Douche Bag’s grin started to falter. “Blake. And that would be the plan.”

“Hmm.” I glanced at his glass of water and idly curled my finger.

His glass toppled over. Water sloshed over the table, spilling into his lap. The guy jumped up. “Shit.”

My finger moved again.

His plate of half-eaten spicy noodles slid onto the front of Blake’s sweater.

Kat’s mouth dropped open.

“Jesus,” Blake muttered, hands at his sides as he stared down at himself.

Grabbing napkins, Kat’s glare promised death as she handed the napkins to Douche Bag. I smirked. “That was…really strange.”

Face red, he glanced up from patting at his sweater and crotch. His eyes met mine, and for a second, something I saw in them sent my instinct flaring. Something about those eyes wasn’t…normal.

Then again, I had just dropped a glass of water and a plate of noodles in his lap, so his murderous stare was kind of expected.

Quietly and with stiff, jerky movements, he brushed off the brown noodles. The waitress rushed to his side with several more napkins.

“Well, anyway, I’m actually here for a reason.” I picked up Kat’s glass and took a drink. “You’re needed at home.”

Douche Bag halted his movements. “Excuse me?”

“Did I speak too fast, Bart?”

“His name is Blake,” she snapped. “And why am I needed at home? Right now, at this very moment?”

I met her eyes. “Something has come up and you need to check it out now.”

She started to respond, and then she got what I wasn’t saying. She stiffened and then turned to Douche Bag. “I’m really, really sorry about this.”

His gaze darted between us as he picked up the check. “It’s okay. Things happen.”

“I’ll make it up. I promise.”

He smiled. “It’s all right, Katy. I’ll take you home.”

“That won’t be necessary.” I smiled, but there was nothing warm about it. “I got this, Biff.”

Kat looked like she wanted to smack me. “Blake. His name is Blake, Daemon.”

“It’s okay, Katy,” he said, lips thin. “I’m a mess.”

“Then it’s solved.” I stood and Kat scooted out.

Everybody was all kinds of happy as Douche Bag took care of the check and our awesome threesome headed outside. I waited, oh so patiently, when she stopped by his car.

“I am so, so sorry,” she said.

I rolled my eyes.

“It’s okay. You didn’t knock the stuff on me.” Douche Bag looked at me, and I raised my brows. “Although that was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. But anyway, we’ll make up for it when I get back from break, okay?”

“Okay.” She started to give him a hug but halted.

Douche Bag laughed and then leaned in, kissing Kat, and it took everything in me not to pitch him into oncoming traffic. “I’ll call you,” he said.

Kat nodded as I walked to where I parked. Opening the door for her, I waited. “You ready?” I asked, and she stalked over to the car and climbed in, slamming the door. I frowned at her. “Hey. Don’t take your anger out on Dolly.”

“You named your car Dolly?”

“What’s wrong with that?”

She rolled her eyes.

I jogged around the front of the car and slid in. The moment I closed the door, Kat hauled off and legit punched me in the arm. “You are such a jerk! I know you did the glass and plate thing. That was so wrong!”

I held up my hands, unable to hold my laughter back any longer. “What? It was funny. The look on Bo’s face was priceless. And the kiss he gave you? What was that? I’ve seen dolphins give hotter kisses than that.”

“His name is Blake!” She punched my leg this time. “And you know it! I can’t believe you acted like that. And he doesn’t kiss like a dolphin!”

I snorted. “From what I’ve seen, he does.”

“You didn’t see the last time we kissed.”

My laughter ended with a quickness as I looked over at her. “You’ve kissed him before?”

“That’s none of your business.” Her cheeks flushed.

Oh man, a huge part of me wanted to point out that she yelled at me for assuming I was hooking up with Ash after kissing her when she, in fact, just admitted to doing what she accused me of. It took an act of God to make me not go there. “I don’t like him.”

“You don’t even know him.”

“I don’t need to know him to see that there’s something…off about him.” The car roared to life. “I don’t think you should be hanging out with him.”

“Oh, this is rich, Daemon. Whatever.”

I glanced over at her again, catching her shivering. “Are you cold? Where’s your jacket?”

“I don’t like jackets.”

“Did they do something terrible and unforgivable to you, too?” I turned up the heat. Warm air blasted out of the vents.

“I find them…cumbersome.” She sighed loudly. It was rather impressive. “What was so freaking imperative that you had to go stalker mode and find me?”

“I wasn’t stalking you.”

“Oh, you weren’t? Did you use your alien GPS system to find me?”

“Well, yeah, sort of.” I was so not about to tell her Dee had told me where she was.

“Argh! This is so wrong.” For a second, I thought she was going to hit me again. “So what’s the deal?”

I waited until I hit the highway. “Matthew has called a meeting of the minds, and you should be there. It has to do with the DOD. Something’s happened.”

“What?” she whispered. “What’s happened?”

My hands tightened on the steering wheel. “I don’t know, but I’m…”

“You’re what?”

“We haven’t heard from the DOD since before Halloween. That’s not normal, especially with all the energy we put out while fighting Baruck. Something’s up and I…I don’t think it’s good, Kitten.”

When the Thompsons arrived a few minutes after we got back to my house, Andrew looked at Kat sitting in the chair and rolled his eyes. “Anyone have a clue why she’s here?”

Kat sighed. Andrew knew Matthew had texted Kat needed to be here. He was just trying to make her feel uncomfortable.

“She needs to be here.” Matthew closed the door behind him and walked into the center of the room. Dee waved at him in between shoving fistfuls of popcorn into her mouth. “I want to keep this little get-together short.”

“The DOD knows about her, right? We’re all in trouble?” Ash asked, running her hand over purple tights.

Kat paled. “Do they, Mr. Garrison?”

“As far as I know, they don’t know about you,” he said. “The Elders called a meeting tonight because of the increase in DOD presence here. It appears something has caught the DOD’s attention.”

Adam stared at a buttery piece of popcorn. “Well, what did they see? No one’s done anything wrong.”

Dee set the bag of popcorn aside. “What’s the deal?”

Matthew’s gaze circled the room. “One of their satellites picked up the light show from Halloween weekend, and they’ve been out to the field, using some sort of machine that picks up on residual energy.”

I scoffed. So now we knew they were aware of what went down, but that was nothing in comparison. “The only thing they’re going to find is a burned patch of ground.”

“They know we can manipulate light for self-defense, so from what I’ve gathered, that’s not what caught their attention.” Matthew looked at me, frowning. “It’s the fact that the energy was so strong it disrupted a satellite’s signal and they weren’t able to snap any pictures of the event. Nothing like that has ever happened before.”

I schooled my expression blank. “I guess I’m just that awesome.”

Adam laughed under his breath. “You’re so powerful you’re disrupting signals now?”

“Disrupted only the signal?” Matthew barked a short laugh. “It destroyed the satellite—a satellite designed to track high-frequency light and energy. It zeroed in on Petersburg, and the event destroyed the satellite.”

“Like I said, I’m that awesome.” I smiled despite the tension creeping into my muscles.

“Wow,” Andrew murmured. Respect gleamed in his eyes. “That’s pretty awesome.”