“You were?” Daemon stood in front of me, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. “When, exactly? Before or after you did something that puts you at risk?”
I flinched. “I didn’t plan on this happening! All I wanted was to have a normal afternoon with a boy—”
“With a boy?” he spat, eyes flaring an intense green.
“Yes, with a normal boy!” Why did that sound so surprising? I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I did plan on coming to you tonight, but Blake asked me to grab something to eat with him and I just wanted one freaking afternoon with someone like me.”
His frown went so deep I thought his face would crack. “You have friends who are normal, Kat.”
“It’s not the same thing!”
Daemon seemed to get what I wasn’t really saying. For a second, his eyes widened and I’d swear there was a flicker of pain in them, but then it was gone. “Tell me what’s been happening.”
Guilt shot through me, pulling behind it spiky barbs that dug in deep. “I think I did get alien cooties, because I’ve been moving things…without touching them. Today, I opened the door to Mr. Garrison’s classroom without touching it. He seemed to think it was a drafty hallway.”
“How often has this been happening?”
“On and off for around a week. The first time it was my locker door, but I thought it was a fluke, so I didn’t say anything. Then I thought about wanting a glass of tea, and the glass flew out of the cabinet and the tea started pouring itself in the fridge. The shower turned itself on, doors opened, and a couple of times, clothes flew from my closet.” I sighed. “My room was a mess.”
A snicker escaped. “Nice.”
My hands balled into fists. “How can you think this is funny? Look at what happened today! I didn’t mean to stop the branch! I mean, I didn’t want it to hit him, but I didn’t consciously stop the damn thing. The whole healing-me thing—it changed me, Daemon. If you haven’t guessed it yet, I couldn’t move things before. And I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I get a splitting headache and feel exhausted afterward. What if I’m dying or something?”
Daemon blinked and was suddenly beside me, sitting on the arm of the chair. Our legs touched. His breath stirred my hair. I shrank back as my heart rate picked up. “Why do you have to move so fast? It’s…wrong.”
He sighed. “Sorry, Kitten. For us, moving fast is natural. It’s actually more effort to slow down and appear ’normal,’ as you put it. I guess I just forget I have to pretend around you.”
My heart ached. Why did everything I say lately come out as a criticism?
“You’re not dying,” he said.
“How do you know?”
His eyes latched onto mine. “Because I’d never let that happen.”
He said it so strongly that I believed him. “What if I’m turning into an alien?”
A look crossed his face, like he wanted to laugh, and I could get why. It did sound absurd. “I don’t know if that’s possible.”
“Moving stuff with my mind shouldn’t be possible.”
He sighed. “Why didn’t you tell me when this first happened?”
“I don’t know,” I said, unable to look away. “I should’ve. I don’t want to put you guys at risk. I swear I’m not doing it on purpose.”
Daemon leaned back. His pupils turned luminous. “I know you aren’t doing anything on purpose. I wouldn’t have thought that.”
My breath caught as he held my gaze with his strange eyes. The prickly feeling was back, spreading over my skin. Every inch of me became painfully aware of him.
He was silent for a moment. “I don’t know if it was a product of my healing you those times or when you connected with us during Baruck’s attack. Either way, it’s obvious that you’re using some of my abilities. I’ve never heard of this happening before.”
“Never?” I whispered.
“We don’t heal humans.” Daemon paused, pursing his lips. “I’ve always thought it had something to do with exposing our abilities, but now I’m wondering if it’s more than that. If the real reason is because we…change humans.”
I swallowed. “So I am turning into an alien?”
“Kitten…”
All I could think about was the movie Alien and that thing crawling out of the dude’s stomach, except mine would be a glowing ball of light or something. “How do we stop this?”
Daemon stood. “I want to try something, okay?”
My brows rose. “Okay.”
Closing his eyes, he let out a long breath. His form flickered and faded. A few seconds later, he was in his true form, radiating a powerful red-white light. He was shaped like a human, and I knew he would be warm to touch. It was still strange seeing him like this. It drove home the point—the one I forgot sometimes—that he wasn’t from this planet.
Say something to me, his voice whispered in my thoughts.
In their true form, Luxen don’t speak out loud. “Uh, hi?”
His chuckle tickled inside me. Not aloud. Say something to me, but not out loud. Like what happened in the clearing. You spoke to me then.
When he’d been healing me, I’d heard his thoughts. Would it happen again? Your light is really pretty, but it’s blinding me.
I heard his ghost inhale. We can still hear each other. His light dimmed, and he was standing in front of me again, solid, eyes troubled. “So my light was blinding you, huh?”