When I return home from my run, Dee is sitting on the couch with tears in her eyes. She looks up at me, her green eyes translucent and glowing. The sadness behind her eyes is heartbreaking. Dee is my little sister, and the only family I have left. In the Luxen community, women and girls are treated as special gifts from the heavens. Men in our community outnumber women 2 to 1, so women are revered. But that is not the reason that my sister is special to me, she's special because she's Dee. She's innocent and pure, she looks beyond my obvious bad attitude and she sees me for the man I am and not who I have to be. She also loves me in spite of myself, which is a feat all its own.

Being one of the strongest in my community, I have to protect the others. It's my responsibility to make sure that the others are safe from humans, Aurum, the DOD, and the elders. I don't let any of them intimidate me. The only thing that bothers me is the thought of losing Dee or seeing her hurt.

"What's wrong? Did that girl do something to upset you? Did she break off your friendship?" I ask almost hopefully.

Tears spilling over her cheeks, she shakes her head. "No, Katy didn't care about what you said. She's insistent that you can't scare her away, no matter what you do."

A new feeling of admiration builds in my chest. The girl isn't behaving like any human that I've threatened before. I've threatened a lot of humans off, intimidating them until they feel like pursuing a friendship with any of us wouldn't be worth their time. But this girl is spunky, I'll give her that much.

"Then what's wrong?" I ask Dee, worried.

"Matt… Matthew wants me to go spend a few days at his cabin with Adam, so we can get to know each other and start our…" she pauses and looks physically ill, "our courtship. He says that this is what the elders want," she explains.

I shake my head, this is the way it works in our community. The girls are quickly paired off with a male and they are expected to mate once they graduate high school. By this time next year, my sister could be carrying a set of her own triplets. I know this isn't what she wants, she wants to go to college, she wants to do her own thing and choose her own life partner. Even though Adam is a good guy, she may never figure that out because all she sees are the expectations of our community.

"When do you have to go?" I ask finally noticing the suitcase sitting by doorway.

"I was just waiting for you to get home," she smiles and quickly stands and wipes her face clear of her sadness and annoyance. She gets a gleam of mischief in her sparking green eyes.

"What?" I ask her.

"Oh, nothing," she smirks. "It's just I've hidden your keys and you will never find them."

"What? Dee you know I need that car to go to the store and do normal things."

She smirks more, "I know. That's why I did it. You will definitely need a shopping trip before I get back."

"Damn it Dee, tell me where my keys are," I growl.

She laughs now, "Nope. I'll tell you where they are but first you have to earn some bonus points."

"What the holy hell are you talking about? Give me my fucking keys, Dee."

"No, you will get them back but first you have to apologize to Katy. You have to also do something nice for her. You could take her to the lake to go swimming or something like that."

"No way in hell, Dee. I'm not spending time with that… that human. You know I can just hotwire my car."

"But you won't hotwire it. It's too precious to you," she says. "You will hang with Katy if you want your keys back. I like Katy and I want to be her friend. She's already said that she isn't going to let you scare her away, but I think there is something else boiling between the two of you. If you see that she's different, that she's special, then maybe you can figure out that there is something more there for you too."

"Not going to happen."

"Then you aren't going anywhere in town until I get back on Friday. Because how would it look if you run into town for groceries and then run home. You will be seen, you will blow our cover, and then the elders will be pissed. Just spend one afternoon with her, that's all I'm asking."

She wraps her arms around me and kisses my cheek. "I love you Daemon, but you are a miserable man and I think there is someone that could make you a little less miserable if you let her."

"You know it's forbidden, Dee. Look at what happened with Dawson," I say quietly.

"Dawson was never happier than when he was with Bethany. He loved her and he was willing to give up everything for that happiness. I think you could use your own bit of happiness. Just be nice, hang out with her one day, if you hate it then you'll never have to be around her again. I'll stop hanging with her and I won't push it anymore," she sticks out her hand, "Do we have a deal?"

I look at her hand and then into her eyes. She looks so sure, like she knows something or sees something that I don't know or see. She smiles that same mischievous smile, the one that has driven me nuts since we were kids. There's a knowing and a maturity behind that smile and it annoys the hell out of me.

"What if I find my keys first?" I ask, challenging her.

"You won't, that I'm sure of. Take her swimming and the keys are yours. Maybe you'll actually have fun."

She kisses my cheek once more, picks up her suitcase and goes out to her car. When she puts the car in reverse and begins to back out, she waves and gives me a sad smile. I watch until the car is out of sight and turn back into the house. Now it's time to tear this house apart to find these damn keys.

Three hours… three hours of pulling the entire house apart from top to bottom to find my freaking keys and I've found nothing. Nothing but dust bunnies and some change, no keys. Dammit, where in the hell could she have put them?

I look to the clock that says its past midnight now, I guess I could go to bed and start again tomorrow. But I know it won't be worth it. If Dee doesn't want me to find the keys, I won't.

:::

The next morning when I wake, I busy myself with cleanup. While the house is torn apart I might as well give it a good cleaning. I get rid of the multitude of dust bunnies, sweep and mop, dust and vacuum, until the house is fresh and clean. Well, if nothing else at least that's done, but I still don't have my keys.

Outside I hear the sounds of water spraying and slopping. I turn to the window to find the girl next door beginning to wash her car. She's dressed in a tight tank top, short jean shorts and flip flops. Her long light brown hair is pulled back in some kind of clip that keeps it back and out of her perfect face. The tank top hugs her upper body, revealing how supple her breasts are, something I never noticed beneath the bulkier tee-shirts, and the short shorts show off her shapely legs. Most guys look at Ash and think she has a perfect body, and don't get me wrong, Ash is striking and her body is gorgeous but she knows she's gorgeous. She knows it and she makes sure that others know it too. She loves to show off her body and make guys drool for something that they can never have. But Katy is something else. She's beautiful but she doesn't seem to know it. She doesn't flaunt herself, or act like she even thinks she's pretty.

I continue to watch her as she moves around the car, and when it comes time for her to wash the roof of the car, she manages to get herself more wet than the roof. From where I'm standing I can see how frustrated she's getting. I can also see how her top and shorts are now soaked and how the tank top clings to her curves and has become slightly see through.

I'm not sure when I decided that I was going to go through with Dee's plan to make me hang with her. Was it when I was watching her wash the car or when I saw how her wet top clung to her breasts and hugged her curves, I don't know. But I found myself outside standing in front of her, snickering at her frustration.

"You look as if you could use some help," I say in a low, smooth baritone.

She stood, staring at me as if she's waiting for a bomb to explode and I suppose she kind of was. I didn't give her any reason to think I could ever just be nice. I am always either rude or snapping at her like she's beneath me. I kind of always felt like humans were beneath me. They are fragile and usually untrustworthy, but that changed when Dawson made me get to know Bethany. She wasn't weak and she wasn't afraid of us, even when she found out the truth she didn't back down no matter how hard I tried to scare her away. She earned my respect, and now it's happening again which is all the more reason to make this girl go away.

"You looked as though you wanted to throw that again," I say, trying to break her from her silent gaping. "I figured I'd do my good deed for the day and intervene before any innocent sponges lose their lives."

Still gaping at me, I walk over to the bucket and pick up the sponge and ring it out. She's still silent, but at least I know she's not frozen or something when she moves a wet piece of hair out of her face.

"You look like you got more of a bath than the car. I never thought washing a car would be so hard, but after watching you for the last fifteen minutes, I'm convinced it should be an Olympic sport."

"You were watching me?" she asks. Suddenly I feel like some kind of stalker or something. I do like watching her. I like the way she looks and that she's not afraid to get dirty or in this case wet to accomplish something. Most girls would just take their car through a car wash or let someone else do it for them. But not this girl, she takes care of business herself and doesn't wait for someone else to take care of it for her.

"You could always take the car to the car wash. It would be a lot easier."

"Car washes are a waste of money," she says, confirming my beliefs. I've already figured so much out about this girl and I know there is so much more to her than what I see on the surface.

"True," I say. I knelt on the ground and started washing the fender where she missed some spots. I look over her car, it's old and seems to be on its last leg, I wonder how it runs. Then I noticed the state of her tires, she isn't getting around anywhere when the snow starts if she doesn't get new ones. "You need new tires. These are about bald and the winters are crazy around here."

She looks at me like I'm crazy as I finish with the fender and start on the roof. In a matter of minutes, something she was struggling with is done and I start for the hose to rinse the car off. I smile at her, "Anyway, I'm glad you're out here. I think I'm supposed to apologize." I spray the car and watch as the suds run from the car and across the driveway. I send Kat another smile.

"You think you're supposed to?" she asks, an incredulous tone to her voice.

I turn toward her and narrow my eyes at the bright summer sun. I love the feel of the sun on my body, giving me power and making me feel like I'm invincible. I move to the other side of the car, purposely sending a rogue spray toward her. I snickered to myself when she jumped back from the spray. Not that it would have made a difference, her clothes were completely soaked and her shirt was almost completely see through.

"Yeah, according to Dee I needed to get my ass over here and make nice. Something about me killing her chances of having a "normal" friend."

"A normal friend?" she asks, confused. "What kind of friends does she have?"

"Not normal," I say flatly.

"Well apologizing and not meaning it kind of defeats the purpose of apologizing."

"True," I smirk. She's right about that. But do I mean it? No, not really. I truly believe that she's not good for Dee to hang around. Dee needs to be kept safe she can't be safe hanging around a human.

"Are you serious?" she asks annoyance evident in her tone.

"Yeah," I say, dragging out the word. "Actually, I don't have a choice. I have to make nice."

"You don't seem like someone who does anything he doesn't want to do," she says. And damn she's already figuring me out too. I don't do anything that I don't want. Do I really need my keys? No I don't I could just hotwire my car and be on my way. So am I really doing this because I want to? Not that I'd ever admit that to Dee or Kat, but I think I am. I want to explore this feeling that I have when I'm around her. I want to see what it means when every time I come into contact with her I feel electricity vibrating through me, and not in the normal way. Heat and fire burns though every part of me when my skin contacts hers.

"Normally I'm not," I say moving around the car to make sure all of the suds are rinsed away. "But my sister took my car keys and until I play nice, I don't get them back. It's too damn annoying to get replacements."

She laughed, a beautiful musical sound, "She took your keys?"

I scowl at her, even though I loved the sound of her laugh, "It's not funny."

"You're right," she laughs again. "It's freaking hilarious."

I scowl again, sending her my best glare.

"I'm sorry, though," she says folding her arms across her chest. "I'm not accepting your not-so-sincere apology."

"Not even when I'm cleaning your car?" I ask with mock annoyance.

"Nope. You may never see those keys again," she laughs.

"Well damn, there went my plan. I figured that if I really didn't feel bad, then at least I could make up for it," I say smiling.

"Are you normally this warm and sparkly?"

I walk past her, taking all of her in as I move closer to her. She's wearing a light blue tank top with what appears to be a blue lacy bra beneath. The tank is clinging to the curves of her breasts and showing the contours of the bra and her flat stomach. Her hair is wet and a mess, but it looks sexy on her, the wet look really works for her. Her jean shorts cling to the curves of her ass and she definitely has an ass, not one of those flat ones but one that guys like to grab a hold of. She has a perfect hour glass figure. I shake my head and try to clear my thoughts as I turn the water off.

I turn my attention back to her words, and smirk. I'm going to see if I really can make her flustered. "Always. Do you usually stare at guys when you stop over, asking for directions?"

Immediately pink finds her cheeks.

"Do you always answer the door half naked?" she retorts.

"Always. And you didn't answer the question. Do you always stare?" I push.

The flush on her cheeks turns red, I like that she was looking at me like that and I really like the flush that covers her face right now.

"I was not staring," she denies. But she can't deny it. She stared so long that I thought she might have been mute or something. I snicker to myself because the red on her face is starting to extend to her neck.

I give her a half grin, almost a real smile. I don't give many people real smiles, especially humans. "Really?" I look at her skeptically and widen my grin just a little more. "Anyway, you woke me up. I'm not a morning person."

"It wasn't that early," she pointed out. And it wasn't, I had washed my car and was actually watching television when she came over. The sleeping excuse just sounds better than I was purposely being a complete dick.

"I sleep in. Its summer, you know. Don't you sleep in?"

"No. I always get up early."

I groan, no wonder my sister loves her, they are a lot alike. "You sound just like my sister. No wonder she loves you so much already."

"Dee has taste… unlike some," she retorts.

I snicker at this. I have great taste, I just can't pursue it. I can't.

"And she's great. I really like her, so if you're over here to play big brother, just forget it."

Okay, she's not afraid of me, she's willing to stand up to be to be friends with my sister, and she's beautiful, she might just be the perfect girl.

"That's not why I'm here." I tell her. I start to gather the bucket and other cleaning things that she has lying around and set them on the porch. She just stands there and stares like I'm a problem she's trying to figure out. I smile toward her, but I'm feeling more and more unsure about why I'm really here.

Then she asks the million dollar question, "Then why are you here, other than delivering a crappy apology?"

After I clean up all of the supplies I turn back toward her and stretch. I see her staring again at my stomach and I smirk to myself. I know she's at least physically attracted.

"Maybe I'm just curious why she's so enamored," I say "Dee doesn't take well to strangers. None of us do."

"I had a dog once that didn't take well to strangers."

The comment is so off the wall that it makes me laugh. A real guttural laugh, deep and rumbling. I see her staring at me then quickly she looks away. She probably thinks I'm some kind of player that takes girls and uses them for my pleasure and then discards them. Little does she know.

She clears her throat and looks back at me, "Well, thanks for the car thing."

I move toward her, fast. Faster than I probably should have. But I can't let her go yet. I need her eyes on me. I move so close to her that we are touching. She has to strain her neck to look up at me.

"How do you move so fast?" she asks breathless.

"My little sis does seem to like you," I say.

"Little? You're twins."

"I was born a whole four minutes and thirty seconds before she was," I say meeting her eyes. "Technically she is my little sister."

"She's the baby of the family?" she asks through a hoarse whisper.

"Yep, therefore I'm the one starved for attention," I say.

"I guess that explains your poor attitude then," she says.

I snicker, I can't help myself she makes me laugh, "Maybe, but most people find me charming."

She looks up into my eyes. She really looks at me and she seems just as lost as I am in this moment. We are so close, and her smell is still just as intoxicating as it was days ago. But now it's just the smell of peaches and vanilla overwhelming my senses. When she finds her voice she's quiet.

"I have… a hard time believing that."

I smile, "You shouldn't, Kat." I look deep into her stormy gray eyes that seem to show confusion and desire behind them. They are different and beautiful. I take a stray clump of hair that has escaped her clip and twirl it around my fingers. Her hair is so soft. "What kind of color is this? It's not brown or blonde."

She snatches her hair from my fingers and moves it behind her ear. "It's called light brown."

"Hmm," I say. But what I want to say is how beautiful it is and how soft. Everything about her is so different and unique. Snapping myself out of it I say, "You and I have plans to make."

"What?" she asks, moving away from me. I already miss the warmth she radiates. "We don't have any plans to make."

I move back and sit on her porch steps, stretching out again.

"Comfortable?" she snaps at me.

"Very," I say. "About these plans…"

She quickly cuts me off, "What are you talking about?"

"You remember the whole 'getting my ass over here and playing nice' thing, right?" I ask, stretching out more and leaning back. "That also involves my car keys? Those plans involve me getting my car keys back."

"You need to give me a little more of an explanation that that."

"Of course," I sigh. "Dee hid my keys. She's good at hiding stuff, too. I've already torn the house apart, and I can't find them."

"So, make her tell you where they are," she says.

"Oh, I would, if she were here. But she's left town and won't be back until Sunday."

"What?" she asks, clearly upset. "I didn't know that."

"It was a last-minute thing," I explain. "And the only way she'll tell me where the keys are hidden is by me earning bonus points. See, my sister has this thing about bonus points, ever since elementary school."

She smiled, a pretty smile that stretches across her face. She must really like my sister for her to get the warm and fuzzies from my sister's stupid bonus points. "Okay…?"

"I have to earn bonus points to get my keys back," I explain. "The only way I can earn those points is by doing something nice for you."

She started laughing, a melodic sound resounds through the area. "I'm sorry, but this is kind of funny."

I glare toward her but smirk, "Yeah, real funny."

"What do you have to do?" she asks through her fading laughter.

"I'm supposed to take you swimming tomorrow. If I do that, then she'll tell me where my keys are hidden- and I have to be nice."

She stares at me in shock, realizing that I'm not kidding, she says, "So the only way you get your keys back is by taking me swimming and by being nice to me?"

"Wow. You're a quick one," I say sarcastically.

She lets out another laugh, "Yeah, well, you can kiss your keys good-bye."

I look at her with surprise, "Why?"

"Because I'm not going anywhere with you."

"We don't have a choice." I may be hotwiring my car after all…

"No. You don't have a choice, but I do."

She glances back toward the house. I'm now wondering if her mother is in there. If she is then I can use her to make Kat go with me.

"I'm not the one with missing keys," she finishes.

I give her my best grin and ask, "You don't want to hang out with me?"

"Uh, no."

"Why not?"

"For starters, you're a jerk," she says rolling her eyes.

"I can be," I agree.

"And I'm not spending time with a guy who's being forced to do it by his sister. I'm not desperate."

"You're not?" I retort. Immediately the fury rises in her face and the flush is back. Not the embarrassed flush, but the flush of anger. I think I like the angry flush better than the embarrassed flush.

"Get off my porch," she growls at me.

I look at her and my mouth turns up in a crooked smirk, "No."

"What?" she almost shouts. "What do you mean no?"

"I'm not leaving until you agree to go swimming with me."

"Fine," she spats. "You can sit there, because I'd rather eat glass than spend time with you."

Damn, overdramatic much? "That sounds drastic."

"Not nearly." She starts to try to walk past me toward her front door. As she walks up the steps I catch her ankle and hold tight. I make sure that I don't use my full strength, but it's enough that she can't possibly move me no matter how hard she tries. She looks down at me, furious now. I smile.

"I'll sit here all day and night. I'll camp out on your porch. And I won't leave. We have all week, Kitten. Either get it over with tomorrow and be done with me, or I'll be right here until you do agree. You won't be able to leave the house."

She gaped at me. "You can't be serious."

"Oh, I am." She has no idea how stubborn I really can be. Especially when I want something… or someone.

"Just tell her we went and that I had a great time." She tries to get away from me. "Lie."

I could do that. Dee wouldn't know, especially if Kat backs it up, but I don't want to. I want to do this. "She'll know if I'm lying. We're twins. We know these things. Or are you too shy to go swimming with me? Does the idea of getting almost naked around me make you uncomfortable?"

She yanks her foot again, but I still won't let her go, "I'm from Florida, idiot. I've spent half my life in a bathing suit."

"What's the big deal then?"

"I don't like you," she spits back. "Let go of my ankle."

"I'm not leaving, Kitten. You're going to do this," I say, lifting one finger at a time from her ankle.

When my last finger is lifted and her ankle is free, the front door opens and her mother steps out. She's an older version of Katy, but with blond hair. Katy's body is curvier and sexier than the older woman's too. Her mother is kind of lanky, but pretty. Katy's eyes widen as she looks upon her mother.

"You live next door?" she asks.

I twist around and smile. "My name is Daemon Black."

"Kellie Swartz. Nice to meet you. You two can come inside if you want. You don't have to sit outside in the heat."

"That's really nice of you." I stand and elbow Katy, "Maybe we should go inside and finish talking about our plans." I've got her now, and I know it. I smirk at her.

"No. That won't be necessary," Katy retorts.

"What plans? I support plans." I got her.

"I'm trying to get your lovely daughter to go swimming with me tomorrow, but I think she's worried you wouldn't like the idea. And I think she's shy," I say with a smile, bumping Katy.

"What? I have no problem with her going swimming with you. I think it's a great idea. I've been telling her she needs to get out. Hanging out with your sister is great, but…"

"Mom," Kat shouts, "That's not really…"

"I was just telling Katy here the same thing." I place my arm across her shoulders and pull her closer to me. The feel of her skin humming with mine is almost unnerving, almost. "My sister is out of town for the next week. I thought I'd hang with Katy."

Her mother smiles at me then her daughter, "That is so sweet of you."

Kat wraps her arm around my waste and tries to dig her fingers into my side, little does she know that it won't affect me. "Yeah, that so sweet of you Daemon," she says with sarcasm dripping from every word.

I take in a breath, "You know what they say about boys next door…"

"Well, I know Katy doesn't have plans tomorrow." Her mother says, "She's free to go swimming."

She wiggles away from me, "Mom…"

"It's okay, honey." Her mother winks at me and turns away. I smirk a little, human women are so easily smitten with good looks. "It was nice to finally meet you."

"You, too," I call back.

As soon as her mother closes the door, Katy turns toward me with a death glare. She tries to push me, but I don't move. I just smirk at her attempt.

"You jerk."

Smiling at my triumph, I take a few steps from the porch. "I'll see you at noon, Kitten."

"I hate you," she hisses at me.

"The feeling's mutual," I retort. "Twenty bucks says you wear a one-piece swimsuit."
She growls and turns away from me.

I move across the yard and back into my house. Thinking back, I don't know why I was so adamant about going swimming, but I got my way, and I'm actually kind of excited about this.