Resisting alien invaders is easy. Protecting her heart is another story. Leah's plans for the weekend didn't include dealing with an alien invasion in her kitchen. But there's something about the wary, vulnerable, refugee half-breed Gabriel that compels her to hide him when the authorities come knocking on her door. Gabriel has good reason to be suspicious of both humans and his own kind alike. He's a halfling-half human, half Dar-the product of a breeding program undertaken for one purpose. To use the offspring's inbred powers to influence humans on a deeply emotional level. So deep, they won't know until too late that the Dar have gained more than a toehold on Earth. Raised in subhuman conditions, all Gabriel knows of life is how to endure it. Then Leah opens his eyes to a life richer than any he's ever known. Suddenly he's not so sure he wants to be a pawn in the Dar's non-violent, but no less insidious, plans. Leah and Gabriel go on the run to seek help from the government, only to discover the invasion's tentacles have gotten there ahead of them. In the final confrontation, the bond Leah and Gabriel have forged may be more than an emotional haven. It could save her world. Warning: contains explicit sex, alien encounters