Both Elena and Lucas ignored me the rest of the date. I was all right with that. I picked at my salad, sulked during the movie, and avoided a hug from Garret as I rushed out of the car when it was finally over. No more double dates for me. Hell, no more dates period.

Lucas didn't wait to see if I made it inside the house before speeding off. Good freaking riddance.

I unlocked the front door, hoping Damian wasn’t home yet so I could go up to my room and sleep. As soon as the door closed behind me, I could breathe normally again. No more choking on nephilim aura. No more pit in my gut because my best friend was probably not my best friend anymore. No more burden on my shoulders about saying the wrong thing and giving Garret the wrong idea.

I was home. My haven. Nothing could touch me here.

I didn't even make it two steps before a familiar head popped up behind the corner.

"How was your date?" Wes asked.

He'd taken off the suit jacket, leaving his unwrinkled black dress shirt untucked from the waistband of his pants, the top two buttons unbuttoned, and his tie half undone. His coiffed hair was mussed like he'd either just woken from a nap or had spent the last hour rolling around in bed. I knew from experience that the disheveled look was almost as effective as the professional faux billionaire persona. I also knew it was intentional.

He looked ready to woo the ladies. So why was he still lurking around in my living room at ten p.m.?

"Don't you have a home to go to?"

He shrugged. "There's food here. Stop changing the subject."

"Why do you care?"

"That bad?"

I reached into my purse and threw the unused condom at his face. "Still a virgin."

He caught it and stuffed it into his pocket, laughing. "Good. Don't just give it up to the first guy to show interest."

Ouch.

I glared at him. He still gave me that damn smug smile. I intensified the glare.

"I get that Sheol still treats their women like it's the eighteen hundreds, but here it's the twenty-first century. A woman's virginity isn't a currency, something to be traded for a good bit of land or a goat."

His smile faltered. "I don't want you to make the same mistakes I did."

"What mistakes?" I didn't believe Wes thought his horn-dog ways were a problem.

"You never answered my earlier question. How was the date?"

I sighed and plopped down on the step, too worn out to keep up the attitude.

Wes came over and sat next to me. He reached his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in close. "Tell Uncle Wes all about your terrible date."

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Nah, I want to help."

He was the last person I should take dating advice from. "How's the case?"

"I'm not supposed to tell you." There was a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "But if you give me all the dirty details of your first date, I might be more open to letting a few things slip."

Bastard. "Making me an offer I can't refuse, huh?"

He grinned, knowing he had me in his trap. "Spill, sunshine."

"Ugh." He had me right where he wanted me.

I gave him an abridged version that didn't mention Lucas was a nephilim. I also avoided admitting how he made me feel. Without those two rather important facts, it only took a couple minutes to spit it out. He looked unsatisfied once I finished.

"That's not juicy at all. You holding back on me?" He scrubbed the five-o'clock shadow on his chin. I liked the scruffy look. Made him look less uptight.

"So where are we on the case?"

He raised an eyebrow, still smirking. "We? Last time I checked, you were off the team."

"Temporary setback."

"There's not much to report. No sign of the kid."

I mulled it over in my head. "If the sentinels had him, they would have informed his parents and moved them all to the safe zone."

The safe zone, named that way because it made sure nephilim and humans didn't mix, was a government-run reservation.

It was nicer than prison, but not by much.

"Unless they killed him," Wes muttered.

I shuddered. It was still considered murder to kill a half-breed. Our human side had rights. But sentinels were holier-than-thou assholes. A few dead non-humans didn't raise eyebrows.

"Has Damian talked to the kid's friends?"

"Probably. He knows what he's doing. If the boy isn't dead, he'll find him." He paused. "And if he is dead, Damian will bring closure to his family."

Wes always assumed the worst would happen. A product of the way he grew up. When beatings and rape were everyday occurrences, one tended to have a sour outlook on life.

I laid my head on his arm and sighed. "I think I hate Elena's new boyfriend."

"That's a problem?"

As much as I would rather not dump my problems on Wes, I needed to expel my conflicting thoughts. Maybe he'd have some insight.

"No. I mean yes." I groaned. "I don't know."

"You like him." It wasn't a question. The words came out flat, no emotion behind them. He held back, giving me the space to spill in my own time.

"Maybe. It's wrong, I know."

"Wrong that you both like this boy?"

I nodded. "She's my best friend. Besides, what guy would choose me instead of her?"

"Holy low self-esteem, girl. You're far from an ogre."

"Next to her, I make Shrek look like a prince."

Wes lifted my chin, forcing me to look into his bright blue eyes. "Elena may be beautiful, but so are you. It's not her looks that draw attention away from you."

"Then what?"

"You're colder than a dead fish."

That was Wes in a nutshell. One second he was all complimentary, and I thought for a moment that maybe he saw me as something more than a kid sister. The next he was digging the knife in my heart.

"You're an asshole."

"You hide behind sarcasm and disinterest because you're afraid of getting hurt. You can hide behind the delusion you're undesirable, but the truth is you push everyone away."

Yeah, telling Wes had been a mistake. "Says the guy who has never had a meaningful relationship."

He laughed. "I said I didn't want you to make my mistakes."

"Why do you push people away? Fear?"

"No." He wistfully looked off into the distance. "I'm just not going to settle for anything less than the best."

"How are you going to know if someone is right if you don't give them a chance?"

"I know what I want, Lex." He looked back at me. "It's getting it that is the problem."

"I don't know what I want. That's my problem." I sighed again.

I knew how Wes would react to the fact Lucas was a nephilim which was why I kept my mouth shut about that little fact.

If Lucas had been human, would I be feeling this way? Or was his otherness, that connection that pulled us together, the culprit of these unwanted feelings? Did I want to hurt Elena, risk our friendship, for a guy I wouldn't even be interested in otherwise?

I didn't like that part of my body screaming yes.

"Don't look so glum," Wes said, interrupting my thoughts. "It's high school. In a few months, you won't even remember this guy."

"So, I should just ignore my irrational hormones?"

My phone rang before he could respond.

I didn't even get to say hello before Elena's strained voice cut through my soul. "He dumped me. Thanks a lot, friend."

A bucket of ice water would have chilled me less.

"Lanie, I'm sorry. If there's anything I can do. ."

Nothing but silence on the other end.

"Hello?"

Great. Could my week get any worse?