Relief eased the tension in my shoulders. That…that was cool of her. “Yeah, that’s why.”
She shifted in the seat again. “So there are that many Sentinels? Is it really that dangerous?”
“Yeah, Josie, it’s really that dangerous.” I sighed as the Porsche picked up speed. “There are daimons—pures and halfs that had become addicted to the aether that’s in our veins. Aether is what fuels our abilities—gods have the most, second would be demigods and Apollyons, the gods’ various little creature-features and lesser deities, then the pures and finally the halfs. The pures who get addicted to it, it changes their entire chemistry—the way they appear and everything. To mortals, they look normal, but halfs have this weird ability for seeing them for how they really look. Pures don’t. I’m not sure about you, with your abilities being bound.”
“What do they really look like?”
“Pale faces with no eyes and a mouth that would make Jaws envious.”
“Ugh.” She drew back, visibly shuddering. “So, let me guess, they use their teeth to feed?”
“Yep. It’s not the only way one can drain the aether from someone, but the daimons like to bite because they also like to cause pain.” I frowned as I squinted into the already fading sunlight. Kentucky was a boring-ass state to drive through. “They’ll also go after mortals for the fun of it. Probably where the whole legend of vampires came from. But then there’re also pures who get power hungry without the aether. People break laws in our society, just like they do in the mortal world.”
She fiddled with the Nook, turning it over and over in her hands for a few moments. “I’m sorry, Seth.”
My gaze swung to her. “You’re sorry for what?”
“All of that sounds lonely and just… It sucks, growing up that way. I didn’t have friends, but I had a childhood, you know? I got to be a kid.” Her wide gaze moved to the road, which reminded me that I was driving. “My mom…she told me once when I was little that there had to be a reason why her life ended when mine began.”
Jesus.
“But she still loved me,” she added quietly, and when I glanced at her again, she was staring straight ahead, the Nook pressed to her chest. “I know she did. That didn’t make things…easy all the time, but I can say that about her and it doesn’t sound like you can say that about your mom. So, I’m sorry.”
A weird constriction seized my chest, peeling the scabs off old wounds I’d either forgotten about or had managed to ignore all of these years. Yeah, my childhood sucked ass, but I didn’t deserve sympathy. Not after all the terrible shit I’d done.
Chapter 12
WE DIDN’T talk after I told Seth I was sorry for what he’d experienced as a child, or in a way, what he hadn’t experienced. I had difficulty with my mom, but I still had my grandparents, and it sounded like Seth had no one. A huge chunk of me felt bad for Seth. I knew what it felt like to know you weren’t wanted—the sting and burn that existed inside of you every day knowing you were just an accident. You came into this world with your parent wishing they could undo the act that brought you there. That kind of knowledge festered, and it rotten and ruined parts of me even though I knew my mom, underneath it all, loved me.
The sky outside the Porsche faded from dusk to night. We hadn’t spoken more than a few words to each other when we finally stopped for food. The burger didn’t settle well and another hour went by before he spoke again.
It was close to nine when his deep, slightly accented voice rolled through the dark interior. “I think we should stop for the evening. Get some rest and hit the road early so we reach your house by the afternoon.”
My stomach tumbled as I sat up straighter. “I think we can keep going. I still have a key to the house. We can let ourselves in, and we have an extra bedroom you can sleep in. I mean, we’re not too far from St. Louis, and it’s just another four hours or so from there.”
“I’ve been driving for about nine hours. I’m done.”
“I can drive.”
He snorted. “Not going to happen.”
My eyes narrowed. “Why not? You think I can’t drive? I can so drive. I could drive in NASCAR if I wanted to.”
His lips twitched as he shook his head. “It’s not that. I’m tired. I need to be alert, and that isn’t going to come from sleeping in the passenger seat while you’re playing NASCAR with a Porsche.” He slid me a long look, and in the dim light, his features were shadowed. “Are you nervous about staying another night with me, Josie?”
Whoa. He didn’t just hit that nail right on the head. He slammed that nail through the wood.
His gaze flickered back to the road as he eased the Porsche into the right lane. “Because tonight isn’t going to be the only night. You’re stuck with me, babe, at least until I get you to South Dakota.”
My mouth opened and then I snapped it shut. Irritation prickled across my scalp like a hundred fire ants had just done a dance through my hair. “I really do not like you.”
He chuckled darkly. “You don’t need to like me.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I saw that.”
“Oh, there is no way you saw that!” I smacked my hands on my legs. “Unless you have, like, cat eyes or something.”
“I see better in the dark than a mortal does,” he replied. He was grinning that smart-aleck grin when I sent a death glare in his direction. “I think this is a good enough place.”