Opposition (Lux 5)

He shook his head, causing several black waves to brush against his eyebrows. “He videoed a press release earlier. He’s pretending to be the mayor . . .”

As Daemon trailed off, he released my wrists and rocked up, his expression far off, and I had a feeling he was thinking the same thing I was. Sitting up, I wrapped my arms around my waist. He looked over and our gazes locked.

“Do you think he’s pretending?” I asked. “That he’s really pretending to be the mayor, as in . . .” As in working from the inside to take over. “What if there are more like him? Ones who have taken over the bodies of important people?”

He cursed under his breath as he shoved both hands through his hair. “I should’ve seen it right away. I mean, I got that he was pretending to be mayor, but I didn’t think beyond that. They’re only killing some people without assimilating them. They’re targeting certain people. Same age group. People old enough to have . . .”

“Families,” I whispered. And that would be even worse than assimilating those in positions of power, because if they pretended to be mothers and fathers and teachers, they’d be everywhere, and no one would be able to tell, even if there were witnesses. Accounts of the Luxen snatching bodies couldn’t stop something this huge.

I looked at Daemon.

The Luxen had already been on this planet for decades and then some, and no one knew.

“Does the TV in that room work?” I asked.

“I think so.”

“I think we need to turn it on.”

After helping me up, Daemon rubbed his hands up and down my arms, chasing away the chill. “Take a shower, and I’ll find something for you to wear.”

I glanced at the door, hesitating. Stripping naked with a bunch of Luxen nearby who had no concept of personal space made me want to hurl.

Daemon dipped his head, brushing his lips across mine. “I won’t let anyone come in here. You’re safe.”

You’re safe.

Two words I couldn’t wait until I never had to hear again. Closing my eyes, I stretched up and kissed him softly. “Okay.”

He pulled me in for a quick hug, and then he started for the door. Stopping, he twisted at the waist, and his gaze drifted over me, warming my cold skin. “Kitten?”

“Yeah?”

His eyes were beautiful when they met mine, luminous and clear, and a long moment stretched out between us. “I love you.”

7

{ Katy }

Daemon had the TV turned on in the bedroom, volume low, when I walked in with a towel wrapped around me.

He glanced over at me, and his lashes lowered as his gaze moved from the tip of my now-clean toes, all the way to the top of my wet head. “Hey there.”

It seemed like he’d forgotten what he was watching, which was one of the world news channels. I hadn’t seen any reports since I’d left the cabin.

“Come here.” He extended an arm from where he sat on the edge of the bed.

The room had been restored to how it had looked before Sadi and I had gotten into it, with the exception of the curtains and the chair. They still lay in a pile on the floor. The sheets and pillowcases had been replaced.

Holding the towel where it was knotted, I padded over to the bed. I started to sit beside him, but he looped an arm around my waist and tugged me onto his lap. The room was chilly, but his body heat immediately seeped into me. He was like a walking, talking electric blanket.

On the TV, a silvery-haired newscaster solemnly stared into the camera as he spoke. At the top of the screen, there was a live video of an affiliated station in L.A. Filmed from what appeared to be a helicopter circling the distressed city, the snapshots of smoking buildings, bumper-to-bumper traffic on the major highways, and streets crowded with people didn’t bode well. Then the tiny screen on the right switched to a live stream of New York City, spitting out the same kind of images.

“Sources believe that the initial strike started in Las Vegas, and we’re trying to get confirmation of that.” Weariness etched into the lines of the newscaster’s face and clouded his tone. “It is now believed that the meteorite shower three nights ago was not, in fact, meteorites, but . . .” He cleared his throat and seemed to struggle with the next words. “But was the first arrival of a widespread . . . extraterrestrial invasion.”

“I think he just choked on the word ‘extraterrestrial,’” Daemon commented drily.

I nodded. The guy looked like he couldn’t believe he’d just said that on national television.

The newscaster glanced down at the papers in front of him, shaking his head slowly. “We’re still waiting on Dr. Kapur to see if we can gain any insight into the . . . biology and the possible endgame involved, but at this time, what we do know is that there was a period of silence after the mass arrival and then”—he looked up at the screen, his features tense—“a strategic, targeted attack all across the world, in every major city. There are no definite numbers, but we do expect that the loss of life will be substantial in the areas and the surrounding cities.”

I shuddered at the overwhelming horror of it all. Even being what I was and seeing so much in the last year or so, it was almost too much to fully wrap my head around. It wasn’t just my world that had changed anymore. Everyone’s world had changed.

Daemon’s arms tightened around my waist as he watched the TV. He didn’t say anything, because it was one of those moments where there weren’t any words powerful enough to describe what either of us was feeling.

On the television, the man’s fingers curled around the sheets of paper in his hands. “What we do know is the attacks on the cities lasted for a few hours, but this . . . this alien life-form has not been seen since.”