The Dark Inside (A Human Element)

by Donna Galanti

  Not his. He was not so tempered by emotion and he didn't want to be. It was not in his nature as a Seeker from his world. He pushed his desire deep down, away from the part of him that was half human. Maria was all human and all emotion. It was in the tremors that flashed through her every muscle and limb, but she controlled it for her purpose. If she had been from his world she would be a Destroyer, violent in her passion to devour flesh through lust or death. He had read her portfolio. He knew the men she seduced, just as she knew the men he killed.

  She noticed his wandering eyes. "I thought your kind could not be tamed by a woman."

  He shrugged, unsure what to say, and stood up. The harsh light in the meeting room cast dark shadows under her breasts. They now seemed the focus of the room. Time to leave. "Nine tonight. Don't be too long."

  She smoothed a hand over her hair, pulling it flat. It bounced back on her shoulder, the curl eager to be free. "It never takes me long." And in that flick of silky rope he saw Laura in a flash–running across a field, her chestnut hair shining in the sun. She too longed to be free in the wide-open spaces.

  "And we'll do it quick before things get involved."

  She smiled at him. "You don't want to watch, Felix? Might change your mind about handling a woman. With your dark looks and body, women would desire you."

  "I've had women." He looked away. An awkward thrill ran through his body but it was subdued, as all his emotions were. They lay there under the surface, never fully explored.

  "Experiments. That's all. Government eyes watching."

  "Experiment or not, the government is always watching."

  She nodded, her smile gone, and stared at him for a long moment. In that stare he saw her bitter shellac melt into sweet wine for a brief instant. She was just a young woman bound to a life she could not escape. Did she too long to be free? An unfamiliar pang hit him. He would be glad when this job with Maria was over. He did not need a woman so close who reminded him of Laura.

  She left and his unease passed. He made his way to his private room in the government facility where he had lived his entire forty-three years. After each dirty job he returned here. The antiseptic smell and the concrete walls called to him. It's all he knew. They finally trusted him to remain under their watch and had removed his guidance device. They knew he had nowhere to go. This was home. It was his "every day," safe and comforting like Laura.

  He stretched out on his bed, needing to rest his mind before his job. Killing was what he did. If he refused he would die. It was a simple bond he had with the U.S. Government. He was a Seeker. They created him, controlled him, and owned him. Just as they had owned the human woman assigned to bear an alien child from a secret breeding experiment. His mother.

  But Laura was his secret experiment. He was the only one on assignment in that rural town the night she was born of a human mother and alien father. Only one child was expected for government experimentation, not two. And so he delivered her twin to his keepers and let her go free. He then watched her as she grew into a lovely young woman with her adoptive family, and wondered what kind she would become from his world. When she revealed herself to be a Healer, Felix still kept her existence secret from all government eyes–except his. She did not fit into the puzzle of his life. She was on the outside calling to him, somehow breaking through the emotional barrier genetically bound to him that separated him from humans. Yet when he watched her from his mind's eye something fluttered inside him. He did not recognize it. They were the same mix of blood. What kind of emotion was this? A feeling of belonging? He drank it in like an elixir, but was afraid to saturate himself in it.

  Now he felt another unfamiliar emotion with Maria. Only she was here in person, lurking with real danger. He wondered about her tonight. He had always worked alone before. When cleaning up after a kill his superior human strength allowed him to lug even the most massive of men away with no trouble. He had never been assigned a partner.

  When he learned he would be working with Maria, he had sought her out on her last mission with his mind's eye to watch her operate. Her professional seduction of the male target was polished. When she took the man she devoured his manhood, her back arched with those perfect breasts aimed for the soft underbelly of the man. And when the man's lustful weakness was fully exposed in his release, she made her kill fast and clean. Then the cleaners came in to dispose of the bodies and mess. Felix was one of them.

  He appreciated a quick kill. The coupling of a man and woman he could not. The few times he had been required to mate for a project it was mechanical, and he closed his eyes to the body beneath him. Her moans and warm, wet depths had driven him to the required conclusion, but he did not want to think of that body as a person. He only touched her where trained, each stroke like a cog in a wheel turning round and round to complete his job.

  He closed his eyes and slept. When he awoke he felt like an empty shell again, ready to do his job. He did not know why this father and son were targeted tonight. He did not care. He was never given a reason, just an objective.

  He dressed in dark clothes and readied his killing equipment. Gun. Knife. Rope. And body bags. Extra-large. One of the reasons Maria needed a secondary partner for the job. Both men were husky and tall, but still not as large as Felix. His bulk was hard to hide. He drove to the motel and backed his car into the last spot near the woods. She had made sure to get the unit on the end, away from the main office and other possible guests.

  He tried the door. It was locked. She was supposed to leave it open for him so he could hide in the closet. It was unlike her to let a detail of the operation slide, and this bothered him. Headlights turned in to the motel parking lot. He had no time to break in. He ran around back into the woods. A light flicked on in Maria's room providing him with a view through a window. The shade was half drawn but he could see into a bathroom; its door was open to the bedroom. He contemplated how he would get in when the time was right.

  The men followed Maria in. Her laughter called to him. It sounded so feminine, sweet in its ring. Like Laura's laugh. A muscle twitched in his neck listening to her lazy voice, but he had a job here to do. Maria was just a part of that job. A cog in his wheel. Nothing more.

  Felix strained to assess the situation better below the blind, frustrated that he could only see the room's occupants from the knees down. The men called Maria dirty names. Her dress slid to the floor. She stepped out of it. The men undressed as well. She laughed. Then she cried out. She twisted around; her feet stumbled. She was gone from his view.

  "Now you're gonna get it hard, lady," the one man taunted her.

  Her muted cry called out to Felix. This was all going wrong. He heard a high-pitched shriek. He ran around to the cheap room door and slammed against it. It gave way instantly. The younger man was between her buttocks, pushing into her and yanking her head up by her hair. She screamed and struggled to get up but he slapped her head. The older man watched from the chair, stroking himself. Gun in hand; Felix took the men out with two quick silenced shots. Their surprised faces hung in the air. The man slumped across Maria's body. She was crying. He dragged the man off her and dropped him on the floor at the feet of his father's body.

  "Are you all right?"

  She pushed herself up and swayed. Blood oozed from her cut lip. He stepped over the dead man and grabbed a towel from the tiny bathroom and handed it to her. She held it, trembling, but just stood there. He took it from her and wrapped her in it, averting his eyes from her nakedness. He had not expected her to cry. She was tough. She had been in difficult situations before. She had killed for the job. Used her body for the job.

  He cleared his throat. "I have to get rid of them."

  She nodded, looking in a daze at the wall straight ahead.

  "Just sit."

  She didn't move. He hesitated, then put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her brown eyes. He had never realized they were such a deep brown flecked with gold. A strange sensation flooded through him. He w
anted to protect her. He helped her to the bed.

  "I'll be back."

  He got down to business then and placed the men in a body bag each, stuffed them in the trunk of his car then cleaned up the blood on the floor. The parking lot was empty. All the curtains were drawn on the other room windows. The main office was empty and dark. All good.

  Maria sat on the bed looking at the floor. The towel didn't cover much. Her bare legs were tinted with a spray of freckles. They matched the ones that arched across her nose.

  "Did they…?" He reached for the right word but could find none.

  "He just started, but in the wrong end."

  Felix had no words for that one. He stood over her and shifted his feet. Finally he asked, "Does it hurt?"

  She shook her head and looked at him with watery eyes, her cleavage spilling out the top of the towel as her hand clutched it. "It happened before. In the same place…in me."

  Silence hung between them. He fought the urge to get away. Maria's vulnerability wrapped around him like a robe tied too tight. It was like watching Laura in all her moments of need over the years. Only in those moments he was a Seeker just watching. He could do nothing. But Maria was here in the flesh, needing something. He did not know how to fill that need.

  "On the job?"

  "No," she said in a low voice. A tear fell and ran down her cheek. It dripped on her rising breast. He thought to wipe it away, just to see what her skin felt like, but fought the urge. It sparkled like a dew drop hanging from a blade of grass.

  "My uncle. Many times. He did it there so I wouldn't get pregnant."

  "Oh." Felix stuffed his hands in his pockets and clenched his fists.

  Another tear fell. Her lip quivered.

  "Thank you," she whispered.

  He stared at her then realized he had not responded. He nodded. She stood up. The towel slipped a little, barely held up now by her round mounds. They were soft now, at rest. How could he have ever thought her body was an armored tank? She leaned into him. He stood rigid for a moment then relaxed. She took his hand out of his pocket and held it. He looked down. It was so small in his. Her smell washed over him. Sunflowers. Like the ones Laura grew.

  "Will you do something for me?"

  He cleared his throat, not sure what he could do. He didn't answer. That seemed safe. Her thumb stroked the inside of his wrist and he felt a familiar rising in his body. He fought it down but it remained. She leaned deeper into him. She must surely be able to feel him. He stepped back but she moved with him.

  She looked up at him. "Did you like being with women, Felix?"

  He looked over her head and tried to let go of her hand, but she held it tighter. "What do you want, Maria?"

  "Will you just lay here and hold me for a while?"

  "The bodies–"

  "They aren't going anywhere."

  "It's my job. You need to move on from what happened. We need to return to the facility."

  He stepped back, releasing her hand. Her towel fell then. Her curves were everywhere. He bent to pick up the towel, but she didn't move. Her dark patch sprung before him, a thatched door to a secret place. He had never had a woman of his own choosing. What would it be like? His pants strained with need. He stood and handed her the towel. She took it and pulled him with it and he was embraced by her skin–a tangle of legs and flesh and tongues.

  A real woman to touch. He slid his rough fingers through her hair. It poured from his hands like burnished gold. She tore open his shirt. He fumbled with his pants and was soon naked next to her on the bed. He kept his eyes open this time. He watched her as she watched him.

  And her moans drove him to feelings locked deep down as she clenched him hard, drawing him in. He rode her in a soft canter over and over, yet she was the one who broke him in. And her breasts were the reins he stroked. Her warm saddle the place he moved in with a gentle rise and fall. Her mouth a shady trail to explore.

  Only this coupling was no riding lesson. Faster and faster they moved in a slathered frenzy. He bucked wild within her as her breath seared his chest. She quaked beneath him with a sharp cry of release, and with a primal groan he clasped her tight and filled that secret dark place she offered him. He had never buried himself alive inside someone. It was suffocating and freeing all at once. And when it was over, he knew now what to give a woman in need and what to take from her for himself. She was the woman he would never have.

  Her hand was on his chest. Her breast pressed into his side. "Who's Laura?"

  "How do you know that name?"

  "It's what you called me."

  A memory flickered of thrusting into Maria, exploding deep in her liquid heat. He had called out Laura's name. "She's no one."

  "Someone."

  "A girl. Born like me. Both human and alien."

  Her hand pushed harder into his chest. "There was only one other mixed child born in the last twenty years I heard. A boy. One we're raising in our facility."

  He said no more. He knew he had said too much. But he had been inside her. Really inside her. Could they share this too? She kissed his chest, her hair points of fire that crackled across his skin. His flesh sparked with new life.

  "There was another. They were a set of twins."

  "How can you know this?" Her lips moved across his chest, a wet pulsing that electrified him.

  "I was there. I took the boy, but left the girl."

  "This was in that small town in New York…Coopersville, right?"

  Felix nodded but said nothing. She stroked between his legs and he rose hard again in her hands, incapable of stopping himself.

  "She would be nearly eighteen now, right? What happened to her?"

  "She's to be left alone."

  "What's her name?"

  He hesitated and pushed her hand away. "I told you. Laura."

  "She still lives in that little town?"

  He didn't respond and he was relieved when she asked no more. His unease faded as she pressed her body to his like a slow burning fire that flamed against him.

  "And you love her." It wasn't a question.

  "I am not capable of love."

  "I think you are. Very much so, Felix."

  "You're wrong."

  "I hope so."

  She sat up and went into the bathroom, leaving him to wonder about her last remark. He felt lonely for the first time, bereft with her body apart from his. When she came out she got dressed. He watched her. He had never seen a woman dress before. He sprawled on the bed naked enjoying the strange, new moment. She would not look at him. That uneasy feeling wormed its way through him again.

  "Get dressed, Felix. Time to finish the job."

  Her voice was tight, cold. Her clothes were her defense once more, a shell hiding the softness he had sunk into just minutes before. He stood and moved toward her, but she backed away.

  "What's the matter?"

  "My job is done, Felix. We need to return to base after dumping the bodies."

  "Your job?"

  She threw his clothes at him. "You, Felix. You were my second job tonight."

  "Those men?"

  "They were your job. And you did it well."

  "And I was your job?" He yanked on his clothes. He had been foolish, speaking secrets aloud. Maria had unlocked his deepest desires, but now she returned them to the cage they had withered in for years. It would have been better if they were never released to begin with. But she did this. And he had let her.

  "I was to find out if your kind could be seduced by a woman. And you were."

  "I was," he repeated tonelessly. "And your uncle that hurt you?"

  "I don't have an uncle."

  "And the change in the job plan tonight. The locked door–"

  "I told those men to take me rough. I needed to see if you would rescue me and you did. You took the damsel-in-distress call."

  She was all business-like again. His heart rate returned to normal. In his explosive moment with her it had been a train rushing to break fre
e from his chest. Now it pumped in its dependable steady rhythm. The new, wonderful feeling fled. She had given it to him and taken it away. He would not let it in again.

  "But this makes no sense. Why? There's something you're not telling me."

  She turned to the door but Felix yanked her back by the wrist. She cried out. He let go but moved in closer. A cold veil fell over him. How could he have thought she was his Laura? She wasn't sweetness and light. She was lust and betrayal.

  "Tell me. Now."

  She held up her phone, finger poised on a button. "I can hit this and we'll be surrounded in less than a minute."

  "It won't take me a minute to kill you. And I know about your son. I know the facility he lives in. His schedule. So easy to finish him."

  "You wouldn't," she whispered, her eyes wide.

  "I would."

  He pressed her up against the wall, her petite body crushed by his. She cringed and turned her face away. "Okay, Felix."

  He stood back.

  "I'm to report what I learned about that birth assignment you had years ago. And now I know about the girl. There've been recent suspicions about you and that job. I'm to make the call and tell them everything then you're to come in for questioning."

  He shook his head and grabbed her arms, gentler this time. She didn't move away, but gripped her phone with a sad smile.

  "Don't do this, Maria."

  "Why not? You don't love this Laura. You just said you're not capable of love."

  "It doesn't matter. She is not to be touched. What will become of her?"

  "Her parents…probably eliminated. And she will be brought to the facility for testing."

  "She has a life. Not like me. Why are you doing this?"

  "It's my job."

  "But you showed me something I didn't know existed. Didn't you feel it as well?"

  "It was my job." She looked away.

  "Maybe you don't have an uncle, but other men hurt you, didn't they?"

  She shook her head, but still wouldn't look at him.

  "I've been watching you a long time. Your son is disabled because he was born too early. A man beat and raped you when you were pregnant. You nearly died. I saw."