Jennifer Armentrout - Onyx

Turning wide, pleading eyes to me, Blake shook his head. “I swear you were never in any danger, Katy. If I thought you couldn’t stop it, I wouldn’t have done it.”

Daemon cursed again and I moved, blocking him. “Who does that?” Daemon demanded. Heat rolled off his body.

“Actually, Kiefer Sutherland did. In the original Buffy movie,” he explained. When I continued to gape at him, he grimaced. “It was on TV a few nights ago. He threw one at Buffy and she caught it.”

“That was Donald Sutherland—the dad,” Daemon corrected, much to my surprise.

Blake shrugged. “Same difference.”

“I’m not Buffy!” I yelled.

A slow grin pulled at his lips. “You are definitely cuter than Buffy.”

And that wasn’t the right thing to say. Daemon growled low in his throat. “You got a death wish? Because you’re really pushing it tonight, buddy. I’m dead serious. Really pushing it. I can hold you up against that wall until you run out of juice. Can you hold me off forever? No? I didn’t think so.”

Blake’s jaw jutted out. “Okay. I’m sorry. But if she hadn’t been able to catch it, I would’ve stopped it. Just like you would’ve. No harm. No foul.”

A whirlwind of rage was building inside Daemon and I doubted I could stop him again if he went after Blake. I tensed. “I think that’s enough for tonight.”

“But—”

“Blake, I really think you should leave,” I said meaningfully. “Okay? I think you need to go.”

Blake looked over my shoulder and seemed to get it, because he nodded. “All right.” He started toward the door and stopped. “But you did great, Katy. I don’t think you realize how awesome that was.”

A low hum rattled the floors and Blake took his cue, hightailing his behind out of the house. Only when I heard the rumbling of his truck’s engine did I relax.

“No more,” Daemon said, voice low. “Absolutely no more.”

Slowly, I turned around. His eyes were still doing the glow thing. Up close, they were sort of beautiful—odd but really striking.

“He could have killed you, Kat. I’m not okay with that. I won’t be okay with that.”

“Daemon, he wasn’t trying to kill me.”

He looked incredulous. “Are you insane?”

“No.” Tired, I bent and picked up the huge serial-killer knife. As I held it, it sunk in that I had stopped a knife whizzing toward my chest. I faced Daemon, swallowing.

He was still ranting. “I don’t want you doing any more training with him. I don’t even want you near him. That boy’s got a few screws loose.”

Freezing anything was a huge deal. It was one of the most powerful uses of the Source, Blake and Daemon had both said, with the exception of using it as a weapon.

“I’m going to give him back-alley plastic surgery. I can’t—”

“Daemon,” I whispered.

“—believe he did that.” All of a sudden, he was wrapping his arms around me, hauling me against his chest. By some miracle, I didn’t stab him. “Jesus, Kat, he could have hurt you.”

Somewhat shocked by the close contact that he’d avoided since the evening he made me a sandwich, I didn’t move at first. His entire body hummed. The hand that came up, wrapping around the back of my head, shook slightly.

“Look, you’ve obviously got some control. I can help you work on it,” he said, resting his chin against the top of my head, and God, his arms, his body was so warm and so perfect. “This can’t happen again.”

“Daemon.” My voice was muffled against his chest.

“What?” He pulled back a little, lowering his chin.

“I froze it.”

His brows knitted. “Huh?”

“I froze the knife.” I wiggled free, waving the thing around. “I didn’t just stop it, but I froze it. The thing was just hovering in air.”

It seemed to hit him, too. “Holy…”

I laughed. “God, that’s pretty huge, isn’t it?”

Daemon nodded. “It is. That’s…that’s a big deal.”

Excitement thrummed through me. “We can’t stop training.”

“Kat—”

“We can’t! Look, throwing a knife at me isn’t cool. And God knows, I’m not exactly thrilled that he did it, but it worked. It really worked. We’re getting somewhere—”

“What part of ’He could’ve killed you’ don’t you understand?” Daemon backed off, which usually meant he was really, really angry. “I don’t want you training with him. Not when he’s putting your life in danger.”

“He’s not putting my life in danger.” Besides catching my fingers on fire and the knife incident—but still, the risks were worth it. If I could control these abilities and actually use them to protect Daemon and Dee, then I wouldn’t be just a human—or just a mutated human one step away from exposing them to the world.

“We can’t stop,” I reasoned. “I’ll be able to control it and use the Source, just like you and Dee can. I can help you—”

“Help me with what?” Daemon stared at me, then laughed. “Help me to fight Arum?”

Okay. I wasn’t going that far, but now that he mentioned it, why not? According to Blake, I had potential to be stronger than Daemon. Crossing my arms over my chest, I tapped the edge of the knife on my arm. “Yeah, what if I wanted to?”

He laughed again, and I wanted to kick him. “Kitten, you’re not helping me fight Arum.”

“Why not? If I can control the Source and help, why not? I could fight.”

“I think the reasons are pretty huge,” he yelled, all the humor vanishing. “First off, you’re a human.”

“Not really.”

His eyes narrowed. “Granted, you’re a mutated human, but a human who’s a hell of a lot weaker and more vulnerable than a Luxen.”

I exhaled slowly. “You don’t know how weak or vulnerable I’ll be fully trained.”

“Whatever. Secondly, you have no business going up against the Arum. That will never happen.”

“Daemon—”

“It won’t if I’m still alive. Do you understand that? You will never go after an Arum. I don’t care if you can stop the world from spinning.”

I tried to push down my anger. One thing I hated more than Daemon’s douche-nozzle side was him telling me what to do. “You don’t own me, Daemon.”

“It’s not about ownership, you little nut.”

“Nut?” I glared at him. “I wouldn’t call me names when I have a knife in my hand.”

He ignored that. “Thirdly, there is something off about Blake. You can’t tell me you don’t see or sense that.”

“Oh, don’t—”

“You know nothing about him—nothing deeper than that he likes to surf and blog. Big deal.”

“These aren’t good enough reasons.”

“Because I don’t want you in danger—how about that? Is that damn good enough for you?” he shouted, and I jumped. He looked away, drawing in several deep breaths.

I hadn’t realized that could’ve been the real reason behind it all. About every part of me softened, and my temper slipped away like a snowflake melting. “Daemon, you can’t stop me just to protect me.”

His head swung back to me. “I need to protect you.”

Need was such a strong word that it stole my breath and my heart. “Daemon, I’m flattered—I am, but your job is not to protect me. I’m not Dee. I’m not another one of your responsibilities.”

“Damn right you’re not Dee! But you are my responsibility. I got you into this mess. And I will not be dragging you further into it!”

My head was spinning. His reasons for wanting me to stop training with Blake were right but all wrong. I needed to prove to him that I wasn’t a liability or something to be constantly watched over. If he felt that way and did keep putting himself in jeopardy because of me, he could lose his own life or Dee’s.