And if we don’t feed, we are weak. Many of us were pulled into the DOD that way.
Used our need against us, to control us. Not to mention they know our weakness.” I paused, watching interest flicker over her face. No way in hell I was going to tell her that the quickest way to take out an Arum was by simply picking up a piece of obsidian and cutting us with it. Bad enough you could find it anywhere and the DOD had already adapted their weapons, encasing bullets in obsidian. Killing an Arum, like a Luxen, wasn’t as hard as one thought if you knew how to take us out. “Not all of the Luxen came to Earth when our planets were destroyed. Tens of thousands are here, but there are
“And?” she asked, her arms loosening and falling to her sides.
“And humans will be glad that there are Arum on this planet when that day comes.”
Her fingers tapped on her thighs in a nervous gesture. “Holy shit…”
“Exactly,” I replied. An odd emotion wiggled inside me. I felt a heaviness in my chest, like a lead ball. I felt…bad for her. This was some heavy shit. “Back to my cooking lesson?”
Several moments passed, and then Serena appeared at my side. She was still several shades paler than normal. “So what are we doing now? The chicken looks almost done.”
“It is.” I grabbed a pot. “Can you boil water?”
“Ha ha.” Serena snatched the pot and padded back to the sink in her bare feet. She was like that a lot, I realized, barefoot.
Together we broke apart the noodles and then made a salad. By the time dinner was ready, the sun was setting, casting the sky in a wash of orange and red.
Serena glanced at the table. “Can we eat outside? I mean, it’s nice and—”
“We can.” Grabbing a wine bottle and two glasses, I motioned at her. “Lead the way.”
Smiling, she picked up our plates and went out on the deck through the sunroom.
The earlier humidity was gone from the slight breeze. “I hate eating at tables,” she said, watching me put the glasses down.
I stared at her a moment. “Me, too. Too formal—”
“And stiff,” she added, handing my plate over.
We dug into the chicken and pasta in companionable silence. Then slowly Serena wiggled one answer out of me after another. It was a rather remarkable talent, I thought, bemused by it.
“What happened when you got here?” she asked, twirling the pasta around her fork.
“I hid out with others of my kind. Fought and fucked with the Luxen whenever I could. Killed them.”
Her fork stilled.
“It’s what I am, Serena. It’s all I’ve ever known.” I shrugged. “We thought we were out of the government’s scope. We knew the Luxen weren’t. I was eventually rounded up in a raid.”
She picked up her wine. “So you worked with them to police the Luxen here?”
I laughed. “Fuck no. I escaped.”
“I don’t get it. You’re here…”
Looking away, my gaze settled on the trees. “That’s not the reason why I’m here.”
Serena was quiet for so long that I knew she was thinking of a way to ask why. I glanced over at her and she held my gaze for a moment before returning to her plate.
“How long did you know your friend Mel?”
The question caught her off guard, but after a few moments, she told me their history, an unlikely friendship that had stayed strong over the years. “So she would’ve told you everything, right?”
She nodded. “Mel did.”
“And the one time on the balcony was the only time she ever saw the senator’s kid do something strange?”
Taking a small bite, she chewed slowly. “It was . I always thought he was weird.
Who knew it was because he was an alien.”
My lips tipped up at the corners. “You’re handling all of this well.”
She paused, fork halfway to her pretty mouth. “There are minutes when I think I’ve got a handle on all of this, and then minutes where I think I’m actually insane and in a padded room, so I really don’t think I’m doing that great.”
Serena was handling it better than 98% of the population would. “What did Mel say they were arguing over—the brothers?”
“Something about Project Eagle and kids.”
“What was this project?”
With a little shake of her head, she patted her fork on a piece of chicken. “She didn’t say and I didn’t ask because I thought she lost her mind and…” She took a deep a breath. “I feel terrible about that. If I believed her, maybe I would’ve done something different and Mel—”
“She wouldn’t be alive, Serena. No matter what you did. By not believing her, you probably saved your life.”
Her eyes flicked up and met mine for a second. There was an endless amount of guilt in her eyes. That and sorrow for her friend. “Things are so freaking fuzzy. I feel like I wasn’t paying attention. That I’m forgetting things.”
“You might be.” And I needed her to remember, because then I could lure the officers back here and get her on her way. That’s what I wanted.
At least that’s what I
So I went with the one thing I knew that would make her focus. “If you can remember something, remember more, then it’s going to help your friend.”
Serena’s gaze sharpened. “How?”
I was such a bastard. “If the Luxen were up to something and she was silenced because of what she overheard, and not so much what she saw, the senator and his sons might not be held accountable for her death, but they will be dealt with. And that’s better than nothing.”
“It is,” she said quietly. Her attention turned to the woods, head shaking a little.
Time passed, and I didn’t pester her. “I know there was—Pennsylvania!”
“Pennsylvania?”
Twisting toward me, she nodded eagerly. “Yes. She mentioned something about the kids being kept in Pennsylvania.”
I frowned. “Kids being kept in Pennsylvania? Luxen kids or…?”
“She didn’t elaborate, but she said Phillip and Elijah were arguing about that.”
Interesting. Or not. There had to be more, especially if the Luxen bypassed the DOD and took out Mel. What could the galactic glowworms be up to? Were they stashing Luxen kids away from the watchful eye of the DOD? Could be possible. There were hidden Arum and Luxen communities. Few, but they existed.
Serena blew out a frustrated breath. “I’m trying. I really—”
“I know.” I felt as frustrated as she looked.
She bit down on her lip and turned her gaze to her plate. “This was nice,” she said eventually. “The dinner.”
“It was.” Surprise shuttled through me and I heard myself saying, “I don’t do this.”
“At all?” Curiosity marked her brown eyes, darkening them.
It reminded me of when she’d been aroused. Her eyes had turned the color of rich, untainted soil. Then again, for me everything pretty much circled back around to being aroused.
“No,” I said, dropping one leg off the chair. “I can’t remember the last time I ate with someone.”
“Surely it can’t be
“It has been very long ago.” I watched her set her plate aside and pick up the wineglass. “Full?”
“Stuffed,” she said, eyeing me above the rim of her glass. “Seriously, you do… socialize, right? Your kind does do that?”
I shrugged, my gaze settling on the darkening sky. Within moments, the sun set and twilight vanished into night. “We really don’t have a need to socialize.”
She lowered her glass. “But everyone—”
