Текст книги "Oblivion"

Автор книги: Jennifer L. Armentrout

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Текущая страница: 27 (всего у книги 51 страниц)

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 to not damage the rose, and squeezed gently. “It most likely has nothing to do with you.”

She opened her mouth.

“I mean it, Kitten.” My eyes searched hers. “Statistically, this has nothing to do with anything we’ve got going on. Okay?”

Looking away, she nodded. “Okay.”

I let go of her hand, knowing that no matter what she said, she was afraid that Simon’s disappearance had something to do with what happened Friday night with the windows. Truthfully? I wasn’t so sure it didn’t.

Coincidences nowadays weren’t very likely.

I’d checked in with Matthew later that day to see if he’d heard anything about Simon. Being that he was on staff, I figured he might know more, but all he knew was what we did. Simon’s parents had reported him missing the night before. He hadn’t been seen in over seventy-two hours.

It wasn’t long before the cops showed up. They’d questioned all the students, though Kat was paranoid about the fact that we were in the first wave of students questioned. I wasn’t entirely surprised. It was common knowledge I wasn’t a fan of Simon, but the police didn’t appear too concerned about Simon’s well-being. I could tell they thought he was a runaway.

I filed what was going on with Simon in the back of my mind, because there were other more pressing things to take care of. Like getting Kat’s newfound abilities under control.

And wooing her through lattes, egg-and-bacon breakfast croissants, and glazed doughnuts. Kat seemed to approve of these tactics, because she didn’t complain when I showed up at her house after school whenever she wasn’t with Dee and hung out with her.

During that time, we watched movies. Or she blogged. We grabbed food from Smoke Hole or just ate snacks. I wanted her to relax before I started to work with her. I figured if she was in a good place, it would be easier. So that meant I kept my distance. For the most part. Douche Bag stayed away from her. I knew he texted and called, but there were no more dinner dates, and when I started eating lunch with her in the cafeteria, he wisely kept his mouth shut.

I had a plan for her on Saturday, though, a pretty damn good idea, I thought.

Leaning against the railing with my hands in my pocket, I waited for her out on her front porch. Thanksgiving was a handful of days away, and the air was chilly, so I was relieved to see her step outside with a hoodie on. It wasn’t a jacket, but at least it was better than nothing.

She held the door open for me. I stepped inside, brushing past her. “You look nice today.”

Kat glanced down at herself with a frown and then her hand flew to her hair, smoothing back a wild strand. “So…what’s up?”

“I just wanted to see you,” I replied, which was partly true, because I always liked seeing her.

“Oh.”

I chuckled. “I thought we could take a walk. It’s nice outside.”

Glancing in the direction of her living room, she bit down on her lip, worrying it. I was probably interrupting her book gushing.

“I’ll behave myself,” I said. “I promise.”

She laughed softly at that. “All right, let’s go.”

Grinning, I steered her outside and to my SUV. She stopped in front of it, casting me a long look before asking, “Exactly where are we going to take a walk?”

“Outdoors,” I replied, opening the door for her.

“Well, I think I figured that part out.”

“You ask a lot of questions, you know.”

“I’ve been told I’m very inquisitive.”

I leaned forward and whispered, “I think I figured that part out.”

She made a face, but climbed into the car. I headed around the front and got in. Kat was quiet until I backed out of the driveway. “Have you heard anything about Simon?” she asked. “I haven’t.”

“I haven’t, either.”

The trees crowding the highway were an array of gold and red. Soon, the branches would be bare.

“Do you think an Arum had anything to do with his disappearance?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I haven’t seen any, but we can’t be too sure.”

Kat was quiet as I drove, but as soon as I pulled the SUV off the road and parked it along the entrance to where all the field parties were held, she climbed out. “Why here?”

Dead leaves of various colors littered the ground, crunching under my steps as I walked over to her. “This place might hold a lot of residual energy from our fight and from Baruck’s death.” I stepped around a fallen limb. “Watch out, the branches are scattered everywhere.”

“This might sound messed up, but I’ve wanted to come back here. I don’t know why,” she said. “Crazy, huh?”

“No. It makes sense to me.”

“Is it the whole energy thing?”

“It’s what’s left over.” I bent and pushed another fallen limb out of the way. “I want to see if I feel anything. If the DOD has been out here to check it out, it might be good to be in the know.”

The rest of the trip was in silence, and I wondered what Kat was thinking by the time we reached the area. She toed at the dead leaves, brushing them aside. I squinted as the scarred ground came into view. Kat unearthed most of the burned patch, her hands shoved into the pocket of her hoodie. Thin slivers of light streamed through the branches, catching the red tint in her dark hair.

“The ground will never heal,” I said. “I don’t know why, but it took on his essence and nothing will grow from this spot.” I took over, pushing back the leaves until the area was uncovered completely. Staring at what was virtually a grave site, I thought back to the first time I’d taken down an Arum. “Killing at first used to bother me. I didn’t like it, taking a life. I still don’t. A life is a life.”

Kat swallowed. “It’s something you have to do. You can’t change it. It only wreaks havoc on you to dwell. It bothers me knowing that I’ve killed…two of them, but—”

“You aren’t wrong for what you did. Never think that.” My eyes met hers briefly, and then I cleared my throat. “I don’t feel anything.”

She was quiet for a moment. “Do you think the DOD found anything?”

“I don’t know.” I walked over to where she stood. “Depends on if they’re using equipment I’m not familiar with.”

Her chin tilted up. “And if they are, what does that mean? Is it something to be worried about?”

“I don’t think so, not even if the levels of energy are higher.” I smoothed back the strand of hair that had escaped her ponytail. “It doesn’t really tell them anything. Have you been experiencing any outbursts recently?”

“No,” she replied, pulling her hands free from her hoodie.

I really didn’t believe her.

My hand lingered on her cheek for a few seconds, and then I caught her hand. Lifting her hand to my lips, I pressed a kiss against the center of her palm. I felt her shiver.

“Did you bring me out here just to get me completely alone?”

“That may have been a part of my master plan.” That hadn’t been a part of my plan. Not really. I wanted to see if she could use her abilities here, but I figured I could multitask. Lowering my head, I kissed her gently.

Kat kissed me back for like a nanosecond and then jerked back. “No kissing.”

“I’m trying not to.”

“Then try harder.” She slipped her hand free and took a step back, shoving her hands back into the pocket of her hoodie. “I think we should head home.”

Kissing her had been a bad move, because now her walls were up, and I wasn’t going to get her to do anything. “Whatever you want.” When she nodded, we started back. A few moments passed. “So I was thinking.”

Her glance was wary. “About what?”

“We should do something. Together. Outside of your house and not just walking around.” I stared straight ahead, bracing myself. “We should go out to dinner or maybe a movie.”

“Are you asking me out?” she asked.

I laughed under my breath. “That’s what it sounds like.”

As the trees thinned out, large bales of hay came into view. “You don’t want to take me out on a date,” she said.

“Why do you keep telling me what I don’t want?” I really wanted to know that.

“Because you can’t,” she reasoned. “You can’t want any of this with me, not really. Maybe with Ash—”

“I don’t want Ash.” I stopped walking and looked at her. “If I wanted her, I’d be with her. But I’m not. She’s not who I want.”

“Neither am I. You can’t honestly tell me that you’d risk every Luxen around here turning their backs on you for me.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “And you have got to stop assuming you know what I want and what I would do.”

She started walking again. “It’s just the challenge and the connection, Daemon. Whatever you feel for me isn’t real.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I spat.

“How can you be sure?”

“Because I know.” I appeared in front of Kat, eyes narrowed as I stared down at her. I thumped my hand off my chest, directly above my heart. “Because I know what I feel in here. And I’m not the type of person to run from anything, no matter how hard it is. I’d rather face-plant against a brick wall than live for the rest of my life wondering what could’ve been. And you know what? I didn’t think you were the type to run, either. Maybe I was wrong.”

Kat blinked as she pulled her hands out of her hoodie. “I don’t run.”

“You don’t? Because that’s what you’re doing,” I argued. “You pretend what you feel for me isn’t real or doesn’t exist. And I know damn well you don’t feel anything for Bobby.”

“Blake,” she corrected, walking around me. I followed “I don’t want to talk—”

I ground to a halt; my heart caught and then sped up in my chest, mirroring Kat’s. Two Expeditions were parked on either side of my car, blocking me in. Without saying a word, I stepped in front of Kat.

The DOD was here.