Opposition

24

{ Katy }

The mass of Arum hit the ground, their forms solidifying as they rose over the homes like oily shadows, and then they blanketed everything like black snow. A blast of arctic air hit us from behind.

We turned, and there were more, swooping down among the trees, rushing forward, barely missing us as they swarmed the ground like an army of ants.

“They’re here,” Daemon said. “He’s here.”

Oh, boy, were they ever. The Arum were everywhere.

It was like watching a hundred bowling balls knock down a thousands pins. The Arum on the ground slammed into the first line, appearing to swallow them whole as they converged on the Luxen.

Dropping from the sky above, they snatched up Luxen, tossing them into the air, where they were caught midflight by another Arum as some shifted into something that was both solid and yet not.

I stumbled back as a Luxen flew past me, slamming into a tree. Before it could fall, an Arum sped forward, a blur of midnight, catching the Luxen and tossing it against the tree with enough power that it shattered the bark. Tiny bits flew into the air.

The Arum solidified into a tall woman with jet-black hair. She reared an arm back and then thrust her hand deep into the chest of the Luxen. The scream pierced the roar in my ears as she shifted back into oily smoke.

An Origin hit the ground from—I didn’t even know where. The impact shook the branches above, and a shower of leaves floated down as the Origin slid across the ground, kicking up loose soil and rocks. The male struggled to his feet, letting loose a bolt of the Source that flew off-target as a thick shadow brought it back down to the ground. The blast of white light hit a tree, cracking the thick elm in half. It came down on the mass of Arum and Luxen. Some scattered out to the sides, and the brilliant lights of the Luxen were snuffed out as another wave of Arum descended into the fight.

“Holy . . .” I breathed, hands shaking.

Twisting around, I saw another Luxen snatched out of the air. The feedings had begun in full force, and I . . . I’d never seen anything like this. It was a mess of brutality, and yet, it was disturbingly awe-inspiring—the flashes of light and thick shadows. Such contrast.

One of the forms broke free and solidified in front of us, a tall creature with skin like polished obsidian, and then it took form. Sharp cheekbones. Lips. Straight nose. A bare chest and leather pants. Bleached blond hair.

Lotho stood in front of us, head thrown back. Shimmery blue liquid was splattered across his alabaster chest. He grinned madly. “Dinnertime.”

Before either of us could respond, he headed back into the . . . God, I didn’t know what to call it. I imagined it was like when the Native Americans had decided they’d had enough of the Pilgrims and picked them off with skill and ease. A straight massacre—a well-deserved massacre, but still.

Shimmery blood tinted blue sprayed in every direction, coating the grass and paved sidewalks of the small village. Lights were going out like smashed lightning bugs. The fight moved farther away, toward the cluster of homes that had once been protected by the beta quartz embedded in the mountains.

Roofs of houses caved as Luxen and Arum crashed into them. Sparks flew as power lines fell to the ground. Flames erupted from inside the homes. A building exploded off in the distance, causing me to flinch as a wave of heat rolled through the clearing, but the red-hot blast quickly chilled.

Another house exploded—boards winging into the air and glass shattering. I jumped, thinking I heard Daemon call my name, but I couldn’t turn away from the destruction. Fire speared the sky. The screams . . . they were coming from everywhere, all around us, ringing in my head and dragging over my too-tight skin.

My stomach roiled.

Which was stupid and weak, because I’d killed before.

That thought was like a second blast of frigid air dumped on my head. The scenery in front of me blurred. How many times had I killed? God, I think I’d lost count.

“Kat, your heart . . .” Daemon said, one hand moving to cup my cheek. His grip on my waist loosened, and as our gazes met and held, I couldn’t believe there could be such beauty among such carnage. “Calm down, Katy. It’s over.”

Was it really? The energy spiked in me as I gazed back at the . . . the horror taking place, and then I pulled free.

Suddenly, I needed . . . I didn’t know what I needed. My skin was still too tight and it tingled. The heat was back, burning from the inside. I had to get away from here, away from Daemon, away from everything.

My head was a mess as I turned, and I started running again, but this time I wasn’t chasing anything. Or maybe I was chasing myself. I didn’t know or understand. I just ran, and it wasn’t until I’d cleared the colony and started up a rough incline, a path dug deep into soil and rock, that I realized I was running toward Seneca Rocks and up them.

The climb was hard, rough, and my feet slipped many times. Pressure slammed down on my chest the higher I went, until it was difficult to draw in a breath or to really think about what the hell I was doing. And I really didn’t want to think about that, because this was crazy.

I knew I wasn’t self-destructing. I think I knew that, because as I scrambled up the ragged path, stumbling over small bushes and sliding over pebbles, I remembered how it had been for Carissa. She had been like something shoved in a microwave that shouldn’t have been placed in there.

My legs almost gave out when I reached the first of the peaks, a part that was nothing more than a ledge above a steep drop-off. I stopped—stopped walking, stopped thinking and climbing.

Dragging in deep breaths, I lifted my chin and looked up, and I swore I saw ghosts from the past. I thought I saw Dawson and Bethany looking down on me. My gaze traveled down the other peak to where I stood.

I didn’t see ghosts.

It was a memory, a conversation about what had happened to them. It all had started here. Dawson had healed Beth after she’d fallen from the rocks, which had caused her uncle to contact Daedalus, and then everything from that moment had led to this.

Everything had started with Dawson and Beth.

“Kat?”

My breath caught as I heard his voice. My chin dipped to my chest as I slowly wheeled around.

And everything ended with Daemon and me.

He stared at me from the path, his eyes brilliant as he watched me. His chest rose and fell as fast as mine. “Kat,” he said again.

My head still didn’t feel screwed on right as he took a step onto the ledge. I backed across the smooth rock, breathing heavily. I closed my eyes and I saw Mom—I saw her without blue eyes, but with beautiful hazel ones, and when I took a breath, it got stuck around a sob in my throat. I saw Ethan sitting in my kitchen and then standing on Daemon’s porch, the first time I’d seen him. I saw Blake, that carefree, charming smile that had hidden so many secrets. I saw Carissa, who we would never get answers about, and then I saw countless faces with unknown names.

“Kitten,” Daemon tried again, and I opened my eyes. I saw him. “What are we doing?”

We. Not you. We.

“I don’t know,” I admitted in a hoarse whisper. “I thought . . . I just needed to get away from it.”

“That’s understandable.”

It was, wasn’t it? I took another step back, my gaze never leaving his. It was obvious. I wasn’t self-destructing. I sat down. Or plopped down. I wasn’t sure which. Several moments passed and I remembered the strangest thing. “This . . . this is like Snowbird.”

He stared at me like he was worried I had truly lost my mind. Maybe I had. “What?”

“The legend you told me about.” I turned, looking over the ridge. Every muscle in my body ached. There was a good chance there was a hole in my shoulder, and I was so very, very tired. “This is like Princess Snowbird.”

Daemon didn’t respond.

“She climbed up these rocks and only one brave warrior kept pace with her until the end.” I wet my dry lips, forcing my lungs open with another deep breath. “You told me all about it when we took that walk, before we saw the bear.” My gaze shifted over to him, and his expression had softened. “You told me . . . told me about the most stunning people and what was inside them.” I paused, frowning. “The way you said it sounded so very beautiful.”

He came closer, stopping in front of me. He knelt down, his eyes shining. “I remember. I said, ‘The most beautiful people, ones whose beauty is only rivaled by what is inside of them, are the ones who are quietly unaware of it.’ Or something like that.”

“That was it.” I nodded.

He tilted his head to the side. “I was talking about you then. Those words were meant for you.”

My eyes met his again and I swallowed. Hard.

“You had no idea how beautiful you were. I don’t even think you do now, but it’s what’s inside of you.” Carefully, he reached out and placed his hand between my breasts. “That’s the most beautiful thing in the world. What’s in you.”

Tears rose, and I let out a shaky breath. Those words . . . well, they did something in me. I wasn’t a murderer. I wasn’t crazy. I was tired and I was a million other things, and to Daemon, I was also beautiful on the outside and inside.

“Thank you.”

He made a sound in the back of his throat as he moved toward me and circled his arms around my shoulders. “You never need to thank me for the truth.”

I clutched at his shirt. “At least I didn’t laugh at you this time.”

“There’s always that.” There was a smile in his voice. “Oh, Kitten . . .”

From where we were, it looked like thick, dark clouds passing, snuffing out tiny stars, except the mass wasn’t clouds and the lights flickering out weren’t stars. Daemon rested his chin atop my head as he smoothed his hand up my back, and I felt the familiar warmth of his touch. “It’s over.”

Finally, I relaxed against him and closed my eyes. It was over.

{ Daemon }

I wasn’t sure I closed my eyes at all during the night. Maybe I had slept a bit, but I couldn’t confirm that. Watching Kat was the last thing and the first thing I remembered.

She was curled against me, her cheek resting on my now-numb arm. We were in my house and before she’d crashed last night, she had changed into one of my shirts that had been left untouched in my closet. It was way too big for her, sliding down her shoulder, exposing a tantalizing amount of skin.

I was pretty fascinated by that skin. With my not-dead arm, I trailed my fingers across her shoulder, following her collarbone. I’d been doing that for half the night. Every so often, she’d manage to snuggle closer, tossing a leg over mine or pressing her body against mine.

I worried about her.

Really freaking worried about her.

Even after discovering what had happened to her mother, she’d held it together yesterday, taken out Ethan, and witnessed the Arum swarming in. Yeah, she’d freaked and bolted. But hell, she had it controlled when the Arum had blown through the colony later, having suffered only minor losses before they headed toward Northern Virginia to finish it.

When word came late in the evening that the invading Luxen had turned into one giant buffet for the Arum, she’d smiled as those around us celebrated the victory, the end of this madness. But there hadn’t been a lot of time to comfort her or to really talk about it. All I’d been able to do was hold her while she fell asleep. Didn’t seem like enough.

There really wasn’t ever enough.

My chest was heavy with the loss, with the pain I knew she’d suffer for a long time to come from a death that was so needless and cruel. Her family had been stripped away from her. Her father lost to cancer and her mother to one of my own kind.

Still, like some kind of miracle, her last words to me before she’d fallen asleep had been I love you. The fact that she still could feel something like that blew me away.

I would’ve done anything to save her from this pain, but like so many other things I wanted to go back and erase, this was one of them we would have to learn to accept, that we would have to face together.

Kat stirred against me, stretching out in a way that reminded me so much of the nickname I’d given her. A smile pulled at the corners of my lips as her lashes fluttered open.

Sleep clouded her pretty eyes as they met mine. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself.”

Her hand flattened out against my bare chest as her gaze swept across my face. “Have you been up long?”

“I’m not even sure I slept.”

“So you’ve been watching me sleep?”

One side of my lips kicked up. “Maybe.”

“Well, look who’s being the creeper this time around.”

“Call me what you want, I don’t care.” I moved my thumb along her lower lip. “I spent hours staring at the best damn scenery.”

Her cheeks flushed. “Flattery will get you everything.”

“I already have everything.”

“That was sweet of you.” She patted my chest like I was a good boy, and I ignored the parts of me that got all happy about that. Her gaze drifted away and circled the room before coming back to me. “It’s really over, isn’t it?”

I curled my arm around her, overlooking the rush of pins and needles. “I think so. I mean, for the most part. Things are going to be different. Life will be different, but it’s over.”

Kat’s lashes lowered as she bit down on her lower lip in a way that got those parts of me paying close attention. “What are we going to do now?” she whispered.

“Whatever we want to do.”

She rolled onto her back but didn’t get very far. “That sounds really nice.”

The sudden clanging of pots from the kitchen down below brought a winsome smile to her face. “I’m assuming Dee and Archer are up?”

“Yeah. I think I heard them moving around not too long ago. They’re probably making good use of the fact that whoever was staying here kept the kitchen stocked.” My brows knitted. “Archer supposedly slept in Dawson’s room last night, but I heard a bedroom—”

“Daemon.” She laughed.

I sighed. “I know. Turning over a new leaf and blah, blah.” I started to get up. “I better go and see—”

Her arm had snaked up, looping around my neck, and she tugged me down. Yeah, I didn’t resist. There was no such thing as willpower when it came to her, especially not when she lifted her head and kissed me.

Kat was all warm and soft under me, and that kiss quickly spun into something else. Her leg curled around my calf and her hands slid down my back, reaching the band on the pajama bottoms I’d found, and then slipped under.

Hot damn.

I forgot about sneaking around in bedrooms, about who was downstairs, and about almost everything else as she made this breathy sound that caused my skin to tighten. Her nails scraped along my skin as I got my hands under that borrowed shirt, over the length of her smooth skin. She arched into me, and I wanted her. I always wanted her. Hell, I’d spend eternity needing her, but we had time. Later today. Tonight. Tomorrow. We had a week, a month, and a year from now. We finally had a future and many more moments like this.

But right now, she needed me.

Her hands made their way to my front, and a ragged sound caught in my throat. Okay. Clarification. She needed more than this.

Finding the willpower I’d thought I didn’t have earlier but discovered I could exercise when it really mattered, I pulled away from her, just a little, and got her hands back to where I could see them.

Her brows pinched as she stared up at me, eyes a deep, smoky gray. I kissed her softly, lingering longer than I should. “How are you doing?” I asked, my voice rough in my own ears.

“Um, well, I was—”

“Not that.” I sat up, putting a little space between us so I wouldn’t change my mind and do all kinds of things to her. “How are you feeling after . . . after yesterday?”

She stilled for a moment, and then her chest rose sharply as she squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t want to think about that right now.”

“Kat—”

“I don’t.” She tucked her legs under her as she rose. Clasping my cheeks, she leaned in until we were eye to eye. When she spoke, I swore my heart cracked in my chest. The pain of her words was so very real. “I know what you’re doing, and God, I love you for it, but I’m not ready, Daemon. I’m not, because I can’t even think about it without wanting to bring down this house or go curl in a ball. I don’t want to feel any of those things. When I lost my dad, it hurt—hurt so badly, and I don’t want to experience that hurt. The only thing I want to feel is you right now. The only thing I want to think about is how you make me feel. That’s what I need from you.”

I was still for maybe five seconds, and then I sprang from the bed, found my thankfully still private stash, grabbed the small package, and was back on the bed in front of her in a heartbeat. “I can do that for you.”

We stared at each other for another second, and then she straightened slightly, reaching down and lifting the shirt over her head.

I forgot how to breathe.

With just the tips of my fingers, I followed the map of her curves. “You’re so beautiful.” I kissed the tiny hollow between her collarbones. “You’re stronger than you realize.” Another kiss to the spot behind her ear. “You’re perfect for me.”

I put everything I felt into the gesture I’d never take for granted when it came to her.

Pressing her down onto her back and settling between her legs, I helped her hold the darkness back so that the only thing she felt was my hands, my skin, and everything I felt for her.

Showered and changed, we headed downstairs just in time to eat leftover bacon and eggs. The food was cold and Archer and my sister were staring at us like they knew exactly why it took us so long to come downstairs, but I didn’t care. There was an edge of sadness to the soft smile Kat wore as she watched them, but she was smiling, and I had given her what she wanted when she needed it.

After she finished eating, she excused herself and stood. From behind my chair, she leaned over and kissed my cheek. “I’m going to step outside for a few. Okay?”

I started to follow her but realized that she probably wanted a few minutes alone and told myself to keep my ass in my chair. As she turned, though, I caught her arm and tugged her down until I could capture her mouth in a deep, scorching kiss that probably sent her mind back to what went down between us in the bedroom.

Archer coughed. “We’re not standing here or anything.”

“Whatever,” I murmured as I let Kat go, and she surveyed the room with a red face. Giving an awkward wave, she turned and hurried out of the kitchen. I leaned back in my chair, shooting Archer a look that said, Shut up.

He raised his hands as he backed away from the table and then grabbed the trash, going right to where the can was under the sink, in the cabinet. I frowned. “You’re awful familiar with my kitchen.”

Archer snorted.

“How is she?” Dee asked as she sat beside me.

I sighed. “As can be expected.”

Sympathy poured into her eyes. “I didn’t know Ethan had her mom killed. I swear. I would’ve said something if I did.”

“I know.” I patted her arm. “Kat knows that, too.”

“Totally sucks,” Archer said, closing the cabinet door and straightening. “Probably good to get away from here.”

“Yeah,” I murmured, hoping she’d open up soon about what she was feeling. I knew from personal experience how that kind of pain and hurt could tear someone up. “I’ll see—”

Archer’s cell phone went off in his pocket. Frowning, he pulled it out and quickly answered. “What’s up, Luc?” he asked as he turned back to the sink and grabbed a dish towel.

Who knew Archer was so domesticated? I looked at my sister, and she was grinning at him like he was the second coming of something great.

“What?” Archer turned to us slowly, frowning. “No. Not at all.”

I sat up straight, on alert.

His eyes met mine. “Yeah, I know what you planned to do. It’ll still happen.” There was a pause, and sudden unease formed in my gut. “I’ll call you if anything comes up here.”

I was standing, and so was Dee by the time he disconnected the call. “What’s going on?”’

He slipped his phone into his pocket. “Nancy was sighted.”

“What?” The question boomed out of me. “A little more detail.”

Archer walked over to the table and gripped the back of a chair. “Luc doesn’t know the exact time frame. Sometime yesterday evening. With everything going on, word just got back to him. It was near Georgia. Maybe she was looking for us.”

“Shit,” I said, not liking the sound of that and knowing that this . . . this shit really wasn’t over. Not with her. . . .

“He’s ticked off. He planned on killing her.”

“What?”

“You heard me correctly. Once this was all over, he wanted to take her out himself. He never had any intentions of releasing the Origins back to her.”

There wasn’t a single part of me that was unhappy to hear about those plans, and I didn’t care how bad that made me look.

Archer scrubbed his jaw. “God, that woman could literally be anywhere and I’ll tell you what, she’s a loose cannon—” He cut himself off as he whirled around and looked at the clock on the wall. “Georgia . . . it didn’t take us that long to make the trip— Oh, shit.” He whipped around.

I was already racing toward the front door. There had been more than enough time for Nancy to make her way here, but I couldn’t imagine that woman would be stupid enough to try to seek vengeance on us. I threw the door open and rushed out onto the front porch, scanning the yard. A burst of air left me as I spotted Kat in front of her house. She was on her knees, her hair up in a knot, pulling the weeds out of the flower box. Frankly, she was ripping them out.

She looked up as I jogged over to where she was. Without saying a word, I reached down and hauled her up, pulling her into my arms and squeezing the ever-loving daylights out of her.

“Hey.” Her voice was muffled. “Is everything okay?”

Holding on to her, I lifted her up off her feet. “Yeah,” I said against the top of her head. “I just missed you.”

“I’ve only been gone a few minutes.”

I lowered her to her feet, not sure how to tell her about Nancy or even if I should bring it up. That might be wrong as hell, but God, I didn’t want to mention that piece of bad news. Not with everything she’d just gone through and the fact that I knew she was trying to focus on a future she hadn’t believed possible days before.

“You are so weird sometimes,” she said, grinning as she looked up at me. “But I still love—” Whatever she was saying ended in a shout of warning.

Time slowed as I whirled around, and sure as hell, there was Nancy looking like a mess, dark hair standing out in every direction, that god-awful suit wrinkled. There was a gun in her hand, but it didn’t look like a normal pistol. Instead it looked like a Glock that had been manipulated into something else.

Something really deadly.

There was a moment when my brain registered what was happening, what was about to go down, and that moment felt like an eternity as my gaze met Nancy’s and the hatred in her eyes told me everything I needed to know. She wasn’t going to kill me.

No.

She wanted me—one of her ultimate prizes—to suffer.

The gun wasn’t pointed at me.

Nancy smiled. “You ruined everything.”

The time it would take to summon the Source, a handful of seconds, wasn’t a risk I was willing to take. Before that thought was even finished, I was moving. My hands circled Kat’s arms as she raised a hand, preparing to tap into her ability. I took her down as a spark of blue light flared, followed by a low popping sound.

My eyes met Kat’s.

Shouts exploded from my nearby house and I heard Dee scream—a mixture of horror and the kind of fury that ended lives. There was a blast of the Source, a short howl of pain, and the sound of Nancy hitting the ground—dead.

And then there was silence.

I looked down, between our bodies. The front of her cream-colored sweater looked wrong, like it had been splattered with a paintbrush dipped in red and . . .

“Kitten?” I gasped out.

It wasn’t her blood.

Thank God, it wasn’t her blood.

But I didn’t understand what had happened. I hadn’t even felt it. How strange was that? I’d never been shot before, but I figured it would have to hurt the moment the bullet ripped through me, but it didn’t.

Now my back and chest were on fire.

“Daemon?” she whispered.

Oh shit.

My lungs tried to expand but seemed to get stuck. I didn’t look away from her eyes as I lifted myself off her, tried to stand, but realized that my brain wasn’t connecting to my legs. I went down on one hand, feeling the warm wetness traveling down my stomach. My arm gave out and I landed on my side.

Kat was suddenly above me, and I was on my back and all I could see were her beautiful gray eyes—eyes that had become my whole life, probably before I even realized they had.

But those eyes were wide with fear and shining in a way that made me want to touch her, to make sure she was okay. I managed to lift my arm and trail the tips of my fingers across her cheek, but I couldn’t hold it up. It was like dead meat.

“Daemon!”

I tried to respond, but all I could do was focus on those eyes. As she leaned over me, her sweet lips so close to mine, my name on her tongue, I thought that if I had to die, if this would be the end, then at least I was seeing her and nothing else.