I shielded my eyes with a trembling hand. “Holy shit.”
And when he spoke, it wasn’t out loud. It was in my head. This is what we look like. We are b eings of light. Even in human form, we can b end light to our will. There was a pause. As you can see, I don’t look like a giant insect. Or…sparkle. Even in my head I could hear the disgust on that last one.
“No,” I whispered. Out of all the paranormal books I’d read and reviewed, no one glowed like this. Some glittered in the light. Others had wings. No one was a freaking giant sun.
Or a lumpy little creature, which I find offensive, b y the way. One arm made of light stretched out toward me. A hand and fingers formed, opening palm up. You can touch me. It won’t hurt. I imagine that it’s pleasant for humans.
For humans? Sweet. Baby. Jesus. Swallowing nervously, I raised one hand. Part of me didn’t want to touch him, but to see this, to be next to something so…so, well, out of this world, I had to. My fingers brushed over his, and a jolt of electricity danced over my hand, up my arm. The light hummed along my skin.
I sucked in a sharp breath. Daemon had been right. It didn’t hurt. His touch was warm, heady. It was like touching the surface of the sun without being burned. I curled my fingers around his, watching as the light grew until I could no longer see my hand. Little bands of light flicked out from his hand, licking over my wrist and forearm.
Figured you’d like it. He pulled his hand free and stepped back. His light slowly faded, and then Daemon was standing in front of me—human Daemon. I felt the loss of his warmth immediately. “Kat,” he said, this time out loud.
All I could do was stare at him. I’d wanted the truth, but actually hearing it—seeing it—was totally different.
Daemon seemed to read my expression, because he slowly sat back down. He looked relaxed, but I knew he was more like a wild animal, coiled and ready to spring in case I made the wrong move. “Kat?”
“You’re an alien.” My voice was weak.
“Yep, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
“Oh…oh, wow.” I curled my hand back to my chest, staring at him blindly. “So where are you from? Mars?”
He laughed. “Not even close.” He closed his eyes briefly. “I’m going to tell you a story. Okay?”
“You’re going to tell me a story?”
Nodding, he dragged his fingers through his tousled 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.” He paused, seemed to gather himself. “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.” He glanced down at his open hands, his brow lowered. “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.” Another memory tugged loose. “So you don’t need to breathe?”
“No, not really.” He looked sort of sheepish. “We do out of habit, but there are times we forget. Like when we’re swimming.”
Well, that explained how Daemon had stayed underwater for so long. “Go on.”
He watched me for a few moments, then nodded. “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,” I whispered, recalling one of my freshman classes. “That’s Latin for light.”
He shrugged. “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?” I stared blankly. “I think. You’re saying there’re more like you. The Thompsons—they’re like you?”
Daemon nodded. “We’ve all been together since then.”
That explained Ash’s territorial nature, I guessed. “How many of you are here?”
“Right here? At least a couple hundred.”
“A couple hundred,” I repeated. Then I remembered the strange looks in town—the people at the diner and the way they’d looked at me…because I was with Dee—an alien. “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?” I felt stupid for even saying that.
He raised a brow at me, looking like the Daemon I knew. “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 millions of light years away and you travel at the speed of light…It took you millions of years to get here?” My old physics teacher would be proud.
“No. The same way I saved you from that Mack 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.”