“Yes, but I figured I was seeing things.” I stretched out my legs a little. “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.” Daemon nodded. “Not all of us have control over what we can do. Some struggle with their abilities.”
“But you do?”
“I’m just that awesome.”
I rolled my eyes, but then I sat up straighter. “What about your parents? You said they work in the city, but I’ve never seen them.”
His gaze fell to the ground again. “Our parents never made it here.”
An ache for him and Dee filled my chest. “I’m…I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It was a long time ago. We don’t even remember them.”
That seemed sad. Even though my memories of my dad seemed worn over the years, I still had them. And I had so many questions about how they survived without parents, someone taking care of them when they were little. “God, I feel so stupid. 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,” he sighed. “Well, apparently not good enough.”
Aliens…Wow, those crazy people Lesa were talking about were right. They’d probably seen one of them. Maybe the Mothman was real. And the chupacabra really was out sucking goat blood.
Daemon’s odd eyes flashed for a moment, and then they settled on my 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.” After I spoke, something occurred to me. “Can…can you all control what others think? Read minds?” He shook his 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.”
As I stared at him, anger and disbelief warred inside me. “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.” His eyes opened, a flash of anger sparked through them along with something else that I couldn’t decipher. “I had to,” he insisted. “We can’t have anyone knowing about us. God knows what would happen to us then.” Forcing myself to let it drop for the time being, I asked, “How many…humans know about you?”
“There are some locals who think we’re God only knows what,” he said. “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,” he nearly growled, meeting my 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…” He rubbed his jaw. “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?”
He blinked and looked away.
“And when you scared the bear away? That’s traceable by others like you?” I swallowed down the cold lump of fear. “So the Thompsons and any other alien around here know I’ve been exposed to your…alien mojo?”
“Pretty much,” he said. “And they aren’t exactly thrilled about it.”
“Then why did you stop the truck? I’m obviously a huge liability to you.”
Daemon slowly turned back to me. His eyes were sheltered, closed. Again, he didn’t answer.
I drew in a deep breath, ready to run, fight. “What are you going to do with me?”
When he did speak, his voice wavered. “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.”
“Why would I have told you everything if I were going to do anything to you?”
Good point. “I don’t know.”
He moved forward, and when I flinched away from him, he stopped short of touching me. “I’m not going to do anything to you. Okay?”
I bit my lip. “How can you trust me?”
He paused again and then finally reached out to take my chin in his hand. “I don’t know. I just do. And honestly, no one would believe you. And 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.” I remained still and quiet as Daemon still held me in his soft grip. Several emotions swept through me. Looking at him now, as his presence encircled me, it was all too easy to fall into something I knew I would probably never resurface from. I pulled back. “So that’s why you said all those things earlier? You don’t hate me?” Daemon glanced down at his still-outstretched hand. He lowered it. “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?”