Текст книги "Oblivion"

Автор книги: Jennifer L. Armentrout

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Текущая страница: 21 (всего у книги 51 страниц)

Chapter 3

I frowned as I reached the top of the stairs, and Dee’s bedroom door opened. Out came Adam, his blond hair sticking up in every direction like someone had run her fingers—

Oh hell no, I could not allow my mind to go there.

“Hey, man,” he said, looking at everything but me in the hallway as I passed him.

I was worried about Kat, but I also wasn’t thrilled with what was obviously going down in Dee’s bedroom. She was my sister. It was required that I not be okay with that. “You heading home, Adam?”

He stared at my sneakers. “Yeah. Uh, I think Andrew is, um, going to—”

“I really don’t need an explanation.” I folded my arms and didn’t beat around the bush. “What are you doing with my sister?”

“What am I doing?” Adam stopped, lifting his hand to his chest and rubbing his palm along the wrinkled front of his shirt. “I’m being with her.”

I felt the Source ripple across my skin and tint my vision diamond white. “You want to clarify that, bud?”

Adam had the common sense to just ignore that. “You know I really care about her, right?” His voice dropped low. “I’m not just messing with her. I would never do that, and that has nothing to do with the fact that you’d kill me if I was.”

“I would,” I agreed.

He shook his head, lowering his hand to his side. “I wouldn’t do that to her. I wouldn’t hurt her. I…I really care about Dee.”

There was no mistaking the seriousness in his tone. He wasn’t playing me. Truth was, Adam wasn’t like that—like Andrew…or like me.

Correction. Like how I used to be, emphasis on the past tense, and boy, was that one hell of a wake-up call. I nodded and started back down the hall.

Adam stopped me. “I mean it, Daemon, you can trust me with her…with her heart.”

Looking over my shoulder, I met his steady gaze. “I know.”

He stood there for a moment, nodded, and then headed out. I almost made it to my bedroom before Dee’s door creaked open and she stuck her head out. I sighed, preparing for a major rant about staying out of her life.

“Hey,” she called out.

Stepping back from my door, I faced her, surprised to find her smiling instead of glaring at me. “Hey?”

She walked out into the hall, the hem of her dress swinging around her knees as she clasped her hands behind her back. “You love me.”

“Uh.” I glanced around the otherwise empty hall. “Yeah.”

Tilting her head to the side, several curls snuck loose from the knot. “You were making sure Adam cared about me.”

I arched a brow.

“You’re a good brother,” she said.

“Yeah…” I winked. “Older brother.”

Dee laughed as she walked up to me. Stretching up on the tip of her toes, she pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Thank you.”

I started to ask for what, but I figured it out. Slowly. I shook my head at her and then went into my room. I wasn’t entirely surprised when Dee followed me in. “Do you know why you’re also an awesome older brother?” she asked.

Moving toward the bed, I waved my hand. The towel from the morning shower flew off the bed, straight toward the open door leading to the bathroom. “Because I’m awesome in general.”

“Nope.” She hopped up so she was sitting on the edge of the desk. “You haven’t yelled at me about the party Friday night.”

I sat on the bed, eyeing her as I kicked off my shoes. “It would’ve been nice to have a heads-up about it.”

“Actually, I mentioned it yesterday, but you were watching something on TV, so you weren’t paying attention to me.” She flashed a bright smile while I frowned at her. “But you’re not going to make a big deal about it.”

“How do you know?”

“Because you would’ve already if you were.” She swung her legs like a five-year-old. “I just…want to do something different, and we’ve never done anything like that before. Dawson would’ve loved…” She trailed off, lowering her chin.

She didn’t need to finish her statement, because I already knew what she was going to say. Dawson would’ve been all over the idea of having a house party. Because Dawson pretty much loved everything while I was the exact opposite.

“Anyway,” she said, exhaling deeply. “I just want to do something fun. All of us could use that.”

I leaned back. Wait a second. Wasn’t Kat’s birthday coming up? Yes. It was. I’d overheard her saying her birth date when she was taken to the hospital after the Arum attack. Damn, I hoped she was feeling better by then. Would suck to spend your birthday sick. Then again, I didn’t think humans stayed sick that long. I started to tell Dee that Kat wasn’t feeling well, but realized if I did, Dee would go right over there and it seemed like Kat wanted to be alone.

Please just leave me alone.

Damn, I wanted to check on her. It was killing me not to, but her coming down with a bug or flu wasn’t a national crisis. I needed to chill. Plus, she had said she was fine.

After I resisted the urge to point out that the party might be a bad idea, Dee eventually disappeared back into her room, working on her English assignment. I ate the rest of the leftover pizza and then spent the next several hours trying to entertain myself.

There wasn’t a damn thing on the TV. No Paranormal Hunters marathon or anything. The internet bores me. Dee had finished up whatever she was working on and had gone over to Adam’s house, because apparently they needed to hang out more than once in a day. They were probably sucking face again—God, I wished I hadn’t even had that thought, because now I sort of wanted to barf up the pizza I ate—and picking up a book required waaay too much effort.

And books made me think of Kat and her middle finger.

She didn’t want me? Yeah, and people in hell didn’t want ice water. God, what a stupid-ass saying. People in hell were dead. They didn’t drink water, iced or not.

Flipping onto my back, I groaned. Night had fallen, so instead of turning on the lamp like a good, normal human, I lifted my hand. White light with a reddish tinge radiated from my open palm and lit up the ceiling. Night-lights? Ha. Who needed one?

My gaze followed a thin crack, starting at one corner of the ceiling and spreading to the middle, webbing out into a million tiny crevices. The foundation of the house was most definitely damaged.

As was my brain right now.

I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this restless. Well, that was a lie. The night and morning before I’d learned that Dawson had died, it was like this. Equally tired and hyper, I was keyed up and too damn lazy to do anything. An itching deep under the skin, a stirring to take on my true form and do…what?

“Jesus,” I muttered, letting the light fade out around my palm.

Sitting up, I swung my legs off the bed and stood, stretching out cramped and tight muscles. Sleep so wasn’t happening anytime soon. I could always do some patrols. Yay.

Man, I was about as exciting as a game of golf.

A year ago, I would’ve called up Ash. She was always good with easing a serious case of boredom. Or Dawson, and I would have…

I derailed that train of thought before it could completely form.

I wouldn’t be calling Ash, and there was no Dawson.

Leaving the bedroom, I hurried downstairs and out the front door. Brisk November wind slammed into me as I stopped in the driveway.

Not going to look. Not going to look. Not going to look.

Twisting around, I looked up at the house beside mine, to the bedroom on the second floor. Lights were off. Wonder what Kat would do if I woke her up and said we had to work off the trace? And I wasn’t thinking about the running kind of workout. Horizontal cardio. Hell, stand up, sit down, on the floor, anywhere anytime kind of cardio. I wasn’t picky.

Body said yes please, common sense said no.

Kat would punch me in the face.

Hmm. Maybe then I could ask her to kiss it and make it better.

I’d taken a step toward her house before I stopped myself. Kat hadn’t been feeling well earlier. Humans were so ridiculously fragile. They could die tripping over a damn chair leg. Car accidents could kill them. Colds turned into pneumonia and killed people.

Mental note: pick up vitamin C before school tomorrow and force it down Kat’s throat.

Spinning around, I sighed and started toward the lake. From there I could head down toward the colony, make sure everything was kosher, and keep circling until I was ready to collapse. Sounded like a damn good plan.

Halfway there, that strange tingling whenever Kat was near—and not the fun kind—broke out across the nape of my neck. It couldn’t be her.

I picked up my pace.

She had no reason to be out in the woods in the middle of the night. It was late and cold and—

Holy crap.

As the still waters of the lake came into view, so did Kat.

My pulse sped into uncharted territories. Was I dreaming? Because she was standing there with her back to me, her bare feet sinking into the loose soil at the edge of the lake, and she was only in a loose white shirt. Those legs—God, I really had a thing for her legs—and her long hair blowing in the breeze.

This was a mirage created to torment me, no doubt.

“Kat?”

Slowly, as if it took some great effort for her to move, she turned, and I knew this was no dream. Tonight just got a hell of a lot more interesting.

“What are you doing, Kitten?” I asked.

She stared at me for so long I started to get a bit worried. “I…I need to cool down.”

She needed… Understanding whipped through me. “Don’t you dare go into that lake.”

Because Kat never, ever listened to me—why start now?—she moved backward. Water lapped at her ankles and then her knees. “Why?”

“Why?” I took a step forward. “It’s too cold. Kitten, don’t make me come in there and get you.”

Considering how fast I was and how incredibly slow all humans were, I was a little boggled by how quickly Kat went into the lake. Her head slipped under, and I knew it had to be freezing.

What in the hell was she doing? Kat could be weird at times. After all, she really thought she could convince herself that she wasn’t obsessed with me, but this? There was no logical explanation.

Shooting forward, I hit the lake at breakneck speed and sank down, wincing as icy water swept over my head. I grabbed her around the waist and shot back up, not even touching the water or the ground until I had her safely on her feet.

So I could strangle her. Hello. Colds. Pneumonia. Death. Jesus.

“What’s wrong with you?” I demanded, grasping her shoulders and giving her a light shake. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Don’t.” She pushed at me weakly. “I’m so hot.”

My gaze drifted all the way down, getting hung up on several areas. I’d seen most of it before, but she was…wow. Like no one else and a whole slew of warm and fuzzy things.

“Yeah, you’re hot,” I said, ignoring the near primal urge to take her down on the grass and do all kinds of things. “The whole wet white shirt… It’s working, Kitten, but a midnight swim in November? That’s a little daring, don’t you think?”

Kat stared up at me with eyes that were kind of glassy, and then she wiggled free, heading back toward that lake.

I caught her before she took two steps and turned her toward me. Okay, I was starting to get worried again. “Kat, you can’t get in the lake. It’s too cold. You’re going to get sick.” I brushed back the hair plastered to her cheeks and felt how hot she really was. “Hell—sicker than you already are. You’re burning up.”

Blinking once and then twice, she leaned into me, pressing her cheek against my chest. I think she sniffed me before saying, “I don’t want you.”

Yeah, and I would be voted Most Friendly in the high school yearbook. “Uh, now is not the time to get into that conversation.”

Her arms went around me, and my brows shot up. I kind of liked this Kat. “But I do want you,” she said.

Those words did something outrageous to my chest. I held her tighter. “I know, Kitten. You aren’t fooling anyone. Come on.”

She let go, her arms hanging limply at her sides. “I…I don’t feel good.”

“Kat.” I pulled back and grasped her face, holding her head up since it didn’t seem like she could by herself. Unease from earlier returned and it unfurled in my belly, quickly spreading its icy tendrils into every nook and cranny. “Kat, look at me.”

A second later, her legs went out from underneath her. Letting out a ripe curse, I caught her, cradling her against my chest. “Kat?”

Nothing.

Pressure clamped down on my chest. Her head fell back like it wasn’t connected to any muscle or bone. “Kat!”

Still nothing, and holy shit, panic exploded and my brain clicked off. Whirling around, I took off, running faster than I ever have. I hit her porch in half a second and by the time I placed her down on the bed, because I thought she’d be more comfortable that way, I had yanked out my cell phone and called Dee. She answered on the third ring, her voice a bit breathless.

“Something is wrong with Kat. I need you here. Now.”

That was all I said. The call disconnected. Pure terror had its claws in me as I cupped her cheeks. “Kat, open your eyes. Talk to me.”

Her chest rose in shallow breaths, but she didn’t open her eyes and she didn’t speak. Preparing to slip into my true form to heal her, I stopped at the very last second. Had I done this to her? Made her sick by healing her? We were forbidden to heal humans. No one ever really told us why, and this could be the reason.

Could we kill them?

“Shit.”

This couldn’t be happening. I didn’t save her life to be the reason why I lost her all over again. That was too fucking cruel, and I would never—

Dee appeared in Kat’s doorway, her hair messy from obviously running the miles between the Thompsons’ house and ours. Her lips way too swollen for me even to go there. She took one look at the bed and was beside us in an instant. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.” I grabbed for the blanket to cover her, but I didn’t know if that would help or hurt, so I threw it back toward the foot of the bed.

“Is she wet?” Dee placed her hand on Kat’s forehead and jerked back. “Oh my God, she’s burning up. What was she doing?”

“She was by the lake and got in. I got her out, but she passed out.” Hovering over her, I felt absolutely helpless and useless. “Kat, wake up! Come on, girl, wake up.”

Stricken, Dee clasped her hands together. “What’s wrong with her?”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with her!”

Dee paled.

Closing my eyes, I let out a breath. “I’m sorry. She just…she won’t wake up.”

“It’s okay. I’m sure she’ll be okay.” Dee placed a hand on my arm. “It’s probably the flu. Humans get really high fevers.”

“But fevers are bad for humans, right? Brain damage or something like that.” Panic socked me right in the gut again, and I looked down at Kat. Her cheeks were way too flushed. “Come on, Kitten, open your eyes.”

“Oh God…” Dee whispered.

Heart pounding, I wanted to put my fists straight through the wall.

“Daemon! You need to calm down.”

My sister’s voice drew my attention. Plumes of plaster fell from the ceiling. The damn house was starting to shake.

Calming down was not easy. I didn’t know what to do—how to make Kat better without unintentionally screwing her up.

Dee fluttered around the bed like a nervous hummingbird. “I could get something cool—a washcloth. That might help until her mom gets home.”

“Yeah,” I said, sitting beside Kat. I was vaguely aware of my sister leaving the bedroom and rummaging around in the bathroom. Brushing her damp hair back, I winced at how hot her skin was. How had I not noticed right off the bat that something was wrong? Hell, she was walking around in just a T-shirt. That wasn’t normal.

Returning with the cool washcloth, Dee tossed it to the floor. “What am I thinking? She’s soaked now and it’s not helping.”

Kat turned her head slowly, pressing against my palm, and my heart freaking fluttered. My fingers splayed across her too-warm cheek. She murmured something too low for me to understand, so I leaned closer. “Kat?”

Her body shuddered. “Daemon…”

“I’m here.”

She shuddered again, turning her head away. Her face pinched, and she called out for me again, and the sound of my name was like being hit by an Arum. These tiny, pitiful sounds escaped her parted lips.

“We need to get her into something dry. Maybe that will help?” my sister offered.

She didn’t sound convinced, but I nodded. Moving as fast as lightning, Dee grabbed a dry nightgown out of one of the dressers. It was some kind of sleep jersey, with the number eleven on the back.

Even though I didn’t want to leave her side, I pushed away from the bed and turned my back, giving Kat privacy as Dee changed her out of the soaked shirt.

It didn’t help.

Nothing did, and when she started shivering uncontrollably, I was about to lose my freaking mind. I wrapped her in a blanket, but her body was shaking so hard the bed trembled.

I couldn’t take it anymore. “We need to take her to the hospital.”

Dee agreed, not that it mattered. One way or another, I was taking her there. Gathering her in my arms, I started down the stairs. I was outside, letting my human skin shed away when my sister stopped me.

“Daemon, we have to drive there.”

“Too slow.”

She grabbed my arm, her eyes meeting mine. “I know you’re worried, but we can’t show up there with no car. There’s no way we can explain that. We need to take the car. I’ll drive.”

I exhaled harshly.

“I’ll drive really fast and break every speed limit there is, but we need to do this like normal people would.”

Dammit, she was right, and I hated that.

Climbing into the back of Dee’s Jetta, I held Kat close. I didn’t know what to do. So I spoke to her in my native language, then realized she probably couldn’t hear it since it wasn’t something we spoke out loud.

But the strangest thing happened.

Kat stilled, and her breathing deepened.

Gathering her against my chest, I bent over, pressing my forehead to her flushed one, and kept talking to her, telling her about this stupid TV show I’d seen the other day, knowing she couldn’t hear me, but it was something and that’s all I had. And after I recapped the show, I closed my eyes and told her in my own language the truth.

I don’t know how to make you better. I wish I did, but please stay with me. I need you, and I can’t lose you. Not now. Not ever.

Chapter 4

Running my hands through my hair, I paced around the uncomfortable plastic chairs in the hospital waiting room. Dee was sitting in one, her knees tucked against her chest and her cheek resting against her knees. An older couple sat on the other side, and I was confident that I was probably going to see someone die before anyone came out and checked on the man.

A nurse had immediately taken Kat when we arrived, forcing me to place her down on one of those rolling beds with a thin mattress. I hadn’t wanted to let her go, let some human guy who looked a few years older than me wheel her off behind doors I wasn’t allowed to pass.

Her mother had been there. She’d stepped out into the waiting room long enough to thank us and to tell us she would let us know what was happening once she knew.

That was three hours ago.

“She’s going to be okay,” Dee said when I passed her on my ten-hundredth lap. “She has to be.”

No. That wasn’t correct. There was no “has to be” anything in life, especially when it came to humans. Their fragility was the only thing constant. Humans were here one second, caught a fever, and could be gone in the next hour.

Closing my eyes, I stopped pacing and reached up, rubbing the back of my neck. There was no warm tingling. She was either too far away in the hospital or…

God, if something had happened to her, I didn’t know what I would do. I couldn’t even wrap my head around it, couldn’t fathom it.

“Daemon,” Dee said quietly, urgently.

Opening my eyes, I turned around to see Kat’s mom coming out of the double doors. Dee was already standing, but I beat her to it. “Is Kat okay?”

Eyes shadowed, she motioned us back toward the hall as she held the door open. My heart pounded erratically as we wasted no time crossing the distance. Once inside, I saw a man waiting for us. I was struck by the odd sense of familiarity as I stared at the dark-haired doctor. It took me a second to realize he was the same doctor who’d treated Kat the night she was attacked at the library.

Ms. Swartz smiled tiredly as she nodded and ran a hand over her polka-dot scrubs. “Katy is…she’s okay.”

My knees felt weak as I stepped back, leaning against the wall.

“Oh, thank God.” Dee placed her hand over her mouth.

I forced my lungs to take a deep breath. “What…what is wrong with her?”

“It appears that she’s caught some kind of virus. There are some really nasty ones going around right now,” the doctor said, and when I simply stared at him, he smiled reassuringly. “I’m Dr. Michaels, by the way. I’m not sure if we’ve officially met.” He extended his hand.

My gaze dipped to his palm, and then I reached out, shaking it. Might’ve been my imagination but his smile faltered a bit, but then all I was focused on was the fact that I hadn’t killed Kat. “What kind of virus?”

“That’s what Dr. Michaels is going to find out,” Ms. Swartz said, placing a hand on the doc’s arm. “It’s a really, really good thing you guys brought her in when you did. Her fever was—” She broke off with a sharp inhale and looked away, swallowing hard as she dropped her hand. “It’s just a good thing you brought her in.”

Dr. Michaels reached over, gently squeezing Ms. Swartz’s arm. “It is. You two did great.”

“We knew we needed to bring her in.” Dee glanced at me. “She was so…out of it.”

“Well, we have her now,” Dr. Michaels assured us. “We’re going to keep her for observation, maybe for a couple of days, just to make sure everything is okay.”

Ice knotted in my gut. “For a couple of days? That doesn’t sound like everything is okay with her.”

Her mom stepped closer, patting my arm, surprising me. “She had a really high fever—still does, but it’s going down. It will be a wait-and-see sort of thing. Hopefully we won’t have to keep her in here long.”

“Okay.” I nodded. “Can I– Can we see her?”

“That wouldn’t be wise,” Dr. Michaels answered. “Not until we’re sure what type of virus she has and if she’s contagious.” His pale blue eyes met mine. “We wouldn’t want you or this young lady catching something and getting sick.”

That wouldn’t be a problem.

“Understandable,” Dee replied and then faced Kat’s mom. “Will you let us know how she’s doing?”

Kat’s mom promised that she would and then mentioned that it was late and that we should be getting home before our parents worried. I was reluctant to leave, wanting to see Kat with my own eyes, but that wasn’t going to happen. Not without causing a small riot, and that was the last thing anyone needed. Dee looped her arm through mine, tugging me toward the doors. Dr. Michaels’s voice stopped us.

“I’m going to take good care of her,” Dr. Michaels said, watching us with a patient smile. “Don’t you worry.”

I was behind the wheel on the way back home, my jaw aching from how tight I was clenching it. It took everything in me not to turn back around and find a way to see Kat. Went against my very grain.

“She’s going to be okay,” Dee said for what had to be the twentieth time. “It’s just some kind of virus. She’ll be fine.”

I didn’t lose my cool with her, no matter how many times she said it, because I knew it was making her feel better about everything. So she could keep on saying it.

“You know, she wasn’t acting right at lunch.” Dee was staring out into the darkness beyond the window when I glanced at her. “She didn’t eat anything. Not until you brought the smoothie and cookie in.”

My hands tightened on the steering wheel as I flicked my attention back to the road. “She’s been tired the last two days, too.”

There was a pause. “Poor Katy.”

I didn’t respond, because I was busy mentally punching myself in the face. She’d been exhausted yesterday, not eating, and had said she didn’t feel well earlier, and I’d pushed her to work off the trace. Freaking pushed her when she had some kind of virus. I might’ve made her sicker.

“You okay over there?”

“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “I…”

A moment passed. “What?”

“I was worried that I…that I’d done something to her,” I said after a moment.

Dee twisted in her seat toward me. “What could you have done to her to make her sick?”

Healed her on what had felt like a complete cellular level, bringing her back from the brink of death. That sounded about right, especially since there had to be a reason that was forbidden other than the possible exposure risk, but Dee didn’t know that and it needed to stay that way. It had to. “I was just pushing her to work off the trace.” Which was true. “So I worried that I did something, you know?”

Silence.

So much so, that I glanced over at her briefly, finding her watching me.

“Did you…did you do something else?” she asked quietly, her voice small.

“No,” I said, and I lied. “I didn’t do anything else.”

Kat didn’t wake up.

Not on Saturday.

She didn’t open her eyes on Sunday.

On Monday, her mom said that her fever hadn’t gone down far enough, but her vitals were better. Dee and I visited her, and she had…she wasn’t really there. She murmured words a couple of times. Once I thought she said my name. It was hard to see her like that.

There was no change on Tuesday.

I ended up staying home that day, too keyed up to go to school. Dee was worried, probably because she thought I was going to do something stupid, and I was. In the middle of the night, way past visitation time, I’d made it to the hospital parking lot before common sense took over.

What was I doing?

I could move fast, but even if I timed it right and got through the secured doors, I didn’t know where Kat was. I could find out, but it would be risky. If someone found me in her room, that was going to be hard to explain.

Halfway across the parking lot, I spied a black Ford Expedition rolling into the visitors parking lot. My gut tightened. The vehicle was unmarked. Definitely DOD. Its presence could be a coincidence, but it was a wake-up call. I went home and I stayed there, feeling caged in.

I ghosted through classes Wednesday morning, wondering what the hell I was doing in school. I could give two shits about whatever was being taught. By the time I made it to lunch, I was ready to start tossing people headfirst through windows just for breathing around me.

Bypassing the line, I stalked over to where the Thompsons were sitting. Dee was with the girls, and I couldn’t go over there. Not just because Kat wasn’t there, but because I knew they’d be talking about Kat.

And I…I just couldn’t sit and listen to that. Weak. Yeah, weak as hell.

I dropped down next to Andrew and leaned back, stretching out my legs as I fixed my gaze on the Viking mascot painted on the wall.

“You look like a grizzly bear,” Ash said.

Raising a brow, I folded my arms. “Do I?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “I know it’s November and some guys do that whole no-shave thing, but you should really shave your face.”

I smirked.

Andrew stopped whatever he was saying to the guy next to him and looked over at me, brows raised. He opened his mouth and then wisely closed it.

“Okay,” Ash muttered. “Nice to have you here, you know, warming up the table with your sparkling personality.”

Matthew was standing near the painted mascot with another teacher, a human, listening to whatever was being said as he kept an eye on our table. Matt had called last night, but I hadn’t been in the mood to deal with him.

Looking away, I watched Adam get up from where Dee was sitting with Carissa and Lesa. He skirted the tables, walking over to ours, a bottle of water in his hand. He sat down next to his sister, and she said something to him too low for me to hear.

Simon the Jackass snagged my attention. He was sitting two tables behind us, laughing loudly. My hand ached, wanting to connect with his face again. I stared at him until he must’ve sensed it, because the smile faded from his face and he looked between the shoulders of two meatheads, right at me.

Simon blanched.

I smiled at him and it wasn’t a nice smile.

He quickly looked away, his throat working on a visible swallow. God, I hated that guy. What he tried to do to Kat wasn’t something I’d ever forget.

Adam tapped his fingers on the table. “Katy’s mom texted Dee a few moments ago. She’s waiting for her to text back.”

I stilled, a shiver of dread curling down my spine. I told myself that it had to be good news or no news, because I doubted Kat’s mom would text Dee if something bad had happened.

“What’s going on with her anyway?” Ash’s lips curled as if she had something sour in her mouth.

Adam sighed as he glanced at his sister. “I told you. She has some kind of virus or something. She’s been in the hospital.”

My jaw clenched.

“Whatever,” Ash muttered, turning her attention to her plate of what I thought might be a burrito.

“She’s been out of it for days,” Adam added.

Ash poked the burrito with her fork. “Like in a coma?”

“She’s asleep,” I corrected, ignoring the tightening in my chest.

“Maybe we’ll get lucky,” Andrew replied, low enough for only us to hear. “And she won’t wake up.”

I reacted without even thinking.

Springing out of my seat, I grabbed a fistful of Andrew’s shirt and hauled him out of his seat. He didn’t get a chance to blink before I introduced his face to the shiny surface of the table. The thump was nice and fleshy and wholly satisfying. Andrew popped up and whirled around, facing me.

Ash gasped as she pushed back from the table. “Daemon!”

In a damn heartbeat, Matthew was by my side, grabbing my arm. He tried to shove me back, but I wasn’t going anywhere. “Go,” he said.

I ignored him as I got all up in Andrew’s face and warned, “You better hope she does.”

Matthew grabbed my arm, this time using the strength he had, and hauled me back a good inch. He shoved again. “Go.”

Eyeing Andrew for a few more moments, I pivoted around. A lot of eyeballs were on me. I didn’t care. As I walked out of the cafeteria, Matthew was right behind me, waiting until I got out in the hallway before he jumped my ass.

“What in the hell was that?” he demanded.

I didn’t say anything as I paced in front of the lockers. Blood pumped through me. I was itching for a fight, for something to work out all the frustration pounding through me.