“What’s wise?” Daemon asked as he sat down.
“Nothing,” the three of us said at the same time.
He frowned.
The rest of the afternoon went by way too fast and every so often the bottom of my stomach would drop. One more day—Saturday—and we were going to try the impossible. Break into Mount Weather and rescue Beth and Chris. What were we going to do with them if we succeeded? Not if—when we did, I quickly corrected myself.
On the way out, my cell vibrated. A quick check left a bitter taste in my mouth. I wished Blake would lose my phone number.
We need to talk.
Gritting my teeth, I texted back: Y
The response was immediate: Abt Sunday.
“Who put that scary look on your face?” Daemon asked, out of the blue.
Squealing, I jumped. “Good God, where did you come from?”
He grinned, which would’ve been a good thing considering his mood all day, but it only made me wary. “I’m quiet like a cat.”
I sighed, showing him my phone. “Blake. He wants to talk about Sunday.”
Daemon growled. “Why is he texting you?”
“Probably because he knows you want to do him bodily harm.”
“And you don’t?”
I shook my head. “He’s obviously less afraid of me.”
“Maybe we need to change that?” He dropped an arm over my shoulders, tucking me against his side as we headed out into the bitter February wind. “Tell him we’ll talk tomorrow.”
My body warmed against his. “Where?”
“My house,” he replied with that evil smile. “If he has balls, he’ll be there.”
I made a yuck face but texted it back to Blake. “Why not tonight?”
Daemon’s lips pursed. “We need some quality time alone.”
Quality time like yesterday’s quality time? Because I could so get behind that, but we really needed to talk a few things through. Before I could broach that topic, Blake responded and tomorrow evening was a go.
“Did you drive by yourself today?” I asked.
He shook his head, eyes fixed on a stand of trees. “Came in with Dee. Was hoping we could do something normal. Like an afternoon matinee.”
Half of me did a happy dance. The other more responsible part put on the schoolteacher’s glasses and broke out the ruler. Annoying adult Katy won. “That sounds great, but don’t you think we need to talk about last night?”
“About my giving nature?”
My cheeks flamed. “Um, no… After that.”
There was a flicker of a smile. “Yeah, I kind of knew that. Make you a deal. We’ll do the movies, and then we’ll talk, okay?”
It was a good deal, so I agreed. And honestly, I loved getting to do normal things with Daemon—like going out. It was a rarity. He let me pick the movie, and I went with a rom-com. Surprisingly, he didn’t complain. Might’ve had something to do with the huge bucket of popcorn we were stuffing our faces with in between the buttery kisses.
It was all so divinely normal.
…
Divinely normal ended the moment we got to his house and he stepped out of his car, eyes narrowing. All the lights were on. Dee wasn’t about conserving energy, it appeared.
“Kat, I think you should go home.”
“Huh?” I closed the car door, frowning. “I thought we were going to talk? And eat ice cream—you promised ice cream.”
He chuckled under his breath. “I know, but I have company.”
I planted myself in front of the porch steps. “What kind of company?”
“The Luxen kind,” he said, placing his hands on my shoulders. His eerily bright green eyes met mine. “Elders.”
Must be nice to have a wacky internal sensing system like that.
“And I can’t come in?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He glanced as I heard a door open. “And I don’t think that’s an option.”
I looked over my shoulder. A man stood at the door—a distinguished-looking man. Three-piece suit and all, with midnight black hair that was silver at the temples. I didn’t know what I was expecting from an Elder Luxen. Maybe a guy with a white gown and bald head—they did live in a colony at the foot of Seneca.
This was totally unexpected.
Even more so was the fact that Daemon didn’t drop his hands and put appropriate alien-human distance between us. Instead, he whispered in his own language and slid a hand down my back as he stepped beside me.
“Ethan,” Daemon said. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
The man’s startling violet eyes slid toward me. “I can see. Is this the girl that your brother and sister kindly informed me about?”
Tension tightened Daemon’s frame. “Depends on what they kindly informed you of.”
Air stalled in my lungs. I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I stood there, trying to look as unaware as possible. The fact that I knew the guy in a suit wasn’t human was a big deal. Other Luxen couldn’t know I was in on the secret or that I was a hybrid.
Ethan smiled. “That you’ve been seeing her. I was surprised. We’re practically family.”
Somehow I thought it might have had more to do with the fact that they wanted him to make little alien Daemon babies with Ash than him not sending out a mass text notifying everyone that he was no longer on the market.
“You know me, Ethan; I don’t like to kiss and tell the world.” His thumb trailed a lazy, soothing circle along the small of my back. “Kat, this is Ethan Smith. He’s like a…”