around, I threw open the door. Dee stood on the other side, her hands folded behind her back. "You're an alien."
She nodded slowly.
I stared at her. Maybe I should've felt fear or more confusion, but that wasn't what burned inside me. Curiosity. Intrigue. I stepped forward.
"Do it."
"Do what?"
"The alien light bulb thing," I said.
Dee's lips spread into a wide smile. "You're not afraid of me?"
I shook my head. How could I be afraid of Dee? "No. I mean, I'm a little blown away by everything, but you're a freaking alien. That's kind of cool. Bizarre, but definitely on the cool side of things." Her lip trembled. Tears turned her eyes into shimmering jewels. "You don't hate me? I like you, and I don't want you to hate me or be scared of me."
"I don't hate you."
Dee popped forward, moving faster than my human eyes could register. She gave me a surprisingly strong hug and pulled back, sniffling. "I was so worried all night, especially since Daemon refused to let me talk to you. All I could think was I'd lost my best friend." She was still the same Dee, alien or not. "You haven't lost me. I'm not going anywhere." A second later she about squeezed the life out of me. "Okay. I'm starving. Get changed and I'll make us breakfast."
She disappeared out of the room in a blink of an eye. That would take some getting used to.
I grabbed the change of clothes I'd nabbed last night after telling my mom I was staying over at Dee's house. I quickly changed, then headed downstairs.
Dee was already making breakfast and chatting on her cell phone. The clang of pots and the soft lure of running water muted most of what she was saying. Snapping the phone closed, she spun around.
Then she was in front of me, pulling me to the kitchen table. "When everything happened last night, all I could think is that you must believe we're a bunch of freaks."
"Well..." I started. "You sure aren't normal."
She giggled. "Yes, but normal is so boring sometimes."
I cringed at her choice of words and went to pull out the chair. It moved before I could touch it, sliding back several inches. Startled, I glanced up. "You?"
Dee grinned.
"Well, that was handy." I sat slowly, hoping it didn't get moving again. "So you're as fast as light?"
"I think we might be a little faster." She popped over to the stove. She placed her hand over the skillet. It immediately started crackling under her palm. Over her shoulder, she grinned.
The stove wasn't turned on, but the scent of cooked bacon filled the air.
I leaned forward. "How are you doing that?"
"Heat," she said. "It's faster this way. Takes me seconds to fry up pig."
And it really was only minutes when she handed me a plate of eggs and bacon. Between the moving super-fast and the microwave hand, I was starting to get a bad case of alien envy.
"So what did Daemon tell you last night?" She sat down, a mountain of eggs on her plate.
"He showed me some of your cool alien tricks." The food smelled delicious and I was starving. "Thank you for the breakfast, by the way."
"You're welcome." She pulled her hair up into a messy knot. "You have no idea how hard it's been pretending to be something we're not.
It's one of the reasons why we don't have a lot of close friends that are...human. That's why Daemon's all 'Human equals no friend' or whatever." I toyed with my fork while she devoured half her plate in seconds. "Well, now you don't have to pretend anymore." Her eyes lifted, sparkling. "Want to know something cool?"
Coming from her, I could only imagine what it was going to be. "Yeah."
"We can see things that humans can't. Like the energy you all put off around you. I think new age people call them auras or whatever. It represents their energy, or some could call it life force. It changes when their emotions change, if they are feeling sick." My fork stopped halfway to my mouth. "Can you see mine now?" She shook her head. "You have a trace around you right now. I can't see your energy, but it was a pale pink when I met you, which seems normal. It used to get really red when you'd talk to Daemon." Red probably represented anger. Or lust.
"I'm not good at reading it though. Some powers come more easily to others, but Matthew rocks at reading energies."