Starbright (The Starbright Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

soup, so I had the opportunity to study them under light.
    Jupiter was old. Not just by human standards, although I knew th e human eye wouldn’t place him later than seventy, but old…. r eally old. I could tell. I could also feel how other-worldly he was now that I spent some time with him .
    As if the fact that he could fly wasn’t a big enough tip that he wasn’t from around here….
    My ability to detect the nature of someone’s essence had been with me since birth, but this was really the first opportunity I had to use it other than the every once in a while Shadow that crossed my path . I couldn’t place his exact age, but it was definitely old, hundreds of years old. And he definitely wasn’t human, although other than the dull red of his eyes, he appeared to be Homo-S apien in every other way. His tanned skin was wrinkled and weathered and his gray hair fell in disheveled short tufts of rebellion.
                  Even without ever hearing him talk, I could have assumed he was a tough man, and that had nothing to do with my ability to feel out the foreign. He had deep frown lines, and his permanent scowl wouldn’t invite any stranger into a random conversation. He wasn’t exactly an imposing man, just a few inches taller than me and probably barely making six feet, but his very presence was intimidating. I could bet most humans ran from him as quickly as they could, and suddenly I felt a deep pang for the humanity I had come to love. Whatever happened to Jupiter’s home planet, I wasn’t sure E arth deserved him as punishment.
                  Seth on the other hand was the very opposite, and not just in age. He was the kind of guy that strangers would trust to hold their babies or the police would ask to be a witness in a crime even if he w ere holding a gun and covered in blood. His dark hair was unruly and wild, but his amber colored eyes were inviting and soulful. His smile reached from ear to ear and the angular shape of his face didn’t exactly scream out trustworthy, but it did cast him in such a way any woman would toss caution to the wind and throw themselves at him.
                  I couldn’t help but smile at him. His golden-toned skin, his muscular body, his carefree recklessness…. I didn’t have many feelings for him yet, but one that shone brighter than the others resonated as pride. I was proud to have him as my C ounterpart. Already I could tell that I could trust him, and not just in battle. Plus, saving my life once already definitely spoke volumes about ou r future together.
                  Our, uh, professional future together. Not the other future…. that I wasn’t exactly ready to think about yet.
                  “So, when your parents get back, we will discuss finding our own place,” Jupiter broke the silence after scraping his bowl clean and giving a tentative glance back at a Tupperware still half full of soup. “Until then, I think it will be safer if we stay with you. If more Shadows come to find you, it will be better if we’re with you, especially with your…. q uestionable training.”
                  I smiled at his polite way of referencing my actual lack of training , I felt like that was as nice as he was going to get . I wasn’t embarrassed of my lack of skills though. Even if tomorrow I faced an army of the Darkness, I wouldn’t regret the life I ’d lived so far. Experience had to count for something. And I had plenty of life experience. Well, at least sixteen years of it.
                  “Will it be hard for you to move?” I looked to Seth, wondering if he was as regretful about leaving typical high school life behind him as I was.
                  “No, why would it be?” his eyes turned curious and his spoon suspended itself midway to his mouth.              
                  “Oh, I didn’t know if you were leaving behind a lot