A Demon's Drink {Book Three-Kat}

Chapter 49

I stayed inside the manor after that, and I'd like to say that made it better but that'd be a lie.

It'd been a few weeks since then when the water in my shower turned a dark color. It wasn't blood and it didn't make sense until I caught my reflection. White. Just like Jason, just like... like him.

How?

I've been home nearly a month, it didn't make sense. Hair dye? Doesn't it wash out all the time? When would I have used it? When would it have been used on me? Wouldn't it have been brought up in the hospital somehow?

"Hey Kat! I got the movie—Oh, you bleached your hair again. It looks nice." Tim stood in my room holding the new James Bond disk.

"I... didn't..."

"What do you mean?"

His eyes flickered to the shower and the dye that hadn't quite washed itself down the drain. I saw the gears turning in his head and the slight grimace when he looked back at me. Was it just a delayed reaction? Did the Demon's Blood or Fear Toxin hold it back? Was the injury to my body enough to trigger it? Why now? What does it mean? Hair dye had clearly been used but when?

"I'll tell Bruce when he gets home. There's popcorn downstairs if you still want to watch the movie."

Tim hooked a thumb toward the stairs, waiting on me to decide but there was something nagging at the back of my mind.

"Tim?" I reached out, startling him. "Did I, did I do something?"

"No, Kat." He gently grabbed my hand and headed for the stairs. "You've only been home, you didn't do anything."

The sky was vibrant orange when the credits rolled. Tim and I had satisfied our hunger with popcorn, M&Ms, and one too many sodas. Bruce still hadn't made it back from his trip to Metropolis but that wasn't too shocking.

"Have you seen Jason recently? He hasn't come around, even with Bruce being out of town."

Tim stared at the credits, popping a handful of M&Ms into his mouth in reply.

"Y'know, I haven't seen Dick around recently either."

Tim was absolutely absorbed in checking that no animals were harmed in the making of this movie.

"Does Gotham just give you the night off now?" My words cut a bit more than I meant to, but Tim finally looked over. "It's near dark and you haven't made a move to the cave, but no one else is here."

"It's being taken care of," he shrugged.

"So... they are here, they're just avoiding the manor?"

"I wouldn't say they're avoiding the manor," he began, sighing and shutting off the TV. "I also wouldn't say they're doing whatever it is they're doing because they want to, per say."

"Okay. Cool." I glanced out the window and the dying sunset and nodded to myself before standing up. "I'm going out tonight."

"What?"

Tim was up in an instant, blocking the easiest path between me and the door. I walked past him and up the stairs into my room to grab my shoes and a jacket. Tim stood in the doorway with his school letterman on and car keys in his hand. He did not look happy, but he wasn't going to stop me.

"Bruce is not going to be happy about this."

"When is Bruce ever happy?"

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