Opal (25 page)

Picking up a glove, Blake handled the onyx differently now. He didn’t come to me but to Matthew. The same thing happened with the older Luxen. He was on his knees, gasping for air, and then it was Dawson’s turn.

It took a little longer for him, which made sense. He’d been exposed to the spray like me and had been tortured by the stuff off and on. But after about ten seconds, he went down and his brother massacred the English language.

Then it was my turn.

Squaring my shoulders, I nodded. I was ready for this, wasn’t I? Heck no. Who was I fooling? This was going to
hurt
.

Blake winced and moved forward, but Daemon stopped him. Using the glove, he took the onyx from him and stood in front of me.

“No,” I said. “I don’t want you to do this.”

The determined set to his jaw infuriated me. “I’m not letting him do it.”

“Then let someone else do it.” There was no way he could be the one who placed the onyx on me. “Please.” Daemon shook his head, and I wanted to punch him. “This isn’t right.”

“It’s either me or no one.”

And then I understood. He was trying to get his way. Taking a breath, I met him head-on. “Do it.”

Surprise flickered in his bottle-green eyes and then anger deepened them. “I hate this,” he said, loudly enough for only me to hear.

“I do, too.” Anxiety climbed up my throat. “Just do it.”

He didn’t look away, but I could tell he wanted to. Whatever pain I knew I was about to feel would be symbiotic. He would feel it—not the physical, but the anguish would travel to him, as if it were his own. It was the same when Daemon was in pain.

I closed my eyes, thinking that would help him. It seemed to, because maybe ten seconds later, I felt the coolness of the onyx against my hand and the roughness of his glove. Nothing happened immediately, but then it did.

A rapidly growing burn traveled across my hand and then shot up my arm. A thousand tiny pricks of pain radiated across my body. I bit down on my lip, stifling my scream. It didn’t take long after that before I hit the ground, gulping in air as I waited for the burn to ease off.

My body shuddered. “All right… Okay… Not too bad.”

“Bull,” Daemon said, hauling me onto my feet. “Kat—”

I tugged free, taking more deep breaths. “Really, I’m okay. We need to keep going.”

Daemon looked like he wanted to toss me over his shoulder and run off like a caveman, but we moved on. Over and over again, each of us touched the onyx, holding on until our body refused to cooperate. None of us increased in time, but we were just getting started.

“It’s like getting hit with a Taser,” Matthew said as he dropped a sheet of plywood over the onyx, then placed two heavy rocks on the board. It was late and all of us were twitchy. Even Blake. “Not that I’ve ever been Tased, but I image that’s how it feels.”

I wondered if there’d be any long-term effects from this. Like messed-up heart rhythms or post-traumatic stress. The one good thing that came out of this was that between the mind-blowing pain and watching other people succumb to it, I really hadn’t been capable of thinking about anything else.

As we finished up and began to limp back to the house, Blake slowed down until he was beside me. “I’m sorry,” he said.

I said nothing.

He shoved his hands into his jeans. “I liked Carissa. I wish…”

“If wishes were fishes, we’d all throw nets, right? Isn’t that what they say?” Bitterness sharpened my tone.

“Yeah, that’s what they say.” He paused. “Things are gonna get crazy at school.”

“Why do you care? You’re going to leave as soon as you get Chris. You’ll just be another one of those kids who vanished into thin air.”

He stopped, head cocked to the side. “I would stay if I could. I can’t, though.”

Frowning, I glanced ahead. Daemon had slowed down, no doubt doing his best not to physically put more distance between Blake and me. For a second, I considered asking Blake about the stone. He’d have to know, since he worked for Daedalus—still did. But it was too tricky. Blake claimed to be playing double agent. Key word:
claimed
.

I wrapped my arms around my waist. Overhead, the branches cracked against one another like a low, steady drum.

“I would stay,” he said again, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I—”

Daemon was there in an instant, prying Blake’s fingers off my shoulder. “Don’t touch her.”

Blake paled as he pulled his hand free and stepped back. “Dude, I wasn’t doing anything. Overprotective much?”

Implanting himself in between us, Daemon said, “I thought we had an understanding. You’re here because we don’t have a choice. You’re still alive because she is better than me. You’re not here to comfort her. Got that?”

Blake’s jaw popped. “Whatever. I’ll see you guys later.”

I watched Blake stalk past Matthew and Dawson. “That was a little overprotective.”

“I don’t like him touching you,” he growled. His eyes started doing that glowing-orb thing. “I don’t like him even being in the same time zone as you. I don’t trust him.”

Rising up, I kissed Daemon’s cheek. “No one trusts him, but you can’t threaten him every five seconds.”

“Yes, I can.”

I laughed and stepped in, wrapping my arms around his waist. Under my cheek, his heart beat steadily. His hands slid down my back as his head bent close to mine. “Do you really want to do more days like this?” he asked. “An endless stretch of days filled with pain?”

It wasn’t on the top of my to-do list. “It serves a pretty good distraction, and I need that right now.”

I expected him to argue, but he didn’t. Instead, he kissed the top of my head. We stood like that for a little while. When we pulled apart, Dawson and Matthew were gone. Moonlight started to peek through the branches. Holding hands, we walked back to our houses, and he went to his to clean up.

My house was dark and silent, and as I stood at the base of the stairs, I struggled to breathe. I couldn’t be afraid of my bedroom. That was just stupid. I placed my hand on the banister and took one step.

Muscles locked up.

It was just a bedroom. I couldn’t sleep on the couch forever, and I couldn’t run in and out of my bedroom as if an Arum were chasing me.

Each step up was a fight when my natural response was to turn and run in the opposite direction, but I continued until I stood in the doorway, my hands clasped under my chin.

Daemon and Dee had cleaned up everything like they said. My bed was made. Clothing put away and all the papers were stacked on my desk. My destroyed laptop was gone. And there was a neat little circular rug over the spot Carissa had stood. It was a muted, soft brown. Daemon knew I wasn’t big on flashy color, not like Dee. Other than that, the room looked normal.

Holding my breath, I forced myself to go in. I moved around, picking up books and placing them back in the order I had them in, keeping my mind blank. Sometime later, I changed into an old shirt and knee-high socks, then I tunneled under the blankets and rolled onto my side.

Beyond my bedroom window, scattered stars broke up the dark blue of the sky. One fell, leaving a short stream of light behind as it crashed to Earth. Curling my fingers around the blanket, I wondered if it were a falling star or something else. All the Luxen were here, weren’t they?

I forced my eyes closed and focused on tomorrow. After school, Daemon and I were heading to Martinsburg in an attempt to find Luc. The group thought we were just getting away for the night. Hopefully after our visit, we’d know a little more about what happened to Carissa.

I slept fitfully that night. It had to be late when I felt Daemon settle in beside me, his arm firmly around my waist. Half asleep, I decided he needed to be more careful. If my mom caught him in my bed again, things would get ugly. But I was content in his arms and settled back against him, lulled to sleep by his warm breath along the back of my neck.

“I love you,” I think I said. It may have been a dream, but his arm tightened and his leg slid around mine. Maybe this was just a dream, because there was a surreal quality to it. Even if it was, it was enough.

Chapter 27

Lesa practically tackled me the moment I stepped into school the following day. I hadn’t even made it to my locker. Grabbing my arm, she tugged me into the alcove near the trophy case.

I knew from the moment I saw her that somehow she knew something bad had happened. Her face was pale, eyes shadowed, and her lower lip trembled. I’d never seen her so upset.

“What’s wrong?” I forced my voice even.

Her fingers bit into my arm. “Carissa’s missing.”

I felt the blood drain from my face and croaked out a, “What?”

Eyes shiny, she nodded. “She had the flu, right? And apparently she got really sick in the last couple of days, running a high temperature. Her mom and dad took her to the hospital. They thought she had meningitis or something.”

She let out a shuddering breath. “I didn’t know anything until her parents called me this morning asking if I’d seen or talked to her. And I was like, ‘No. Why? She’s been too sick to get on the phone and all.’ And they told me she disappeared a couple of nights ago from the hospital room. Her parents have been looking for her and the police wouldn’t file a missing person’s report until she was gone for forty-eight hours.”

The horror that whiplashed through me wasn’t faked. I said a few things and I really didn’t know what. Lesa wasn’t processing anything anyway.

“They think she walked out of the hospital—that she was that sick and she’s probably out there somewhere, lost and confused.” Her voice trembled. “How could no one see and stop her?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered.

Lesa circled her arms around herself. “This isn’t happening, is it? It can’t be. Not Carissa.”

My heart felt like it was cracking. Most times I wanted to tell the truth and confide in Lesa, but this was one of those moments when nothing in this world could have made me want to be the bearer of this news.

There wasn’t anything I could say, but I wrapped my arms around her and held on until the first bell rang. We headed straight to class without our textbooks. It didn’t matter. News of Carissa’s disappearance had begun to spread, and no one was paying attention in class.

Kimmy announced at the end of class that the police were organizing a search party after school. She and Carissa hadn’t been friends, but that wasn’t important, I realized. Too many kids had disappeared, and it was touching everyone’s lives. I glanced over my shoulder at Daemon and he gave me a reassuring smile. It did little to soothe me. I was a bundle of nerves. When class ended, Lesa waited for me.

“I think I’m going home,” she said, blinking rapidly. “I don’t… I just can’t be here right now.”

“Do you want me to go with you?” I asked, not wanting to leave her alone if she felt she needed someone.

Lesa shook her head. “No. But thank you.”

I gave her a quick hug and then watched her hurry from class, my heart heavy.

Daemon said nothing as he pressed a kiss to my temple. He knew there wasn’t anything to say. “Do you think we have time to join the search party before we leave?” I asked.

Both of us knew it was pointless, but it seemed a dishonor to her memory to not give her this respect. Or was it wrong to do it knowing what really happened? I didn’t know.

Daemon didn’t seem to know, either, but he agreed. “Of course.”

I wanted to leave the school, too. Especially since everyone was talking about Carissa and finding her. People were in high hopes that she
would
be found, because it seemed impossible that she’d end up like Simon.

Guilt and anger warred inside me, and throughout the day, I tipped into each side. Sitting in class seemed pointless when so many things hung in the balance. These people—these kids—had no idea what was going on around them. They lived in this blissful bubble of ignorance and not even the disappearances burst it. Only tiny holes were pricked by each disappearance and I was waiting for everyone to finally pop.

At lunch, for the first time, we all sat together. Even Blake joined us. My lack of appetite had nothing to do with the mystery food occupying my plate.

“Are you guys going to the search party?” Andrew asked.

I nodded. “But we’re still doing our own thing afterward.”

Blake scowled. “I really think you guys should wait.”

“Why?” I asked before Daemon could snap his head off his shoulders.

“You need to be working on building up a tolerance, not date night.” Across from him, Ash nodded in agreement. “That’s not what’s important right now.”

Daemon looked at him. “Shut up.”

Cheeks flushing, Blake leaned on the table. “We need every day that we can get if we have any hopes of doing this soon.”

A muscle flexed in Daemon’s jaw. “One day isn’t going to change anything. You guys can still practice or not. I don’t care.”

Blake started to protest, but Dawson stepped in. “Let them go. They need this. We’ll be fine.”

I picked up my fork, feeling my cheeks flame. Everyone thought I needed to get away, take some downtime, and I didn’t want them feeling sorry for or worrying about me. But tonight wasn’t date night. What Daemon and I had to do was going to be as tricky as playing with onyx.

As if he sensed my dark thoughts, he twisted beside me and his hand found mine under the table. He squeezed and for some reason I felt like crying. I was turning into such a wuss and it was all his fault.

I might have dreamed him up last night, because in the light of morning, he’d been gone and the pillow beside me didn’t carry that scent I could place anywhere. But I liked to think it was real. That I hadn’t dreamt him holding me close, his warm hands on my hips or his lips trailing down my neck.

If I had imagined that… Oh boy, my dreams were realistic. I couldn’t ask him, because that would be way too embarrassing, not to mention Daemon’s ego did not need to be stroked by the knowledge I was dreaming about him.

Thinking about his reaction to that, which would bring a whole lot of smugness to the table, I grinned a little. Daemon caught sight of it and my heart skipped a beat, because his heart had jumped first.

Sometimes the whole bizarro alien connection thing had its perks. Like it told me that I affected Daemon just as much as he affected me, and on days like this, I needed whatever pick-me-upper there was.