MY EYES LINGERED on Rex’s chest as he lifted his shirt over his head.  A demon had almost carved a crux sigil in his skin tonight.  If he had succeeded, Rex would be dying in a nightmare right now. 

Could someone come out of a crux-induced nightmare or was it a death sentence?

The very thought of losing Rex had my heart convulsing.  He glanced at me as if he could feel it.

Maybe he could.

“What happened in the meeting?  Who was there?” I asked, chewing on a fingernail.  As soon as Portia dropped me off, I regretted my decision.  I’d been pacing in Rex’s suite ever since. 

Rex ran a hand through his damp strands.  “My parents, Ash, and Ian.  They already knew you’d been taken from Alec and Braelyn’s account.  I told them Kye was behind it and he finally confessed his intentions with the missing ferrums.”

Unable to stand the sight of his shirtless torso without jumping him, I peeled my eyes away and sat on the couch.  The swirling designs on a throw pillow became very interesting.  “How’d they take that?”

“They were shocked, and my mother wants to call The Council.”

My eyes widened, and I bolted up.  “The Council?  As in the people who govern over all of us?  The people who can punish us?”

Rex raised his hands to halt my impending panic attack.  “The Council isn’t evil, but they are the law.”

My eyes already began scanning the room for things I wanted to take with me when I escaped.

Rex’s hand landed on my shoulder.  “Relax.  Ash asked her to hold off.”

My brow arched.  “Why would he do that?”

“He thought we should wait until we have a handle on things here and maybe a little more information.”

“And how are we supposed to get more info?” I asked, crossing my arms against my chest. 

“I don’t know.”  He rubbed his face as if he could rub away the worry and tension in his expression.  He spun around and marched toward his dresser, grabbing a shirt.  “We’ll figure something out.”

I stared at Rex, watching his body move with such grace and purpose.  He was a killing machine, but he could also have the softest touch I’d ever known.

“How are you feeling?”  He met me near the couch, his brown eyes roaming over me.

“How long have you known?” I blurted before he could wrap his arms around me and steal my anger.  My gaze flickered toward his bed through the archways.  Just last night he’d held me and told me he loved me. 

But he couldn’t tell me we were soulmates?

“Known what?”  Thankfully he pulled a t-shirt on.  His half nakedness would have been way too distracting.  Those shredded muscles were enough to turn my brain to mush.

Man, I’m freaking soulmates with this hot thing.

I shook myself.  Mad.  I was supposed to be mad.

“How long have you known we were caeteras?”  I crossed my arms against my chest and leaned on the back of the couch.

Rex dragged his fingers through his damp hair, brushing the golden brown strands away from his face.  “Look, Kory, maybe tonight’s not—”

I cut him off with a narrowed glare.  “Don’t even try the mentor crap on me tonight,” I warned.  “I want the truth, and I want it now.”

Knowing I meant business, he sighed and perched on the arm of the couch.  “There were hints in the beginning, but the whole concept was just so far-fetched I couldn’t believe it.”

“The dream I had of you getting hurt in the alley, was that one?”  Bryson had blurted it out after Christmas dinner as if it was nothing.  Mik and the Lucas’s hadn’t acted like it was nothing.

Rex nodded.  “But you’re only seventeen so I just thought it was a coincidence.” 

“What else?” 

He rubbed the sexy stubble coating his chin, his gaze pensive.  “Just a feeling—this overwhelming feeling of finally finding the thing I’d been missing when I didn’t even know I was missing anything.”  His voice had grown soft.  “The first time we met, there was this sense of…”  He shook his head, pausing to find the right word.  “Relief. It was like I was breathing for the first time in my life.”

Well, I asked for it, didn’t I?

I had felt something similar, but never able to put it into words.  Maybe that was why he was struggling so much with explaining it.  Finding your soulmate was something you couldn’t explain.

“But then I found out you were only seventeen.”  Deep lines formed across his forehead.  “It was impossible.  You couldn’t be my caetera.  You couldn’t even be…”  His eyes flickered up, the golden flecks smoldering like embers.  “We couldn’t be romantically involved.”

I scoffed.  “That was a crock of shit.”

Rex shot me a wry smile.  “You’re very determined.”

I flicked my long, soot-colored hair over my shoulder.  “It wasn’t that hard.  It was easy to see you wanted me.”  The first time I tried to kiss him, he pushed me away, but he had held the refrigerator door between us as if afraid he’d grab me if it was gone.

He shook his head.  “Maybe I was an idiot to even fight it.”  Rex stood and crossed the room, his hand gently lying on my cheek.  “If I had just accepted it sooner…”

A lot of things would have been different.

“When did you know for sure?” I asked, pulling his hand away from my cheek.  I squeezed it before letting it drop.

Something dark flickered through his eyes, and his jaw ticked.  “When I saw you with black demon eyes and sharp teeth.”

My blood turned cold.  I’d confronted Bridget in his apartment about her fake pregnancy, and Rex burst through the door.  I’d been relieved he finally knew the truth about that skank, but it was too late.  I was so angry he’d betrayed me, chose her over me, I couldn’t let it go. 

I showed him just how far into the darkness I’d fallen.

“When I tracked you down in that abandoned building,” Rex continued.  “That’s when I really knew we were caeteras.”

I swallowed back the acid oozing up my throat.  “Why then?”

Those chocolate eyes dancing with golden flecks bored into me, unrelenting and merciless.  “Because I knew we were leaving that building together even if it meant as demons.”

Rex had been ready to go demon if it was too late to save me.  He’d been ready to give up everything he believed in, everything he’d ever known to become a monster.  For me.

“I couldn’t take losing you,” he whispered, his fingers skimming over mine.  “When I realized I couldn’t live without you, I knew.”  He nodded.  “I knew.”

His words that night flooded my mind.  He said he finally understood.  He finally knew.  And then he told me he’d go to the dark side with me.

It was the only thing that stopped me from completely turning into a demon.  It was still the only thing stopping me from giving into the darkness lingering in my veins.

Rex’s lips brushed against my forehead, and my lids fluttered closed.  I was so tired.  It would be so easy to bury myself in his chest and let him carry me off to bed.  It would be so easy, feel so good, just to fall asleep in his arms.  I was safe there.

But things were never so simple. 

If I didn’t make Rex understand what he did was wrong, he was going to continue to make the same mistakes.

My hands curled around his biceps—well, as far as they would go—and I gently forced him back.  “Rex, you can’t keep doing this,” I simply stated.

His brow puckered.  “Doing what?”

“Keeping things from me.”  I spun around and stalked toward the kitchen.  I grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge.  “I know you didn’t tell me because you thought you were protecting me.”  That was the only reason he would keep something like this from me.  I climbed up on a barstool, my back toward the breakfast bar. 

Rex crossed his suite and took the other bottle of water.  “In the beginning, I wasn’t sure, but then I didn’t want to tell you because you were already going through so much.  I didn’t think adding this—your twenty-five-year-old mentor was your soulmate—to the list was a good thing.”

I rolled my eyes.  “Did you ever think knowing we were destined to be together might have helped me?  Maybe knowing you were my caetera might have cleared up a few questions and a whole lot of confusion in my mind?”

“I don’t know.  Maybe you’re right.”  Rex sighed and placed the bottle down.  His lids squeezed shut as he rubbed his forehead.  “I’m not perfect.  I do screw up and make the wrong decisions.”

I pulled his hand away from his face.  “I don’t want you to be perfect.  I just want you to be honest with me.”

“All right, Koralein.”  He nodded.  Rex’s thumb traced my jawline, an unreadable expression crossing his face.  “I won’t keep things from you even if I think it’s in your best interest.”  His lips brushed my cheek.  “You have to do the same for me though.”

I should have seen that coming.

My fingers trailed up his sides, his muscles jumping beneath my touch.  Now would be a good time to let him distract me.  I didn’t want to talk about what happened tonight.

“Did you really kiss him?”

The blood iced over in my veins.  The massive, blue-eyed elephant just appeared in the room.

I eased back, staring into his eyes.  All the moisture had evaporated from my mouth.  “Yes,” I whispered, color draining from my cheeks.

Rex’s jaw ticked.  He swallowed hard and took a deep breath.  “I’m going to kill him.”  He shook his head.  “What kind of sick monster uses compulsion to make someone kiss them?”

I blinked.  “Uh—what?”

That wasn’t what happened.  I let Kye kiss me.

“He was using compulsion on you, Kory.  You know that, right?”

My mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water.  “I’m not so sure that’s what it was.”  I knew his compulsion.  I hadn’t felt it then.

Rex tucked a strand of damp hair behind my ear.  “Of course it was.  He’s Cassius, remember?  He can probably use compulsion without you even realizing it.” 

I bit my lip.  We were supposed to be honest with each other now.  “I-I’m not so sure that’s what it is.”  I swallowed the hard lump in my throat.

Kye said we had a connection.  What if he was right?  What if the darkness in me was attracted to him. 

Rex shook his head.  “If it wasn’t compulsion, then he was playing on the darkness still haunting you.  He wants to feed it, make you feel like he understands you.”

My gaze was down.  “Maybe.” 

In the beginning, Kye was definitely using compulsion on me, and he was one hundred percent feeding my darkness.  Now?  If I was honest with myself, that explanation was too simple, too convenient. 

I hated to think it, but it was something else.

 

∞∞∞

 

A feverish knock resonated on my dorm room door.  Rex had dropped me off this morning on his way to a staff meeting.  Several ferrum hunters were standing guard around the campus, none of them even batting an eye at us.  Did they not think it was weird I stayed away all night, and my uber hot teacher was walking me home?

Maybe they just assumed it was fine.  According to most people, Rex would never do something as immoral as having a romantic fling with his student.

Most people didn’t know we were caeteras though.

In fact, who did know?

The knocking continued as I threw a black sweater over my head.  “I’m coming,” I gritted out.  I wanted to leave early for classes.

When I opened the door, a leggy blonde bum-rushed me.

“Oh my gawd.”  Strong arms surrounded me in a hug.  If I had been human, she would have broken a rib.

“Hey!”  My voice was muffled by her chest.  “Get the hell off me.”

Braylen pulled back, her aqua eyes glittering with tears.  “You’re okay!”

Nate had held her hostage to get to me.  The last she saw of me was walking away with that scumbag demon.

“Of course she’s okay.”  Kelsey sauntered in after Braelyn, popping her hand on her hip.  “It’s Kory for crying out loud.”  She motioned toward me.  “She’s a total badass.”

I gave a half smile.  “No doubt.”

Demon hunter Barbie wiped her eyes and plopped on my bed.  “I know, but that demon was bad news.  Is he dead?”

A grimace crossed my face, and I shut the door behind them.  I didn’t want anyone to overhear and start panicking.  “He got away.”  He wasn’t the demon they should be worried about.  If they knew the first ferrum who created the demon race and the second ferrum who followed him to the dark side were lurking around town, they’d probably shit a brick.

Braylen’s lips puckered.  “You didn’t kill him?”

Oh I had wanted to.  “He wasn’t the only demon.”

Her brows lifted.  “So you did kill some demons?”

“Not exactly.”  I leaned against the door, chewing my bottom lip.  I could understand her excitement in wanting to know the gory details.  Unfortunately, the details were a little less bloody and a lot more confusing.

I’d made out with a demon instead of killing one.

“Rex came,” I said.

“Oh.”  She nodded as if understanding.  “He did all the killing.”

Sure.  If that was what she wanted to think.

Kelsey fixed me with an arched brow as she pushed up her unnecessary glasses.  She wasn’t so easily convinced.  Lois Lane was probably working all the angles in her mind.

“What did the demon want?” Braelyn asked, leaning back on my bed. 

I swallowed hard.  What was I supposed to say?  Nate was Kye’s lackey and brought me there for his boss.  Of course the creep had wanted to play with me first.

None of that was going to cross my mouth.

When I didn’t speak, Braelyn sat up, casting me a curious expression.  “Does this have something to do with your parents and the other dangerous stuff you can’t tell us?”

“Yeah.”  I wasn’t exactly sure how Kye and Lorne fit in with my parents.  Yet.  “It’s too dangerous.”

“We can handle it, whatever it is,” Braylen said.  “We know how to keep a secret.”

This was one secret I didn’t want them to have to keep.

“Guys, seriously.”  I rubbed my temples and leaned away from the door.  “I can’t tell you.  I have it handled though.”

That was laughable.

“But—”

Kelsey held her hand up, stopping the excitable blonde from continuing to hound me.  “Brae, Kory has Rex involved.  I’m sure he’s got it covered.”  She winked at me.

My face remained neutral while alarms were sounding in my head.  Did she know something was going on between Rex and me?

Braelyn let out a long groan.  “Oh whatever.”

My gaze flicked toward the clock on my bedside table.  “Shouldn’t you guys be getting ready for class?”  They were still in their pajamas.

Kelsey’s brows knit as she tucked a lock of shoulder-length brown hair behind her ear.  “They canceled school today.”

“What?”  I crossed my arms against my chest.  “Why?”

She scoffed.  “Demons were on campus last night.  We’re on total lockdown.”  A crooked smile curled her lips.  “I had no idea you were so studious.”

“Hardly,” I muttered.  “Do you guys know what suite instructor Ian is in?”

Braelyn shook her head.  “Why?”

My lips thinned.  “I need to see him about an assignment.  I have some questions.”

I had some questions all right.  After my conversation with the groundskeeper last night, I had a couple things I needed to get straight with Instructor Ian.  Specifically, he was going to tell me what he had to do with my parents faking their death.