I lowered my hand. “I’m not saying you have to stop talking to her, but pull it back. You can still be nice to her, talk to her at school, but don’t go out of your way. You’re only going to make it harder on her and yourself.”

A long moment passed. “Are you threatening me, Daemon?”

Lowering my gaze to hers, I braced myself. “No. I’m telling you how it’s going to be. We should head back.”

“No,” she said. “Why? Why is it wrong if I’m friends with your sister?”

My jaw tensed. This was a mistake, because I didn’t like this—no, I hated doing this. I had a mean streak the size of the equator, but this…this wasn’t me. Frustration rolled into a burst of heated energy, stirring the fallen leaves and tossing Kat’s hair.

“You aren’t like us,” I said, and then I really went there. I crossed every line that I knew to drive the point home. “You are nothing like us. Dee deserves better than you, people that are like her. So leave me alone. Leave my family alone.”

Kat jerked as if I’d delivered a physical blow, and truth was, what I had done was far worse than anything physical. She took a step back, blinking rapidly.

Then I sealed the deal. “You wanted to know why. That’s why.”

“Why…?” Her voice cracked. “Why do you hate me so much?”

My control slipped for a moment, and I flinched. I didn’t hate her. God, I wished I did, but I didn’t, and seeing the tears building in her eyes killed me.

And then, because she was anything but weak, she rallied. “You know what? Screw you, Daemon.”

I looked away, my jaw working “Kat, you can’t—”

“Shut up!” she hissed. “Just shut up.”

She stalked past me, heading back down the path we’d taken. It was too dark for her to make it without busting her ass. “Kat, please wait up.”

Unsurprisingly, she didn’t listen.

“Come on, Kat, don’t walk so far ahead. You’re going to get lost!”

She picked up her pace, and then she was running. The urge to go after her was hard to ignore, and I would’ve easily caught up, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out she wanted as much space between us as possible.

I’d hurt her, really hurt her this time, cutting deep. Anything I’d said to her before was nothing compared to what I’d said this time. I had a feeling I’d finally accomplished my mission, but I didn’t feel a single ounce of satisfaction.

I heard her stumble up ahead and grunt. Concern flared to life, and I picked up speed. “Kat!”

She ignored me once more and rushed forward. The road was up ahead, and she broke into an all-out run. I was closer to her now, only a few feet behind, and I saw her lift her hands and wipe them across her face.

Kat was crying.

I’d made her cry.

She hit the road and my heart stopped. I shouted her name, but there was no way she’d be able to react fast enough. It was too late.

Kat had stepped out in front of a truck.

Chapter 14

Two bright headlights enveloped Kat’s form, and the truck’s loud roar filled my head. Her arms were thrown up, as if she was trying to shield herself. I saw her in my mind, broken and destroyed on the hot asphalt. The fire and life in her gray eyes dulled forever, and rage enveloped me.

I didn’t hesitate.

Summoning the Source, I shattered every rule of our kind in a nanosecond. For Kat.

The burst of energy was so powerful and raw, it heated the air around us. Thunder cracked, reverberating through the valley. And the truck stopped. Everything about the vehicle and inside it simply stopped, suspended in time. The ground shivered under my feet and traveled outward.

Strained, I held the vehicle back, calling on everything inside me. Tiny bursts of light sparked around the truck. The driver was frozen. Time was frozen except for me and Kat.

My body began to tremble with the effort, and the world took on a whitish tint.

Kat lowered her hands and slowly turned around. Her eyes were wide as she lifted her hand to her chest. She took a step back. “Oh my God…”

I couldn’t continue holding the truck back while in my human form. I knew my eyes were glowing by then, iridescent. I had a choice. Any second now I was going to lose control and the truck would continue its original path and barrel into Kat. Or I could endanger Kat and Dee and my race even more by exposing us. But at least Kat would still be alive, for however long she survived the Arum. I didn’t hesitate in my choice.

The shift happened almost immediately, starting with my veins first. Intense white light filled them and then washed over me, replacing my clothing and human skin. The tremble moved past my arms, over my chest, and down my body. Power rippled out, gliding over to her.

And then I was completely in my true form, lighting up the whole damn road.

Kat was seeing me for what I really was.

Off in the distance, I heard Dee shouting, but I couldn’t afford to lose focus. Not until after I got Kat out of the path of certain death.

Kat looked back at the truck. The vehicle was shaking, as was the driver. I wouldn’t be able to hold it back much longer or keep the driver suspended. He would be traced—hard-core traced. So would Kat. I couldn’t worry with the driver, though. His out-of-state tags meant once he was unfrozen, he’d be long gone.

The engine in the truck screamed, trying to push through, and I reached out for even more of the source. As the energy coursed through my form, a ball of intense heat grew in my belly, threatening to burn through me. Our kind could channel energy in the form of light, but even we had limits.

Just when I thought I was surely going to lose control, Kat came unstuck. She spun around and took off. I pulled the Source back and it slammed into me, knocking me back a step as the truck roared past and sapping the last of my energy. The street was empty.

Shit.

Kat was running up the drive. I had to… God, I didn’t even know what I was going to do. Thinking was pointless now, especially since I hadn’t actually thought about what I was doing from the moment she stepped one foot onto the road. I ran after her. Halfway up the driveway, Dee appeared, but Kat dodged her and kept running, right into the woods.

“Stay back,” I shouted at Dee.

“But—”

“I mean it, Dee. Stay back!”

For once, she read the warning in my voice and saw the severity in the situation. She backed off with a look of horror on her face. What happened tonight was what I’d been warning her about this whole time.

Except it had been me who had exposed us.

Branches smacked at me and snagged my shirt as I raced after Kat. Spying her up ahead, I called out, but she didn’t stop, and I wasn’t going to chase after her all night. I dropped the human speed BS and within a heartbeat, I was on her.

I caught Kat from behind, my arms around her waist. We went down in a tangle of legs. I twisted before we hit the ground, absorbing the brunt of the fall. I rolled, pinning her down in the mossy grass under me.

Kat went crazy.

She slammed her hands against my chest and pushed. “Get off!”

I grabbed her shoulders, forcing her back before she hurt herself. “Stop it!”

“Get away from me!” she screamed, wiggling and trying to use her hips to throw me off.

Any other time, her rough movements would’ve firmly placed my head in the wrong place. Not now. “Kat, stop it! I’m not going to hurt you!”

Her wild gaze connected with mine, and she stilled underneath me, only her chest rising and falling erratically. Neither of us moved for what felt like an eternity. Panic filled her gaze, mingling with unshed tears.