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I reached into my purse and pulled out my cell. If we were really within the shelter of the beta quartz, Blake should be cool with me letting Daemon know.
“You’re not one of those girls who has to tell her boyfriend every move she makes, are you, Katy?” Blake nodded at my phone and smiled, but the humor never reached his eyes. “Besides, we’re here anyway.”
I wasn’t one of those girls, but…
He pulled into the parking lot of a little joint that boasted the best wings in West Virginia. Christmas lights decorated their pitch-black windows. There was a giant mountaineer statue guarding the entrance.
It all looked incredibly normal.
I silently blamed Daemon for making me doubt Blake, shoved my phone back in my purse, and headed into the restaurant.
Di
It was past six, and we’d been sitting at the little table, going on our third soda refill, when I couldn’t deal with this anymore. “Are you ready?”
“Just a few more minutes.”
This was the second set of “Just a few more minutes.” I sat back, blowing out a long breath, and started counting the red squares on some dude’s fla
I glanced at Blake. “I’m reallyready to go home.”
A
“I am, but we’re sitting here, not even talking to each other, while you play some pig-poking game on your phone. Seriously not a fun time for me.”
He propped his elbows on the table and rested his chin in his hands. “What do you want to talk about, Katy?”
My irritation rose at his tone. “I’ve been trying to talk to you about all kinds of topics for over an hour.”
“So, doing anything for Christmas?” he asked.
Taking a deep breath, I reined in my temper. “Yeah, Mom is actually off for once. We’re doing something with Will.”
“The doctor? Sounds like they’re getting pretty serious.”
“They are.” I pulled my sweater closer, shivering as the door opened. “I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason why—”
Blake’s phone dinged, and he immediately checked it out. A
Thank freaking God. I grabbed my purse and stood, walking out without waiting for him to pick up the check. My boots crunched over the packed snow and ice. As soon as November had rolled around, all it did was snow an inch or two every few days. It was like one giant prelude to a blizzard.
Blake joined me a couple minutes later, frowning. “Way to wait.”
I rolled my eyes but said nothing as I climbed into his truck. We headed back onto the road in silence. Arms folded tightly across my chest, I felt like a pissy girlfriend, which was so wrong. We weren’t like that, but it was as if we’d just had the date from hell.
And to make everything worse, he was driving at the speed of Grandma. My leg bounced with a
The obsidian flared under my sweater without any warning at the same moment Blake swerved the truck off the road and into a ditch.
Swinging toward him, my heart raced as the heat from the obsidian seared my skin. “There’s an Arum nearby.”
“I know.” He killed the engine, jaw tight. “Get out of the truck, Katy.”
“What?” I shrieked.
“Get out of the truck!” He reached over, unhooking my seat belt. “We’re training.”
Realization set in, hard and frightening. I let out a shaky breath as the obsidian continued to increase in heat. “You brought me out of the safety of the beta quartz on purpose!”
“If your strongest abilities are attached to your emotions, then we need to find out how to tap into them when you’re feeling all emotional to see what you can do, then practice with less excitement. Like we did with the knife and then pillows.” He stretched over farther and opened my car door. “Arum can sense us better than they can the Luxen. It’s the DNA thing. Luxen have a built-in cloaking in their DNA. We don’t.”
My chest rose and fell quickly. “You never told me that before.”
“You were safe within the beta quartz. It wasn’t an issue.”
I stared at him, horrified. What if I had left with my mom to go shopping out of the radius without knowing this? We would’ve been attacked. Did Blake even care about my safety?
“Now get out,” he said.
Obviously not. “No! No way am I going out there with an Arum! You’re a crazy—”
“You’re going to be okay.” He sounded as if he were telling me to give a speech in front of a class and not face a murderous alien. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
Then he got out of the car, disappearing into the thick tree line and leaving me alone in the truck. Too stu
If I survived tonight, I was going to kill Blake.
An inky shadow glided over the road and followed the trail Blake has walked into the woods. A burst of light exploded, filling up the sky, but was quickly snuffed out as I heard Blake’s pained scream.
Scrambling out of the truck, I slammed the door shut and squinted into the darkness. “Blake?” After several moments of no answer, panic clawed up my throat. “Blake!”
I stopped at the edge of the woods, wary to enter them. Clutching my sweater close, I shivered as an u
A shadow pooled in front of the passenger door before I could take another step. Dark and oily, it built onto itself until an outline of a man blocked my path.
“Crap,” I whispered.
It took the form of a human male, a startling resemblance to the one we’d seen outside of Vaughn’s house. “Hello, little one. Aren’t you something...special?”
Spi
But no matter how fast I ran, the Arum was faster.
A dark, murky shade appeared beside me and then in front of me. Sliding across snow and ice, I grabbed for my obsidian. Ready to shove the point into whatever part my hand landed on.
Anticipating the move, an arm took form and swung out. It caught me in the stomach. Up in the air I went, landing on my side. Jarring pain shot through my bones. I rolled onto my back, blinking snow from my lashes.
Now I knew why Daemon was so adamant against me ru
A dark, insidious shadow crept into my vision. Out of human form, when he spoke his voice was a menacing murmur among my own thoughts. You’re not a Luxen, but you’re sssomething unique. What powersss do you have?