Oblivion

I swept my thumb under her full bottom lip. “Your voice…”

She cleared her throat with a wince. “It’s getting much better.”

It really wasn’t getting better. I moved my thumb to her jaw and chased the stubborn line. “Not enough, but it’s growing on me.”

Kat smiled, catching my heart. “It is?”

I nodded and then kissed her sweetly, a soft taste of what I wanted. “It’s kind of sexy.” Then again, I found everything about her sexy. I kissed her again, this time deeper. The tip of my tongue teased the seam of her lush mouth. “The whole raspy thing, but I wish—”

“Don’t.” She clasped my cheeks. “I’m okay. And we have enough things to worry about than my vocal cords. In the big scheme of things, that’s nowhere near the top of the list.”

I arched a brow.

Kat giggled and then sobered. “I have missed you.”

“I know. You can’t live without me.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Just admit it.”

“There you go. That ego of yours getting in the way,” she teased.

I kissed just below her jaw. “Of what?”

“The perfect package.”

I snorted. “Let me tell you, I have the perfect—”

“Don’t be gross.” She shivered, though, and I chuckled, having a feeling she really wanted to know about my “perfect package,” and I had no problem going there with her.

I slid my hand off her hip to her thigh. Hooking her leg around my hip, I loved the soft catch in her breath. “You have such a dirty mind,” I teased her. “I was going to say I’m perfect in all the ways that count.”

Laughing, she looped her arms around my neck. “Sure you were. Completely i

“Oh, I’ve never claimed to be that nice.” Lowering my hips to hers, I swallowed a rough groan as she inhaled sharply. “I’m more—”

“Naughty?” Kat pressed her face into my neck, her chest rising against mine. “Yeah, I know, but you’re nice under the naughty. That’s why I love you.”

I love you.

No way would I ever grow tired of hearing those three words. They made me shudder. Made me want to gather her up and keep her safe. Made me want to be a better…being for her. Rolling onto my side, I folded my arm around her waist and held her tight to me.

She wiggled, lifting her head. Her concerned gaze met mine. “Daemon?”

“It’s okay.” My voice was thick with unspoken emotion. I kissed her forehead. What I should be doing was figuring out where Dawson had roamed off to. If he’d gone out into the woods or back to the house, but that’s not want I wanted to do. I wanted this with Kat. “I’m okay. It’s…early still. No school or mom coming home, yelling your full name. Just for a little while we can pretend that crazy doesn’t wait for us. We can sleep in, like normal teenagers.”

“I like the sound of that.”

“Me, too.”

“Me three,” she murmured, snuggling against me until the front of her body was plastered to mine, and I really liked that. I could feel our hearts beating in perfect tandem.

Sleeping like this would be heaven. I drew my hand down her spine and her back bowed slightly, pushing her body into mine, and I really, really liked that. Maybe sleeping was the wrong idea. Maybe we could—

The window across from her bed blew open as a large body, mixed with snow, crashed onto the floor, sending piles of snow and shards of glass into the air.

Kat’s startled scream echoed in my ears as I shot off the bed, switching into my Luxen form. My light chased away the lingering darkness in the room as I stepped around her bed.

Holy crap.

Kat scrambled to the edge of the bed and peered down, “Holy crap.”

A body—a man dressed all in white—was on the floor, obviously dead. Like so dead.

Chapter 2

The dead man had to be with the DOD. Otherwise I wouldn’t have any clue as to why someone would be dressed so they’d blend in with the snow.

Hell.

Blood pooled under the man’s head, an injury that happened either before he’d come through the window or during it. The charred spot in the center of the man’s still chest suggested that he didn’t simply fall out of the sky and then through the window.

Freaking hell.

Kat’s heart pounded like a steel drum. “Daemon…?”

She was seeing this, and she should never see this. Spi

“He’s an officer,” she stuttered, smacking at my arms to get free. “He’s with the—”

Her words were cut off as Dawson appeared in the bedroom doorway. His eyes glowed white, sharp and brilliant. “He was sneaking around outside,” he said. “By the tree line.”

My arm loosened around Kat’s waist as I stared at my brother. I was shocked on two fronts. He’d done this? And this was the most I’d heard him say since he was returned to us. “You…you did this?” I asked.

Dawson glanced at the body. “He was watching the house—taking pictures.” Lifting his hand, he held up what looked like a melted camera. “I stopped him.”

Holy hell balls, what did I say to that?

Letting Kat go, I turned back to the body. I knelt and pulled down the insulated white down jacket. The stench of burned flesh wafted into the air, forcing Kat to scramble off the bed. I looked over my shoulder, seeing her press her balled fist against her mouth.

I turned back to the man. A hole had been burned through his chest. Normally the Source would incinerate a human, not do this. “Your aim is off, brother.” I let go of the jacket. Tension poured into my muscles. “The window?”

“I’ve been out of practice,” Dawson replied.

Out of practice? That was like saying sometimes thunder was loud. No shit.

“My mom’s go

Pushing to my feet, I turned to my brother. For the first time, I didn’t really recognize him. Unease festered in my gut like gangrene. Dawson hadn’t just stopped the man. He’d killed him, and there wasn’t a flicker of remorse on his impassive expression. He actually…he reminded me of myself, and that wasn’t Dawson.

Dawson didn’t kill.

Deep in the woods, I stood next to Matthew as we both watched the intense white light fade. The snow was melted, revealing the scorched ground where we’d dropped the body of the DOD officer. Nothing but wet clumps of ash remained.

I exhaled slowly, lifting my gaze to the snow-tipped branches. “Dawson isn’t…he isn’t the same, Matt.”

The older Luxen was quiet for a moment. “Did you really expect him to be? The DOD had him for far too long for there not to be long-lasting effects.” He lifted his hand, shoving his fingers through his light brown hair. “But this? Dawson would never have…”

“Killed.” I stepped back from the spot, watching the wind toss the ashes into the blowing snow. “The DOD was watching us—still could be watching us, and now he’s killed one of them.”

“You’ve killed three of them,” Matthew pointed out.

“True.” And it sucked to have ended their lives. It still got to me, but if I had to do it all over again, I would. I looked over at Matthew. “There is no way they do not know that Dawson is free and with us. Even if they have no use of him anymore, how could they be okay with that? There is no way they don’t realize that we know they’ve been capturing Luxen who’ve mutated humans. Why are they not banging down our doors and coming for us? It doesn’t make sense.”

“It doesn’t.” He turned sideways, facing me. “We have to be careful from this point on. More than ever before.”

“They don’t have the upper hand anymore,” I said, squinting as the wind picked up again, pelting snow. “We know what they’re up to. We have that.”