I glanced down at the onyx and then shrugged. Shooting forward, I pressed the piece of onyx against Blake’s cheek.
Kat’s mouth dropped open while Matthew stepped back, uttering, “God.”
Dawson laughed under his breath.
Nothing happened, though.
Blake knocked the piece of onyx aside, his nostrils flared. “What the hell?”
Huh, that was disappointing. I was hoping to send him to the ground, withering in pain. I tossed the stone in the pile. “Well, apparently you have a tolerance to onyx, and here I was hoping you didn’t.”
Kat covered her mouth, stifling a giggle that still managed to escape.
“What if I didn’t have a tolerance to it?” Blake demanded, and I’m pretty sure my expression said I didn’t care. “Good God, I kind of wanted to prepare myself for that.”
“I know.” I smirked.
Matthew shook his head. “Okay, back on track, boys. How do you suggest doing this?”
Shooting me a dark look, Blake stalked over to the pile of onyx. “I suggest Daemon go first. We hold it to the skin until you drop. No longer.”
“Oh, dear Lord,” Kat muttered.
Whatever. I stripped off my gloves and held my arms out. “Bring it.”
Of course, Blake was jonesing for payback. Springing forward, he placed the onyx against my palm. Being prepared wouldn’t have changed a damn thing. It was like cupping fire and keeping your damn hand over the flame. Red-hot pain rippled over my hand and up my arm. A tremor rocked me and then the pain was whipping out, scattering cells, and it became—
Blake removed the piece of onyx.
I hit the ground, on my hands and knees. “Crap…”
Kat was at my side, touching my shoulders. “Are you okay?”
“He’s fine,” Blake said, placing the onyx on the ground. I looked up, seeing his right hand shake. “It started to burn. There must be a limit to my tolerance…”
Unsteady, I pushed to my feet. “I’m okay.” Turning, I saw my brother staring at Blake like he was seconds from tearing the hybrid apart with his bare hands. “I’m fine, Dawson.”
“How do we know this will work?” Matthew demanded. “Touching onyx is completely different from being sprayed all over with it.”
“I’ve walked out of those doors before and nothing happened. And it’s not like they’ve sprayed onyx in my face before,” Blake said. “This has to be it.”
“Okay.” Kat stepped forward. “Let’s do this.”
Locking my jaw down was the only way to stop myself from telling Kat not to do this. Wasn’t easy standing there and watching Blake slip on the gloves and pick up the piece of onyx. Instead of bringing the jagged shard of onyx to Kat, he went to Matthew. Within seconds, the older Luxen was on his knees, gasping for air. Then it was Dawson’s turn, and I forced myself not to look away or intervene when Blake placed the onyx against Dawson’s hand.
It took a little longer for it to affect him, which would make sense if Daedalus had been prepping Dawson with it. But then he, too, was on his knees. The curse words I let loose pinked the tips of Kat’s ears.
But then it was her turn.
Blake started toward her, but I couldn’t let him be the one to do it. He was not going to hurt her again. Swiping the other glove off the ground, I took the piece of onyx from him.
“No,” Kat said, stepping back. “I don’t want you to do this.”
“I’m not letting him do this.”
“Then let someone else do this. Please.” She looked away, but no one stepped forward. “This isn’t right.”
None of this was right, but I didn’t trust anyone else to do this. “It’s either me or no one.”
Her gaze sharpened and a moment passed. “Do it.”
Shit. A part of me was hoping she wouldn’t let me do it. Anger dug in as she met my gaze. “I hate this,” I said, my voice low.
“I do, too.” She took a deep breath. “Just do it.”
Once again, I wanted to look away, but I wouldn’t let myself. I was going to be here with her for this, but she lowered her gaze, and for that I was grateful. I didn’t want to stare into her eyes while I was handing her unimaginable pain. Hating everything about this, I placed the onyx against her hand.
A moment passed and then her brow creased. Her lashes slammed down, fanning her cheeks. Her jaw jutted out. My stomach churned. She bit down on her lip. Her body jerked, and then she was on her knees.
Fuck.
Throwing the rock aside, I knelt down next to Kat. She shuddered. “All right…okay…not too bad.”
“Bull.” I hauled her to her feet. I couldn’t do this—watch her in pain every damn day to build up tolerance. My skin was crawling. “Kat—”
She tugged free, dragging in air. “Really, I’m okay. We need to keep going.”
Looking away, I counted to ten in my head, then fifty, and I made it to a hundred without it doing any good, because all of us went through the same process again. None of us were able to withstand the onyx any longer than the first time.
“It’s like getting hit with a Taser,” Matthew said, as he dropped a sheet of plywood over the onyx, then placed two heavy rocks on the board. It was late, and all of us were feeling the pain. “Not that I’ve ever been Tased, but I image that’s how it feels.”
We started to head back to the house, and I was a few steps in front of Kat. Blake was trailing her, and I was close enough to hear what he was saying.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I liked Carissa. I wish…”
“If wishes were fishes, we’d all throw nets, right? Isn’t that what they say?” Bitterness sharpened Kat’s tone, and I hated hearing that.
“Yeah, that’s what they say.” Blake paused. “Things are gonna get crazy at school.”
“Why do you care?” she fired back. “You’re going to leave as soon as you get Chris. You’ll just be another one of those kids who vanished into thin air.”
“I would stay if I could. I can’t, though.”
I slowed down. That bastard was not staying. If I had to hog-tie him and this Luxen and ship them out to the West Coast in one big box, I would.
“I would stay,” I heard Blake say again. “I—”
That was it. Spinning around, I saw him place his hand on her shoulder. I was in front of him in under a heartbeat, prying his fingers off her shoulder. “Don’t touch her.”
Blood drained from his face as he stepped back. “Dude, I wasn’t doing anything. Overprotective, much?”
“I thought we had an understanding. You’re here because we don’t have a choice,” I reminded him. “You’re still alive because she is better than me. You’re not here to comfort her. Got that?”
Blake’s jaw popped as he stalked around us. “Whatever. I’ll see you guys later.”
“That was a little overprotective,” Kat said, peering up at me.
“I don’t like him touching you. I don’t like him even being in the same time zone as you. I don’t trust him.”
Stretching up, she kissed my cheek. “No one trusts him, but you can’t threaten him every five seconds.”
I snorted. “Yes, I can.”
Kat laughed as she stepped in, wrapping her arms around my waist. She rested her cheek against my chest, above my heart. My hands slid down her back, and we stood there for a few minutes. “Do you really want to do more days like this? An endless stretch of days filled with pain?”
“It serves as a pretty good distraction, and I need that right now.”
This was a good distraction? Jesus. This was what our lives had come down to. Almost laughable. My gaze flickered to where the moonlight filtered through the bare limbs. Except nothing about any of this was funny.
My hand curled around her thick hair. “We need a date night soon.”
She snuggled in closer. “I don’t think we have time for that.”
“There is always time for date night.” I lowered my gaze. She was peering up at me now. “Reme
mber? Time management?”
Kat smiled a little, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I do.”
“Tomorrow night, we’re supposed to head into Martinsburg to see Luc. That doesn’t really count as a date night.”
“It doesn’t?”
“Hanging out with the preteen mafia leader? Uh, no.” I grinned when she laughed. “But there is no excuse for us to not make time to do the normal stuff. Right?”
“Right,” she murmured. “It doesn’t…feel wrong, though? Like we’re being selfish?”
“If wanting to enjoy you and the time I have with you makes me selfish, so be it.” I lifted my other hand, cupping her other cheek. “Look,” I said after a moment. “Who knows what is waiting for us tomorrow or next week.”
She wrapped her hand around my wrist. “We don’t know.”
“We need a couple of hours here and there.”
“You’re right.” She stretched up again and kissed me. “I hate it when you’re right.”
Laughing, I stepped to the side and draped my arm over her shoulders. She leaned into me as we started back to the house, the moonlight lighting our paths. For a…a normal couple, this would be a romantic walk, but for us it seemed like that moonlit path was foreshadowing that there was more darkness than light in store for us.
Chapter 18
Wednesday night, while everyone was down at the lake playing with onyx, Kat and I were on the way back to Martinsburg. There was a chance that Luc wouldn’t see us. Hell, the kid might not even be there, but since Kat was wearing this sweater that was like a second skin, I considered it a win no matter what.
Getting to Martinsburg was a lot easier this time around without any of the snow or Blake running his mouth nonstop.
Kat wasn’t smiling a lot, though, and I couldn’t blame her. After school, we’d joined the hastily-thrown-together search party for Carissa. Even though both of us knew there would be no finding Carissa, it was cathartic for Kat, I thought, for her to take part. To distract her, we started to play I Spy, and although she claimed that I cheated, she was smiling and laughing.
When we finally reached the door leading up to the club, cars lined the field like they had last time. I couldn’t understand how this place stayed off the map with this kind of traffic.
Kat shed the loose sweater she’d worn over the tighter one as soon as I parked the SUV. We climbed out and started around the rows of cars. She stopped in the first row, bent over, and tossed her hair over her head, shaking it out, and that was an instant turn-on.
“This reminds me of a Whitesnake video,” I said.
“Huh?” She straightened, running her hands over her hair. The waves fell in a sexy tousle down her back.
I swallowed a groan. “If you start climbing on car hoods, I think I might marry you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Done.”
Staring at her, I felt pressure in my chest. A good kind. Also a frightening kind. “You’re cute.”
“You’re weird.” She stretched up and kissed my cheek, and then I watched her teeter through the high grass that hadn’t been there the last time we’d been there.
Mountain Man, the bouncer I was sure really liked me, like really liked me, appeared out of the shadows, blocking the door. He folded massive arms over his chest. “I thought I told ya two to forget this place?”
I stepped in front of Kat. “We need to see Luc.”
“I need a lot of things in life. Like I wish I could find a decent stock trader who wouldn’t lose half of my money.”
Um, all right.
Kat cleared her throat. “We won’t be here long, but please, we really need to see him.”
“Sorry,” Mountain Man replied.
Sighing, I tipped my head to the side. Obviously, Luc was here. “There’s got to be something that we can do to convince you.”
Mountain Man raised a brow and waited.
I smiled, and the bouncer’s brows rose even further, but before he could respond, his cell phone went off. He pulled it out of the pocket of his overalls. “What’s up?”
Kat elbowed me, and I glanced down at her. “What? It was working.”
The bouncer laughed. “I ain’t doin’ much. Just talkin’ to a douche and a pretty lady.”
“Excuse me?” I said, surprised.
Kat choked out a laugh.
Mountain Man smiled broadly and then sighed. “Yep, they’re here for ya.” There was a pause. “Sure.” He clicked the phone shut. “Luc will see you. Go in and go straight to him. No dancing tonight or whatever it was the two of ya did last time.”
I didn’t need to even look at Kat to know she was blushing, because what we’d done last time on that dance floor sure as hell wasn’t just dancing. Placing my hand on her lower back, we started toward the door.
Mountain Man stopped me with a wink as he handed over a business card. “Ya not normally my type, but I can make an exception.”
I took the card with a smile and then ushered a gaping Kat inside. “Told you.”
Kat snapped her mouth shut and faced forward. Like last time, the dance floor was packed, but we skirted the edges, heading straight for the hallway.
Standing at the door to Luc’s office was Paris. He nodded at me and then stepped aside, opening the door, and the scent of peaches welcomed us. I focused right on the couch. Luc wasn’t there. The stacks of hundreds were gone, but Luc was behind the desk, his fingers flying over the keyboard.
“Please sit.” Luc didn’t look up as he waved at the nearby couch.
Kat glanced at me, and then we went to the couch. She sat close to me, her leg pressed to mine.
“Heard you guys didn’t get very far at Mount Weather last time.” Luc closed the laptop after a moment and then folded his hands under his chin.
“About that.” I leaned forward. “You didn’t know about the onyx shields?”
Luc’s weird purple eyes met mine, and there was an intellect to them that was far beyond his age. “I warned you that there may be things I’m unaware of. Even I don’t know everything about Daedalus. But I think Blake’s on the right track. He is right about everything being encased in a shiny blackish-red material. Perhaps we did build a tolerance so we were not affected by the onyx shields.”
“And what if that’s not it?” Kat asked.
“What if it’s not? I have a feeling that’s not going to stop you from trying again. It’s a risk, and everything has risks. You’re lucky you got out of there last time before anyone realized what happened,” he said. “You get another chance. Most people don’t.”
“You’re right,” she said. “We’re still going to try.”
“But not knowing all the perils ahead seems unfair?” He tucked a strand of brown hair back, his expression impassive. “Life’s not fair, babe.”
I stiffened. “Why do I have a feeling there’s a lot you’re not telling us?”
Luc’s lips formed a half smile. “Anyway, you came here for a reason other than those onyx shields. Let’s get to the point.”
Annoyance rose. “An unstable hybrid attacked Kat.”
“That’s what unstable people do, hybrid or not.”
“Yeah, we figured that much, but she was my friend.” Kat drew in a shallow breath. “She gave no indication that she knew anything about the Luxen. She was fine, got sick, and then came to my house and went nuts.”
“You didn’t give any indication you know ET didn’t phone home.”
What a little asshole.