Onyx

Chapter 6

The branch hung there, hovering as if it were tethered by an invisible string. My breath pawed at my chest, not quite making it out. I stopped the branch—I did that. Panic and power rushed through me, leaving me dizzy.

Blake was staring at me, his eyes wide with what? Fear? Excitement? He stepped to the side and lifted his gaze. The rush of power left me at once. The heavy branch crashed, cracking the pavement like it would’ve done to Blake’s skull. My shoulders slumped as I dragged in air. Sharp, slicing pain erupted behind my eyes and I winced.

“Wow…” Blake ran a hand through his spiky hair. “That would’ve killed me.”

I swallowed, unable to speak. Shock rippled through me, lapping at my sides. I felt and recognized the warmth tingling across the nape of my neck, but I couldn’t move. This little “event” had sapped me of energy, and my head…it throbbed something fierce—a kind of scary pain that signaled something was very wrong.

Oh, God, was this it? Was I having an aneurysm?

“Katy…it’s okay,” Blake said, stepping forward as his eyes darted behind me.

A warm, strong hand curled around my arm. “Kat.”

I sagged at the sound of Daemon’s voice. Turning to him, I lowered my head, shielding my face with my hair. “Sorry,” I whispered.

“Is she okay?” Blake asked, sounding worried. “The branch—”

“Yes. She’s fine. The falling branch scared her.” Each word sounded like he spoke it through gritted teeth. “That’s all.”

“But—”

“See you later.” Daemon started walking, taking me along with him. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, staring straight ahead. Everything seemed too bright for a cloudy day. Too real. The whole afternoon had been perfect. Normal. And I’d ruined it. When I didn’t answer, Daemon took my keys from my numb fingers and opened the passenger door.

Blake called out my name, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. I had no idea what he must be thinking, but I knew it couldn’t be good.

“Get in,” Daemon said almost gently.

For once, I obeyed without question. When he climbed in on the driver’s side and moved the seat back, I snapped out of it. “How…how are you here?”

He didn’t look at me as he turned the ignition and pulled out of the parking space. “I was driving around. I’ll have Dee and Adam get my car.”

Turning in my seat, I saw Blake by his car. He was still standing there like we’d left him. Knots twisted my insides. I felt sick. Trapped by what I’d done.

“Daemon…”

His jaw worked. “You’ll pretend like nothing happened. If he brings it up, you’ll tell him that he moved out of the way. If he even suggests that you…that you stopped that branch, you laugh it off.”

Understanding seeped in. “I need to act like you did in the beginning?”

He nodded curtly. “What just happened back there never happened. Do you understand me?”

Close to tears, I nodded.

Silence ticked away the minutes. Halfway home, the headache eased up and I felt almost normal, except it was like I had pulled an all-nighter. Neither of us spoke until he pulled into the driveway of my house.

Daemon yanked the keys from the ignition and sat back. He faced me, eyes sheltered by a long wave of hair. “We need to talk. And you need to be honest with me. You don’t seem surprised you just did that.”

I nodded again. He was furious, and I couldn’t blame him. I’d possibly exposed them all to a human—a human who could go to the press, who could talk at school, and who could catch the attention of the DOD. They’d find out that the Luxen had special abilities. They’d learn about me.

We went inside my empty house. The central air was blowing heat from the vents, but I was shivering uncontrollably as I sat on the recliner. “I was planning on telling you.”

“You were?” Daemon stood in front of me, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. “When, exactly? Before or after you did something that puts you at risk?”

I flinched. “I didn’t plan on this happening! All I wanted was to have a normal afternoon with a boy—”

“With a boy?” he spat, eyes flaring an intense green.

“Yes, with a normal boy!” Why did that sound so surprising? I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I did plan on coming to you tonight, but Blake asked me to grab something to eat with him and I just wanted one freaking afternoon with someone like me.”

His frown went so deep I thought his face would crack. “You have friends who are normal, Kat.”

“It’s not the same thing!”

Daemon seemed to get what I wasn’t really saying. For a second, his eyes widened and I’d swear there was a flicker of pain in them, but then it was gone. “Tell me what’s been happening.”

Guilt shot through me, pulling behind it spiky barbs that dug in deep. “I think I did get alien cooties, because I’ve been moving things…without touching them. Today, I opened the door to Mr. Garrison’s classroom without touching it. He seemed to think it was a drafty hallway.”

“How often has this been happening?”

“On and off for around a week. The first time it was my locker door, but I thought it was a fluke, so I didn’t say anything. Then I thought about wanting a glass of tea, and the glass flew out of the cabinet and the tea started pouring itself in the fridge. The shower turned itself on, doors opened, and a couple of times, clothes flew from my closet.” I sighed. “My room was a mess.”

A snicker escaped. “Nice.”

My hands balled into fists. “How can you think this is funny? Look at what happened today! I didn’t mean to stop the branch! I mean, I didn’t want it to hit him, but I didn’t consciously stop the damn thing. The whole healing-me thing—it changed me, Daemon. If you haven’t guessed it yet, I couldn’t move things before. And I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I get a splitting headache and feel exhausted afterward. What if I’m dying or something?”

Daemon blinked and was suddenly beside me, sitting on the arm of the chair. Our legs touched. His breath stirred my hair. I shrank back as my heart rate picked up. “Why do you have to move so fast? It’s…wrong.”

He sighed. “Sorry, Kitten. For us, moving fast is natural. It’s actually more effort to slow down and appear ’normal,’ as you put it. I guess I just forget I have to pretend around you.”

My heart ached. Why did everything I say lately come out as a criticism?

“You’re not dying,” he said.

“How do you know?”

His eyes latched onto mine. “Because I’d never let that happen.”

He said it so strongly that I believed him. “What if I’m turning into an alien?”

A look crossed his face, like he wanted to laugh, and I could get why. It did sound absurd. “I don’t know if that’s possible.”

“Moving stuff with my mind shouldn’t be possible.”

He sighed. “Why didn’t you tell me when this first happened?”

“I don’t know,” I said, unable to look away. “I should’ve. I don’t want to put you guys at risk. I swear I’m not doing it on purpose.”

Daemon leaned back. His pupils turned luminous. “I know you aren’t doing anything on purpose. I wouldn’t have thought that.”

My breath caught as he held my gaze with his strange eyes. The prickly feeling was back, spreading over my skin. Every inch of me became painfully aware of him.

He was silent for a moment. “I don’t know if it was a product of my healing you those times or when you connected with us during Baruck’s attack. Either way, it’s obvious that you’re using some of my abilities. I’ve never heard of this happening before.”

“Never?” I whispered.

“We don’t heal humans.” Daemon paused, pursing his lips. “I’ve always thought it had something to do with exposing our abilities, but now I’m wondering if it’s more than that. If the real reason is because we…change humans.”

I swallowed. “So I am turning into an alien?”

“Kitten…”

All I could think about was the movie Alien and that thing crawling out of the dude’s stomach, except mine would be a glowing ball of light or something. “How do we stop this?”

Daemon stood. “I want to try something, okay?”

My brows rose. “Okay.”

Closing his eyes, he let out a long breath. His form flickered and faded. A few seconds later, he was in his true form, radiating a powerful red-white light. He was shaped like a human, and I knew he would be warm to touch. It was still strange seeing him like this. It drove home the point—the one I forgot sometimes—that he wasn’t from this planet.

Say something to me, his voice whispered in my thoughts.

In their true form, Luxen don’t speak out loud. “Uh, hi?”

His chuckle tickled inside me. Not aloud. Say something to me, but not out loud. Like what happened in the clearing. You spoke to me then.

When he’d been healing me, I’d heard his thoughts. Would it happen again? Your light is really pretty, but it’s blinding me.

I heard his ghost inhale. We can still hear each other. His light dimmed, and he was standing in front of me again, solid, eyes troubled. “So my light was blinding you, huh?”

“Yeah, it was.” I fiddled with the chain around my neck. “Am I glowing now?” It usually happened when they went into their true form, leaving a faint trace behind.

“No.”

So that had changed, too. “Why can I still hear you? You act like I shouldn’t.”

“You shouldn’t, but we’re still connected.”

“Well, how do we get unconnected?”

“That’s a good question.” He stretched idly as his gaze roamed across the room. “You have books everywhere, Kitten.”

“That’s really not important right now.”

One hand outstretched. A book flew off the arm of the couch and into his hand. As he turned it over, his brows rose and his gaze moved over it quickly. “His touch kills? Really, what is this stuff you’re reading?”

I shot from the chair, snatching the book away and holding it close to my chest. “Shut up. I love this book.”

“Uh huh,” Daemon murmured.

“Okay, back to the important stuff. And stop touching my books.” I set it back where I’d left it. “What are we going to do?”

His gaze settled on me. “I’ll figure out what is happening with you. Just give me some time.”

I nodded, hoping we had enough time. There was no telling what I’d accidentally do next, and the last thing I wanted was to expose Dee and the others. “You do realize this whole thing is why you…”

He arched a brow.

“It’s why you suddenly like me.”

“I’m pretty sure I liked you before this, Kitten.”

“Well, you had one hell of a way of showing it.”

“True,” he admitted. “And I’ve already said I’m sorry for the way I treated you.” He took a fortifying breath. “I always liked you. From the moment you first flipped me off.”

“But you didn’t start to want to spend time with me until after the first attack, when you healed me. Maybe we were already starting to, like…morph together or whatever.”

Daemon frowned. “What is it with you? It’s like you need to convince yourself I can’t possibly like you. Does doing that make it easier to tell yourself you don’t have feelings for me?”

“You treated me like a red-headed stepchild for months. I’m sorry if I have a hard time believing that whatever you feel is real.” I sat on the couch. “And it has nothing to do with what I feel.”

His shoulders tensed. “Do you like that guy you were with?”

“Blake? I don’t know. He’s nice.”

“He was sitting with you today at lunch.”

My brow arched. “Because there was an open seat and it’s a free world where people can pick where they want to sit.”

“There were other seats open. He could’ve sat anywhere else in the cafeteria.”

It took me a few seconds to respond. “He’s in my bio class. Maybe he just felt comfortable with me, because we’re both sort of new.”

Something flickered across his face, and then he was standing in front of me. “He kept staring at you. And obviously he wanted to spend time with you outside of school.”

“Maybe he likes me,” I said, shrugging. “Lesa invited him to the party on Friday.”

Daemon’s eyes darkened to an evergreen. “I don’t think you should be hanging around him until we know what’s up with you moving stuff. You doing that thing with the branch was only one instance. We can’t have a repeat of that.”

“What? I’m not supposed to date or hang out with anyone now?”

Daemon smiled. “Anyone human, yes.”

“Whatever.” I shook my head, standing. “This is a stupid conversation. I’m not dating anyone anyway, but if I were, I wouldn’t stop just because you said so.”

“You wouldn’t?” His hand shot out, tucking back a strand of hair behind my ear. “We’ll just have to see about that.”

I stepped sideways, keeping distance between us. “There’s nothing to see.”

Challenge filled his eyes. “If you say so, Kitten.”

Folding my arms, I sighed. “This isn’t a game.”

“I know, but if it were, I’d win.” He flickered out and appeared by the entrance to the foyer. “By the way, I’ve heard what Simon has been saying.”

Heat swept over my face. Another problem, but less important in the grand scheme of things. “Yeah, he’s being a douche. I think it’s his friends. He actually apologized to me, and then when his friends showed up, he told them I was trying to get with him.”

Daemon’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not okay.”

I sighed. “It’s no big deal.”

“Maybe not to you, but it is to me.” He paused, his shoulders squaring. “I’ll take care of it.”