She tucked her hair back. “I don’t know if it’s scary. I mean, the Arum thing is, but your kind—the Luxen—freaky powers aside…you’re not very different from us.”
“What about the fact that we’re made of light?”
She smiled a little. “Well, besides that.”
“It got me thinking,” I said, going back to my point about what Matthew believed. “That if some of our kind believe this, how come the DOD isn’t worried?”
“What happens if they think you are a threat? And don’t beat around the bush about it.”
Part of me didn’t want to tell her this, but keeping her in the dark wasn’t going to help her. “When I was at the compound before, there were Luxen who didn’t assimilate. Mostly they didn’t want to be kept under the thumb of the DOD. Others I guessed were viewed as a threat because they asked too many questions. Who really knows?”
She swallowed thickly. “What happened to them?”
Several moments passed before I answered. “They killed them.”
Chapter 13
Horror filled Kat’s gaze as she stared at me. I sensed the burst of energy a second before it rolled through the room. I twisted to the side as Kat dropped her unopened can of soda. It hit the floor as the kitchen chair flew out from underneath the table. I reached for the chair, but it changed course and slammed into Kat’s leg.
Shooting forward, I caught Kat before she fell. “Whoa there, Kitten.”
Kat pushed the hair out of her face as she lifted her head. She was favoring one leg, which wasn’t surprising. That chair was trucking. “Holy crap…”
I eased a shoulder under her arm for support. “Are you okay?”
“I’m peachy.” She wiggled free and placed weight on her leg. Her lips thinned, and then she bent over, rolling up her jeans. A thin stream of blood trickled down her leg. “Great, I’m a natural disaster.”
“I might have to agree with that.”
She shot me a dark look.
“Come on, get up on the table and let me look at that.”
“I’m fine.”
This wasn’t something I was going to argue about. Moving fast, I caught her around the waist and carried her to the table, depositing her on it. When I pulled back, her mouth was hanging open.
“What…how did you do that?”
“Skill,” I said, picking up her foot and placing it on a chair. My fingertips brushed over her skin as I rolled the leg of her pants above her knee. She jerked a little at the static charge that passed between my skin and hers. There was a nice little gash just below the knee. “Wow, you really are a disaster.”
“Ugh, it’s bleeding all over the place.” She shuddered. “You’re not going to heal me, are you?”
“Uh, no, because who knows what would happen then? You might turn into an alien.”
“Ha. Ha.”
I grabbed a clean towel and dampened it. Walking back to her, I carefully blotted up the blood. The weight of what Kat had just done settled heavily. She got emotional and stuff happened. This wasn’t good. “What am I going to do with you, Kitten?”
“See? I didn’t even want to move the chair, and it flew at me like a heat-seeking missile.”
I shook my head. “When we were younger, things like this would happen all the time, before we could control the Source.”
“The Source?”
“The energy in us—we call it the Source, because it links us back to our home planet, you know? Like the source of it all. At least, that’s what our Elders say. Anyway, when we were kids and learning how to control our abilities, it was crazy. Dawson had this habit of moving furniture, like you. He’d go to sit down and the chair would fly out from under him.” I laughed as I remembered how many times he’d fallen on his ass. “But he was young.”
“Great. So I’m operating at the level of a toddler?”
I lifted my eyes to hers. “Basically.” I sat the towel aside. “Look, it’s stopped bleeding already. Not that bad.”
She glanced down at herself. “Thank you for cleaning it up.”
“No problem. I don’t think you’ll need stitches.” I ran my fingers over the cut, avoiding the angry red skin.
Kat jerked again, and when I looked up at her, her cheeks were flushed and lips slightly pursed. My hand stilled. “What are you thinking about?”
There was a pause, and then she blinked as her chest rose sharply. The flush increased. “Nothing.”
I rose slowly, holding her gaze. Now was not the time for any of this, but she was here, and in this moment, nothing else mattered but that. Not her fledging ability or the DOD. Not the douche bag she’d been hanging out with. Not the fight between Andrew and me. It was just Kat.
Placing my hands on either side of her hips, I leaned over the chair and rested my forehead against hers. I inhaled deeply, and when I spoke, I barely recognized my own voice. “Do you know what I’ve been thinking about all day?”
“No.”
I tilted my head and brushed my lips over the curve of her cheek. Her soft gasp grabbed hold of me. “Finding out if you look as good in striped socks as you do in reindeer ones.”
Her cheeks rose against mine. “I do.”
Drawing back, I smiled at her. “I knew it.”
Kat’s gaze held mine. Tension grew between us, in us. Her heart rate picked up, and it reflected in mine. It was like both of us were racing but not moving fast enough. I held back, waiting for her to look away, to push me away. She did neither, and I realized then she was also waiting.
Waiting for me.
A whitish tint filled my eyes as my control slipped. There wasn’t even an inch of space between our mouths. I could already taste her. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?”
“I’m not doing anything.”
I shifted my head just enough that our lips brushed once…and then twice. I waited for her to stop this. She didn’t, and I wanted to shout with joy. I increased the pressure, and this kiss was different. I wasn’t trying to prove something to her. This kiss wasn’t out of anger. I was kissing her for the simple joy of doing so, and there was nothing as amazing as this.
Kat made this featherlight sound, a soft and breathy feminine moan, and I groaned in response. She undid me, completely, and she had no idea. Cupping her cheeks, I deepened the kiss. Her lips parted, letting me in. Our tongues met. Danced. Her hands curled around my wrists and then slid up my arms, leaving a storm of fire behind. I moved as close as I could with the chair between us, kissing her without coming up for air.
And Kat was kissing me back, her fingers digging through the material of my shirt, digging into my skin. What I was feeling, she was experiencing, and I—
The heavy oak chair trembled and then slid out from between us, as if one of us had pushed it away. The sudden void caught me off guard. I lurched forward, and Kat gave under my weight. With her tight grip, she brought me along with her, and then our bodies were pressed together.
My hips were between her legs and we were chest to chest, our bodies flush. Her legs curled up, drawing me in. My fingers splayed across her cheeks as she shoved her hands into my hair; her fingers tugged. I slid one hand down, over the sweet swells, until I reached her rounded hip. I urged her closer, blown away by the red-hot feel of her under me.
Slowly, deliciously, the intensity of the kisses lessened, but not the power behind them. With one last lingering kiss, I lifted my head and stared down at her, drinking in the sight of her flushed face and damp, swollen lips.
“I didn’t move that chair, Kitten.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“I’m assuming you didn’t like where it was?”
“It was in your way.” Her hands slipped down to my upper arms.
“I can see that.” I smoothed a fingertip over the curve of her soft bottom lip, committing the satiny feel to memory. Then I took her hand and pulled her up so she was sitting, knowing that the moment the passion subsided in her, she was going to flip.
I didn’t have to wait long.
Her eyes widened slightly. “We can’t keep doing this. We—”
“We like each other.” I let go of her hands and grasped the edges of the table on either side of her. “And before you say it, we were attracted to each other before I healed you. You can’t say that’s not true.”
I leaned in, brushing my nose along her cheek, and she answered with a shudder. I pressed my lips against the spot under her ear. “We need to stop fighting what we both want. It’s not going to be easy. It wasn’t three months ago, and it won’t be three months from now.”
“Because of the rest of the Luxen?” Her head tipped back as I blazed a path of kisses down her throat. “They’ll outcast you. Like—”
“I know.” I slid a hand around the nape of her neck and pressed in so our bodies were sealed tight. “I’ve thought about the repercussions.”
She lowered her head and opened her eyes. “And this has nothing to do with the connection or Blake?”
“No.” I sighed. “Yes, some of it has to do with that human, but it’s about us. About what we feel for each other.”
She stared at me for several moments and then squirmed until she was able to dip under my arms. She flinched when she put weight on her injured leg and backed up. “Is this like a ‘I didn’t want you until someone else wanted you’ type of thing?”
Struggling to keep a tight leash on my frustration, I leaned against the table. “That’s not what this is.”
“Then what is it, Daemon?” Tears built in her eyes, killing me. “Why now, when three months ago you couldn’t stand to breathe the same air as me? It’s the connection between us. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Dammit. Do you think I don’t regret acting like such a douche to you? I’ve apologized.” I pushed away from the table. “You don’t get it. None of this is easy for me. And I know this is hard for you. You have a lot to deal with. But I have my sister and an entire race counting on me. I didn’t want you to get close to me. I didn’t want another person to care about, to worry about losing.”
Kat drew back, obviously shocked, but I was on a roll now. “It wasn’t right how I acted. I know that. But I can do better than that—better than Benny.”
“Blake,” she corrected. “I have a lot in common with Blake. He likes that I read a lot—”
“I do, too.”
“And he also blogs.”
I reached out and caught a piece of her hair and wrapped it around my finger. “I have nothing against the internet.”
She knocked my hand away. “And he doesn’t like me because of some stupid alien connection or because some other guy likes me.”
“I don’t either.” I lowered my hand to my side. “You can’t keep pretending. It’s wrong. You’ll break that boy’s poor little human heart.”
“No, I won’t.”
“You will, because you want me and I want you.”
Shaking her head, she limped for the door. “You keep saying that…”
“What does that mean?” I demanded.
Kat briefly squeezed her eyes shut. “You say you want me, but that’s not enough.”
“I show you that I do, too.”
“You do not.”
“What was that?” I gestured at the table I would never look at the same again. “I think I showed you that I like you. I can do it again if you’re not clear on what that was. And I brought you a smoothie and a cookie to school.”
“You stuck the cookie in your mouth!” She threw her hands up in the air.
I smiled at that damn good memory. “The table…”
“Humping my leg like a dog in heat every time I’m around you doesn’t prove you like me, Daemon.”
I clamped my mouth shut before I laughed. “Actually, that’s how I show people I like them.”
“Oh. Fine. Whatever. None of this matters, Daemon.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Kat. And I’m not giving up.” Not on her—not on us. “Do you know why I met you that day in the library?”
“What?”
“The Friday you came back after being sick?” I ran a hand through my hair. “You were right. I picked the library because no one would see us together.”
Her lips thinned as she looked away. “You know what, I’ve always wondered if your ego was so big you didn’t want to eat crow.”
“And as always, you jump to the wrong assumption.” I waited until she looked at me before I continued. “I didn’t want Ash or Andrew to start giving you a bunch of crap because of me like they did with Dawson and Beth. So if you think I’m embarrassed of you or not ready to make my intentions very public, then you better get that idea out of your head. Because if that’s what it takes, then it’s on.”
And that’s the second I realized that was what it was going to take.
“Daemon…”
I smiled at her then, a real smile that said so much. “I told you, Kitten. I like a challenge.”
Chapter 14
On the way to school the next morning, I stopped at the florist shop—the only florist shop—a few blocks from school and picked up a single red rose. It was corny. Undeniably so, but if Kat seriously thought I wasn’t willing to show people how serious I was about her, she had another think coming.
It was risky, possibly even stupid. It wasn’t like I didn’t know what the possible consequences could be, but if this was what it took to prove myself to Kat, then this was what I would do.
Walking into trig class a few moments before the bell rang, I hid the rose behind my notebook until I was in front of her.
Kat looked up, staring at the rose and then me blankly. I tapped a soft petal off the tip of her nose. “Good morning.”
Dumbfounded, she stared at me.
“This is for you,” I explained, knowing that the entire class was staring at us.
She took the green stem between her fingers and stared at it as I sat in my seat. “Oh holy baby Jesus,” Lesa murmured, and I chuckled.
Kat placed the rose on the corner of her desk and then glanced over her shoulder at me. I peered up and met her questioning stare, and smiled. She faced the front of the classroom, and throughout class, I caught her several times staring at the rose.
Corny but worth it.
After class, Kat actually packed up her bag and turned to me, waiting for me to rise. Normally, she raced out of the classroom with Lesa and Carissa. She held the rose close to her chest. “Thank you for this,” she said quietly, her gaze flickering to mine and then away. “It was very nice of you.”
I raised a shoulder as I stepped into the aisle. “You like it?”
She nodded. “Of course.”
We walked out of the classroom and she stopped, placing her hand on my arm. She tugged on my shirt, and I followed her over to the rarely used water fountain. “Did you hear about Simon?” she asked, glancing at the crowd of students.
“What?” I frowned. “What about him?”
Her worried gaze met mine. “He’s missing.”
“Missing? Since when?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know the exact timing, but Lesa said since this past weekend…” She lowered her voice as she stepped closer. “I saw him Friday night. He disappeared sometime after that.”
“That’s…weird.” I brushed the hair back from my face, considering it. “It could mean nothing, Kat. It’s hunting season around here. Maybe he took off to go hunting.”
“And forgot to tell his parents?” she questioned.
“Not everyone is responsible.” Though it was hard to believe Simon would roam off without telling his parents, stranger things have been known to happen. I knew what Kat was getting at with this. Reaching between us, I wrapped my hand around hers, careful
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