Betrayed by Ednah Walters Page B

I’d hate to escort Cade and Kylie to the door only to see a frozen Celeste. “Never mind.”
    I got up and moved around Kylie, grabbed the bowl, and placed it on the table. A gasp came from behind me. Celeste stood in the doorway separating the living room from the dining room/kitchen area, her gaze on the blob of milk stil dangling in the air.
    “What happened?”
    “She knocked over the bowl and I reacted without thinking. This is my worst nightmare.” I pul ed out sheets of paper towel, wrapped it around the milk then threw the wet paper in the garbage can.
    “I’ve wondered what I’d do if this ever happened.
    Now that it has, my mind is blank.”
    Celeste walked to where Cade sat and studied his face. She fingered his glam-rock teased hair, touched his cheek, the stud on his ear.
    “Tel them the truth,” she said in her usual blunt manner. “You’d get to know if they’re cool with what you are or not.”
    “Nah-uh. We have rules, and I swore to avoid breaking them.” Occasional mind control not included.
    “You’re who you are, Lil. You see what needs
    “You’re who you are, Lil. You see what needs to get done and you do it, which is why my brother is crazy about you. Even Gavyn respects your style.” I laughed at her attempt to manipulate me.
    Gavyn couldn’t stand me. “Nice try. And stop touching Cade. Okay?”
    A sheepish expression touched her delicate features. “Humans fascinate me. They are complex, so unpredictable. We are simpler creatures. We are either good or bad. Guardians or Demons.” She glanced at me as though to check my reaction.
    “Bran is different, and so are you,” I defended quickly.
    “Am I?”
    “Whether you’re a demon or a Guardian depends on which side you support in this crazy war, not where you were born, how you were raised, or—”
    “What you did last month, last week, yesterday, or a second ago.” She rol ed her eyes.
    “We are al Nephilim.”
    “Ah, you’ve been talking to Grampa.” I smiled.
    She shrugged and moved away from Cade to where I stood next to Kylie. “Think about this for a sec, Lil. An opportunity has presented itself. Why would you want to blow it? Going by their unpredictable nature, these two might surprise you. I often wonder about my new friends too, you know.
    Wil they freak out when I shift in their presence or wil they be okay with it?”
    I frowned. “Shift?”
    “To a smoke form.”
    The encounter with the Lazarus demon earlier flashed in my head and I winced. “You don’t have that ability, Celeste.”
    “We don’t know that. Our mother was a Prime. Primes are equivalent to Cardinals, very powerful. What if I inherited her Lazarus genes?” She touched the choker around Kylie’s neck, studied the rings on her nose before glancing at me. When she spoke again, her voice was low. “They say the smoke form is addictive. It gives you the freedom to do as you please, go wherever you want to go and see things without being seen, different from teleporting. Right and wrong cease to exist. What if I changed and did something to my friends?” Celeste had never indicated she was worried about her abilities. She adjusted fast to life among humans. From her lingo to the way she dressed, she could pass for a human. Wel , except for her morbid fascination with people.
    I grabbed her wrist and stopped her from pul ing off Kylie’s nose ring. “Demons don’t possess people without their consent. Now can you leave before the freeze wears off?”
    She rol ed her eyes. “So do you think we could see how they react to who we are? I wil help.” She was doing it again, trying to make me do things her way. I swore I’d never knowingly use my powers on my friends. There was another way. “I can’t, but I have a plan.”
    “What? Make them forget what they saw?
    You’l always wonder.”
    Not if my plan worked. “You need to go back to the bedroom now.”
    “Why?”
    I glared at her.
    She wrinkled her nose. “Fine. And while