A snicker escaped. “Nice.”

Her hands balled into fists. “How can you think this is funny? Look at what happened today! I didn’t mean to stop the branch! I mean, I didn’t want it to hit him, but I didn’t consciously stop the damn thing. The whole healing-me thing—it changed me, Daemon. If you haven’t guessed it yet, I couldn’t move things before. And I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I get a splitting headache and feel exhausted afterward. What if I’m dying or something?”

Dying?

I moved toward her, sitting down on the arm of the chair. Kat shrank back, plastering herself against the chair. “Why do you have to move so fast?” she demanded. “It’s…wrong.”

“Sorry, Kitten. For us, moving fast is natural. It’s actually more effort to slow down and appear ‘normal,’ as you put it.” I paused and then spoke the truth. “I guess I just forget I have to pretend around you.”

She winced and looked away. Her mouth moved, but there were no words spoken out loud. I sighed as I resisted the urge to touch her. “You’re not dying.”

“How do you know?” Kat lifted her gaze to mine.

“Because I’d never let that happen,” I promised.

Her breath caught. “What if I’m turning into an alien?”

Turning into an alien? I wanted to laugh, but managed to stop myself. “I don’t know if that’s possible.”

“Moving stuff with my mind shouldn’t be possible.”

Good point. “Why didn’t you tell me when this first happened?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted quietly. “I should’ve. I don’t want to put you guys at risk. I swear I’m not doing it on purpose.”

Her silence on what was happening was a product of her trying to protect us—Dee. Me. And she feared that I’d think she was doing this on purpose? Damn. That got me in the feels. Straight sucker punch. My vision changed, washing the room in a whitish light. “I know you aren’t doing anything on purpose. I wouldn’t have thought that.”

Her chest rose sharply as I held her gaze. A moment passed and I said, “I don’t know if it was a product of my healing you those times or when you connected with us during Baruck’s attack. Either way, it’s obvious that you’re using some of my abilities. I’ve never heard of this happening before.”

“Never?” she whispered.

“We don’t heal humans.” I pursed my lips, thinking back to the time when Dawson had come home, blood on his torn clothing. It hadn’t been his. Bethany. Had something happened to Bethany and he’d healed her? This wasn’t the first time I’d wondered about this, but what if he had? Did it matter in the end? I shook my head. “I’ve always thought it had something to do with exposing our abilities, but now I’m wondering if it’s more than that. If the real reason is because we…change humans.”

She swallowed. “So I am turning into an alien?”

My lips twitched. “Kitten…”

“How do we stop this?”

I had no idea, and it wasn’t like I could ask someone, but an idea occurred to me. Our hearts were beating at the same rate. That was established. She was somehow using some of my abilities. Just how connected were we? I stood. “I want to try something, okay?”

Her brows rose. “Okay.”

Closing my eyes, I let myself shed my human form. A few seconds later, I was in full Luxen mode, casting the room in a white-red light. I reached out to her mentally. Say something to me.

She glanced around the room. “Uh, hi?”

I chuckled. Not aloud. Say something to me, but not out loud. Like what happened in the clearing. You spoke to me then.

Her eyes widened at that. It was something neither of us talked about it. Then again, we rarely had moments of talking. We were either arguing…or kissing. A few moments passed, and then I heard her voice in my thoughts, soft and sweet.

Your light is really pretty, but it’s blinding me.

I gasped. There was no stopping that. We can still hear each other. I shifted back into my human form, uneasy. “So my light was blinding you, huh?”

“Yeah, it was.” She fiddled with the chain around her neck. “Am I glowing now?”

It usually happened when we went into our true form, leaving a very faint trace behind, almost unnoticeable, but there was nothing around her. Oh man. “No.”

“Why could I still hear you?” she asked. “You act like I shouldn’t.”

“You shouldn’t, but we’re still connected.”

“Well, how do we get unconnected?”

“That’s a good question.” Lifting my arms, I stretched as I glanced around the room. My brows rose. “You have books everywhere, Kitten.”

“That’s really not important right now.”

I stretched out a hand, wanting to distract her for a few moments. I could feel how fast her heart was racing. A book flew off the arm of the couch and into my hand. Turning it over, I quickly read the back. “His touch kills? Really, what is this stuff you’re reading?”

She shot from the chair, snatching the book away and holding it close to her chest. “Shut up. I love this book.”

“Uh-huh,” I murmured.

“Okay, back to the important stuff. And stop touching my books.” She placed it back where I’d found it. “What are we going to do?”

I watched her. “I’ll figure out what is happening with you. Just give me some time.”

She nodded, worrying her lower lip. “You do realize this whole thing is why you…”

I arched a brow, waiting for her to say what I already knew she was going to say.

“It’s why you suddenly like me,” she finished.

“I’m pretty sure I liked you before this, Kitten.”

“Well, you had one hell of a way of showing it.”

“True,” I admitted. “And I’ve already said I’m sorry for the way I treated you.” I squared my shoulders. “I always liked you. From the moment you first flipped me off.”

“But you didn’t start to want to spend time with me until after the first attack, when you healed me. Maybe we were already starting to, like…morph together or whatever.”

I frowned. “What is it with you? It’s like you need to convince yourself I can’t possibly like you. Does doing that make it easier to tell yourself you don’t have feelings for me?”

“You treated me like a redheaded stepchild for months. I’m sorry if I have a hard time believing that whatever you feel is real.” She sat on the couch. “And it has nothing to do with what I feel.”

My shoulders tensed as I thought back to that guy. “Do you like that guy you were with?”

“Blake? I don’t know. He’s nice.”

“He was sitting with you today at lunch.”

She arched a brow. “Because there was an open seat and it’s a free world where people can pick where they want to sit.”

“There were other seats open. He could’ve sat anywhere else in the cafeteria.”

Kat didn’t respond immediately. “He’s in my bio class. Maybe he just felt comfortable with me, because we’re both sort of new.”

Oh, I did not like the sound of this. She was willing to accept that some strange dude was simply comfortable around her while she thought there were a million nefarious reasons as to why I was interested in her. What the hell? “He kept staring at you. And obviously he wanted to spend time with you outside of school.”

“Maybe he likes me,” she said, shrugging. “Lesa invited him to the party on Friday.”

A muscle spasmed along my jaw. “I don’t think you should be hanging around him until we know what’s up with you moving stuff.” Part of that was actually a valid statement, but I could admit to myself I was totally using that as a perfect excuse to cut the douche bag out of the picture. “You doing that thing with the branch was only one instance. We can’t have a repeat of that.”

“What? I’m not supposed to date or hang out with anyone now?”

I smiled. “Anyone human, yes.”

“Whatever.” Kat stood, and a chunk of hair fell across her cheek. “This is a stupid conversation. I’m not dating anyone anyway, but if I were, I wouldn’t stop just because you said so.”