“You have no idea.” I glanced up at him and waited for the teachers to disappear into their classrooms. “Trusting Blake may be a moot point.”
His eyes narrowed as he turned, angling his body as if he was shielding me. “What are you saying?”
I prayed he didn’t lose it. “Blake confirmed what Will had said. The DOD and Daedalus believe my mutation wore off. Good news, right? But he’s desperate—more so than we realized. If we don’t agree to help him, he plans to turn us over.”
Daemon’s reaction was as expected. There was now a fist-sized indent in the locker beside us, and I grabbed his arm, dragging him into the nearby stairwell before teachers started inspecting the source of the noise.
Helpless anger seeped into the air and settled over him like a blanket. He knew what I wasn’t willing to say yet. Like with Will, we’d been blackmailed—trapped again, and what could we do? Refuse to go along with Blake and be turned over? Or trust someone who had already proven he wasn’t worthy of such a thing?
God, we were screwed to the tenth degree.
I could tell Daemon wanted to ditch school and search the entire county, but he also didn’t want to leave me alone…no matter how hard I worked to convince him that, of all places, I was the safest at school. Because apparently I wasn’t, not when Blake was back, acting like a normal student. And Blake knew that as long as he stayed around people, there was nothing we could do.
Throughout the rest of the day, I expected to see Blake again, but I didn’t. When the final bell rang, I wasn’t surprised when Daemon met me at my locker. “I’m riding home with you,” he said.
“Sure.” No point in arguing over this. “But how is Dolly getting home?”
He cracked a grin, loving it when I called his car by its stupid name. “I rode in with Dee this morning. Andrew and Ash are riding with her home.”
I let that sink in, wondering when Dee had become so close with them. She had never been a big fan of theirs and their human-hating tendencies. So much had changed, and I knew I hadn’t even seen the full spectrum yet.
“Do you think he’d really turn us over?” I asked once we were inside my little sedan. Outside, the bare trees surrounding the parking lot rattled like a thousand dry bones.
“He’s obviously desperate.” Daemon tried to stretch out his long legs, grumbling. “Blake killed already to protect his friend, and the only way for Blake to keep him safe is either by turning you over, as he was originally sent to do, or for us to help him. So, yeah, I believe he’d still do it.”
I gripped the steering wheel, welcoming the lava-like anger suffusing my skin. We’d let Blake go, giving him a chance to get as far away as he could, and he came back to manipulate us. How ungrateful was that?
I glanced at Daemon. “What are we going to do?”
His jaw worked. “We have two options: work with him or kill him.”
My eyes popped. “And you’d be the one to do that? Not right. It shouldn’t always be you. You’re not the only Luxen who can fight.”
“I know, but I can’t expect someone else to carry that burden.” He looked at me.
“And I’m not trying to start another argument over whether or not you’d make a good Wonder Woman, but I’d never expect you or my siblings to do that, either. I know you would have done it to…defend yourself and us, Kat, but I don’t want that kind of guilt on your shoulders. Okay?”
I nodded. Imagining what I felt already, just magnified, twisted my insides. “I could handle it…if I had to.”
A heartbeat passed, and I felt his hand on my cheek. I took my eyes off the road for a second. He smiled a little. “You burn bright, to me at least, and I know you could handle it, but the last thing I want is your light to be tainted by something so dark.”
Stupid girlie tears burned my eyes and the road became a bit blurry. I couldn’t let them fall, because crying over him saying something sweet really didn’t help the “I’m A Badass” case. But I gave him a watery smile, and I think he understood.
I pulled into my driveway before the rest of the crew got there. Filled with nervous energy, I followed Daemon into his house and grabbed a bottle of water, then returned to the living room. Before I could begin the agitated wearing of the carpet, Daemon caught my hand and tugged me toward him as he sat, pulling me onto his lap.
Arms wrapped around me, he buried his face in my neck. “You know what we have to do,” he said softly.
Dropping the bottle next to us, I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Kill Blake.”
He choked on his laugh. “No, Kitten. We’re not going to kill him.”
I was surprised. “We’re not?”
He pulled back, meeting my questioning stare. “We’re going to have to do what he wants.”
Okay, I was more than surprised. More like dumbstruck. “But…but…but…”
A grin teased his lips. “Use your words, Kitten.”
I snapped out of my stupor. “But we can’t trust him. This is most likely a trap!”
“We’re kind of damned if we do and damned if we don’t.” He shifted, sliding his hands along my lower back. “But I’ve given it some thought.”
“What? The whole ten minutes it took us to get home?”
“I think it’s cute that you call my house home.” His grin spread to his eyes, deepening their lustrous hue. “By the way, it is my house. My name is on the deed.”