“Landon…when does your mum come back?” I ask as he pulls the car into the driveway and pulls out the keys. He leans his head back, and sighs slowly before looking at me with pain-filled eyes.
“She won’t be coming back, Ura. Our mum is gone,” he tells me, his voice a whisper which sounds louder than it should in the quiet car. I know from the pain in his eyes that something bad happened.
“When did she die?” I whisper back.
“She isn’t dead, but I am sure she wishes she were,” he mutters, and I stare wide-eyed at him. Why would he think his mum wishes she were dead? It doesn’t make any sense.
“Why would she wish that Landon?” I ask, feeling frightened.
“Did Maxx not tell you about the crash? About this?” Landon asks, and reaches over, pressing a finger to my forehead where my mark is. Him touching the mark, telling me he can see it, is so amazing when I’ve been told there is nothing there for so long.
“No, he disappeared when I brought it up,” I admit.
“I will get him to tell you, you need to know to understand what happened to our mum. You need to know to understand why Maxx pushes you away,” he says, lowering his hand. I assumed Maxx pushes me away because I drain him, but there must be more from what Landon is saying. I just don’t know what.
“Landon…is my mum really an alien?” I ask.
“Yes,” he says, and just hearing him say it seems to make me believe it more. Since Maxx told me, I keep searching through all my memories of my mum to see if there was ever anything out of the ordinary. If there were any signs my mum is who they say she is. Yet I don’t remember anything odd or weird about mum. No signs she was an alien at all. It makes me wonder how much she lied about, how many secrets there were that I don’t know about. I also wonder why she would leave me alone.
“My mum was so normal. I can’t see her as an alien that hid so much. I never saw her as anything other than my mum that cooked all the time, stitched up my favorite dress when it got ripped. She was my kind mum that put plasters on my cuts when I used to fall over all the time as a kid,” I tell him. “The idea that she lied and left me without telling me who I am as well…it’s hard to cope with.”
“Your mum was good at hiding who she is…I have to do the same,” he tells me. “Sometimes it is safer to lie and hide than to be the hero of the situation.”
“Maxx told me that you are kinda like me, well, my non-human side, and that you don’t use your powers,” I say, and he nods. “Why don’t you use your powers?”
“Right, well, I don’t know a thing about my biological parents, only that my mother asked my mum to look after me when I was a baby,” he sighs, jiggling his keys in his hands. “But mum, the clan and Maxx are all light. They didn’t know how to train me, and they got worried I would drain them by accident, so they taught me how to block my powers as that’s all they knew. Eventually it got to the point that I can’t use them anymore, and I don’t want to now because I could hurt the people I care about.”
“Landon,” I say his name because I can’t think of any words. I rest my head on his shoulder as it pours down with rain outside. “You have family like you now, you have me. Even if I’m only a half.”
“You’re our clan, no matter what you are,” he informs me, saying it like it is something I should understand when I don’t.
“What is a clan?” I ask.
“Family to our kind. We die, we protect, and we share the true light. That is what a clan does,” he says. “Light or dark, we all have our clans. Mum used to say that the clans on the planets used to be filled with thousands of people and creatures bonded to them.”
“When did the world get so complicated?” I ask.
“It was always complicated, you just didn’t know it yet,” he tells me, and he is dead right there. I’ve just been clueless until we moved here. I look up at the house and wonder for a second if dad might know what mum is. What I am. I shake those thoughts when I know my dad wouldn’t keep everything from me. Not the important things anyway. We sit silently, listening to the pouring rain for a while and just letting it keep us calm. I’ve always liked just sitting watching the rain and how it can be soothing.
“I have a date with Austin tomorrow,” I whisper, wanting to tell him and get it off my chest. Landon practically jumps in shock as I lift my head off him and look up to see him staring at me in shock.
“Austin? The psychopath?” he asks. “Really? Why the hell would you say yes to a date with him?”
“He blackmailed me into it. Austin said he would drain Iris and Abby, and then tell the wrong people about everyone,” I explain, and I don’t even want to know who the wrong people are. I shiver when I think back to the way Austin could freeze me with one touch.
“Does Maxx know?” Landon asks, looking furious.
“Yep. He went mad, and then seemed to forget about it,” I say. Part of me hoped Maxx would fix it somehow, and I wouldn’t have to go on the date. It doesn’t seem like that is going to happen now.
“Maxx hasn’t forgotten, I promise you that,” he says. “It will be okay. Austin wouldn’t risk harming you and is likely only doing it to piss Maxx off.”
“I don’t want to go, but I feel protective of everyone already,” I admit.
“We don’t form friendships like humans do. When you come into a clan, the need to protect the members of the clan becomes a part of you,” he says. “Half of you isn’t human, and that half will feel the effects of being around us. Of being around your own kind.”
“That makes a lot of sense. I wondered why I would ever want to protect Iris,” I say, wanting to lighten up the mood, and he thankfully laughs.
“I don’t want to get out the car, do you?” he asks, and I look at the pouring rain outside.
“Nope,” I reply and rest my head back on his shoulder as we wait for the storm to pass.
Chapter Twenty
“Aura! Someone is here to see you!” Dad shouts up the stairs, and I frown, looking at my phone and seeing that it is only six. Austin isn’t meant to be here until eight. Why the hell would he come this early? I haven’t even had a chance to explain I’m going out on a date to dad yet. I thought I’d at least have an hour to get dad on board.
“I’ll be right down!” I shout back, and quickly finish curling my hair. I don’t even know why I’m bothering to dress up when I don’t want to go on this date anyway. Part of me wants to be dressed up for the extra confidence it will give me to get through this date. I finish the last curl and quickly pull on my blue dress, which has little stars all over it. When I stare at myself in the mirror, I find it hard to see the half of me which is meant to be different from human. I just look like an average girl who happens to have strangely glowing marks and pink hair. I shake my head at myself and slide my blue, slightly heeled shoes on before grabbing my bag and putting my phone inside. I take a deep breath and remind myself that Austin wouldn’t hurt me without knowing Maxx would kill him for it. At least I hope he would avenge me. I close my door and frown when I hear my dad laughing from the top of the stairs. I didn’t know Austin was funny, and how has he got my dad laughing?
I walk down the stairs and follow the noise into the kitchen, and I stop dead in my tracks when I see Maxx stood next to my dad with a bunch of roses on the counter next to him. Maxx turns, like he knows I’m here even though I’ve been stood silently watching for a few moments, and his eyes widen a little as he runs his eyes over my dress and hair. I do the same to him, seeing his leather jacket, tight black top and jeans that fit him like a glove. Maxx has brushed his black hair to the side, making it look softer than usual, and it makes his blue eyes stand out more. I really like it. My dad clears his throat, getting my attention away from Maxx.
“Hey, dad,” I say to him briefly and look back to the guy that isn’t meant to be here. “Hey, Maxx?” I question, and he grins, picking up the flowers and walking over to me.
“I bought you these,” he says as I accept them off him, our fingers briefly brushing, sending shivers of warmth through me. It only serves to remind me of the embarrassing kiss and the fact I basically kill him every time we are together. I stroke my fingers over the top of the pink roses.
“Thanks, I love roses, how did you know?” I ask. Even my perfume is a rose scent. It reminds me of the rose flowers my mum used to grow in our flat.
“You always smell of roses, I guess I noticed at some point. I assumed you would like the actual flowers, Freckles,” he tells me, confusing me with the sweet gesture. This boy is way too hot and cold with me. I have to remember he pushed me away.
