“The bonus points thing wasn’t a lie. You used to make me do that all the time,” I reminded her.
She punched my leg, causing me to grunt. “Yeah, when I was, like, five years old.”
My lips twitched.
“So why did you make up an excuse to hang out with her?” she persisted.
I sighed. “Like I told you when I texted you, I haven’t been particularly nice to her and I needed an excuse. Otherwise she would’ve said no.” The last part was definitely not a lie. If I hadn’t virtually blackmailed her into going to the lake with me, she would’ve said no. Tonight? I really hadn’t had to say anything. Interesting.
“But why—?”
“Dee,” I growled, opening my eyes to find my sister lying on her stomach with her chin in her hands. She was grinning up at me. “Shouldn’t you be focused on something a little more important.”
She batted her lashes. “I think I am focused on something super important.”
I resisted the urge to knock her off the bed. “You can’t tell me you didn’t notice the trace on her.”
“Oh! Yeah. That.” She tapped pale blue nails against her cheek. “How did that happen?”
For a moment, all I could do was stare at her. Obviously, she wasn’t that concerned, which made me fear for her well-being. “We went on a walk—”
“How romantic,” she cooed.
My lips turned down at the corners. “It wasn’t romantic.”
“I think it is,” she went on happily. “When Adam and I take walks it always ends with us—”
“If you want Adam to stay alive, I suggest you don’t finish that sentence.”
She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, so you went on a totally not romantic walk and…”
I was going to knock her off this bed. “And we happened across a bear. It charged us and I had to do something. I didn’t think you’d be happy with me if I let a bear maul her to death.”
“Gee, you think?”
I mouthed a not very nice four-letter word that included “you” at her.
She giggled. “So how did you explain that one off?”
“Well, the energy kind of knocked her out, and I blamed it on the storm—lightning.” I exhaled loudly. “I was lucky.”
“Katy was lucky.”
My gaze shot to her. “How so?”
Dee moved in one fluid motion, sitting cross-legged in less than a second. “That you were there to save her.”
It seemed too obvious to point out the fact that she wouldn’t have needed me to protect her if I hadn’t dragged her out into the woods in the first place.
“Can I ask you something?” Dee poked my knee with her fingers of death.
I arched a brow. “Do I really have a say in that?”
“No.” She flashed a quick grin. “Do you…do you like Katy?”
Every single part of me locked up. My sister waited while a hundred different responses ran through my head. Did I like her? What in the hell kind of question was that? I lowered my arms and sat up a little, throwing one leg off the bed.
“Daemon?”
I didn’t look at my sister as I stood. “No.”
“What?” she whispered.
“You heard me.” I rubbed my palm over my jaw, sighing as I walked over to the dresser and picked up the remote. “Look, I’m sure she’s a great girl and friend, and if she wasn’t…human, she’d be about three thousand times awesome, but no, I don’t like her.” Dee was quiet as I returned to the bed, and she didn’t look up when I sat back down. Her lips were pursed, and now I felt like shit. “Want to watch a movie?”
“Sure.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes, and I wished I hadn’t even looked at her. “Do you think she’ll be safe at least? With the trace?”
“Yeah. I’ve got this.” The pressure was back on my shoulders, and I flipped on the TV. “As long as she stays put for the next couple of days, she’ll be fine.”
Dee moved until she was sitting against the headboard, shoulder to shoulder with me. After a moment, she pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. I started flipping through On Demand and she sighed morosely.
I opened my mouth and then closed it. Another moment passed and I lowered the remote. “I lied.”
She turned to me. “About what?”
“The first question you asked.” I didn’t look at her as I shook my head, staring at the list of movies on the screen. “I lied, just a little.”
Chapter 8
“I was beginning to wonder if you were becoming a recluse or something.” Andrew sat on the narrow railing surrounding the raised deck, his legs dangling into empty space. A near-empty bottle of beer was perched on the railing beside him, and if he’d been human, he would’ve been the poster child for the dangers of underage drinking. “Or if you just didn’t like us anymore.”
Sitting in a chair with my feet kicked up on the patio table, I smirked. “It would be the latter.”
Andrew snickered. “You’re a jackass.”