“How are things going with your new neighbors?”
Leaning against the side of my SUV, I stared down the empty back road several miles from the base of Seneca Rocks. Officer Lane had been waiting for me when I left school Thursday afternoon. With one flash of the Expedition’s headlights, I knew he wanted me to go to our regular meeting place.
The only thing not regular was the timing of the check-in and the fact that Vaughn wasn’t with him. Couldn’t be too disappointed about Vaughn. Maybe he fell off the face of the earth.
I raised one shoulder in response to Lane’s question, keeping it casual even though I didn’t like the line of questioning. Wasn’t the first time I’d been asked, but it was usually Vaughn doing the asking. “It’s going. They seem pretty cool.”
“No problems then?” Dark glasses shielded Lane’s eyes.
Defining the word “problem” would be interesting. “Nope.”
“That’s good.” Lane looked down the road. “I was worried.”
Unease stirred in my gut. “Why?”
“You don’t like humans,” he answered honestly. “And with one moving in right next door, I figured you’d be pissed about that.”
I snorted at Lane’s frank honesty. Can’t say I actually liked Lane, but he was better than Vaughn. When Dawson…when he died, Lane had seemed genuinely upset, unlike Vaughn, who obviously hadn’t cared. “I wasn’t happy. You knew that when I asked you and Vaughn about why they were allowed to move in, but what can I do?”
“Nothing,” replied Lane. He folded his arms as his chin turned toward me.
I shrugged again. “Where’s your buddy?”
“Vaughn?” One side of Lane’s lips curled, almost like the idea of him being friends with Vaughn disgusted him. I knew there was a reason I tolerated Lane. “He’s off doing something with Husher.”
Now it was my turn. My lips curled in revulsion. Nancy Husher. Man, I disliked that woman. Didn’t trust her, which was bad, because she was pretty high up there in the DOD, but luckily, we didn’t have to deal with her often.
“A couple of weeks ago, there was an abnormal burst of energy around here,” Lane stated, changing the subject to something else I didn’t want to talk about. “It was tracked back to the main access road outside of your house.”
I was betting “a couple of weeks ago” was code word for Kat stepping in front of a speeding truck.
Lane shifted his weight, which was slight. “You all playing football again?”
I almost laughed. Dee had made that up the last time we’d been asked about unusual activity. We didn’t play any Luxen form of football and we sure as hell didn’t toss around balls of energy, but it had been the perfect excuse. I nodded. “With the Thompsons. We got a little out of hand.”
“Your new neighbors didn’t see this, did they?”
I clenched my jaw. “We’re not stupid. They weren’t home.”
Lane nodded. “Good to hear.”
Pushing off the side of my SUV, I unfolded my arms. “Anything else?”
Officer Lane shook his head.
I opened the driver’s door and was about to climb in when he stopped me. “Be careful, Daemon. With your new neighbors, it’s not just going to be me or Vaughn keeping an eye on you. You might want to lay off the football.”
Saturday evening was going to be the night that I locked Kat in her house. Swear to God, deities, and whoever else, it was going to happen.
“You’re going to let me do this,” she said, her eyes a stormy gray as she glared at me. “Because I’m not just going to sit here and do nothing.”
“I never said you have to sit here. I don’t want to sit here, either.”
Her chin raised a notch. “No one is making you stay here, then!”
“Really?” Derision dripped from my voice. “I think you know why I’m here.”
Kat tossed her head back and groaned. “I just want to go to this bookstore Carissa was telling me about. It’s in town.”
I knew which one she was talking about. Not like it was hard. There was only one bookstore in town. It was a used one, and the owner sometimes had no idea what they had in their store or its value. “And while the last thing I want to do is spend Friday night in a bookstore, all I’m saying is that I’m going with you.”
Her little hands balled into fists. “Can’t you see why I don’t want you to go? You don’t want to, and you’re going to make it a terrible experience.”
I rolled my eyes. “I will not.”
She crossed her arms and stared at me pointedly.
“Seriously.”
Looking over my shoulder, toward the woods, Kat sighed heavily. “Look, I get that I shouldn’t go by myself. That it’s—”
“Dangerous and stupid,” I supplied helpfully.
The line of her jaw hardened, and a moment passed. “Yeah, I get that it’s dangerous, but—”
“That should be the end of the conversation right there.”