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Alex knew something was wrong and everything was changing when he told off some jerk that made a bad pass at Tess on the campus grounds. The guy flipped them off as he left.
"Humans." Tess's mouth curled up in a (justified) sneer.
"Hey," Alex protested softly. "You're human too."
She looked up at him, sharp and startled, eyes narrowing before her sunny smile returned, the one he always felt she'd learned to pass, the one that cut him when he saw it.
"Tess." His hands met her hips, gripped just a little tighter than necessary. He remembered doing that once before, alarmed at her hanging out his window, slurring out her words through a tiny dose of alcohol and a whole lot of crazy.
"It's funny, you know." And her giggles only freaked him out more.
"Come inside, Tess. Seriously. I'm worried about you." He kept up a stream of babbling to get her out of his window and she kept talking slow and serious as if she didn't even hear him.
"I waited my whole life for them, searched my whole life, and I get here, and they've spent their whole life trying to forget me."
"Please, Tess." His grip was too tight, always just a little too tight to hold on. "I don't want you to die."
Her look went sharp and startled, then there was that sunny smile that passed, that cut him from the inside out because he knew it was as genuine as her being truly human.
She leaned in, and he took it because she was inside the window now, leaning against him all warm and soft. "You're the only one who doesn't."
They liked her now. She had family now—in Kyle, the sheriff. Max was learning his powers.
"You're human too," Alex said softly, looking down at her and holding on.
But she just kissed his cheek light and warm as if she agreed, hand worming into his. They walked into the building.
The beginning of the end. He could feel it, and nothing he could think to say was going to change it or stop her from leaving as soon as she knew how. Because he was human and Tess wasn't.