When Dee left early this morning I tried to talk her out of going and helping that girl next door with anything. That's the name I'm going with now, that girl next door. If I keep referring to her with pet names, I won't be able to stop myself. So that girl is the best I'll do.

I was back to feeling like I had to keep them apart for the better of all of us. If Dee becomes attached, if anyone else becomes attached, it won't end well. Dee practically begged me to let her have this. The tears in her eyes and her tone made me waver long enough to agree, with the stipulation that this was a onetime thing. They are different, and Dee knows it.

When Dee's car pulls up the driveway and in front of the house next door, I watch them start to unload the plants and huge bags of mulch. That girl isn't afraid of getting dirty and actually working, is she. They manage to unload a couple of the bags before going inside. While they are inside I go out and levitate the bags from the car and stack them by the garden. I quickly go back inside before either of them sees. Dee will know it was me, but Katy doesn't need to know.

I watch as the two of them come back out and start in on the garden. Katy seems completely comfortable working with her hands while Dee looks out of place in her skirt and sandals. But Dee digs right in while the two girls talk and work.

After a while of alternating between watching them and watching some show about haunted houses, my phone rings.

When I answer I'm immediately greeted with the sound of Matthew's voice bitching me out about Dee's new friend. He may be older and be a kind of guardian for us, but he still pisses me off to no end.

"I'm taking care of it, Matthew."

He keeps his tirade going and I ignore most of what he says. He's so adamant about staying away from the humans and keeping to ourselves, especially since Dawson, that he's like a freaking broken record.

Through his rant, I walk out the door, forgetting that I'm topless and that Dee and Katy are out there.

Though I'm on the phone, I'm more aware of what Dee and Katy are talking about than Matthew. I just have to let him bitch until he wears himself out or he realizes that I zoned out a while ago. Then he'll give up and shut-up.

Over Matthew's voice, I hear Katy ask Dee if I own a shirt. I snicker to myself a little, I love that I get that girl all flustered by just not wearing a shirt.

"Matthew, you need to relax. It's under control." This comment sends him into more of a tirade. I know what he's thinking. He's thinking that I said the same thing about Dawson and Beth, but the fact of the matter is, I have no control over anything. I couldn't control who Dawson fell for any more than I can tell my sister no when she gets all teary and sad.

I walked around the yard, listening to Matthew complain and trying to reassure him that it's all good. About a half hour later, I run into the house and throw a shirt on and go back out to draw my sister home and to have her call Matthew.

When I get there, Katy is on the ground digging holes and filling them with plants while Dee stands and talks to her. They get along so well so fast, it reminds me of how quickly Dawson and Beth hit it off. Too bad I have to put an end to this.

I walk over to Dee and wrap my arm around her shoulders, "Hey Sis." She tries to wiggle away from me with no avail. I'm stronger and she knows it.

She looks up at me and smiles, "Thanks for moving the bags for us."

I smile at her. "Wasn't me," I deny.

"Whatever, butthead."

I smile wider and pull her closer, "That's not nice." I glance toward Katy and scowl at her. Time to try to piss her off and make her want to stay away from Dee so she doesn't have to be near me. I know Dee is going to hate me for this, but it is how it has to be. I know this girl is interesting and she seems different, but she is trouble, and she'll cause us nothing but trouble. I'm sure of it. "What are you doing?"

"I'm fixing…" the girl begins, but I cut her off immediately. If I learned anything from my confrontation with her yesterday, it is that she hates being cut off.

I snap at her as nastily as possible, "I wasn't asking you." I turn my attention away from that girl and back to my sister, "What are you doing?"

The girl turns her focus from me and is visibly calming herself. She starts to focus in on her plants and seems to let the rest of the world, me and Dee included, fall into the background. I've got to get her attention again if I'm going to successfully piss her off.

"I'm helping her with the flower bed. Be nice," Dee tells me, punching me in the stomach, hard. She wriggles away from me. "Look what we've done. I think I have a hidden talent."

I'm silent for a long time. Watching as Katy… I mean the girl… places plants into the ground and sprinkles mulch around everything. It does actually look nice, not that I would ever say that. I'm silent for so long that she looks up at me.

"What?"

"It's nice. I guess," I say emotionlessly.

"Nice?" Dee shouts, looking at me like I'm insane. I guess this is a first for my sister. Manual labor really isn't her thing. She's not usually the outdoorsy kind of girl. She's the shopping kind of girl. So for her to do something like this, is actually kind of amazing. "It's better than nice. We rocked this project. Well Katy rocked it. I just kind of handed her stuff."

Ignoring my sister I turn my attention to the girl crouching on the ground, "Is this what you do with your spare time?"

"What- are you deciding to talk to me now?" she asks, spreading more mulch. "Yeah, it's kind of a hobby. What's yours? Kicking puppies?"

Now it's time to see the flush cross her cheeks again. I liked how she looked yesterday when the embarrassed flush touched her cheeks. What the hell is my problem? One minute I want to chase her away, the next I'm trying to embarrass her so that I can watch her flush. Damn, I suck at this.

"I'm not sure I should say in front of my sister," I tell her.

"Ew," Dee says behind me. It makes me snicker a little.

By the look on Kitten's face, I can immediately tell where her mind has drifted to. I love having that effect on girls, especially this girl. "But it's not nearly as lame as this," I say gesturing to the garden, that is actually quite impressive.

She spreads mulch and then looks up at me, "Why is this lame?"

I give her a look that I hope says that I'm not even going to answer that because its lameness is self-explanatory. Apparently I got my point across because she looks at me pissed, but then looks to my sister and clamps her mouth shut and continues with the mulch. I'm impressed. She's keeping her mouth shut because of my sister? That was unexpected. I didn't expect a human to have that kind of self-control to be able to shut her mouth to save a friend.

Dee pushes me, but I don't budge. I just keep my eyes locked on the girl crouching on the ground, with her hands in the dirt.

"Don't be a jerk. Please," Dee begs me. I feel bad hurting my sister like this. But she has to know that this is just all kinds of bad and it can't work out. Their friendship can't work out.

"I'm not being a jerk," I deny. I look to the girl, who now really looks like a kitten crouching on the ground, her hair standing on end, ready to pounce. "What's that? You have something to say, Kitten?"

"Other than I'd like you to never call me Kitten? No." She stands and dusts the dirt off of her clothes. God is her body perfect and her face is so pretty. "I think we did good," she says looking past me to Dee.

"Yes," Dee said smiling and attempting to push me toward our house again. "We did good, lameness and all. And you know what? I kind of like being lame."

I stare down at the flowers, they really are very pretty and they liven up the place a lot, make it look lived in as opposed to just a house.

"And I think we need to spread our lameness to the flowerbed in front of our house," Dee says. "We can go to the store, get stuff, and you can…"

This snaps me out of my gaze. How can she think it would be a good idea to have her at our house? She's just not getting that this is all a bad idea and I can't let this happen. "She's not welcome in our house. Seriously," I snap at Dee, turn and giving her a hard look.

Dee didn't back down though, a behavior I'm not used to. She usually caves to my word, but not now. What in the hell is this girl doing to my sister? "I was thinking we could work on the flowerbed, which is outside, not inside, the last time I checked."

"I don't care," I growled, "I don't want her over there."

Dee's eyes start to pool with tears and they beg me to stop. "Daemon, don't do this," she whispers for only me. "Please, I like her."

I can't help it, I hate to see her so upset and the fact that I made her so upset makes it even worse. I feel myself soften to her, "Dee…"

"Please?" Dee pleads. I know she doesn't feel like Ash and the others are her friends. I know she feels weighed down by her expected partnership with Adam. I know she is starving for some kind of connection with someone other than us.

"Dee, you have friends," I argue, even though my heart really isn't in it. I desperately want to keep her safe and keeping her away from the human is the best way I know to keep her safe.

"It's not the same and you know it," she folds her arms, glaring at me. "It's different."

I know exactly what she means. I really don't totally like Andrew, he's kind of a dick, Ash is just Ash, Adam is really the only one that doesn't make me want to poke my own eyes out sometimes. It's not the same as making your own friends, but they are the same as us. This human isn't.

I glance toward the girl, Kitten, and scowl, then I turn my attention back to my sister. "They're your friends, Dee. They're like you. You don't need to be friends with someone… someone like her."

This is the worst sounding sentence that I've ever spoken aloud. I feel like such a bigot saying this about her. We are treated like shit by the government, we are forced to act a certain way by both our elders and the DOD, we are discriminated against and treated like shit all of the time and here I am doing it to her because she's human. But this is what is expected. She will never be welcomed by our community, Ash and the rest will treat her like she's a piece of shit, and Matthew might just have a total fit. It has to be this way.

Those last words must have been the tipping point, because now Katy looks like she could spit fire. "What do you mean, someone like me?" she asks.

I glare at her, she needs to keep out of this. It isn't her business. Dee looks between Katy and myself with fear in her eyes. She immediately speaks up, "He didn't mean anything by it," she defends.

"Bullshit," I growl. I did. I need to make sure this doesn't happen.

"What the hell is your problem?" Katy growls back. She's not backing down at all. I kind of like that I can't intimidate her, but it's also pissing me off.

"You," I tell her. Part serious, part not. My problem has more to do with the DOD and other humans than her.

"I'm your problem?" she asks. "I don't even know you. And you don't know me."

She's right about that and I need to keep it that way, no matter the consequences.

"You are all the same," I reason and it's true. Most humans basically suck on an epic level. "I don't need to get to know you. Or do I want to."

She throws her arms into the air and sends me a death glare. She's actually kind of intimidating in her own way. I do like that she won't back down from a fight and I really like seeing her like this, all feisty and angry, it's sexy.

"That works perfectly for me, buddy, because I don't want to get to know you either."

Dee grabs my arm and begs me, "Daemon. Knock it off." The tears in her eyes make me falter for just a moment. I hate hurting my sister like this. But I keep my eyes trained on Katy and smirk.

"I don't like that you're friends with my sister."

"And I don't give two shits what you like," she fires back immediately.

Now I'm not sure if I'm hot because I'm pissed or because I'm completely turned on by the fact that she won't back down from me. Either way, it's not good. This kind of pissed off could lead to loss of control of my powers and the latter would just be completely wrong. Before I realize what I did, I move faster than I should have and got into her face. Damn, I'm not supposed to do that in front of humans. But now I'm in her face, breathing the same air. I can smell the earth on her, her sweat, and the sweet smell of peaches and vanilla wafting off of her. Together the smells are intoxicating and arousing.

"How… how did you move…?" she asks.

I've got to keep this going and ignore the fact that I just moved faster than I was supposed to, "Listen closely." I step toward her and she steps back. She continues to move backward with me matching each step until her back slams into a tree. I smirk, I got her in an interesting position and I'm aware of what the repercussions of her position could be, if Dee weren't here watching horrified. I bend down and move closer into her face so she sees nothing but my startling green eyes, I know they must appear to be glowing right now. "I'm only going to tell you this once. If anything happens to my sister so help me…" I glance down toward her parted lips. Lips I desperately want to taste for myself. I pull my eyes back up and send a glare back to Katy. I hope she didn't notice my momentary lapse. But then I can see her trying desperately to keep her eyes off of me and I know she's thinking very much like I am. Neither of us can seem to ignore this attraction, no matter how unnatural and wrong it is.

I smirk and let her see my arrogance pass over me. I want her to know that I can see what she's thinking about.

"You're kind of dirty, Kitten," I whisper to her, the smirk never leaving my face.

Her cheeks flush and she stares at me, seemingly afraid to speak, "What did you say?"

"Dirty," I repeat in a low and gruff voice. "You're covered in dirt. What did you think I meant?" I know exactly what she thought. I know she's undressed me with her eyes several times since yesterday, I can see it.

"Nothing," she retorts quickly. "I'm gardening. You get dirty when you do that."

I send her a seductive smirk, "There are a lot more fun ways to get… dirty. Not that I'd ever show you." There is no one I'd want to show more than her. She's so freaking hot.

"I'd rather roll around in manure than anything you might sleep in," she retorts.

I send her a glare, I know I've done my job. I pissed her off. Hopefully enough for her to think that Dee isn't worth her time. I spin around and my eyes find Dee, "You need to call Matthew. Like now and not five minutes from now."

I stalk back across the yard and don't glance back until I'm on my porch ready to go back into my house. Katy is still pressed against the tree with a look of horror and desire plastered across her face. I managed to freak her out a bit, but I may have also ignited something there too. I know something is ignited in me. Being that close to her, smelling her… What am I thinking? Nothing can come from this, ever.

I move up to my room, I need to change and take a run or something. I have way too much energy and tension built up in me right now. And it's all because of Kitten. I put on shorts and sneaks. When I move out the back door I can see Dee and Kitten still talking. Dee seems to be desperate for her to not have been scared away. I don't even care right now. I need to get away from the door. I move as fast as light to the woods behind our house before taking on my true form and flashing through the forest. Maybe if I can put enough space and time between me and the girl next door, I'll be able to handle this and get rid of her. If I keep flirting, this is just going to end badly.