Oblivion

  Kat was running up the drive. I had to… God, I didn’t even know what I was going to do. Thinking was pointless now, especially since I hadn’t actually thought about what I was doing from the moment she stepped one foot onto the road. I ran after her. Halfway up the driveway, Dee appeared, but Kat dodged her and kept running, right into the woods.

  “Stay back,” I shouted at Dee.

  “But—”

  “I mean it, Dee. Stay back!”

  For once, she read the warning in my voice and saw the severity in the situation. She backed off with a look of horror on her face. What happened tonight was what I’d been warning her about this whole time.

  Except it had been me who had exposed us.

  Branches smacked at me and snagged my shirt as I raced after Kat. Spying her up ahead, I called out, but she didn’t stop, and I wasn’t going to chase after her all night. I dropped the human speed BS and within a heartbeat, I was on her.

  I caught Kat from behind, my arms around her waist. We went down in a tangle of legs. I twisted before we hit the ground, absorbing the brunt of the fall. I rolled, pinning her down in the mossy grass under me.

  Kat went crazy.

  She slammed her hands against my chest and pushed. “Get off!”

  I grabbed her shoulders, forcing her back before she hurt herself. “Stop it!”

  “Get away from me!” she screamed, wiggling and trying to use her hips to throw me off.

  Any other time, her rough movements would’ve firmly placed my head in the wrong place. Not now. “Kat, stop it! I’m not going to hurt you!”

  Her wild gaze connected with mine, and she stilled underneath me, only her chest rising and falling erratically. Neither of us moved for what felt like an eternity. Panic filled her gaze, mingling with unshed tears.

  That cut me. “I won’t hurt you. I could never hurt you.”

  Kat wasn’t thrashing anymore. She was staring at me with those wide, beautiful eyes. Some of the panic eased off, but she was still frightened. Her body trembled as she looked away, pressing her cheek to the grass as she squeezed her eyes shut.

  What was I going to do?

  I couldn’t let her tell the world about us. There were only two options at this point. I took care of her, as in what Matthew had volunteered to do. Or I somehow convinced her to keep quiet. I hadn’t risked everything to save her from that demon truck to harm her myself now.

  Slowly, so I didn’t startle her, I placed my finger under her chin and gently turned her head to mine. “Look at me, Kat. You need to look at me right now.”

  She kept her eyes tightly closed.

  I shifted up, bracing my weight on my legs as I clasped her cheeks. Her skin was smooth and too cool. My fingers smoothed over the line of her jaw, and I saw that my hands trembled slightly. I didn’t know if I could make her understand, but I had to try. I had to stop the bullet heading straight for her head.

  “Please,” I whispered.

  Her chest rose sharply, and then her lashes swept up. Her gaze tracked over my face, and I knew she was trying to reconcile what she saw now versus what she’d seen by the side of the road. The pale moonlight broke through the trees, gliding over her cheekbones and mouth.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” I tried again. “I want to talk to you. I need to talk to you, do you understand?”

  She nodded.

  I closed my eyes, letting out a sigh. Weariness invaded me. “Okay. I’m going to let you up, but please promise me you won’t run. I don’t feel like chasing you anymore right now. That last little trick nearly wiped me out.” I opened my eyes, finding her watching me closely. “Say it, Kat. Promise me you won’t run. I can’t let you run out here by yourself. Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” she whispered hoarsely.

  “Good.” Leaning back, I slipped my hand down her cheek and then moved to the side. Crouched on my heels, I watched her scoot away until her back was pressed against a tree. I waited for a few seconds, to see if she was going to freak out. When she didn’t, I sat down in front of her. I shoved my hand through my hair, swallowing a month’s worth of curses. “Why did you have to walk out in front of the truck? I was trying everything to keep you out of this, but you had to go and ruin all of my hard work.”

  She pressed a shaking hand to her forehead. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

  “But you did.” I dropped my hand to my lap. “Why did you come here, Kat? Why? I—we were doing well and then you show up and everything is thrown to hell. You have no idea. Shit. I thought we’d get lucky and you’d leave.”

  “I’m sorry I’m still here.” She pressed even further against the tree, tucking her legs to her chest.

  I wanted to punch myself. “I’m always making this worse.” Shaking my head, I tried again. “We’re different. I think you realize that now.”

  She placed her forehead on her knees for a moment and seemed to collect herself. She lifted her head. “Daemon, what are you?”

  Smiling ruefully, I rubbed my palm along my temple. “That is hard to explain.”

  “Please tell me. You need to tell me, because I’m about to lose it again.” Her voice rose.

  I met her gaze and spoke the truth. “I don’t think you want to know, Kat.”

  Her breath caught as she stared back at me. Understanding crept into her expression. If she asked me what I knew she wanted to, everything would change. Everything had already changed, but if she asked, I would tell her the truth. I would give her enough information to prove that we could trust her.

  Or for her to hang herself with.

  There were simply no other choices.

  Kat exhaled softly. “Are you…human?”

  I barked out a short laugh. “We’re not from around here.”

  “You think?”

  “Yeah, I guess you’ve probably figured out we’re not human.”

  She drew in a shaky breath. “I was hoping I was wrong.”

  I laughed again, even though none of this was funny. “No. We’re from far, far away.”

  Her arms tightened around her legs. “What do you mean by ‘far, far away’? Because I’m suddenly seeing visions of the beginning of Star Wars.”

  Why was I not surprised by the fact that she went there? “We’re not from this planet.”

  Kat’s mouth opened and then closed. “What are you? A vampire?”

  My eye roll was so epic I was afraid my eyes would get stuck there. “Are you serious?”

  “What?” Frustration rose in her voice. “You say you’re not human, and that limits the pool of what you can be! You stopped a truck without touching it.”

  “You read too much.” I exhaled slowly. “We’re not werewolves or witches. Zombies or whatever.”

  “Well, I’m glad about the zombie thing. I like to think what’s left of my brains are safe,” she muttered, and I glanced at her sharply. “And I don’t read too much. There’s no such thing as that. But there’s no such thing as aliens, either.”

  I leaned forward quickly, curving my hands over her bent knees. Her eyes widened as they locked with mine. “In this vast, never-ending universe, do you think Earth—this place—is the only planet with life?”

  “N-no,” she stammered. “So that kind of stuff…that’s normal for your… Hell, what do you call yourselves?”

  After a beat of silence, I leaned back and tried to figure out what the best way to go about this was. I’d never had to tell anyone about us before. This was a first. And she looked like she was seconds away from laughing hysterically. Not necessarily good.

  “I can tell what you’re thinking,” I admitted. “Not that I can read your mind, but it’s written all over your face. You think I’m dangerous.”

  She wetted her lips. “This is crazy, but I’m not scared of you.”

  “You’re not?” Surprise shuttled through me.

  “No.” She laughed, and it had a concerning edge to it. “You don’t look like an alien!”

  I arched a brow.
“And what do aliens look like?”

  “Not…not like you,” she sputtered. “They aren’t gorgeous—”

  “You think I’m gorgeous?” I smiled.

  Her eyes narrowed. “Shut up. Like you don’t know that everyone on this planet thinks you’re good-looking.” She grimaced. “Aliens—if they exist—are little green men with big eyes and spindly arms or…or giant insects or something like a lumpy little creature.”

  I let out a loud laugh. “ET?”

  “Yes! Like ET, asshole. I’m so glad you find this funny. That you want to screw with my head more than you guys have already screwed with it. Maybe I hit my head or something.” She started to push to her feet.

  “Sit down, Kat.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do!” she fired back. There was my Kitten. I let out a sigh of relief. If she could yell at me, she wasn’t as afraid as I’d feared. We might just make it through this shit storm.

  I stood fluidly, keeping my arms at my sides while I allowed my eyes to change. “Sit. Down.”

  Kat stared at me—stared at what was likely my green eyes glowing surreally. She sat down. And saluted me.

  She literally just saluted me with her middle finger.

  Wow. How could I not appreciate that kind of backbone? I grinned even wider. This girl could slay me if I let her.

  “Will you show me what you really look like? You don’t sparkle, do you? And please tell me I didn’t almost kiss a giant brain-eating insect, because seriously, I’m gonna—”

  “Kat!”

  “Sorry,” she muttered.

  Closing my eyes, I struggled for patience and calm. When I was sure I could shift without accidentally burning half the forest, I shed my human skin. I knew the moment the transformation was complete because I heard her say, “Holy shit.”

  To her, I would look like a man made out of light, which wasn’t too far from what we really were. I opened my eyes. Kat had a hand up, shielding her eyes. The light I threw off was intense, turning night into day.

  When I was in my true form, I couldn’t speak in a language that Kat would understand, so I did something I’d only ever done with those of my kind. This was also forbidden. But so was everything I was doing right now, so really, might as well go the whole nine yards.

  Luxen had the ability to transfer our thoughts telepathically to one another. We could communicate that way if we were in our true forms, which wasn’t often, but humans could not respond back. We couldn’t pick up on their thoughts.

  This is what we look like.

  Kat gasped.

  We are beings of light. Even in human form, we can bend light to our will. I paused. As you can see, I don’t look like a giant insect. Or…sparkle.

  “No,” she whispered.

  Or a lumpy little creature, which I find offensive, by the way. I lifted my arm, stretching out my hand to her, palm up. You can touch me. It won’t hurt. I imagine that it’s pleasant for humans.

  She swallowed as she glanced at my hand and then up toward the general vicinity of where my eyes were. The she reached out. Her fingers brushed mine. A jolt of electricity, totally safe, transferred from my hand to hers. Whitish-red light danced up her arm. I smiled as her eyes widened.

  Gaining courage, she wrapped her fingers around mine, causing little wisps of light to whip out and circle her wrist. My light enveloped her hand.

  Figured you’d like it.

  Truth was, I liked it, too. In my true form, I was hypersensitive to, well, everything. I liked her touch. Probably a little too much.

  Pulling my hand free, I stepped back. My light slowly faded, and then I returned to the form she was more familiar with. “Kat.”

  She stared at me, slowly shaking her head.

  Perhaps I should’ve waited on the whole show-and-tell thing. “Kat?”

  “You’re an alien,” she whispered as though trying to convince herself.

  “Yep, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

  “Oh…oh, wow.” She curled her hand, holding it to her chest. “So where are you from? Mars?”

  “Not even close.” I laughed. “I’m going to tell you a story. Okay?”

  “You’re going to tell me a story?”

  I nodded as I dragged my fingers through my hair. “All of this is going to sound insane to you, but try to remember what you saw. What you know. You saw me do things that are impossible. Now, to you, nothing is impossible.” I waited for that to sink in. “Where we’re from is beyond the Abell.”

  “The Abell?”

  “It’s the farthest galaxy from yours, about thirteen billion light years from here. And we’re about another ten billion or so. There is no telescope or space shuttle powerful enough to travel to our home. There never will be.” As if our home still existed, I thought as I stared at my open palms. “Not that it matters if they did. Our home no longer exists. It was destroyed when we were children. That’s why we had to leave, find a place that is comparable to our planet in terms of food and atmosphere. Not that we need to breathe oxygen, but it doesn’t hurt. We do it out of habit now more than anything else.”

  Recognition flared across her features, and I bet she was thinking about the day at the lake. “So you don’t need to breathe?”

  “No, not really.” I shrugged. “We do out of habit, but there are times we forget. Like when we’re swimming.”

  “Go on.”

  I waited for a moment, wondering if she could handle all of this, and then decided to go for it. I refused to acknowledge the part of me that wanted her to know everything. The part that wanted to desperately know what she’d think if she knew the real me. “We were too young to know what the name of our galaxy was. Or even if our kind felt the need to name such things, but I do remember the name of our planet. It was called Lux. And we are called Luxen.”

  “Lux,” she whispered. “That’s Latin for light.”

  “We came here in a meteorite shower fifteen years ago, with others like us. But many came before us, probably for the last thousand years. Not all of our kind came to this planet. Some went farther out in the galaxy. Others must’ve gone to planets they couldn’t survive on, but when it was realized that Earth was sort of perfect for us, more came here. Are you following me?”

  Her stare was blank. “I think. You’re saying there’re more like you. The Thompsons—they’re like you?”

  I nodded. “We’ve all been together since then.”

  “How many of you are here?”

  “Right here? At least a couple hundred.”

  “A couple hundred,” she repeated. “Why here?”

  “We…stay in large groups. It’s not…well, that doesn’t matter right now.”

  “You said you came during a meteorite shower? Where’s your spaceship?” Her nose did that cute wrinkle thing.

  I arched a brow. “We don’t need things such as ships to travel. We are light—we can travel with light, like hitching a ride.”

  “But if you’re from a planet billions of light years away and you travel at the speed of light… It took you billions of years to get here?”

  Did she really just do that math in her head? “No. The same way I saved you from that truck, we’re able to bend space and time. I’m not a scientist, so I don’t know how it works, just that we can. Some better than others.”

  She nodded slowly, but I had a feeling that was just for show. She wasn’t freaking out, so that was good news at least.

  I continued as I sat back down. “We can age like a human, which allows us to blend in normally. When we got here, we picked our…skin.” She winced, and I shrugged. What could I do? It was the truth. “I don’t know how else to explain that without creeping you out, but not all of us can change our appearances. What we picked when we got here is what we’re stuck with.”

  “Well, you picked good then.”