don’t move, I will throw you down the stairs. It’ll hurt. You might break your neck. It’s three levels. Someone will heal you. Or maybe we’ll just leave you like that, alive but unable—”
“I get your point,” I snapped back at her, taking a deep breath so I didn’t attempt to push her down the stairs.
“Good,” she chirped, grinning.
For some reason, it was in that moment, as I tried to reconcile the girl who had stood in the kitchen with me a few days ago and made spaghetti with this nasty creature before me, that I remembered Archer. “What happened to . . . ?” I trailed off suddenly, and probably rightfully, wary of bringing up anything that led back to who remained at the cabin.
“Archer? He got away.” She started down the steps.
I stared at her back, my heart working overtime.
“I’m serious,” she called. “I will throw you down these damn steps.”
I took a second to entertain the idea of drop-kicking her in the back of the head. The only thing that stopped me was the fact that I was convinced she had to have an alien insect attached to her somewhere that changed her personality, and her attitude wasn’t her fault.
Heading down the stairs, I willed my brain to start working correctly as I took in my surroundings. I was in a big house, the kind that opulence would be envious of. There were a lot of bedrooms and halls, and when we reached the second landing, I could see down into the foyer, lit by a crystal chandelier. Like, real crystals.
But down below, I could also see Luxen, all in human forms. None of them looked familiar to me. At least these Luxen had discovered the usefulness of clothing, but as I scanned them, I noticed there weren’t any sets of three other than the Blacks. Each one of them was different. My fingers were numb from how tightly I was clenching my hands. The Luxen looked at me the same way Dee had. A few pushed off the wall as we walked past, heads tilting in that weird way that reminded me of a snake. Another stood from a leather chaise longue; all of them appeared to be in their mid-twenties to their forties, though who knew what their real age was.
What I’d seen in the market hadn’t been anything like Daemon and Dee had explained to me. What the Luxen had done had been different.
A light-haired woman by the leather chair sneered and looked like she wanted to jump the heavy-looking oak table, straddle my shoulders, and rip off my head. As hard as it was, I forced my chin high, even though my heart was beating so fast I thought I’d be sick.
We walked through a long atrium, and from the darkness beyond the glass walls, I could tell that it was night outside. As we reached the middle, I felt it.
A tingle spread across the nape of my neck.
My heart stopped and then skipped a beat. Daemon was here, behind those double doors. I knew it, and warring hope and uncertainty fought inside me.
The doors opened before we reached them, revealing the kind of office I’d never seen in a home before, and my gaze was drawn to a desk in the middle of the room. A man sat behind it wearing a smile, but what was most shocking was the fact that I’d seen him before, seconds ago.
He was the man in the broken photo, but I knew he wasn’t human. His eyes glowed a bright, unnatural blue. He rose fluidly as we stepped into the office, the doors closing behind us, but my attention veered off immediately.
There were other Luxen in the room, two more males and a tall, beautiful redhead. I didn’t care about any of them. Standing next to the redhead, to the right of the man behind the desk, was Daemon.
My heart did something funky in my chest as a rush of shivers danced over my skin. Our eyes locked, and I felt dizzy once again. So much rose inside me as I stepped toward him, my tongue forming his name, but my voice was gone. Our gazes held for a second more and then he . . . he looked away, his profile stoic and blank. Heart thudding in my chest, I stared at him.
“Daemon?” I said, and when he didn’t answer, when he watched the man behind the desk like he . . . like he was bored with it all, I tried again. “Daemon?”
Like the night the Luxen came, there was no answer.
5
{ Katy }
I still stared at Daemon, completely aware that everyone else except him was watching me. Closely. But why wouldn’t he look at me? A razor-sharp panic clawed at my insides. No. This couldn’t be happening. No way.
My body was moving before I even knew what I was doing. From the corner of my eye, I saw Dee shake her head and one of the Luxen males step forward, but I was propelled by an inherent need to prove that my worst fears were not coming true.
After all, he’d healed me, but then I thought of what Dee had said, of how Dee had behaved with me. What if Daemon was like her? Turned into something so foreign and cold? He would’ve healed me just to make sure he was okay.
I still didn’t stop.
Please, I thought over and over again. Please. Please. Please.
On shaky legs, I crossed the long room, and even though Daemon hadn’t seemed to even acknowledge my existence, I walked right up to him, my hands trembling as I placed them on his chest.
“Daemon?” I whispered, voice thick.
His head whipped around, and he was suddenly staring down at me. Our gazes collided once more, and for a second I saw something so raw, so painful in those beautiful eyes. And then his large hands wrapped around my upper arms. The contact seared through the shirt I wore, branding my skin, and I thought—I expected—that he would pull me against him, that he would embrace me, and even though nothing would be all right, it would be better.
Daemon’s hands spasmed around my arms, and I sucked in an unsteady breath.
His eyes flashed an intense green as he physically lifted me away from him, setting me back down a good foot back.
I stared at him, something deep in my chest cracking. “Daemon?”
He said nothing as he let go, one finger at a time, it seemed, and his hands slid off my arms. He stepped back, returning his attention to the man behind the desk.
“So . . . awkward,” murmured the redhead, smirking.
I was rooted to the spot in which I stood, the sting of rejection burning through my skin, shredding my insides like I was nothing more than papier-mâché.
“I think someone was expecting more of a reunion,” the Luxen male behind the desk said, his voice ringing with amusement. “What do you think, Daemon?”
One shoulder rose in a negligent shrug. “I don’t think anything.”
My mouth opened, but there were no words. His voice, his tone, wasn’t like his sister’s, but like it had been when we first met. He used to speak to me with barely leashed annoyance, where a thin veil of tolerance dripped from every word.
The rift in my chest deepened.
For the hundredth time since the Luxen arrived, Sergeant Dasher’s warning came back to me. What side would Daemon and his family stand on? A shudder worked its way down my spine. I wrapped my arms around myself, unable to truly process what had just happened.
“And you?” the man asked. When no one answered, he tried again. “Katy?”
I was forced to look at him, and I wanted to shrink back from his stare. “What?” I was beyond caring that my voice broke on that one word.
The man smiled as he walked around the desk. My gaze flickered over to Daemon as he shifted, drawing the attention of the beautiful redhead. “Were you expecting a more personal greeting?” he asked. “Perhaps something more intimate?”
I had no idea how to answer. I felt like I’d fallen into the rabbit hole, and warnings were firing off left and right. Something primal inside me recognized that I was surrounded by predators.
Completely.
“I don’t know what to . . . to think.” There was a horrifying burn of tears crawling up my throat.
“This is all overwhelming for you, I imagine. The whole world as you know it is on the brink of great change, and you’re here and don’t even know my name.” The man smiled so broadly, I wondered if it hurt. “You can call me Rolland.
”
Then he extended a hand.
My gaze dropped to it and I made no attempt to take it.
Rolland chuckled as he turned and strolled back to the desk. “So, you’re a hybrid? Mutated and linked to him on such an intense level that if one of you dies, so does the other?”
His question caught me off guard, but I kept quiet.
He sat on the edge of the desk. “You’re actually the first hybrid I’ve seen.”
“She really isn’t anything special.” The redhead sneered. “Frankly, she’s rather filthy, like an unclean animal.”
As stupid as it was, my cheeks heated, because I was filthy, and Daemon had just physically removed me from him. My pride—my everything—was officially wounded.
Rolland chuckled. “She’s had a rough day, Sadi.”
At her name, every muscle in my body locked up, and my gaze swung back to her. That was Sadi? The one Dee said was trying to molest Daemon—my Daemon? Anger punched through the confusion and hurt. Of course it would have to be a freaking walking and talking model and not a hag.
“Rough day or not, I can’t imagine she cleans up well.” Sadi looked at Daemon as she placed a hand on his chest. “I’m kind of disappointed.”
“Are you?” Daemon replied.
Every hair on my body rose as my arms unfolded.
“Yes,” she purred. “I really think you can do better. Lots better.” As she spoke, she trailed a red-painted finger down the center of his chest, over his abdomen, heading straight for the button on his jeans.
And oh, hell to the no. “Get your hands off him.”
Sadi’s head snapped in my direction. “Excuse me?”
“I don’t think I stuttered.” I took a step forward. “But it looks like you need me to repeat it. Get your freaking hands off him.”
One side of her plump red lips curled up. “You want to make me?”
In the back of my head, I was aware that Sadi didn’t move or speak like the other Luxen. Her mannerisms were too human, but then that thought was quickly chased away when Daemon reached down and pulled her hand away.
“Stop it,” he murmured, voice dropped low in that teasing way of his.
I saw red.
The pictures on the wall rattled and the papers on the desk started to lift up. Static charged over my skin. I was about to pull a Beth right here, seconds away from floating to the ceiling and ripping out every strand of red—
“And you stop it,” Daemon said, but the teasing quality was gone from his words. There was a warning in them that took the wind right out of my pissed-off sails.
The pictures settled as I gaped at him. Being slapped in the face would’ve been better.
“Amazing,” said Rolland, eyeing me like I imagined all the scientists at Daedalus had done when they first came into contact with the Luxen. “You have adapted many of his abilities. Amazing and yet disturbing.”
“I have to agree with that,” said one of the male Luxen.
Rolland inclined his head. “We are a higher life-form, and to mix so intimately with something like you is . . . well, an abomination of sorts. You shouldn’t exist. Whatever injury you suffered should’ve taken you.”
A muscle started to tick along Daemon’s jaw.
“After all, it is the survival of the fittest, is that not what humans say? You were not fit to survive without our interference.”
Well, that was all kinds of insulting.
“And yet it cannot be undone, can it?” His gaze flickered to Daemon. “There is so much we are unaware of. All of us were too young when our planet was destroyed and we were split among the universes. We have never been here, and apparently, there is a lot our kind who have been residing on Earth were also unaware of.”
Most Luxen didn’t know about hybrids. Daemon hadn’t until I was mutated, so it didn’t take a genius to think those who hadn’t been to Earth had no idea. It also made me wonder if they were aware of the weaknesses that existed here—the onyx and diamond shields? Did these things exist on whatever hellhole they’d crawled out of? I doubted they had PEP weapons, the kind the government had created that could nuke a Luxen into the afterlife with one blast.
“We are curious by nature. Did you know that?” he asked, and then he slid a knowing look in Daemon’s direction. “I’m sure you did. After all, was that what drew him to you? Or was it more?”
Daemon’s lips thinned, but if there was bait dangling in front of his face, he didn’t take it.
“Love,” muttered Rolland with a laugh.
Dee glanced at her brother. “That was before.”
“Was it?” he asked.
A moment passed as Daemon held Rolland’s gaze. “It was before.”
The thunderous cracking in my chest should’ve been heard in the nearby towns. I sucked in a sharp breath, and Daemon finally looked at me. His back was unnaturally stiff as his eyes met mine, but it was like he saw right through me.
“I wonder if that’s truly in the past,” Sadi challenged, and when Daemon outright ignored her, a tension pulled at her features, turning them sour.
The hair on the back of my neck was standing again, but for a very different reason as Rolland’s smile grew. “As I said, we are curious creatures. Quincy?” He glanced over his shoulder, and after a moment passed, the other man nodded.
My eyes widened as the other Luxen strolled forward. He wasn’t as tall as Daemon, but he was broader, and he walked like he was gliding over water. When he passed Daemon, he sent him a mocking smile.
I took a step back, my hands opening and closing at my sides. I had no idea what to expect from any of them, even Daemon at this point. Horror churned in my stomach.
Quincy was wide like a linebacker, and the look in his eyes sent an icy whirl of wind over me. My feet slipped over the cool wood floor as energy balled low in my stomach. I glanced at Daemon, my heart thumping. His eyes met mine as Quincy stopped in front of me, his striking features stark. Quincy’s smile creeped me out as he reached forward. Jumping back, I knocked his arm away.
“Don’t touch me,” I warned, feeling a rush of static over my skin.
The smile slipped off Quincy’s face as his eyes narrowed.
“What is this about?” Daemon asked.
“I’m curious,” said Rolland, his voice almost syrupy sweet as his gaze flickered over to Daemon. “Restrain her.”
My heart dropped as my gaze bounced between Daemon and the Luxen. There was a moment when Daemon didn’t move as he stared at Rolland, and then he pivoted on his heel. I locked up, throat dry, as he stalked toward us.
He cut Quincy a dangerous look as he stepped around me. The moment his hands folded over my shoulders from behind, holding me in place, I thought I’d throw up. Like literally hurl all over the smug-looking Luxen in front of me.
I jerked, pressing into Daemon as Quincy reached for me once more, gripping my chin with cool fingers, but I couldn’t shy away. Daemon was an unmovable wall.
Daemon stiffened behind me as Quincy lowered his head so that we were eye level. I never thought I’d ever be in this situation, that instead of Daemon protecting me, he would be allowing some random, really skeevy Luxen guy to get all up in my face. Not since the day at the lake, the first time he’d opened up to me and told me about his brother.
“She feels different,” Quincy announced, his hands sliding down my neck to where my pulse beat rapidly. “Not like other humans. Besides sensing something in them, we’d be able to tell by feel.” He paused, his gaze flickering up to Daemon. The Luxen’s smile turned brittle as his long, tapered fingers circled my neck. “You’re very angry.”
“Really?” Daemon’s hands flexed around my arms. “Remember what I told you before? That statement still stands.”
“Is that so?” Quincy hesitated, and then he placed his hand above my chest, the same place I’d seen the Luxen touch in the supermarket.
A low rumble reverberated along my back, and I wasn’t sure if it was from Daemon or if it w
as me shaking so badly. The Luxen’s brows knitted in concentration, and then he glanced at Rolland.
“Nothing,” he said. “I cannot assimilate her DNA.”
My eyes widened in understanding. My God, I’d seen what had happened to the humans after their DNA had been assimilated at a rapid clip. He would’ve killed me! And Daemon, but at this point, I wanted to knee Daemon in the groin. Anger burned its way through me as I twisted in his grasp, trying to get free, because I needed