Toxic (Denazen #2)(56)

It was Kale that broke the kiss. “That hurt, didn’t it?”

I wanted to tell him not to go, that I wanted to talk, but I couldn’t do it. The resolve I’d felt moments ago about coming clean about Able was already vanishing. There was a part of my brain that knew this was wrong. I’d never been an indecisive person, but I was bouncing around more with this one little thing than a rubber ball.

“Not at all,” I lied. To prove my point, I traced a line from his cheek to chin. “See? All good.”

The corner of his lip twitched and he smiled—but it was forced. He knew I was lying.

As he turned to follow Jade from the room, I clenched my fist and bit down on the inside of my lip to keep from crying out. It was almost as though Jade’s presence was barely affecting me at all anymore. How long before touching Kale meant instant death—even with Jade in the room?





21


I didn’t see Kale again that night. When Mom came up to the room, she told me not to wait up because Ginger was making them work overtime.

Ginger was starting to piss me off.

The next day didn’t get any better. I was late again and woke to a loud country crap alarm. Mom was nowhere in sight. By the time I made it to the conference room, Alex, Kale, and Jade already had their noses buried in the books, and Ginger was giving me the if-you’re-late-again-you’ll-be-scrubbing-toilets glare.

It wasn’t until that evening that my mood improved.

I smiled at the girl looking back at me in the slightly steamed-up bathroom mirror. Her long blonde hair, streaked with deep burgundy chunks, hung in loose ringlets past her bare shoulders. The dress she wore, off-the-shoulder spaghetti straps with a fitted-lace bodice and slightly flared skirt that ended just above her knees, matched the streaks perfectly.

I couldn’t wear the dress like it was, but I wanted a minute to appreciate it as it was meant to be. Simple. Stunning. And allowing for some eye-popping skin candy to show.

Pushing my arms through the simple cotton shrug I’d bought along with the dress, I thought about my favorite shirt. A black satin peasant blouse I’d bought last year after falling in love with the sleeves. The shirt was long gone. Taken God knew where along with the rest of my things, but I could still picture it perfectly in my mind.

With a deep breath, I closed my eyes and concentrated. Really, I should have tried this before tonight, but getting a moment alone had been impossible. To keep me out of Kale and Jade’s hair, Ginger kept me hopping after school. I’d had chores and errands coming out my ears for the last week.

The skin on my shoulders and arms tickled as the fabric of the shrug shifted and twitched. When I dared open my eyes, I couldn’t help smiling. It wasn’t ideal—I was used to showing way more skin—but it was definitely pretty in a sweet, understated sexy kind of way.

My gift was now more visual then sensory. As long as I’d seen it, I could mimic it. This enabled me to change the shoulder straps, meshing the simple black shrug into an extension of the dress. The boring sleeves of the shrug now looked like the ones on my favorite peasant blouse, only in deep burgundy.

This covered my arms—and more importantly, my shoulder. No way would I be able to explain away the ugly, angry blotch Able had left. It had doubled in size, and the lines creeping from the center had thickened.

The neckline of the dress was still dangerously low—there were just some things I wasn’t willing to compromise for safety—and the length was still short, but the sleeves would make Mom feel a little better.

When she’d heard about our faux homecoming, she was more than a little concerned. She said bluntly that Kale’s and my obvious inability to keep our hands off each other would result in disaster. I’d assured her we’d be fine, but I could tell by the look on Kale’s face at the time he was worried, too.

Slipping a pair of strappy heels to my feet, I fluffed my hair and pulled open the door.

Mom was waiting on the other side.

“I still don’t like this,” she said, eyeing the dress. I tried to be careful not to show it to her when I’d brought it into the room. Other than Kiernan, I hadn’t told anyone about my newly improved mimicking skills. It probably wouldn’t worry them that much—I’d never told them about Dad’s visit to the post office or what he said about the advancement of Supremacy’s Sixes—but why invite trouble?

“It’ll be fine. We’ll be careful.” I did a little twirl. “What do ya think? Awesome, right?”

She frowned and took several steps back. “It’s red.”

“Nah. Burgundy. Totally different color.” It was my mission in life to cure her of her aversion to red. It was one of my favorite colors, and I wasn’t willing to give it up.

There was a knock on the door.

A moment later, Mom was ushering Kale into the room. He stepped forward, eyes glued to mine, and held out an armful of deep purple roses. “Curd said these will seal the deal.”

I took the flowers, trying hard not to laugh at the expression on Mom’s face. “Since when are you taking dating advice from Curd? More importantly, why are you taking dating advice from Curd?”

He frowned at the flowers. “Is this wrong?”

I glanced over my shoulder as Mom took the flowers and backed away. She busied herself with finding something to put them in.