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  her small foot and slammed it down with enough force to rattle the coffee table. Dee took stomping her feet to a whole new level. “Why did you act like that?”

  Leaning back, I decided to play dumb. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Her eyes narrowed but not quickly enough that I missed how her pupils gleamed diamond white. “There was no reason for you to talk to her like that. None whatsoever. She came over here to ask for directions and you were a jerk.”

  Katy’s too-bright gray eyes flashed in my mind. I shoved that image away. “I’m always a jerk.”

  “Okay. That part is sort of true.” Her brow wrinkled. “But you’re not usually that bad.”

  My stomach churned again. “How much of it did you hear?”

  “Everything,” she said, stomping her foot again. The TV trembled. “I don’t have a doll that is vacant-eyed. I don’t have any dolls, you ass.”

  My lips twitched despite everything, but the humor quickly faded because the memory of those damn gray eyes surfaced again. “It’s the way it has to be, Dee. You know that.”

  “No, I don’t. I don’t know that and neither do you.”

  “Dee—”

  “But you know what I do know?” she interrupted. “She seemed like a normal girl who came over here to just ask a question. She seemed normal, Daemon, and you were horrible to her.”

  I could really do without all the reminders of how shitty I’d been.

  “There is no reason for you to act like that.”

  No reason? Was she insane? Moving as fast as lightning, I came off the couch and was right in front of Dee, bypassing the coffee table in less than a second. “Do I need to remind you what happened to Dawson?”

  My sister did not back down. Her chin tipped up stubbornly, and her eyes flashed white. “No. I remember everything about that quite clearly, thank you.”

  “Then if that’s the case, we wouldn’t be having this stupid conversation. You’d understand why that human needs to stay away from us.”

  “She’s just a girl,” Dee seethed, throwing up her arms. “That’s all, Daemon. She’s just—”

  “A girl who lives next door. She’s not some chick from school. She lives right there.” I pointed out the window for extra effort. “And that is too damn close to us and too damn close to the colony. You know what will happen if you try to become friends with her.”

  She took a step back, shaking her head. “You don’t even know her, and you can’t tell the future. And why do you even think we’d become friends?”

  Both my brows flew up. “Really? You’re not going to try to be her best friend foreva the moment you walk out of this house?”

  Her lips pressed together.

  “You haven’t even talked to her yet, but I know you’re probably already wondering if Amazon sells friendship bracelets.”

  “Amazon sells everything,” she muttered. “So I’m sure they sell that.”

  I rolled my eyes, done with this conversation—already done with the most annoying new neighbor, too. “You need to stay away from her,” I said, turning and walking back to the couch.

  My sister was still standing when I sat down. “I’m not Dawson. When will you realize that?”

  “I already know that.” And because I really was an ass, I drove the point home. “You’re more of a risk than he was.”

  Sucking in a shallow breath, she stiffened as she lowered her arms. “That…that was a low blow.”

  It was. I ran my hand down my face as I lowered my chin. It really was.

  Dee sighed as she shook her head. “You’re such a dick sometimes.”

  I didn’t lift my head. “Don’t really think that’s breaking news.”

  Turning away, she stalked into the kitchen and returned a few seconds later with her purse and car keys. She didn’t speak as she walked past me.

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  “Grocery shopping.”

  “Oh Jesus,” I muttered, wondering how many human laws I’d break if I locked my sister in a closet.

  “We need food. You ate it all.” Then she was out the door.

  Tipping my head back against the couch, I groaned. Good to know everything I’d said had gone in one ear and danced right out the other. I didn’t even know why I bothered. There would be no stopping Dee. I closed my eyes.

  Immediately, I relived the conversation with my new neighbor, and yeah, I really had been an ass to her.

  But it was for the best. It was. She could hate me—she should hate me. Then hopefully she’d stay away from us. And that was that. It couldn’t be any other way, because that girl was trouble. Trouble wrapped up in a tiny package, complete with a freaking bow.

  And worse yet, she was just the kind of trouble I liked.

  Chapter 3

  It literally took Dee only a handful of hours to take everything I’d said to her, throw it out the window, and run over it with her Volkswagen. She’d come back from the grocery store with bags of crap and a big smile on her face, and I’d known she’d found our neighbor.

  When I’d asked her about it, she buzzed past me like a damn hummingbird, refusing to answer any questions about what the hell she was doing, but a little after one, she disappeared out the front door. Being the good older brother—older by a handful of minutes—I’d gone over to the window to make sure everything was okay. But Dee hadn’t headed toward her car. Oh no, she had gone straight for the house next door. Not like I was entirely surprised. She had either been on the girl’s porch or already in her damn house. It was hard enough keeping an eye on her during the school year, but now this?

  Dee avoided me when she finally made her way back over to the house, which was fine by me. I didn’t trust myself not to start yelling at her, and even though I was admittedly a grade-A certified asshole, I didn’t like losing my cool on my sister.

  I’d left home in my SUV that evening, managing to not look at that damn house for one second. Halfway into town, I called up Andrew, Adam’s twin and the Thompson brother who matched me in temperament and personality. In other words, we were fucking balls of sunshine.

  He was going to meet me at Smoke Hole Diner, a restaurant not too far from Seneca Rocks—the nearby range of mountains that contained beta quartz, a crystal that had this amazing ability to block our presence to what most Luxen considered our only true enemy, the Arum. But even if the beta quartz blocked Luxen, once an Arum saw a human with a trace, they knew Luxen were nearby.

  I took my seat in the back, near the massive fireplace that was always cranking during the winter. The diner was pretty cool, with rock formations jutting up among the tables. I kind of dug the whole earthy vibe it gave off.

  Andrew was tall and blond and turned heads as he strolled in, walking down the middle of the booths.

  I’d had the same effect on the patrons earlier.

  Might’ve come across like I was rocking a healthy dose of arrogance—well, I was—but it was simply the truth. Blending of human and Luxen DNA and the choice we had in the matter typically meant we were very blessed in the appearance department. I mean, if you could choose to look like anyone, wouldn’t you choose the hottest looks you could? My green eyes were a family trait and my hair tended to curl a bit on the ends whether I wanted it to or not, but my six-foot-something awesome frame and movie-star good looks—well those just fit my stellar personality.

  Andrew slid into the seat across from me, his eyes a vibrant blue, just like Adam’s and Ash’s. He lifted his chin at me in greeting. “Fair warning. Ash knows I was leaving to meet you. Don’t be surprised if she shows.”

  Lovely.

  I kept my expression bland out of respect for her and her brother sitting across from me, but a meet-up with Ash was not something I needed right now. “Last I heard, she wasn’t very happy with me, so I’d be kind of surprised if she showed up.”

  He snickered. “You’d be surprised? Really? You’ve known Ash your entire life. The girl thrives on confro
ntation.”

  That much was true.

  “So do you,” Andrew added, smiling slightly when I lifted a brow. “I don’t know what’s going on between you two.”

  “And that’s not something I’m really going to talk about with you, Oprah.” Besides the fact that they were siblings, so come the hell on, it was also hard to put into words. I liked Ash. Hell, I genuinely cared about her, but I was bored with that whole thing, the expectation of our people that we’d of course end up together. I didn’t do predictable.

  Andrew ignored that. “But you know what’s expected of us.” His voice lowered as his gaze met mine. One of the waitresses here was a Luxen, but 99 percent of those around us were human. “There aren’t many of our kind around our age, and you know what Ethan wants—”

  “The last damn thing I care about is what Ethan wants.” My voice was deadly calm, but Andrew stiffened across from me. Nothing pissed me off faster than dealing with the Elder known as Ethan. “Or what any of them expect from me.”

  His lips curled up on one side. “Something’s done crawled up your ass today.”

  Yeah, and that something had a name that reminded me of a little furry, helpless animal.

  “So what’s your deal?” he persisted. “Right now you just got this look on your face that said you’re either really hungry or you want to kill something.”

  Shaking my head, I draped my arm along the back of the booth. The Thompsons obviously didn’t know about that girl moving in next door, and for some reason I figured it was better if it stayed that way for as long as possible. Not because I cared or anything, but because once they did realize there was a human living next door, I was going to have to deal with them bitching about it.

  And I was pissed off enough for all of us already.

  We ate and then I headed back home. Andrew’s sarcasm had a way of lightening my mood, but I was back to doom and gloom as I pulled up in my driveway again.

  It was the Thompsons’ night to take patrols, but I was too restless to just sit inside. Our families were the strongest of all the Luxen, hence why the colony was already planning Ash and my nuptials, so it was upon us to run most of the patrols and train the new recruits.

  I spent half the night out there, finding nothing to work off the building frustration. Building? Hell. That was laughable. More like constant state of anger that had been present ever since Dawson… Since he’d died. Very few things eased it. Certain things with Ash had, but the peace was always fleeting and it was never worth all the strings attached to it.

  I crashed somewhere around three in the morning and woke up way too damn late, near eleven, the pent-up energy still humming in my veins. Dragging myself out of bed, I brushed my teeth, then pulled on a pair of sweats and sneakers.

  Dee was already gone when I left the house and stepped out into the muggy summer weather. Her car was in the driveway, but that girl’s was gone. Hell. They were together. Of course. My anger hit near stroke levels.

  If I could actually have a stroke.

  I kicked off the porch steps and started jogging down the driveway. Once I reached the end, I crossed the street and then made my way around the trees. I kept myself running at a human pace so I could burn off as much energy as possible and forced my mind to empty. When I ran, I tried not to think about anything. No Arum. No DOD. No expectations. No Dee. No Dawson.

  No girl next door.

  Sweat ran down my bare chest and dampened my hair. I had no idea how much time had passed when I finally started to feel a burn in my muscles and I headed back home. By the time I came up the driveway, I could probably eat an entire cow.

  And the driveway wasn’t empty. Her car was back.

  I slowed down to a walk as I spied a pile of bags sitting behind the trunk of the car. Frowning, I reached up and shoved my hair off my forehead. “What in the hell?”

  They were bags of mulch and soil—heavy-ass bags of mulch and soil.

  Stopping, I glanced up at the house with a narrowed gaze. Ah, yes, plants for the flower bed that sort of looked like something straight out of a horror movie. Was Dee seriously with her? A chuckle rumbled out. Dee was going to help with the flower bed? Now that was freaking hilarious. She couldn’t tell the difference between crab grass and the real deal, nor was she a fan of dirt under her nails.

  I rounded the back of the sedan and then stopped. Lifting my gaze to the skies, I shook my head and laughed out loud at myself in genuine humor. God, I was pathetic. Thought myself all badass but couldn’t seem to walk past a heavy box or bag and not help a girl out. I wheeled back around and gathered up the bags, grunting at their weight. Moving incredibly fast, I deposited them in a neat stack by the pathetically overgrown flower bed and then headed inside to shower.

  It was then, as I stood under the steady spray of water, I realized I couldn’t remember the last time I’d laughed in real amusement.

  Just as I walked out of the shower, my cell went off, ringing from where it sat on the nightstand. I walked over to it, brows rising when I saw it was Matthew.

  Matthew wasn’t very much older than all of us, but he’d become sort of a surrogate father, since our parents hadn’t made the trip here. Like us, he lived outside the colony, and he taught at PHS. I knew without a doubt he would do anything for the Thompsons and us. He wasn’t a phone guy, though.

  “What up?” I answered, snagging a pair of jeans that I thought might be clean from a pile on the floor.

  There was a pause. “Vaughn was just here. Without Lane.”

  “Okay.” I whipped off the towel and tossed it into the bathroom. “You want to add more to that?”

  “I was getting ready to,” Matthew said as I dragged on the jeans. “Vaughn said they were tracking unauthorized Luxen movement near here. You know what that means.”

  “Shit,” I muttered, snapping the button closed on the jeans. “We have incoming Arum.”

  After all this time, the DOD couldn’t tell the Luxen and Arum apart, and our two kinds really looked nothing alike. Dumbasses. It was probably because they’ve never actually captured one of the bastards, since we always managed to take care of them before the DOD had a chance to start rounding them up, like they did with us. It was imperative that the government didn’t realize there was a difference, because even though the DOD had crawled up our asses, they didn’t know what we were fully capable of. It needed to stay that way, but it wouldn’t if they realized Arum were an altogether different species.

  “Do they know how many?” I asked.

  “Sounds like a whole set, but when there is one group of them, you know there’s always more.”

  Well wasn’t that wonderful fucking news. My stomach rumbled, reminding me how absolutely starving I was. Outside my bedroom, I took the stairs two at a time and started for the kitchen. Changing my mind at the last minute, I walked outside onto the porch.

  And I saw them.

  Both girls were hard at work in front of the flower bed, and I had to admit, from where I stood, the thing already looked better. A lot of the weeds and dead plants had been removed, filling the black trash bag by the steps.

  Dee looked absolutely ridiculous, delicately tugging the leaves on a new planting as if to turn the plant already stuck in the dirt, and I had no idea what she was attempting to do. Probably trying not to get dirt under her nails. My gaze drifted toward the other girl. She was on her knees, one hand planted in the fresh soil, her back slightly arched with her ass right up in the air. My lips parted, and yeah, my mind immediately went there, picturing her roughly in the same position with less clothing.

  Which pissed me off, because that was the last place it needed to go. I didn’t even find her that attractive for shit’s sake. No way. Not at all.

  She settled back on her haunches as Dee said something to her, and then she slowly turned her head in my direction.

  “Hey,” Matthew’s voice snapped in my ear.

  I dragged away my gaze, frowning as I rubbed my hand over my chest. Sh
it. No shirt. “What?”

  “Are you even paying attention to what I’m saying?” Matthew demanded.

  “Yeah.” I paused, distracted. I watched the girl turn back to the flower bed, where she started digging furiously with a shovel. “Dee has a new friend. She’s human.”

  There was a sigh on the other end of the phone. “We’re kind of surrounded by humans, Daemon.”

  No shit. “Yeah, but this one moved in next door.”

  “What?”

  “I have no idea why they allowed it.” I paused as I glanced