Page 29 of Enzo

"So that wouldn't keep you from going into a store. What about your eyes? I have to tell you, when they glow, it's a dead giveaway."

"We can do this." Ven showed her the side of his head, moving his hair just a little. There were two small circles. He pushed one, and the glow in his eyes disappeared. "We use it if we think we may have to interact with humans."

Deja gulped before taking a deep breath of air.

Let's run.

There's more going on here than we know.

Do you think Ven or Enzo will hurt us?

Look at him.

She looked at Ven. Not through the eyes of a scared woman but through the eyes of someone who cared about him. If she had a son, she'd want one like Ven. He was scared not because she could do something to hurt him physically, but because he had revealed a secret, something he had spent his life hiding, and now he was waiting for her to reject him.

Deja knew what that was like. She had spent a lot of time getting rejected when she was younger until she learned to pick the right kind of friends. Even then, the popular kids had liked to make her life a living hell whenever they could.

"Perfect. Then we will go out to dinner tomorrow. You can do that, and no one will know. I'll be with the most handsome men in the place, and all the other women will be insanely jealous of me."

"Dinner at a restaurant? Can we go?" Ven was staring at Enzo, begging him to say yes.

He opened his mouth, but she cut him off.

"We are going to dinner tomorrow, so get used to it. It won't be somewhere fancy. I don't have fancy money. And do you have a car?" She gave him her best don't-mess-with-me look. Before she arched one of her eyebrows—and yes, she skipped a meal to get them arched. It just didn't cost that much, and a girl needed to look good when she went on an interview.

"I have a license and a car in the garage. We don't go anywhere, though, so..."

"So, you can drive, but you're not the best. Lucky for you, I love driving. I sold my car recently, but I am smooth behind the wheel like butter."

They both frowned, and she laughed.

"I'm going to take a shower and put something on for work tonight. Then I'm cooking. I don't know what's in that fridge, so take something out for dinner." Deja smiled at Enzo and Ven before disappearing into her room.

She gathered what she needed and disappeared behind the bathroom door. After she started the shower, Deja looked at herself in the mirror. Someone help her because she was happy. Her eyes glowed with their own inner fire. Her mouth kept turning upward even when she tried to frown. Wow, she was even feeling good in her skin, and it had been a while since she last felt this way.

Aliens. She got in the shower and noted she was humming. That ugly voice, the one she ignored, reared its head.

Alien, you allowed our body to be fouled by something that wasn't human. What's wrong with you that you can't find a real man to take care of your needs? Are you one of those sick women who needs something that isn't normal or natural?

Was she one of those sick women? What was wrong with her?

Exactly who are these sick women and what do they need?

That was a good question. She had no idea who these sick women were or if they even existed outside of the nasty voice in her head. Malice was her name, and Deja had worked long and hard to take her voice away, but she still came out at times.

We've had several men.

So what if it didn't work out.

I might not have gotten a visual, but I got a good feel, and Enzo is all man.

And this is the reason she loved the voices in her head because they were always there when she needed them the most.

Enzo was all man. Ven was the perfect almost-twenty-something, and no, she didn't deserve them, but she wasn't giving up on them today. Yep, they were keeping secrets, but when the time came, they'd deal with all of them. For now, she had a meal to cook and an outing to plan.

She stepped out of the shower and looked at herself in all her naked glory. Back up, world, because Deja is here to stay.

Chapter Twelve