“Namely me,” Andrew commented.
“And what do you think will happen if the Elders find out about Kat knowing the truth?” I persisted, hoping to reason with Dee on a different level. Ash finally faced us again, her expression blank as she watched us. “Or what do you think the government will do? They don’t know her. They have no reason to trust her. She’ll disappear. Hello. Bethany, anyone?”
Dee sucked in a sharp, audible breath at the reminder of our brother’s human girlfriend who “disappeared” along with him last year.
“You don’t want to put her in that position, do you?” I asked. “Because that’s what you’re also risking by telling her the truth.”
For a moment, she held my gaze but then lowered it. She shook her head. “No. I wouldn’t want to risk that.”
A little bit of relief coursed through me. At least I didn’t have to worry about her telling Kat the truth.
Ash folded her slender arms across her chest. “I can’t believe you.”
Dee glanced up. “What?”
“You have no problem risking our safety, but you worry about hers? Like we mean absolutely nothing?”
“That’s not what I feel or what I’ve said,” Dee argued as she glanced back and forth between us. “We can take care of ourselves. And Katy wouldn’t throw us in front of a bus. That’s all I was trying to say.”
I didn’t step in as they continued to argue, because Dee needed to wise up. She needed to hear what Ash was saying. Not that it really changed anything. I trusted that Dee wouldn’t tell Kat the truth, but she wouldn’t stay away from her.
I walked the Thompsons out while Matthew remained inside, talking to Dee. Probably lecturing her, so there was a good chance I was going to be out here a while. Standing on the porch, I watched Adam and Andrew cross the lawn toward their car. The latter was eyeing Kat’s house like he wanted to nuke it.
Andrew might be a problem.
“Daemon?”
Twisting around, I found Ash standing there. “Hey.”
“I’m sorry about being such a bitch to your sister in there.”
I grinned. “No you’re not.”
She glanced up and to the right, and then laughed. “Okay. You’re right. I’m not. She needed to hear it.” Two car doors shut. The brothers were waiting for her. “But I’m surprised. I never thought you’d be the one to mess up.”
“Well, if I was perfect all the time, no one else would have a chance.”
Ash arched a brow and ignored what I said. “How exactly have you been keeping an eye on her?”
Warning bells started going off. I knew what she was getting at, but what the hell? Ash and I had broken up a while ago. Sure, we messed around like exes do from time to time, but she knew the score and even set the rules. “Not sure what you mean by that question?”
Her smile was sugary sweet and sharp as glass. “I think you know exactly what I mean.” There was a pause, and I pictured her sharpening her fangs on my bones. “You haven’t come around in a couple of weeks. I’m betting if I asked Dee when that girl moved in, it’s going to fall around that same time. What do you have to say about that?”
Laughing under my breath, I looked away, my gaze narrowing on the car. “What do I have to say about that? Well, if it were actually your business when it came to what I do, which it’s not, I’d have to say you are way off the mark when it comes to why I haven’t been around. The reasoning hasn’t changed. You know that.”
She appeared to mull that over. “Yeah, you don’t see us long-term, but that’s never stopped us from spending some one-on-one time together.”
“She has nothing to do with that.”
Ash stopped at the top of the porch steps, half turned away. She wasn’t smiling anymore as she looked over her shoulder at me. Challenge burned in her cobalt gaze.
A challenge I had no intention of meeting.
“Prove it,” she said.
I stared at the two Luxen males who rarely ventured out of the colony. They weren’t very much older than me, but they stood in front of me like two fresh recruits about to enter the marines.
“We’re r-ready to begin patrolling,” one said, looking everywhere but at my eyes. Yeah, I was going to have to do a hard pass on this guy being ready.
Beside me, Adam chuckled as he eyed the two guys. “An Arum would eat you alive, spit you back out, and then suck you down like a smoothie.”
The other Luxen blanched, and I thought he might hurl.
I sighed.
Helping prepare these two asshats on how to patrol for Arum and not get killed in the process was not how I wanted to spend my afternoon.
Especially when Kat was with Dee, and even though I’d asked Dee to make sure they stayed home, since Kat was virtually a glow stick, I knew that my sister ultimately did whatever she wanted.