“Yeah.” I shoved my fingers through my hair. I didn’t mind that Dee had talked to Kat about this stuff. After all, I had started the conversation last night, but I wondered how Kat was handling all of this.
“She can really be trusted,” Dee continued on as I lowered my hand. She picked up the jug of tea and walked it to the fridge. “She knows what will happen if the DOD finds out that she knows about us. She’s not going to say anything, Daemon.”
I nodded as I folded my arms across my chest. “No one else needs to know that she knows the truth. Not even Adam.”
Dee opened her mouth.
“I mean it, sis. Adam is a good guy. He’s not like Andrew, but you know this is a big deal, especially after…after Dawson and Bethany. The others will worry, especially Matthew. We can’t take the risk that one of them will panic and report Kat.”
Her eyes widened as she closed the fridge door. “Do you think one of them would do that?”
I considered that question. “I don’t know. I want to say no, but…anything’s possible. And there’s always the risk that one of them might accidentally say something in front of the other Luxen. We just need to be careful.”
Dee fiddled with the hem of her shirt. “Okay. No one else needs to know.”
Pushing away from the sink, I started toward the stairs and then changed my mind. “I’m going to go check on Kat. You want to come?”
She started to speak and then smiled broadly. “Nah. I think I’ll stay here for now. I’ll see her later.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why are you smiling like you’re high?”
“No reason.” She rocked back on her feet, smiling so wide I thought her face might crack. “No reason at all.”
Frowning, I shook my head and pivoted around. I made it to the door before Dee called out, “Take your time.”
I shot her a dark look over my shoulder, and she burst into a fit of giggles. Whatever. I crossed the front yard and saw Kat through the kitchen window. Well, I saw the white glow around her… I headed for the back door and knocked.
The door swung open, and unfortunately she wasn’t wearing only the shirt like last night. Actually, that was probably a good thing. But that trace on her. Damn. The others were going to see it first thing Tuesday morning, after Labor Day, and I was going to have to come up with one hell of an excuse.
“Hey?” she said, sounding unsure.
I nodded in response.
Wariness flickered over her face. “Um, do you want to come in?”
Not feeling down when it came to enclosed spaces and Kat, I shook my head. “No, I thought maybe we could go do something.”
Her brows flew up, and I almost laughed. “Do something?” she asked.
“Yeah. Unless you have a review to post or a garden that needs tending.”
“Ha. Ha.” She started to close the door.
I lifted my hand, stopping the door without touching. Shock replaced the irritation, and I grinned. “Okay. Let me try that again. Would you like to do something with me?”
She hesitated. “Where did you have in mind?”
I pushed away from the house, walking backward as I shrugged. “Let’s go to the lake.”
“I’ll check the road before I cross this time,” she said, and I turned around. “You’re not taking me out in the woods because you changed your mind and decided your secret is not safe with me, are you?”
I busted out laughing. “You’re very paranoid.”
She snorted. “Okay, that is coming from an alien who apparently can toss me into the sky without touching me.”
“You haven’t locked yourself in any rooms or rocked in any corners, right?”
Her eyes rolled when I glanced over at her. “No, Daemon, but thanks for making sure I’m mentally sound and all.”
“Hey.” I raised my hands in mock surrender. “I need to make sure you aren’t going to lose it and potentially tell the entire town what we are.”
“I don’t think you need to worry about that for several reasons,” she replied drily.
I gave her a pointed look. “You know how many people we’ve been close to? I mean, really close to?”
She wrinkled her nose, and I wondered where her mind went, and that made me chuckle. “Then one little girl goes and exposes us. Can you see how hard that is for me to…trust?”
“I’m not a little girl, but if I could go back in time and do it all over I wouldn’t have stepped out in front of that truck.”
“Well, that is good to know.”
“But I don’t regret finding out the truth. It explains so much. Wait, can you go back in time?” Her expression was serious. “The possibility hadn’t crossed my mind before, but now I honestly wonder.”
I sighed, wanting to laugh. “We can manipulate time, yes. But it’s not something we’d do, and only going forward. At least I’ve never heard of anyone being able to bend time to the past.”
“Jesus, you guys make Superman look lame.”
I smiled as I dipped my head to avoid a low-hanging branch. “Well, I’m not telling you what our kryptonite is.”
A moment passed. “Can I ask you a question?”
I nodded as our feet kicked at the leaf-covered ground.
“The Bethany girl who disappeared—she was involved with Dawson, right?” she asked.