Opposition (Lux, #5)(22)

My skin felt raw, my insides flayed open. I wanted to lash out and hurt something, someone. Tears burned my throat. “Are you sure you don’t want to leave with your new friend?”

Only a thin sliver of green showed now. “Yes, I’m sure.”

“That’s not what it looked like earlier. You two—”

“Don’t say another word,” he all but growled.

I blinked as anger roared through me like a typhoon. “Excuse me? Who the—?”

Daemon was on one side of the bathroom, and then he was right in front of me the next second, causing me to stumble to the side and step in the gooey mess on the floor.

I shrieked. “I hate it when you do—”

He clasped my cheeks, and the moment his skin was against mine, my entire brain seemed to short-circuit. The piece of glass fell from my fingers, landing harmlessly on a nearby fluffy bathmat.

He lowered his head until our mouths were so close that we shared the same air. It was all so unfair. From the moment he’d disappeared, all I wanted was to see him again, to touch him and to love him, and now I didn’t really know what was standing in front of me.

Nothing since the Luxen had arrived made sense.

He didn’t move. Instead, his luminous emerald gaze traveled over my face as if he was committing each inch to memory. There was a warmth that followed his stare, and the throbbing in my nose, where that heinous bitch had slapped me, faded away.

He was healing me. Again. After pushing me away from him and saying that he loved me, as in the past tense, and after associating with the worst kind of monsters. I couldn’t take it.

“This is so wrong,” I said, my voice cracking. “Everything is so messed—”

Daemon kissed me.

There was nothing soft or tentative about it. His mouth was pressed against mine, boldly parting my lips, and he kissed like he was starving. The rush of sensation nearly took my legs out from underneath me. My stomach dipped as a deep sound rumbled from his throat, shaking through me.

The spark of hope in my chest grew stronger, but confusion and anger snapped at its heels like an annoying little dog. Daemon tilted his head as one hand slid off my cheek. His fingers curled into my hair at the back of my head. My heart pounded, and it was too much.

I placed my hands against his chest and pushed.

“Kitten,” he growled, nipping at my lower lip.

A breath shuddered through me. “You—”

“She’s still outside the room,” he whispered against my lips, and then he was kissing me again.

His words were lost for a moment as his other hand trailed down the length of me, settling on the curve of my waist. He tugged me against him, fitting our bodies together, and the feel of it was somehow shockingly new and sweetly familiar. The kiss deepened until his taste was everywhere.

My hands shook as my fingers gripped the soft material of his shirt. A breathy sound escaped me. The tremble traveled up my arms and kept going until every part of my body shook.

“She’s gone.” Daemon lifted his head away, but I kept my eyes squeezed shut. I couldn’t stop shaking. “Oh, Kitten . . .”

I wanted to tell him not to call me that if this wasn’t real, but a sob rose in my throat. I clamped my mouth shut, because at this point, tears and breaking down didn’t help anything, and there had already been too many tears between us.

Daemon’s arm circled around me and his fingers spread across the back of my head, guiding my cheek against his chest. He held me in an embrace so tight I could feel his heart pounding through him.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered against the top of my head. “I’m so sorry, Kitten.”

“Is . . . is this you?” My voice cracked. “Is this real?”

“As real as I’ll ever be.” His voice was barely audible, a hoarse whisper like mine. “God, Kat, I . . .”

It felt like my chest had imploded, and I reached up, digging my hand into the wisp of hair at the nape of his neck. My cheeks were damp.

“I’m so sorry,” he said again, and for a moment, it was all he seemed to be able to say. He turned so that his back was to the wall, and then he slid down, pulling me into his lap, nestled between his bent knees and the hard expanse of his chest. “I don’t know how much I can say or how long I can keep them out of my head.”

Keep them out of his head? I blinked back tears as I opened my eyes. “I don’t . . . understand what is happening.”

“I know.” Pain flashed across his striking face as he rested his forehead against mine. “We’re connected—all of us. From the moment they came, we’ve been inside one another’s heads. I’m not sure how it works. It’s never been like this before. Maybe it’s because there are so many of us here, but when I’m in my true form, there’s no hiding from it. It’s not too bad . . . now. There are things they don’t know, that we’ve been able to keep from them, but I’m not sure how much longer that’s going to work.”

“Us?” I whispered.

He nodded. “Dawson and me.”

I frowned, clearly not remembering him as being a friendly. “But he hit me with the Source.” And I was also pretty sure he’d cracked my skull in the process.

Daemon’s eyes deepened to a vibrant moss green. “Yeah, and his jaw has been thanked for that. He didn’t have a choice, though. Another was heading for you, and he did what he did to stop one of them from killing you.”