Once he was finished with my hair, I felt the edge of the comb poke me in the lower back. Brows raised, I glanced over my shoulder at him. “What?”
He leaned in, kissing me softly. The edges of his damp hair brushed my cheeks as he slanted his head, deepening the kiss until my heart was pounding.
I placed my hand over his chest, above his heart, and felt it match the rhythm of my own. My gaze lifted, and our eyes met. Somehow we ended up stretched out across the bed, my back curled against his front.
“I’m not finished healing you,” he said, voice gruff. His fingers trailed around a tender spot along my temple.
I closed my eyes, letting him do what he wanted. After all, it made him feel better. But the healing warmth slowly turned into something else when the tips of his fingers slipped down my arm, under my shirt, and across my stomach. There was nothing between his skin and mine.
“You’ve been using the Source a lot.” His hand flattened against my lower stomach, his pinkie finding a way under the loose band on my sweats. “It’s had to have worn you out.”
Another finger traveled under the band, and I wasn’t sure I was that worn out. My entire consciousness was focused on his hand—the weight and warmth of it, the exact positioning.
“Kitten?”
“Hmm?”
His voice was deep and smooth. “Just seeing if you’d passed out on me.”
“I’d never do such a thing.”
He was quiet for a moment. “You know what I’ve been thinking?”
With him, it was anyone’s guess. “What?”
“I was thinking about when all of this is over, where we are going to go.” Half of his hand was under the band now. “What we are going to do.”
“You have any idea?”
“I have lots of ideas.”
A hot, sweet feeling swept over me. “I bet you do.”
Daemon chuckled as his thumb moved in a slow, idle circle under my navel. “I was thinking college.”
“You think there’ll be colleges around after all of this?”
“I think so.”
The tips of two fingers delved low, causing my breath to catch. “Why do you think that?”
“Easy answer.” He dropped a kiss on my cheek. “If you’ve taught me anything, it’s that humans are resilient, more so than my kind. No matter what, they’ll keep forging on. So I can’t believe that there won’t be colleges and jobs or anything like that.”
My lips curved into a small smile as I decided to play along. “College would be good, I think.”
“I think you mentioned University of Colorado before,” he said, his fingers creeping farther south, causing the muscles in my lower stomach to clench. “What about that?”
I remembered the first time we’d talked about the university, and I’d been so worried that I’d been overstepping relationship lines. Seemed like forever ago. “I think that’s perfect.”
“I’m sure Dawson and Beth would like it there.” He paused. “So would Dee.”
“Yeah, she would.” Especially if Archer would be around, but then, we kind of needed to get Dee’s head on straight first. “Maybe . . . maybe I could get my mom to move out there, too.”
“Of course,” he murmured, and I bit down on my lip hard enough to taste blood as he managed to get his knee between mine. “Your mom has to be there, because we’re going to do it.”
My eyes widened. “Uh, I’m not sure that’s something I want my mom to be a part of.”
Daemon’s laugh tickled me. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Kitten. We’re going to do a real wedding. The whole thing—bridesmaids, best man, the pretty white gown, and the ceremony. Even a reception. Everything.”
My mouth opened, but there were no words. I got caught in the fantasy of a real wedding—of my mom being there to help me get into a beautiful Cinderella-type gown; of Dee and Lesa standing beside me; of Dawson, Archer, and even Luc as best men. Then there was Daemon in a tux, and damn, that was something I wanted to see again.
And there’d be pictures taken and pot roast served at the reception. There’d be a DJ playing questionable music, and then Daemon and I would have our first dance as husband and wife.
My heart kicked around in my chest, and I hadn’t realized until that moment how badly I wanted that. I was such a girl and I didn’t care.
“Kitten?”
“I like this,” I whispered as my chest squeezed. “Talking about this, I mean. It feels normal. It feels like we have a—”
Daemon had leaned over me, capturing my mouth with his. The kiss reached deep down inside me, lighting up every cell. “We do have a future.”
I stopped thinking as his lips returned to mine, and he eased me onto my back. The rest of the world, all the concerns and dangers, faded away until it was just the two of us. He did crazy insane things with his hand, and there was this rush of sensations that tossed me around like I was riding a wave. And when I came back down, I pushed him onto his back.
Daemon’s brows flew up as I hovered over him. “What are you—?”
He got with the program pretty quickly, and the edges of his body started to glow that luminous whitish-red as his hand curled around my damp hair. Before his lashes drifted down, his eyes were like rough diamonds, and the expression was sort of awed, even though I really had no idea what I was doing. But he seemed to love it, and I think it was because he loved me.
Later, we lay facing each other and we were quiet. I traced the line of his bottom lip, working up the nerve to ask him something I’d been curious about. “Why did you leave with them when they came?”
His eyes were closed, face relaxed. “When they came out of the woods, I could hear everything they were thinking, what they wanted. It was the same for Dawson and Dee. We were immediately connected. And at first, it was overwhelming. I wanted to go with them.” He paused, opening his eyes. Our gazes locked. “It was like I forgot everything except them. They became everything.”
I couldn’t even wrap my head around that. “Do you hear them now?”
“No. If anything, it’s a low hum way in the background.” He paused. “It’s not the first time something like that has happened. When a lot of us are around one another, it can get hard, because it’s like a million-way radio. It’s why we never liked being in the colony. When there are so many of us, we all are connected, almost like one being, and you’re influenced into things you don’t want. You’re not an individual. You’re a whole. I just didn’t know it could be as strong as it was when they came.”
“But you beat it,” I reminded him, because he sounded almost disappointed in himself.
“Because of what I felt for you. Same with Dawson, and obviously any other Luxen who is connected to someone else, but Dee . . .” He trailed off, shaking his head. “Those who came, they are different from the rest of us. I know that’s obvious now, but they . . . they’re so cold. No empathy or compassion.” A sigh shuddered through him. “I don’t remember my parents, but I can’t believe they were like this. I guess we aren’t like that because we’ve been around humans. That lack of compassion and empathy makes them dangerous, Kat. More than I think we even realize.”
As I smoothed my thumb along his jaw, he turned his head, placing a kiss on the center of my palm. “They have to have a weakness, though. Everything in the universe has a weakness.”
Daemon captured my hand, threading his fingers through mine. “In every colony, there is an Elder who pretty much rules over the group. I know that out of those who have arrived, there has to be one who is kind of like . . . like their sergeant. Their queen in a hive. Taking out that person won’t end this, but it will weaken them—the hold they have over other Luxen.”
Like Dee.
“Any idea who that is or where that person is?” I asked.
His lips kicked up on one side. “No. Rolland kept it pretty hidden, and now that makes sense. Because of Sadi, he knew better than to share that little piece of information. Damn Sadi. I had no idea she was an Origin, but I think she’s not the only one who’s been pretending and hiding out among the Luxen.”
I frowned. “Who else?”
“It’s something I never really noticed until I was leaving the colony, when I came for you. Strange thing is, I never trusted this guy. There was also something off about him, and he said some off-the-wall stuff when I left. Things that didn’t make sense then, and I didn’t really put anything together until Archer revealed what he was—you know, the eye coloring.” He rolled onto his back, exhaling slowly. “Ethan Smith.”
It took me a moment to remember who he was. “He’s the Elder from the colony back home?”
He nodded. “His eyes are just like Archer’s and Luc’s.”
“Holy crap,” I breathed. Sitting up, I folded my legs under me. “But if he is an Origin, and if the Origins somehow helped get the rest of the Luxen here, the question is why?”
Daemon’s gaze shifted to mine. “That’s the question of a lifetime, right? Why would some of the Origins be working with the Luxen?”