Lydia stared at me a moment. “May I be frank with you, Daemon?”

Uh-oh. “Yeah.”

She pressed her lips together in a flat line and then nodded, as if she was preparing herself. “I know you’re not going to want to hear this, and I don’t expect you to either confirm or deny it, but you do realize we were keeping a close eye on your brother.”

I stilled. Didn’t even breathe.

“He was quite close to that human girl he…he died with. Now you know, I have no problems with our kind being friends with humans. I am not nearly as strict as some of the others,” she continued, expression open. “But many of the Elders suspected that your brother crossed the line with that girl.”

I didn’t ask what this had to do with what I was asking, because deep in my bones, I knew it had everything to do with it.

“There’s a reason why we keep a certain distance between us and humans,” Lydia went on. “Arum come looking for us and innocent humans are caught in the cross fire, but it’s…it’s more than that, Daemon.” She exhaled softly. “And that’s all you need to know.”

My jaw flexed. More than that? As I met her gaze, I knew there was something she wasn’t telling me, something probably along the lines of what was happening to Kat, but if I pushed it, she could get suspicious, and as much as I liked her, I knew she would go to the rest of the Elders if she thought I’d done something unforgivable, and I…

I would protect Kat if it came down to it.

Lydia left not too long after that, just before Dee returned home. It was close to nine when I left in my car, heading toward Smoke Hole, the conversation with Lydia playing over and over. What did I gain from it? Nothing much other than the fact that the Elders, or at least some of them, knew what could happen to a human. It didn’t take a leap of logic to figure out that was what she was hinting at, but all of that brought me back to a different question, one that had nothing to do with what was happening with Kat.

Why had she brought up Dawson and Bethany?

Did the Elders know just how far their relationship had progressed? And did they somehow suspect that something major had gone down between Bethany and Dawson? Something like what had happened between Kat and me? Had Dawson healed Bethany? If so, was that what had drawn the Arum to them the night they’d gone to the movies? Or had the Arum just spotted Dawson?

All I had was more questions than answers, which was pretty typical.

I drove past Smoke Hole and pulled into the near-empty parking lot of Rudy’s. Killing the engine, I leaned back in my seat and I waited.

Simon didn’t disappoint.

An hour later, he strolled out of the pool hall, heading toward a truck jacked up on four oversize tires. He was hunched down in a heavy jacket, chin tucked in. I opened my car door and slipped out. Moving as quietly as a ghost, I sneaked up behind him.

“Hey, Simon.”

He spun around, stumbling back a step. “Jesus,” he grunted. “Where in the hell did you come from?”

I prowled forward, smiling when he backed up. “That doesn’t matter. I need to talk to you, bud.”

Under the bright floodlight from the pool hall, blood drained, inch by glorious freaking inch, from his face. “A-About what?”

“Oh, I think you know what we need to chat about.”

His eyes widened. “I d-don’t know.”

“Kat.” I said her name, and he stiffened. “I know what you’ve been saying about her, and boy, I thought you were smarter than that. What did I tell you last time?”

He opened his mouth, gaping like a belly-up fish. No words.

“I told you not to look in her direction, to not even speak of her, and then you go, telling people you hooked up with her? Got half the school believing that she would even stoop to your level?”

Simon’s hands flew up. “I—”

Cocking back my arm, I planted my fist in his jaw, knocking him flat on his back. “You know what? I’ve got zero fucks to give when it comes to anything you’ve got to say.” Bending down, I grabbed hold of his stupid coat and hauled his ass back up. Blood trickled off his split lip. “If you say one more thing about Kat, do you know what’s going to happen?”

I pulled him in toward me, lifting him onto the tips of his toes. Fear filled his eyes, and the sudden stench of urine hit the air. I glanced down, seeing the wet spot spread along his leg. I smirked. “Yeah, I think you get the message.”

Letting go, I kindly helped his face into the side of his truck, and when he hit the ground for a second time, I waved good-bye with my middle finger.

One problem down.

A shitload more to fix.

Chapter 10

It was weird that with everything happening with Kat, I spent several hours after school on Friday stringing up about a million paper lanterns. Moving the furniture around took Dee and me no time. Flick of the wrist, and the tables were lined up against the wall. She’d spent a small fortune on pumpkin and spice candles, and the house smelled like autumn threw up all over it.

Dee was buzzing around happily, excitement humming through her, and I really hoped for her sake that nothing crazy happened tonight. It wasn’t like we couldn’t control ourselves, but other than Kat and…and Bethany, we didn’t have humans in our home. I really didn’t want a huge bunch of humans in it now, and Lydia or another Elder was probably going to pay us yet another visit after this weekend, but Dee wanted this.

So I wanted it for her.

Adam and a couple others had started to arrive by the time I made it upstairs and took a quick shower. As I pulled on a pair of jeans I’d snagged out of the clothes basket, I could hear the hum of voices and laughter down below.

Tonight was going to be a long night.

Scrubbing a towel through my wet hair, I opened the bathroom door and stepped out. My bedroom was so not like how I’d left it. Mainly the big change was the fact that it wasn’t empty.

Ash was leaning against my headboard, her legs stretched out in front of her, crossed at the ankles. And that was a whole lot of leg. Her dress was really just an oversize shirt. Not that I was complaining. It was a nice view.

But she didn’t belong in my bedroom, on my bed.

Sighing, I tossed the towel over the back of my desk chair. “What are you doing in here, Ash?”

One shoulder rose as her bright blue gaze roamed over my bare chest and then lower. Not like she hadn’t seen any of this before. “I wanted to see if you needed help.”

My lips twitched as I walked over to my closet. “With what?”

“Anything you might need.”

I raised a brow as I pulled an old screen T-shirt off the floor. Looked clean. “There’s nothing I need.” To clarify, nothing that I needed was in this room. “But thanks for the—”

As I turned around, Ash was off that bed and right in front of me. She snatched the shirt from my hand and tossed it over her head. I started to frown, but she planted both hands on my chest and pushed—pushed hard. My back hit the wall.

Ash was strong, damn strong, and if you ever forgot that, you’d probably end up with your ass kicked from here to Maryland.

Or manhandled.

Ha.

“I’ve missed you,” she said, her gaze following the path of her hands, which were getting awful close to the button on my jeans. “Well, I’ve missed certain parts of you, and I was thinking since you’re here and I’m here, we could make this party a bit more…” She bit down on her lower lip as she peered up at me through her lashes. “Interesting.”

“Ash…” I grabbed her wrists, pulling her hands away from me. She resisted, but as strong as she was, I was stronger. Her eyes narrowed as her chin lifted. “As tantalizing as that offer is, and it really is…” I said, and that was truth. I was a male, and Ash was unbelievably hot, and I also knew exactly what this girl had to offer, and it was a lot. “But I’m going to have to pass.”