Read Natural Selection for Free Online Page A

couldn’t imagine what he’d been
through, alone and scared. Did he know the things he did weren’t
normal, or did he just think of it as learning to do something else
like walking and talking? Or did he even remember a time before he
was part of this family. “What exactly can he do?”
    “ A lot of it has to do with
fire. He can bend it to his will. He can sometimes turn invisible,
but only when he’s emotional so far. Eventually, he should be able
to shapeshift and possibly walk through walls, though, as far as I
know, he’s never done either. And he doesn’t have a lot of control
yet, except over the fire.”
    I had a mental image of my brother as
the star of the Pixar short Jack-Jack Attack and could understand
his mother freaking out, but how could she abandon her own son?
Shaking my head, I forced myself on. “And Sariah?”
    Mom scrunched her lips to one side,
looking uncertain for the first time during this entire
conversation. “A succubus is, for lack of a better way to say it, a
sex demon.”
    “ You’re kidding me?
Seriously? Tell me she doesn’t need…” I looked around, unsure how
to say this around my parents. When no one offered any suggestions,
I squirmed but plowed on—red cheeked and miserable. “You know, his…
stuff,” I awkwardly finished, emphasizing the word with a rolling
hand gesture.
    My mom’s lips twitched, but thank God
she kept her face smooth and went on in a normal tone. “No, Lia.
She feeds off his arousal and the energy they generate together. It
works a bit like a vampire, only it’s not blood she craves. He
doesn’t even notice because all that energy is consumed by the sex
itself.”
    “ So aside from sleeping
with half the male population in town for the equivalent of a
psychic cheeseburger, what does she do?” Dad’s eyes narrowed at me,
and Mom’s eyes widened. “Mom, she’s had boobs since she was eight!
I know about the ongoing parade of sweaty mouth-breathers going all
the way with my sister in the back seat of their cars.” Sometimes
my folks really didn’t have a clue about the world we lived in.
“She’s been carrying on like a cat in heat since she was thirteen.
I couldn’t help but notice! The whole school has.”
    Horror and anger warred in my mom’s
stormy grey eyes. Tears sparkled, but she held them back. “We
really haven’t done a very good job with this, have we,” she said
sadly. “I thought we taught her the importance of discretion.” My
father placed his hand on her shoulder, and she leaned her cheek
against it.
    “ She has to have the sexual
energy to power her abilities,” my father said quietly. “Mostly,
she has incredible strength and the ability to make any human trust
her. She can instantly arouse any man. And she can change her
physical appearance at will. But her strongest ability is
empathy—she knows what other people are feeling. That’s why she
tends to be aloof. She feels every pang of jealousy, every shard of
anger, no matter how quickly it's squelched. So she keeps her
distance from everyone. The only person I know of that she can’t
sense is Xander, which is why he drives her so nutty.”
    “ Does she need the energy
to survive or just to power her abilities?” I asked. I was shocked
at how calmly I was taking this. Shouldn’t I be freaking out about
now?
    “ She needs energy to live
more as she gets older. It won’t be too much longer before she no
longer requires actual food. Xander already can’t live on food
alone.”
    Before I could say another word, we
heard the door slam and Xander heading straight for the kitchen. My
parents looked at each other, and somehow I knew this conversation
was over. Mom squeezed my hand, as if to promise more later, then
got up and left my room. Dad started to follow her, but he stopped
at my door. The sadness and fear on his face when he turned to look
at me scared me more than any psychopath killing teenage girls ever
could. It was only after he left I realized