Yeah, this was the scene straight out of a horror movie, and she was the idiot walking inside. She raised her flashlight to shine it into the apartment while the imaginary movie audience was screaming at her to run away.
“Turn it off now.”
She clicked it off plunging the apartment into darkness. There was a pinprick of light that didn’t show her much.
“I’m here Ron, what do you want?”
“You’re long past Ron’s paygrade.”
“How many of your friends,” he spit the word out, “have you infected?”
“None I swear.”
“I don’t even know this mother and her sons. Cathy told me about them, but I never met them.”
“That may save their lives, but don’t pretend you feel for them. I know aliens, and you don’t feel for humans. You’re here to take over our planet to hunt us to extinction.”
“That’s not me. I’ve never wanted to hurt anyone I don’t even like guns.”
“Says the alien who paints pictures of other worlds to get into our mind and influence what we believe.”
“I’m just working trying to make money like everyone else.”
“Wow, what did you do?” Her hand came back bloody.
“It’s an arrow I thought it would be more fun this way. Every time you lie to me, I’m going to put one into you.”
She touched her side. It was a surface wound but it hurt like hell.
“I’m not lying that was the truth.”
She grabbed her shoulder and wobbled trying to stay on her feet as he sent a second one through her body.
“Eventually, I’m going to hit something vital. Now what were you saying?”
She stayed quiet looking in the direction his voice and weapons came from.
“Back to your friends. Should I kill them and if I do who should I start with. Would you like to do the honor of picking the first one to die?”
He used his penlight to show her each of their faces one at a time.
“Well, who dies first?”
“Me.” She straightened her shoulders. “I’ll die so they can live.”
“Don’t pretend, I’ve seen what you do, how you kill.”
“There is more than one type of alien and this alien doesn’t kill.” She lowered her voice as she talked to him.
“Drop the flashlight and walk towards me.”
It sounded like a mild thump on the carpeted floor. He reached out and grabbed her by the throat.
He turned to look at the doorway his eyes squinting in the darkness.
“I’m going to walk out of here alive. If any of you approach me, I swear I’ll kill her.” He dragged her out the apartment and down the stairwell tossing her into the front seat of his car. When he was about a half mile away, he slowed enough for her to jump from the car and sped away.
The screech of brakes and the squeal of tires stopping was enough to let her know that Declyn had been right behind her.
“Fire.” He picked her up looking over her body.
“I’m fine. What about that family?”
“They’re safe. Tomorrow Deja will find them a place to live. It’s too dangerous for them out on the streets or in the shelters.”
“How will they afford that?”
“Don’t worry we’ll take care of it.”
“It wasn’t Ron.”
He placed her in the passenger seat before getting into the car.
“Where are we going?”
“Home.”
“How did you know?”
“Did you really think you could leave the house without me knowing?”
She shook her head. “No, I was counting on the fact that you would follow me.”
“I’ll always follow you.”
“I don’t understand. He was talking about things that don’t make sense. He acted like aliens were real, and while I know they are real, you aren’t going around the world terrorizing people.”
“I don’t know what’s happening. I’ve already started going through the known races to see if any would do what he accused you of, but most are far too advanced for that.”
“And those that aren’t?”
“They don’t have the ability to leave their planet much like the humans.”
“He could just be crazy.”
He could be, but he didn’t think so. His eyes were haunted. He looked like a man that had faced evil and knew exactly what he was talking about making Declyn want to believe him. How could he be so wrong about Safire or was he so far gone that anyone that crossed his path was automatically classified as evil?
“Wolf?”
He looked over and gave her a smile. “Nothing’s adding up. I hate puzzles, they have moving parts that put my people’s lives in danger. I want another look at that website maybe we can trace the founders.”
“I didn’t see his face.”
“Neither did I but I saw his eyes and they were tortured. He saw something that scared him. Whatever it was he pegged it as alien.”
“I’ve seen things on Earth that I would have sworn were otherworldly.”
“How many of them scared you?”
Most of them amazed. To know that she was living on a planet capable of such diversity was amazing. Then there were the things that weren’t supposed to be true. The things that conspiracy theorist tried to prove every day. Those things gave her the creeps at times, but this wasn’t the same thing.
He had been sure there was something out there that had been terrorizing the world, and he was convincing. Even now in the warmth of the car she was scared to examine the shadows, scared they may reach out and bite her. She closed her eyes until they reached home.
“All I want to do is sleep.” she closed her eyes, but she was restless tossing back and forth in the seat as he made his way back to the house.
She walked into the living room looking lost. She lifted her head to catch him with her brown eyes.
“Cait’s coming over to take a look at you.” She nodded and waited.
They were standing when she knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
“I heard you got hurt.” She took at look at her wounds before she disinfected and wrapped them. “They are more flesh wounds. You got lucky this time.”
“Thanks.” Lucky, she grimaced. What was her world coming to when being lucky meant not being hurt severely?
She watched as Cait left before she turned to look at Declyn.
“I think I’ll just sit up and read a book.” She lifted her phone.
He walked over taking her phone and led her to the bedroom. He stripped her down to her lingerie.
“Declyn?”
“Mine,” he growled in her ear and placed her on the bed. He stripped and pulled her into his arms. She snuggled closer to him placing her head on his heart. The beat of it soothed her until she finally fell asleep.
He sent out an order to have the barrier checked before he fell asleep.
*~*~*~*
A terrified scream woke her up. She rolled to the floor looking for a weapon to defend herself until she realized she was the one screaming. Declyn was reaching for her even as she was fighting him off.
“Alpia you’re safe.”
“Declyn?” He was holding her close even as her body was shaking. “What happened?”
“You woke up screaming. I was in the kitchen making you lunch.”
“You cook?” she asked memories of breakfast sneaking into her mind.
“Only when I want to eat.”
She gave a shaky laugh. “I don’t know what happened. Do you think I’m going crazy?”
“No. I think a lot has been shoved at you.”
“I think I need a shower.” She gave him a shaky smile before she stood going into the bathroom.
There was something wrong with her she could feel it. It wasn’t shouting, she wasn’t even sure she could explain the difference she felt. It was subtle moving inside of her making her feel like her nerves w
ere crawling. There was that itch on the back of her neck that she wanted to claw off, but she knew if she looked nothing would be there not even goose bumps.
How was she going to explain that to Declyn? He thought she wasn’t going crazy, but she knew better, and now she was questioning her own humanity. Maybe she was evil and didn’t know it. How many times had someone pissed her off and she wanted to drop kick them or felt the need to run their car off the road.
Of course, she never wanted anyone to die she just wanted them to get out her way. Was that really so bad?
Don’t let the enemy take us over.
He’s going to kill us.
That was fear she’d know that voice anywhere. The alien in her head walked over to fear and smacked it. This was just getting good. If only she had some popcorn.
Laugh it up while you can. I’m coming for you.
Now that scared the hell out of her.
Chapter Seventeen
“Take a seat.” Declyn was in the kitchen waiting for her. He placed a plate in front of her.
“You made me chicken salad.”
“Do you like chicken?”
“I do.” She picked at the lettuce.
“But you’re not eating.”
“Sorry, I’m not very hungry.”
“You have to eat Alpia. We don’t know what’s coming next and you have to keep your strength up.” He pulled her chair close to his before he picked up her fork. “Take a bite.”
She opened taking the bite he offered one after the other until she couldn’t take another one.
“I’m full.”
He looked down at her plate she hadn’t eaten half, but he shook his head.
“I think we should talk about what’s happening.”
“Let’s talk about how I’m evil.”
“You’re not evil.”
“How do you know?”
“I wouldn’t be attracted to you if you were evil.”
“Thanks, I was hoping for something a little more concrete.”
“Tell me about your dreams?”
“Some people say they go places. They call them out of body experiences or dreams. They go to places they never been to before they see things that are impossible for them to know.”
“Do you believe them?”
“I never really spent any time thinking about it before. I was always to wrapped up in my own world.”
“What if they’re telling the truth? Does that make them evil? Could it be as simple as they can access a part of the human mind that others can’t?”
“Why wouldn’t the rest of us be able to do the same thing?”
“Maybe you’re to wrapped up in your own world. Or maybe you weren’t meant to be a rocket scientist and no matter how much you study, the formula’s and theories go over your head. Then maybe you grasp the formula’s, but to you, that’s all they will ever be. The same way another person picks up a pencil or a paint brush but never gets beyond a tree.”
“I understand but how does this affect me?”
“I want to talk about your paintings.”
She nodded, but her shoulders dropped as she waited to hear what he said. He reached over picked her up and moved them to the couch.
“Safire. You need to hear this because you need to know this. I love your paintings, but they are real planets and real natives of those planets.”
“I’m not human.”
There was a knock at the door, and Cait walked in.
“Hi, can I come in.”
“Come in.” she gave Cait a smile and waited for her to take a seat.
“Tristan would have come, but Jade isn’t feeling well, so he went to check in on her.”
Declyn raised his head, his eyes were piercing her.
“Alpha, we just found out. Neither of us thinks it is serious but as soon as we know, we will let you know.”
He nodded, and she turned her attention to Safire.
“I was asked to look over your blood work as well as the DNA we took from you. I was able to compare it to the known DNA base of several million humans. You hit every marker as being human.”
“I did?” Her voice was a little shaky, and her eyes were bright as she stared at Cait.
“You did. You’re as human as the next person.”
“Thank you. For a minute, I was beginning to believe I was something other than human.”
She hugged her tight. “Hugging the doctor probably isn't the right thing to do, but I’m so relieved.”
“I’m going to check on Jade. Have a nice day.”
“What are we going to do today?”
“Pull up the carpet.”
She groaned. “Hey, at least we have help.”
“We do?”
There was a knock on the door. “It’s open.”
Caden and Xander walked through the door followed by Enzo, Ven, and Cole.
“We heard someone wants to get rid of the carpet.” Xander flashed her a smile.
“You heard right. Where do we start?”
“You start out back.” Declyn pulled her to him kissing her and then directing her to the back door.
“Deja, Jessie.” She waved as she walked outside. “What are you doing?”
“Cooking out. The guys usually do it, but since they are working, we get to show them our grilling skills.” Deja was throwing Mia up in the air who was squealing.
“We need to start the grill.”
“I’m on it.”
“Jessie, what are you looking at?”
“I’ve been thinking of going to school for nursing. The community college has an LPN program.”
“That sounds like a good plan.” She placed the charcoal on the grill.
“You think so?”
“I do. Tristan and Cait are excellent doctors from what I can tell, but if there are going to be more human females coming in, it will put them at ease to know a human is also taking care of them.”
“Is that some sort of speciesism?”
“No. I think it’s rather normal. Yes, I know there’s a fine line in what I’m saying. I think it would make people feel better initially to know that someone from the same planet was also in the room. Not because they are bigots or any other thing but as we know from the things we have all gone through on Earth that some of us have problems dealing with beings different from ourselves.”
“How did you handle knowing that Declyn was an alien?”
“It phased me, but maybe not as much as another person. I’ve always believed that there is life on other planets, so I wasn’t taken by surprise.”
“I always thought it was more of a theory than a reality.”
“I guess I see things differently. Deja, are you ready for me to light this?”
“Not yet. Safire, would you be willing to go to the store?”
“Of course, what do you need?”
“Jade picked up a common cold, but somehow she gave it to her father. In him, it’s acting more like the flu. Cait needs to call a prescription in but can’t call it in under their names. Can she call it in under yours?”
“Yes. We’re going to have to work on this. Do you need anything else?”
“I do. Let get me get a list together.”
“You do that I’m going to talk to Mia.”
“Hi, baby girl.” She sat down in the grass next to her. “What are you thinking about?”
“The bad thing.”
“What bad thing?”
“The shadow.”
“Does the shadow bother you?”
She shook her head. “It’s scared of my daddy.”
“I’d be scared of your daddy too.” She gave an exaggerated shudder making Mia laugh.
“If you ever get scared you make sure you tell your daddy.”
“I will.” Mia gave her that wicked smile before she dived at her. They were rolling around in the grass laughing.
“Alright monkey, Ms. Safire has to go to the store.”
“Bye, Ms. Alph
a.”
“Later sweet pea.” She walked over to Deja. “I want a baby. Don’t say anything.”
“Not saying a word. She will make you want to a have a little girl just like her. Here’s the list. Thanks for going to the store.”
“No problem, I’ll be back soon.”
She went down the side of the house and stood outside wondering if she should let Declyn know where she was going. What harm could running to the store cause? A quick look in the garage showed her that her car was parked like she had never moved it. Her purse and her keys were in there, so there was no need to go inside.
This is a mistake.
She knows it’s a mistake, but she’s determined to do it.
Why, Fire, why?
Because she couldn’t live in fear that’s why. She had to stand up for herself and the other people in the world like her. If she caved in, then what chance did they have?
That’s nice, a lofty goal, but what chance do they have if you're dead?
Let’s stop, turn around, and take Declyn with us.
Stop acting like your scared it’s just the store. It’s not that far away. We’ll be there and back before you know it.
We are scared.
I hate to say it, but fear might have a point this time. We should take our mate with us.
She slammed on the brakes to keep from hitting the car in front of her that stopped for a red light. Alien that lives in my head said what?
He’s our mate. You have got to realize that by now? How can you accept aliens and not accept that he’s your mate when you sleep naked in his arms?
I was wearing a bra and panties!
She’s reaching.
She’ll get there give her time.
If she survives going to the store on her own.
You can all shut up we made it to the store in one piece. How could he be her mate? She had been attracted to him from the first moment she met him, but that didn’t mean anything. No, she felt no desire to leave him, but it wasn’t like they had been together that long.
He was tearing up all the carpet in his house for her. That stuff was horrible he should have done it even if she wasn’t there. There was a possibility he cared. Okay, more than a possibility and she should have told him where she was going. If freedom meant walking out the house when you knew people were after you, she wasn’t that interested.
Declyn (The Wolves Den Book 3) Page 11