to be ashamed of. I'd do it if he'd be game." I stared at her a second, then busted out laughing. "You guys are insane. There's nothing going on." I looked at Dee. "And you should know that."
"I know a lot of things," she said innocently.
My brows furrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"
She shrugged and pointed at my second slice. "You going to eat that?" I picked it up and handed it over. She ignored my look while she happily devoured my extra slice of pizza.
"Oh, did you guys hear about Sarah?" Carissa flipped closed her cell phone, looking up. "I almost forgot."
"No." Lesa glanced over at me. "Carissa's older brother Ben is friends with Sarah's brother. They go to WVU together."
"Oh." I turned my drink around and started peeling off the label. When I thought of Sarah, I thought of the hospital and how I'd heard about her death. And I thought of the Arum, and how they were around.
"Robbie told Ben that the police don't think it was a heart attack or a natural cause." Carissa looked around the table, lowering her voice. "Or at least no natural causes that they're aware of." Dee lowered the pizza from her mouth. That's how I knew this was serious. "What do you mean?"
"Apparently, there was so much damage to her heart that there was no way it could be like that regardless of if she had any heart conditions," Carissa explained.
Dee shrugged. "I know, but what else could it be?"
I glanced at Dee, having an idea of what or who it could've been. After lunch, I dragged her to the side. "Was it one of them?" I asked. "One of the Arum?"
Dee bit down on her lip and then she tugged me away from the cafeteria doors and her brother, who was coming out of the room. Down the hall, she stopped. "It was, but Daemon took care of him." I hesitated. "It was the same one who attacked me?"
"It was." Dee glanced behind her, lips thin.
"Daemon thinks it was purely coincidental, that the Arum stumbled across her. She didn't know us. I swear."
That didn't make any sense to me. "Then why?"
Dee met my stare. "They don't need a reason, Katy. The Arum are evil. They kill us for our powers." She paused, paling. "And they kill humans for the fun of it."
Chapter 21
Astonishingly, things were sort of...normal now. My trace did fade in a week and a half.
Daemon had acted like he'd been released from a twenty-year jail sentence, and he was never around when I was with Dee anymore.
September and most of October passed without anything happening. Mom continued to work both jobs, and she had a couple more dates with Mr. Michaels. She liked him, and I was happy for her. It had been so long since I'd seen her smile not tinged with sorrow.
Carissa and Lesa both had been to my house, and many times we'd gone to the movies or the mall in Cumberland with Dee. Even though I'd grown close to the two human girls and had a heck of a lot more in common with them, I was closer to Dee. We did everything together - everything except talk about Daemon.
She tried, several times.
"I know he likes you," she'd said once while we were supposed to be studying. "I see the way he looks at you. He gets uptight if I even bring you up."
I'd sighed and closed my notebook. "Dee, I think the reason why he stares at me is because he's planning on ways to kill me and hide my body."
"That is so not the look he gives you."
"Then what's the look, Dee?"
She knocked her book off the bed and climbed to her knees, placing her hands over her chest. "It's the 'I hate you but I want you' look." I giggled. "That was terrible."
"It's true." She lowered her hands. "We can date humans if we want to, you know. It's kind of pointless, but we can. And he's never paid attention to any other human."
"He's been forced to pay attention to me, Dee." I flopped onto my back on my bed. My stomach tightened at the thought of Daemon secretly wanting to be with me. Granted, I knew he was attracted to me. I felt it, but lust didn't have anything on like. "What about you? What's up with Adam?"
"Absolutely nothing at all. I don't know how Ash is attracted to Daemon. We grew up with them, and Andrew is