Shifters (The Neturu Chronicles Book 3)

by Sarah Carter

  “It’s a sickening thought,” Claire whispers. “Did you see the scars on Xander? The girls have them too but not as much.”

  Damien rubs his forehead and blows out a breath. “I don’t even know where to start. They won’t allow us to test them and they have no idea where they came from.”

  “They couldn’t have flown far. It has to be somewhere around Wyoming.”

  “Yeah, but that leaves a lot of open terrain.”

  Narrowing her eyes, Claire looks at Damien. “Okay, you said you have the technology to read our energies.”

  He nods. “Yes.”

  “Why don’t we pull a little bit out of fiction? Couldn’t you scan that area and see if there is a large group of Neturu clustered somewhere?”

  A smile creeps across Damien’s face. “You know, we may be able to do that. I am going to make some calls. I will meet you in the commons area in a little bit.”

  “Alright.” Claire watches Damien turn around to leave. She smiles. “Ummm, excuse me sir, aren’t you forgetting something?”

  Putting up his finger, Damien spins back around. He comes over and gives Claire a good, deep kiss. “Better?” He asks, as he pulls away.

  “Much.”

  “See you in a bit baby,” Damien says. “On a side note we do need to consider what happened with you and do some testing.”

  “I know,” Claire responds. “That was so weird and totally out of nowhere.”

  “We’ll figure it out. I’m going to call my Dad and your grandfather.”

  “My Dad made him go golfing today. Please, go rescue him. He will give you his blessing to marry me right on the spot.”

  Damien laughs. “I need to ask your grandfather’s permission before your father’s?”

  Claire gives him a look. “Do I really need to answer that?”

  With a grin, Damien says, “Well, since we covered this months ago, I have both your parents’ and your grandfather’s permission. Now I just need yours.”

  She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “Go.”

  “That’s a mighty fine ring you are wearing,” Damien teases. “Around your neck.”

  “Fine,” Claire says. She unclasps the necklace and shoves it into her pocket. She cocks her hip and smiles at him.

  Losing his smile, Damien says, “Please put that back on. I don’t want you to lose it.”

  “Damien,” she sighs. “I don’t plan to ever take it off of my body.” Claire pulls the necklace back out. “You gave this to me and it got me through a very dangerous point in my life. I wouldn’t give it up for the world.”

  “I want you to keep it.”

  “Why wouldn’t I keep it?” She asks, confused.

  He takes a breath, “I mean if anything ever happened to us, I want you to keep it.”

  “In remembrance of you.”

  The corner of his mouth twitches. “I guess you could say that.”

  “Then it won’t ever leave me.” Claire puts it back around her neck and smiles. “You know I would wear it on my left hand if you weren’t followed by Neturu that are like an alien tabloid.”

  A laugh escapes Damien. “Alien tabloids huh?”

  “Yeah, the gossipers.” She dramatically exclaims, “Today the merjyet line did blah, blah, blah.”

  “Blah, blah, blah? That’s some top secret stuff.”

  “It is, I know,” she replies. “Speaking of top secret you should go.”

  “Yeah, find me when you are done.”

  “Okay.” Claire watches him leave. She turns around to see Alex leaning against the wall. “Is Xander getting ready?”

  “Yeah,” Alex exhales. “You should see how tore up his body is. There isn’t a part on him that isn’t massively scarred. I have seen some serious stuff in my lifetime but nothing like that. Honestly, it’s sickening.”

  “That’s what I was saying!”

  “Is there something we can do?” Alex asks.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Skin graphing or something, so the scars heal. We are so advanced you would think there was something we could do.”

  “I will ask Dr. Galliger.”

  Sighing, Alex says, “He won’t wear anything but long sleeves and pants, even if it’s 100 degrees out.”

  “I will speak with Dr. Galliger. You are right. There has to be something.”

  “I feel so bad for them.”

  “They seem like such good people.”

  “Yeah, good, very talented people.”

  “It’s weird. I make a little bit of sense. They make no sense. It’s unnatural for the Neturu.”

  “It’s almost like Xander is part Kenga.”

  “That’s impossible. We are two different species.”

  He nods his head. “I know.”

  Claire scoffs, “It’s like you wanting to breed a house cat with a humpback whale. It’s impossible.”

  “We are both…humanoid. It’s not like we are that far apart.”

  With the biggest eye roll, Claire says, “We can’t mate, so yeah, we are little far off.”

  “Yes we could,” Alex counters.

  “No, we couldn’t,” Claire snaps back. “We are taught that from an early age. I especially should know because of who my mother is.”

  Alex leans in. “I have seen a video of what their bodies look like. The council doesn’t want you to know about that.”

  Her jaw drops and then she laughs, “Conspiracy theory you freak. It was probably like that alien autopsy video.”

  There is a pause and then Alex asks, “Why do you think humans get the idea that aliens are little, grey men? Genderless grey men that like to kidnap and probe people.”

  She nods, “Right? I never understood probing. We are so advanced that we have spaceships but we still have to stick things into orifices? It’s called scanners people.”

  “Though, there has been a few people I wouldn’t mind doing that to,” Alex declares, looking deep in thought.

  “I agree. I asked Damien if I could once. He said no. What’s the point of dating a guy who rules an alien species, if you can’t do cool stuff like that? Come on now.”

  Looking at her, Alex says, “You’re twisted.”

  With a look, Claire counters, “You’re just as twisted.”

  “True. That’s why we are such good friends.”

  Claire smiles broadly. “We can be twisted together.”

  “So,” Alex starts. “Top person, who would you painfully probe?”

  “Who do you think?” She quips mischievously.

  “Phil! Seriously?”

  “Yes, I didn’t get to kick his ass, so probing sounds good. What about you?”

  He looks deep in thought. “Let me think about it. Hmmmmm, I don’t know. Oh wait, yes I do! Phil!”

  A burst of hysterical laughter comes out of Claire. “Poor Phil.” She laughs some more.

  “Poor Phil? It’s poor Sunshine! She’s pregnant from his sleaze ball sperm. Ewwwww.”

  Making a gagging face, Claire says, “There’s a nasty thought. I’m so glad I never did anything with him.”

  “Nope, you waited for me.”

  “I don’t regret it being you,” Claire states.

  “I know,” Alex replies, with a smile. “I am past the whole Damien thing. He treats you like gold. I wouldn’t want anything else for you.”

  Jumping on him, Claire gives him a big hug. “Thanks, now we need to find you someone.”

  “I will when the time is right.”

  “Damien came out of nowhere for me.”

  “The ‘when you least expect it’ thing.”

  “Yeah,” Claire says. “That’s what you need to watch out for.”

  “I’m not worried about it.”

  “You’re a great guy.”

  Alex smiles, “I know.” Nudging his head to the doors, he asks, “How long do you think they will be in there?”

  “Oh,” Claire starts. “I’d say an hour.”

  A while passes bef
ore Alex says, “Seriously, it’s been like an hour.”

  “I told them to take as much time as they want.”

  Finally, one of the doors opens. Xander walks out. “Wow, I feel so much better.”

  The other door swings open and Aurora exclaims, “That was amazing! I feel great.”

  Ariel walks out from behind her. “I kind of want a nap now.”

  Claire shakes her head. “No naps. We have to go find Damien and then maybe we will take naps.”

  “Sweet!” Aurora squeals.

  With a shake of her head, Ariel rolls her eyes. Alex smiles. “You two are really opposite of each other, huh?”

  “You have no idea,” Ariel drawls out.

  Aurora grins, “We aren’t that off base!”

  Her sister gives her a look. “Really?”

  Smiling, Aurora says, “Maybe just a little.”

  “You are just off base yourself,” Ariel quips, with a smirk.

  There is a pause and then Aurora nods her head. “Well, that’s true.”

  Laughing, Claire says, “Let’s go find Damien.” They walk to the commons room. Damien isn’t there. “I wonder where he is.”

  “Can I turn that on?” Ariel asks, pointing to the TV.

  “Ummm, sure,” Claire replies, raising an eyebrow.

  “Sweet!” Ariel sits down on the couch and her sister plops down next to her. They turn the TV on. “Oh! A commercial! Awesome!”

  Alex and Claire give each other looks. Xander says, “We’ve never really been around a TV with cable before. We only have designated movies that we can watch.”

  “Like what?” Claire asks.

  “Anything to do with aliens,” Xander groans.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, don’t ask me why. Then some action movies. Nothing really having to do with romance or sex. We would be punished severely if we were ever caught doing anything,” Xander sighs.

  Furrowing his eyebrows, Alex asks, “How do you know?”

  Xander lets out a heavy breath. “Two of the older kids got caught doing stuff and were beaten.”

  “How bad?” Claire inquires quietly.

  After a pause, Xander whispers, “The guy will never walk again.”

  Claire gasps, “Oh my god.”

  “The worst part is The Collector said they could heal him, but won’t, to prove the punishment is serious.”

  “So, you and Trinity?”

  “We only kiss while she is in my head. If it’s brief I will touch her gently to show her affection.”

  She puts her hand on his shoulder. “Xander, I’m so sorry. We will get her out.”

  “Precisely why I am here.” They turn around to see Dr. Galliger.

  “What’s up Dr. G?” Claire quips.

  Dr. Galliger rolls his eyes and then shakes his head. “We may have figured out a way to find your friends.”

  “What? How!” Xander exclaims.

  Damien nods to Claire. “Tell them.”

  “We are going to use that new technology to see if we can find a large cluster of Neturu.”

  “You can do that?” Xander asks.

  With a nod, Dr. Galliger says, “We can surely try, but that’s why I am here. We need to experiment on you and figure out why your readings are off. If we can figure that out, we can use that to find your friends. We need something to go off of.”

  Quickly nodding his head, Xander says, “You can do that to me.”

  “I have to do it to all of you. You all won’t have the same fingerprints. There has to be something different about you. We will need to take some time to figure out how to even do the experiment.”

  “We will do it,” Xander replies. “If we can save everyone, we will do what is necessary.”

  Aurora comes up behind them. “Will it hurt?”

  “No, not at all. It’s just getting readings of a molecular level,” Dr. Galliger answers.

  “They did it to me,” Claire explains calmly. “They put these little discs all over your body. Then they can read you doing stuff. It doesn’t feel like anything.”

  “If that will even work,” Xander mumbles.

  “We have to at least try,” Dr. Galliger counters.

  Damien finally says, “The council won’t stop until we find your friends.”

  “What will you do with all of us?” Xander asks.

  “Provide you with homes and whatever you need to start a new life.”

  Ariel exclaims, “That would be awesome!”

  “How many of you are there?” Damien asks.

  “32, or 29 if you subtract us,” Xander answers.

  With his jaw dropping, Damien stammers, “There are 32 of you! How do you hide 32 Neturu? Are you all….engineered?”

  Aurora nods. “We think so.”

  Dr. Galliger shakes his head. “I don’t even understand how that is possible. The technology needed for that....”

  Claire thrusts out her hands. "Where would they even get it from? It's not like you can go to Walmart and be like, yeah, I would like this alien cloning technology. Which aisle is it in?"

  With a chuckle, Damien says, "No, but we do have a black market."

  "How do you lose the equipment for that?"

  He shakes his head. "I have no idea. It's going to be something we have to look into." Damien rubs his forehead. "This is mind blowing. Are you sure you were engineered?"

  Xander shrugs. "That's what they said. There were never adults around that looked like us. It was a lot of the older children taking care of the younger ones."

  "How old is the oldest?" Damien asks.

  "28."

  "This has been going on for 28 years!"

  "The oldest kids go: 28, 27, 25, 24, 24, 22, 21, 19 and then the twins. Mason is 22 and Trinity is 19."

  Damien shakes his head again in shock. "That's incredible. You're the only super powers?"

  "We didn't show signs until we were a little older. My telekinesis didn't come around until the age of 4. Trinity didn't figure it out until she was 7. The twins were 12. There are a lot of younger kids, so who knows what they will end up with. Mason was the youngest out of all of us. He was 2 when his power manifested."

  "That's young," Claire says.

  "He has been trouble his whole life, but he got away with it because of what he could do. They tried to get him in his sleep, but as soon as he was awake he would dematerialize. It couldn't get to him. One day I threw a temper tantrum and everything in the room shot off the walls. It didn't take long before it figured out it was me. Then I had to concentrate on how to get it to work all the time. Then I started to test the limits."

  "What are your limits?" Claire asks. Suddenly, every object in the room lifts into the air. She spins around. "Holy crap."

  "I don’t have much of a limit."

  "Can you lift cars?"

  He nods. "Yeah, it takes more concentration and energy to move big things."

  Claire crosses her arms. "How often do you go to Shima?"

  "Depending on what I do, I can go a whole day without going there. If I do a lot I have to recharge about once, twice if I am going crazy with my powers."

  "Incredible," Claire exhales. "Too bad you don't fight. I would take you on missions with me. How incredible we could be. All of you. Nothing could stand in our way."

  Ariel jumps forward. "I'll do it!"

  "What?"

  "I will learn how to fight," Ariel states seriously.

  "Oh," Claire stammers. "It's not as easy as that. I will start training you though, if that's what you want."

  "I want to make a difference. Why be a super power if you can't make a difference?"

  Aurora comes up next to her sister. "She's right! We need to do something good. We came from such evil. I want to be awesome and save people."

  With a heavy exhale, Claire says, "You guys...."

  "They make a valid point. If we got Trinity, she would not even need to leave the room," Xander interjects.

  "We could try and
get Mason on our side," Ariel suggests.

  Giggling, Aurora looks at her sister. "You could get Mason."

  A steely glare shoots from Ariel. "Shut up Aurora."

  Obviously, ignoring her twin, Aurora looks at Claire and wiggles her eyebrows. "Mason is in love with her."

  "Shut...up...Aurora."

  Her sister doesn't stop. "It's true. He wants her because she is the only girl, other than myself, that doesn't pay him any attention."

  Ariel rolls her eyes. "It's a phase. Once he had me, the thrill of the chase would be gone and he would ditch me."

  Shaking her head, Aurora says, "He would spend hours talking to her, but my Ariel wouldn't even look at him that way."

  "He's arrogant, beyond measure," Ariel growls.

  "Conceded," her sister agrees.

  "Which is very unattractive. Anyway, he's not in love with me."

  "That's why he would go and steal you books."

  "Shut up Aurora," Ariel snaps.

  "He would steal the books, she would read them and then he would return them. She risked a lot doing that but The Collector knew never to do anything too bad to Ariel. Mason would have been pissed."

  Claire looks at Ariel. "But you were punished."

  "Not for the last two years, nothing severe."

  "So, you could get to Mason?" Claire asks.

  With a nod, Ariel replies, "Yes, I could."

  "Is there a way to contact him?"

  "No, if I tried to contact him The Collector would know."

  "Which side would he be on?"

  "The winning side. He would save himself," Ariel states.

  Giving her a soft look, Claire asks, "What about you?"

  "I don't know. I don't believe that he truly loves me. I believe it to be an infatuation. I wouldn't bet my life on it."

  A heavy sigh escapes Claire and she glances at Ariel. "Just so you know, we will take him out if he becomes a threat."

  "How would you do that?"

  After pausing, Claire says, "I will give it some thought and get back to you."

  Ariel snorts, "Good luck."

  Damien finally interjects, "We have to do tests on you first. We will have to go to Alaska."

  "Why!" Aurora exclaims.

  "Our most technologically advanced ship is there."

  "What! We get rescued and we have to go to Alaska," Aurora gasps. "This sucks."

  "Where did you think you were going to go?" Damien asks.

  She throws up her hands. "To do something fun. We have never done fun. No fun, at all. Even since we left. No entertaining anything. I need to live a little, breathe a little. We all do."