“Sorry, not all of us can be as awesome—”
She squealed as I lifted her up in my arms. I darted up the driveway, shielding her face against the wind and snow. Once we were in front of Matthew’s door, I placed her on her feet. Kat stumbled to the side. “Could you give me a warning next time?”
I grinned as I knocked on the door. “And miss that look on your face? Never.”
“You’re insufferable,” she muttered.
Matthew opened the door, his gaze swinging from me to where Kat stood shivering, because of course, it was snowing and she didn’t have a jacket on. “This is…unexpected,” he said.
“We need to talk,” I said.
He eyed Kat for a moment and then led us into his living room. Matthew lived in a legit log cabin home. It looked like it had when he first moved here. Like no one lived there. Kat sat close to the fire, obviously needing to thaw out.
“What’s going on?” Matthew picked up a glass of wine. “I’m assuming it’s something I don’t want to know, considering she’s with you.”
Kat looked entirely unimpressed with the statement.
I sat beside her. “I guess we should start from the beginning, and you’re probably going to want to sit.”
“Oh, this is starting out good.” He swirled the liquid inside the glass.
Oh, he had no idea. “Katy saw Bethany yesterday with Vaughn.”
Matthew’s brows shot up, and then he took a long drink of his wine. “That’s not what I was expecting you to say. Katy, are you sure that’s who you saw?”
She nodded. “It was her, Mr. Garrison.”
“Matthew, call me Matthew.” He took a step back, shaking his head as he cleared his throat. “I really don’t know what to say.”
“It gets worse,” she said, rubbing her hands together.
“I know where one of the DOD officers lives,” I chimed in. “And we went there tonight.”
“What?” Matthew lowered his glass. “Are you insane?”
I shrugged. “While we were watching his house, Nancy Husher showed up and guess who else did?”
“Santa?” he said drily.
Kat laughed out loud.
I ignored that. “An Arum showed up and they let him in. Even greeted him by name—Residon.”
Looking away, Matthew downed the entire drink. He set the glass on the mantel above the fireplace. “This isn’t good, Daemon. I know you want to rush up there and find out how Bethany is still alive, but you can’t. This is too dangerous.”
“Do you understand what this means?” I rose, stepping forward. “The DOD has Bethany. Vaughn was one of the officers who came and told us that they were both dead. So they lied about her. And that means they could’ve lied about Dawson.”
“Why would they have Dawson? They told us he was dead. Obviously Bethany isn’t, but that doesn’t mean he’s alive. So get that out of your head, Daemon.”
Anger flashed through me. “If it was one of your siblings, would you ‘get that out of your head’?”
“All my siblings are dead.” Matthew stalked across the room, stopping in front of us. “You guys are all I have left, and I will not stand by and humor false hope that will get you killed or worse!”
I sat down, taking a deep breath. “You’re family to us, too. And Dawson also considered you family, Matthew.”
Pain flashed in Matthew’s ultrabright eyes, and then he looked away. “I know. I know.” Turning, he walked over to his recliner and sat down heavily, shaking his head. “Honestly, it would be best if he weren’t alive, and you know that. I can’t even imagine…”
“But if he is, we need to do something about it.” I paused. “And if he’s truly dead, then…”
“You don’t understand, Daemon. The DOD would have no interest in Bethany unless…unless Dawson healed her.”
I stilled as I stared at Matthew, and I could feel Kat doing the same. I didn’t want him to know about Kat and me. Not yet. “What are you saying, Matthew?”
He rubbed his brow, wincing. “The Elders…they don’t talk about why we’re not allowed to heal humans, and they have good reason. It’s forbidden, not only because of the risk of exposure on our end, but because of what it does to a human. They know. So do I.”
“What?” I glanced at Kat, relieved that she knew to stay quiet. “Do you know what happens?”
He nodded. “It alters the human, splicing his or her DNA with ours. There has to be a true want for it to work, though. The human takes on our abilities, but it doesn’t always stick. Sometimes it fades. Sometimes the human dies from it or the change backfires. But if successful, it forms a connection between the two.”
A true want? What the hell did that mean?
“The connection between a human and a Luxen after a massive healing is unbreakable at a cellular level,” he continued. “It marries the two together. One cannot survive if the other perishes.”
Kat’s sharp inhale echoed in my head as I shot to my feet. Blake had not said that when he talked about Kat being changed. He never mentioned that the Luxen and the human were bonded on an unbreakable level. But that meant…
Oh my God.
I barely got the words out. “Then if Bethany is alive…”
“Then Dawson would have to be alive,” Matthew finished, sounding weary. “If he had in fact healed her.”
Flipping my gaze to the fire, that tiny spark of hope grew stronger. Dawson had to have healed Bethany. I knew it, deep in my core, and that meant that my brother was alive. He was alive, somewhere out there; he was alive.
“But you just said he couldn’t be alive,” Kat spoke up, and I looked at Matthew.
“That was my weakest attempt to persuade this one from getting himself killed,” he said.
It was like taking a punch to the chest. Raw emotion poured into me. “Did you…did you know this the entire time?” My form began to flicker. “Did you?”
Matthew shook his head. “No. No! I believed both of them to be dead, but if he did heal her—did change her—and she’s alive, then he has to be alive. That’s a big if—an if based on whether or not Katy really did recognize someone she’s never met.”
I slowly sat down, feeling so much I didn’t feel anything. “My brother’s alive. He’s…he’s alive.”
“What do you think they’re doing to him?” Kat asked.
“I don’t know.” Matthew stood. “Whatever it is, it can’t be…”
It wasn’t good.
“The DOD knows, Matthew. They know what we can do,” I said finally. “They’ve probably known since the beginning.”
His lashes swept up, and he met my stare. “I’ve never truly believed they didn’t, to be honest. The only reason I never voiced my belief is because I didn’t want any of you to worry.”
“And the Elders—do they know this, too?” I asked, thinking of Lydia.
“The Elders are just grateful to have a place to live in peace and be basically separated from the human race. Stick-their-heads-in-the-sand kind of thing, Daemon. If anything, they probably choose to not believe our secrets aren’t safe.” He glanced at his empty glass on the fireplace. “It’s…easier for them.”
“That sounds incredibly stupid,” Kat said.
Matthew smiled wryly in response. “Dear girl, you do not know what it is like to be a guest, do you? Imagine living with the knowledge that your home and everything could be whipped out from under you at any moment. But you have to lead people, keep them calm and happy—safe. The worst thing would be to voice the darkest of your concerns to the masses.” He paused, eyeing that glass again. “Tell me, what would humans do if they knew aliens lived among them?”
Her cheeks flushed. “Uh, they’d probably riot and go nuts.”
“Exactly,” he murmured. “Our kinds are not that different.”
She squirmed next to me. “What about the Arum thing?”
“I don’t know.” Matthew refilled his glass. “I can’t even fathom a reason why the DOD would be working with them—what they could even gain. The Arum absorb our powers, but never healing—nothing of that magnitude. They have a different heat signature than we do, so with the right tools, the DOD would know they weren’t dealing with us, but to walk up to an Arum or a Luxen on the street, there would be no way to tell us apart.”