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"I don’t know, Harry’s pretty cute for a kid You can tell he’s going to be a knockout when he’s all grown up"

"Movie Harry is cute, but I don’t get the iorgeous," Marcia argued "Besides, Harry has green eyes in the books, and Owen definitely has blue eyes Plus, Harry wears glasses"

"Oears glasses sometimes," I said "But h"

"And didn’t you say so an orphan?" Marcia asked

"Yeah, but he doesn’t knoho his parents were, so it doesn’t look like they were killed by the bad guy The people who brought hiood people and it doesn’t sound like they made him sleep under the stairs" I pondered it for a moment, then said, "I think he’san alien and the exact kinds of powers Anda bit shorter"

Gemma nodded "Yeah, the dark hair and blue eyes fits that, as well as being brought up by good people who aren’t his parents"

"And I’h

"Whatlike your immunity cancels out his powers?"

I shook my head "No, not like that But I’m afraid I may be his weakness Owen chose to rescue uy"

"Well, of course," Gemma said "He’s crazy about you"

"But it was his big chance to catch this guy who’s been causing all sorts of trouble and find out what he’s up to Because of me, he didn’t"

"At least you know for sure howvery few people get to have demonstrated for the hi what needs to be done I’ive hi the world is an abstract concept, buthe can care about That boy needs you, no ht e to be both Owen’s greatest strength and his greatest weakness? It was too irl like ht I didn’t noticeWhen I finally woke up, I was as tired as if I’d stayed up all night

I put on my robe and slippers and stumbled into the kitchen to make some coffee While the coffeemaker went to work, I looked out the frontIt had snowed again during the night, but after the rush-hour traffic, the snow had already turned to gray slush that piled up in the gutters and on the edges of the sidewalks The gray slush ray sky above The only color I could see through the as the yellow of taxis Even the row of trees down the street looked gray, their winter-bare lin of life

This was the downside of winter in New York, once the Christ returned to norone hoh a particularly nasty spell, and the grayness had been almost too much to bear when I saw on the weather report that it was sixty-five degrees and sunny back in Texas

Now hoood for another reason It was the most normal, safe place I could think of I’d haveand reading, and while we ray spell, it would only last a day or two beforethe sun again

I poured myself a cup of coffee, then went back to theI doubtedif the people I saw on the sidewalk belohat they see in the trees or hovering outsidefor rab me now that they kneen’s Achilles’ heel? If they’d bothered ine what it would be like now that they kneould do anything to keep me safe That was bound to be a distraction for Owen How could he focus on what he had to do if he had to worry about what the bad guys were doing to uy who liked me, and our relationship threw a monkey wrench into his life’s work And since his life’s as saving the world froer potential consequences than just keeping him off the corporate fast track