“Robbie told Ben that the police don’t think it was a heart attack or a natural cause.” Carissa looked around the table, lowering her voice. “Or at least no natural causes that they’re aware of.” Dee lowered the pizza from her mouth. That’s how I knew this was serious. “What do you mean?”
“Apparently, there was so much damage to her heart that there was no way it could be like that regardless of if she had any heart conditions,” Carissa explained.
Dee shrugged. “I know, but what else could it be?”
I glanced at Dee, having an idea of what or who it could’ve been. After lunch, I dragged her to the side. “Was it one of them?” I asked. “One of the Arum?”
Dee bit down on her lip and then she tugged me away from the cafeteria doors and her brother, who was coming out of the room. Down the hall, she stopped. “It was, but Daemon took care of him.” I hesitated. “It was the same one who attacked me?”
“It was.” Dee glanced behind her, lips thin. “Daemon thinks it was purely coincidental, that the Arum stumbled across her. She didn’t know us. I swear.”
That didn’t make any sense to me. “Then why?”
Dee met my stare. “They don’t need a reason, Katy. The Arum are evil. They kill us for our powers.” She paused, paling. “And they kill humans for the fun of it.”
Chapter 21
Astonishingly, things were sort of…normal now. My trace did fade in a week and a half. Daemon had acted like he’d been released from a twenty-year jail sentence, and he was never around when I was with Dee anymore. September and most of October passed without anything happening. Mom continued to work both jobs, and she had a couple more dates with Mr. Michaels. She liked him, and I was happy for her. It had been so long since I’d seen her smile not tinged with sorrow.
Carissa and Lesa both had been to my house, and many times we’d gone to the movies or the mall in Cumberland with Dee. Even though I’d grown close to the two human girls and had a heck of a lot more in common with them, I was closer to Dee. We did everything together—everything except talk about Daemon. She tried, several times.
“I know he likes you,” she’d said once while we were supposed to be studying. “I see the way he looks at you. He gets uptight if I even bring you up.”
I’d sighed and closed my notebook. “Dee, I think the reason why he stares at me is because he’s planning on ways to kill me and hide my body.”
“That is so not the look he gives you.”
“Then what’s the look, Dee?”
She knocked her book off the bed and climbed to her knees, placing her hands over her chest. “It’s the ‘I hate you but I want you’ look.”
I giggled. “That was terrible.”
“It’s true.” She lowered her hands. “We can date humans if we want to, you know. It’s kind of pointless, but we can. And he’s never paid attention to any other human.”
“He’s been forced to pay attention to me, Dee.” I flopped onto my back on my bed. My stomach tightened at the thought of Daemon secretly wanting to be with me. Granted, I knew he was attracted to me. I felt it, but lust didn’t have anything on like. “What about you? What’s up with Adam?”
“Absolutely nothing at all. I don’t know how Ash is attracted to Daemon. We grew up with them, and Andrew is like a brother to me. I don’t think he feels any differently, either.” She paused, her lower lip trembling. “I don’t like any of my kind.”
“Is there a…human boy you like?”
She shook her head. “No. But if there was, I shouldn’t have to be afraid to like him. I have a right to be happy. It shouldn’t matter if it’s one of your kind or ours that does it.”
“I completely agree.”
Dee had lain down next to me, snuggling up. “Daemon would freak if I fell for a human.”
I almost smiled at that, but then I remembered their brother. Damn right, Daemon would freak. Maybe rightfully so, because if his brother hadn’t fallen for a human, he’d still be alive.
I hoped for Dee’s sake she never fell for one. Daemon would most definitely go nutso.
As it approached mid-October, it seemed like we’d gone backward in time. I was going to find that pen of his and destroy it. I’d lost count of how many times I was poked in the back long after the trace had faded from me. It seemed he lived to get under my skin.
And there was a part of me that kind of looked forward to it, only because it was entertaining…until one of us seriously got mad, especially when he was being downright antisocial.
Like Friday in class, Simon had asked if I wanted to study for our trig exam. Before I could even respond, Simon’s backpack had flown off his desk, scattering its contents across the floor as if someone had swept his arm across his desk. Red-faced and confused, Simon had been successfully distracted by the laughing class while he gathered up his notebooks and scattered pencils.
I’d glanced back over my shoulder at Daemon, suspecting he was behind the flying backpack, but all he did was smile lazily at me.
“What’s your deal?” I asked in the hallway after class. “I know you did that.”
He shrugged. “So?”
So? I stopped by my locker, surprised to find that Daemon had followed me there. “That was rude, Daemon. You embarrassed him.” Then I lowered my voice to a whisper, “And I thought using your…stuff would draw them here.”