Dawson shot forward, placing a hand on her arm. “It’s okay. I don’t expect you to do this.”
“I want to help.” Her voice was wobbly. “But I can’t…”
“It’s fine.” Dawson smiled and there was a moment between the siblings, as if he were saying more with just that gesture alone. Whatever it was, it worked, because Dee relaxed. “Not all of us need to do this.”
“Then who’s in?” Blake’s eyes touched on all of us. “If we are going to do this, we need to start, like, yesterday, because I don’t know how long it’ll take to build a tolerance.”
Antsy, Dawson stood. “It can’t take that long.”
Blake let out a surprised laugh. “I’ve been with Daedalus for years, so there’s no telling at what point I built a tolerance…or if I really even have one.”
“We’ve got to test that out, then.” I grinned.
He frowned. “Wow. Kind of excited about that?”
I nodded.
Dee twisted around, eyeing Blake. “Can I test it out, too?”
“I’m pretty sure everyone will get a round.” Daemon’s sinister twist of the lips was actually kind of frightening. “Anyway, back to the basics. Who’s in?”
Matthew raised his hand. “I want to be in on this. No offense, Andrew, but I prefer to take your place this time.”
Andrew nodded his head. “No problem. I can wait with Dee and Ash.”
Ash, who hadn’t said more than two words, just nodded. I realized that half of the room was staring at me. “Oh,” I said. “Yeah, I’m in.” Beside me, Daemon gave me a look that said, You are so out of your mind. I folded my arms. “Don’t start with me. I’m in. Nothing you can say will change that.”
The next look translated into, This is going to turn into a conversation—argument—in private. Blake watched with approval—a ringing endorsement I didn’t want or need. Frankly, it made my skin crawl, since it reminded me of when I had killed the Arum he’d practically thrown at me.
God, I wanted to hit him again.
Plans were made to meet after school and, weather permitting, we’d head out to the lake to basically start causing ourselves an obscene amount of pain. Whee.
Since there were some hours left before bedtime, I said my good-byes and left to get some studying in and hopefully a dang review.
Daemon walked me over and I knew it wasn’t a gentlemanly act, but I let him in and offered him his favorite: milk.
He downed the drink in five seconds flat. “Can we talk about this?”
I hopped up on the counter and opened my bag, pulling out my history book. “Nope.”
“Kat.”
“Hmm?” I flipped open to the chapter we’d been reading in class.
He stalked over, placing his hands on either side of my crossed legs. “I can’t watch you get hurt over and over again.”
I dug out a Highlighter.
“Seeing what happened last night and when Will had you handcuffed in that stuff? And I’m supposed to just stand there— Are you listening to me?”
Halfway through the sentence I’d highlighted, I stopped. “I’m listening.”
“Then look at me.”
I lifted my lashes. “I’m looking at you.”
Daemon scowled.
Sighing, I put the cap back on the Highlighter. “Okay. I don’t want to see you in pain.”
“Kat—”
“No. Don’t interrupt. I don’t want to see you in pain and just thinking about you going through what that feels like makes me want to hurl.”
“I can handle it.”
Our eyes locked. “I know you can, but that doesn’t change how horrible it’s going to be to see you go through that, but I’m not asking you not to do it.”
He pushed off and pivoted around, thrusting his fingers through his hair. Tension and frustration settled over the kitchen like a well-worn blanket.
Setting my stuff aside, I hopped down. “I don’t want to argue with you, Daemon, but you can’t say it’s okay for me to watch you go through this and not you.”
I made my way over to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. He stiffened. “I know this is coming from a good place, but just because it’s getting ugly, I can’t back out. And you know you’re not going to. It’s only fair.”
“I hate your logic.” He placed his hands on mine, though, and I pressed against his back, smiling. “And I’m really going to hate this.”
Squeezing him like my favorite teddy bear, I knew how hard this was for him to give on. This was monumental, actually. He twisted in my arms, lowered his head, and I thought, Wow, this is how adults do things. They may not agree on stuff all the time, they may argue, but in the end, they work it out and they love.
Like my mom and dad.
A lump formed in my throat. Crying so wouldn’t be the right thing to do, but it was hard to keep those tears back.
“The only good thing is that I’m going to hold Buff down and make him kiss onyx over and over again,” he said.
I choked out a laugh. “You’re sadistic.”
“And you need to study, right? It’s school time management—not Daemon time management, which blows, because we’re alone and it requires more effort for them to interrupt us over here.”
Disappointed, I pulled free. “Yeah, I need to study.”
He pouted and it was incredibly sexy on him. Wrong. “All right, I’m leaving.”