“How long did you know your friend Mel?”

The question caught her off guard, but after a few moments, she told me their history, an unlikely friendship that had stayed strong over the years. “So she would’ve told you everything, right?”

She nodded. “Mel did.”

“And the one time on the balcony was the only time she ever saw the senator’s kid do something strange?”

Taking a small bite, she chewed slowly. “It was. I always thought he was weird. Who knew it was because he was an alien.”

My lips tipped up at the corners. “You’re handling all of this well.”

She paused, fork halfway to her pretty mouth. “There are minutes when I think I’ve got a handle on all of this, and then minutes where I think I’m actually insane and in a padded room, so I really don’t think I’m doing that great.”

Serena was handling it better than 98% of the population would. “What did Mel say they were arguing over—the brothers?”

“Something about Project Eagle and kids.”

“What was this project?”

With a little shake of her head, she patted her fork on a piece of chicken. “She didn’t say and I didn’t ask because I thought she lost her mind and…” She took a deep a breath. “I feel terrible about that. If I believed her, maybe I would’ve done something different and Mel—”

“She wouldn’t be alive, Serena. No matter what you did. By not believing her, you probably saved your life.”

Her eyes flicked up and met mine for a second.

There was an endless amount of guilt in her eyes.

That and sorrow for her friend. “Things are so freaking fuzzy. I feel like I wasn’t paying attention.

That I’m forgetting things.”

“You might be.” And I needed her to remember, because then I could lure the officers back here and get her on her way. That’s what I wanted.

At least that’s what I needed to do.

So I went with the one thing I knew that would make her focus. “If you can remember something, remember more, then it’s going to help your friend.”

Serena’s gaze sharpened. “How?”

I was such a bastard. “If the Luxen were up to something and she was silenced because of what she overheard, and not so much what she saw, the senator and his sons might not be held accountable for her death, but they will be dealt with. And that’s better than nothing.”

“It is,” she said quietly.

Her attention turned to the woods, head shaking a little. Time passed, and I didn’t pester her. “I know there was—Pennsylvania!”

“Pennsylvania?”

Twisting toward me, she nodded eagerly. “Yes. She mentioned something about the kids being kept in Pennsylvania.”

I frowned. “Kids being kept in Pennsylvania?

Luxen kids or…?”

“She didn’t elaborate, but she said Phillip and Elijah were arguing about that.”

Interesting.

Or not.

There had to be more, especially if the Luxen bypassed the DOD and took out Mel. What could the galactic glowworms be up to? Were they stashing Luxen kids away from the watchful eye of the DOD?

Could be possible. There were hidden Arum and Luxen communities. Few, but they existed.

Serena blew out a frustrated breath.

“I’m trying. I really—”

“I know.”

I felt as frustrated as she looked.

She bit down on her lip and turned her gaze to her plate. “This was nice,” she said eventually.

“The dinner.”

“It was.”

Surprise shuttled through me and I heard myself saying, “I don’t do this.”

“At all?”

Curiosity marked her brown eyes, darkening them.

It reminded me of when she’d been aroused. Her eyes had turned the color of rich, untainted soil. Then again, for me everything pretty much circled back around to being aroused.

“No,” I said, dropping one leg off the chair. “I can’t remember the last time I ate with someone.”

“Surely it can’t be that long.”

“It has been very long ago.” I watched her set her plate aside and pick up the wineglass. “Full?”

“Stuffed,”

she said, eyeing me above the rim of her glass. “Seriously, you do…socialize, right?

Your kind does do that?”

I shrugged, my gaze settling on the darkening sky. Within moments, the sun set and twilight vanished into night. “We really don’t have a need to socialize.”

She lowered her glass.

“But everyone—”

“Everyone who is human, Serena. I am not.”

A heartbeat passed.

“What about the other Arum? The ones I ran into at the gazebo? They were together.”

“When we are together, we are not socializing. We are mostly aligning ourselves with who we think is more powerful. It’s about survival.

Not friendship.”

“Wow.

That sounds really lonely.”

“We don’t get lonely.” My gaze followed Serena’s slender finger along the rim of her glass.

She glanced over at me.

“Why…why do you keep staring at me?”

I barked out a short laugh. “Am I not allowed to?”

“I guess you are, but you’re always watching me.”

“I like watching you. It’s your hair.” Did I just say that?

“My hair?”

I had. “It’s the color.

Whatever.”

A small smile appeared on her lips. “So, what do you do when you’re not working?”

I thought about that before answering, actually considered it. “I like to work with my hands.”

Serena’s gaze slid to mine. “Why do I have a feeling there’s an innuendo behind that?”

Thinking of where my hands hand been last night, I cracked a grin. Her cheeks heated and the red shaded the aura around her. I bet if I slipped my hand between her thighs right now she’d be wet and ready.

It took a lot to not find out. “I like to build things.”

Her mouth opened, and then her eyes widened.

“Wait. Do you like to carve?”

My brow arched.

“Did you make the gazebo by the main part of the lodge?”

When I didn’t say anything, a wide smile broke out across her face.

“You did! Oh my God, Hunter, that is amazing.”

I shifted in the seat. “Not really.”

“It is! I wish I could do something like that. The design is so amazingly intricate. Do you do that a lot?”

Serena continued to pepper me with questions about the woodwork I did, and while I wished I hadn’t said a damn thing, I answered the questions without thinking, like she had my balls in a pair of vise grips. Yes, I had built the gazebo from scratch. It had taken an entire summer. No, I didn’t find it hard. Yes, I built other things. That had made me think of the horses with Serena’s breasts and I’d laughed, which had brought another smile to Serena’s face.

Damn, Serena was a really, really good-looking woman, but when she smiled? Hell, she was hands down beautiful.

In the lull of conversation, Serena sat up and pointed at the sky.

“Oh look! Is that a falling star? Jesus. I’ve never seen one that close.”

My eyes searched out the trailing flash of white light zooming down to Earth at an ungodly speed.

Instinct fired, causing my skin to tingle.

I shot to my feet. “That is not a falling star.”

“What is it?” Fear lanced her voice. “Is it one of them?”

“Serena?”

“Yes?” She was on her feet now, coming to my side. “It’s one of them, isn’t it?”

I turned to her. “Go inside.”

When she hesitated, I leaned down, my lips close to hers as I spoke.

“Go inside, Serena.”

When I pulled away, Serena didn’t move. Shit. I had a feeling she was going to stand right out here and argue with me until she got herself killed.

Keeping my voice low, I ushered her back toward the door. “It is one of them and you need to be inside.”

“But—”

“No buts.” I shoved her inside. “Keep the doors locked and the lights off.

Don’t answer the door for anyone.”

With that I closed the door, shutting her inside.

Separated by glass, I met Serena’s stare, willing her to listen to me. Then finally she reached out and the click of the lock being turned broke the silence.

I turned and smiled.

It was time to hunt.

Chapter 12

It took very little time for me to find the “falling star.”

Moving among the shadows, faster than the wind could carry, I ended up on the other side of the lake, deep in the thick woods of Monongahela National Forest and behind the enemy.

Slowing down, I moved soundlessly as the man walked out from between two tall elms. He was dressed in black, as if he sought to hide himself.

Rather ironic considering the bright white light outlining the human form gave him away.

“Hey there,”

I said.

“Fancy meeting you all the way out here.”

The man spun around.

Shock splashed across his face. “Arum…”

“Luxen, ” I mimicked.

“What are you doing here?”

the Luxen demanded, hands flexing at his sides. “How could I not sense you?”

“Ah, that is strange, isn’t it?” I smiled.

He took a step forward.

The Luxen was bold. I appreciated that. “I should be able to sense you,” he said. The pupils of his eyes started to burn bright.

“How is that possible?”

I cocked my head to the side. “Even if I had the desire and the time to go into that, I wouldn’t.”

Now the Luxen’s pupils were as bright as diamonds.

He glanced over his shoulder toward the cabins, and then his gaze settled on me. “Why are you here, so close to the colony? You wouldn’t dare to venture where you’re sorely outnumbered.”

I’d dare to go wherever I damn pleased, but that was beside the point. “I have a question for you, Rainbow Brite.” I drifted a scant inch closer. “Why are you here?”

“You think to question me?” The Luxen’s form began to shimmer in anger. “You’re nothing but a lower life-form—a bottom feeder compared to us.”

Ah, Luxen were such pompous asses.

And I was bored with this. As long as I’d lived here, Luxen never crossed the mountain. They were forbidden by the DOD, for obvious reasons. If one was here, he was here for Serena, which begged the question as to how they had discovered Serena’s whereabouts, but I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that the Luxen would willingly talk.

“I will destroy you and then I’ll—”

“Blah, blah bullshit,” I cut in, smirking. “I’ve heard it all before and the end is always the same. You talk.

We fight. I feed. You die.

The end.”

The Luxen dropped its human skin and took its true form. Blinding light illuminating the dark forest, a shape of a man spun forward, light pulsing with energy.