Knowing there was no way I could wake her, I walked over to her. Carefully, I picked up the textbook and closed it, placing it on the coffee table. Grabbing the quilt off the back of the couch, I placed it over her legs.
Then, without really thinking about it, I placed one hand on the arm of the couch, braced myself, and then bent down. I pressed my lips to her cool cheek and then drew back. Fiddling with the quilt for a few moments, I made sure it covered her and then stepped away.
I could leave now. Kat wasn’t going anywhere.
But as I stared down at her, even as the tension in my face softened, I let myself go there. For just a second, I let the full weight of what had happened, what I had done, settle on my shoulders.
I closed my eyes.
I’d broken so many rules. Exposed what I really was. Told Kat the truth. Healed her, not once but countless times. I almost laughed, but none of it was funny. Her life was in danger, would continuously be in danger, especially if she remained around us—around me—and I was such a selfish prick, because now…
Now I wasn’t staying away from her.
Chapter 2
I waited about ten seconds before I leaned forward and poked Kat with my pen. Her shoulders rose on a sigh, and then she twisted around in her seat. Gray eyes met mine. “Good morning, Kitten.”
She eyed me warily. “Good morning, Daemon.”
As I tilted my head, hair fell forward, almost into my eyes. I needed to get a haircut someday. “Don’t forget we have plans tonight.”
“Yeah, I know. Looking forward to it,” she said drily.
The excitement almost knocked me over.
I leaned forward, tipping my desk down as I did so. To my right, I could see Carissa and Lesa watching us. The corner of my lips curved up.
“What?” she said when the silence increased between us.
“We need to work off your trace,” I said, low enough that only she could hear. We’d lost yesterday when it came to working the trace off. We couldn’t lose tonight.
Kat picked up her pen. “Yeah, I figured as much.”
Because I liked getting a rise out of her, watching her get all feisty, I said, “And I have this really fun idea of how we can do it.”
She surprised me when she smiled.
“Liking the idea?” My gaze dropped to her full lips.
“Not in this lifetime, buddy,” she replied.
I almost laughed. “Resistance is futile, Kitten.”
“So is your charm.”
“We’ll see.”
Rolling her eyes, she faced the front of the classroom. Our teacher strolled in, looking older than he had yesterday. I wasn’t done with Kat. I poked her again.
Turning around, she glared at me. “What, Daemon?”
I moved lightning quick. With a grin, I swiped my fingers along her cheek, like I’d done last night when she had pancake batter on her face. This time I got a tiny piece of fuzz out of her hair. I was so damn helpful.
Kat stared at me.
“After school,” I reminded her.
She didn’t respond, but I knew she understood. Kat might fight me tooth and nail on, well, everything, but she wasn’t dumb.
Throughout class, Kat looked like she was about five seconds from passing out in front of me. She yawned so many times I began to wonder if she was going to injure her jaw. This wasn’t normal for her, especially since she had slept through the evening last night. When I left around ten, she was still asleep.
At the end of class, Kat dragged herself out of her seat and headed for the door. I trailed behind her, barely listening to what Carissa and Lesa were chattering about. We parted ways at that point.
The morning dragged by and I ended up skipping the period before lunch so I could head down the street to grab something more appetizing than whatever the school was trying to pass off as food. I think meat loaf was on the menu, and I was sure that whatever was in that stuff was not meat. As I ordered a sub, I spied smoothies on the menu. Weren’t strawberries Kat’s favorite? Grinning, I added one of those and then grabbed a freshly baked cookie.
No one looked in my direction as I strolled in through the doors and made my way to the cafeteria. It had always been that way. Our kind could come and go as we pleased. It helped that there were Luxen on staff, not just Matthew.
As I walked down the hall, a warm tingle danced across the nape of my neck, filling me with a measure of unease. It had happened when I’d returned with the piece of obsidian and again when I arrived at school yesterday and was near math class. The same today. It happened whenever I was near her. It had to be a product of healing her on such a…a major level like I had. Whether it was permanent or would fade with the trace was a wait-and-see kind of thing.