“And she ain’t human,” put in Tex sullenly. “Check out her aura, Kara; it’s weird. Plus there was this angel with her face, and—”

“Shut up, Sam.” From the way Kara said it, it was a phrase that got used often. But her expression turned wary as she glanced at Alex. “You want to explain what he’s talking about?”

Alex started to answer; Willow put her hand on his arm, stopping him. Lifting her chin slightly, she said in a steady voice, “He’s talking about the fact that I’m half-angel.”

Kara took a sharp breath between her teeth; the others recoiled in shock, staring at Willow. “Whoa,” murmured the wiry-haired guy, taking a step backwards. Tex – Sam, apparently – had a mix of validation and stunned horror on his broad face.

“Half-angel?” sputtered Kara at last. “That’s supposed to be impossible!”

“I know,” said Willow evenly. “But it’s true. My father—” She stopped, a tautness crossing her features. “My father was an angel,” she finished. “I never knew him, though. I never knew anything about any of this until just recently.”

Alex knew that Kara’s reaction was probably milder than his own had been when he’d first found out about Willow’s parentage, but he still hated it. She was staring at Willow as if she were some kind of unthinkable lab experiment.

“Willow and I are together.” He put his arm around Willow’s shoulders and drew her against his side. “She almost died in Denver, trying to stop the Second Wave.”

Kara didn’t move, but he had the impression she’d just been rocked to the core; that she was even more shocked at this than at the revelation of what Willow was. “Together,” she repeated in a monotone, her chocolate-brown eyes narrowing. “Let me get this straight: you’re telling me that you’ve got a half-angel girlfriend.”

“Yeah,” said Alex. “That’s right.” Their gazes collided; he saw the thrust of Kara’s chin and suddenly remembered how stubborn she could be. She and Cully had once had a stand-off for hours over a game of poker – the two of them bickering until late into the night, with Kara demanding that Cully take it outside with her. It had been funny at the time; he and Jake had taken bets on who would cave first.

It hadn’t been Kara.

Willow cleared her throat. “Look, I don’t want to cause any trouble or anything.”

“You’re not,” said Alex, not taking his eyes off Kara. “Is she, Kara?”

Kara didn’t answer at first; Alex couldn’t tell what she was thinking. With deliberate movements, she put her gun away, tucking it into the holster under her jeans waistband.

“So,” she said coolly. “I guess we should go inside, huh? Seems like we’ve all got a lot to talk about.”