Oblivion

  would never do anything to betray Dee.” She paused, exhaling softly as she tipped her chin up. “And even though you’re a giant douchebag, I wouldn’t do that to you, either.”

  My lips twitched. “Well, that’s good to hear.”

  “I’m serious,” she insisted. “I’m not going to tell anyone.”

  Some of the icy unease faded off, but the thing was, only time would tell if Kat could seriously be trusted. I hoped so. Not just for Dee’s sake or mine, but for her own.

  I led her into the house and took her upstairs. She was looking around, her gaze bouncing off everything, and I realized this was the first time she’d been in our house. I figured Dee was in her bedroom, and I half expected her to jump out at any movement.

  I walked Katy to a guest bedroom almost never used and opened the door. Flipping on the light, I stepped into the stale, cold air of the room. “You can stay in here.” I walked toward the bed. It was made. “There’re extra blankets in the closet there.”

  Kat turned slowly, eyeing the closet.

  “There’s a bathroom right across from this room. My bedroom is next door,” I explained as I rubbed my palm over my chest. “Dee’s bedroom is down the hall. Just let…let it all go for tonight. She’ll still be here in the morning.”

  She nodded.

  My gaze flickered to hers. Dark smudges of exhaustion had formed under her eyes. I suspected she’d be out cold the moment her head hit that pillow. “Do you need anything else?”

  “No.”

  I stood there for a moment, feeling like there was something else I needed to say, but I couldn’t grasp on to any words, so I nodded and then turned toward the door.

  “Daemon?”

  Stopping, I twisted around.

  She was nibbling on her lower lip. “Thank you for saving my life tonight. I would be a pancake if you hadn’t.”

  I didn’t respond to that, because there was really wasn’t a reason for her to thank me.

  “And…” She stepped forward, lowering the tote. “And thank you for telling me the truth. You can trust me with it.”

  My lashes lifted and I met her earnest stare. I wanted to believe her. “Prove it.”

  It wasn’t lost on me as I left the room, closing the door behind me, that I had parroted Ash’s words. Heading down the hall, I stopped at Dee’s door and gently rapped my knuckles on it.

  The door flew open, and my sister was standing there, eyes shining. “Does she hate me?” she whispered.

  “What?” I frowned, stepping inside and closing the door. “God. No. She doesn’t hate you.”

  Dee folded her hands together. “Are you sure? I’ve been lying to her, and how can she like me when all I’ve done—”

  Wrapping my arm around her shoulders, I drew her in for a hug. “She understands why you couldn’t be honest, Dee. She doesn’t hate you for it.”

  She face-planted in my chest, and when she spoke, her voice was muffled. “You told her?”

  “Yeah.” I lowered my cheek to the top of her head and quickly told her what had happened with the truck. “I didn’t have a choice.”

  Dee was quiet for a moment. “Yeah. Yeah, you did, Daemon.”

  I knew what she was referencing, and I hated that Dee believed if it had come down to it, that I would do that.

  “I also think it’s nice you brought her over here,” she continued.

  No response to that.

  “She thinks I’m a freak, doesn’t she?” she muttered.

  I laughed as I pulled back. “No. She doesn’t.”

  She didn’t look like she believed me. “Kat’s tired. She’s barely standing on her feet. Give her till tomorrow and then you can jump all over her, okay?”

  Dee relented, and after chatting with her for a few moments, I headed back to my bedroom. Burned the hell out, I changed into a pair of sleep pants and was about the throw myself on the bed but was dying of thirst.

  I really needed to put a small fridge up here.

  Sighing, I walked out of the room. The hallway bathroom light was on as I headed downstairs. I grabbed a bottle of water and made my way back up, my brain strangely empty of all concerns, which proved just how tired I was.

  As I neared my door, the bathroom door opened and Kat stepped out in the hallway. She froze. I froze. Shit. I became a damn statue.

  Kat clutched a toothbrush and toothpaste in her hands. Her hair was up in a messy knot and the thin wisps around her face were damp. She’d washed her face, and looked like she’d gotten more water on the dark blue shirt she wore than she did her face. Speaking of that shirt…

  It was all that she was wearing. And it was thin. And I was getting an eyeful that I very much appreciated.

  The visual packed an intense punch and there was no stopping the way my body, which could be so freaking human at times, reacted. The shirt was loose and bulky, ending at midthigh, and good Lord, those thighs…

  Who knew a shirt could be so damn sexy?

  Her face was as red as a ripe tomato, but she…she was checking me out in the same way I was checking her out. Her eyes were most definitely not on my face, so I didn’t feel too much of an ass for staring at certain areas of her. Not when her gaze was trained on my stomach and then my chest…and then back down to where the pajama bottoms hung.

  Kat sucked her lower lip in between her teeth.

  Aw, hell.

  I swallowed a groan, and she must’ve heard the noise, because her gaze flew to my face, and that blush deepened like a sunburn. She darted for the extra bedroom. “G-Good night.”

  “Night,” was all I managed.

  I walked into my bedroom and quietly closed the door behind me. Making it to the bed, I flopped down on it and stared at the ceiling.

  It was going to be another long night.

  It was weird, how I felt after telling Kat the truth. I thought I’d be more ill at ease. I’d never told a human before, and it had been bad enough when Dawson told Bethany the truth. I don’t know why I wasn’t as pissed off or panicked this time around.

  Instead, I was more…relieved. I didn’t have to pretend anymore or hide what I really was around her. I didn’t have to be the constant douchebag she liked to call me. Sure, I needed to keep her at a distance, but at least I could explain the stakes in a way she could understand now. Home had once again become the sanctuary it had been before Kat moved in next door.

  Like I said, it was weird.

  I’d stayed MIA Saturday morning while Dee talked to Kat. I figured they needed their time to work through the big discovery, and when Kat finally headed next door sometime that afternoon, Dee explained that she’d actually shown Kat one of Dee’s strongest abilities.

  In her true form, Dee had a knack at mirroring the image of another person. Most of us could do it, but for only short times. Dee could hold the mirror image for a hell of a lot longer than all of us.

  Dee had apparently made herself look like Kat.

  I kind of felt bad for Kat at that point.

  I stood in the kitchen, rinsing off plates before placing them in the dishwasher as Dee bounced around. Excitement buzzed in her voice as she went over every detail from her talk with Kat. I couldn’t hide my grin, just like Dee couldn’t hide her relief.

  “I told her that you can do just about anything,” she said. “She asked what you could do after I mirrored her.”

  My grin spread. I bet Kat loved hearing that.

  “I totally reinforced the fact that the government doesn’t know about all our abilities and how important it is that they never find out.” She bounded over, grabbing the plate out of my hand and placing it in the dishwasher. “It didn’t seem like you told her much about the Arum.”

  The grin on my face started to slip.

  Dee closed the dishwasher door and danced over to the kitchen table. “I explained what happened to our planet and how the government doesn’t realize that the Arum are a totally different species.”

  I slowly turned around. “W
hat else did you tell her?”

  “I elaborated on the whole trace thing.” Her forehead scrunched. “She didn’t seem surprised by that, so I’m guessing you talked to her about some of it. I told her she didn’t have to worry. We would keep an eye on her, and now since she knows what she’s dealing with, I think it will be easier to keep her safe.”

  “Yeah.” I shoved my fingers through my hair. I didn’t mind that Dee had talked to Kat about this stuff. After all, I had started the conversation last night, but I wondered how Kat was handling all of this.

  “She can really be trusted,” Dee continued on as I lowered my hand. She picked up the jug of tea and walked it to the fridge. “She knows what will happen if the DOD finds out that she knows about us. She’s not going to say anything, Daemon.”

  I nodded as I folded my arms across my chest. “No one else needs to know that she knows the truth. Not even Adam.”

  Dee opened her mouth.

  “I mean it, sis. Adam is a good guy. He’s not like Andrew, but you know this is a big deal, especially after…after Dawson and Bethany. The others will worry, especially Matthew. We can’t take the risk that one of them will panic and report Kat.”

  Her eyes widened as she closed the fridge door. “Do you think one of them would do that?”

  I considered that question. “I don’t know. I want to say no, but…anything’s possible. And there’s always the risk that one of them might accidentally say something in front of the other Luxen. We just need to be careful.”

  Dee fiddled with the hem of her shirt. “Okay. No one else needs to know.”

  Pushing away from the sink, I started toward the stairs and then changed my mind. “I’m going to go check on Kat. You want to come?”

  She started to speak and then smiled broadly. “Nah. I think I’ll stay here for now. I’ll see her later.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Why are you smiling like you’re high?”

  “No reason.” She rocked back on her feet, smiling so wide I thought her face might crack. “No reason at all.”

  Frowning, I shook my head and pivoted around. I made it to the door before Dee called out, “Take your time.”

  I shot her a dark look over my shoulder, and she burst into a fit of giggles. Whatever. I crossed the front yard and saw Kat through the kitchen window. Well, I saw the white glow around her… I headed for the back door and knocked.

  The door swung open, and unfortunately she wasn’t wearing only the shirt like last night. Actually, that was probably a good thing. But that trace on her. Damn. The others were going to see it first thing Tuesday morning, after Labor Day, and I was going to have to come up with one hell of an excuse.

  “Hey?” she said, sounding unsure.

  I nodded in response.

  Wariness flickered over her face. “Um, do you want to come in?”

  Not feeling down when it came to enclosed spaces and Kat, I shook my head. “No, I thought maybe we could go do something.”

  Her brows flew up, and I almost laughed. “Do something?” she asked.

  “Yeah. Unless you have a review to post or a garden that needs tending.”

  “Ha. Ha.” She started to close the door.

  I lifted my hand, stopping the door without touching. Shock replaced the irritation, and I grinned. “Okay. Let me try that again. Would you like to do something with me?”

  She hesitated. “Where did you have in mind?”

  I pushed away from the house, walking backward as I shrugged. “Let’s go to the lake.”

  “I’ll check the road before I cross this time,” she said, and I turned around. “You’re not taking me out in the woods because you changed your mind and decided your secret is not safe with me, are you?”

  I busted out laughing. “You’re very paranoid.”

  She snorted. “Okay, that is coming from an alien who apparently can toss me into the sky without touching me.”

  “You haven’t locked yourself in any rooms or rocked in any corners, right?”

  Her eyes rolled when I glanced over at her. “No, Daemon, but thanks for making sure I’m mentally sound and all.”

  “Hey.” I raised my hands in mock surrender. “I need to make sure you aren’t going to lose it and potentially tell the entire town what we are.”

  “I don’t think you need to worry about that for several reasons,” she replied drily.

  I gave her a pointed look. “You know how many people we’ve been close to? I mean, really close to?”

  She wrinkled her nose, and I wondered where her mind went, and that made me chuckle. “Then one little girl goes and exposes us. Can you see how hard that is for me to…trust?”

  “I’m not a little girl, but if I could go back in time and do it all over I wouldn’t have stepped out in front of that truck.”

  “Well, that is good to know.”

  “But I don’t regret finding out the truth. It explains so much. Wait, can you go back in time?” Her expression was serious. “The possibility hadn’t crossed my mind before, but now I honestly wonder.”

  I sighed, wanting to laugh. “We can manipulate time, yes. But it’s not something we’d do, and only going forward. At least I’ve never heard of anyone being able to bend time to the past.”

  “Jesus, you guys make Superman look lame.”

  I smiled as I dipped my head to avoid a low-hanging branch. “Well, I’m not telling you what our kryptonite is.”

  A moment passed. “Can I ask you a question?”

  I nodded as our feet kicked at the leaf-covered ground.

  “The Bethany girl who disappeared—she was involved with Dawson, right?” she asked.

  I tensed. “Yes.”

  “And she found out about you guys?”

  Several seconds passed before I could decide how to answer this question. “Yes.”

  Kat glanced at me. “And that’s why she disappeared?”

  “Yes.” More or less, that was the truth.

  “Did she tell someone? I mean, why did she…have to disappear?”

  “It’s complicated, Kat.”

  “Is she…dead?”

  When I didn’t answer that question, she stopped. I looked back, and she was digging a pebble out of her sandal. “You’re just not going to tell me?”

  I grinned at her.

  “So why did you want to come out here?” She shook the rock out and placed the sandal back on. “Because it’s fun for you to be all evasive?”

  “Well, it is amusing to watch your cheeks get all pink when you’re frustrated.”

  Her cheeks burned brighter.

  I winked and started walking again. Her questions were valid, and I was being a jerk about it, but there really weren’t easy answers to those questions. The lake came into view. “Besides the twisted fact that I like watching you get all bent out of shape, I figured you’d have more questions.”

  “I do.”

  “Some I won’t answer. Some I will.” I glanced over at her, and she didn’t look upset at me. I felt like I needed to take a picture to capture that moment. “Might as well get all your questions out of the way. Then we don’t have a reason to bring any of this up again, but you’re going to have to work for those questions.”

  She arched a brow. “What do I have to do?”

  I glanced out over the lake and smiled. “Meet me on the rock.”

  “What? I’m not wearing a bathing suit.”

  Kicking off my shoes, I turned my smile on her. She blinked once and then twice before quickly looking away. “So? You could almost strip down—”