Daemon yanked the keys from the ignition and sat back. He faced me, eyes sheltered by a long wave of hair. “We need to talk. And you need to be honest with me. You don’t seem surprised you just did that.”
I nodded again. He was furious, and I couldn’t blame him. I’d possibly exposed them all to a human—a human who could go to the press, who could talk at school, and who could catch the attention of the DOD. They’d find out that the Luxen had special abilities. They’d learn about me.
We went inside my empty house. The central air was blowing heat from the vents, but I was shivering uncontrollably as I sat on the recliner. “I was planning on telling you.”
“You were?” Daemon stood in front of me, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. “When, exactly? Before or after you did something that puts you at risk?”
I flinched. “I didn’t plan on this happening! All I wanted was to have a normal afternoon with a boy—”
“With a boy?” he spat, eyes flaring an intense green.
“Yes, with a normal boy!” Why did that sound so surprising? I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I did plan on coming to you tonight, but Blake asked me to grab something to eat with him and I just wanted one freaking afternoon with someone like me.”
His frown went so deep I thought his face would crack. “You have friends who are normal, Kat.”
“It’s not the same thing!”
Daemon seemed to get what I wasn’t really saying. For a second, his eyes widened and I’d swear there was a flicker of pain in them, but then it was gone. “Tell me what’s been happening.”
Guilt shot through me, pulling behind it spiky barbs that dug in deep. “I think I did get alien cooties, because I’ve been moving things…without touching them. Today, I opened the door to Mr. Garrison’s classroom without touching it. He seemed to think it was a drafty hallway.”
“How often has this been happening?”
“On and off for around a week. The first time it was my locker door, but I thought it was a fluke, so I didn’t say anything. Then I thought about wanting a glass of tea, and the glass flew out of the cabinet and the tea started pouring itself in the fridge. The shower turned itself on, doors opened, and a couple of times, clothes flew from my closet.” I sighed. “My room was a mess.”
A snicker escaped. “Nice.”
My hands balled into fists. “How can you think this is funny? Look at what happened today! I didn’t mean to stop the branch! I mean, I didn’t want it to hit him, but I didn’t consciously stop the damn thing. The whole healing-me thing—it changed me, Daemon. If you haven’t guessed it yet, I couldn’t move things before. And I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I get a splitting headache and feel exhausted afterward. What if I’m dying or something?”
Daemon blinked and was suddenly beside me, sitting on the arm of the chair. Our legs touched. His breath stirred my hair. I shrank back as my heart rate picked up. “Why do you have to move so fast? It’s…wrong.”
He sighed. “Sorry, Kitten. For us, moving fast is natural. It’s actually more effort to slow down and appear ’normal,’ as you put it. I guess I just forget I have to pretend around you.”
My heart ached. Why did everything I say lately come out as a criticism?
“You’re not dying,” he said.
“How do you know?”
His eyes latched onto mine. “Because I’d never let that happen.”
He said it so strongly that I believed him. “What if I’m turning into an alien?”
A look crossed his face, like he wanted to laugh, and I could get why. It did sound absurd. “I don’t know if that’s possible.”
“Moving stuff with my mind shouldn’t be possible.”
He sighed. “Why didn’t you tell me when this first happened?”
“I don’t know,” I said, unable to look away. “I should’ve. I don’t want to put you guys at risk. I swear I’m not doing it on purpose.”
Daemon leaned back. His pupils turned luminous. “I know you aren’t doing anything on purpose. I wouldn’t have thought that.”
My breath caught as he held my gaze with his strange eyes. The prickly feeling was back, spreading over my skin. Every inch of me became painfully aware of him.
He was silent for a moment. “I don’t know if it was a product of my healing you those times or when you connected with us during Baruck’s attack. Either way, it’s obvious that you’re using some of my abilities. I’ve never heard of this happening before.”
“Never?” I whispered.
“We don’t heal humans.” Daemon paused, pursing his lips. “I’ve always thought it had something to do with exposing our abilities, but now I’m wondering if it’s more than that. If the real reason is because we…change humans.”
I swallowed. “So I am turning into an alien?”
“Kitten…”
All I could think about was the movie Alien and that thing crawling out of the dude’s stomach, except mine would be a glowing ball of light or something. “How do we stop this?”
Daemon stood. “I want to try something, okay?”
My brows rose. “Okay.”
Closing his eyes, he let out a long breath. His form flickered and faded. A few seconds later, he was in his true form, radiating a powerful red-white light. He was shaped like a human, and I knew he would be warm to touch. It was still strange seeing him like this. It drove home the point—the one I forgot sometimes—that he wasn’t from this planet.
Say something to me, his voice whispered in my thoughts.
In their true form, Luxen don’t speak out loud. “Uh, hi?”
His chuckle tickled inside me. Not aloud. Say something to me, but not out loud. Like what happened in the clearing. You spoke to me then.
When he’d been healing me, I’d heard his thoughts. Would it happen again? Your light is really pretty, but it’s blinding me.
I heard his ghost inhale. We can still hear each other. His light dimmed, and he was standing in front of me again, solid, eyes troubled. “So my light was blinding you, huh?”
“Yeah, it was.” I fiddled with the chain around my neck. “Am I glowing now?” It usually happened when they went into their true form, leaving a faint trace behind.
“No.”
So that had changed, too. “Why can I still hear you? You act like I shouldn’t.”
“You shouldn’t, but we’re still connected.”
“Well, how do we get unconnected?”
“That’s a good question.” He stretched idly as his gaze roamed across the room. “You have books everywhere, Kitten.”
“That’s really not important right now.”
One hand outstretched. A book flew off the arm of the couch and into his hand. As he turned it over, his brows rose and his gaze moved over it quickly. “His touch kills? Really, what is this stuff you’re reading?”
I shot from the chair, snatching the book away and holding it close to my chest. “Shut up. I love this book.”
“Uh huh,” Daemon murmured.
“Okay, back to the important stuff. And stop touching my books.” I set it back where I’d left it. “What are we going to do?”
His gaze settled on me. “I’ll figure out what is happening with you. Just give me some time.”
I nodded, hoping we had enough time. There was no telling what I’d accidentally do next, and the last thing I wanted was to expose Dee and the others. “You do realize this whole thing is why you…”
He arched a brow.
“It’s why you suddenly like me.”
“I’m pretty sure I liked you before this, Kitten.”
“Well, you had one hell of a way of showing it.”
“True,” he admitted. “And I’ve already said I’m sorry for the way I treated you.” He took a fortifying breath. “I always liked you. From the moment you first flipped me off.”
“But you didn’t start to want to spend time with me until after the first attack, when you healed me. M
aybe we were already starting to, like…morph together or whatever.”
Daemon frowned. “What is it with you? It’s like you need to convince yourself I can’t possibly like you. Does doing that make it easier to tell yourself you don’t have feelings for me?”
“You treated me like a red-headed stepchild for months. I’m sorry if I have a hard time believing that whatever you feel is real.” I sat on the couch. “And it has nothing to do with what I feel.”
His shoulders tensed. “Do you like that guy you were with?”
“Blake? I don’t know. He’s nice.”
“He was sitting with you today at lunch.”
My brow arched. “Because there was an open seat and it’s a free world where people can pick where they want to sit.”
“There were other seats open. He could’ve sat anywhere else in the cafeteria.”
It took me a few seconds to respond. “He’s in my bio class. Maybe he just felt comfortable with me, because we’re both sort of new.”
Something flickered across his face, and then he was standing in front of me. “He kept staring at you. And obviously he wanted to spend time with you outside of school.”
“Maybe he likes me,” I said, shrugging. “Lesa invited him to the party on Friday.”
Daemon’s eyes darkened to an evergreen. “I don’t think you should be hanging around him until we know what’s up with you moving stuff. You doing that thing with the branch was only one instance. We can’t have a repeat of that.”
“What? I’m not supposed to date or hang out with anyone now?”
Daemon smiled. “Anyone human, yes.”
“Whatever.” I shook my head, standing. “This is a stupid conversation. I’m not dating anyone anyway, but if I were, I wouldn’t stop just because you said so.”
“You wouldn’t?” His hand shot out, tucking back a strand of hair behind my ear. “We’ll just have to see about that.”
I stepped sideways, keeping distance between us. “There’s nothing to see.”
Challenge filled his eyes. “If you say so, Kitten.”
Folding my arms, I sighed. “This isn’t a game.”
“I know, but if it were, I’d win.” He flickered out and appeared by the entrance to the foyer. “By the way, I’ve heard what Simon has been saying.”
Heat swept over my face. Another problem, but less important in the grand scheme of things. “Yeah, he’s being a douche. I think it’s his friends. He actually apologized to me, and then when his friends showed up, he told them I was trying to get with him.”
Daemon’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not okay.”
I sighed. “It’s no big deal.”
“Maybe not to you, but it is to me.” He paused, his shoulders squaring. “I’ll take care of it.”
Chapter 7
I didn’t get much sleep that night, so trig the next day sucked worse than normal. There was a six-foot-three alien behind me. Not talking to me, just breathing softly against the back of my neck. And no matter how far I scooted up, I could still feel him. I was hyperaware of him—when he moved, when he wrote something down, when he scratched his head.
Halfway through class, I debated making a run for the door.
It was also day two of no pen pokes.
On the other hand, Simon kept glancing over his shoulder throughout class. Needing a distraction, I glared at his head. A slow flush crept over the back of his neck. He could feel me drilling holes into his head. Ha. Jerk-face.
Brown hair curled against the faintly flushed skin. He normally kept it cut close to the skull. I supposed he was in need of a haircut, since most boys around here didn’t let their hair grow more than an inch or two. The dull gray shirt he wore stretched over his broad shoulders as he tensed under my stare. He glanced over his shoulder at me.
I arched a brow.
Simon turned back stiffly, and his shoulders rose as he took a deep breath. Annoyance flared and my fingers burned. The tool had half the school thinking I was easy. My attention fell back to the book in front of him.
The heavy English text flipped off the desk, smacking Simon right in the face.
My mouth dropped open as I sat back. Holy crap…
Jumping up, he stared at the book now lying on the floor as if it were some kind of creature he’d never seen before. Our teacher’s eyes narrowed as he searched for the source of the disruption.
“Mr. Cutters, is there something you would like to share with the class?” he asked in a tired, bored voice.
“W-what?” Simon stuttered. He looked around frantically, and then his eyes settled on the book. “No, I knocked my book off the desk. Sorry.”
He let out a loud sigh. “Well, then pick it up.”
There were a few scattered chuckles from the other students. Simon was beet red as he swiped the book off the floor. He placed it in the middle of his desk and continued staring at it.
After the class settled down and the teacher turned back to the chalkboard, Daemon poked me with his pen. I twisted around.
“What was that?” he whispered, eyes narrowed. There was no mistaking the amusement in the tilt to his lips, though. “Very bad kitty…”
…
Blake arrived to bio minutes before the bell. He was wearing a vintage Super Mario Bros. shirt today. “You look…”
“Like crap?” I supplied, resting my cheek on my fist. I had no idea how to prepare myself for seeing him after the branch issue. Playing it cool wasn’t something I was particularly skilled at.
“I was going to say tired.” His eyes narrowed as he watched me. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “Look, about yesterday? I’m sorry I freaked out. The branch—”
“Scared you?” he said, eyes locked onto mine. “It’s no big deal. It shocked me, too. It all happened quickly, but I’d swear that branch stopped.” He tilted his head to the side. “Like it was suspended for a few seconds.”
“I…” What was I supposed to say? Deny. Deny. Deny. “I don’t know. Maybe the wind caught it or something.”
“Yeah, maybe. Anyway, the big party is coming up.”
I smiled faintly, relieved at the change in topic. Would it be that easy? Damn. I was a better liar than Daemon gave me credit for. “You coming?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Good.” I toyed with my pen, remembering what Daemon had said about not hanging out with Blake. Screw that. “I’m glad you’re coming.”
Blake’s smile was infectious. We chatted for a little while about the party, waiting for class to begin. A couple of times, his hand brushed mine. I doubted it was on accident. And I liked that. There wasn’t anything forcing him to do it, except that maybe he wanted to touch me. He seemed to like me all on his own, and that made him a thousand times more attractive. And, well, that boyish smile of his helped. I could see him shirtless, surfing the waves. He was totally dateable.
Taking a deep breath, I did something I rarely ever did. “You can stop by my place first, before the party, if you want?”
His lashes lowered, fanning his golden cheeks. “That sounds cool. Like a date?”
I flushed. “Yeah, kind of. I guess you can say that.”
Blake leaned in, his breath surprisingly cool on my cheeks. Minty. “I’m not sure I like the ’kind of’ thing. I like the idea of calling it a date.”
My gaze flicked up, meeting his. The little specks of green in his eyes were nowhere near as vibrant as Daemon’s—why was I even thinking about him? “We can call it a date.”
He sat back. “Sounds better.”
I smiled, glancing down at my notebook. A date—not dinner-and-the-movies kind of date—but a date nonetheless. We exchanged numbers. I gave him directions. Excitement bubbled through me. I snuck a look at him. He was watching me with a crooked smile on his face.
Oh, the party just got a whole lot more interesting.
I refused to think about what Daemon would do when he saw me arrive with Blake. A small
part of me wondered if I’d asked Blake just to find out.
…
Curled up on my couch after school on Thursday, Dee toyed with a ring on her finger and kept her voice low due to Mom sleeping upstairs. “The new boy seems to really have the hots for you.”
I plopped down beside her. “You think so?”
Dee smiled, but it was off. “Yeah, I think so. I’m surprised you’re actually okay with him coming to the party. I really thought…”
“You thought what?”
Her gaze skittered away. “I just thought there might be something between you and Daemon.”
“Oh, no, there’s nothing between us.” Besides a whacked-out alien bond and all our secrets. I cleared my throat. “Let’s not talk about your brother. What’s up with Adam?”
Crimson swept across her pale cheeks. “Adam and I have been trying to spend more time together, you know? Everyone expects us to be together, and there is a part of me that likes him. The elders know that since we’re both eighteen already, we’re coming of age.”
“Coming of age?”
She nodded. “Once we reach eighteen, we’re old enough to be mated.”
“What?” My eyes bugged. “Mated? Like, marrying and making babies?”
“Yeah.” She sighed. “We usually wait until we’re done with school, but knowing that we’re getting close, Adam and I are trying to decide what we want to do.”
I was still stuck on the whole mating thing. “Do the elders tell you who you can be with?”
Dee frowned. “Not really. I mean, they want us with another Luxen and to reproduce as soon as possible. I know that sounds messed up, but our race is dying off.”
“I get that, but what if you didn’t want to have kids? What if you fell in love with another boy or…a human?”
“They would outcast us.” She faded and then was standing on the other side of the coffee table. “All of them would turn their backs on us. That’s what they would’ve done to Dawson if he…if he were still alive and with Bethany. And I know he would still be with her. Dawson loved Beth.”
And her brother’s love had ultimately led to their deaths. I lowered my gaze, feeling for the remaining siblings. “Would they force you to leave or something?”
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