I glanced down at Kat and almost laughed at her wide-eyed expression. I spoke in her ear. “A little out of your element, Kitten?”

“I think you should’ve gone with the eyeliner,” she replied.

I smirked. “Not ever going to happen.”

Heavy drums pounded as we skirted the edge of the dance floor, and then everyone stopped—the ones on the dance floor and the chicks in the cages. Their fists shot in the air as they chanted in unison, “Safe from pain and truth and choice and other poisoned devils…” The yells picked up, drowning out everything except the drums.

Alrighty then.

We entered a narrow hall, leaving that mess behind. Kat was doing her hardest to stare straight ahead, studiously ignoring the couples along the walls. We stopped at a door that had the word Freaks scribbled over what used to be Personnel Only.

Sounded about right.

Blake started to knock on the door, but it cracked open. I couldn’t see who was behind the door, but I had a feeling it was a Luxen.

“We’re here to see Luc,” Blake said. There was a pause, and the back of his neck turned red. Nice. “Tell him it’s Blake, and he owes me.” Another pause. “I don’t care what he’s doing, I need to see him.”

“Great,” I muttered. “He’s friendless as usual.”

Whoever was behind the door said something, and Blake growled. “Dammit, he owes me. These people are cool. Trust me. No bugs here.” Finally, after forever, he turned to us, brows drawn tight. “He wants to talk to me first. Alone.”

I drew up to my full height. “Yeah, not gonna happen.”

Blake shook down. “Then nothing’s going to happen. Either you do as he wants and someone will come for you, or we made this trip for nothing.”

Yeah, I was so not cool with that.

Kat rose onto her toes and pressed against my back. “Let’s dance.”

I turned halfway and stared down at her.

She bit down on her lip as she tugged on my hand. “Come on.”

Not a smart idea, but how was I supposed to turn down that lip? Or that sweater.

Or those tights?

I let her guide me back out to the dance floor, around the twisting and turning bodies. Once she found a spot she seemed to like, she stopped in front of me, and I watched her curiously, wondering if we were going to do this.

This wasn’t like homecoming.

Closing her eyes, she stretched up and wrapped one arm around my neck and placed her other hand on my hip. We were close, very close, so I liked where this was heading already.

And then she started moving against me.

For a moment, I was still, because Kat…she knew how to move every part of her body—her shoulders and those hips. My mouth dried as her thighs rubbed against mine. I circled my arm around her waist and my chin grazed her neck. “Okay,” I said into her ear. “I might have to thank Blake for being friendless.”

Kat smiled.

My arm tightened as she swayed against me, the move fluid and sensual. “I think I like this.”

That was the understatement of the year.

A fine sheen of sweat dotted Kat’s face as she whirled around, pressing her back against my front. My hand slid to her stomach, and we moved together. Hell, I didn’t have to do much of anything, because Kat had the lead on this. She danced away from me, and I caught her arm, spinning her back.

We were front to front, her on the tips of her boots and our bodies twisted together. Pure instinct and a near-primal need drove me to lower my mouth to hers. Our lips brushed, and power pulsed through me and over Kat. It created a flash of light that blended in.

Our hearts pounded in unity and our bodies surged with the music, fitting together, and when my lips pressed more firmly against hers, she opened up. We didn’t stop moving, but her hand was sliding over my chest and lower, and mine was coasting over the curve of her back. Static crackled over our skin, and I was thinking about those couches I’d seen when we first came in and how incredibly useful—

A heavy hand landed on my shoulder, drawing me out of everything that was Kat. I let her go and spun, realizing it was Douche Bag. Before I could knock him into next year, Kat caught my arm.

Blake smiled as he yelled over the blaring music, “Are you guys having sex or dancing?”

“Do you want to ever have sex?” I shot back. “Because I’m about to fix it so you never can.”

He stepped back, throwing his hands up. “Sorry. Geez.”

My cheeks flared. Okay, maybe right now I’d be embarrassed.

“He’s ready to see us if you’re done eating each other’s faces,” Blake said.

One of these days, I was going to do more than seriously harm him.

Reaching down, I took Kat’s small hand in mine, and we followed Blake back through the maze of people. I took the time to get my head on straight. Namely, start thinking with the head on my shoulders, which wasn’t easy, considering.

When Blake went to knock on the door at the end of the hall again, the one marked Freaks , it opened before he could rap his knuckles off it.

The room was large and the air scented with vanilla. Several couches lined the walls, and one of them was occupied. A younger boy with shoulder-length brown hair was stretched out on the center couch, legs crossed at the ankles and his fingers flying over a handheld game. Around his wrist was a silver cuff that held a black stone with a reddish-orange flame in the center. The stone also had flecks of blue and green.

The kid glanced up, and purplish-colored eyes drifted over us, lingering on Kat for a second and then moving to the blond-haired man sitting behind a desk covered with stacks of money. The silver-eyed guy was definitely a Luxen, and he was shocked to see me there.

I stepped forward, and the Luxen male stood. “What’s going on?” Kat asked.

From the couch, the kid coughed out a laugh as he tossed the game on the cushion beside him. “Aliens. They have this wacky internal system that lets them sniff each other out. Guess neither of them was expecting to see the other.”

Kat twisted toward the kid.

He sat up, swinging lanky legs off the couch. “So, you crazy kids want to break into Daedalus stronghold and you want my help?”

My head cocked to the side, and I almost laughed out loud. Luc, the person Blake had dragged us here to meet, was practically a toddler.

Chapter 10

Okay. A toddler was pushing it, but he couldn’t have been older than fourteen or fifteen years old, and right now, our age difference felt as vast as the damn universe. This was who Blake brought us to see? Who could help us get into Daedalus?

A tween?

Luc smiled. “Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Surprised about anything, that is.” Standing, I was shocked to see he was almost as tall as me. “I was six when I decided to play chicken with a speeding cab. It won. Lost the coolest bike evah and a lot of blood, but lucky me, my childhood friend was an alien.”

I eyed him, not sure if I believed the story he was spinning, because there was something about him that reminded me of someone else. Couldn’t put my finger on it, but I immediately knew something wasn’t right.

“How…how did you get away from Daedalus?” Kat asked.

Luc walked over to the table. “I was their star pupil.” His grin was unnerving. “Never trust the one who excels. Isn’t that right, Blake?”

Leaning against the wall, Blake gave a lopsided shrug. “Sounds about right.”

“Why?” Luc sat on the edge of the desk. “Because eventually the pupil becomes smarter than the teacher, and I had some really, really intelligent teachers. So”—he clapped his hands together—“you must be Daemon Black.”