I grinned as I ran my fingers over the grass. “We copied what we saw. That only seems to work once for most of us. And how we grew up to look alike, well, our DNA must’ve taken care of the rest. There are always three of us born at the same time, in case you’re wondering. It’s always been that way.” I watched her sit back down, no more than a foot or so in front of me. “For the most part, we’re like humans.”
“With the exception of being a ball of light I can touch?”
My grin spread. “Yeah, that, and we’re a lot more advanced than humans.”
“How advanced is a lot?” she asked quietly.
“Let’s say if we ever went to war with humans, you wouldn’t win. Not in a billion years.”
She was frozen, and then leaned back from me. Probably should’ve kept that little piece of knowledge to myself. “What is some of the stuff you can do?”
I met her gaze. “The less you know is probably for the best.”
Kat shook her head. “No. You can’t tell me something like this and not tell me everything. You…you owe that to me.”
“The way I see it, you owe me. Like three times over,” I pointed out.
“How three times?”
“The night you were attacked, just now, and when you decided Ash needed to wear spaghetti.” I ticked them off my fingers. “There better not be a fourth.”
Confusion marked her expression. “You saved my life with Ash?”
“Oh yeah, when she said she could end you, she meant it.” I sighed as I tipped my head back. “Dammit. Why not? It’s not like you don’t already know. All of us can control light. We can manipulate it so that we’re not seen if we don’t want to be. We can dispel shadows, whatever. Not only that, but we can harness light and use it. And trust me when I say you don’t ever want to be hit with something like that. I doubt a human could survive.”
“Okay…” She twisted her hands together, a movement she appeared to be unaware of. “Wait. When we saw the bear, I saw a flash of light.”
“That was me, and before you ask, I didn’t kill the bear. I scared it off. You passed out because you were close to the light. I think it had an effect on you. Not sure why it affected you then and not now. Anyway, all of us have some sort of healing properties, but not all of us are good at it,” I continued, lowering my chin. “I’m okay at it, but Adam—one of the Thompson boys—can practically heal anything as long as it’s still somewhat alive. And we’re pretty much indestructible. Our only weakness is if you catch us in our true form. Or maybe cut our heads off in human form. I guess that would do the trick.”
“Yeah, cutting off heads usually does.” Her hands slid to her face and she sat there, cradling her head. “You’re an alien.”
I raised my brows at her. “There is a lot we can do, but not until we hit puberty, and even then we have a hard time controlling it. Sometimes, the things we can do can get a little whacked-out.”
“That has to be…difficult.”
“Yes, it is.”
She lowered her hands, pressing them to her chest. “What else can you do?”
I eyed her. “Promise not to take off running again.”
“Yes,” she said, and then nodded. Very cute.
“We can manipulate objects. Any object can be moved, animated or not. But we can do more than that.” I reached over and picked up a fallen leaf. I held it between us. “Watch.”
Tapping into the Source, I let the heat whip down my arm to the tips of my fingers. Smoke wafted from it, and then a tiny spark flew. Flames, bright and orangey, burst from my fingers, licking up over the leaf. In the time it took for the heart to beat, the leaf was gone.
Kat rose onto her knees and inched closer. I watched her, surprised. Flames crackled over my fingers. She lifted her hand, placing her fingers near the flames. When she pulled her hand back, her eyes were wide with wonder. “The fire doesn’t hurt you?”
“How can something that’s a part of me hurt?” I lowered my hand, shaking it so the flames were extinguished. “See? All gone.”
She scooted even closer. “What else can you do?”
I watched her for a second, and then I smiled before I moved quicker than she could track. One second I was sitting in front of her, and the next I was leaning against the tree, several feet away.
“How…in the world—wait! You’ve done that before. The creepy, quiet moving thing. But it’s not that you’re quiet.” She sat back, dazed. “You move that fast.”
“Fast as the speed of light, Kitten.” I darted forward and then slowly sat down. “Some of us can manipulate our bodies past the form we chose originally. Like shift into any living thing, person or creature.”
She glanced down and then back up. “Is that why Dee fades out sometimes?”
What the hell? “You’ve seen that?”
“Yes, but I figured I was seeing things.” Leaning to the side, she uncurled her legs, stretching them out. Of course, that drew my attention, because of…well, legs. “She used to do it when she was feeling comfortable, it seemed. Just her hand or the outline of her body would fade in and out.”
I dragged my gaze from her legs and nodded. “Not all of us have control over what we can do. Some struggle with their abilities.”
“But you don’t?”
“I’m just that awesome.”
She rolled her eyes but then popped up straight. “What about your parents? You said they work in the city, but I’ve never seen them.”
I returned to feeling up the grass. “Our parents never made it here.”
“I’m…I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It was a long time ago. We don’t even remember them.”
“God, I feel so stupid,” she said after a moment. “You know, I thought they worked out of town.”
“You aren’t stupid, Kat. You saw what we wanted you to see. We are very good at that.” I sighed. “Well, apparently not good enough.” When I looked at her again, she had this far-off look on her face. “You’re handling this better than I expected.”
“Well, I’m sure I’ll have plenty of time to panic and have a mini breakdown later. I will probably think that I have lost my mind.” She bit down on her lip. “Can…can you all control what others think? Read minds?”
I shook my head. “No. Our powers are rooted in what we are. Maybe if our power—the light—was manipulated by something, who knows. Anything would be possible.”
Anger sparked in her eyes, and she bristled up like a little angry kitten. “This whole time I thought I was going crazy. Instead, you’ve been telling me I’m seeing things or making shit up. It’s like you’ve given me an alien lobotomy. Nice.”
My eyes narrowed as I stared at her. “I had to. We can’t have anyone knowing about us. God knows what would happen to us then.”
Kat exhaled roughly, and I could tell she was struggling to let it go. “How many…humans know about you?”
“There are some locals who think we’re God-only-knows-what,” I explained. “There’s a branch of the government that knows of us, within the Department of Defense, but that’s about it. They don’t know about our powers. They can’t,” I nearly growled, meeting her eyes. “The DOD thinks we’re harmless freaks. As long as we follow their rules, they give us money, our homes, and leave us alone. So when any one of us goes power-crazy it’s bad news for several reasons. We try not to use our powers, especially around humans.”
“Because it would expose what you are.”
“That, and…” I rubbed my jaw, suddenly tired. I didn’t want to admit that I’d been putting her in danger. “Every time we use our power around a human, well, it leaves a trace on that person, enables us to see that they’ve been around another one like us. So we try not to ever use our abilities around humans, but you…well, things never went according to plan with you.”
“When you stopped the truck, did that leave a…trace on me?” When I didn’t answer, she started to put it together. “And when you scared the bear away? That�
��s traceable by others like you? So the Thompsons and any other alien around here know I’ve been exposed to your…alien mojo?”
“Pretty much,” I said. “And they aren’t exactly thrilled about it.”
“Then why did you stop the truck? I’m obviously a huge liability to you.”
Damn, wasn’t that a loaded question? Andrew and Matthew both would probably demand the same thing if I told them about Kat knowing what we were, and I was really hoping that conversation would never happen. I really didn’t know how to answer that question.
Or maybe I did, and I just didn’t want to speak it out loud.
Kat drew in a deep breath. “What are you going to do with me?”
I lifted my gaze. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Since I know what you are, that makes me a risk to everyone. You…can light me on fire and God knows what else.”
I couldn’t believe what she was saying. I knew I’d been a dick to her, but come on. She had to sense there was something more between us. Didn’t she? Shit. Maybe not. Maybe I was so good at my douchebag skills, as she called them, she had no clue how I was really starting to feel about her. I pondered telling her everything. How just being around her made me smile more than I had in years. How I admired her spunk and the way she stood up for herself, and especially the way she stood up to me and my bullshit. As a warm feeling started to grow in my chest, I nipped that shit in the bud pronto, with an image of my dead brother and the human he’d fallen for squaring my jaw. No, it was still better if we went our separate ways, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t ease her fears at least. “Why would I have told you everything if I were going to do anything to you?”
Her lips pursed. “I don’t know.”
Moving toward her, I reached out, but stopped short when she flinched from me. My stomach sank as my fingers curled around empty air. “I’m not going to do anything to you. Okay?”
She nibbled on that lower lip. “How can you trust me?”
Another loaded question that was hard to answer. This time when I reached out, she didn’t pull away. I curved my finger under her chin, holding her gaze to mine. “I don’t know. I just do. And honestly, no one would believe you. Plus, if you made a lot of commotion, you’d bring the DOD in, and you don’t want that. They will do anything to make sure the human population isn’t aware of us.”
Kat seemed to process that, and for a moment, our gazes held. We were connected by not just the physical touch but also the truth. When she pulled away from me, I didn’t particularly like it.
And I didn’t like that I didn’t like it.
“So that’s why you said all those things earlier?” she asked, her voice small. “You don’t hate me?”
My gaze fell to my hand as I lowered it. My tongue worked around the words. “I don’t hate you, Kat.”
“And this is why you don’t want me to be friends with Dee, because you were afraid that I’d find out the truth?”
“That, and you’re a human. Humans are weak. They bring us nothing but trouble.” Yeah, that came out harsher than I’d intended, but that’s probably for the best. She needed to know what was at stake—for all of us.
Her eyes narrowed. “We aren’t weak. And you’re on our planet. How about a little respect, buddy.”
Amusement flooded me. “Point taken.” I looked her over. “How are you handling all of this?”
“I’m processing everything. I don’t know. I don’t think I’m going to freak out anymore.”
Happy to hear that. I pushed to my feet. “Well then, let’s get you back before Dee thinks I killed you.”
“Would she really think that?” she asked slowly as though she were afraid of the answer.
I watched her from where I towered over her and when she met my gaze this time, I knew she saw the coldness in it. “I’m capable of anything, Kitten. Killing to protect my family isn’t something I’d hesitate over, but that’s not what you have to worry about.”
“Well, that’s good to know,” she murmured.
I cocked my head to the side. “There are others out there who will do anything to have the powers that the Luxen have, especially mine. And they will do anything to get to me and my kind.”
“And what does that have to do with me?”
Crouching down, I glanced around us. “The trace I’ve left on you from stopping the truck can be tracked. And you’re lit up like the Fourth of July right now.”
Her breath caught.
“They will use you to get to me.” I reached out, pulling a leaf from her hair. Then I touched her cheek, where her skin had been torn from the night she’d been attacked. “And if they get a hold of you…death would be a relief.”
Chapter 15
Kat was quiet most of the walk back. The trace around her was vibrant, like an all-white disco ball. That was going to be so incredibly problematic.
As the trees cleared, she spoke. “Can I…can I see Dee?”
I kept my steps slow so she didn’t have to struggle to keep up with me. “I think waiting until tomorrow would be a good idea. I need to talk to her, explain to her what I’ve told you.”
Her gaze turned woeful as we neared the houses, but she nodded. I followed her up the porch steps where light was on, casting a soft glow over Kat’s bowed head. Through the windows, I could see that her house was dark. Her mom was at work, as usual. After everything that had gone down, I didn’t think her being alone tonight was a good thing.
What if she woke up in the middle of the night and started calling everyone under the sun? Okay. That wasn’t exactly probable. Kat wasn’t stupid, but she could wake up and freak out. That would be understandable.
I held open the screen door for her as she reached for the main door. “Do you want to spend the night at my place?”
Kat stopped and turned to me slowly. One eyebrow rose. “Come again?”
A chuckle rumbled out from me. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Kitten.”
Her lips pinched. “My mind is not in the gutter.”
“Uh-huh.” I gave her a half grin. “You can stay at our house if you’d like. Then in the morning, Dee will be right there.”
She didn’t speak as her gaze searched mine, and then she nodded. “Okay. I just…I need to grab a few things.”
I nodded. “I’ll wait for you downstairs.”
Again, she studied me like she was trying to figure me out, and then she pushed open the main door. As she walked in, she flipped the light on in the foyer. Glancing over her shoulder, she looked back but didn’t meet my stare. “I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll be here.”
Kat darted up the staircase, her flip-flops smacking off the steps. While she was upstairs, I didn’t stay put. The layout of the house was the same as ours, so when I roamed off to my left, I entered the kitchen. I flipped on the overhead light and scoped out the place. I wasn’t really looking for anything. Mostly, I was just curious.
But what I saw tipped up the corners of my lips.
Everywhere I looked, there were books, just as it had been in the living room. Two were on the counter, near a toaster. One was on the fridge, and I had no idea why there’d be one there. There were three on the kitchen table, stacked next to two unopened packages.
How in the world could someone have so many books?
I heard her moving around upstairs. I turned off the light and returned to the foyer. A few seconds later, she started down the stairs, carrying a small tote bag. “I’m ready.”
Kat locked up, and then we headed toward my house. On the way, she kept peeking in my direction. I could tell she had more questions. Who wouldn’t after finding out they were living next door to aliens? But I figured she had to have a breaking point, and I really didn’t want to be the one to push her over the edge. That was one reason I didn’t want her talking to Dee.
But I also needed to make sure we were on the same page, that Kat realized what she’d just stepped in and the consequences of knowing
what she did.
When we reached the front door, I stopped and faced her. There was no light on, and we stood in the dark. “There’s something I just need to make sure of, okay?”
She held the tote close to her body. “All right?”
I lowered my voice just in case Dee was hovering inside the door. She was somewhere in the house. I could feel her. “What I’ve told you? What you know? I can’t stress enough how much of a big deal this is. This goes beyond a normal level of trust. It’s my life—our lives—you’re holding in your hands,” I told her. “I don’t expect you to care too much about tossing me under a speeding bus, but you’d also be tossing Dee under it.”
Kat stepped closer, so close, her tote bag brushed against my stomach. “I do get that, Daemon. Honestly? What you said earlier was true. No one would believe me. They’d think I was crazy, but I
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