to fade the trace. All of their suggestions involved the outdoors and extreme physical exertion, which wasn't happening today.
The sound of rain was lulling. After awhile, my eyes were too heavy to keep open. As I was about to doze off, a knock on the door jarred me.
I threw the afghan off and padded over to the door. Doubting the Arum would knock, I opened the door. Daemon stood there, barely wet even though rain fell in sheets behind him.
There were a few darker dots of gray across the shoulders of his long-sleeved shirt. I bet he used super-alien speed. Who needed an umbrella?
And why in the hell was he in jogging pants?
"What's up?"
"Are you going to invite me in?" he asked.
Pressing my lips together, I stepped aside and let him in. He moved past me, scanning the rooms. "What are you looking for?"
"Your mom's not home, right?"
I shut the door. "Her car's not outside." His eyes narrowed. "We need to work on fading your trace."
"It's pouring outside." I moved past him, grabbing the remote to turn the TV off. Daemon beat me to it. The thing switched off before I pressed the button. "Show-off," I muttered.
"Been called worse." He frowned and then laughed. "What are you wearing?" I glanced down, cheeks flaming. One thing I wasn't wearing was a bra. Christ, how could I forget? "Shut up."
He laughed again. "What are they? Keebler elves?"
"No! They're Santa's elves. I love these pajama bottoms. My dad got them for me." His smug grin faded a little. "You wear them because they remind you of him?" I nodded.
He didn't say anything. Instead, he shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.
"My people believe that when we pass on, our essence is what lights the stars in the universe.
Seems stupid to believe in something like that, but when I look at the sky at night I like to think that at least two of the stars out there are my parents. And one is Dawson."
"That's not stupid at all." I paused, surprised by how touching that belief actually was. Wasn't it the same as ours, believing our loved ones were in heaven watching over us? "Maybe one of them is my dad." His eyes met mine then flitted away. "Well, anyway, the elves are sexy." And a serious, deep moment effectively smashed into nothing. "Did you guys come up with another way to fade the trace?"
"Not really."
"You're planning on making me work out, aren't you?"
"Yeah, that's one of the ways of doing it." I sat on the couch, quickly growing irritated.
"Well, there isn't much we can do today."
"You have a problem going out in the rain?"
"When it's almost the end of October and cold, yes I do." I plucked up the afghan and placed it in my lap. "I'm not going out there and running today."
Daemon sighed. "We can't wait around, Kat. Baruck is still out there and the longer we wait, the more dangerous it is." I knew he had a point, but still, running around in the cold ass rain? "What about Simon?
Did you ever tell the others about him?"
"Andrew is keeping an eye on him. Since he had a game yesterday, it faded most of his trace.
It's very faint now. Which proves that this idea is going to work."
I snuck a peek at him. Instead of seeing the stoic expression, I saw the one from yesterday morning. The look in his eyes before he realized he was in bed with me. My body warmed.
Stupid, stupid hormones.
He reached behind him and pulled out the obsidian blade. "This is another reason why I stopped over."
The obsidian was shiny, glossy black as he laid it on the coffee table. It wasn't glowing a mottled red like it had been when near the Arum.
"I want you to keep this with you, just in case. Put it in your backpack, purse, or whatever you carry."
I stared at it a moment. "Seriously?" Daemon avoided my eyes. "Yeah, even if we manage to get the trace to fade, keep this on you until we finish off Baruck."
"But don't you need it more than I do?
Dee?"
"Don't worry about us."
Harder said than done. I stared at the obsidian, wondering how in the world I was supposed to stash this thing in my bag. "Do you think Baruck is still here?"
"He's still around, yes," he stated. "The beta quartz throws our presence off, but he knows we're here. He knows I'm here."
"Do you think he's going to come