I gave her a wide berth as I headed to the couch and dropped down on it, feeling a dozen years older than the eighteen I was. “You’re blocking the screen.”

“Why?” she demanded.

“It’s a damn good episode.” I knew that wasn’t what she was talking about. “The one guy thinks he’s possessed by a shadow person or some—”

“I don’t give a crap about a shadow person, Daemon!” She lifted 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.