Текст книги "Oblivion"

Автор книги: Jennifer L. Armentrout

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Текущая страница: 10 (всего у книги 51 страниц)

Kat looked away, but I saw the grin. “Well, if you don’t kill me, I’m sure Ash will be more than glad to do so.”

“Because of spaghetti-gate or something else?” I asked.

She shot me a long look. “You looked mighty comfy with her in your lap yesterday.”

“Ah, I see.” I pushed off the railing. “It makes sense now.”

“It does?”

“You’re jealous.”

“Whatever.” She laughed as she turned away, walking down the steps. “Why would I be jealous?”

I followed her, enjoying the view. “Because we spent time together.”

“Spending time together isn’t a reason to be jealous, especially when you were forced to spend time with me.” She paused and then shook her head. “Is this what we need to talk about?”

I shrugged. “Come on. Let’s take a walk.”

Her hands smoothed over her dress. I wondered if she wore that for me. “It’s kind of late, don’t you think?”

“I think and talk better when I walk.” Meeting her gaze, I held out my hand. “If not, I turn into the dickhead Daemon you’re not very fond of.”

“Ha. Ha.” Her gaze flickered to my outstretched hand. “Yeah, I’m not holding your hand.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not going to hold hands with you when I don’t even like you.”

“Ouch.” I placed my hand over my chest. “That was harsh.”

She snorted. “You’re not going to take me out in the woods and leave me there, are you?”

I grabbed my chest as if wounded. “Sounds like a fitting case of revenge, but I wouldn’t do that. I doubt you’d last very long without someone to rescue you.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

I grinned at her, but it quickly faded. There would be no more grins between us after tonight. We walked in silence, crossing the main road and into the woods, where the moonlight barely cut through the thick trees. We walked side by side, and it was hard not to be aware of her.

“Ash isn’t my girlfriend,” I said finally, and I don’t know why I was telling her this. “We used to date, but we’re friends now. And before you ask, we’re not that kind of friends even though she was sitting on my lap. I can’t explain why she was doing that.”

“Why did you let her?” she asked.

“I don’t know, honestly. Is being a guy a good enough reason?”

“Not really.” She was watching where she walked.

“Didn’t think so.” I stepped around a broken tree limb. “Anyway, I’m…I am sorry about the whole lunch thing.”

Kat tripped.

My hand snapped out, catching her good arm. Once she was upright, she backed off, folding her arms across her waist. Her expression was shadowed but pained.

“Kat?”

She glanced in my direction. “You embarrassed me.”

“I know—”

“No, I don’t think you do know.” She started walking, her hands cupping her elbows. “And you pissed me off. I can’t figure you out. One minute you aren’t bad and then you are the biggest ass on the planet.”

I stared at her retreating back for a moment. All of this would be so much easier since she was mad at me. I deserved that anger, but none of it settled well on me.

“But I have bonus points.” I easily caught up to her, keeping an eye out for rocks and exposed roots. “I do, right? Bonus points from the lake and our walk? Did I get any from saving you that night?”

“You got a lot of bonus points for your sister,” she said. “Not for me. And if they were my bonus points, you’ve lost most of them by now.”

“That blows. It really does.”

She stopped walking. “Why are we talking?”

“Look, I am sorry about that. I am.” I let out a long breath. “You didn’t deserve the way we acted.”

In the increasing darkness, she studied me. A moment passed. “I’m sorry about your brother, Daemon.”

I stilled, caught completely off guard. I never talked to her about Dawson. Obviously Dee would have at some point, but I knew Dee wouldn’t have told her everything. How I should have warned him to stay away from Bethany. How it was all my fault for not keeping my brother safe. “You don’t have any idea what happened to my brother.”

“All I know is that he disappeared—”

My hand opened and closed at my side. Disappeared? Was that what Dee had told her? It didn’t matter. “That was a while ago.”

“It was last year.” Her voice was gentle. “Right?”

“Oh, yeah, you’re right. Just seems longer than that.” I cast my gaze to the slices of dark sky peeking between the thick branches. “So how did you hear about him?”

There was a moment before she responded. “Kids were talking about it at school. I was curious why no one ever mentioned him or that girl.”

So Dee hadn’t brought it up? Interesting. “Should we have?”

“I don’t know.” Her response was quiet. “Seems like a pretty big deal that people would talk about.”

I started walking again, my movements stiff. “It’s not something we like to talk about, Kat.”

“I don’t mean to pry—”

“You don’t?” Familiar frustration rose. I knew I shouldn’t take my anger out on Kat, but maybe this was the perfect lead-in to pushing her away for good. “My brother is gone. Some poor girl’s family will probably never see their daughter again, and you want to know why no one told you?”

“I’m sorry. It’s just that everyone is so…secretive. Like, I don’t know anything about your family. I’ve never seen your parents, Daemon. And Ash hates my guts for no reason. It’s weird that there are two sets of triplets that moved here at the same time,” she continued, proving that someone had been talking to her. Probably the girls in trig. “I dumped food on your head yesterday, and I didn’t get in trouble. That’s plain weird. Dee has a boyfriend she’s never mentioned. The town—it’s odd. People stare at Dee like she’s either a princess or they’re afraid of her. People stare at me. And—”

“You sound like those things have something in common.”

“Do they?”

“Why would they? Maybe you’re feeling a little paranoid. I would be if I’d been attacked after moving to a new town.”

“See, you are doing it now!” she all but shouted as she followed me deeper into the woods. “Getting all uptight because I’m asking a question, and Dee does the same thing.”

“Do you think maybe it’s because we know you’ve been through a lot, and we don’t want to add to it?” I threw back at her.

“But how can you add to it?”

I slowed down, taking a deep breath as we hit the clearing and the lake came into view. This was all going way off track. “I don’t know. We can’t.”

Kat shook her head as she stared at the water. Stars reflected off the still surface, and I hated that I brought her here to do this. No longer would I look at this place as a haven of comfort or peace.

“The day at the lake.” My voice was low. I wanted her to know this. Not that it would matter when this was over, but I needed her to know this. “There were a few minutes when I was having a good time.”

She twisted toward me. “Before you turned into Aquaman?”

My shoulders tensed as I lifted my gaze to the sky. For the first time in a long time, I thought about home, our real home, and how different things would be—should be. “Stress will do that, make you think things are happening that aren’t.”

“No, it doesn’t,” she said firmly. “There is something…odd here.”

“Other than you?”

Irritation rolled off her. “Why did you want to talk, Daemon?”

I lifted my arm and clasped the back of my neck. It was time to get this over with. “What happened yesterday at lunch is only going to get worse. You can’t be friends with Dee, not like the kind of friend you want to be.”

Kat stared at me. “Are you serious?”

I lowered my hand. “I’m not saying you have to stop talking to her, but pull it back. You can still be nice to her, talk to her at school, but don’t go out of your way. You’re only going to make it harder on her and yourself.”

A long moment passed. “Are you threatening me, Daemon?”

Lowering my gaze to hers, I braced myself. “No. I’m telling you how it’s going to be. We should head back.”

“No,” she said. “Why? Why is it wrong if I’m friends with your sister?”

My jaw tensed. This was a mistake, because I didn’t like this—no, I hated doing this. I had a mean streak the size of the equator, but this…this wasn’t me. Frustration rolled into a burst of heated energy, stirring the fallen leaves and tossing Kat’s hair.

“You aren’t like us,” I said, and then I really went there. I crossed every line that I knew to drive the point home. “You are nothing like us. Dee deserves better than you, people that are like her. So leave me alone. Leave my family alone.”

Kat jerked as if I’d delivered a physical blow, and truth was, what I had done was far worse than anything physical. She took a step back, blinking rapidly.

Then I sealed the deal. “You wanted to know why. That’s why.”

“Why…?” Her voice cracked. “Why do you hate me so much?”

My control slipped for a moment, and I flinched. I didn’t hate her. God, I wished I did, but I didn’t, and seeing the tears building in her eyes killed me.

And then, because she was anything but weak, she rallied. “You know what? Screw you, Daemon.”

I looked away, my jaw working “Kat, you can’t—”

“Shut up!” she hissed. “Just shut up.”

She stalked past me, heading back down the path we’d taken. It was too dark for her to make it without busting her ass. “Kat, please wait up.”

Unsurprisingly, she didn’t listen.

“Come on, Kat, don’t walk so far ahead. You’re going to get lost!”

She picked up her pace, and then she was running. The urge to go after her was hard to ignore, and I would’ve easily caught up, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out she wanted as much space between us as possible.

I’d hurt her, really hurt her this time, cutting deep. Anything I’d said to her before was nothing compared to what I’d said this time. I had a feeling I’d finally accomplished my mission, but I didn’t feel a single ounce of satisfaction.

I heard her stumble up ahead and grunt. Concern flared to life, and I picked up speed. “Kat!”

She ignored me once more and rushed forward. The road was up ahead, and she broke into an all-out run. I was closer to her now, only a few feet behind, and I saw her lift her hands and wipe them across her face.

Kat was crying.

I’d made her cry.

She hit the road and my heart stopped. I shouted her name, but there was no way she’d be able to react fast enough. It was too late.

Kat had stepped out in front of a truck.

Chapter 14

Two bright headlights enveloped Kat’s form, and the truck’s loud roar filled my head. Her arms were thrown up, as if she was trying to shield herself. I saw her in my mind, broken and destroyed on the hot asphalt. The fire and life in her gray eyes dulled forever, and rage enveloped me.

I didn’t hesitate.

Summoning the Source, I shattered every rule of our kind in a nanosecond. For Kat.

The burst of energy was so powerful and raw, it heated the air around us. Thunder cracked, reverberating through the valley. And the truck stopped. Everything about the vehicle and inside it simply stopped, suspended in time. The ground shivered under my feet and traveled outward.

Strained, I held the vehicle back, calling on everything inside me. Tiny bursts of light sparked around the truck. The driver was frozen. Time was frozen except for me and Kat.

My body began to tremble with the effort, and the world took on a whitish tint.

Kat lowered her hands and slowly turned around. Her eyes were wide as she lifted her hand to her chest. She took a step back. “Oh my God…”

I couldn’t continue holding the truck back while in my human form. I knew my eyes were glowing by then, iridescent. I had a choice. Any second now I was going to lose control and the truck would continue its original path and barrel into Kat. Or I could endanger Kat and Dee and my race even more by exposing us. But at least Kat would still be alive, for however long she survived the Arum. I didn’t hesitate in my choice.

The shift happened almost immediately, starting with my veins first. Intense white light filled them and then washed over me, replacing my clothing and human skin. The tremble moved past my arms, over my chest, and down my body. Power rippled out, gliding over to her.

And then I was completely in my true form, lighting up the whole damn road.

Kat was seeing me for what I really was.

Off in the distance, I heard Dee shouting, but I couldn’t afford to lose focus. Not until after I got Kat out of the path of certain death.

Kat looked back at the truck. The vehicle was shaking, as was the driver. I wouldn’t be able to hold it back much longer or keep the driver suspended. He would be traced—hard-core traced. So would Kat. I couldn’t worry with the driver, though. His out-of-state tags meant once he was unfrozen, he’d be long gone.

The engine in the truck screamed, trying to push through, and I reached out for even more of the source. As the energy coursed through my form, a ball of intense heat grew in my belly, threatening to burn through me. Our kind could channel energy in the form of light, but even we had limits.

Just when I thought I was surely going to lose control, Kat came unstuck. She spun around and took off. I pulled the Source back and it slammed into me, knocking me back a step as the truck roared past and sapping the last of my energy. The street was empty.

Shit.

Kat was running up the drive. I had to… God, I didn’t even know what I was going to do. Thinking was pointless now, especially since I hadn’t actually thought about what I was doing from the moment she stepped one foot onto the road. I ran after her. Halfway up the driveway, Dee appeared, but Kat dodged her and kept running, right into the woods.

“Stay back,” I shouted at Dee.

“But—”

“I mean it, Dee. Stay back!”

For once, she read the warning in my voice and saw the severity in the situation. She backed off with a look of horror on her face. What happened tonight was what I’d been warning her about this whole time.

Except it had been me who had exposed us.

Branches smacked at me and snagged my shirt as I raced after Kat. Spying her up ahead, I called out, but she didn’t stop, and I wasn’t going to chase after her all night. I dropped the human speed BS and within a heartbeat, I was on her.

I caught Kat from behind, my arms around her waist. We went down in a tangle of legs. I twisted before we hit the ground, absorbing the brunt of the fall. I rolled, pinning her down in the mossy grass under me.

Kat went crazy.

She slammed her hands against my chest and pushed. “Get off!”

I grabbed her shoulders, forcing her back before she hurt herself. “Stop it!”

“Get away from me!” she screamed, wiggling and trying to use her hips to throw me off.

Any other time, her rough movements would’ve firmly placed my head in the wrong place. Not now. “Kat, stop it! I’m not going to hurt you!”

Her wild gaze connected with mine, and she stilled underneath me, only her chest rising and falling erratically. Neither of us moved for what felt like an eternity. Panic filled her gaze, mingling with unshed tears.

That cut me. “I won’t hurt you. I could never hurt you.”

Kat wasn’t thrashing anymore. She was staring at me with those wide, beautiful eyes. Some of the panic eased off, but she was still frightened. Her body trembled as she looked away, pressing her cheek to the grass as she squeezed her eyes shut.

What was I going to do?

I couldn’t let her tell the world about us. There were only two options at this point. I took care of her, as in what Matthew had volunteered to do. Or I somehow convinced her to keep quiet. I hadn’t risked everything to save her from that demon truck to harm her myself now.

Slowly, so I didn’t startle her, I placed my finger under her chin and gently turned her head to mine. “Look at me, Kat. You need to look at me right now.”

She kept her eyes tightly closed.

I shifted up, bracing my weight on my legs as I clasped her cheeks. Her skin was smooth and too cool. My fingers smoothed over the line of her jaw, and I saw that my hands trembled slightly. I didn’t know if I could make her understand, but I had to try. I had to stop the bullet heading straight for her head.

“Please,” I whispered.

Her chest rose sharply, and then her lashes swept up. Her gaze tracked over my face, and I knew she was trying to reconcile what she saw now versus what she’d seen by the side of the road. The pale moonlight broke through the trees, gliding over her cheekbones and mouth.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” I tried again. “I want to talk to you. I need to talk to you, do you understand?”

She nodded.

I closed my eyes, letting out a sigh. Weariness invaded me. “Okay. I’m going to let you up, but please promise me you won’t run. I don’t feel like chasing you anymore right now. That last little trick nearly wiped me out.” I opened my eyes, finding her watching me closely. “Say it, Kat. Promise me you won’t run. I can’t let you run out here by yourself. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” she whispered hoarsely.

“Good.” Leaning back, I slipped my hand down her cheek and then moved to the side. Crouched on my heels, I watched her scoot away until her back was pressed against a tree. I waited for a few seconds, to see if she was going to freak out. When she didn’t, I sat down in front of her. I shoved my hand through my hair, swallowing a month’s worth of curses. “Why did you have to walk out in front of the truck? I was trying everything to keep you out of this, but you had to go and ruin all of my hard work.”

She pressed a shaking hand to her forehead. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“But you did.” I dropped my hand to my lap. “Why did you come here, Kat? Why? I—we were doing well and then you show up and everything is thrown to hell. You have no idea. Shit. I thought we’d get lucky and you’d leave.”

“I’m sorry I’m still here.” She pressed even further against the tree, tucking her legs to her chest.

I wanted to punch myself. “I’m always making this worse.” Shaking my head, I tried again. “We’re different. I think you realize that now.”

She placed her forehead on her knees for a moment and seemed to collect herself. She lifted her head. “Daemon, what are you?”

Smiling ruefully, I rubbed my palm along my temple. “That is hard to explain.”

“Please tell me. You need to tell me, because I’m about to lose it again.” Her voice rose.

I met her gaze and spoke the truth. “I don’t think you want to know, Kat.”

Her breath caught as she stared back at me. Understanding crept into her expression. If she asked me what I knew she wanted to, everything would change. Everything had already changed, but if she asked, I would tell her the truth. I would give her enough information to prove that we could trust her.

Or for her to hang herself with.

There were simply no other choices.

Kat exhaled softly. “Are you…human?”

I barked out a short laugh. “We’re not from around here.”

“You think?”

“Yeah, I guess you’ve probably figured out we’re not human.”

She drew in a shaky breath. “I was hoping I was wrong.”

I laughed again, even though none of this was funny. “No. We’re from far, far away.”

Her arms tightened around her legs. “What do you mean by ‘far, far away’? Because I’m suddenly seeing visions of the beginning of Star Wars.”

Why was I not surprised by the fact that she went there? “We’re not from this planet.”

Kat’s mouth opened and then closed. “What are you? A vampire?”

My eye roll was so epic I was afraid my eyes would get stuck there. “Are you serious?”

“What?” Frustration rose in her voice. “You say you’re not human, and that limits the pool of what you can be! You stopped a truck without touching it.”

“You read too much.” I exhaled slowly. “We’re not werewolves or witches. Zombies or whatever.”

“Well, I’m glad about the zombie thing. I like to think what’s left of my brains are safe,” she muttered, and I glanced at her sharply. “And I don’t read too much. There’s no such thing as that. But there’s no such thing as aliens, either.”

I leaned forward quickly, curving my hands over her bent knees. Her eyes widened as they locked with mine. “In this vast, never-ending universe, do you think Earth—this place—is the only planet with life?”

“N-no,” she stammered. “So that kind of stuff…that’s normal for your… Hell, what do you call yourselves?”

After a beat of silence, I leaned back and tried to figure out what the best way to go about this was. I’d never had to tell anyone about us before. This was a first. And she looked like she was seconds away from laughing hysterically. Not necessarily good.

“I can tell what you’re thinking,” I admitted. “Not that I can read your mind, but it’s written all over your face. You think I’m dangerous.”

She wetted her lips. “This is crazy, but I’m not scared of you.”

“You’re not?” Surprise shuttled through me.

“No.” She laughed, and it had a concerning edge to it. “You don’t look like an alien!”

I arched a brow. “And what do aliens look like?”

“Not…not like you,” she sputtered. “They aren’t gorgeous—”

“You think I’m gorgeous?” I smiled.

Her eyes narrowed. “Shut up. Like you don’t know that everyone on this planet thinks you’re good-looking.” She grimaced. “Aliens—if they exist—are little green men with big eyes and spindly arms or…or giant insects or something like a lumpy little creature.”

I let out a loud laugh. “ET?”

“Yes! Like ET, asshole. I’m so glad you find this funny. That you want to screw with my head more than you guys have already screwed with it. Maybe I hit my head or something.” She started to push to her feet.

“Sit down, Kat.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” she fired back. There was my Kitten. I let out a sigh of relief. If she could yell at me, she wasn’t as afraid as I’d feared. We might just make it through this shit storm.

I stood fluidly, keeping my arms at my sides while I allowed my eyes to change. “Sit. Down.”

Kat stared at me—stared at what was likely my green eyes glowing surreally. She sat down. And saluted me.

She literally just saluted me with her middle finger.

Wow. How could I not appreciate that kind of backbone? I grinned even wider. This girl could slay me if I let her.

“Will you show me what you really look like? You don’t sparkle, do you? And please tell me I didn’t almost kiss a giant brain-eating insect, because seriously, I’m gonna—”

“Kat!”

“Sorry,” she muttered.

Closing my eyes, I struggled for patience and calm. When I was sure I could shift without accidentally burning half the forest, I shed my human skin. I knew the moment the transformation was complete because I heard her say, “Holy shit.”

To her, I would look like a man made out of light, which wasn’t too far from what we really were. I opened my eyes. Kat had a hand up, shielding her eyes. The light I threw off was intense, turning night into day.

When I was in my true form, I couldn’t speak in a language that Kat would understand, so I did something I’d only ever done with those of my kind. This was also forbidden. But so was everything I was doing right now, so really, might as well go the whole nine yards.

Luxen had the ability to transfer our thoughts telepathically to one another. We could communicate that way if we were in our true forms, which wasn’t often, but humans could not respond back. We couldn’t pick up on their thoughts.

This is what we look like.

Kat gasped.

We are beings of light. Even in human form, we can bend light to our will. I paused. As you can see, I don’t look like a giant insect. Or…sparkle.

“No,” she whispered.

Or a lumpy little creature, which I find offensive, by the way. I lifted my arm, stretching out my hand to her, palm up. You can touch me. It won’t hurt. I imagine that it’s pleasant for humans.

She swallowed as she glanced at my hand and then up toward the general vicinity of where my eyes were. The she reached out. Her fingers brushed mine. A jolt of electricity, totally safe, transferred from my hand to hers. Whitish-red light danced up her arm. I smiled as her eyes widened.

Gaining courage, she wrapped her fingers around mine, causing little wisps of light to whip out and circle her wrist. My light enveloped her hand.

Figured you’d like it.

Truth was, I liked it, too. In my true form, I was hypersensitive to, well, everything. I liked her touch. Probably a little too much.

Pulling my hand free, I stepped back. My light slowly faded, and then I returned to the form she was more familiar with. “Kat.”

She stared at me, slowly shaking her head.

Perhaps I should’ve waited on the whole show-and-tell thing. “Kat?”

“You’re an alien,” she whispered as though trying to convince herself.

“Yep, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

“Oh…oh, wow.” She curled her hand, holding it to her chest. “So where are you from? Mars?”

“Not even close.” I laughed. “I’m going to tell you a story. Okay?”

“You’re going to tell me a story?”

I nodded as I dragged my fingers through my hair. “All of this is going to sound insane to you, but try to remember what you saw. What you know. You saw me do things that are impossible. Now, to you, nothing is impossible.” I waited for that to sink in. “Where we’re from is beyond the Abell.”

“The Abell?”

“It’s the farthest galaxy from yours, about thirteen billion light years from here. And we’re about another ten billion or so. There is no telescope or space shuttle powerful enough to travel to our home. There never will be.” As if our home still existed, I thought as I stared at my open palms. “Not that it matters if they did. Our home no longer exists. It was destroyed when we were children. That’s why we had to leave, find a place that is comparable to our planet in terms of food and atmosphere. Not that we need to breathe oxygen, but it doesn’t hurt. We do it out of habit now more than anything else.”

Recognition flared across her features, and I bet she was thinking about the day at the lake. “So you don’t need to breathe?”

“No, not really.” I shrugged. “We do out of habit, but there are times we forget. Like when we’re swimming.”

“Go on.”

I waited for a moment, wondering if she could handle all of this, and then decided to go for it. I refused to acknowledge the part of me that wanted her to know everything. The part that wanted to desperately know what she’d think if she knew the real me. “We were too young to know what the name of our galaxy was. Or even if our kind felt the need to name such things, but I do remember the name of our planet. It was called Lux. And we are called Luxen.”

“Lux,” she whispered. “That’s Latin for light.”

“We came here in a meteorite shower fifteen years ago, with others like us. But many came before us, probably for the last thousand years. Not all of our kind came to this planet. Some went farther out in the galaxy. Others must’ve gone to planets they couldn’t survive on, but when it was realized that Earth was sort of perfect for us, more came here. Are you following me?”

Her stare was blank. “I think. You’re saying there’re more like you. The Thompsons—they’re like you?”

I nodded. “We’ve all been together since then.”

“How many of you are here?”

“Right here? At least a couple hundred.”

“A couple hundred,” she repeated. “Why here?”

“We…stay in large groups. It’s not…well, that doesn’t matter right now.”

“You said you came during a meteorite shower? Where’s your spaceship?” Her nose did that cute wrinkle thing.

I arched a brow. “We don’t need things such as ships to travel. We are light—we can travel with light, like hitching a ride.”

“But if you’re from a planet billions of light years away and you travel at the speed of light… It took you billions of years to get here?”

Did she really just do that math in her head? “No. The same way I saved you from that truck, we’re able to bend space and time. I’m not a scientist, so I don’t know how it works, just that we can. Some better than others.”

She nodded slowly, but I had a feeling that was just for show. She wasn’t freaking out, so that was good news at least.

I continued as I sat back down. “We can age like a human, which allows us to blend in normally. When we got here, we picked our…skin.” She winced, and I shrugged. What could I do? It was the truth. “I don’t know how else to explain that without creeping you out, but not all of us can change our appearances. What we picked when we got here is what we’re stuck with.”

“Well, you picked good then.”

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.”