Oblivion (Lux 1.5)

“Of course.”

Dee’s gaze met mine, and I didn’t want to know what she was thinking in that moment, but she whirled around and darted across the driveway, toward Kat’s house. Twisting at the waist, I kneed the car door shut. I turned, shifting Kat in my arms.

She stirred, sliding her hand up my chest to my shoulder. A shiver rushed over my skin. Wrong as hell. Her lashes lifted, and I stopped a few feet from the car as the corners of her lips lifted up, too. Silvery moonlight glanced over her cheek. “Hey,” she whispered.

“Hey.”

Her unfocused gaze drifted over my face. “You…you are really pretty.”

A surprised laugh burst out of me. “Thanks, Kitten.”

Yeah, she was totally high and out of it, but her smile widened as her eyes closed. I wasn’t high or out of it when I whispered back to her, “So are you.”

I’d never been in Kat’s house before, and I don’t even know why it felt weird to be inside. Maybe it was because she was passed out. I hadn’t investigated the house as I followed Dee into a similar foyer and through a doorway to the right. Dee had turned on a lamp, and soft yellow light enveloped the living room.

Books.

Books were everywhere.

Stacked by the corner of the couch, in a neat pile of five, spines facing out. Two were on the coffee table. One had a shiny bookmark poking out of the top. Three more were on the end table. Another was on the TV stand, and it too had a bookmark shoved in it. Was she reading two books at once? More?

I could barely read one at a time.

“I think we should stay down here,” Dee said, sitting in a worn recliner by the window. “Just in case something is wrong.”

Looking at Dee, I turned and stared at the couch, the only other available seating. I carried Kat over to the couch and laid her down. I sat beside her, my gaze crawling up to the slow-moving ceiling fan.

Dee talked for a little while, but she quickly fell asleep, virtually leaving me solely responsible for Kat, which was a bad idea in general, since I was doing a real bang-up job of that.

I dropped my elbow on the arm of the couch and rested my cheek in my palm, watching Kat’s shoulders rise and fall steadily. I could’ve turned on the TV, but I didn’t want to wake her or my sister.

Flicking my wrist, I managed to turn off the lamp without destroying it with a quick zip of energy. As the darkness surrounded us, the image trying to stir formed in my thoughts. I doubted I would ever get the scene of that Arum standing over a broken Kat out of my head or forget the raspy sound of panic in her voice when she hadn’t realized it was me at her side.

Yeah, tonight was going to linger.

I must’ve dozed off at some point, because daylight now filtered through the living room as Kat snuggled her way closer. Her head ended up in my lap, and that wasn’t entirely comfortable. I shifted her carefully, but damn, I may not be human, but I was a guy.

Kat slept soundly, her injured arm curled against her chest and her lips slightly parted. I lifted my head, working a kink out of my neck. It was then that I realized my hand was resting on her curved hip.

Huh.

I had no recollection of doing that. Must’ve been in my sleep. I didn’t move my hand, though. My entire being focused on that hand—which was only slightly better than focusing on where her head was. Through the thin denim of her jeans, the curve of her hip was soft. Warm. I imagined that this was what couples did, though Ash and I were never like this. She could get touchy. So could I, but this? Nah, I don’t think we’d ever done anything like this.

Why was I even thinking about that with Kat?

Lack of sleep was getting to me.

Kat suddenly stiffened, and my gaze flew to her face. Her lashes were up. I couldn’t see her eyes, but her chest rose sharply. Was she in pain? “You okay, Kitten?”

“Daemon?” Her voice was hoarse, throaty with sleep and sort of, okay, really kind of sexy. “I… Sorry. I didn’t mean to sleep on you.”

“It’s okay,” I told her and helped her sit up. Her face was too pale and the purplish bruise around her eye pissed me off. I didn’t even want to check out her neck at this point. “Are you okay?” I repeated, eyeing her closer.

Her gaze found mine. “Yeah. You stayed here all night?”

“Yeah.” Seemed pretty obvious.

Kat looked at Dee and then swallowed. She lifted the arm in the cast but lowered it back to her lap as she slowly refocused on me. I couldn’t zero in on what she was thinking. She looked shocked. Confused. Sleepy. Cute.

Goddammit with the cute shit.

I needed to focus. “Do you remember anything?”

She nodded and then winced. “I was attacked last night.”

“Someone tried to mug you.” I resisted the urge to ask if she was okay yet again.

Her brows knitted. “He wasn’t trying to mug me.”

Hell. “Kat—”

“No.” She started to stand up, but I circled my arm around her waist, keeping her in place. I didn’t want her standing too quickly and falling, cracking her head open, and bleeding all over her precious books. “He didn’t want my money, Daemon. He wanted them .”

Dammit. I stiffened, thoughts racing. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“No shit.” She frowned down at her injured arm. “But he kept asking about where they were and about a trace or something.”

“Clearly the guy was insane,” I said, keeping my voice low while I willed her to brush it off as such. “You realize that, right? That he wasn’t right in the head? Nothing he said means anything.”