Freaking hell.
Kat’s heart pounded like a steel drum. “Daemon…?”
She was seeing this, and she should never see this. Spinning around, I slipped back into my human form. I folded my arm around her waist, pulling her away from the edge of the bed.
“He’s an officer,” she stuttered, smacking at my arms to get free. “He’s with the—”
Her words were cut off as Dawson appeared in the bedroom doorway. His eyes glowed white, sharp and brilliant. “He was sneaking around outside,” he said. “By the tree line.”
My arm loosened around Kat’s waist as I stared at my brother. I was shocked on two fronts. He’d done this? And this was the most I’d heard him say since he was returned to us. “You…you did this?” I asked.
Dawson glanced at the body. “He was watching the house—taking pictures.” Lifting his hand, he held up what looked like a melted camera. “I stopped him.”
Holy hell balls, what did I say to that?
Letting Kat go, I turned back to the body. I knelt and pulled down the insulated white down jacket. The stench of burned flesh wafted into the air, forcing Kat to scramble off the bed. I looked over my shoulder, seeing her press her balled fist against her mouth.
I turned back to the man. A hole had been burned through his chest. Normally the Source would incinerate a human, not do this. “Your aim is off, brother.” I let go of the jacket. Tension poured into my muscles. “The window?”
“I’ve been out of practice,” Dawson replied.
Out of practice? That was like saying sometimes thunder was loud. No shit.
“My mom’s gonna kill me,” Kat mumbled. “She’s really going to kill me.”
Pushing to my feet, I turned to my brother. For the first time, I didn’t really recognize him. Unease festered in my gut like gangrene. Dawson hadn’t just stopped the man. He’d killed him, and there wasn’t a flicker of remorse on his impassive expression. He actually…he reminded me of myself, and that wasn’t Dawson.
Dawson didn’t kill.
Deep in the woods, I stood next to Matthew as we both watched the intense white light fade. The snow was melted, revealing the scorched ground where we’d dropped the body of the DOD officer. Nothing but wet clumps of ash remained.
I exhaled slowly, lifting my gaze to the snow-tipped branches. “Dawson isn’t…he isn’t the same, Matt.”
The older Luxen was quiet for a moment. “Did you really expect him to be? The DOD had him for far too long for there not to be long-lasting effects.” He lifted his hand, shoving his fingers through his light brown hair. “But this? Dawson would never have…”
“Killed.” I stepped back from the spot, watching the wind toss the ashes into the blowing snow. “The DOD was watching us—still could be watching us, and now he’s killed one of them.”
“You’ve killed three of them,” Matthew pointed out.
“True.” And it sucked to have ended their lives. It still got to me, but if I had to do it all over again, I would. I looked over at Matthew. “There is no way they do not know that Dawson is free and with us. Even if they have no use of him anymore, how could they be okay with that? There is no way they don’t realize that we know they’ve been capturing Luxen who’ve mutated humans. Why are they not banging down our doors and coming for us? It doesn’t make sense.”
“It doesn’t.” He turned sideways, facing me. “We have to be careful from this point on. More than ever before.”
“They don’t have the upper hand anymore,” I said, squinting as the wind picked up again, pelting snow. “We know what they’re up to. We have that.”
“We do.”
We headed back to Kat’s house. Everyone was there—Dee along with Andrew and Ash. Their being inside her house had to be hard. When I walked in, both of them were staring at the spot where Adam had fallen.
Dawson was by the window, where the Christmas tree used to be, staring out of it. He shoved his hands into his pockets and pressed his forehead against the glass. Lost. He looked lost, and hell, it killed me that there was nothing I could do to change that. Dee was perched on the arm of the couch, her watchful gaze never leaving Dawson.
We took care of the broken window upstairs. Matthew had brought the necessary items with him—a tarp, a hammer, and nails. It wasn’t the best replacement, but it was the only option at the moment.
Back downstairs, I went to where Kat sat. She scooted closer to me, nestling into my side as I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. She shivered even though she hadn’t been out in the cold. Reaching over with my other hand, I tugged on the strings of her hoodie. “It’s been taken care of.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, resting her head against my shoulder.
My gaze slid to Dawson. “Did anyone find a vehicle?”
“There was an Expedition near the access road,” Andrew said. “I torched it.”
Matthew sat on the edge of the recliner, looking like he needed something hard to drink. “That’s good, but it’s not good.”
“No shit,” Ash snapped. I looked at her, really looked at her. Her hair was greasy and hung limp around her pale face. She was in sweats, and I had never seen Ash look anything short of perfect. Or in anything other than short skirts or skintight jeans. “That’s another dead DOD officer. How many does that make it? Two?”
Apparently she hadn’t heard about the other two.
Ash tucked her hair back behind her ear. “They’re going to wonder where they are, you know? People don’t disappear.”
“People disappear all the time,” Dawson said quietly, without turning around, his words sucking the oxygen from the air, because he was right.
Ash’s bright sapphire eyes slid to him. Her mouth opened, but she clamped her lips shut and then shook her head slowly.
“What about the camera?” Matthew asked.
Kat leaned forward, picking up the melted camera. “If there were pictures, they’re gone now.”
Dawson turned around. “He was watching this house.”
“We know,” I said, shifting forward so I was in line with Kat.
He tilted his head to the side. “Does it matter what was on the camera? They were watching you—her. All of us.”
Kat shuddered.
“But next time, we need to kind of…oh, I don’t know, talk first and then throw people through windows later.” I crossed my arms. “Can we try that?”
“And we can just let killers go?” Dee said, voice shaking as her eyes flashed with fury. “Because that’s apparently what should happen. I mean, that officer could’ve killed one of us, and you would have just let him go.”
“Dee,” I said, standing and stepping toward her. “I know—”
“Don’t ‘I know, Dee’ me.” Her lower lip trembled. “You let Blake go.” Her gaze shot to Kat. “Both of you let Blake go.”
I shook my head as I unfolded my arms. “Dee, there was enough killing that night. Enough death.”
Dee flinched. Without speaking, she wrapped her arms around her waist. It was Ash who spoke, and what she said surprised the hell out of me. “Adam wouldn’t have wanted that. More deaths. He was such a pacifist.”
“Too bad we can’t ask him how he really feels about it, isn’t it?” Dee’s spine stiffened. “He’s dead.”
“Not only did you guys let Blake go, you lied to us. From her?” Andrew gestured at Kat. “I don’t expect loyalty. But you? Daemon, you kept everything from us, and Adam died.”
Kat stood. “Adam’s death isn’t Daemon’s fault. Don’t put that on him.”
I stilled. “Kat—”
“Then whose is it?” Dee demanded. “Yours?”
She sucked in a sharp breath, but met my sister’s gaze. “Yeah, it is.”
Shit.
Matthew jumped in. “All right, guys, that’s enough. Fighting and casting blame isn’t helping anyone.”
“It makes us feel better,” Ash muttered, closing her eyes.
Kat lowered her chin as she sat back down, this time on the edge of the coffee table. She blinked rapidly as she folded her hands over her knees, squeezing so tightly that her knuckles bleached white.