Onyx

Chapter 17

When Blake texted me and asked to meet him at the Smoke Hole Diner Friday evening, I didn’t know what to do. It seemed…wrong to have an early dinner with him when last night I’d slept in Daemon’s arms.

My cheeks flushed. We didn’t do anything other than that one kiss, but it was just as intimate, if not more. My feelings for him were all over the place and what he did for me yesterday, with the dinner and the Christmas tree, meant something I couldn’t ignore.

But I also couldn’t ignore Blake. He was my friend, and after last night, I needed to make sure he didn’t expect anything more than that—a friendship. Because somewhere over the course of a day, even though I hadn’t figured out things with Daemon, I did realize that he was right about one thing.

I was using Blake.

He was uncomplicated and harmless. Totally a nice guy and dateable, but my feelings were lukewarm for the surfer. Nothing like how I felt for Daemon. And it wasn’t right. If Blake did like me, I couldn’t string him along anymore.

So I texted him back and said okay, hoping this wouldn’t be the most awkward dinner of my life.

The weather had changed the moment the sun went behind the mountains. The comfortable autumn air was replaced by near-frigid winds, and the sky took on a constant gloomy, overcast presence.

I pulled into the closest parking space to the door of the diner. The wind had screamed the whole trip, and I dreaded getting out of my warm car. I couldn’t help but notice that the space of glass above the restaurant’s business hours held a picture of Simon on it. I grimaced, threw open the door, and hurried into the surprisingly crowded restaurant.

Blake was sitting near the fireplace. He stood and smiled when he saw me. “Hey, glad you made it.”

When he reached out as if he wanted to hug me, I pretended not to notice and sat. “I can’t believe how cold it is. How was your trip?”

Frowning slightly, he took his seat and methodically straightened his silverware around a pretend plate. “It wasn’t bad. Not very exciting.” When the cutlery was positioned just so, he glanced up. “How was your break?”

“Not very different than yours.” I paused, recognizing a few kids from school. They were clustered together, drinking sodas and eating a large oven pizza. Chad—the boy Lesa was dating—waved at me and I waved back. “But I’m not ready for it to be over.”

We paused while a plump waitress took our orders. I got a soda and a basket of fries and he ordered soup.

“Hopefully this doesn’t end up all over me,” he joked.

I cringed. Not likely, since Daemon wasn’t here…yet. “I really am sorry about all that.”

Blake tapped his straw off my hand before peeling the paper from around the plastic. “It’s not a big deal. Stuff happens.”

I nodded, studying the steamed-over windows. He cleared his throat, frowning again as his eyes narrowed on a middle-aged man near the bar who was looking around nervously. “I think that guy’s about to skip out on his bill.”

“Huh, really?”

Blake nodded. “And he thinks he’s getting away with it. He has so many times before.”

In stunned silence, I watched the man take one last drink and stand without getting his check.

“Someone is always watching,” Blake added with a slight smile.

A couple sitting behind the man, both in flannel shirts and well-worn jeans, were also watching the customer about to flee. The man leaned toward the woman, whispering something. Her heavy face twisted into a scowl, and she slammed her hand down on the table. “No-good bums, always thinking they can get a free meal!”

The outburst caught the attention of the manager who was taking an order by the door. He turned to face the startled man. “Hey! Did you pay for that?”

The man stopped and fumbled in his pockets. He muttered an apology and hastily threw several crumpled bills on the table.

My head snapped back to Blake. “Whoa, that was…uncanny.”

He shrugged.

I waited until the waitress returned with our order and left, my unease growing. “How did you know he was going to do that?”

Blake blew on his spoonful of vegetable soup. “A good guess.”

“Bullshit,” I whispered.

His gaze met mine. “It was just a lucky guess.”

Doubt bubbled up. Blake wasn’t an alien—at least I assumed he wasn’t, and none of the Luxen I knew could read minds or foresee anything, but that was just too weird. It could’ve been a lucky guess, but every instinct was telling me there was something more.

I munched on the fries. “So do you have lucky guesses a lot?”

He shrugged. “Sometimes. It’s just intuition.”

“Intuition,” I said, nodding. “That’s some spot-on intuition.”

“Anyway, I heard about that kid going missing. That totally sucks.”

The abrupt change of subject was jarring. “Yeah, it does. I think the cops believe he ran away.”

Blake twirled his spoon in the soup. “Did they ask Daemon a lot of questions?”

I frowned. “Why would they?”

Blake’s hand stilled. “Well…because Daemon did get in a fight with him. I mean, it seems likely they would question him.”

Okay, he had a point, and I was being way too twitchy about this. “Yeah, I think they did, but he didn’t have anything to do with—” I froze, not believing what I was feeling. Dull heat flared between my breasts.

It couldn’t be.

I dropped the fry back into the basket. The obsidian flared under my sweater. Frantically, I reached around my neck, tugging on the chain. When the obsidian slipped free, I wrapped my hand around it, wincing as the stone scorched my palm. Panic clawed up my throat as I lifted my eyes.

Blake was doing something with his wrist, but my eyes latched onto the front door. It swung open. Fallen leaves scattered across the tile. The low hum of conversation continued, the customers unaware a monster was in their mix. Near-scalding heat radiated from the obsidian. Our table started to rattled softly.

In the doorway, a tall and pale woman with dark sunglasses covering half her face scanned the crowded patrons. Her raven-colored hair hung in thick, ropey strands around her cheeks. Her red lips were spread in a serpent’s smile.

She was an Arum.

I was starting to stand, seconds away from ripping the obsidian off my neck. Would I really charge her? I wasn’t sure, but I couldn’t stand here and do nothing. My muscles tensed. Arum always traveled in fours, so if there was one, that meant there were three more somewhere.

Blood pounded in my ears. I was so intent on the female Arum that I hadn’t paid attention to Blake until he was in front of me.

He raised one hand.

Everyone stopped. Everyone.

Some people had forks of food halfway to their mouths. Others were stopped in mid-conversation, mouths hanging open in silent laughter. A few had even stopped walking with one foot off the ground. A waitress had been lighting a candle with a small lighter. She was frozen but the flame still danced above the lighter. No one talked, no one moved, and no one even seemed to breathe.

Blake? I took a step back from him, unsure of whom I should be more afraid of—the Arum or the harmless surfer boy.

The female Arum hadn’t frozen. She was moving her head side to side in slick, fluid motions as she studied the frozen humans and, I assumed, a few Luxen.

“Arum,” Blake accused, voice low.

She whipped around, her head still moving. She took off her sunglasses, squinted. “Human?”

Blake laughed. “Not quite.”

And then he launched himself at her.