Opposition (Lux #5)(9)
Author: J. Lynn

I shrugged. “I’m sure he’s not the only one. And I don’t trust Sadi with her.”

His brows rose. “You don’t?”

“No.”

Folding his hands, he studied me. “I want you to answer a question for me, Daemon Black, and I want an honest answer.”

My jaw ached from how hard I was grinding my molars. I didn’t need to be in this room. I needed to be wherever Sadi was at the moment, but I nodded.

“Like I said, you’re a hard one to read. Not your brother or sister, but you’re different.”

“People do say I’m special.”

He laughed under his breath. “What does that girl mean to you, Daemon? And I do want an honest answer.”

My hands curled into fists. Time was ticking. “She belongs to me.”

“You’ve said that.”

I forced air into my lungs with a deep breath. “She’s mine and she’s a part of me. So, yeah, she means a lot, but what I feel for her doesn’t change anything here, with you.” I met his stare with my own unflinching one. “I support what you are doing.”

“Me?” He chuckled. “It’s not me you must support. I’m just a . . . busy bee, like you.”

Well then.

“Do you still love her?” he asked, flipping the subject. “Do you still want her?”

What he was asking was if I had any human emotions left over since their arrival, or was I just as tuned in to the hive as the rest of them. “I want her.”

“Physically?”

Jaw aching fiercely, I forced my chin up and down.

“Do you want more than that?”

I chose my words carefully. “What I want is a home where my family is safe, and only we can provide that. We come first.”

Rolland’s head tilted to the side, his gaze never leaving my face. “We do. And soon you will have that safe home for your family. It is already well under way.”

I wanted to ask exactly how it was well under way, because all I had seen from them so far was a lot of nasty killing.

Tension-filled silence stretched out between us, and then he flicked his hand at the door. “Go do what you need to do, but please do not throw Sadi at anything. She has her uses that I might want to partake in later.”

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I spun around and started for the door.

“Oh. And Daemon?”

Shit. I stopped, turning to him.

The damn smile was on his face, the same smile he’d worn when he addressed the public earlier in the day over the local news. When he’d told the city, or whatever was left of it, that everything would be fine, that mankind would prevail and a whole load more crap he’d actually made sound believable.

“Don’t make me regret not snuffing out your life in the clearing, because if you are a trataaie,” he said, slipping into our native tongue, “it will not be me you will fear, but the senitraaie. You will not only lose your family, but that little girl up there will suffer a very slow and very painful death, and her horror will be the last thing you see. Inteliaaie?”

Back stiff, I nodded again. “I am not a traitor and I only answer to our leader. I understand.”

“Good,” he said, raising his hand. A remote flew from the desk into it. “Remember. No throwing Sadi.”

Dismissed with the bite-in-the-ass kind of warning, I left the office and nearly plowed right into my sister as I exited the atrium.

She gripped my arm, her fingers digging into my skin. “What in the hell were you thinking?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be getting him a late-night snack?”

Her eyes flashed. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed in there protecting her.”

I stared at her for a moment, searching for something, anything in her, and came up with nothing. I gently removed her hand. “I don’t have time for this.”

“Daemon.”

Ignoring her, I headed through a sitting area and then took the steps two at a time. When I reached the second landing, I could already hear the shouting coming from the third floor.

Jesus.

Something shattered above me, and I took off, hauling ass. I reached the last door on the third floor in less than a second. Pushing it open, I scanned the bedroom as I wondered how I was going to stop myself from throwing Sadi through something.

The bedroom was empty, but it looked like a tornado had gone through it. The olive-green armchair was toppled over onto its side, one of the wooden legs broken. The white curtains had been pulled down from the window. The dirtied and bloodied pillows were strewn across the floor.

And the shirt she had been wearing—my shirt—rested in shredded tatters at the foot of the bed. What in the hell?

My gaze whipped toward the bathroom door when I heard what sounded like a body bouncing off it, and then a shriek blasted the room.

I kicked open the bathroom door and came to a complete stop. The room was large, the kind that had a separate tub and shower, but this room, too, had seen better days. The mirror above the double sink was broken. Multiple bottles had been tipped open. White cream covered the floor in milky pools.

She stood in front of the large tub, her hair a tangled mess around her flushed face. Gray eyes snapped fire as she stood with her legs spread wide. A trickle of blood ran from her nose. In her hand she held a jagged piece of glass.

And she was only in her bra and jeans—a white bra with little yellow daises on it. Her chest heaved with indignation and fury.

Apparently, Sadi had taken the cleaning thing to a whole different level.

My gaze crept to where Sadi stood only a few feet from her, breathing heavily. Her white blouse was torn. Buttons popped and missing. Her normally coiffed hair looked like she’d been inside a wind tunnel, but the best part?

Fingernail marks were etched down the side of Sadi’s face and reddish-blue blood had been drawn. A disturbing level of pride rippled through me.

Kitten got claws and then some.

“She doesn’t play nice with others,” Sadi huffed out. “So I’m in the process of adjusting her attitude.”

“And I’m in the process of getting ready to cut out your heart, bitch.”

In spite of everything that was so damn messed up, my lips twitched into a small smile. “Get out.”

Sadi turned her hateful gaze on me. “I’m—”

“Get the hell out.” When Sadi didn’t move, I stalked over to where she stood, picked her up, and shoved her out of the bathroom. She caught herself and started back toward us. “Rolland has a use for you tonight, so if you want to be able to come through for him, don’t take one more step toward me.”

Her nostrils flared as her cheeks mottled with anger, but she stopped as her hands curled into claws. A second passed and she didn’t move from the doorway. Sadi was going to test me—she seriously was.

I slammed the bathroom door shut in Sadi’s face and then whipped around. Heart hammering, I saw her again and immediately forgot about Sadi.

She still stood in front of the garden tub, the piece of glass in her hand, and she stared back at me like an animal cornered. In that moment she didn’t remind me of a harmless little kitten.

She was a full-grown tigress, and she still looked like she wanted to do some damage. To me. Could I really blame her? Those eyes of hers shifted the longer we stared at each other, turning wet with a sheen of tears, and that was worse than a kick between the legs.

I was in so deep. We were in so deep, and I didn’t want her here. I wanted her far, far away from all of this, but it was too late.

Too late for both of us, and maybe for everyone else, too.

Her lower lip trembled as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her toes sinking into spilled conditioner or shampoo. An eternity stretched out between us as I soaked her up with my eyes. A collage of memories—from the day she knocked on my front door and changed my life, to the first time she said those three words that made my life what it was—bombarded me. But it was more than just memories. I knew right then I shouldn’t be feeling what I was, but every cell demanded her. My blood boiled.

I wanted her.

I needed her.

I loved her.

She took a step back, bumping into the tile ledge surrounding the tub.

“Kat,” I said, speaking her name for the first time in days, allowing myself to actually think it, and the moment that happened, the seal inside me broke wide open.

6

{ Katy }

The edges of the piece of glass were digging into my palm as I stared at Daemon. After everything that had gone down in the office, and then with that horrible woman, I couldn’t catch my breath or stop the tremors racing along my arm. I watched him take a step forward. The look in his incandescent eyes and the intent in his step sent a shiver down my spine. “Don’t.”

His eyes narrowed.

Too much hurt swelled in my chest, mixing with all the terrible things Sadi had said she planned on doing with Daemon, things that, when he’d been in the office, he hadn’t sounded like he’d be against enjoying.

My skin felt raw, my insides flayed open. I wanted to lash out and hurt something, someone. Tears burned my throat. “Are you sure you don’t want to leave with your new friend?”

Only a thin sliver of green showed now. “Yes, I’m sure.”

“That’s not what it looked like earlier. You two—”

“Don’t say another word,” he all but growled.

I blinked as anger roared through me like a typhoon. “Excuse me? Who the—?”

Daemon was on one side of the bathroom, and then he was right in front of me the next second, causing me to stumble to the side and step in the gooey mess on the floor.

I shrieked. “I hate it when you do—”

He clasped my cheeks, and the moment his skin was against mine, my entire brain seemed to short-circuit. The piece of glass fell from my fingers, landing harmlessly on a nearby fluffy bathmat.

He lowered his head until our mouths were so close that we shared the same air. It was all so unfair. From the moment he’d disappeared, all I wanted was to see him again, to touch him and to love him, and now I didn’t really know what was standing in front of me.

Nothing since the Luxen had arrived made sense.

He didn’t move. Instead, his luminous emerald gaze traveled over my face as if he was committing each inch to memory. There was a warmth that followed his stare, and the throbbing in my nose, where that heinous bitch had slapped me, faded away.

He was healing me. Again. After pushing me away from him and saying that he loved me, as in the past tense, and after associating with the worst kind of monsters. I couldn’t take it.

“This is so wrong,” I said, my voice cracking. “Everything is so messed—”

Daemon kissed me.

There was nothing soft or tentative about it. His mouth was pressed against mine, boldly parting my lips, and he kissed like he was starving. The rush of sensation nearly took my legs out from underneath me. My stomach dipped as a deep sound rumbled from his throat, shaking through me.

The spark of hope in my chest grew stronger, but confusion and anger snapped at its heels like an annoying little dog. Daemon tilted his head as one hand slid off my cheek. His fingers curled into my hair at the back of my head. My heart pounded, and it was too much.

I placed my hands against his chest and pushed.

“Kitten,” he growled, nipping at my lower lip.

A breath shuddered through me. “You—”

“She’s still outside the room,” he whispered against my lips, and then he was kissing me again.

His words were lost for a moment as his other hand trailed down the length of me, settling on the curve of my waist. He tugged me against him, fitting our bodies together, and the feel of it was somehow shockingly new and sweetly familiar. The kiss deepened until his taste was everywhere.

My hands shook as my fingers gripped the soft material of his shirt. A breathy sound escaped me. The tremble traveled up my arms and kept going until every part of my body shook.

“She’s gone.” Daemon lifted his head away, but I kept my eyes squeezed shut. I couldn’t stop shaking. “Oh, Kitten . . .”

I wanted to tell him not to call me that if this wasn’t real, but a sob rose in my throat. I clamped my mouth shut, because at this point, tears and breaking down didn’t help anything, and there had already been too many tears between us.

Daemon’s arm circled around me and his fingers spread across the back of my head, guiding my cheek against his chest. He held me in an embrace so tight I could feel his heart pounding through him.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered against the top of my head. “I’m so sorry, Kitten.”

“Is . . . is this you?” My voice cracked. “Is this real?”

“As real as I’ll ever be.” His voice was barely audible, a hoarse whisper like mine. “God, Kat, I . . .”

It felt like my chest had imploded, and I reached up, digging my hand into the wisp of hair at the nape of his neck. My cheeks were damp.