5
{ Katy }
I still stared at Daemon, completely aware that everyone else except him was watching me. Closely. But why wouldn’t he look at me? A razor-sharp panic clawed at my insides. No. This couldn’t be happening. No way.
My body was moving before I even knew what I was doing. From the corner of my eye, I saw Dee shake her head and one of the Luxen males step forward, but I was propelled by an inherent need to prove that my worst fears were not coming true.
After all, he’d healed me, but then I thought of what Dee had said, of how Dee had behaved with me. What if Daemon was like her? Turned into something so foreign and cold? He would’ve healed me just to make sure he was okay.
I still didn’t stop.
Please, I thought over and over again. Please. Please. Please.
On shaky legs, I crossed the long room, and even though Daemon hadn’t seemed to even acknowledge my existence, I walked right up to him, my hands trembling as I placed them on his chest.
“Daemon?” I whispered, voice thick.
His head whipped around, and he was suddenly staring down at me. Our gazes collided once more, and for a second I saw something so raw, so painful in those beautiful eyes. And then his large hands wrapped around my upper arms. The contact seared through the shirt I wore, branding my skin, and I thought—I expected—that he would pull me against him, that he would embrace me, and even though nothing would be all right, it would be better.
Daemon’s hands spasmed around my arms, and I sucked in an unsteady breath.
His eyes flashed an intense green as he physically lifted me away from him, setting me back down a good foot back.
I stared at him, something deep in my chest cracking. “Daemon?”
He said nothing as he let go, one finger at a time, it seemed, and his hands slid off my arms. He stepped back, returning his attention to the man behind the desk.
“So . . . awkward,” murmured the redhead, smirking.
I was rooted to the spot in which I stood, the sting of rejection burning through my skin, shredding my insides like I was nothing more than papier-maché.
“I think someone was expecting more of a reunion,” the Luxen male behind the desk said, his voice ringing with amusement. “What do you think, Daemon?”
One shoulder rose in a negligent shrug. “I don’t think anything.”
My mouth opened, but there were no words. His voice, his tone, wasn’t like his sister’s, but like it had been when we first met. He used to speak to me with barely leashed annoyance, where a thin veil of tolerance dripped from every word.
The rift in my chest deepened.
For the hundredth time since the Luxen arrived, Sergeant Dasher’s warning came back to me. What side would Daemon and his family stand on? A shudder worked its way down my spine. I wrapped my arms around myself, unable to truly process what had just happened.
“And you?” the man asked. When no one answered, he tried again. “Katy?”
I was forced to look at him, and I wanted to shrink back from his stare. “What?” I was beyond caring that my voice broke on that one word.
The man smiled as he walked around the desk. My gaze flickered over to Daemon as he shifted, drawing the attention of the beautiful redhead. “Were you expecting a more personal greeting?” he asked. “Perhaps something more intimate?”
I had no idea how to answer. I felt like I’d fallen into the rabbit hole, and warnings were firing off left and right. Something primal inside me recognized that I was surrounded by predators.
Completely.
“I don’t know what to . . . to think.” There was a horrifying burn of tears crawling up my throat.
“This is all overwhelming for you, I imagine. The whole world as you know it is on the brink of great change, and you’re here and don’t even know my name.” The man smiled so broadly, I wondered if it hurt. “You can call me Rolland.”
Then he extended a hand.
My gaze dropped to it and I made no attempt to take it.
Rolland chuckled as he turned and strolled back to the desk. “So, you’re a hybrid? Mutated and linked to him on such an intense level that if one of you dies, so does the other?”
His question caught me off guard, but I kept quiet.
He sat on the edge of the desk. “You’re actually the first hybrid I’ve seen.”
“She really isn’t anything special.” The redhead sneered. “Frankly, she’s rather filthy, like an unclean animal.”
As stupid as it was, my cheeks heated, because I was filthy, and Daemon had just physically removed me from him. My pride—my everything—was officially wounded.
Rolland chuckled. “She’s had a rough day, Sadi.”
At her name, every muscle in my body locked up, and my gaze swung back to her. That was Sadi? The one Dee said was trying to molest Daemon—my Daemon? Anger punched through the confusion and hurt. Of course it would have to be a freaking walking and talking model and not a hag.
“Rough day or not, I can’t imagine she cleans up well.” Sadi looked at Daemon as she placed a hand on his chest. “I’m kind of disappointed.”
“Are you?” Daemon replied.
Every hair on my body rose as my arms unfolded.
“Yes,” she purred. “I really think you can do better. Lots better.” As she spoke, she trailed a red-painted finger down the center of his chest, over his abdomen, heading straight for the button on his jeans.
And oh, hell to the no. “Get your hands off him.”
Sadi’s head snapped in my direction. “Excuse me?”
“I don’t think I stuttered.” I took a step forward. “But it looks like you need me to repeat it. Get your freaking hands off him.”
One side of her plump red lips curled up. “You want to make me?”
In the back of my head, I was aware that Sadi didn’t move or speak like the other Luxen. Her mannerisms were too human, but then that thought was quickly chased away when Daemon reached down and pulled her hand away.
“Stop it,” he murmured, voice dropped low in that teasing way of his.
I saw red.
The pictures on the wall rattled and the papers on the desk started to lift up. Static charged over my skin. I was about to pull a Beth right here, seconds away from floating to the ceiling and ripping out every strand of red—
“And you stop it,” Daemon said, but the teasing quality was gone from his words. There was a warning in them that took the wind right out of my pissed-off sails.
The pictures settled as I gaped at him. Being slapped in the face would’ve been better.
“Amazing,” said Rolland, eyeing me like I imagined all the scientists at Daedalus had done when they first came into contact with the Luxen. “You have adapted many of his abilities. Amazing and yet disturbing.”
“I have to agree with that,” said one of the male Luxen.
Rolland inclined his head. “We are a higher life-form, and to mix so intimately with something like you is . . . well, an abomination of sorts. You shouldn’t exist. Whatever injury you suffered should’ve taken you.”
A muscle started to tick along Daemon’s jaw.
“After all, it is the survival of the fittest, is that not what humans say? You were not fit to survive without our interference.”
Well, that was all kinds of insulting.
“And yet it cannot be undone, can it?” His gaze flickered to Daemon. “There is so much we are unaware of. All of us were too young when our planet was destroyed and we were split among the universes. We have never been here, and apparently, there is a lot our kind who have been residing on Earth were also unaware of.”
Most Luxen didn’t know about hybrids. Daemon hadn’t until I was mutated, so it didn’t take a genius to think those who hadn’t been to Earth had no idea. It also made me wonder if they were aware of the weaknesses that existed here—the onyx and diamond shields? Did these things exist on whatever hellhole they’d crawled out of? I doubted they had PEP weapons, the kind the government had created that could nuke a Luxen into the afterlife with one blast.
“We are curious by nature. Did you know that?” he asked, and then he slid a knowing look in Daemon’s direction. “I’m sure you did. After all, was that what drew him to you? Or was it more?”
Daemon’s lips thinned, but if there was bait dangling in front of his face, he didn’t take it.
“Love,” muttered Rolland with a laugh.
Dee glanced at her brother. “That was before.”
“Was it?” he asked.
A moment passed as Daemon held Rolland’s gaze. “It was before.”
The thunderous cracking in my chest should’ve been heard in the nearby towns. I sucked in a sharp breath, and Daemon finally looked at me. His back was unnaturally stiff as his eyes met mine, but it was like he saw right through me.
“I wonder if that’s truly in the past,” Sadi challenged, and when Daemon outright ignored her, a tension pulled at her features, turning them sour.