This was a good distraction? Jesus. This was what our lives had come down to. Almost laughable. My gaze flickered to where the moonlight filtered through the bare limbs. Except nothing about any of this was funny.

My hand curled around her thick hair. “We need a date night soon.”

She snuggled in closer. “I don’t think we have time for that.”

“There is always time for date night.” I lowered my gaze. She was peering up at me now. “Remember? Time management?”

Kat smiled a little, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I do.”

“Tomorrow night, we’re supposed to head into Martinsburg to see Luc. That doesn’t really count as a date night.”

“It doesn’t?”

“Hanging out with the preteen mafia leader? Uh, no.” I grinned when she laughed. “But there is no excuse for us to not make time to do the normal stuff. Right?”

“Right,” she murmured. “It doesn’t…feel wrong, though? Like we’re being selfish?”

“If wanting to enjoy you and the time I have with you makes me selfish, so be it.” I lifted my other hand, cupping her other cheek. “Look,” I said after a moment. “Who knows what is waiting for us tomorrow or next week.”

She wrapped her hand around my wrist. “We don’t know.”

“We need a couple of hours here and there.”

“You’re right.” She stretched up again and kissed me. “I hate it when you’re right.”

Laughing, I stepped to the side and draped my arm over her shoulders. She leaned into me as we started back to the house, the moonlight lighting our paths. For a…a normal couple, this would be a romantic walk, but for us it seemed like that moonlit path was foreshadowing that there was more darkness than light in store for us.

Chapter 18

Wednesday night, while everyone was down at the lake playing with onyx, Kat and I were on the way back to Martinsburg. There was a chance that Luc wouldn’t see us. Hell, the kid might not even be there, but since Kat was wearing this sweater that was like a second skin, I considered it a win no matter what.

Getting to Martinsburg was a lot easier this time around without any of the snow or Blake running his mouth nonstop.

Kat wasn’t smiling a lot, though, and I couldn’t blame her. After school, we’d joined the hastily-thrown-together search party for Carissa. Even though both of us knew there would be no finding Carissa, it was cathartic for Kat, I thought, for her to take part. To distract her, we started to play I Spy, and although she claimed that I cheated, she was smiling and laughing.

When we finally reached the door leading up to the club, cars lined the field like they had last time. I couldn’t understand how this place stayed off the map with this kind of traffic.

Kat shed the loose sweater she’d worn over the tighter one as soon as I parked the SUV. We climbed out and started around the rows of cars. She stopped in the first row, bent over, and tossed her hair over her head, shaking it out, and that was an instant turn-on.

“This reminds me of a Whitesnake video,” I said.

“Huh?” She straightened, running her hands over her hair. The waves fell in a sexy tousle down her back.

I swallowed a groan. “If you start climbing on car hoods, I think I might marry you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Done.”

Staring at her, I felt pressure in my chest. A good kind. Also a frightening kind. “You’re cute.”

“You’re weird.” She stretched up and kissed my cheek, and then I watched her teeter through the high grass that hadn’t been there the last time we’d been there.

Mountain Man, the bouncer I was sure really liked me, like really liked me, appeared out of the shadows, blocking the door. He folded massive arms over his chest. “I thought I told ya two to forget this place?”

I stepped in front of Kat. “We need to see Luc.”

“I need a lot of things in life. Like I wish I could find a decent stock trader who wouldn’t lose half of my money.”

Um, all right.

Kat cleared her throat. “We won’t be here long, but please, we really need to see him.”

“Sorry,” Mountain Man replied.

Sighing, I tipped my head to the side. Obviously, Luc was here. “There’s got to be something that we can do to convince you.”

Mountain Man raised a brow and waited.

I smiled, and the bouncer’s brows rose even further, but before he could respond, his cell phone went off. He pulled it out of the pocket of his overalls. “What’s up?”

Kat elbowed me, and I glanced down at her. “What? It was working.”

The bouncer laughed. “I ain’t doin’ much. Just talkin’ to a douche and a pretty lady.”

“Excuse me?” I said, surprised.

Kat choked out a laugh.

Mountain Man smiled broadly and then sighed. “Yep, they’re here for ya.” There was a pause. “Sure.” He clicked the phone shut. “Luc will see you. Go in and go straight to him. No dancing tonight or whatever it was the two of ya did last time.”

I didn’t need to even look at Kat to know she was blushing, because what we’d done last time on that dance floor sure as hell wasn’t just dancing. Placing my hand on her lower back, we started toward the door.

Mountain Man stopped me with a wink as he handed over a business card. “Ya not normally my type, but I can make an exception.”

I took the card with a smile and then ushered a gaping Kat inside. “Told you.”

Kat snapped her mouth shut and faced forward. Like last time, the dance floor was packed, but we skirted the edges, heading straight for the hallway.

Standing at the door to Luc’s office was Paris. He nodded at me and then stepped aside, opening the door, and the scent of peaches welcomed us. I focused right on the couch. Luc wasn’t there. The stacks of hundreds were gone, but Luc was behind the desk, his fingers flying over the keyboard.

“Please sit.” Luc didn’t look up as he waved at the nearby couch.

Kat glanced at me, and then we went to the couch. She sat close to me, her leg pressed to mine.

“Heard you guys didn’t get very far at Mount Weather last time.” Luc closed the laptop after a moment and then folded his hands under his chin.

“About that.” I leaned forward. “You didn’t know about the onyx shields?”

Luc’s weird purple eyes met mine, and there was an intellect to them that was far beyond his age. “I warned you that there may be things I’m unaware of. Even I don’t know everything about Daedalus. But I think Blake’s on the right track. He is right about everything being encased in a shiny blackish-red material. Perhaps we did build a tolerance so we were not affected by the onyx shields.”

“And what if that’s not it?” Kat asked.

“What if it’s not? I have a feeling that’s not going to stop you from trying again. It’s a risk, and everything has risks. You’re lucky you got out of there last time before anyone realized what happened,” he said. “You get another chance. Most people don’t.”

“You’re right,” she said. “We’re still going to try.”

“But not knowing all the perils ahead seems unfair?” He tucked a strand of brown hair back, his expression impassive. “Life’s not fair, babe.”

I stiffened. “Why do I have a feeling there’s a lot you’re not telling us?”

Luc’s lips formed a half smile. “Anyway, you came here for a reason other than those onyx shields. Let’s get to the point.”

Annoyance rose. “An unstable hybrid attacked Kat.”

“That’s what unstable people do, hybrid or not.”

“Yeah, we figured that much, but she was my friend.” Kat drew in a shallow breath. “She gave no indication that she knew anything about the Luxen. She was fine, got sick, and then came to my house and went nuts.”