to think? That you want to play Scrabble?”
“I …” I frowned, unsure how to finish that thought. Had I sent him some kind of signal? Was I wearing my “I’m done with my virginity, please get rid of it for me” T-shirt? “Your mom’s in the other room!”
“Whatever.” He sighed and pulled me closer by one hand. “Forgive me?”
“Only if you promise to play nice.”
“I swear. So, what’s up?” He leaned back on a pillow propped against his headboard, hands linked behind his skull, putting himself on display in case I changed my mind.
“You said you’d give me a ride.”
His eyes swirled with mischief, and my cheeks blazed when I realized what I’d said. “Um … you’re the one who said no.”
“A ride to work.” I’d just discovered the cause of spontaneous combustion. Surely I’d burst into flames any moment.
“I guess I could do that, too.”
“I’m serious!” But not too serious to let my gaze wander. After all, I was being invited to look. “I need a lift to work, and I was hoping we could make a stop first.”
“Where?”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Doug Fuller’s.”
“Kaylee …” he began, and I could already hear the protest forming. He sat up and I let one leg hang off the bed. “Whatever Fuller’s into is none of our business.”
“He’s taking Demon’s Breath,” I whispered with a nervous glance at the closed door, hoping his mother was still in the kitchen. “How is that none of our business?”
“It has nothing to do with us.” He stood and snatched a shirt from the back of his desk chair.
“Don’t you want to know where he got it? He could have killed someone last night. And if he takes any more of it, he’ll probably kill himself.”
Nash sank into his desk chair. “You’re overreacting, Kaylee.”
“No, you’re underreacting.” I scooted to the edge of his bed. “What happened to looking out for your friends?”
“What am I supposed to do?” He shrugged, frustration clear in the tense line of his shoulders. “Go up to Fuller and say, ‘Hey, man, I’m not sure where you’re getting secondhand air from a demon you don’t even know exists, but you need to lay off it before you kill yourself’? That’s not gonna sound weird.” He kicked a shoe across the room to punctuate his sarcasm.
I crossed my arms over my chest, struggling to keep my voice low. “You’re worried about sounding weird in front of a guy who’s getting high off someone else’s breath?”
“Why do you care, anyway?” Nash demanded. “You don’t even like Fuller.”
“That doesn’t mean I want to watch him die.” Especially considering that his impending death would send me into an uncontrollable, screaming bean sidhe fit, forcing us to decide whether or not to try to save him. “And I won’t let him take Emma with him.”
Nash’s scowl wilted, giving way to confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“They were all over each other last night, Nash. While he was high on Demon’s Breath. And it probably wasn’t the first time. She could be accidentally inhaling what he exhales.”
Horror flitted across Nash’s face, greens and browns twisting in his irises, then he closed his eyes and reset his expression before I was even sure of what I’d seen, effectively locking me out of his thought process.
I leaned against his headboard and fiddled with his pillowcase. “Tod says it’s highly addictive and ultimately deadly to humans. What if she gets hooked on it, too? What if she already is?”
Nash sighed and sank onto the bed, facing me. “Look, we don’t even know that Fuller’s actually addicted, okay? We just know he took some last night. And to even be exposed, Emma would have had to suck air straight from his lungs, right after he inhaled. And the chances of that are almost nil. Right?”
“How do you know? He was still exhaling enough for me to smell it on him, and they’ve been all over each other for the past two weeks. Are you sure she couldn’t have gotten even a tiny bit by kissing him? “
“I seriously doubt it, Kaylee.” But before he regained control of his eyes, I saw the truth in the nervous swirl of color. Nash wasn’t sure. And he was scared.
He exhaled heavily, then met my gaze again. “Okay, we’ll find out if he knows what he was taking and where he got it. But if he doesn’t know, don’t tell him what it is, okay? No more full disclosures to friends. Emma was plenty.”
“Fine.” I wasn’t exactly eager to tell anyone else I wasn’t human, anyway.
“You have to be at work at noon?” I nodded, and he pulled off the shirt he’d just put on, then tossed it at his open hamper like a basketball. “We’ll leave as soon as I get out of the shower.”
“After breakfast,” I corrected on my way to the door, smiling over my victory. “Your mom’s making muffins.”
In the kitchen, I waited for Nash in a rickety chair at the scratched, round table, watching Harmony wash dishes.
“So are you enjoying your freedom?” She glanced at me over her shoulder as she set a metal bowl in the dish drainer.
I shrugged. “I haven’t experienced much of it yet.”
She dried a clean, plastic-coated whisk, dropped it into an open drawer, then leaned against the counter and eyed me in blatant curiosity. “Was it worth it?”
“Was it worth being grounded?” I asked, and she nodded. “Yes. And no. Getting Regan’s soul back was totally worth it.” Four weeks of house arrest were nothing compared to the eternity she would have suffered without her soul. “But there was nothing we could do for Addy.” And every time I thought about that, my stomach pitched like I was in freefall, a mixture of guilt and horror over my failure.
“Do you still hear from Regan?” Harmony asked when I didn’t elaborate.
“Not very often. I think it’s easier for her to try to forget about what happened with Addy.” About the fact that her sister had been damned to eternal torment because she died without her soul. With nothing to release upon her death but a lungful of Demon’s Breath.
And suddenly I had an idea. “Do you think Regan will be okay? Because of the Demon’s Breath, I mean. Tod said it’s really dangerous.”
Harmony nodded absently, opening the oven door to check the muffins. “It certainly can be. Demon’s Breath decays your soul. It rots the parts of you that make you you.”
Okay, that’s not terrifying… .
“But on the surface, it acts a bit like a very strong hallucinogenic drug. It’ll make you see and hear things that aren’t there.”
Which would explain why Doug thought someone had been in the car with him.
Harmony continued, sounding every bit like the nurse she was. “It’s also highly addictive, and even if it doesn’t kill you quickly, long-term use can lead to brain damage and psychosis.”
I swallowed the huge lump that had formed in my throat and hoped my voice sounded normal. “Psychosis, like, insanity?”
“Simply put, yes. A complete loss of contact with reality.” She used a pot holder to pull the muffin pan from the oven, then kicked the oven door closed. “And withdrawal is even worse. It sends the entire system into shock and can easily be fatal, even to someone who survived the substance itself.”
“Great …” I whispered.