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and got that Mom look. The one that said, I’m so disappointed in you . “He said you mentioned it and honey, I just wish you would’ve told me instead. Finding out through someone else about my daughter’s boyfriend isn’t how I wanted to learn.”
    My jaw hit the floor.
    She said something else, and I think I nodded. Honestly, she could’ve been telling me that Thor and Loki had a battle royale down the street. I wasn’t hearing her anymore. What was Will up to?
    When Mom finally gave up on trying to hold a conversation with me, I hurried to my boots and hauled butt to Daemon’s house. When the door swung open, I already knew it wasn’t Daemon answering. I hadn’t experienced the freaky alien connection thing, the warmth on the back of my neck whenever he was near.
    But Andrew’s blazing ocean-colored eyes weren’t what I was expecting.
    “You,” he said, contempt lacing his tone.
    I blinked. “Me?”
    He folded his arms. “Yeah, you—as in Katy, the little human-alien-hybrid baby.”
    “Um, okay. I need to see Daemon.” I started to step in, but he moved quickly, blocking me. “Andrew.”
    “Daemon’s not here.” He smiled, and there wasn’t an ounce of warmth in it.
    Folding my arms, I refused to back down. Andrew never liked me. I don’t even think he liked people in general. Or puppies. Or bacon. “And where is he?”
    Andrew stepped out, shutting the door behind him. He was so close that the toes of his boots touched mine. “Daemon took off this morning. I assume he’s following Rain Man.”
    Fury flashed through me. “There’s nothing wrong with Dawson.”
    “Is that so?” Andrew cocked an eyebrow. “I think he’s said three coherent sentences a day and that’s about it.”
    My hands curled into fists against my sides. A soft breeze picked up my hair, stirring the strands around my shoulders. I so wanted to hit him. “He’s been going through God knows what. Have some compassion, ass. Anyway, I don’t know why I’m talking to you. Where’s Dee?”
    The smirk faded from his face, replaced by cold, hard hatred. “Dee is here.”
    I waited for a little more detail. “Yeah, I figured that much.” When there was still no response, I was two seconds from showing him what a little human-alien-hybrid baby could do. “Why are you here?”
    “Because I was invited.” He leaned down, close enough to kiss, and I had no other option but to take a step back. He followed. “And you’re not.”
    Ouch. Okay, that stung. Before I knew it, my back hit the railing and I was trapped. There was nowhere for me to go, and Andrew wasn’t budging. I felt the Source, the pure energy that the Luxen—and now I—could harness building inside me, spreading over my skin like static electricity.
    I could make Andrew move.
    Andrew must’ve seen something in my eyes because he sneered. “Don’t even think about pulling that crap with me, because you push? I’ll push right back. There won’t be any lost sleep over it.”
    Fighting my body’s response to lay it on him was the hardest thing. My human side and the other side, whatever it was, wanted to tap into that power and use it—exploit it. It was like an unused muscle flexing. I remembered the dizzying rush of power, and the release.
    A part of me, a teeny, tiny part of me liked it, and that scared the crap out of me.
    Good for Andrew, because the fear coiling tightly inside had knocked the wind right out from underneath me. “Why do you hate me?” I asked.
    Andrew cocked his head to the side. “It’s the same thing as it was with Beth. Everything was fine, and then she came around. We lost Dawson and you know damn well we haven’t gotten him back, not really. And now it’s happening with Daemon, except this time around, we lost Adam in the mess. He’s gone.”
    For the first time, something other than arrogant disdain peered through his crystalized eyes. Pain—the kind of suffering I was well familiar with. The same shattered, hopeless