I set my fork back down. "Our biology teacher is an alien? Holy crap...all I can think of is that movie The Faculty." But it made sense, the way he'd acted when he saw Daemon and me together, the strange looks in class.
Dee choked on her orange juice. "We don't snatch bodies."
I hoped not. "Wow. So you guys have like normal jobs."
"Yep." Jumping from her chair, she glanced at the door. "Want to see what I'm good at?" When I nodded, she moved back from the table and closed her eyes. The air around her seemed to hum softly. A second later she went from teenage girl to a form made out of light, and then a wolf.
"Um," I cleared my throat. "I think I've discovered how the legend of werewolves got started."
She padded over to me and nudged my hand with her warm nose. Unsure of what I should do, I patted her on the top of her furry head. The wolf let out a bark that sounded more like a giggle and then backed off. A few seconds later, it was Dee again.
"And that's not all. Look." She shook her arms. "Don't freak out."
"Okay." I clenched my glass of OJ.
Closing her eyes, her body faded into the light and then she became someone totally different. Light brown hair fell past her shoulders and her face was a bit paler. Eyebrows arched over large, doe eyes, and her rosy-colored lips formed a half smile. She was shorter, a little more normal looking.
"Me?" I squeaked. I was staring at me.
"Hey," Dee-as-me said. "Can you tell us apart?"
Heart pounding, I started to stand but didn't make it. My mouth moved but no words came out. "This is...weird." I squinted. "Does my nose really look like that? Turn around." She did. I shrugged. "My butt doesn't look bad." The exact replica of me laughed and then faded out.
For a moment I could see the outline of a body, but I could see the fridge through the center. A second later she was Dee. She sat down again. "I can look like anyone except for my brother. I mean, I can look like him, but that would be gross." She shuddered. "All of us can shift, but I can hold the form for like forever. Most of us can only mimic for a few minutes tops." Her chest swelled with pride.
"Have you guys ever done that? Been someone else around me?"
She shook her head. "Daemon would have a shit fit if he knew I'd done that. It doesn't leave a huge trace on you, but you're all kinds of lit up right now, so it doesn't matter."
"So Daemon can do that too? Morphing into a kangaroo if he wanted to?"
Dee laughed. "Daemon can do about anything. He's one of the most powerful of us.
Most of us can do one or two things easily - the rest is a struggle. Everything is easy for him."
"He's just so awesome," I muttered.
"Once he actually moved the house a little bit," Dee said, nose wrinkled. "He totally broke the foundation."
Sweet Jesus...
I took a sip of my juice. "And the government doesn't know you can do any of that?"
"No. At least, we don't think they do," Dee said. "We've always hidden our abilities. We know that it would scare humans to know we can do things. And we also know that people would take advantage of that. So we try not to risk exposure." I let that soak in as I took another drink. My brain felt like it was two seconds from blowing up. "So why did you guys come here? Daemon said something happened to your home."
"Yeah, something happened all right." Dee picked up the dishes and headed to the sink. Her back was rigid as she cleaned the dishes. "Our planet was destroyed by the Arum."
"The Arum?" Then I got it. "Dark? Right?
Are those the people that are out to like steal your abilities?"
"Yes." She glanced over her shoulder, nodding. "They're our enemies. Pretty much the only enemies of the Luxen besides humans, if they decided to stop being kosher with us being here, I guess. The Arum are like us - only opposite, coming from our sister planet. They destroyed our home. My mom used to tell me a bedtime story that when the universe was formed it was filled with the purest light, shining so brightly it made the shadows envious. The Arum are the children of the shadows, jealous and determined to