on her blog. Yeah, I’d signed up for alerts. Whatever.

  When I’d dragged the tenth garbage bag outside, I’d seen an unfamiliar car in her driveway. It had belonged to that doctor—Will Michaels. The three of them—Will, Kat, and her mom—had left together.

  Adam leaned back in the chair and stretched his arms over his head. Bones cracked. “So, I hear something went down with you last night?”

  Raising an eyebrow, I dropped my hand to the table. “Is that so?”

  He nodded. “Ash was pissed about you and Kat. She was bitching to me and Dee about it, like we were supposed to do something.”

  Ash needed a hobby. Stat.

  “You know, she’s just worried about you. I mean, Ash can be…well, she’s my sister. She can be a bitch, but it comes from a good place.”

  “I know.” I took a drink of my milk.

  Adam’s gaze dropped to his empty plate. “Can I be real with you for a sec?

  “Sure…”

  A brief grin appeared. “You know I’m not like Andrew or Ash. I don’t care about what’s going on with you and Kat.” When I opened my mouth, he pinned me with a knowing look. “And I know something is going on. Dee and I talk, but even if we didn’t, it’s obvious to me. Anyway, I’m cool with it, whatever it is. I just wanted to let you know that.”

  Unsure of what to say, I stared at him. Words formed on the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t give them voice. What I felt for Kat wasn’t something I’d been entirely vocal about with the exception of what I’d said to Matthew, but I really hadn’t said much. I wasn’t surprised that Adam was cool with it. That was just the kind of…Luxen he was. Something occurred to me then.

  “Thanks, man.” I leaned forward, keeping my voice low. “I’ve got a question for you.”

  He smiled. “I’m all ears.”

  Adam had always been the most open of all the Luxen I’d known. Everyone knew that, including Dawson. My brother wouldn’t have confided in me, but there was a chance he would’ve said something to Adam. Maybe even hinted at what had happened between him and Bethany when they went hiking the weekend he’d returned with torn, bloody clothing. “Did Dawson ever talk to you about Beth?”

  Surprise flickered across his face. Obviously, he hadn’t expected that question. “Not really. I mean, he was super quiet about Beth, but I did talk to him. Like the stuff I said to you. I’m cool with it. I did tell him that I was worried.”

  “You didn’t tell me you are worried about Kat and me,” I pointed out.

  “Yeah, well, you’re not Dawson.”

  That was the first time anyone said that and probably actually meant it as a compliment. “True,” I murmured, and then smiled faintly. “But I think…I think I’m more like him than most realize.”

  “Why are you asking about Dawson?” He nudged his empty plate without touching it. “You never talk about him.”

  “Just because I don’t talk about him doesn’t mean I don’t think about him.” Standing, I motioned at the plates. They floated to the sink. “I don’t know. I’ve just been thinking a lot about Dawson and Bethany.” I stood in the center of the kitchen and decided to go there with Adam. I trusted him. “I think…I think he did something to Bethany.”

  His brows rose. “Like what?”

  I came back to the table and sat down. “They went hiking one weekend, and Dawson returned all jacked up—his clothes torn and bloody. He said nothing happened, but I knew he was lying. I think…I think Beth got hurt somehow, and…”

  Understanding flared in his gaze. “You think he healed her?” When I nodded, he blinked.

  “Shit. We’re not supposed to—”

  “I know we’re not supposed to do it, but it doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.” Hello. For example: me. “I think that’s what Dawson did, and I think…I think he changed her somehow.” I had absolutely no proof supporting that statement other than the fact that I had changed Kat.

  “Changed her how?” he asked.

  I shook my head. Here’s where it got tricky, because they…they’d died not too long after that trip, and I hadn’t been around her. “I don’t know, but Lydia stopped by on Thursday, you know, checking in, and we were talking about shit in general, and she said something that got me thinking.” I was so good at lying I was kind of amazed with myself. “She said that putting humans in danger wasn’t the only reason why we weren’t allowed to heal them.”

  His eyes widened. “And you’re thinking it’s because we change them somehow? And that the Elders know this?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, hell.” He paused. “But even if that’s the case, what does it have to do with Dawson? I mean, he and Bethany were killed by Arum.�
��

  That’s what we were told.

  Another set of potentially disastrous words I didn’t speak out