The Entity Within by Cat Devon Page A

earlier this afternoon when he tore through the place searching for the mysterious book of spells because he thought we had hidden it somewhere. Part of him still thinks that,” Zoe said.
    “It’s his job to be suspicious,” Nick said.
    “He’s particularly suspicious of witches,” Zoe said.
    “Guilty as charged,” Damon said without any remorse.
    “We don’t need them to play this game,” Daniella said. “We can do it ourselves. Come on. It will be fun.”
    Zoe didn’t know about that, but she knew from the challenging look Damon gave her that she wasn’t going to back down the way he clearly expected her to. “We’ll use the three-minute rule,” she said. “The first one to touch the mat with anything other than your hands and feet within three minutes is out.”
    Zoe deliberately let Daniella win by touching her elbow to the moon-shaped symbol within the first thirty seconds.
    Daniella was thrilled with the win and challenged Nick to play with her.
    “No fair using vamp speed,” Zoe warned Nick.
    As she watched Daniella and Nick grappling and laughing, Zoe was struck by how much the two of them were in love. It was bittersweet to see because Zoe had thought she and Tristin were that much in love.
    That memory stuck with her as she prepared for bed a few hours later. Gram had produced a screen behind which Zoe could change into red flannel pajamas while Damon stood by the door guarding her.
    It had been one hell of a day. Nick was downstairs with Gram, which left Zoe with Damon.
    “Hey, there,” Daniella announced as she walked in after knocking. “I thought you might like some company.”
    “Don’t you want to stay with Nick?” Zoe asked.
    Instead of answering, Daniella said, “I know how uncomfortable it can be to have a vampire hanging over you. Well, it’s uncomfortable if it’s a strange vampire. I like Nick hanging over me now, but I didn’t that first night. I don’t have to change clothes. I can sleep in these lounge pants and top.” Daniella hopped onto the bed and patted the space beside her. “Join me and we can play Angry Birds.” She waved her iPad, which Zoe hadn’t noticed before.
    They’d barely played one game before Daniella fell asleep. Zoe gently removed the iPad from Daniella’s hand while Damon took a white afghan throw from the foot of the bed and tucked it around her. His actions surprised Zoe.
    Seeing her look, Damon stepped back and softly said, “She has to get up before dawn to make cupcakes.”
    Zoe nodded. She felt too vulnerable getting horizontal with Damon so close by, so she propped a pillow behind her and rested against the headboard in a sitting position.
    “You should sleep, too,” Damon told her.
    “I’m just going to rest my eyes for a minute,” Zoe said.
    “You do that.”
    The next time she opened her eyes, pale sunlight filled the room and Daniella was gone. Damon was not. He was sprawled in a chair he’d brought in from her workroom, his intense gaze on her. She felt as if he were touching her with his eyes, which should have been creepy but was instead hotly arousing. Had he slipped her a vampire roofie or something?
    “What did you do?” she asked suspiciously.
    “Nothing,” Damon said. “You fell sound asleep while you rested your eyes.”
    “He’s right,” Bella said from the foot of the bed, where she was curled up on the white afghan Damon had used to cover Daniella.
    Zoe rubbed the crick in her neck before checking her watch. “The cable guy is scheduled to come this morning between seven and ten.”
    She got out of bed and headed for the attached bathroom before remembering the all-seeing surveillance cameras. “I am not taking a shower with a camera on me.”
    Damon typed some text into his smartphone. “You have ten minutes before the camera goes on again. And if you pull anything, your grandmother will pay the consequences.”
    She paused for a second by the closet to grab clean clothes and underwear before racing