CASSIE
Stressful described the rest of my evening at the diner. Trying to carry a tray of broken dishes to the back, I tripped over my own feet. Hoping to keep from falling, I threw my hand out to catch myself and put my palm down smack in the middle of the coffeemaker burner.
Howling in pain, I dropped the tray, and rushed to the sink, holding the reddened skin beneath the running water, hoping to cool it off.
“Keep it there,” Sydney ordered. “That needs to be checked.”
“No. We have to do something else. I don’t want to spend several hours sitting in the ER, and if the redness turns into blisters, Mom will insist.”
“Where is she?”
I patted my arm dry and peeked through the view window to check on the scene. Mom had been outside righting the planters the earthquake had knocked onto their sides. “She’s not inside yet.”
I let the door close and sank to the floor. “I need some aloe, and it’ll be fine.”
Biting her lip and giving me a pained look, Sydney checked my hand. “I don’t know. There are blisters already.”
“Syd.”
“Fine. I’ll go across the street to the drug store and find aloe. Avoid your mom for a few minutes.” Almost as soon as the back door shut after her, it opened again. I thought Sydney had forgotten something until Jason walked in, flicking his dark gaze over my disheveled self. Acutely aware of my dirty clothes and the smudges I’d seen on my face when I’d glanced in the mirror last, I leaped to my feet. “What do you want now?”
“I came back to apologize for being an ass to you when I was here earlier.”
His tone didn’t match the reluctance and dislike on his face. “Ooh, I bet that hurt to say.”
His lips thinned impatiently. “You know, you could just accept my apology.”
“Aliens always bring out the worst in me,” I said.
He shot a glance to the door dividing the back from the front of the shop. “Will you stop using that word?”
“Whatever.” When he glared at me, I raised my hands in surrender. “Fine, okay.” I lowered my arms and studied him. “Does your family know about me?”
“They do.”
I thought that over for a minute, wondering if me knowing made them afraid I’d tell their secret. I dismissed that idea as stupid. They were at the top of the food chain; they probably didn’t even realize fear was an emotion. “They know I’m aware they’re aliens and they’re okay with it? Why?”
“My father thinks it would be best if I…became friends with you.”
He’d managed to utter that lie with a straight face. He might think he’d fooled me, but I’d seen the way he’d clenched his jaw a second before speaking.
I rubbed my forehead, then winced when it made my injured hand hurt worse. “Okay, let me see if I have this right. Your dad, also an alien, wants you, the alien son, to be friends with the alien hunter’s daughter? Because that really makes sense.”
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “A keeping your enemies closer sort of thing I guess.”
Be friends with Jason Taylor. Alien Jason Taylor. “Friends? That’s what you want?” I expected him to try and choke out another lie.
“No, that’s not what I want.”
I didn’t think so. “Me either. I could never be your friend.” Which was a total lie. I could be his friend and I could be a lot more. And that made me feel like I was losing my sanity. I didn’t know how I could be so drawn to an alien. Okay, he was hot and that helped, but I could not stand guys who thought they were a gift to girls everywhere. Yet, Jason pulled me to him like there was an invisible bond.
“Right back at you.” He was silent for a second, then said gruffly, “I didn’t mean to scare you before.”
“Liar.” That husky voice was mine?
His gaze dropped to my lips. “Why do you distrust aliens so much?”
“Why do you distrust me?” I countered, breathless with wonder over what he might be thinking
“You’re human. Your kind is a threat to me and my family.”
His words cut through the Jason brain fog. I was the threat? How ironic. I stiffened and my scars pulled tight. “Humans aren’t the problem. Your kind are the ones that are monsters.”
His eyes narrowed. “You can watch the news and see what humans do to each other and say that about my kind?”
I flushed. “The media usually shows the worst of humanity, not the best.” I pointed to the door, not wanting to continue arguing. “You’ve given your token apology. You can leave now, content in your superiority.”
“You think you hate me, but you don’t really. Like I said before, you like me.” A slow smile crept across his face.
I couldn’t comprehend how he’d arrived at that conclusion. “You think I like you because…”
“Because the rebel in you is tired of the kind of boys you’ve gone out with in the past. Good little boys who always obey the rules and won’t stand up to your father.” His smile was cocky and mocking, and did funny things to my insides. When he absently wiped his lower lip with the pad of his thumb, I thought I would break out in a sweat. “I’m the opposite of everything good, and you want a taste of that. Because when you’re around me, I make you feel alive.” He came closer and put a hand on my waist. “Right now, you’re hoping I’ll kiss you.”
Heat curled along my spine. I forced a laugh and lied. “Trust me, there’s no interest in your kisses or anything else on my part. If not for protecting Micah, you’d already be at the agency getting dissected.”
“You can tell yourself you’re doing this to protect Micah if you want. But you’re lying to yourself. Don’t play games, Cassie. You want me for a whole lot more than to keep Micah safe, but because I’m an alien, you’re afraid to go there.” His fingers traced down the side of my face to my jaw and he stroked my chin.
I backed away from him with a fierce glare, trying to control my galloping thoughts. He couldn’t be more wrong. I wasn’t into the whole forbidden fruit, star-crossed lovers crap. “You are so conceited. I wouldn’t want you even if you were human.”
“I can prove it to you.” He stepped closer and trailed his hand down to stroke the side of my arm. “See how you tremble when I touch you?”
Pissed off that my body wasn’t getting the memo not to react, I said, “That’s not a tremble. It’s flinching because your bullshit is getting so thick in the room it’s choking out all the oxygen.” I pushed my injured hand through my hair, then sucked in a breath. I lowered my hand, cradling it against my chest. By now, dime size blisters had formed.
His gaze dropped to the blisters. “You’re hurt.”
His voice was rich caramel, sliding over me, holding my senses captive. Okay, so maybe I wanted a little sample of the forbidden fruit…“It was hot. The coffee. Not the coffee. The carafe wasn’t on the burner. The burner was hot.” Mental forehead slap.
“Let me see it.”
Automatically I held my hand out, frowning suspiciously. “What are you going to do?”
He took my hand in his and stroked it, smirking the entire time. “Conduct alien experiments, what else?”
Could. Not. Move. He put his palm over mine, resting his skin gently on the blisters. The sensation tickled. Jason winced, and then a few seconds later, he released me.
When I held my hand up to examine it, the redness along with the blisters were gone. “How did you—oh.” His hand now bore my injury.
“You can heal people.” I stared at his hand feeling a mixture of awe and regret.
“No, I can’t. I can absorb their injuries. It’s different.”
My emotions tumbled together like a load of clothes in a dryer. He was such a jerk. I couldn’t understand why he was helping me. “Thank you.” Thanking an alien wasn’t something I’d ever imagined doing.
“Aliens have a lot of…uses.”
The mental picture my mind painted heated my face and for one brief, sizzling second, I entertained it. Jason was kissing me with his body flush against mine and I wanted him to. I shook my head to clear it. How stupid. I didn’t want him to kiss me.
“I’m positive that I have no use for you.”
“Put your hand on my chest,” he said in a silky voice and sucked in a breath as I complied.
It felt like an electric current hummed beneath my fingertips. “That’s your life force.” I didn’t understand. “In the files my father has on the Tazavorn, it says their life force is in their abdomen.”
“The stronger ones have a larger life force.”
“And you’re strong,” I guessed.
“I could use a fourth of my power and destroy every building on this entire street.”
I took in a deep breath. My brain was trying to grasp the magnitude of his abilities. Being this close to a creature with that amount of power awed and terrified me. As if he knew I was about to step away, Jason put his hands on my waist. He glanced at my lips and for one long, thick moment, we barely breathed as we stared at each other.
The back door swung open, and Sydney stopped on the threshold, holding up a bottle of aloe vera in one hand and a bag in the other. She raised her eyebrows. I shuffled my feet moving away from Jason and cleared my throat. “Could you give us a minute?”
“Sure,” she drew the word out and I knew I was going to get the third degree after Jason left.
Sydney ducked out of the room.
“You really should go before my mom catches you in here. She doesn’t like boys in the back.” I bit the side of my thumbnail.
“Why does being around me make you nervous?”
“Other than the fact you’re an alien?” I lowered my hand and toyed with the hem of my shirt. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because you’ve taken on the form of a hot guy and—”
“I haven’t ‘taken on’ any form. I was born the same as you. The only difference is the gestation period for us is three months, not nine.”
“What are the other differences?”
“We’re more intelligent and we’re built where it counts.”
I rolled my eyes at that, not sure if he was being a smart ass or was serious. “Another difference is that you can use power to make girls feel attracted to you. You were doing that to me right before Sydney walked in, weren’t you?”
“No, I wasn’t.” His smile turned into one of his smirks. “Don’t be embarrassed. It happens all the time. Girls are all over me.”
I choked off the retort I wanted to hurl at his head. I don’t know how he managed to get through life with that big ego of his.
Sydney walked back in, hands on her hips. “Hello? Are you done talking? I’d like to finish cleaning so I can get out of here sometime tonight.”
“I’m going.” Jason walked backward toward the door, giving me a look that said he knew he was off the charts when it came to the hotness factor.
After he left, Syd said, “You need to get things moving with him, girl.”
“Syd.” I gave her the what-a-stupid-idea look my mother had perfected on me. I shook my head and slipped the cardboard where he’d written his address down into the pocket of my jeans. Ready to stop talking about Jason, I asked, “Are you still dragging me out for your traditional balloon toss?”
“Believe it. I already bought all the balloons.”
Every year, Sydney joined the Wayside Wolves football players to throw balloons at the cars of the opposing team members. Sometimes the balloons were filled with water. Other times, depending on how much the opposing team was hated, it was paint. I’d never gone on the midnight toss but Syd insisted I go this year.
“Help me finish up in here.” She picked up a cloth and held it out to me.
When I took it from her, she caught my hand and gasped.
“Your hand…wow. It looks normal, even the redness is gone.”
“Yep. I guess it wasn’t as bad as we thought.” I smiled as if everything was okay. I hated being evasive with my best friend, but I was afraid if I told her the truth about Jason, it might put her in danger. I didn’t think Jason would hurt her, but I wasn’t sure about the rest of the Tazavorn. Then if she said anything to my father, he might accuse her of having known Jason was an alien from the time he’d saved Micah. No, I couldn’t risk telling her. To keep her from asking me more questions, I said, “When are you picking me up for this once in a lifetime balloon throwing experience?”
She stuck her tongue out at my sarcasm. “Tomorrow at 11:30. Make sure you wear dark clothes and sneakers in case you have to run after you throw a balloon.” Laughing at my alarmed expression, she said, “Relax, Cassie. For once in your life don’t worry about what could go wrong. I’ve been doing this since freshman year and nothing has ever happened.”
“Fine. Who’s going?”
“Same crew that went last year.”
“Even Dane? You said he got drunk and puked in the car.”
“He only did that once.” She wrinkled her nose.
My cell phone vibrated with a text message from my father. Heading back to the cliff to examine the area. Want to talk to you about Jason Taylor right now. Call me. If my dad wanted to talk about Jason, it meant he was suspicious.
“Are you coming over to my house after we finish the clean up? We can study.”
I chewed the inside of my jaw and looked up from my phone. Study was Sydney’s code for hanging out. “I can’t. My dad is on the hunt again. I have to stop him before things get ugly.” I showed her the text.
“You would think he’d realize you don’t want to deal with alien stuff after what happened to you.”
“He became even more determined to hunt down any aliens that might exist.” I hesitated, torn between wanting to tell Syd what was going on at home and loyalty to my dad. “He’s been different since that night.”
Her brows furrowed. “I’ve noticed. The few times I’ve seen him in town he acts like he’s mad at the world.” She searched her pocket for a band and pulled her hair back, then slowly lowered her arms, her expression cautious. “He’s not mean to you at home, is he?”
“Not really. Sometimes he acts…like you said. Mad at the world.” Wanting to be alone to think some things over, I said, “Why don’t you cut out of here and I’ll finish the cleanup.”
Her eyes lit up at the thought. “If you’re sure…”
“I am. Go.”
“Call me if you need me.” She took her purse from the locker and left me alone at the shop. Forty minutes later, when everything was restored to order, I switched the sign to closed and hit the light switch near the front door. I paused for a second to check the area outside. I’d learned to be more careful of my surroundings. Being alone at night spooked me no matter how many times I told myself I was safe now. I was fine. There was no one—I gasped. A figure was walking on the sidewalk in front of the shop. A man with greasy long hair. He was moving funny. Furtively. He glanced through the shop window and in the glow from the decorative streetlights lining the sidewalk made his face as easy to see as if he were standing beside me. His pupils were normal one second, then reptilian thin the next.
A Ragespawn. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t make a sound. The creature stopped walking and stared at me. He curled his lip up on one corner, and a thin trail of drool ran down to its chin. My knees nearly buckled. On the street, a car zipped past and startled the Ragespawn, causing it to duck into the shadows.
OhmyGod…ohmyGod…I backed away. I needed to tell Jason about the creature. It could be the one hunting Micah. Or me.
I rushed out the back of the shop, my heart pounding in my ears. There were monsters in every shadow. I ran so fast that I stumbled, picked myself up, and ran to my car. Once I was inside with the doors locked, I realized my hands were shaking too badly to put the key in the ignition. I dropped it, then scrambled to grab it, frantic to get away from the shop in case the Ragespawn was still nearby.
As soon as the car started, I sped from the parking lot and headed to Jason’s house.
I parked on the street across from his house and walked up the front to press the doorbell. The door swung open and a man with features similar to Jason’s stood before me. He gave me such an angry look that my heart stuttered. Hoping I hadn’t made a huge mistake, I said, “Can I speak to Jason?” I fidgeted with the ends of my shirt after the guy walked off and I waited. When Jason appeared, he was wearing a pair of dark pants and no shirt. He smiled lazily and leaned a shoulder against the doorframe. “I said to come at eleven, but you couldn’t stay away, could you?”
“There’s trouble,” I said, not feeling like putting up with his taunts.
His gaze sharpened. “What?”
“My dad sent me a text about you... And then I saw a Ragespawn,” I blurted the words out in a rush. “It might be hunting me or Micah. You have to take care of that thing.”
“You know that for sure?” It wasn’t fear but resignation I heard in his voice.
I held up my phone and showed him the text from my dad, then said, “And I know it was a Ragespawn I saw out in front of the shop. His pupils did that weird reptilian narrowing.”
Jason grabbed a hoodie from a table by the door, then stepped out onto the porch and closed the door behind him. I headed down the steps first, and Jason followed. I expected him to hit me with rapid-fire questions, but he didn’t. He pulled the hoodie down over his head and then stuck his hands in the pockets. His calmness was unnerving.
My stomach fluttered when I looked at him. Our eyes met and I couldn’t turn my gaze away. I kept seeing him shirtless leaning against the doorframe. I hoped my thoughts didn’t show on my face. He was conceited enough.
I shook my head to clear it and get back on track. “You and your family have to find that creature and kill it before it kills me or Micah and before my dad gets wind of it. If he does, in his quest to find it, he’ll go house to house questioning everyone, and innocent humans could get killed.”
“So it’s okay for me to kill alien monsters, but not human ones?”
“But the Ragespawn are…” I searched for the right word.
“Aliens?”
“Destroyers. Please,” I asked, hating that I needed him. I didn’t want to feel like I owed him anything again. I could tell he was weighing my words by the way he studied me.
“I promised to take care of any Ragespawn hunting Micah, but I don’t think this one was hunting you or the boy.”
“How can you know that?”
“Because it would have come into the shop and killed you right then.”
I wanted to hurl when I pictured what could have happened.
“Stop worrying. After we find the artifact, I’ll hunt the Ragespawn.”
My shoulders sagged with relief. I started to thank him, and without warning, Jason jerked me off balance, thrusting me behind him.
Before I could protest, he spoke in a tone that made me shudder. “Back off, Carl.”
I peered around Jason. A short, red-haired man with eyes such a brilliant blue they made me squint twisted his lips into an ugly sneer. “After what her father’s colleague did to Eli? She and her father are a threat to us finding the spaceship. We don’t need her help to find the artifact.”
“Yes, we do,” Jason said in a surprisingly calm voice.
Carl made a noise deep in his throat that reminded me of the low growl of a dog. His brows drew down and his eyes glowed with a pale blue light. “Get out of my way, Jason. The girl is mine.” He took a step toward us.
Carl wanted Jason to move so he could kill me. A wave of dizziness washed over me. I tried to hold myself together and not run. I wouldn’t get far before Carl would overtake me.
Jason lifted his hand and held it out. “Stop.”
Carl’s face darkened. “My problem is not with you. Let me have the girl.”
Adrenaline flooded my body, and I shivered despite the heat. My leg muscles tightened as my brain urged me to flee, but I was frozen. Carl’s voice grated on my nerves and something tickled at the back of my subconscious, something dark and evil but when I tried to grasp it, I couldn’t. What had I gotten myself into? I knew from the studies on the Tazavorn that I’d read in my father’s study that Carl could easily kill me with one hit of his power. My body would disappear. Never be found.
I backed away, thinking how stupid I’d been not to tell anyone I was coming to Jason’s house. How was I going to escape? I started talking nonstop like I often did when I got nervous. “Um… I should get home. I need to go. We can, um…forget this. I won’t say anything to my dad about anything, I promise.” I started to walk away, intending to run, but Jason grabbed my arm. Not hard, but with a grip tight enough that I couldn’t slip away. I clawed at his hand with my fingernails, unable to control the panic surging through me. “No! Let go.” My mind conjured up the feeling of the alien ripping into my back like before. “He’s going to kill me.”
Jason’s grip tightened. “No. Stay behind me. I won’t let him hurt you.”
“Please don’t let him come near me.” I spoke brokenly, trying hard to fight off the shortness of breath and the nausea from the panic attack. I thought I was going to pass out.
“Are you sick?” Jason asked.
“I have…I can’t… I have panic attacks,” I whispered.
“Oh.” I didn’t see any judgment in Jason’s eyes. His expression was gentle, his eyes filled with understanding. “Everything’s okay. Just breathe.” He faced Carl again. “Cassie is off-limits.”
Carl’s face turned red. “I don’t care what kind of power you have. You’re a boy. Not fit to make decisions regarding our safety.” He lifted his hand, and in an instant, Jason raised both of his. Holding his hands out toward Carl, he braced his legs slightly apart. Sparks of blue and red energy flew toward Carl.
“No!” Carl tried to run, but seemed caught in whatever web of power Jason was using against him.
The energy wrapped around Carl like ropes and then disappeared into his body. He screamed and writhed, cursing and pleading as he dropped to his knees. I didn’t think I would ever forget the cries of anguish that Carl made. When it was over, the man hung his head. “What have you done?” His voice wavered, and broke as if he’d aged decades. Carl lifted his head and shot me a look filled with so much venom, it made me step back.
Jason took me by the elbow and steered me back toward my car. I had to take two steps for every one that he took. Inside the car, I took a second before I started it. “Thank you for protecting me from Carl. It means a lot that—”
He shrugged. “Don’t read anything into it. You know your way around the warehouse. I need you alive for that.”
I smacked my fist against the steering wheel. “I thought because you saved Micah you had at least some compassion in you. I thought it was heroic even after I—”
“You can fantasize about me later. We need to go.”
I gripped the steering wheel to keep from putting my hands around his throat. Once I started the car, I backed out fast enough to make the tires squeal. “You’ll be lucky if I don’t beat you with the artifact.”
“You’re welcome to try.” He sounded almost bored.
I exhaled slowly using another one of the calming techniques I’d learned from the therapist. I kept it up until I parked at the rear of the warehouse.
A chain-link fence circled the building with a large No Trespassing sign fixed to the front side of it. There was no color other than winter-gloom gray as if the point was for the building to be as forgettable as possible. A small security stand had glass windows on all sides with agents watching the building around the clock, but the agents rarely walked around the back because of all the vines of poison ivy trailing around trees and spreading out across the ground. I’d learned that from being here before with my father.
The warehouse sat in the middle of the land, at the far end of a dirt road like a short, square box. A loose piece of metal flashing on the gutter creaked slightly, the sound reaching us in the car even with the windows rolled up. I shivered at the sound.
Jason pushed a button on the side of his watch. “I’ll time the patrols.”
After he set his watch, he rested his hands on his thighs. I thought about how quickly he’d taken down Carl. How quickly he could kill me if he wanted to. “Your power seems to come from nowhere.”
As if he’d heard the anxiety in my voice, a thoughtful expression crossed his face. He held his hands up and spoke in a quiet, soothing tone. “It comes from an opening in the center of my palm.”
I touched one of them, daring to run my fingertips across the lines and the center of his palm. His skin was smooth, his fingers long and lean.
He watched me touch him and his eyes darkened, burning into mine. When I pushed against his hand, he closed his fingers around mine to stop me. His breathing changed, quickened. His reaction made me hyperaware of him…the scent of his shampoo, the flecks of color in his eyes, the strong line of his jaw. The way he was looking at me, he was probably thinking about me, too.
“They’re exactly like human hands.” With our hands still together and how he was watching me, I would bet he wanted to kiss me.
“That’s kind of the point,” he said sarcastically. “Keeps us from looking different from humans unless we use our power.” He pulled his hand away, his expression unreadable, and opened the passenger side door. “We should go now.”
Good thing I didn’t bet. It was now obvious I’d been wrong. He didn’t want to kiss me at all.
I followed him from the car, but stopped at the fence. “That’s poison ivy,” I pointed out in case he couldn’t see it in the dim lighting.”
“Yeah, I know. It doesn’t affect me.” He reached for the fence.
“I have a horrible reaction to it.”
He heaved a sigh, shot me an impatient glance. “Then don’t touch it.”
“The ground is practically covered with it.” I picked my way gingerly across the ground.
Jason pried the fence apart with his bare hands. He tipped his head toward the building. “Go.”
“Ugh. It brushed my ankle.”
“I’ll heal you if it affects you, but go,” he demanded.
He had to be the bossiest alien on earth. I slipped through the fence and he was right on my heels. The second we were through, Jason pulled the fence back together. I elbowed him sharply in warning a second before the sound of keys jangling came from the left side of the building. The acrid scent of cigarette smoke wafted toward us.
“I can’t open the door until he leaves. There might be too much noise,” Jason whispered.
Something moved in the trees and I pressed myself against the building. To keep my mind off the fact that I was in the dark with not much light illuminating the building, I thought about all the questions I didn’t have answers to. “Why does Carl hate me?”
“I imagine for the same reasons your father hates us.”
“My dad’s brother was killed by an alien during the Great Extinction. That’s why he hunts your people. He sees it as a way of avenging his brother.” I didn’t add that me getting attacked also fueled that drive.
Jaw tense, Jason scoffed at that and narrowed his eyes. “If anyone has the right to avenge a death, it’s Carl.”
“Humans are innocent compared to aliens,” I said.
“Last year, your father killed Carl’s wife. He stumbled across her when her car was broken down. Apparently, she recognized your dad and panicked.”
“She tried to run?” I asked, my heart beating as hard as a drum at the mental picture I drew.
“Not at first. She used her power to try and distract him. When that didn’t work, she ran.” His hands clenched. “Your father shot her in the back when she tried to flee.”
Now I understood Carl’s hatred. I swallowed against the lump in my throat. “How did Carl find out what happened?”
“She’d called Carl to let him know she’d broken down.” Jason looked past me for a second as if he was struggling with having to relive that day. “He was coming down the hill where her car was and saw your father shoot her.” He toed the ground with the tip of his shoe. “He passed out from the shock. Otherwise, he would have killed your father right then.”
“Does he want revenge against my father now?” I didn’t like thinking about that.
Jason shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought like the rest of us, he just wanted to go home to our new planet, Shion.”
“Which you can’t do unless you have the artifact.”
“Right.” He put his hands in his pockets. “It’s a long piece of metal that has an inscription on it.”
“Symbols,” I said, remembering what the piece looked like. I’d seen it in the warehouse before when I’d tagged along with Dad. Normally, non-agents weren’t allowed in the building, but my dad did what he wanted and everyone looked the other way.
“Symbols to you, a language to us,” he corrected.
“And you can’t find the ship without it,” I said.
“Right. The artifact is like a human GPS.”
“Once you find the ship, then you and who else will leave Earth?”
“Eli, Evonie—”
“Evonie Hughes?” Should have guessed she was an alien. She was too perfect to be human. I’d seen her around school, but had never talked to her. She was tall for a girl with long red hair and green eyes that always looked haunted. “Her beauty is astonishing. Is she related to you?”
“No.” He glanced toward the left of the building and sniffed the air. “Why? Afraid you have competition?”
“For you?” I rolled my eyes even though he wasn’t looking at me.
Jason nudged me away from the door. “Whoever was there is gone. Ready?”
I nodded even though I wasn’t. Breaking into a building guarded by the agency and stealing government property was one of the riskiest things I’d ever done.
JASON
I held the palm of my hand out and used my power on the door hinges until they liquefied.
“They’ll notice that!” Cassie said.
“So? We’ll be long gone.”
“I can’t believe you’d take such a risk. It’s almost as if—” She put her hands against her cheeks. “How could I be so stupid.” She glared at me. “You want the agents to know it was an alien.”
“One agent.” I lifted the door up and out of the way.
“I warned you that if you killed anyone, I’d turn you in.”
I quirked a brow at her. “You see any dead bodies?”
Her hands fisted. “You think you’re being clever, but just know that I’m watching you.”
“That’s because you can’t help yourself.”
“Ass,” she muttered as she slipped past me into the warehouse.
The warehouse was easily the length of three football fields and everything inside here was metal. Fans the size of airplane propellers hung from the ceiling that I assumed helped keep the area cool in the summer. Neatly lined up across the concrete floor were long rows of tables full of boxes labeled by last names and dates.
“The results of the interrogations the agency conducted,” Cassie said. She put her hand against my chest. “Step back.”
She leaned into me, pinning me against the wall, then narrowed her eyes when I smirked. “This has nothing to do with you. The camera is sweeping the interior, but this is a blind spot. I remember overhearing my dad discussing it with another agent.”
I liked how she felt against me, her body soft and warm, and I shouldn’t. I turned my head toward the right to inspect that side. My heart started pounding and my mouth went dry. Her weight was pressed against me and it was messing with my head.
She turned her attention back to me. The same urge to kiss her that I’d experienced when we were waiting in the car struck again. I had a hard time concentrating on what I was supposed to be doing and I needed to get back in control of myself, of the situation. Because the way she was looking at me…like she wanted me to… I wished I could dismiss her from my head as easily as I had all the other human girls.
I exhaled and her eyes widened. Her hand curled, her fingers bunching the material of my T-shirt. I couldn’t go there, no matter how badly my body was screaming for me to. I let my gaze fall her to lips. “I can guess what you’re thinking, but I’m only here for the artifact.”
Looking disgusted, she released her hold on my shirt. “Would it kill you to be nice just for the sake of being nice? I’m betting you’ve hurt a lot of girls’ feelings because of your looking-out-for-number-one attitude.”
“I’m trying to survive. I don’t have time to worry about a human’s delicate feelings.” I gave her a smug look. “Or to hook up with one even when they make it clear that’s what they want.”
“You are…” She tilted her head, then a pointed smile crossed her lips. “Some of your kind didn’t mind being nice to humans. Or hooking up with them. That’s how mixed-bloods came into existence, right?”
“Half-human, half-alien.” I nodded. “But our people learned from the mistake of hooking up with your people.”
“I know the story. The mixed-blood King Ide, half-brother to King Riley, tried to destroy the world by unleashing the Night of Grief.”
“Obviously, the human side of him drove him mad,” I said.
“Oh, obviously.” Cassie huffed out a breath.
“It was aliens who managed to save Earth.”
Cassie crossed her arms, pinching her mouth into a tight line. I tried not to notice how her actions pulled her shirt tighter across her chest. “King Riley and Queen Juliet prevented the Night of Grief from happening right before they left Earth. But humans did help.” Her tone was sharp.
I shrugged. “If you say so.”
She bit her lip, the struggle to hold on to her temper easily read on her face. “You drive me crazy.”
I leaned against the wall. “I know. Because you’re thinking that maybe something could go down between us and the thought of being with me is driving you wild. But you can forget it. I don’t do humans.”
Her mouth opened and closed; then she made a low, frustrated sound before snapping out, “I would rather die than ever hook up with an alien.”
“You don’t mean that. Being near me is thrilling for you. You love the potential for danger.” I winked at her.
She opened her mouth to say something, then stopped and with a frustrated sigh walked toward one of the boxes. I followed her and was surprised to see her name written in black marker across the side of it along with a case file number. She opened it, gasped, then crammed the lid back into place.
“You were investigated?” I asked, reaching for the box.
She covered the top of it with her hand, stopping me. “The agents will be making rounds inside soon. We need to head to the north side of the building.” She spoke at a higher pitch than normal.
I wanted to know what information was in the box that related to Cassie, but her expression made me lower my hand. Whatever secrets the box contained scared her. “All right. Let’s go.”
She blinked, took one final glance at the box, then walked away.