“Hey,” Dee-as-me said. “Can you tell us apart?”
Heart pounding, I started to stand but didn’t make it. My mouth moved but no words came out. “This is… weird.” I squinted. “Does my nose really look like that? Turn around.” She did. I shrugged. “My butt doesn’t look bad.” The exact replica of me laughed and then faded out. For a moment I could see the outline of a body, but I could see the fridge through the center. A second later she was Dee. She sat down again. “I can look like anyone except for my brother. I mean, I can look like him, but that would be gross.” She shuddered. “All of us can shift, but I can hold the form for like forever. Most of us can only mimic for a few minutes tops.” Her chest swelled with pride.
“Have you guys ever done that? Been someone else around me?”
She shook her head. “Daemon would have a shit fit if he knew I’d done that. It doesn’t leave a huge trace on you, but you’re all kinds of lit up right now, so it doesn’t matter.”
“So Daemon can do that too? Morphing into a kangaroo if he wanted to?”
Dee laughed. “Daemon can do about anything. He’s one of the most powerful of us. Most of us can do one or two things easily — the rest is a struggle. Everything is easy for him.”
“He’s just so awesome,” I muttered.
“Once he actually moved the house a little bit,” Dee said, nose wrinkled. “He totally broke the foundation.”
Sweet Jesus…
I took a sip of my juice. “And the government doesn’t know you can do any of that?”
“No. At least, we don’t think they do,” Dee said. “We’ve always hidden our abilities. We know that it would scare humans to know we can do things. And we also know that people would take advantage of that. So we try not to risk exposure.” I let that soak in as I took another drink. My brain felt like it was two seconds from blowing up. “So why did you guys come here? Daemon said something happened to your home.”
“Yeah, something happened all right.” Dee picked up the dishes and headed to the sink. Her back was rigid as she cleaned the dishes. “Our planet was destroyed by the Arum.”
“The Arum?” Then I got it. “Dark? Right? Are those the people that are out to like steal your abilities?”
“Yes.” She glanced over her shoulder, nodding. “They’re our enemies. Pretty much the only enemies of the Luxen besides humans, if they decided to stop being kosher with us being here, I guess. The Arum are like us — only opposite, coming from our sister planet. They destroyed our home. My mom used to tell me a bedtime story that when the universe was formed it was filled with the purest light, shining so brightly it made the shadows envious. The Arum are the children of the shadows, jealous and determined to suffocate all light in the universe, not realizing for one to exist so must the other. Many Luxen feel that every time an Arum is killed, a light in the universe fades away. It’s the only thing I remember about Mom.”
“And your parents died in this war?” I asked, then immediately regretted doing so. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that.”
Dee stopped washing the dishes. “No, it’s okay. You should know, but it shouldn’t scare you.”
I didn’t know how their parents’ deaths could scare me, but I had begun to feel alarmed by what I might find out.
“There are Arum here. The government thinks they’re Luxen. We have to keep it that way or there’s a chance the DOD could learn of our powers through the Arum.” Dee faced me, placing her hands on the edge of the sink. “And now, you’re like a beacon to them.” Appetite gone, I pushed my plate away. “Is there any way to get the trace off?”
“It will fade over time.” Dee forced a smile. “Until then it would be good to stick around us, especially Daemon.”
Goodie goodie gumdrops. But it could be worse. “Okay, so it fades…eventually. I can deal with that if that’s my only problem.”
“It’s not,” she said. “We need to make sure the government doesn’t know that you know the truth. Their job is to make sure we don’t expose ourselves. Can you imagine if the human population knew we existed?” Images of rioting and looting flickered in my head, which was how we reacted to everything we didn’t understand.
“And they will do anything to make sure we stay secret.” Dee’s eyes locked onto mine. “You can never tell anyone, Katy.”
“I wouldn’t. I would never do that.” The words rushed from me. “I would never betray any of you like that.” And I meant it. Dee was like a sister to me. And Daemon was…well, he was whatever, but I would never betray them. Not after they trusted me with something so amazing. “I won’t tell anyone.” Dee knelt beside me and she placed her hand on mine. “I trust you, but we can’t let the DOD find out about you, because if they ever did, then you’d disappear.”
Chapter 18
“Katy, you’ve been so quiet today. What’s on your mind?”
I winced, wishing my mother wasn’t so good at reading me. “I’m just tired.” I forced a smile for her benefit.
“Are you sure that all?”
Guilt ate at me. I rarely spent time with my mother, and I wished I hadn’t been distracted. “I’m sorry, Mom. I guess I am a little out of it today.”
She started washing our dinner dishes. “How are things with Daemon and Dee?”
We’d made it all day without talking about them. “They’re doing great. I think I may go watch a movie with them later.”
She smiled. “Are you going with both of them?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Mom, please.”
“Honey, I’m your mother. I do have a right to ask.”
“I’m not sure, really. I don’t even know if we are going. It was just an idea.” I grabbed an apple out of the fruit bowl and took a bite. “What are you doing with your evening, Mom?”
She tried to look nonchalant. “I’m going out and having coffee with Mr. Michaels tonight.”
“Mr. Michaels? And who is he?” I asked between bites. “Wait. Is he that fine-looking doctor at the hospital?”
“Yes, the one and only.”
“Is this a date?” I leaned against the counter, grinning around the apple. “Go Mom.”
My mother blushed — actually blushed. “It’s just coffee. Not a date.”
That explained why she kept picking out dresses today, going as far as making me choose at least two of the pretty things from her closet. “Well, I hope you have fun on your not a date, but sounds like a date.” Smiling, she chattered on about her evening plans and then about a patient she had yesterday. Before she left to get ready, she brought me a couple of dresses she’d found in the back of her closet. “Well, if you go out tonight, why don’t you wear one of these? You’ll look pretty in them. They always looked too young for me to wear.” My nose scrunched. “Mom, I’m not the one who has a date tonight.”
She scoffed. “I don’t either.”
“Whatever!” I yelled as she raced up the stairs.
It didn’t take her long to get ready and leave. Since it wasn’t technically a date, she was meeting him at a little diner in town. I hoped she had a good time; she deserved to have fun. Since Dad had passed away, I don’t think she had even looked twice at a guy. Which meant Mr. Michaels must be special.
Other than Dee mentioning that we should get together, there hadn’t been any plans for the night. I knew Daemon was keeping an eye on me from next door all day, but I’d refused to let him hover at my house. They’d told me the Arum were stronger at night and preferred to attack then. I felt pretty safe during the day. I’d wanted to spend a normal day of reading and blogging and hanging out with my mom.
But it was strange going about normal stuff after such a huge secret. I felt like they should be out stopping accidents, curing world hunger, and saving kittens caught in trees.
Tossing the apple core in the garbage, I fiddled with the ring on my finger as I looked over the dresses on the
