Oblivion, Page 21

  “Not going to happen.” She crossed her arms.

  That was a damn shame.

  “Figured,” I replied. “Haven’t you ever gone swimming in your clothes before?”

  Her lips pursed. “Why do we have to go swimming for me to ask questions?”

  My gaze zeroed in on that mouth for way too long before I lowered my gaze. “It’s not for you, but for me. It seems like a normal thing to do.” I shifted my weight. “The day we went swimming?”

  “Yes.” She took a step toward me.

  Lifting my gaze, I met her stare. I took a deep breath. “Did you have fun?”

  Kat tilted her head to the side. “When you weren’t being a jerk and if I ignore the fact that you were bribed into it, then yes.”

  Smiling, I looked away. One of these days, maybe, I’d tell her that I hadn’t been bribed. “I had more fun that day than I can remember. I know it sounds stupid, but—”

  “It’s not stupid.” Her response was immediate and genuine. Then she shocked the hell right out of me. “Okay. Let’s do this. Just don’t go underwater for five minutes.”

  Relaxing, I laughed. “Deal.”

  While I pulled off my shirt, she slipped off her sandals. I could tell she was watching me from under her lowered gaze. I waited for her to change her mind, but she grinned at me, and I…shit. There was a weird tugging in my chest as I watched her walk up to the water’s edge and dip her toes in.

  “Oh my God, the water is cold!” she shrieked.

  I could do something about that.

  “Watch this.” Winking at her, I turned back to the lake. I let go of my human form. White light spread out from my chest and over my form. I shot off the ground, moving incredibly fast. To her, I probably looked like nothing more than a fiery ball. I hit the center of the lake. In my true form, heat radiated off me, warming the lake as I whipped around, under the water.

  As I neared the rocks, I shifted back into the form Kat was more comfortable with as I hauled myself up on the rocks.

  “Alien powers?” she asked.

  Water sluiced off my skin as I leaned over the edge of the rock, motioning her forward. “Come in, it’s a little warmer now.”

  She didn’t look like she believed me when she placed her foot in. Her body jerked as she glanced up at me, her eyes wide. “Any other cool talents?” she asked as she waded over to the rocks.

  “I can make it so that you can’t even see me.”

  When she reached the side of the rocks, she placed her hand in mine. I pulled her up easily, and once she gained her footing, I let go and scooted back, giving her room.

  She shivered as she sat on the sunbaked rock. “How can you do things without me seeing?”

  Leaning back on my elbows, I stretched out my legs. “We’re made of light. We can manipulate the different spectra around us, using them. It’s like we’re fracturing the light, if that makes any sense.”

  “Not really.”

  “You’ve seen me turn into my natural state, right?” When she nodded, I went on. “And I sort of vibrate until I break apart into tiny particles of light. Well, I can selectively eliminate the light, which allows us to be transparent.”

  She tucked her knees against her chest. “That’s kind of amazing, Daemon.”

  I smiled as I folded my arms behind my head and lay back. “I know you have questions. Ask them.”

  Kat slowly shook her head. “Do you guys believe in God?”

  “He seems like a cool guy.”

  She blinked. “Did you guys have a god?”

  “I remember there was something like a church, but that’s all. The Elders don’t talk about any religion,” I explained.

  “What do you mean by ‘elders’?”

  “The same thing you’d mean. An old person.”

  She scrunched her nose.

  That made me grin. “Next question?”

  “Why are you such an ass?”

  I laughed under my breath. “Everyone has to excel at something, right?”

  “Well, you’re doing a great job.”

  Closing my eyes, I welcomed the sun soaking into me. “You do dislike me, don’t you?”

  Kat didn’t respond right off. “I don’t dislike you, Daemon. You’re hard to…like. It’s hard to figure you out.”

  “So are you,” I admitted and then decided to rock this whole honesty thing. “You’ve accepted the impossible. You’re kind to my sister and to me—even though I admit I’ve been a jerk to you. You could’ve run right out of the house yesterday and told the world about us, but you didn’t. And you don’t put up with any of my crap.” I laughed. “I like that about you.”

  “You like me?”

  “Next question?” I said smoothly.

  Kat leaned in closer. “Are you guys allowed to date people—humans?”

  I shrugged one shoulder as I glanced over at her. “‘Allowed’ is a strange word. Does it happen? Yes. Is it advised? No. So we can, but what would be the point? Not like we can have a lasting relationship when we have to hide what we are.”

  She appeared to consider that. “So, you guys are like us in other, uh, departments?”

  I sat up, arching a brow. “Come again?”

  Her cheeks flushed in the sunlight. “You know, like sex? I mean, you guys are all glowy and stuff. I don’t see how certain stuff would work.”

  Like sex?

  She was legit asking me if we could have sex?

  The question made me want to laugh. It also made me want other things that had to do with what she was thinking, and the fact that I physically responded that way so quickly was a bit disconcerting.

  It was also interesting.

  And I was also an idiot.

  My lips curled up in a half smile and before I could really think about what I was doing, I moved, rolling her onto her back before she could blink an eye. She sucked in a soft breath. I hovered over her, my wet hair falling forward as I braced my weight on my hands. A droplet of water sneaked free, landing on her cheek. She didn’t even notice it.

  “Are you asking if I’m attracted to human girls?” I lowered myself, and our bodies met in all the areas that counted. With our wet clothes, it felt like there was barely anything between our skin. She was amazingly soft under me, and I could feel her shallow breaths. As close as we were, I saw the way her eyes dilated. I shifted my hips just the slightest and I felt her gasp in every part of me. “Or are you asking if I’m attracted to you?”

  Our eyes met and held. Silence stretched out between us, and I knew she had her answer.

  And I also knew I needed to get off her before I engaged in total dumbassery.

  Taking more effort than it should have, I rolled off her. When I spoke, there was no mistaking the change in my voice. “Next question.”

  Kat didn’t sit up. “You could’ve just told me, you know?” She turned her head toward me. “You didn’t have to show me.”

  True dat.

  “And what fun would there be in telling you?” I turned my head toward her. “Next question, Kitten?”

  “Why do you call me that?”

  “You remind me of a little fuzzy kitten, all claws and no bite.”

  Her lips twitched. “Okay, that makes no sense.”

  I shrugged.

  A moment passed. “Do you think there are more Arum around?”

  That was a tough one. I tipped my head back, studying her to determine how real she wanted me to get. “They are always around.”

  “And they’re hunting you?” Her voice dropped.

  I flipped my gaze to the sky. “It’s the only thing they care about. Without our powers, they are like…humans, but vicious and immoral. They’re into ultimate destruction and whatever.”

  “Have you…fought a lot of them?”

  “Yep.” I rolled onto my side, facing her. “I’ve lost count of how many I’ve faced and killed. And with you lit up like you are, more will come.”

  Her gaze momentarily lifted. “Then
why did you stop the truck?”

  “Would you have preferred I let it pancake you?” I asked, referencing what she had said that night.

  “Why did you?” she persisted.

  I clenched my jaw. “Honestly?”

  “Yes.”

  “Will it get me bonus points?” I asked softly.

  Her chest rose with a deep breath, and then she lifted her hand. She brushed back the strand of hair that had fallen across my forehead. Her fingers grazed my skin, and I stilled, closed my eyes briefly. Such a soft, innocent touch, but it hit me hard.

  “Depends on how you answer the question,” she said.

  When I opened my eyes, her features were tinged in white. She pulled her hand back, exhaling softly. I eased onto my back, my arm against hers. “Next question?”

  Kat folded her hands together over her stomach, and she didn’t pull away. “Why does using your powers leave a trace?”

  Much safer ground. “Humans are like glow-in-the-dark T-shirts to us. When we use our abilities around you, you can’t help but absorb our light. Eventually, the glow will fade, but the more we do, the more energy we use, the brighter the trace. Dee blurring out doesn’t leave much of anything. The truck incident and when I scared the bear, that leaves a visible mark. Something more powerful, like healing someone, leaves a longer trace. A faint one, nothing big so I’m told, but it lingers longer for some reason.

  “I should’ve been more careful around you,” I continued. “When I scared the bear, I used a blast of light, which is kind of like a laser. It left a large enough trace on you for the Arum to see you.”

  “You mean the night I was attacked?” Her voice was hoarse.

  “Yes.” I scrubbed my hand down my face. “Arum don’t come here a lot, because they don’t think any Luxen are here. The beta quartz in the Rocks throws off our energy signature, hides us. That’s one of the reasons why there are a lot of us here. But there must have been one coming through. He saw your trace and knew there had to be one of us nearby. It was my fault.”

  “It wasn’t your fault. You weren’t the one who attacked me.”

  “But I basically led him to you,” I pointed out.

  As my words sank in, she paled. Fear filled her gaze. I hated that, and like earlier, I was concerned with how much of this information she could handle.

  “Where is he now? Is he still around?” she asked. “Is he going to come back? What—”

  Reaching between us, I found her hand and squeezed gently. “Kitten, calm down. You’re going to have a heart attack.”

  Her lips parted slowly. “I’m not going to have a heart attack.”

  “Are you sure?” Her hand felt warm and small inside mine.

  “Yes.” That earned me another epic eye roll.

  “He isn’t a problem anymore,” I explained.

  She turned her head more fully toward me. “You…you killed him?”

  “Yeah, I kind of did.” I wasn’t trying to scare her, but she needed to know I would kill anyone who threatened my family…and now her.

  “You kind of did? I didn’t know there was any ‘kind of’ in killing someone.”

  “Okay, yes, I did kill him.” I heard the startled catch in her breath. “We’re enemies, Kitten. He would’ve killed me and my family after absorbing our abilities if I didn’t stop him. Not only that, he would’ve brought more here. Others like us would’ve been in danger. You would’ve been in danger.”

  “What about the truck? I’m glowing brighter now,” she said. “Will there be another?”

  When there was one Arum, there were usually three more. Maybe we’d get lucky this time. “Hopefully there are none nearby. If not, the traces on you should fade. You’ll be safe.”

  “And if not?”

  “Then I’ll kill them, too.” And that was the truth. “For a while, you’re going to need to stay around me, until the trace fades.”

  “Dee said something like that.” She bit down on her lip. “So you don’t want me to stay away from you guys anymore?”

  “It doesn’t matter what I want.” I glanced down at our hands. It struck me then that I’d been tracing the alphabet on her hand. I had no idea. “But if I had my way, you wouldn’t be anywhere near us.”

  Kat yanked her hand free. “Gee, don’t be honest or anything.”

  “You don’t understand,” I said. I was determined that she understand the danger not staying away from us originally had put us all in. I didn’t want to be cruel, but she had to know what was at stake. “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, she turned toward the shore. “I think it’s time I head back.”

  Aw hell, she really wasn’t getting it. When she started to stand, I caught her arm. Her skin immediately warmed under my palm. “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.” Her jaw jutted out stubbornly. “I’ll stay away from Dee until it fades.”

  “You’re still not getting it.” God, I wanted to shake her. “If an Arum gets a hold 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.”

  “Daemon—”

  “You don’t have a choice. Right now, you’re a huge risk. You are a danger to my sister. I will not let anything happen to her.”

  Anger flushed her face. “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.” I let go of her elbow and leaned back, beyond frustrated. “As long as you don’t end up with another trace, then I don’t have a problem with you being friends with her.”

  Her hands balled into fists. “I’m so grateful to have your approval.”

  I forced a smile. How much more clearly did I need to put it out there for her? She was in danger and she was a risk. This…this wasn’t personal. “I’ve already lost one sibling because of how he felt for a human. I’m not going to lose another.”

  “You’re talking about your brother and Bethany,” she stated.

  “My brother fell in love with a human…and now they’re both dead.”

  Chapter 16

  Sometimes Kat was as open as a picture book. Everything she thought and felt plainly visible on her face. I watched as the irritation eased away, replaced by sympathy I wasn’t comfortable seeing.

  “What happened?” she asked quietly.

  Part of me wanted to ignore the question. To say something ignorant and distract her, but there was another half of me that wanted to…to talk about it, to really talk about it. That part won out. “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.”

  I stared over her shoulder, at the tree line. “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. It’s as if they think we’re animals, beneath them.”

  “But you’re not animals,” she said, a bit fiercely. It was kind of cute watching her come to my defense for once, even though I probably didn’t deserve it.