Dee didn’t speak again until she hit the highway. “Be honest with me. How badly was she hurt?”
“I don’t know.” I watched Kat’s hand twitch against my leg. “I think… I think it was pretty bad. She seemed to have trouble breathing. That Arum was going to kill her.”
“Oh God,” Dee whispered.
Looking out the window, I watched the darkened trees blur past, broken up every few moments by headlights. “We… I just need to be more careful.”
Dee didn’t respond for a long moment. “Adam called. He knew something was up when you left the house. I told him—”
“I know you told him about Kat. He said something tonight.” I dragged my gaze from the window, finding Dee’s in the rearview mirror. “I’m going to have to tell them.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. “Adam doesn’t care, but…”
Yeah, she didn’t need to elaborate. Ash and Andrew would most definitely have a problem with it, but I’d killed an Arum tonight. Couldn’t keep the lid on this jar of shit any longer.
We didn’t speak the rest of the way, and Kat didn’t wake up when we pulled in front of the house. She only stirred, murmuring under her breath when I unbuckled her and carefully drew her out of the car, once again in my arms and tucked against my chest.
“I got her purse and keys,” Dee announced, closing the driver’s door. “I’m going to unlock the door. You got her?”
“Of course.”
Dee’s gaze met mine, and I didn’t want to know what she was thinking in that moment, but she whirled around and darted across the driveway, toward Kat’s house. Twisting at the waist, I kneed the car door shut. I turned, shifting Kat in my arms.
She stirred, sliding her hand up my chest to my shoulder. A shiver rushed over my skin. Wrong as hell. Her lashes lifted, and I stopped a few feet from the car as the corners of her lips lifted up, too. Silvery moonlight glanced over her cheek. “Hey,” she whispered.
“Hey.”
Her unfocused gaze drifted over my face. “You…you are really pretty.”
A surprised laugh burst out of me. “Thanks, Kitten.”
Yeah, she was totally high and out of it, but her smile widened as her eyes closed. I wasn’t high or out of it when I whispered back to her, “So are you.”
I’d never been in Kat’s house before, and I don’t even know why it felt weird to be inside. Maybe it was because she was passed out. I hadn’t investigated the house as I followed Dee into a similar foyer and through a doorway to the right. Dee had turned on a lamp, and soft yellow light enveloped the living room.
Books.
Books were everywhere.
Stacked by the corner of the couch, in a neat pile of five, spines facing out. Two were on the coffee table. One had a shiny bookmark poking out of the top. Three more were on the end table. Another was on the TV stand, and it too had a bookmark shoved in it. Was she reading two books at once? More?
I could barely read one at a time.
“I think we should stay down here,” Dee said, sitting in a worn recliner by the window. “Just in case something is wrong.”
Looking at Dee, I turned and stared at the couch, the only other available seating. I carried Kat over to the couch and laid her down. I sat beside her, my gaze crawling up to the slow-moving ceiling fan.
Dee talked for a little while, but she quickly fell asleep, virtually leaving me solely responsible for Kat, which was a bad idea in general, since I was doing a real bang-up job of that.
I dropped my elbow on the arm of the couch and rested my cheek in my palm, watching Kat’s shoulders rise and fall steadily. I could’ve turned on the TV, but I didn’t want to wake her or my sister.
Flicking my wrist, I managed to turn off the lamp without destroying it with a quick zip of energy. As the darkness surrounded us, the image trying to stir formed in my thoughts. I doubted I would ever get the scene of that Arum standing over a broken Kat out of my head or forget the raspy sound of panic in her voice when she hadn’t realized it was me at her side.
Yeah, tonight was going to linger.
I must’ve dozed off at some point, because daylight now filtered through the living room as Kat snuggled her way closer. Her head ended up in my lap, and that wasn’t entirely comfortable. I shifted her carefully, but damn, I may not be human, but I was a guy.
Kat slept soundly, her injured arm curled against her chest and her lips slightly parted. I lifted my head, working a kink out of my neck. It was then that I realized my hand was resting on her curved hip.
Huh.
I had no recollection of doing that. Must’ve been in my sleep. I didn’t move my hand, though. My entire being focused on that hand—which was only slightly better than focusing on where her head was. Through the thin denim of her jeans, the curve of her hip was soft. Warm. I imagined that this was what couples did, though Ash and I were never like this. She could get touchy. So could I, but this? Nah, I don’t think we’d ever done anything like this.
Why was I even thinking about that with Kat?