“Yes.” It was blunt honesty from Kaidan, tinged with something else. Surprise?
“I can’t leave right now,” said Patti. “I have the jubilee parades and the state fair to cover. If I turn down work, they won’t keep offering.” She stood up, walking to the sliding glass door and staring out of it with her hands on her hips. I could tell she was contemplating something by the way her toe quickly tapped the trodden carpet. “Maybe the two of you should go right away.”
What? She was serious! Kaidan sat there like a portrait of innocence, but I knew how he was capable of behaving. I decided then that whatever his true motives were, it didn’t matter. I trusted myself.
“I know it’s a strange offer.” Kaidan spoke to Patti. “I’ll admit it; I’m intrigued by Anna.” It was the same word I’d used to describe my feelings for him to Jay, and it warmed me all over. “I know other Nephilim, but Anna is... different.”
“She is different,” said Patti. “It’s important for her to go as soon as possible, or I’d never consider this. She has to be kept safe. I don’t want her around your father or anyone else like him.”
“I don’t want her around my father either.” He said it with sincerity. He was really on a roll with the whole honesty thing, and Patti was eating it up.
“How old are you?” she asked him.
“I’m seventeen.”
“Don’t you have to be eighteen to rent hotel rooms?” After she asked it she shut her eyes, as if the thought of the two of us in a hotel room gave her a headache. Kaidan pushed forward.
“I’m emancipated as a legal adult, since my father travels so often. I have the paperwork. But we don’t have to share a room.”
Patti paced.
“It still doesn’t feel right,” she said. “And letting you pay for it—”
“I don’t mind. I swear,” said Kaidan. “You won’t be in my debt.”
“You’re just kids, though. You have no way to protect yourselves.”
“Well, I do have some means to protect us,” Kaidan said. “Besides our senses, I mean.”
She stopped and stared him down. “What do you mean? Not a gun, I hope.”
“No, but I’m pretty good with a knife.”
I got a chill at the memory.
Patti crossed her arms. “Really?” she challenged. “Care to demonstrate?”
Oh, boy. What in the world did she have in mind? I myself would not care for another demonstration.
Kaidan stood up and plucked a grape from the bunch on the counter. He handed the grape to Patti and then came back and sat on the other end of the couch from me.
“Just toss the grape across the room to Anna,” Kaidan said, placing his hand near his pocket.
It happened so fast. The moment Patti’s arm moved, Kaidan had the knife pulled out and opened. I saw the grape coming and opened my hands, but midair there was a whizzing sound and a thump. Patti and I both jumped with surprise. Then we turned our heads and stared at the wall, where the grape was impaled on the end of the silver blade.
“How did you do that?” Patti asked, impressed.
“When I focus with my senses, everything seems to slow down, while my reflexes speed up.”
He stood and removed the knife from the wall, catching the sliced grape in his hand.
“I can fix this up for you,” he said, brushing his fingers over the mark in the wall.
“No, no. I’ll take care of it.” Patti stood and took the grape from him, throwing it away.
“Don’t go anywhere, okay? I need to think. Just give me a moment.”
“’Kay,” I said. She went back to her room and shut the door. Kaidan sat next to me again.
“Why are you really doing this?” I asked him.
“For the exact reasons I said.” He sounded incredulous that I asked.
I began chewing my nails. Kaidan’s offer hadn’t been to take only me—he said he would take us both. That seemed significant. My mixed feelings toward him were clouding my judgment. But Patti was a good judge of character. Her decision would prove to me once and for all whether I should trust Kaidan. If she said no, I would know there was something untrustworthy about him. I sucked on the side of my pinkie finger, where I’d made myself bleed.
“You’re nervous,” he said.
“Mm-hm.”
“You’re nervous a lot,” he pointed out.
“Yep. Anxiety. All my life.”
“I see. Are you nervous she’ll say yes or no?”
I paused. “Both.”
He nodded once, as if that made perfect sense.
“What’s a badge?” I asked. “Your father said mine was unusual.”