Surprise flared in his bright blue eyes. “You said—”

“It doesn’t matter what I said, Matthew. Things have changed.” I stepped back, out of his grasp. “I…I care about her, and that’s all you need to know. That’s all any of them need to know.”

Shock gave way to trepidation and then dawning understanding. Blood drained from Matthew’s face, but I turned away from him. I started walking down the hall, having no idea where I was going, but anywhere other than here was a better choice.

“Daemon,” Matthew called out, but I kept going.

The cell phone in my pocket vibrated. I reached in and pulled it out. The text was from Dee, and it was only two words. The two best words in the history of mankind.

Kat’s awake.

Chapter 5

Kat came home from the hospital on Thursday. Dee had gathered up all her missed assignments and spent the better part of Thursday evening with her. From what I gathered from my sister, Kat was feeling fine. She didn’t act sick or look it. None of this was from firsthand observation.

I stayed away Thursday.

I wasn’t even sure why. Maybe it was because I didn’t trust myself if I did see her. Okay. That was probably it, because there was a good chance I would be all over her in a second, touching her, feeling her. Making sure that she was alive and well. That would be too much for her.

It would be too much for me.

Dee said Kat was coming back to school this morning—Friday—and as I walked toward trig class, my heart was pounding like a steel drum and the back of my neck was warm. Tingling. Kat was here.

I walked into class, and my gaze found her without even trying. Seeing her sitting there talking to Lesa and Carissa was like taking a punch to the chest to restart the heart. And she looked more than fine. Kat looked beautiful. Dark-chocolate-colored hair fell over her shoulders, thick and shiny. The centers of her cheeks were flushed in a pretty, healthy way. She was smiling, and goddamn, she was beautiful.

I wanted to walk right up to her, yank her to her feet and against me. I wanted to feel her warm breath on my skin and taste her lips. Maybe I should’ve gone and seen her last night, but I had no idea my reaction to her was going to be so damn intense.

Walking became a little difficult at that point. Doing what I wanted wouldn’t be entirely appropriate, and I was also a bit distracted by a very important observation. Strangely, there was no trace around her.

Kat twisted around in her seat, facing me. “I need to talk to you.”

“Okay,” I said.

“In private,” she whispered.

Perfect. Because what I had in mind required privacy. “Meet me in the library at lunch. No one really goes in there. You know, with all those books and stuff.”

She wrinkled her nose at me, and I fought a smile as she flipped back to the front of class. Relieved that Kat was here and she was normal, I picked up my pen and tipped my desk forward. I poked her in the back.

“Yes?” she whispered.

I grinned. “You look a lot better than the last time I saw you.”

“Thanks.”

My gaze glided over her, and I spoke low so only she could hear. “Know what? You’re not glowing.”

Shock splashed across her face. “Like, at all?”

I shook my head.

Kat stared at me a moment longer and then slowly turned back around. Class started and I righted my desk, sitting back in my chair. A huge amount of relief was currently lifting some of the weight off my chest, but my mind kept going back to Kat’s absent trace. Was it the fever?

Or was it something else?

Instead of heading for the cafeteria like I normally would, I bypassed the noisy room and kept walking down the hall. A few students were milling through the wide hallway, and as I hung a right, I nearly plowed into some dude I’d never seen before.

The brunette guy jumped back. “Whoa,” he said, a grin splitting his tan face. “Sorry about that, man.”

I nodded in response and the guy stepped around me, disappearing toward the cafeteria I assumed. The musty-smelling library was busier than I thought it would be during lunch. A young librarian sat behind the circulation desk, her eyes widening when she saw me walk in.

Was it that odd to see me in here?

I smirked.

Probably.

A couple of underclassmen sat at the computers, eating their lunches. I turned down the first aisle and found myself in the back of the library. Eastern European culture. Doubted anyone at this school would be frequenting this part of the library.

There were maps of places virtually unpronounceable tacked to the tiny cubicle wall. The longer I waited, the more I felt like I needed to work on my world history knowledge, because I had no freaking clue there were so many countries in Eastern Europe.

The odd shiver along the back of my neck announced Kat’s presence before she appeared at the end of the stacks. I grinned when she spotted me and raised her brows. She took her sweet-ass time walking over, and when she stepped into the cubicle, I made no attempt at giving her space.

I’d decided I’d like to be all up in her personal space. “I was wondering if you were ever going to find me.”

She dropped her backpack against the wall and sat on the desk across from me. “Embarrassed someone would see you and think you’re capable of reading?”

My lips twitched. “I do have a reputation to maintain.”?

“And what a lovely reputation that is,” she retorted quickly, and it might make me a freak, but when she mouthed off at me, it turned me on.

Totally turned me on.

I stretched out my legs to accommodate that fact. “So what did you want to talk about?” I dropped my voice and was rewarded with a shiver. “In private?”

“Not what you’re hoping.”

I smirked. Funny that she thought she knew what I wanted. Cute.

“Okay.” She gripped the edge of the desk. “How did you know I was sick in the middle of the night?”

The question caught me off guard, bringing back memories of her pale and out of it, and the feeling of helplessness that I’d dwelled in while she’d been in the hospital. I didn’t want to think about it. “You don’t remember?”

Her eyes met mine for a moment, and then she stared at my lips. My grin went up a notch, and her gaze flew to the map over my shoulder. “No. Not really.”

Interesting. “Well, it was probably the fever. You were burning up.”

She was back to staring at me. I liked that. “You touched me?”

“Yes, I touched you.” And I wanted to touch her again, and not for the reasons I was touching her then. “And you weren’t wearing a lot of clothes. And you were soaked…in a white T-shirt. Nice look. Very nice.”?

She flushed prettily. “The lake… It wasn’t a dream?”

I shook my head.

“Oh my God, so I did go swimming in the lake?”

Her visible distress over the least important thing that had happened out of everything was sort of adorable. And telling. I moved away from the desk and was so close to her, I could feel her warmth. “You did. Not something I expected to see, but I’m not complaining. I saw a lot.”

“Shut up.”

“Don’t be embarrassed.” I tugged on the sleeve of her cardigan, and she smacked my hand away. I grinned. “It’s not like I haven’t seen the upper part before, and I didn’t get a real good look down—”

Kitten had claws. Couldn’t forget that. She came off the desk with a mean right hook. I was faster than her and jerked back, catching her hand before it connected with my face. Since I had her wrist, I used it to my advantage. I did what I’d been wanting to do since I saw her in class this morning. I hauled her against my chest, immediately pleased by that, and lowered my head. “Don’t hit, Kitten. It’s not nice.”