at the sky. "Without our powers, they are like...humans, but vicious and immoral. They're into ultimate destruction and whatever."
I swallowed hard. "Have you...fought a lot of them?"
"Yep." He eased onto his side, using his hand to support his head. A lock of hair fell over his eye. "I've lost count of how many I've faced and killed. And with you lit up like you are, more will come." My fingers itched to brush that strand of hair back. "Then why did you stop the truck?"
"Would you have preferred I let it pancake you?"
I didn't even bother responding to that.
"Why did you?"
A muscle popped in his jaw as his gaze drifted over my upturned face. "Honestly?"
"Yes."
"Will it get me bonus points?" he asked softly.
Holding my breath, I reached up and brushed back the strand of hair. My fingers barely grazed his skin, but he sucked in a sharp breath and closed his eyes. I pulled my hand away, not sure why I'd done that. "Depends on how you answer the question." Daemon's eyes opened. The pupils were white, strangely beautiful. He eased down on his back again, his arm against mine. "Next question?" I clasped my hands together, over my stomach. "Why does using your powers leave a trace?"
"Humans are like glow-in-the-dark T-shirts to us. When we use our abilities around you, you can't help but absorb our light. Eventually, the glow will fade, but the more we do, the more energy we use, the brighter the trace. Dee blurring out doesn't leave much of anything.
The truck incident and when I scared the bear, that leaves a visible mark. Something more powerful, like healing someone, leaves a longer trace. A faint one, nothing big so I'm told, but it lingers longer for some reason.
"I should've been more careful around you," he continued. "When I scared the bear I used a blast of light, which is kind of like a laser. It left a large enough trace on you for the Arum to see you."
"You mean the night I was attacked?" I whispered, my voice hoarse.
"Yes." He dragged a hand down his face.
"Arum don't come here a lot, because they don't think any Luxen are here. The beta quartz in the Rocks throws off our energy signature, hides us.
That's one of the reasons why there are a lot of us here. But there must have been one coming through. He saw your trace and knew there had to be one of us nearby. It was my fault."
"It wasn't your fault. You weren't the one who attacked me."
"But I basically led him to you," he said, voice tight.
At first I couldn't speak. There was this horrible punched-in-the-gut type of feeling that spread to the tips of my fingers and down to my toes. I felt the blood drain out my face so fast it left me dizzy.
Suddenly, what that man had said made sense. Where are they? He'd been looking for them. "Where is he now? Is he still around? Is he going to come back? What - "
Daemon's hand found mine and squeezed.
"Kitten, calm down. You're going to have a heart attack."
My eyes dropped to our hands. He didn't pull his away. "I'm not going to have a heart attack."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes." I rolled my eyes.
"He isn't a problem anymore," he said after a few seconds.
"You...you killed him?"
"Yeah, I kind of did."
"You kind of did? I didn't know there was any 'kind of' in killing someone."
"Okay, yes, I did kill him." There wasn't a single ounce of doubt or remorse in his voice, like killing someone didn't even faze him. I should be afraid, very afraid of him. Daemon sighed. "We're enemies, Kitten. He would've killed me and my family after absorbing our abilities if I didn't stop him. Not only that, he would've brought more here. Others like us would've been in danger. You would've been in danger."
"What about the truck? I'm glowing brighter now." I ignored the clenching in my stomach.
"Will there be another?"
"Hopefully there are none nearby. If not, the traces on you should fade. You'll be safe." He was guiding his thumb across my hand in a silent alphabet. It was sort of soothing, comforting. "And if not?"
"Then I'll kill them, too." He didn't hesitate.
"For awhile, you're going to need to stay around me, until the trace fades."
"Dee said something like that." I bit my lip.
"So you don't want me to stay away from you guys anymore?"
"It doesn't matter what I want." He glanced down at his hand.