They left after that, including Dee. She wanted to spend time with Adam and also make sure he didn’t end up mauling Andrew, which left Daemon and me alone. I should’ve left, but after Andrew’s thoughtless comment, I needed to know that Daemon was okay.

I followed him into the kitchen. “I’m sorry about what Andrew said. That was wrong.”

Daemon’s jaw worked as he grabbed two cans of Coke, handing me one. “It is what it is.”

“Still not right.”

His eyes searched my face in a way that made me feel exposed to the core. “Are you worried about the DOD being here?”

I hesitated. “Yeah, I am.”

“Don’t be.”

“Harder said than done.” I played with the tab on the can. “It’s not me I’m worried about. They think you’re responsible for what happened—the crazy energy thing. What if they think you’re…a danger?”

Daemon didn’t answer for several moments. “It’s not just me, Kitten. Even if I had done that, it’s never been about me. It’s about all the Luxen.” He paused, lowering his gaze. “You know what Matthew believes?”

“No.”

A cynical grin pulled at his full lips. “He believes that one day, probably not in our generation, but some day, my kind and the Arum will nearly outnumber yours.”

“Really? That’s kind of…”

“Scary?” he said.

I tucked my hair back. “I don’t know if it’s scary. I mean, the Arum thing is, but your kind—the Luxen—freaky powers aside…you’re not very different from us.”

“What about the fact we’re made of light?”

I smiled a little then. “Well, besides that.”

“It got me thinking,” he said, “that if some of our kind believes this, how come the DOD isn’t worried?”

He had a good point. And I was trying not to let my fear for him take over, but my brain was throwing out all kinds of wild scenarios. All of them ended with him being taken in by the DOD. “What happens if they think you are a threat? And don’t beat around the bush about it.”

“When I was at the compound before, there were Luxen who didn’t assimilate.” The muscle in his jaw started ticking. “Mostly they didn’t want to be kept under the thumb of the DOD. Others I guessed were viewed as a threat because they asked too many questions. Who really knows?”

My mouth felt dry. “What happened to them?”

Several moments passed before Daemon answered. Each second that went by, the unease in my stomach grew. Finally, he nodded. “They killed them.”

Chapter 13

Horror rolled through me. The extreme emotion triggered the static that rushed over my skin so fast I couldn’t stop it. The burst of energy smacked around the room. I dropped the unopened can of soda as wood scrapped over tile.

A chair flew out from under the table, slamming into my knee with such force that my leg collapsed under me. I yelped in pain and buckled over.

Daemon strung together a truckload of f-bombs and appeared next to me, grabbing me a second before I hit the floor. “Whoa, there, Kitten.”

Pushing the hair out of my face, I lifted my head. “Holy crap…”

He helped me stand up, easing a shoulder under my arm for support and pulling me close. “Are you okay?”

“I’m peachy.” I wiggled out of his embrace and tentatively placed my weight on my leg. Wet warmth trickled down my leg. I rolled up my jeans, finding blood. “Great, I’m a natural disaster.”

“I might have to agree with that.”

I shot him a dark look.

With a cocky grin, he winked. “Come on, get up on the table and let me look at that.”

“I’m fine.”

He didn’t argue with me about it. One second I was standing—er, hobbling—and then air rushed me and I was sitting on the table. My mouth dropped open. “What…how did you do that?”

“Skill,” he said, placing my foot on the chair. His fingertips brushed against my skin as he rolled my pants above my knee. Electricity danced along my leg, and I jerked. “Wow, you really are a disaster.”

“Ugh, it’s bleeding all over the place.” I swallowed at the sight. “You’re not going to heal me, are you?”

“Uh, no, because who knows what would happen then? You might turn into an alien.”

“Ha. Ha.”

Daemon quickly grabbed a clean towel and dampened it. He came back, not quite meeting my eyes. I reached for the cloth, but he knelt and started to gently blot at the blood. He was careful not to touch my skin this time.

“What am I going to do with you, Kitten?”

“See? I didn’t even want to move the chair and it flew at me like a heat-seeking missile.”

Daemon shook his head as he continued to dap at the blood. “When we were younger, things like this would happen all the time, before we could control the Source.”

“The Source?”

He nodded. “The energy in us—we call it the Source, because it links us back to our home planet, you know? Like the source of it all. At least, that’s what our elders say. Anyway, when we were kids and learning how to control our abilities, it was crazy. Dawson had this habit of moving furniture, like you. He’d go to sit down and the chair would fly out from under him.” He laughed. “But he was young.”

“Great. So I’m operating at the level of a toddler?”

Daemon’s lustrous eyes met mine. “Basically.” The dark graphic shirt strained against his chest when he laid the bloodied towel aside and leaned back. “Look, it’s stopped bleeding already. Not that bad.”




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