I tensed. “Yes.”
“And she found out about you guys?”
Several seconds passed before I could decide how to answer this question. “Yes.”
Kat glanced at me. “And that’s why she disappeared?”
“Yes.” More or less, that was the truth.
“Did she tell someone? I mean, why did she…have to disappear?”
“It’s complicated, Kat.”
“Is she…dead?”
When I didn’t answer that question, she stopped. I looked back, and she was digging a pebble out of her sandal. “You’re just not going to tell me?”
I grinned at her.
“So why did you want to come out here?” She shook the rock out and placed the sandal back on. “Because it’s fun for you to be all evasive?”
“Well, it is amusing to watch your cheeks get all pink when you’re frustrated.”
Her cheeks burned brighter.
I winked and started walking again. Her questions were valid, and I was being a jerk about it, but there really weren’t easy answers to those questions. The lake came into view. “Besides the twisted fact that I like watching you get all bent out of shape, I figured you’d have more questions.”
“I do.”
“Some I won’t answer. Some I will.” I glanced over at her, and she didn’t look upset at me. I felt like I needed to take a picture to capture that moment. “Might as well get all your questions out of the way. Then we don’t have a reason to bring any of this up again, but you’re going to have to work for those questions.”
She arched a brow. “What do I have to do?”
I glanced out over the lake and smiled. “Meet me on the rock.”
“What? I’m not wearing a bathing suit.”
Kicking off my shoes, I turned my smile on her. She blinked once and then twice before quickly looking away. “So? You could almost strip down—”
“Not going to happen.” She crossed her arms.
That was a damn shame.
“Figured,” I replied. “Haven’t you ever gone swimming in your clothes before?”
Her lips pursed. “Why do we have to go swimming for me to ask questions?”
My gaze zeroed in on that mouth for way too long before I lowered my gaze. “It’s not for you, but for me. It seems like a normal thing to do.” I shifted my weight. “The day we went swimming?”
“Yes.” She took a step toward me.
Lifting my gaze, I met her stare. I took a deep breath. “Did you have fun?”
Kat tilted her head to the side. “When you weren’t being a jerk and if I ignore the fact that you were bribed into it, then yes.”
Smiling, I looked away. One of these days, maybe, I’d tell her that I hadn’t been bribed. “I had more fun that day than I can remember. I know it sounds stupid, but—”
“It’s not stupid.” Her response was immediate and genuine. Then she shocked the hell right out of me. “Okay. Let’s do this. Just don’t go underwater for five minutes.”
Relaxing, I laughed. “Deal.”
While I pulled off my shirt, she slipped off her sandals. I could tell she was watching me from under her lowered gaze. I waited for her to change her mind, but she grinned at me, and I…shit. There was a weird tugging in my chest as I watched her walk up to the water’s edge and dip her toes in.
“Oh my God, the water is cold!” she shrieked.
I could do something about that.
“Watch this.” Winking at her, I turned back to the lake. I let go of my human form. White light spread out from my chest and over my form. I shot off the ground, moving incredibly fast. To her, I probably looked like nothing more than a fiery ball. I hit the center of the lake. In my true form, heat radiated off me, warming the lake as I whipped around, under the water.
As I neared the rocks, I shifted back into the form Kat was more comfortable with as I hauled myself up on the rocks.
“Alien powers?” she asked.
Water sluiced off my skin as I leaned over the edge of the rock, motioning her forward. “Come in, it’s a little warmer now.”
She didn’t look like she believed me when she placed her foot in. Her body jerked as she glanced up at me, her eyes wide. “Any other cool talents?” she asked as she waded over to the rocks.
“I can make it so that you can’t even see me.”
When she reached the side of the rocks, she placed her hand in mine. I pulled her up easily, and once she gained her footing, I let go and scooted back, giving her room.
She shivered as she sat on the sunbaked rock. “How can you do things without me seeing?”
Leaning back on my elbows, I stretched out my legs. “We’re made of light. We can manipulate the different spectra around us, using them. It’s like we’re fracturing the light, if that makes any sense.”
“Not really.”
“You’ve seen me turn into my natural state, right?” When she nodded, I went on. “And I sort of vibrate until I break apart into tiny particles of light. Well, I can selectively eliminate the light, which allows us to be transparent.”