Onyx

Chapter 29

My heart leaped in my throat at the question. I jerked up, letting the rush of energy move along my skin, but the moment I locked eyes with the person standing in the doorway, I gasped.

Moonlight coming in from the window washed over Bethany’s pale face as she stepped into the room. Jeans and a T-shirt hung off her slender body. Her dirty hair fell in clumps. “What are you doing in here?”

“Bethany?” I croaked.

She cocked her head to the side. “Katy?” Her voice mimicked mine.

Taken aback by the fact she knew my name, I stared at her. “How do you know who I am?”

An eerie, faint smile tugged at her lips. “Everyone knows who you are,” she said in a singsong voice that reminded me of a child. “And so do I.”

I swallowed. “You mean the DOD?”

“I mean whoever is watching knows. They always know. They always hope, too. Whenever we get close.” She paused, closing her eyes, sighing. “They hope we get close.”

Oh, boy, this chick was cracked like Humpty Dumpty. “Beth, is the DOD keeping you?”

“Keeping me?” She giggled. “I can no longer be kept. He knows that. He keeps catching me, though. It’s almost like a game. A never-ending game where no one really wins. I come here…my family. My family is no longer here.”

She sighed. “You really shouldn’t be here. They will see you. They will take you.”

“I know.” I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans. “Beth, we can—”

“Don’t trust him,” she whispered, glancing around the room. “I did. I trusted him with my life, and look what happened.”

“Who? Blake?” Not like she needed to tell me that. “Look, you can come with me. We can keep you safe.”

She straightened, shaking her head. “You can’t do anything for me now.”

“But we can.” I took a step forward, reaching out to her. “We can help you, protect you. We can get Dawson back.”

“Dawson?” she said, eyes going wide.

I nodded, hoping I’d found the key to make her listen to me. “Yes, Dawson! We know he’s alive—”

Bethany threw up her hand, and a burst of hurricane-strength winds slammed into my chest, lifting me off my feet. I hit the wall with enough force I swore I heard plaster crack. And I stayed there, pinned several feet off the ground, my hands and legs planted against the wall.

Apparently bringing up Dawson’s name was not the right thing to do.

She moved so fast I didn’t see her until she was standing below me. Long, stringy strands of hair lifted off her shoulders, spreading out around her like a modern-day Medusa. Her feet came off the ground as the outline of her body blurred, swathed in a bluish light. Within seconds, she was eye level with me.

Holy crap…I’d never seen Blake do anything like that.

“There is no hope for me,” she said, dropping the kid voice. “I’m not even sure there is any hope for you. So you should leave here, take your chances with the Arum, or you’ll end up like me.”

Icy fear trickled down my spine. “Bethany…”

“Listen to me and listen closely.” She was now above me, looking down as her head nearly touched the vaulted ceilings. “Everyone is a liar. The DOD?” She laughed, a high-pitched giggle. “They don’t even know what they plan. They are coming.”

“What are you talking about?” I tried to peel my head off the wall, but she wouldn’t let me budge. “Beth, who is coming!”

The blue light enveloped her completely. “You need to go NOW!”

I suddenly dropped from the wall, hitting the floor in front of the door with a loud grunt. Scrambling to my feet, I whipped around.

Bethany looked just like a Luxen, except her light was blue and less intense. She floated over the ceiling, her voice picking up in my head. Go. Go before it’s too late. GO!

A pulse of energy nudged me out the door and down the hall. She wasn’t giving me much of a choice. At the top of the stairs, I spun around and tried one more time. “Bethany, we can—”

She slid down the wall and lifted both hands. Before I could scream, I tipped over the top step and fell backward down the steep stairs. I stopped a foot above the landing, bouncing in air as if I were hooked to a bungee cord.

My feet swung down onto the landing, and I was suddenly standing.

Go, her voice urged. Get far away from here.

I went.

…

My hands were cold and shaking by the time I turned the ignition in my sedan. Snow was falling steadily, coating the streets. I needed to get home before I got stuck. I had bad tires, no match for more than an inch of snow. And I really didn’t want to break down out here. These were the things I was busy thinking about. I had to keep everything else at bay until I could get home and successfully freak out. Now I just needed to get there without running off the road and smacking into a tree.

Halfway to my house, two approaching headlights sped up in the other lane, going in the direction I’d just come from. As the car neared me, the back of my neck tingled. The SUV’s tires squealed as it spun around, rushing up behind me.

“Dammit,” I whispered, glancing at the dashboard. It was close to midnight.

Daemon tailed me the whole way home, repeatedly calling me. I ignored the calls, focusing on the ever-increasing lack of visibility due to the snow. The moment I parked in my driveway, he was at the side of my car, throwing open the door.

“Where in the hell were you coming back from?” he demanded.

I climbed out of the car. “Where were you going?”

He glared down at me. “I have a feeling it was the same place you were coming back from, but I’m telling myself that you can’t be that stupid.”

My look matched his as I stomped up my steps. “Well, since that’s where you were going, I guess that means you’re stupid, too.”

“You seriously went there, didn’t you?” He sounded incredulous as he followed me inside. “Please tell me that’s not where you were. That you were just out for a midnight drive.”

I shot him a bland look over my shoulder. “I went to Vaughn’s.”

Several moments went by as he stared at me. Flakes of snow melted, dampening the locks of hair clinging to his cheeks. “You’re insane.”

I tugged off my wet hoodie and tossed it aside. With only a tank top underneath, tiny bumps spread over my skin. “So are you.”

His full lips twisted into a grimace. “I can take care of myself, Kitten.”

“And I can, too.” I tugged my hair back. “I’m not helpless, Daemon.”

He stood still for a moment, and then a shudder rolled through his body. Next second he was in front of me, grasping my chilled cheeks. “I know you aren’t helpless, but there are things I would do that you won’t. Things I know you could never live with, but I can. What would you have done if someone saw you? What would I have done if you were captured or…”

Daemon didn’t finish, but I knew what he was getting at. I could’ve been captured tonight or worse, and he wasn’t worried about how the connection would have caused his own death. He was worried about me.

I don’t know why I did what I did next. Maybe it was everything that had happened tonight. Or maybe it was the tone of his voice—the fear behind his words. Too many emotions were building in me. I felt slippery inside, tipping in one direction and then the next.

I clasped his cheeks. They were warm, like always—a touch of sunlight. His skin was smooth and hummed under my hands. I leaned in, and he didn’t move…or breathe. Like, at all. Knowing that I could do that to him filled me with a heady rush of power. Closing my eyes, I brushed my lips over his.

“Kitten,” he growled roughly.

I kissed him softly, sliding my hands into his silky locks, letting the pieces slide through my fingers. I tasted in him my own rising desire, my own need and heartache. Thrilling. Frightening. I pulled back.

“Kitten,” he said again, voice strained. “You don’t get to do that and then stop. That’s not how it works.”

I stared at him, my breath stalling in my lungs.

“Not when you’re mine.” Daemon backed us up and slid down the wall, pulling me onto his lap so I was straddling him. “And you’re mine.”

I placed my hands on his shoulders as he brought my mouth to his. This kiss was lazy, exploratory…and sensual. For once, I wasn’t fighting the depth of my response. I welcomed it, thrived in the warmth rippling through me. I deepened the kiss. He made a sound in the back of his throat, and his arms wrapped around me, pinning me to him.

My fingers found the strands of hair curling at the back of his neck and dug in. I couldn’t get enough of him—never could. I couldn’t remember feeling this way about anyone else. I couldn’t remember being kissed like this by anyone else. I’m not sure how long we kissed, but it seemed like forever, and at the same time, it wasn’t long enough.

“Wait. Wait,” I breathed, pulling back slightly. I closed my eyes, dragging in a deep breath. “Important stuff.”

His hands dropped on my hips, pulling me down and against him. “This is important.”

“I know.” I gasped as his hands slid under the hem of my tank top, teasing the edges of my rib cage. “But this is really important. I found something in Vaughn’s house.”

Daemon stilled, opening his eyes. They were luminous. Beautiful. Mine. “You went inside Vaughn’s house?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I went into his house.”

“Are you a career criminal?” he asked quietly. When I shook my head, his lips turned down at the corners. “I’m curious how you got into his house, Kitten.”

Biting my lip, I prepared myself. “I unlocked the door.”

“With what…?”

“The same way you would.”

A muscle popped in his jaw. “You shouldn’t be doing things like that.”

Growing uncomfortable, I wiggled around. His hold tightened. If we started arguing about what I was and wasn’t supposed to be doing, we’d never get through this. “I found stuff. And I also met someone.” I tried to get up, but his arms clamped around me. “Are you going to let me go?”

He gave me a tight smile. “Nope.”

I sighed, folding my hands primly in the small space between us. “They’ve been watching us, Daemon. From the moment I moved here.” The way his eyes flared, I could tell all of this was going to go over real well. I told him about the pictures, the receipts, and the money transfers. “But that’s not all. Bethany showed up.”

“What?” Suddenly we both were standing. He backed off, needing space. “Did she talk to you about Dawson?”

“Ah, see, she’s not…well, she didn’t respond well to his name.”

He gave me a cool, measured look. “Explain.”

“She kind of went alien ninja on my butt.” Feeling too warm, I grabbed a hair tie and twisted my hair up. “She threw me against the wall.”

His eyebrows shot up in interest.

I rolled my eyes. “Not in that way, you perv. She’s like a suped-up freakin’ mutant. She even did the whole glowworm thing, too.”

Daemon rubbed his chin. “Did she tell you anything useful?”

I told him what she’d said, elaborating on the fact that most of it didn’t make sense. “I think she’s cracked. And she flipped out when I mentioned Dawson. She didn’t give me much of a choice to push the questioning. She removed me from the house.”

“Dammit,” he said under his breath, turning away. “Besides getting ahold of one of the DOD officers, she was my last hope to find out where Dawson could be.”

“I did find something else.” I dug into my pocket, pulling out the scrap of paper. “I found this.”

Daemon took it, his eyes widening.

“Do you think DB stands for Dawson Black?”

“It could.” He clenched the paper tight. “Can I use your laptop? I want to see where this address goes.”

“Sure.” I moved over to the coffee table, opening up the computer and quickly shutting down the website I’d been looking at. I didn’t want to tell him about Blake’s potential involvement in all of this. Not when Daemon was looking incredibly scary and I had no idea how deep Blake was involved.

Daemon sat beside me and quickly typed the address in Google Maps. Modern technology was frightening. Not only did it give us directions right to the doorstep, but he was able to pull it up on the satellite and see that it was an office building in Moorefield.

I chewed on my fingernail as he scribbled down the directions. “Are you going?”

“I want to, right now, but I need to scope out the place first. Tomorrow I’ll check it out, then go back later.” He shoved the piece of notebook paper in his pocket and faced me. Hope sparked in his eyes. “Thank you, Kat.”

“I kind of owed you something, right?” I rubbed my arms, shivering. “You’ve saved my butt a lot.”

“And what a lovely butt it is, but you risked too much by doing this.” He reached behind me, tugging the quilt off, draping it over my shoulders. He held the edges together, searching my face intently. “Why did you do this?”

I lowered my eyes. “I just was thinking about everything, and I wanted to see what was in there.”

“It was crazy dangerous, Kitten. You can’t do anything like that again. Promise me.”

“Okay.”

He caught the edge of my chin, tilting my face up to him. “Promise me.”

My shoulders slumped. “I won’t. Okay. I promise. But you’ve got to promise me the same thing. I know you can’t drop this. I understand that, but you have to be careful, and you can’t sneak off without me, either.”

Daemon scowled. “This shouldn’t involve you.”

“But it does,” I insisted. “And I’m not a fragile human, Daemon. We’re in this together.”

“Together?” He mulled over the word, then a slow smile played on his lips. “Okay.”

I gave him a tentative smile. “So, that means I go when you check out the address.”

He nodded with a resigned smile. We talked about the photos, and how much the DOD had to know. He was taking the violation of privacy a lot better than I had, but I discovered he was accustomed to them being all up in his business. “What do you think Bethany meant by ’They are coming’?” I asked.

He was sprawled against the back of the couch, the picture of ease and lazy arrogance, but I knew he was coiled tight. “I don’t know.”

“I guess it might not mean anything. I mean, she was kind of whacked out.”

Daemon nodded, staring straight ahead. Many seconds passed before he spoke again. “I can’t help but wonder what my brother is like right now. Is he like that? Whacked out? I don’t think I could…deal with that.”

My chest ached from the desperation in his voice. Tomorrow could bring anything, and things were really up in the air between us, but he…he needed me.

I inched toward him. My confidence wavered with the near-feral look he shot my way. Pushing forward, I crawled up against him, wiggling down so that my head was against his shoulder. He inhaled sharply, and I squeezed my eyes shut. “Even if he is…whacked out, you can deal with it. You can deal with anything. I don’t doubt that at all.”

“You don’t?”

“No.”

Very slowly, he draped his arm around my shoulders. I felt his chin rest on top of my head. “What are we going to do, Kitten?”

My toes curled at the deep octave of his voice. “I don’t know.”

“I have a few ideas.”

I cracked a grin. “I’m sure you do.”

“Wanna hear about them? Although, I’m much better at the show part rather than the tell.”

“Somehow, I believe you.”

“If you didn’t, I could always give you a teaser.” He paused, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “You bookish people love teasers, don’t you?”

I laughed. “You’ve been doing your research on my blog.”

“Maybe,” he replied. “Like I said, I’ve got to keep an eye on you, Kitten.”