Banishing the Dark (The Arcadia Bell series) by Jenn Bennett

Author:Jenn Bennett [Bennett, Jenn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2014-05-26T12:00:00+00:00

If I thought that after sleeping all afternoon a few feet away from Lon, I might wake up and accidentally find myself in the middle of a lust-bleary romp under the sheets—and admittedly, that’s exactly what I thought—I was w-r-o-n-g. He’d already gotten up, showered, given our dirty clothes to the maid, gone to the gym, and scouted out the on-premises restaurant where we could eat our early-evening breakfast.

Overachiever.

“I know we didn’t get enough sleep, but we’ve got an entire night to get through until we can head back to the reptile store tomorrow morning,” he told me before I’d even sat up in bed. “So I think it would be best if we spend what time we can outside the room, so we aren’t tempted.”

“Tempted to . . . ?”

“To fall asleep during the night,” he clarified.

“Oh.”

A girl might think she was being avoided. This girl certainly did. But I didn’t say anything. Nope. Not a word. I did, however, leave the bathroom door wide open when I got dressed, during which I did hear him swearing under his breath before he announced loudly that he’d meet me downstairs in the lobby when I was ready to eat.

My smell-o-rama knack was still alive and kicking but not half as strong as it was before I slept, which was both a relief and a shame. It was working well enough to make me reject the food our waiter brought out and order something different. And after we wasted time window-shopping at a mall until it closed and then nearly falling asleep in a midnight showing of a crappy horror movie that even Jupe would have hated, I found myself able to identify a unique scent wafting from Lon. Not all the time. Just when I tried to play footsie with him under the restaurant table. Or when I walked too close to him. Or when I raised the movie-seat arm between us and leaned against his shoulder.

I wasn’t certain, but I thought that scent was a little amorous. Sure, it crossed my mind that perhaps I was projecting my own wants, but by the time we’d sat around in an all-night diner caffeinating ourselves and doing all the research two people could do on a crappy internet connection and no sleep, I was willing to take the risk that I was right.

It was past five by the time we made it back to our hotel suite. Sunrise was more than an hour away, but soon after, we’d have to leave for the reptile shop. I kicked off my shoes and headed over to Lon, who was looking miserable, flipping through channels in the sitting area of our room.

“Where’s the tarp?” I asked.

“Why?”

“Because I want to practice transmutating.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Oh, really? Because you were all gung-ho about it back in Golden Peak. How am I supposed to learn to control it if I don’t practice? I think that was your argument.”

He stared at the TV, stewing. “That was before random knacks started appearing unexpectedly.

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