“Thank you,” Kat said, smiling. She glanced at Lore and then Hunter. “Thank you for letting us come here, and for everything else.”
Lore shrugged.
Hunter shrugged.
Everyone was shrugging.
Serena smiled brightly. “It’s okay. I’m just glad we could help in some way. And it’s about time all of us started working together.”
Hunter stared at the ceiling.
Lore started messing with a giant potted palm tree–looking thing.
“Well, all righty then.” Serena clapped her hands as the silence grew to an awkward level. “We’ll head out.”
“It should take us no longer than an hour,” Lore said, and for some reason that came across as a warning. Like what would we do? Run around and rearrange the numerous plants and flowers he seemed to have growing out of the walls?
They skipped on out the doors, leaving the three of us in the house. Archer was the first to say what we probably all were thinking.
“I can’t believe they left us here,” he said, brows raised.
I grinned. “I feel like we should start rearranging rooms or something.” I cast a long look over the skillfully decorated living room and adjoining den. “I think Lore would really appreciate that.”
“Don’t,” Kat said, narrowing her eyes at me. “I know Arum and Luxen are BEFs, but seriously, they are being super cool by letting us stay here.”
“BEFs?” I frowned.
“Best Enemies Forever,” she replied, shrugging one shoulder. “Anyway, let’s all play nice with one another. It would be a good change of pace.”
“Yeah, especially if one of them doesn’t end up kissing you,” Archer said.
Pulling her hair back from her face in a low ponytail, she swung an arch look at him as heat blew off me. “Did you really need to remind me of that?”
He flashed a quick grin, and I wanted to punch off his face. The reminder got me all primed to do violence, and the damn Origin appeared completely shameless.
“I’m going to go get our bags,” he offered.
I glared at him. “Yeah, you do that.”
As he turned and left the room, Kat walked over to me. Without saying a word, she placed her hands on my chest, stretched up, and kissed me softly. That flipped my raging aggression into something a lot more fun.
I swept an arm around her, fitting our bodies as close as we could get while standing. My other hand delved deep in her hair, and I took the kiss to a whole different level. The taste of her never failed to blow my mind, and so did the soft sound she made as I nipped at her lower lip.
Archer cleared his throat. “Seriously guys?”
Slowly, I lifted my mouth from Kat’s and narrowed my eyes as she pressed her face against my chest. “Can’t you go somewhere?”
“Oh, I don’t know. What about you all? How about one of those bedrooms upstairs that have doors and stuff? Hey! That would be a good—”
I felt it the same moment Archer had. My senses sharpened as awareness settled over me like a too-warm cloak. I eased Kat back, swearing under my breath.
“What?” she demanded.
Archer turned toward the doorway he’d just come through, dropping our bags. “There are Luxen here.”
“No,” she said, dragging in a deep breath. “Do you think they’ll be friendly, not wanting to—?”
The large picture window in the living room exploded. Pieces of plastic and glass turned into nasty little projectiles. Kat ducked down, throwing her arms up to shield her face as I stepped forward, summoning the Source and using it to push back the explosion of sharp and painful things.
They fell to the floor inches from where the three of us stood.
“I think that’s your answer, Kitten.”
She rose, hands balling into fists. “Dammit. All I want to do is shower and take a nap and eat some bacon!”
Archer slid a look at her. “Well, I think that will—”
A Luxen came through the window, a blur of bright light, and I shot forward, colliding with it as I shifted. We hit some antique-looking chair. The legs gave under our sudden weight. We tore right through the back. Stuffing flew into the air. The palm tree ended up as a drive-by casualty.
Landing hard on the floor, I reared back and slammed my hand down on the Luxen’s chest, letting go of the Source and sending a steady shot right into the heart of the bastard, frying him from the inside out.
The light dulled as I pushed myself up, whirling around. How many?
I don’t know. Kat was heading for the archway that led to the foyer.
Switching back into my human form, I joined her and Archer at the archway a second before the front door literally blew off its hinges and winged across the entryway, embedding deep into the opposite wall.
I knew before I even looked.
I felt it in my bones; in every cell that was me, I knew before I looked.
My sister stood in the doorway in her human form, and as her gaze swept over us, she smiled in a way that was so wrong for her.
“Gotcha,” she said.
{ Katy }
Dee looked like a goddess of vengeance straight out of one of the books I’d read and cherished. She stood with her slender legs wide and shoulders back. With the sun behind her, forming a halo over her body, and her eyes glowing white, she looked fierce and really scary.
Fine. I might have read too many books, because this was real and she looked like she wanted to kill us. Like kill us dead.
Archer started forward. “Dee—”
She raised her hand, and he should’ve been able to move in time, but he was like Daemon, rooted to the spot he stood in. A bolt of the Source caught Archer in the shoulder, spinning him back.
Oh, she was so not messing around.
Dee turned to where we stood and then casually, like nothing was up, stepped into the house. Behind her, I saw more Luxen.
This was about to get bad.
“Shacking up with Arum?” Dee tsked as she spared a quick glance at Archer while he picked himself up. “How far you’ve fallen, brother.”
Daemon stepped forward. “Dee—”
She lunged at him, flying the several feet between them as my heart lodged in my throat. All Daemon did was grip her by the shoulders. He made no move to do anything else, and she took complete advantage of that.
Dee shoved her hand at his chest. He only moved at the last second to avoid a direct hit to the heart, but he took an up-close-and-personal blast anyway. I cried out as he went down, his sister right on top of him.
I knew in that instant that she would either really hurt him or kill him unless he treated her like the Luxen he’d just taken out.
Archer had the other Luxen engaged as I shot forward, making up my mind.
Daemon might hate me if I ended up having to kill his sister, but I’d rather he despise me than hate himself for hurting her worse.
I grabbed handfuls of her long hair and yanked her off Daemon. She hit the floor, arms and legs sprawled like a crab. She looked up, eyes glowing like diamonds.
“You don’t want to do this,” I said. “You—”
Dee popped up. Like didn’t even bend her knees, just shot right up and was in my face. “Oh, you have no idea how badly I want to do this.”
Then she drew her arm back and cold-cocked me right in the face.
The impact knocked me away, and I landed on my butt as pain lanced through my jaw and down my neck. Blinking fresh tears out of my eyes, I stared up at her.
“That felt so good,” she said, cocking her head to the side. “I think I need to do it again.”