I glanced at Blake. “I’m really ready to go home.”
Annoyance flared in his hazel eyes, turning the flecks of brown dark. “I thought you’d enjoy getting out and just chilling.”
“I am, but we’re sitting here, not even talking to each other, while you play some pig-poking game on your phone. Seriously not a fun time for me.”
He propped his elbows on the table and rested his chin in his hands. “What do you want to talk about, Katy?”
My irritation rose at his tone. “I’ve been trying to talk to you about all kinds of topics for over an hour.”
“So, doing anything for Christmas?” he asked.
Taking a deep breath, I reined in my temper. “Yeah, Mom is actually off for once. We’re doing something with Will.”
“The doctor? Sounds like they’re getting pretty serious.”
“They are.” I pulled my sweater closer, shivering as the door opened. “I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason why—”
Blake’s phone dinged, and he immediately checked it out. Annoyed, I clamped my mouth shut and stared at the empty table behind him. “You ready?” he asked.
Thank freaking God. I grabbed my purse and stood, walking out without waiting for him to pick up the check. My boots crunched over the packed snow and ice. As soon as November had rolled around, all it did was snow an inch or two every few days. It was like one giant prelude to a blizzard.
Blake joined me a couple minutes later, frowning. “Way to wait.”
I rolled my eyes but said nothing as I climbed into his truck. We headed back onto the road in silence. Arms folded tightly across my chest, I felt like a pissy girlfriend, which was so wrong. We weren’t like that, but it was as if we’d just had the date from hell.
And to make everything worse, he was driving at the speed of Grandma. My leg bounced with annoyance and impatience. I just wanted to go home. There would be no training tonight. I was going to pick up an effin’ book, and I was going to read for fun. Then I would blog. I would forget about Blake and this stupid, craptastic alien power. My gaze dropped to my boot. There was something on the floor, hard and slender under the thin soles of my boot. Moving my foot to the side, the passing highway lights reflected off something gold and shiny. Curious, I started to bend down.
The obsidian flared under my sweater without any warning at the same moment Blake swerved the truck off the road and into a ditch.
Swinging toward him, my heart raced as the heat from the obsidian seared my skin. “There’s an Arum nearby.”
“I know.” He killed the engine, jaw tight. “Get out of the truck, Katy.”
“What?” I shrieked.
“Get out of the truck!” He reached over, unhooking my seat belt. “We’re training.”
Realization set in, hard and frightening. I let out a shaky breath as the obsidian continued to increase in heat. “You brought me out of the safety of the beta quartz on purpose!”
“If your strongest abilities are attached to your emotions, then we need to find out how to tap into them when you’re feeling all emotional to see what you can do, then practice with less excitement. Like we did with the knife and then pillows.” He stretched over farther and opened my car door. “Arum can sense us better than they can the Luxen. It’s the DNA thing. Luxen have a built-in cloaking in their DNA. We don’t.”
My chest rose and fell quickly. “You never told me that before.”
“You were safe within the beta quartz. It wasn’t an issue.”
I stared at him, horrified. What if I had left with my mom to go shopping out of the radius without knowing this? We would’ve been attacked. Did Blake even care about my safety?
“Now get out,” he said.
Obviously not. “No! No way am I going out there with an Arum! You’re a crazy—”
“You’re going to be okay.” He sounded as if he were telling me to give a speech in front of a class and not face a murderous alien. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
Then he got out of the car, disappearing into the thick tree line and leaving me alone in the truck. Too stunned to move, I stared at the encroaching darkness. I couldn’t believe he’d done this.
If I survived tonight, I was going to kill Blake.
An inky shadow glided over the road and followed the trail Blake has walked into the woods. A burst of light exploded, filling up the sky, but was quickly snuffed out as I heard Blake’s pained scream.
Scrambling out of the truck, I slammed the door shut and squinted into the darkness. “Blake?” After several moments of no answer, panic clawed up my throat. “Blake!”
I stopped at the edge of the woods, wary to enter them. Clutching my sweater close, I shivered as an unnatural silence settled around me. Screw this. Turning around, I headed back to the truck. I’d call my mom. I’d even call Daemon. There was no—
A shadow pooled in front of the passenger door before I could take another step. Dark and oily, it built onto itself until an outline of a man blocked my path.
“Crap,” I whispered.
It took the form of a human male, a startling resemblance to the one we’d seen outside of Vaughn’s house. “Hello, little one. Aren’t you something...special?”
Spinning around, my sweater flapped like wings behind me as I took off. I ran fast—faster than I’d ever run before. So fast that the little flakes of snow the biting wind pelted against my cheeks felt like tiny pebbles. I wasn’t even sure my feet were touching the ground.
But no matter how fast I ran, the Arum was faster.
A dark, murky shade appeared beside me and then in front of me. Sliding across snow and ice, I grabbed for my obsidian. Ready to shove the point into whatever part my hand landed on.
Anticipating the move, an arm took form and swung out. It caught me in the stomach. Up in the air I went, landing on my side. Jarring pain shot through my bones. I rolled onto my back, blinking snow from my lashes.
Now I knew why Daemon was so adamant against me running out and fighting the Arum. I’d just got my ass kicked and the fight hadn’t even started.
A dark, insidious shadow crept into my vision. Out of human form, when he spoke his voice was a menacing murmur among my own thoughts. You’re not a Luxen, but you’re sssomething unique. What powersss do you have?
Powers? The powers Daemon had given me when he mutated me. The Arum would take them by killing me. But I’d killed an Arum before by tapping into Daemon and Dee. Blake believed that ability—that Source—still existed in me. It had to, and if it didn’t, I would die.
And I wanted to be able to defend myself. Not lay here. Not wait on someone to save me.
What had Blake said to picture? Lightning in the veins and cells surrounded in light?
The Arum leaned over me; the tendrils of black smoke were thick and colder than the hard ground. A smoky, transparent smile appeared. Easssier than I thought.
I squeezed my eyes shut and pictured every weird cell I’d ever seen in bio class surrounded by light, and I thought about that one moment—that first time I’d ever felt lightning in my veins. I held onto the image as the first brush of the Arum’s cold fingers swept over my cheek. I latched onto the swamping, red-hot lava coursing through my veins.
It started with a crackle—a small light burned behind my eyelids. A strange feeling spread down my arm, scalding hot. The light behind my eyes was red-white; the source of the power was utterly destructive, shattering in its complexity.
I could feel it burning through my veins, whispering a hundred promises. It called to me, welcomed me home. It had been waiting, wondering when I would heed its call.