“True,” he said, catching a strand of my hair between his fingers. “But we can keep it short. You’ll have a normal Monday evening full of normal suck and not extraterrestrial suckage.”
Shame burned my cheeks as I bit down on my lip. As crazy as everything had turned out, I could admit that things could be worse. “That’s really selfish of me.”
“What?” He tugged on my hair gently. “It’s not selfish, Kitten. Your whole life can’t revolve around this crap. It won’t.”
Straightening my fingers, I smiled. “You sound so determined.”
“And you know what happens when I get determined.”
“You get your way.” He raised his brows at me, and I laughed. “But what about you—your life can’t revolve around this crap.”
He pulled his hand back, resting it on his thigh. “I was born into this. I’m used to it, and besides, it’s all about time management. Say, like time management last night. We did our mission thing—”
“And failed.”
“There’s that, but the rest of last night?” One side of his lips curled up and I felt my cheeks heat for a totally different reason. “We had the bad—the not-normal. And then we had the good—the normal. Granted, the good was interrupted by the bad, but there was time management there.”
“You make it sound so easy.” I stretched out my legs, relaxing.
“It is that easy, Kat. You just need to know when to draw the line, when you’ve had enough.” There was a pause as he slowed and turned onto the lonely road leading up to our houses. “And if you’ve had enough for today, you have. Nothing to feel guilty about or to worry about.”
Daemon coasted to a stop in his driveway and killed the engine. “And no one will kill Bill.”
I laughed softly as I unbuckled the seat belt. “Blake. His name is Blake.”
Daemon pulled the keys out and leaned back, his eyes glimmering with amusement. “He’s whatever I decide to call him.”
“You’re terrible.” Crossing the distance between us, I kissed him. As I pulled away, he reached for me and I giggled, opening the door. “And by the way, I haven’t had enough today. I just needed a kick in the pants. But I do need to be home by seven.”
I shut the door and turned. Daemon stood before me. He stepped forward and there was nowhere for me to go if I wanted to. And I didn’t.
“You haven’t had enough?” he asked.
Recognizing the tone of his voice, my bones melted in response. “No, not nearly enough.”
“Good.” His hands were on my hips, tugging me forward. “That’s what I like to hear.”
Placing my hands on his chest, I tilted my head back. This was totally an exercise in time management. Our lips brushed and warmth cascaded through me. It was a really fun exercise. I rose onto the tips of my toes and slid my hands up the hard plane of his chest, marveled at the way it rose unsteadily.
Daemon whispered something and then the soft kiss, which wasn’t much more than a butterfly touch, strengthened me and unraveled him. His arms swept around me, and I could feel his heart pounding in tandem with mine.
“Hey!” Dawson yelled from the front door. “I think Dee caught the microwave on fire. Again. And I tried popping some popcorn with my hands and it kind of went wrong. Like really, really wrong.”
Daemon pressed his forehead against mine and growled. “Dammit.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Time management, right?”
“Time management,” he muttered.
…
Surprisingly, pretty much everyone was on board with the onyx thing. I was convinced we had an invasion of the body snatchers or something, because even Matthew was nodding like exposing yourself to the hellishly painful onyx was a good thing.
I had a feeling that would change the first time he came in contact with it.
“This is so insane,” Dee said, and I had to agree. “This is tantamount to self-mutilation.”
Ah, she kind of had a point.
Dawson’s head dropped back, and he sighed. “That’s a little extreme.”
“I remember what you looked like when they brought you back down the mountain.” She twisted her hair around her hand. “And Katy lost her voice for a while from screaming. Who signs up for that?”
“Crazy people.” Daemon sighed. “Dee, I don’t want you doing this.”
Her expression was clearly a no duh one. “No offense, Dawson, I love you and want you to see Beth and to hold her, because I wish…” Her voice cracked, but her spine straightened. “But I don’t want to do this.”
Dawson shot forward, placing a hand on her arm. “It’s okay. I don’t expect you to do this.”
“I want to help.” Her voice was wobbly. “But I can’t…”
“It’s fine.” Dawson smiled and there was a moment between the siblings, as if he were saying more with just that gesture alone. Whatever it was, it worked, because Dee relaxed. “Not all of us need to do this.”
“Then who’s in?” Blake’s eyes touched on all of us. “If we are going to do this, we need to start, like, yesterday, because I don’t know how long it’ll take to build a tolerance.”
Antsy, Dawson stood. “It can’t take that long.”
Blake let out a surprised laugh. “I’ve been with Daedalus for years, so there’s no telling at what point I built a tolerance…or if I really even have one.”
“We’ve got to test that out, then.” I grinned.
He frowned. “Wow. Kind of excited about that?”
I nodded.
Dee twisted around, eyeing Blake. “Can I test it out, too?”
“I’m pretty sure everyone will get a round.” Daemon’s sinister twist of the lips was actually kind of frightening. “Anyway, back to the basics. Who’s in?”
Matthew raised his hand. “I want to be in on this. No offense, Andrew, but I prefer to take your place this time.”
Andrew nodded his head. “No problem. I can wait with Dee and Ash.”
Ash, who hadn’t said more than two words, just nodded. I realized that half of the room was staring at me. “Oh,” I said. “Yeah, I’m in.” Beside me, Daemon gave me a look that said, You are so out of your mind. I folded my arms. “Don’t start with me. I’m in. Nothing you can say will change that.”
The next look translated into, This is going to turn into a conversation—argument—in private. Blake watched with approval—a ringing endorsement I didn’t want or need. Frankly, it made my skin crawl, since it reminded me of when I had killed the Arum he’d practically thrown at me.
God, I wanted to hit him again.
Plans were made to meet after school and, weather permitting, we’d head out to the lake to basically start causing ourselves an obscene amount of pain. Whee.
Since there were some hours left before bedtime, I said my good-byes and left to get some studying in and hopefully a dang review.
Daemon walked me over and I knew it wasn’t a gentlemanly act, but I let him in and offered him his favorite: milk.
He downed the drink in five seconds flat. “Can we talk about this?”
I hopped up on the counter and opened my bag, pulling out my history book. “Nope.”
“Kat.”
“Hmm?” I flipped open to the chapter we’d been reading in class.
He stalked over, placing his hands on either side of my crossed legs. “I can’t watch you get hurt over and over again.”
I dug out a Highlighter.
“Seeing what happened last night and when Will had you handcuffed in that stuff? And I’m supposed to just stand there— Are you listening to me?”
Halfway through the sentence I’d highlighted, I stopped. “I’m listening.”
“Then look at me.”
I lifted my lashes. “I’m looking at you.”
Daemon scowled.