I just shook my head at him, glad that I’d managed to explain away my absence to Ben and Cara. Both of them accepted a lame story about an impromptu road trip which ended up with me in hospital. I had the scars to prove it, so they’d fawned over me, and I’d been grateful for their friendship.
Ben waved, heading toward the drama room. It was coming into the winter season of plays, which was apparently a big deal. Or so he liked to remind us. I knew Ben hid his pain in school activities. He was still having a lot of trouble at home, but he seemed to be able to handle it. Mostly.
I wanted to smack his parents in the mouth, but Lexen had me on a strict no smacking ban. Apparently I needed to stay out of trouble.
“Are you excited about tonight?” Jero asked, a shit-eating grin stretching his mouth.
Trying my best not to blush, I shrugged. “You know, we’re just watching a movie and having dinner…”
Despite the fact Lexen and I had never been closer, we’d hardly had any alone time since returning from Overworld. Sara and Michael suddenly developed some very real rules, and I was to return home at exactly 5 P.M daily. Since I’d almost lost them, and they in turn thought for days I was dead, I had been indulging their overprotectiveness. We were bonding over the new knowledge of the supernatural we all possessed.
Michael and Sara might have always known there was an “alien” species on Earth, but they never expected it to be what it was. Me and my family’s ties to it, more than anything, astonished them.
Jero interrupted my thoughts with a laugh. “Lexen has the entire house to himself while the rest of us return to Overworld … and you’re just going to watch a movie?”
I shrugged his arm off me, narrowing my eyes on him. “I’m not discussing my sex life with you.” Or lack thereof. A fact that would hopefully be rectified tonight.
Jero hooted with laughter. “Lexen is going to have his hands full with you.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Literally.”
I was just about to break my smacking rule when tall, dark, and deadly entered the hall we were in. I took off as fast as my lazy legs could go. Lexen caught me with ease, lifting me up so that our mouths could meet.
“You know, you’re barely even puffing,” he said when we pulled apart.
I snort-laughed. “Yes, because an evil sadist has been making me go jogging with him.”
Setting me on my feet, he brushed some of my wavy hair back. “You’ve been three times, and I had to promise you ice cream before you’d even get dressed.”
I folded my arms over my chest, tilting my head to the side as I gave a rueful shrug. “It’s never going to be my thing. You should just give up, accept that I have strengths in other areas.”
“Yeah, she did knit you that wicked scarf,” Jero added as he caught up to us.
I wanted to glare at the sarcastic asshole, but he kind of had a point. I was so distracted when I tried to knit around Lexen that I kept missing stitches and loops. My last creation was both holey and lopsided.
But he’d worn it. Inside, at least.
“Jero…” Lexen warned his brother. Apparently he didn’t have a smacking rule, so Jero heeded that warning and held both hands up in surrender, veering to the right, heading toward the moving sidewalk that would take him to the parking lot.
“Have fun tonight, kids,” he called as he jumped on. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t.”
And I was blushing again.
Lexen took pity on me, not calling attention to my pink cheeks. He just held his hand out and I placed mine in it, our fingers linking together.
“Jero stole my books,” I murmured, trying desperately not to think about the fact that Lexen and I would have the entire night together. Our first true alone time in a month.
“He’ll leave them at home. You always do your homework there anyway,” Lexen reminded me. “Have the Finnegans left yet?” he asked after another moment of silence.
I nodded, pulling out my brand new cell phone. Being a member of House of Darken came with some additional perks – on top of Lexen’s abs. And no one took no for an answer. Pushy aliens. “Yep, Sara just texted me and said that they were halfway to California.”
They’d won a weekend away, skillfully set up by the Darkens. They hadn’t wanted to leave me, but I told them I would be perfectly safe with Lexen, and since they loved him to death they eventually agreed it was time for them to loosen the strings. Sara even set me up on birth control, because they were too young to be grandparents to a littlehumalienbaby.
Michael’s word, of course.
Birth control was not something I wanted to discuss with my guardians, but at least it meant they were accepting that Lexen was part of my life – for the long haul.
“Come on, little human. Let’s get out of here.”
We walked hand in hand to the car. Lexen opened the door to his low-slung sports car and I slid inside. We roared out of the parking lot. Daelighters loved to drive fast, and I was slowly acquiring a taste for it. The gates were open to our street when we arrived, no delay for us to enter, and then it was on to Lexen’s mansion. I eyed my shoebox house on the other side of the street, not at all sad that I wouldn’t be sleeping on that rock-like mattress tonight.
