Obsidian

His hands slid down the wall, stopping beside my hips. “I bet you think about me all the time. Nonstop.”

“You’re insane.” I pressed back against the wall, breathless.

“You probably even dream about me.” His gaze lowered to my mouth. I felt my lips part. “I bet you even write my name in your notebooks, over and over again, with a little heart drawn around it.” I laughed. “In your dreams, Daemon. You’re the last person I think—”

Daemon kissed me.

There wasn’t a moment of hesitation. His mouth was on mine, and I stopped breathing. He shuddered and there was a sound from the back of his throat, half growl, half moan. Little shivers of pleasure and panic shot through me as he deepened the kiss, parting my lips. I stopped thinking. I pushed off the wall, sealing the tiny space between us, pressing against him, digging my fingers into his hair. It was soft, silky. Nothing else about him felt that way. I sparked alive, my heart swelled to the point of near bursting. The rush of sensations crawling across my body was maddening. Scary. Thrilling.

His hands were on my hips, and he lifted me up as if I were made of air. My legs wrapped around his waist, and we moved to the right, knocking into a floor lamp. It toppled over, but I didn’t spare it another thought. A light popped somewhere in the house. The TV turned on, then off, back on. Our lips remained sealed. It was like we couldn’t get enough of each other. We were devouring one another, drowning in each other.

We’d been building up to this for months, and oh my God was it worth the wait. And I wanted more.

Lowering my hands, I tugged at his shirt, but it was stuck under my legs. I wiggled down until my feet were on the floor. Then I got a hold of his shirt and yanked it up. He broke apart long enough to pull it over his head and toss it aside.

His hands slid around my head, pulling me back to his mouth. There was a cracking sound in the house. A fissure of electricity shot through the room. Something smoked. But I didn’t care. We were moving backward. His hands were moving down, under my shirt, his fingers skimming over my skin, sending a rush of blood to every part of my body. And my hands went down. His stomach was hard, dipped and rippled in all the right places.

And then my shirt joined his on the floor. Skin against skin. His hummed, brimming full of power. I ran my fingers down his chest, to the button on his jeans. The back of my legs hit the couch and we went down, a tangle of legs and hands moving, exploring. Our hips were molded together and we moved against one another. I think I whispered his name, and then his arms tightened around me, crushing me against his chest and his hands slipped between my legs. And I was swimming in raw sensations.

“So beautiful,” he murmured against my swollen lips. And then he was kissing me again. The deep kind of kisses that left little room for thought. There was only feeling and wanting. That was all. I wrapped my legs around his hips, pulling him closer, telling him what I wanted with my soft moans.

Our kisses slowed, becoming tender and infinitely more. It was like we were getting to know each other on an intimate level. I was breathless and dazed, unprepared for all of this, but my body ached for more than just kisses and touching — for more of him. And I knew he did, too. His powerful body shook like mine. It was easy to get lost in him, lost in this connection between us. The world — the universe — ceased to exist.

And then Daemon stilled, his breath coming out in rough gasps as he pulled back, lifting his head. My eyes opened slowly, dazed. His pupils were white, glowing from within.

Daemon took a deep breath. An eternity seemed to pass as he stared down at me, his eyes wide, and then he pieced himself back together. The light went out. His jaw hardened. A mask slipped over his face. The arrogant half smile I disliked so much tipped up one corner of his swollen lips. “You’re barely glowing now.”

Chapter 27

I hated Daemon Black — if that was even his real name — with a vengeance that equaled the solar power of a thousand suns. You’re b arely glowing now. He left after that, grabbing his shirt off the floor and sauntering out of my house.

The son of a bitch blew up my laptop.

That was what had been smoking. His alien mojo apparently has a major affect on lights and most electronics. Now I had to rely on school computers to update my blog. Ugh. And I’d spent a good hour after I peeled myself off the couch replacing light bulbs in the house. Luckily, the T.V. hadn’t been fried.

But my brain had. What had I been thinking? Doing? It had to have been all the arguing between us. That was the only explanation for why there was such a massive explosion from such a heavy make-out session. And he wasn’t as unaffected as he pretended. No one could fake that.

My glow had faded to a small trace, much to everyone’s amazement. Imagine trying to explain how that happened. And I’m sure he couldn’t wait to share the info.

I hated him.

Not just for the fact he’d proven me a liar, or that I now had to wait until my birthday for a new laptop, or the fact Dee was highly suspicious of how my glow faded, but because of what he made me feel, for making me admit it out loud, too.

And if he poked me in the back with a pen one more freaking time, I was going to throw him in front of an Arum.

My cell phone buzzed in my backpack as I walked to my car, hunkered down against the unforgiving wind sweeping down from the Rocks. Without looking, I knew it was another text from Simon. For the last week he’d been texting his apologies over and over again. He didn’t dare talk to me in class or public, not with Daemon’s threat looming over his head. I wasn’t forgiving him anytime soon. Drunk or not, it wasn’t an excuse for being an overbearing ass who didn’t understand the word “no”.

“Katy!”

I jumped at the sound of Dee’s voice. Shouldering my bag, I turned and waited.

As always, Dee looked amazingly beautiful. Today she’d worn skinny dark denim jeans and a lightweight turtleneck. With her glossy black hair and bright eyes, she was stunning. Her smile was wide and friendly, but it quickly faded as she neared me.

“Hey, I didn’t think you were going to stop,” she said.

“Sorry. I was lost in my thoughts.” I started walking again, spying my car. “What’s up?”

Dee cleared her throat. “Are you avoiding me, Katy?

I’d been avoiding all of them, which was hard. They lived next door. They were in my classes. They sat with me at lunch. And I missed Dee. “No.”

“Really, because you haven’t been very talkative since Saturday,” she pointed out. “Monday you didn’t even sit with us at lunch, claiming you had to study for a test. Yesterday, I don’t think you said two words to me.” Guilt twisted my insides. “I’ve been…out of it.”

“It’s too much, isn’t it? What we are?” Her voice was small, childlike. “I was afraid this would happen. We’re huge freaks—”

“You’re not freaks,” I said, meaning it. “You guys are…more human than you give yourselves credit for.”

Dee seemed relieved to hear that. She darted in front of me. “The boys, they’re still looking for Baruck.”

I sidestepped her and opened my car door. The obsidian blade bounced around in the compartment on the side of the door. Carrying it in my backpack had made me feel like I was going to shank a student or something. So in my car it went. “That’s good.” She nodded. “The boys are going to continue searching and keep an eye on things, and both you and Simon barely have any traces on you now.” Dee paused. “I’d still like to know how that happened so quickly.” My stomach twisted. “Uh, yeah, there was a lot of…physical activity.”

Her brows inched up her forehead. “Katy…”

“Anyway,” I said quickly. “That’s all good — the trace fading from Simon, especially since he has no clue about any of this, so I’m glad, creeper-ness aside.”

“You’re rambling,” she said, grinning.

“Yeah, kind of.”

“So what are you doing tomorrow?” she asked, hopeful. “It’s Saturday and Halloween. I thought maybe we could rent a bunch of scary movies.”