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head.
    “Daemon?”
    “It’s okay.” Voice thick, he kissed my forehead. “I’m okay. It’s…early still. No school or Mom coming home, yelling your full name. Just for a little while we can pretend that crazy doesn’t wait for us. We can sleep in, like normal teenagers.”
    Like normal teenagers. “I like the sound of that.”
    “Me, too.”
    “Me, three,” I murmured, snuggling against him until we were practically one. I could feel his heart beating in tandem with mine. Perfect. This was what we needed—quiet moments of being normal. Where it was just Daemon and me—
    The window overlooking the front yard blew apart as something large and white crashed through it, sending chunks of glass and snow shooting onto the floor.
    My startled scream was cut off as Daemon rolled, springing to his feet as he slipped into his true Luxen form, becoming a human shape of light that shone so brightly I could only stare at him for a few precious seconds.
    Holy crap , Daemon’s voice said, filtering through my own thoughts.
    Since Daemon hadn’t gone ape wild on someone, I scrambled to my knees and peered over the edge of the bed.
    “Holy crap,” I said out loud.
    Our precious moment of being normal ended with a body lying on my bedroom floor.

Chapter 2
     
    I stared down at the dead man, dressed like he was prepared to join the rebel alliance on the Hoth system. My thoughts were a little hazy at first, which was why it took me a few seconds to realize, dressed like that, he’d really blend in with the snow. Except for all the red streaming from his head…
    My already pounding heartbeat skyrocketed. “Daemon…?”
    He pivoted, slipping back into his human form as he wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me back from the carnage.
    “He’s a-an Officer,” I stuttered, smacking at his arms to get free. “He’s with the—”
    Dawson suddenly stood in the doorway, his eyes glowing much like Daemon’s were. Two bright white lights, like polished diamonds. “He was sneaking around outside by the tree line.”
    Daemon’s arm loosened. “You…you did this?”
    His brother’s gaze flickered to the body. It —because I couldn’t really think of it as a human being—lay in a twisted, unnatural heap. “He was watching the house—taking pictures.” Dawson held up what looked like a melted camera. “I stopped him.”
    Yeah, Dawson had stopped him right through my bedroom window.
    Letting go of me, Daemon made his way over to it. He knelt and pulled back the insulated white down jacket. There was a charred spot on the chest that smoked. The smell of burned flesh wafted into the air.
    I climbed off the bed, pressing my hand to my mouth just in case I started to hurl. I’d seen Daemon hit a human with the Source—their power based in light—before. Nothing but ashes had remained, but it had a hole burned through its chest.
    “Your aim is off, brother.” Daemon let go of the jacket, the thick cords of muscles in his back bunched with tension. “The window?”
    Dawson’s eyes drifted to the window. “I’ve been out of practice.”
    My mouth dropped open. Out of practice? Instead of incinerating it, he’d knocked it into the air and through my window. Not to mention he’d killed it. No, I wouldn’t think of that.
    “My mom’s gonna kill me,” I said, feeling numb. “She’s really going to kill me.”
    A broken window—of all the things to focus on, but it was something, something other than it lying on my floor.
    Daemon stood slowly, eyes sheltered and jaw set like stone. He didn’t take his gaze off his brother, his expression a blank mask. I turned to Dawson, our gazes colliding, and for the first time, I was scared of him.
    …
     
    After a quick change and bathroom visit, I stood in the living room, surrounded by aliens for the first time in days. A perk of being made of light, I guessed—the ability to go just about anywhere in a blink of an eye.
    Since Adam’s death, everyone had pretty much