Dawson closed his eyes, his features pinching as his chest rose sharply. “Letting you do this by yourself isn’t right. You wouldn’t let me.”
“I know. I’m going to be okay. I’m always okay.” I leaned in, resting my forehead against his. As I clasped the sides of his face, I kept my voice low. “You just got Beth back, and running off with me isn’t right. She needs you. You need her, and I need…”
“You need Katy.” He opened his eyes, and for the first time since the shit went down at Mount Weather, there was understanding in his gaze. “I get that. I do.”
“She needs you, too,” Beth whispered.
Dawson and I broke apart. He turned to her. She was still sitting at the table, her hands opening and closing in her lap in quick, repetitive movements.
“What did you say, babe?” he asked.
“Kat needs him.” Her lashes lifted, and although her gaze was fixed on us, she wasn’t looking at us, not really. “They’ll tell her things at first. They’ll trick her, but the things they’ll do…”
It felt like all the oxygen was sucked out of the room.
Dawson was by her side immediately, kneeling so that she had to look at him. He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips. “It’s okay, Beth.”
She followed his movements almost obsessively, but there was a strange sheen gathering in her eyes, as if she were slipping further away. The hair on the back of my neck rose, and I stepped forward.
“She won’t be at Mount Weather,” Beth said, her stare drifting over Dawson’s shoulder. “They’ll take her far away and make her do things.”
“Do what?” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.
Dawson shot me a look over his shoulder, but I ignored it. “You don’t have to talk about this, babe. All right?”
A long moment passed before she said anything. “When I saw him with you, I knew, but you all seemed like you knew, too. He’s bad news. He was there, too, with me.”
My hands curled into fists as I remembered Beth’s reaction to seeing him, but we had shut her up. “Blake?”
She nodded slowly. “All of them are bad. They don’t mean to be.” Her focus drifted to Dawson, and she whispered, “I don’t mean to be.”
“Oh, baby, you’re not bad.” He placed a hand on her cheek. “You’re not bad at all.”
Her lower lip trembled. “I’ve done terrible things. You have no idea. I’ve ki—”
“It doesn’t matter.” He went down on his knees. “None of that matters.”
A shudder rolled through her, and then she looked up, her eyes locking on mine. “Don’t let them do those things to Katy. They’ll change her.”
I couldn’t move or breathe.
Her face crumpled. “They’ve changed me. I close my eyes, and I see their faces—all of them. I can’t get them out no matter what I do. They’re inside of me.”
Good God…
“Look at me, Beth.” Dawson guided her face back to his. “You’re here with me. You’re not there anymore. You know that, right? Keep looking at me. Nothing’s inside of you.”
She shook her head vigorously. “No. You don’t understand. You—”
Backing off, I let my brother handle this. He talked to her in low, soothing tones, but when she quieted, she stared forward, shaking her head side-to-side slowly, her eyes wide and mouth open. She didn’t blink, didn’t even seem to acknowledge him or me.
Nobody’s home, I realized.
As Dawson talked her through whatever was afflicting her, horror—real, true horror—turned my insides cold. The pain that was in my brother’s eyes as he smoothed her hair back from her pale face ate me up. At that moment, he looked like he wanted nothing more than to trade places with her.
I gripped the counter behind me, unable to look away.
I could easily see myself doing the same thing. Except it wouldn’t be Beth I’d be holding in my arms and coaxing back to reality—it would be Kat.
I was only in my bedroom long enough to change into fresh clothing. Being in there was a blessing and a curse. For some reason it made me feel closer to Kat. Maybe it was because of what we’d shared in my bed and all the moments before then. It also tore me up, because she wasn’t in my arms and she wasn’t safe.
I didn’t know if she’d ever truly be safe again.
As I pulled the clean shirt over my head, I sensed my sister before she spoke. Blowing out a low breath, I turned and found her standing in my doorway, dressed in bubblegum pink pajamas I’d given her for Christmas last year.
She looked as shitty as I felt. “Daemon—”
“If you’re going to start in on how I need to wait and think this through, you can save it.” I sat down on the bed, dragging a hand through my hair. “It’s not going to change what I want.”
“I know what you want, and I don’t blame you.” She cautiously stepped into my room. “No one wants to see you get hurt…or worse.”
“Worse is what Kat is going through right this moment. She’s your friend. Or was. And you’re okay with waiting? Knowing what they could be doing to her?”
She flinched, and her eyes shone like emeralds in the low light. “That’s not fair,” she whispered.
Maybe not, and any other time I would’ve felt like an ass for the low blow, but I couldn’t muster the empathy.
“We can’t lose you,” she said after a few moments of awkward-as-hell silence. “You have to understand that we did what we did because we love you.”