You’ve been gone all day.”

“I’m obviously not dead.”

I stopped a few feet from her. “Are you incapable of listening to the simplest instructions? It makes me wonder how in the hell you’re still alive.”

Crossing her arms, her chin went up a notch.

Cute. “I don’t like being bossed around.”

“You like it when I tell you to open your legs for me,” I pointed out, and was rewarded with a fierce stain that rushed across her cheeks. “Why can you listen then and not any other time?”

“Because I like to know what is going on, you giant dickhead,” she said.

“Dickhead?”

“You forget that my entire life has been uprooted and I’m here with you, waiting for the officers to come back. So I thought maybe that was who was at the door. You shouldn’t try to keep me in the dark.”

“Do you ever stop and think it was to protect you?” Stalking past her, I grabbed the remote and turned the TV off. “No.

That would make too much sense.”

She twisted toward me.

“I get that you’re trying to keep me safe, but this isn’t easy.”

“Really?” I liked her like this, I decided. All pissed off, fiery like the sun.

Unfolding her arms, her hands balled into little fists, she raged, “Have you ever had to rely on someone?

Ever have to put your entire life in someone else’s hands and hope they come through?”

The question struck me as funny. “No. Of course not.”

“Exactly!” She threw up her hands. “You couldn’t do that. So why do you expect me to?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but then wisely closed it. None of my immediate responses would rectify the situation.

“I just don’t— Never mind.” Serena stared at me and then shook her head as she turned away, heading for the stairs.

“Don’t what?” I followed her around the couch, keeping a distance.

Serena stopped at the bottom of the steps and faced me. “I don’t get you.”

“Most people don’t.” I smiled. “We don’t have the same social norms that you do. Probably because I’m—”

“Yeah, you’re an alien. I haven’t forgotten that. But you’ve been on Earth for how long? Since you were a kid? And yet you haven’t picked up on any social norm out there.”

I said nothing because, really, I’d rather stay quiet instead of lie.

She exhaled loudly. “I told you about my mom and you said your parents were dead. Why didn’t you mention that you had a brother?”

“Because I don’t count Sin as a brother.”

“That’s kind of harsh, don’t you think?” she said.

“You met him. What do you think?”

Placing her hand on the banister, she seemed to debate what she was going to say next. “What about the other brother?”

My smile grew tight. “I don’t talk to him about Lore. I won’t talk to you.”

“Forget it.”

Spinning around, she headed up the stairs.

I knew I should let her go. Either it was my anger driving me forward or something much deeper, I wasn’t sure. Two seconds later, I joined her on the landing upstairs.

Startled, she took a step back. “Stop doing that!”

“Have you eaten yet?” I started toward her, and the dark part of me growled its appreciation when she took another step back from me. “Serena?”

“Yes. I’ve eaten. Thank you.”

“I haven’t,” I growled, my gaze dropping over her.

“Pervert,” she muttered as she kept walking backward until she hit the railing on the stairs to my loft. She started to head toward the hall that led to her room, but I blocked her.

Her chest rose sharply. “What do you want, Hunter?”

Oh, that was a loaded question I couldn’t even begin to answer. I stared at her a long moment and the next shit that came out of my mouth even surprised me. “I had a sister.”

Serena blinked. “You… you had a sister?”

“Yes.” Might as well put it all out there. “She was killed four years ago.”

Almost immediately sympathy filled her gaze.

She didn’t say anything right away. “How?”

“Come with me.”

Her brows knitted and she didn’t move.

“Come with me and I’ll tell you how.” I extended a hand to her. She still didn’t move. “Come to my loft with me,” I added in a softer voice.

She glanced over her shoulder and then to me.

An incredulous look marked her features. Her eyes met mine and then she put her hand in mine.

My fingers immediately swallowed hers. I led her up the stairs. She came willingly, but she was also throwing off a nervous vibe.

I could relax her by saying something, reassure her, but I said nothing, because I couldn’t reassure her when I wasn’t sure she’d ever walk back down these stairs.

Chapter 16

My loft was spacious and, like most of the house, very minimalistic.

Bed.

Dressers. A couch and some chairs. There were a few other necessities, but nothing really personal.

I left her by the bed.

“Make yourself comfortable.”

Looking around, Serena smoothed her hands down her thighs. “It’s a very nice room.”

“It is.” I kicked off my shoes and sat in the chair nearest the balcony doors.

“Sit.”

She looked around and sighed as she sat on the edge of my bed. Her knees were pressed together, hands folded in her lap.

Very prim. Very proper.

Made me want to dirty her up.

I leaned into the chair and tipped my head back.

Closing my eyes, I sighed.

“My sister was different.

Out of all of us, she adapted to the human world a lot better. So much so that she was basically human in all the ways you’d expect from me. She didn’t hunt Luxen and wanted no part in fighting them.”

“Did she feed off them?”

My lips twisted into a wry smile. “If we don’t feed, we are weak as a human is.

I’m not trying to be insulting by that, but if we don’t feed or have something we can substitute, we can’t protect ourselves.”

There was a pause and then, “Substitute?”

“We can feed off humans, obviously, but they don’t make us as strong as feeding off a Luxen. My sister chose not to feed off Luxen or humans. So she was very vulnerable.”

“What happened to her?”

she asked in a quiet voice.

“She was doing okay, but living among others of our kind was hard. We didn’t understand why she wouldn’t feed because it was so dangerous for her.”

I paused, opening my eyes. Fucking staring at the ceiling. “Anyway, she withdrew from us, ended up blending in with the humans. I stayed near her.

So did Lore. She went to college and all that. She met someone and…she was happy.”

“Met someone?

A human?”

“Yep.” I laughed, but it was cold and flat. “She was with this male when she ran into some Luxen.

And even though she hadn’t fed from one of them in years, the Luxen saw her as a threat—their enemy. And the reason why?

Because we’d attacked a cluster of Luxen a week before. She didn’t have anything to do with that. We did. But it didn’t matter. She wasn’t strong enough to defend herself and neither was the male.

They killed her and the human. Left their bodies out in a field like trash for us to find.”

“Oh my God,” Serena whispered.

I didn’t say anything.

There was no room for a God in any of this. My sister was killed because of how our two kinds warred against each other.

There was no other reason.

She would’ve never hurt them. And maybe they wouldn’t have hurt her if it hadn’t been for what we had done. It was my fault. It was Sin’s fault and Lore’s. We’d brought death to our sister.

Oddly, I didn’t hear or see Serena move, but her hand was on my arm as she knelt in front of me.

Tears made her eyes shine. I stared down at her, at once angry and itchy to get out of here. I don’t even know why I told her any of this.

I started to stand, but then she did the un- fucking-believable.

She placed her head on my knee.

Her head was on my knee.

I froze.

I stopped breathing and I just stared at her. Her eyes were closed like she’d fallen asleep or was praying. I doubted she was doing either.

“My mom was murdered for the twenty bucks she carried in her purse,” she said, voice shaky. “That was all. Her throat was slit for twenty dollars.”

I said nothing.

“The worst part?” she continued softly. “My mom would’ve given the kid the money if he’d asked. He didn’t have to rob her. He didn’t have to kill her.”

“I have discovered that humans kill as senselessly as the Luxen and our kind do.”

Serena pulled away, but my hand snuck out, curving around the back of her neck. Her lips parted and her aura shifted from pale blue to pink. She wetted her lips, and my cock roared to life. That quickly. Hard as a rock.

Yeah, enough of this sharing shit.

“Thank you for telling me this,” she said.

Whoa. What? “Why?”

“It helps me understand you better.”

I froze again.

Understand me? Anger rose in me like thick smoke, mingling with something I couldn’t even name. A feeling I didn’t recognize.

“You want to understand me better?” The edge to my voice caused her eyes to flick up. “Serena?”

“I…” She shook her head.

She could sense the change.

Instinct was strong in her. She just never listened to it. And that’s how she ended up where she was right now.

With my hand on the back of her head, I guided her forward, until she was on her knees, between my legs. She gripped the arms of the chair, balancing herself.

I bent my head to hers, feeling my lips curve up as they brushed her cheek.

“You want to understand me? Really? I know I shouldn’t have you in here with me. I know you’re not safe with me, but I have you here. I don’t think you really want to understand me, Serena.”

She drew in a sharp breath but didn’t pull away.

“If you were going to hurt me, you would’ve done it by now.”

I laughed, stirring the hair around her temple.

Her warmth drew me in.

“You really believe that?”

There was a pause. “I wasn’t sure before, but now I do.”

“You’re insane.” I moved my lips over the curve of her jaw, enticed by the delicate shiver coursing through her. “And it’s too late.”

Her breath was soft against my cheek.

“Hunter…what are you doing?”

“What I want.” Taking her hand, I led it to the bulge beneath my jeans.

Serena let out a gasp.

“And I want you.”

I waited for her to pull away. I gave her that. If she shied away, I’d let her leave. I’d have to nail my hands to the chair to stop myself from chasing after her, but I’d do my best to let her leave.