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I scowled at his blatant reminder. “My mom had to work, and I just didn’t feel like doing anything. ” I poked at the cake some more. “It’s not as bad as it sounds. I’ve spent many of them by myself. ”
“I guess you probably would have preferred I hadn’t stopped by then, huh?”
Looking up, I watched as he stabbed his cake with his fork until he parted the ice cream away from the cookie middle. He took a bite of the crunchy part. “I really did come to apologize for last night. ”
I sat the plate aside and pulled my legs up underneath me. “Daemon—”
“Wait. ” He held up his fork. “Okay?”
Sitting back, I nodded.
He glanced down at his plate, his jaw clenching. “Nothing happened between Ash and me last night. She was just…messing with you. And I know that’s hard to believe, but I’m sorry if it…hurt you. ” Daemon drew in a deep breath. “Contrary to what you think about me, I don’t jump from girl to girl. I do like you, so I wouldn’t mess around with Ash. And I haven’t. Ash and I haven’t done anything for months, before you even came around. ”
There was a peculiar fluttering in my chest. Never in my life had I had such a hard time figuring myself out as I did when it came to Daemon. I understood books. I did not understand boys—especially alien boys.
“Things are complicated between Ash and me. We’ve known each other since we came here. Everyone expects us to be together. Especially the elders, since we’re ’coming of age. ’ Time to start making babies. ” He shuddered.
It was official. I liked the sound of that even less the second time around.
“Even Ash expects us to be together,” Daemon went on, stabbing his cake. “And all of this? I know it’s hurting her. I never wanted to do that. ” He paused, struggling for the right thing to say. “I never wanted to hurt you, either. And I’ve done both of those things. ”
Two bright red spots blossomed across his cheeks. I ran my hand over my leg and looked away. I didn’t want him to know that I saw him blush.
“I can’t be with her the way she wants—the way she deserves. ” He stopped, exhaling. “Anyway, I wanted to apologize for last night. ”
“So do I. ” I bit my lip. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you like I did. I guess the whole window thing freaked me out. ”
“What you did last night with the windows. Well, that was one hell of a display of power that you have no control of. ” He glanced at me, lashes lowered. “I’ve been thinking about it. And I keep thinking of Dawson and Bethany. That evening they returned from hiking, and he was covered in blood. I think she may have gotten hurt. ”
“And he healed her?”
“Yep. I don’t know more. They…they died a couple of days later. I guess it’s like two photons splitting, separate but the same. That explains how we can sense each other. ” He shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s a theory. ”
“Do you think whatever is happening with me will stop?”
He scooped up the last of his cake and then placed his plate on the coffee table. “We may get lucky. What you’re doing might fade over time, but you need to be careful. No pressure, but it’s a threat to all of us. I’m not trying to be…cruel. It’s the truth. ”
“No, I understand. I could expose you all. I’ve almost done it several times. ”
He leaned back against the couch in a lazy, arrogant sprawl that made my toes curl. “I’m checking around to see if anyone has heard of this happening. I have to be careful, though. Too many questions will give way to suspicion. ”
I fingered the necklace as Daemon turned to the television and smiled. An eighties hair band played, screeching about a love lost and found, to only be lost again.
“After seeing your dance skills earlier, you would have blended right in with the eighties,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. “Can we not mention that again?”
He grinned as he turned to me, a sly look on his face. “You were this close to having ’Walk Like an Egyptian’ down. ”
“You’re a douche. ”
Daemon laughed. “Did you know I had a purple Mohawk?”
“What?” I laughed, not even able to imagine that, especially around these parts. “When?”
“Yep, purple and black. It was before we moved here. We were living in New York. I guess I went through this phase. Pierced nose and all,” he said, grinning.
I busted out laughing, and he shoved a throw pillow at me. I picked it up and placed it in my lap. “You were a skater boy, huh?”
“Something like that. Matthew was with us. He became our guardian of sorts. He had no idea what to do with me. ”
“But Matthew—he’s not that much older. ”
“He’s older than he looks. He’s around thirty-eight. ”
“Wow. He’s aging well. ”
Daemon nodded. “He arrived at the same time we did, in the same area. I guess he thought he was responsible for us, being the oldest out of everyone. ”
“Where did you guys…?” How in the world would I say this? Coming up empty, I winced. “Where did you all land?”
Reaching over, he picked a piece of lint off my thermal. “We landed near Skaros. ”
“Skaros?” I scrunched up my face. “Uh, is that even on Earth?”
“Yes. ” He smiled slightly. “It’s actually a small island near Greece. It’s known for this rocky region where a castle once stood. I’d like to go back one day. It’s kind of like our birthplace, I guess. ”
“How many of you landed there?”
“A couple dozen, or at least that’s what Matthew has told us. I don’t remember anything from the beginning. ” His lips pursed. “We stayed in Greece until we were around five, and then we came to America. There were twenty or so of us, and as soon as we arrived, the DOD was there. ”
I couldn’t imagine what that must’ve been like for him and the others. To be so young, to be from a different world, and then to be thrust right into the hands of a foreign government had to be scary. “How did all of that go?”
He glanced at me. “Not very good, Kitten. We didn’t know that humans were aware of us. All we did know was there were Arum around, but the DOD came as a huge surprise to us. Apparently they knew about us from the moment we got here. They rounded up hundreds who had arrived in America. ”
I twisted toward him, clutching the pillow to my chest. “What did they do with you guys?”
“They kept us in a facility out in New Mexico. ”
“No shit. ” My eyes went wide. “Is Area 51 the real deal?”
He eyed me, amusement creeping into his eyes.
“Wow. ” I let that one sink in. All those crazies trying to get into the compound had good reason. “I thought the whole Area 51 thing had been around a while. ”
“My family and friends arrived fifteen years ago, but that doesn’t mean the Luxen didn’t come before that. ” He laughed at my expression. “Anyway, they kept us there for the first five years. They—the DOD—had been assimilating the Luxen for years. We learned a lot about humans during that time, and when we were…deemed ready to fully assimilate, they let us go. Usually with an older Luxen who could take care of us. Since Matthew had a relationship with us, we were placed with him. ”
I did a quick calculation in my head. “But you guys would’ve been only ten years old. Did you live with Matthew until recently?”
“Believe it or not, we mature differently than humans. At ten I could’ve gone to college. We develop a lot faster, our brains and whatnot. I’m actually smarter than I act. ” Another fleeting grin graced his face. “Matthew lived with us until we moved here. At fifteen, we were pretty much adults. The DOD set us up with a house and money. ”
Well, that probably explained part of our national debt. “But what about people asking questions—looking for your parents?”
Daemon glanced at me sidelong. “There’s always an older Luxen we can pass off for our parent, or w
e can morph into an older version. The morphing thing we try to avoid because of the trace. ”
Shaking my head, I settled back against the couch. Running their own lives since they were fifteen, with just Matthew checking in on them. I shouldn’t be so shocked. My own life was sort of that way, with my mom working so much since Dad died.
Daemon was watching me in his intense way when I looked at him. “Do you want me to leave?”
There was the opening—my chance to tell him to go. “No. You don’t have to. I mean, I’m not doing anything and if you have nothing to do, you can stay or whatever…” Or I needed to just shut up.
His eyes held mine a moment, and a swelling developed in my chest, threatening to consume me whole. His gaze moved to my shiny red laptop sitting on the coffee table. “I see someone got something for her birthday. ”
I grinned. “Yeah, Mom got it for me. I’ve been without since…well, since then. ”
He scratched his cheek. “Yeah, I didn’t apologize for that, did I?”
“No. ” I sighed. Back to awkward conversation. And not only that, I was remembering just how I’d lost my last laptop.
Daemon cleared his throat. “That’s never happened before, the whole blowing-stuff-up part. ”
My cheeks heated as I stared at my laptop. “Same here. ”
His gaze focused on the TV again. “It happened with Dawson, in a way. It was how Bethany found out. ” There was a pause and I held my breath. He rarely talked about his brother. “He was making out with her and lost control. Turned full Luxen while kissing her. ”
“Yikes. That had to be…”
“Awkward?”
“Yeah, awkward. ”
Silence fell between us, and I couldn’t help but wonder if we were thinking the same thing. How it had felt to be kissing…touching. Skin uncomfortably hot, I searched for something safe to talk about. “Dee said you guys had moved a lot. How many different places?”
“We stayed in New York for a while, then we moved to South Dakota. And if you think nothing goes on here, you haven’t lived in South Dakota. Then we moved to Colorado before coming here. I was always the one who provoked the change in scenery. It’s like I was looking for something, but none of those places had it. ”
“I bet New York was your favorite place. ”
“Actually, it’s not. ” A bit of his teeth showed in his slight smile. “It’s here. ”
Surprised, I laughed. “West Virginia?”
“It’s not that bad. There are a lot of us here. More so than any other place. I have friends who I can be myself with—a whole community, really. That’s important. ”
“I can understand that. ” Clutching the pillow to my chest, I rested my head on it. “Do you think Dee is happy here? She makes it sound like she can’t leave. Like, ever. ”
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