“How much do you know?” she asked.
“There are two alien races on Earth: the Luxen and the Arum.” He paused as I twisted in my seat. He swallowed. “You’re capable of moving things without touching them and you can manipulate light. I’m sure you can do more. And you can also heal humans.”
“How do you know this?” I asked.
There was a pause. “When I was thirteen, I was leaving soccer practice with a friend of mine—Chris Johnson. He was a normal kid like me, except he was super fast, never got sick, and I never saw his parents at any games. But who cares, right? I didn’t until I was goofing around and stepped off the curb, right in front of a speeding cab. Chris healed me. Turns out he was an alien.” His lips twisted into a wry grin. “I thought it was pretty cool. My best friend was an alien. Who gets to say that? What I didn’t know and what he never told me was that he lit my ass up. Five days later, four men entered my house.
“They wanted to know where they were,” he continued, hands clenching into fists. “I didn’t know what they meant. They killed my parents and my little sister right in front of me. And when I still couldn’t help them, they beat me within an inch of my life.”
“Oh my God,” Kat whispered.
“Not sure he really exists,” he said, letting out a dry laugh. “Anyway, it took me a while to figure out that when you’re healed, you take on their abilities. Shit just started flying everywhere after I was sent to live with my uncle. When I realized that my friend had changed me, I researched as much as I could. Not that I needed to. The Arum found me again.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“The Arum in the diner, she couldn’t sense me because of the beta quartz—yeah, I know about that, too. But if we were outside of the quartz range, we are just like your…friend to them. We’re actually tastier.”
Tastier? My fist rested on my knee.
“When I realized how much danger I was in, I started training physically and working on my abilities. I learned about their weakness through…others. I survived the best I could.”
Instinct was firing off left and right. This guy happened to be healed by another Luxen, confirming what I suspected had happened to Kat, the whole changing her part, and he just coincidentally ended up here, in the middle of Bum Fuck, West Virginia? This wasn’t the only place in the U.S. that was protected by beta quartz. This was bullshit.
“This is all great, the caring and sharing crap,” I said. “But how did you end up here of all places?”
“When I learned about the beta quartz, I moved here with my uncle.”
“Awful convenient,” I murmured.
“Yeah, it is. The mountains. Very convenient for me,” he replied.
“There are plenty of other places packed with beta quartz,” I pointed out. “Why. Here?”
“Seemed like the least populated area,” he reasoned. “I couldn’t imagine there being that many Arum here.”
“So everything was a lie?” Kat asked suddenly. “Santa Monica, the surfing?”
“No, not everything was a lie. I’m from Santa Monica and I still love surfing,” he said. “I’ve lied as much as you have, Katy.”
He leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. He sank into the shadows inside the car. “You’ve been hurt, haven’t you? And healed by one of them?”
I stiffened.
Douche Bag sighed again. “You’re not going to tell me which one it was?”
“It’s not your business,” she said. “How did you know I was different?”
“You mean besides the obvious obsidian, the alien entourage, and the branch?” He laughed. “You’re full of electricity. See?” He reached between the seats and placed his hand over Kat’s. Static crackled, jolting us both.
My hand snaked out and grabbed his, throwing it back at him. “I do not like you.”
“Feeling’s mutual, bud.” He looked at Kat. “It’s the same whenever we touch an Arum or a Luxen, isn’t it? You feel their skin hum?”
She was quiet for a moment. “How do you know about the DOD?”
“I met another human like us. She was under the DOD’s thumb. Apparently she exposed her abilities and they swooped in. She told me everything about the DOD and what they really want, which isn’t the Luxen or the Arum.”
I turned back around, eyeing him. “What do you mean?”
“They want people like Katy. They don’t give two shits about the aliens. They want us.”
Kat gaped at him. “What?”
“You need to explain that a lot better,” I ordered as static built in the tiny car.
He leaned forward. “Do you really think the DOD doesn’t know what both the Arum and Luxen are capable of, that after studying your kind for decades and decades that they don’t know what they’re dealing with? And if you really believe not, then you’re stupid or naive.”
Kat jolted in the seat.