“Could I see that necklace?” Whose voice was that because it didn’t sound like hers?
One of the officers with gloves on gently uncovered it. She bent over crying before she started screaming no. Declyn picked her up and held her close.
“If you have any other questions you can ask them in the hall.” He carried her out of the apartment. The detective followed them out.
He ran his hand up and down her back until she was done crying. She lifted her face to him. Her eyes were red, and sadness lingered over her.
“I can’t believe she’s dead. Who would do this to her? She’s was such a beautiful person. There was so much pain in her life, but she never hurt anyone. I want to leave.”
“I know Alpia, but first you have to tell the detective what you know.”
She nodded her head. “You can put me down.”
Ignoring the detective, she looked at Declyn. “Do you remember when I told you I use to be a street vendor trying to sell my paintings?”
“I remember.”
“That’s when I met Cathy. She came up to me and told me she admired my gift. She worked as a secretary in a building close to where I would have my stand. We started talking, and she came around more and more until we formed a friendship. She had a husband and a two-year-old that she adored. I even went to their house for dinner. She used to try and drum up business for me. Several of my painting are in the building she used to work in.
“When her baby, Leo, got sick they thought he had a cold. It got worse I still remember her telling me how she sat in the E.R with him waiting to be called back. They were going to send him home but she refused, and they hospitalized him. The medicine they gave him didn’t work, and soon they were looking for something besides a virus to explain his condition. It turned out it was a virus that attacked his heart and several other muscles. He was dying, and there was nothing she could do.
“I went to the funeral. I’ve never felt as helpless as I did on that day. She went downhill. It was like she didn’t want to live anymore. She and her husband got a divorce, she quit her job and soon she was homeless. I think it was the only thing that gave her peace. She worked with families that lived on the street, helped them get back on their feet, but she didn’t want to leave the streets. I brought her food, gave her money. I spent time with her every week. The only person who knew about her was Deja.”
She stopped her eyes narrowing. “That means if someone knew about our connection they would have to be watching me.”
She advanced on the detective. “It was Ron it had to be. Why haven’t you arrested him?”
“Calm down Ms. Morris we’re looking for him.”
“You call me, get me out of bed so I could see my friend's dead body and you tell me to calm down.” She was shouting not caring who was asleep.
“Why am I here? Did you think I did this to my friend? Are you accusing me of being a murderer?”
“I have to look at each potential suspect, and this is your apartment.”
“I bet if I were rich and white I’d be downtown in some fancy room with people flocking over me saying it would be alright. What next detective?”
“Don’t leave town. I’ll call you if we need more details or another statement.”
She looked at him about to speak when she turned to look at Declyn. “Can we go now?”
He nodded and led her to the steps.
Chapter Twelve
The drive home…The drive to Declyn’s house had been made in total silence. Now she was pacing back and forth behind the chair in his living room. Who would kill Cathy? Did they really kill her simply because she was friends with her? It looked that way. Why else would her body be in her apartment? I hope she’s with her son.
Taking her hand, she smacked it against her head. She needed to think rationally, but that wasn’t happening. All she could see was her face, how beat up it was. Whoever did it enjoyed what they were doing. How long was she being followed? It had been at least three weeks since she saw Cathy because she was on her own downward spiral dealing with her upcoming birthday.
Someone, probably Ron wanted her dead. Why? Because he thought she was an alien from outer space. She would laugh but instead she looked at Declyn who really was an alien from outer space. Why her? Was she doing something that was being pegged as non-human? Did it matter? He was crazy, and he killed her friend. It could have been Deja.
“Someone is trying to kill me,” she whispered it as if that would make it less real.
He walked across the room and pulled her into his arms. She had been pacing for an hour burning off the excess energy that was flowing through her body. Her brown eyes were darting so fast that she looked like she was chasing one thought after the other.
“You’re not going to puzzle this out tonight. Right now you need sleep.”
“You don’t seem concerned.”
He picked her up in his arms holding her close to his body. “I’m not concerned because I won’t let anything happened to you, Alpia. I just found you I refuse to lose you.”
She laid her head on his chest while he carried her to the bedroom.
We should protest, declare our independence.
We need to run before they find us and kill us like Cathy.
Where will we go that they won’t follow us?
We’re doomed.
Here’s the question I think all of you should be asking. Who is this ‘we’ you keep talking about.
All she heard was crickets. Good because she needed sleep. When he set her down on the bed, she grabbed her nightgown and changed in the bathroom.
“I hope I can sleep.” She crawled into the bed. Her eyes had little red lines of tiredness going through them.
He pulled her into his arms and rocked just enough as he watched her eyes slowly close. Her cheek was snuggled against his chest as she fell asleep.
She woke up alone feeling out of place for a minute until she realized where she was. She stretched as her memory caught up with her. Thoughts of Cathy and her death moved through her mind making her shiver. Death was stalking her, touching her friends along the way.
Turning over she moved to the side of the bed. Where was Declyn? She grabbed an outfit before she eyed the shower. Later, it was silly, but she didn’t want to be in such a small space right now even though it was large for a shower.
Declyn and Enzo were sitting on the couch when she walked into the living room.
“Hi, I didn’t want to wake you.” He walked over to her taking her into his arms. He smiled down at her slowly lowering his head to give her a chance to move. She opened her mouth enjoying the kiss he gave her.
“Any news?” Her eyes flashed with pain as he held her tighter.
“Nothing. Enzo knows it’s one of the ways we will keep you safe by letting everyone know to be on the lookout for a stranger.”
“I should leave, I don’t want to put anyone in danger.”
“We’ve faced a lot of danger lately. This is where you need to be. Deja asked me to call her when you were awake.” He went to stand on the porch as he made his call.
“What should we do?”
“Eat. You need your strength then we’ll gather together and talk.”
“I’ll cook if you don’t mind.”
He nodded, and she walked into the kitchen.
“Breakfast or lunch? I don’t know what time it is.” Normally she would pick up her phone to see what happened overnight. Today she left it on the charger not able to deal with it.
“Life has always got a new challenge for you.” They met in the middle of the kitchen and just hugged.
“Sit down tell me what happened.”
“Do you remember me telling you about Cathy?” Deja nodded but didn’t say anything. Fire told her the whole story letting her tears for her friend run free.
“I don’t mean to cry.”
“You lost someone you love. You’re going to cry more than once.”
“It feels surreal.
I keep saying this can’t be happening to me.”
“I know how you feel, but we’ll get this bastard. He’s coming after the wrong person.”
“I love it when you get fired up it makes me feel like I’m not alone.”
“You’re not alone or did you miss that seven-foot green eyed brown haired male who was staring at you through the kitchen doorway.”
She grimaced. “I left him alone because I was only thinking of myself.”
“Yep.”
“What happened to being on my side.”
“There’s sides now?”
She grinned she couldn’t help it. “There could be if you tried harder. Declyn could you come here?”
He walked into the kitchen, and her heart sped up. She didn’t believe in love at first sight, but she did believe in him.
“I’m sorry. I walked away too caught up in my pain to see yours.”
She moved into his arms and held him tight. He was in pain, and she was surprised. She couldn’t remember when a male hurt for her. Not that she had a lot of time for the opposite sex, she was too busy trying to make her dreams a reality.
“Would you be okay with sandwiches and chips?” She tilted her head to look up at him.
“I would.” She gave him a smile and a kiss on the chin before she went to the refrigerator.
“You need a panini press. They’re marvelous.”
“No teasing me Deja since I don’t have one. Do you and Enzo want a sandwich.”
“Of course, we do.”
Enzo walked in and took a seat while she made the sandwiches and then heated them up.
“Deja what have you been up to?”
“We’re trying for a child. The sex doesn’t matter we simply want a child and Ven will be happy to have a sibling.”
“Is that possible? I mean you’re human, and Enzo isn’t.”
“I wasn’t sure until what happened to Mia. We can definitely have children. I checked in with Cait, she’s our Kur’ik doctor with a degree in human medicine.”
“Kur’ik is the name of your race? She looked over at Declyn.
He nodded.
“It’s nice to know you didn’t give up the ability to have children.”
“It is, but it also took me by surprise. The fact that we can procreate together must say something about the universe.”
“Maybe it means that the ancient aliens really did seed this planet and the whole universe.”
“Ancient aliens?”
“You need to watch more science based TV.”
“I bet most people don’t think that show is science.”
“I can’t help those that aren’t up on their alien lore. Could that be the reason I was targeted, my viewing habits?”
Deja stood up to help her clear the table.
“I don’t think so you’d probably be low on the list considering you’re not a big TV watcher.”
They finished the dishes. “We’re going to go to The Wolves Den because it has enough room for us to gather.”
Fire turned around and stared at Declyn. “I know if I had furniture we could meet here. I’m sure that when we have time, you’ll help me out.”
He reached out and placed his arm around her as he led them outside. They walked down the street until they got to the club. The door was standing open. Xander and Caden were already there along with Cole and Jessie. There were several others that she didn’t know.
“Fire this is Chase he monitors the transmissions from the Earth to space as well as any other transmission that may affect our base. The male sitting next to him is Jasper. He monitors the internet for any mention of us.”
“Hi, nice meeting both of you but I have a question. Why does everyone except Ven have green eyes.”
“On our planet, you either have blue eyes or green eyes. The majority of the citizens have blue eyes, more than ninety percent of the population. They decided to design us with green eyes that way if they needed to commit genocide they would only kill the green eyed Kur’ik and their loss would be limited to ten percent of the population or less.”
“Please tell me that’s some kind of sick joke.” Every green-eyed male looked at her. Her hand shook as she reached for a chair to collapse into.
“I…I thought the things on our planet, the genocide, the mass destruction, the racism was because we were human. I was sure that other civilizations were so much more advanced than we are.”
“Some are, some aren’t. You’re a young planet that doesn’t mean some of the older planets aren’t dealing with the same things.”
“Well, you’ve cured me of any desire to go visit your planet.”
“Don’t worry none of us ever plan to go back.”
She shook her head and gave him a shaky smile as she pinched her arm wanting to make sure she was in the here and now. It was sort of funny how she always thought life in someone else’s shoes would be easier.
“I’m ready. We’re here to talk about what’s been happening?”
“We are. I brought up the website that you told Alpha about.” She looked over to see Jasper staring at the site that was projected into the air.
“When this site started, it was a hate group. They felt that anyone that didn’t look like them should be purged.”
“Purged that sounds like a fancy word for kill.”
Jasper flashed her a look. “It is. The site is very old, and from the beginning, it was more of a place to rant. There are stories about people mostly men who were driving, they would be cut off by someone who they felt shouldn’t be alive. From what I can see nothing came from all these vague murmurings. Here’s a story that a female had the nerve to breastfeed in public. They talk about how disgusting it is that women don’t know their place. I see some fantasy writing of what they would do if they caught someone in an ally.”
“How do these sites stay on the net?”
“They are low-key and don’t draw a lot of attention to themselves. From what I can see there isn’t a lot of policing of the material that humans are allowed to share.”
“It’s called freedom of speech. I want to scream loud and clear but how can I when I want to be able to say what I feel also.”
“Even if what they are saying is wrong or hurtful?”
“Words hurt emotionally but not physically. I can say go die, but you won’t die. So, it’s not thought of as really hurting anyone. You said it started out as a place to rant.”
“About two years ago the post started to change. They began to appeal to the conspiracy theorist who believed that aliens were scouting out the Earth. They talked about the lights in the skies and the evil aliens that were trying to take over the government. They slowly cultivated a group of people who were scared of the unseen and the unknown. That’s when they began to recruit. There are stories of how the females of this planet are being pressed into service to provide children so the aliens will have bodies to possess. They believe that some of the government are the aliens that they are fighting against. All humanity will be lost unless we take up our weapons and kill these aliens.”
“Who would be idiot enough to believe that there are aliens on the Earth.” She looked around the room at all the eyes staring back at her. Oh yeah, she was idiot enough.
“Let me guess they troll the net looking for people who exhibit signs of doing something that might be alien or at least not the norm.”
“Yes, and they stumbled onto your site with your realistic pictures of other worlds.”
“I’m not the only one who paints alien landscapes.”
“You’re not, but I’m willing to bet you’re the best.” He put one of her pictures up for everyone to see.
“It’s like you’ve been there,” Chase told her giving her a look of respect.
“Believe me I haven’t. To be singled out because of what I do.”
“You’re not the first Fire, and you won’t be the last.”
Deja was right, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.
She watched as they started to clean up and leave the club. As far as she was concerned nothing new had really been learned.
“There is one thing we should be aware of.” Jasper took his time looking around the room before he stopped to stare at her. “Now that they are hunting aliens, everyone is invited. It’s no longer a white man’s club. If you’re willing to hunt for aliens, you can join. It can be anyone standing on the street male or female, white, or black, or other. Remember that no one is above suspicion.”
Wasn’t he a ball of sunshine. She stood and walked over to the bar.
“Are we drowning ourselves in booze?”
“No, but Ven is enjoying himself because everyone is making sure the soda is fine right now.”
Ven looked at her with a big smile on his face and glowing eyes. Yep, he was going to be a heartbreaker.
“What happens now? I can’t just stay here and hide.”
“That’s the problem with Alpha’s they always have to face danger.”
She looked at Enzo then decided not to pursue that line of thinking.
“Hi, I’m Cait, and this is Tristan, and we were hoping to be able to get some blood work and DNA from you.”
“Hi, Cait and Tristan. Why do you need blood work and DNA?”
“We’ve been working on a theory of why some people can cross the barrier and others cannot.”
“You want to prove that I’m an alien?” How could she have spent her whole life being human only to be told she was something else? She shook her head they were wrong she was as normal as the next person.
“No. I don’t believe your anything else besides human. I just want to be able to continue studying the blood of those able to cross the barrier.”
“Why not? Where do I have to go?”
“Stay seated I can get your blood here.”
“Really? Oh, wait, aliens.” She held her arm out and watched as Cait took out a kit and opened it. She was right giving the blood didn’t hurt.
Declyn (The Wolves Den Book 3) Page 8