Oblivion

My mouth dropped open as I blinked slowly.

He clapped. “I knew it!”

“What the hell, Blake?” Kat screeched as the knife fell to the floor.

He did not just throw a butcher knife at Kat’s chest.

I came out of my frozen stupor in a rage, what he had just done finally cracking through my skull. I was like a rocket of anger. Flipping into my true form, I slammed Blake into the wall, my whitish-red light nearly swallowing him.

I was going to kill him, right here and right now. This dumbass fucker was going to die. I lifted him until he was halfway up the wall.

“Whoa! Whoa!” he yelled, arms flailing in the light. “You need to check yourself. Katy wasn’t in any danger.”

That’s it. I’m going to kill him. That was my only warning to Kat. He didn’t hear me, but he knew death was coming. Windows began to shake and walls trembled. The flat-screen on the TV stand rattled. Puffs of plaster filled the air. My light flared, swallowing him whole.

“Daemon!” Kat shrieked. “Stop!”

Air heated and charged around me. Her terror-filled scream cycled over and over. She would hate me if I killed him—absolutely hate me. That I could almost deal with, but she would also be scared of me, and that…yeah, that I couldn’t handle.

With Herculean effort, I dropped his rat ass. Unfortunately, he landed on his feet and not his head. Kat darted in between us. “Okay. You two need to freaking stop.”

He ran his hands down his shirt, straightening. “I’m not doing anything.”

“You did throw a freaking knife at me,” she shot back.

I will break him in two.

Hearing my voice, Kat looked at me. “Stop.”

Fury hummed through me. He could’ve killed her, just like that, and I had sat there like a freaking idiot and let it happen. No more. I was done with this. She was done with this.

Still in my true form, I reached out and brushed my fingers along her cheek. Her skin was soft as silk and so damn fragile. Dropping my hand, I shifted into my human form. Only my eyes remained white and sharp like the damn knife he’d thrown at her.

“What the hell were you thinking?”

“She wasn’t in any danger!” he shouted. “If I thought for a second she couldn’t do it, I wouldn’t have thrown it at her!”

I sidestepped Kat, my hand curling into a fist. “But there was no way you would’ve known she could do it! Not a hundred percent!”

He turned pleading eyes on Kat. “I swear you were never in any danger, Katy. If I thought you couldn’t stop it, I wouldn’t have done it.”

I cursed again, but Kat blocked me. I stared down at her. “Who does that?”

“Actually, Kiefer Sutherland did. In the original Buffy movie,” he explained. “It was on TV a few nights ago. He threw one at Buffy, and she caught it.”

“That was Donald Sutherland—the dad,” I corrected. What an ass.

He shrugged. “Same difference.”

“I’m not Buffy!” Kat yelled.

A slow grin pulled at his lips. “You are definitely cuter than Buffy.”

I growled low in my throat. “You got a death wish? Because you’re really pushing it tonight, buddy. I’m dead serious. Really pushing it. I can hold you up against that wall until you run out of juice. Can you hold me off forever? No? I didn’t think so.”

His jaw jutted out. “Okay. I’m sorry. But if she hadn’t been able to catch it, I would’ve stopped it. Just like you would’ve. No harm. No foul.”

A whirlwind of rage was building inside me as Kat drew in a deep breath. “I think that’s enough for tonight.”

“But—”

“Blake, I really think you should leave,” she said. “Okay? I think you need to go.”

He stared at her for a moment and then nodded. “All right.” With a quick look in my direction, he started toward the door and stopped. “But you did great, Katy. I don’t think you realize how awesome that was.”

The fury rolled off me, rattling the floors. Douche Bag got the hell out of the house at that point. Part of me was disappointed. I was kind of hoping he’d be stupid enough to try something with me. At least then I could claim self-defense.

Silence fell in his wake until I finally spoke. “No more. Absolutely no more.” My voice was low as Kat faced me. “He could have killed you, Kat. I’m not okay with that. I won’t be okay with that.”

“Daemon, he wasn’t trying to kill me.”

Disbelief flooded me. “Are you insane?”

“No.” She bent and picked up the wickedly sharp knife.

“I don’t want you doing any more training with him. I don’t even want you near him. That boy’s got a few screws loose. I’m going to give him back-alley plastic surgery. I can’t—”

“Daemon,” she whispered.

“—believe he did that.” It hit me again, just how close she came to taking a knife wound to the chest. Stepping forward, I wrapped my arms around her and hauled her against me. I held her tight. “Jesus, Kat, he could have hurt you.” I lifted my hand, wrapping it around the back of my head. Good God, she could’ve died tonight, and I might not have been here to help her. I would’ve been out, chasing down a damn Arum.

Or sulking around my house like a loser.

A tremor rocked me. “Look, you’ve obviously got some control. I can help you work on it.” I rested my chin against the top of her head. “This can’t happen again.”

“Daemon.” Her voice was muffled.

“What?” I pulled back, lowering my chin.

“I froze it.”

My brows slammed together. “Huh?”

“I froze the knife.” She shimmied free, waving the knife around. “I didn’t just stop it, but I froze it. The thing was just hovering in air.”

Then it struck me. She was right. She didn’t stop it. She froze it, and that was one of the most difficult talents for even a fully grown Luxen to master. “Holy…”

She laughed. “God, that’s pretty huge, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “It is. That’s…that’s a big deal.”

Excitement flushed her pretty face. “We can’t stop training.”

No. No way. “Kat—”

“We can’t! Look, throwing a knife at me isn’t cool. And God knows, I’m not exactly thrilled that he did it, but it worked. It really worked. We’re getting somewhere—”

“What part of ‘He could’ve killed you’ don’t you understand?” I backed away before I shook some common sense into her. “I don’t want you training with him. Not when he’s putting your life in danger.”

“He’s not putting my life in danger.” She shook her head. “We can’t stop. I’ll be able to control it and use the Source, just like you and Dee can. I can help you—”

“Help me with what?” I stared at her, then laughed harshly. “Help me to fight Arum?”

Crossing her arms over her chest, she tapped the edge of the knife on her arm as her eyes narrowed on me. “Yeah, what if I wanted to?”

I laughed again. “Kitten, you’re not helping me fight Arum.”

“Why not? If I can control the Source and help, why not? I could fight.”

“I think the reasons are pretty huge,” I yelled, losing some of my patience. “First off, you’re a human.”

“Not really.”

“Granted, you’re a mutated human, but a human who’s a hell of a lot weaker and more vulnerable than a Luxen.”

She exhaled slowly. “You don’t know how weak or vulnerable I’ll be fully trained.”

“Whatever. Secondly, you have no business going up against the Arum. That will never happen.”

“Daemon—”

“It won’t if I’m still alive. Do you understand that? You will never go after an Arum. I don’t care if you can stop the world from spi

Her cheeks flushed with anger. “You don’t own me, Daemon.”

“It’s not about ownership, you little nut.”

“Nut?” She glared at me. “I wouldn’t call me names when I have a knife in my hand.”

I almost laughed again. “Thirdly, there is something off about Blake. You can’t tell me you don’t see or sense that.”

“Oh, don’t—”

“You know nothing about him—nothing deeper than that he likes to surf and blog. Big deal.”

“These aren’t good enough reasons,” she fired back