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I had to be drea because this could not be real No way Absolutely not It wasn’t Blake strolling into the classroom like it was any other day Nor did Matthew drop his stack of notes I glanced at Dawson before realizing he wouldn’t know any better He’d never seen Blake

"You okay, Katy? Looking a little wigged out," Lesa said

My eyes darted to hers wildly "I…"

A second later, Blake was taking his seat--his seat beside me The rest of the class blurred out I was struck stupid by his reappearance

He placed his book on the table and leaned back in his chair, folding his arlance, he winked

What the holy hell…?

Giving up on waiting forher head "I have weird friends," she athered up his scattered papers My heart was now racing so fast I was sure I was going to stroke out any second

People were staring, but I couldn’t pull my eyes off Blake Finally, I found ?"

He looked at aze "Going to class"

"You…" There were no words And then the shock wore off, replaced with a spike of anger so powerful and so hot I felt static rush over rin teasing his lips, "are starting to glow"

Closinge to jump on him like a monkey and snap his neck, I reopened my eyes "You shouldn’t be here"

"But I alanced toward the front of the classroo on the chalkboard, his face pale He was talking, but I didn’t hear anything

I tuckedto keepBlake, because it was a real possibility that I would "We gave you a chance" I kept ain"

"But I think you will" He leaned over the s my muscles to lock up "Once you hear what I have to offer"

A crazed laugh bubbled up my throat as I kept my eyes fixed on Matthew "You are so, so dead"

Lesa glanced over her shoulder questioningly I forced a s of dead," helost twin has returned" He picked up his pen and started writing "I bet Daemon is so thrilled Ah, which reminds me, I’m pretty sure he’s the one who mutated you"

My hand closest to hiht danced over e of who erous Besides the raot out in the Luxen coainst us Just like they had with Dawson and Bethany

"Careful," he said "I can see you still need to work on your anger"

I shot hi look "Why are you here? For real?"

He put his finger over his lips "Shush I need to learn about…" He glanced at the board, eyes narrowing in concentration "Different types of organisms Yawn"

It took every ounce of h that class Even Matthew looked like he was having trouble, forgetting where he was going with his lecture every couple of ht Dawson’s stare once and wished I could communicate to him…

Wait Couldn’t I communicate to Daemon? We’d done it before, but he’d always been in his Luxen foraze to the blurred lines on my notebook and concentrated as hard as I could

Daemon?

The space between my ears buzzed like a TV on h-frequency hum Daemon? I waited, but there was no response

Frustrated, I blew out a breath I needed to find a way to let him know that Blake was back, like, really back and in school I figured Dawson could get word to hiot up to use the restroo besideNo doubt about it, Blake was good-looking He rocked the whole olden skin surfer-boy look But beneath that easy grin lurked a killer

The atheredMatthew a look Somehow he seemed to know, because he waylaid Dawson and--I hoped--would keep Dawson froh ain front of everyone once Matthew shared who Blake was Lunch period was next, but I dug

I made it about three steps before Blake stalked up behind me in the hall and cupped my elbow "We need to talk," he said

I tried to pull o ofabout it?" His head angled toward ht the familiar scent of his aftershave "No Because you knohat the risk of exposure is"

I gritted my teeth "What do you want?"