One Starry Knight: A Scifi Alien Love Story (The Starry Knight Saga Book 1)

by Carrie Lynn Thomas

  "Room 149. It’s around the corner at the end. None of them loud teenage parties or I call the cops," he says looking me over.

  By the time I return to the car, Adam dozes with his head against the window, his black curls flat where they press against the glass. I tap the window several times to wake him, thankful when he does.

  We find our motel room at the back of the building, and I slip in the key card while Adam grabs our bags from the trunk and follows me in. I flip on the lights to reveal two double sized beds against a dark paneled wall and a narrow wood nightstand squeezed in the middle. The beds are close; an outstretched hand from one could easily reach the other. I glance at Adam standing behind me. Does he see how close they are? My cheeks warm and I turn away before he sees me blush. It’s not like this is the first time Adam and I have slept in the same room, but it’s the first time since we kissed. Since the touch of his fingers on my skin make my head dizzy.

  I grab my bag from Adam and drop it on one of the beds to dig out the sweats I brought for pajamas before escaping to the bathroom. It’s the size of a closet, but there’s clean towels and soap, and the warm shower spray eases my tight muscles.

  When I emerge twenty minutes later, Adam is on the bed nearest the door, flipping through the television channels with the remote.

  "Anything good?" I avert my eyes and crawl into the free bed next to the wall. I’m as far from Adam as I can get.

  "Not really." He turns off the TV and tosses the remote across the bed.

  "You can leave it on if you like." I chew my lip and peel back the covers and sheets. My thumping heart echoes in my ears, and I slip beneath the scratchy floral bedspread and white sheets, hoping he can’t hear it. I roll on my side and face his bed. He’s still in the same pose, propped against the pillows, staring at the blank TV.

  As if he knows I’m watching him, he turns his head my way, a soft smile dancing across his lips. I smile back, a sweet warmth spreading across me. Then his eyes crinkle, and his smile fades, and he turns from me, rubbing a hand across his forehead.

  “You look tired,” I say. “I can drive tomorrow.”

  “I’ll be fine once I get some sleep. Remind me to call Lucas though. We need him to cover for a few more days.”

  “Yeah, I guess we won’t be home by Sunday now.”

  “We’ll be lucky to be there by Sunday. I’m thinking it will be more like Wednesday or Thursday.”

  “Oh no, my mom.”

  “I’ll get Lucas to check on her.”

  This is my fault, I think as I roll onto my back. Three pink spots stain the white ceiling above me. They’re pale, like fruit punch Kool-Aid, but for a moment they’re the dark red spots of my mom’s blood on Mark’s fist. Wednesday. So much can happen between now and then. I turn to Adam, “Maybe we should go back.”

  “Is that what you want?”

  “No…I-I-” Tears bubbled in the corners of my eyes. Where were those coming from? Adam’s bed shifts and squeak and then I feel him next to me.

  “Sit up,” he says and I lift my head from the pillow. His arm circles around my back and I snuggle into his shoulder, closing my eyes and inhaling the sweet smell of shampoo and our beach. “I’m sorry if I’ve been tense. It’s just the Nexus.”

  “I know,” I say. “I’m not much better. Freaking out at the airport, worrying about my mom. And I don’t even have a Nexus to blame.” Adam laughs.

  “Why don’t you turn Mark in?”

  “I tried that before, remember? Didn’t go so well.” I shudder as I remember the boyfriend my mom had two Christmas’s ago. After getting in the way of a fist intended for her, I had told my math teacher the next day exactly where my black eye came from. By the time I got home from school, the cops had come and gone, and my mom was in the hospital with a broken pelvis. She blamed the whole incident on a fall and refused to press charges, but I knew better. She was there because I opened my mouth. “Somebody’s going to kill her someday.”

  Adam sighs and tightens his hands around my shoulders. “We’re going to figure this out, Sage. I’m going to find my brother and convince him to go in my place. I applied to Michigan Tech.”

  “What?” I turn and look up at him in surprise. We have never talked colleges or the future beyond our summers together.

  “I’m supposed to graduate next month so I applied to Michigan Tech. I didn’t tell my dad. He thinks I won’t be here anyways. But once I found a way to stay, I figured I’d go closer to you. It’s only an hour and a half away. Then once you graduate, I’ll go wherever you want to go. I’m getting you out of that town.”

  “I can’t leave my mom.”

  “We’ll bring her with us then. I don’t care. Whatever…wherever….I want to be with you. I want to keep you safe.” His words curl through my veins, warming every part of my body. I shift on the bed until my head is on his chest…until I can hear his heartbeat. Its steady rhythm echoes through me.

  I love him. My Adam. I can’t lose him.

  “Remember how we used to always say we’d do this, take some crazy road trip somewhere?” I ask. I lift my head from his chest and look up at him.

  “Yeah,” Adam smiles and life dances in his eyes. “We were going to stay at every haunted hotel we could find.”

  “Because we were going to be ghost hunters, remember?” I laugh and he laughs with me. “It all sounds ridiculous now.”

  “Does it?” he asks, his eyes darkening. I look away and rest my head against his chest. His heartbeat seems different now, more erratic. A coldness creeps through me, and I lift my head again.

  “Tell me about this brother of yours. Why haven’t you ever met him? How do you know he’s even your brother? And if he really is—why is it you they’re expecting to go and not him?”

  Adam’s quiet and thoughtful.

  “I don’t know what I can tell you about him. I’ve never met him. His name is Aaron and he’s seven years older than me and was no longer living with my father by the time I was born. My father’s never kept him secret from me or anything—he just never mentions him except in his journals. And reading his journals has been a requirement, sort of part of my training because they explain so much about Perseida and the Nexus.”

  “That must be weird—reading your father’s journals.”

  “Not really. They’re not like a diary or anything. Everything’s very technical—that’s the way my father is. Emotions are very much a human trait. Not Perseidian. Perseidians are pretty—well, emotionless. Everything’s always business-like with him. I can’t think of a time where I’ve felt like…well like he feels anything towards me.”

  “Oh.” I look down at the hotel bedspread and begin tracing the lines of quilted stitches. My dad was gone, but I don’t doubt for a moment that he loved me. And even my mom, as messed up as she is, loves me in her way. Poor Adam. At least he has Stella—who is everything a mother should be and more. Warm, open, kind.

  “How did Stella ever get together with him?” I cover my mouth glance at Adam wishing I could take back the question, but he starts laughing.

  “No, they weren’t quite like that. She knew what she was doing when she got involved with him. She was a bit of a hippie back in college and wanted to change the world. When my father offered her the chance to help another planet…well she jumped on it.”

  I smile at the thought of younger Stella. Yes, I could see her as a passionate young woman enthralled with the chance to make a difference. Yet, I couldn’t help wonder if she held any regrets. If she had really realized the enormity of her decision—that the son she gave birth to would possibly leave her.

  And me.

  Gulp.

  “What’s in your father’s journals about your brother?”

  “Nothing too detailed,” Adam says. “It’s not so much what’s in the journals as what I found out about him that’s not. According to my father’s journals, my brother left to live full-time with his mother in Las Vegas when he was five because it was determ
ined that he had too much Perseidian blood in him and therefore would never gain enough power over the Nexus to be able to use it to save Perseida.”

  My heart stops at those words. “What? I thought you said your brother was like you?” I had been thinking that maybe his brother wouldn’t want to go, but never thought of the possibility he couldn’t. I put my feet on the floor starting to stand up. I need to get out and get some air--

  Adam grabs my hand. “No, Sage, stop and let me finish.” Frustration flashes through his eyes. “I need you to believe me. Really believe me. I wouldn’t drag you on this trip on a whim.”

  I pause, but leave my feet on the floor. As much as I need Adam, I’m still struggling a little with the trust thing. After all he’d been hiding all of this from me for so long. “Okay, listening.”

  “That’s what my father’s journals say, what I’ve always believed. But a few years ago I stumbled across some stuff of his when he was gone. My computer broke and I had snuck into his office to use his because I wanted to e-mail you when I saw a file about Aaron on his desk. There were notes and court papers. Aaron’s mom sued my dad for full custody and my dad fought her—really fought her for about a year and a half. But then he stopped. Dropped the case. Rather abruptly and I couldn’t figure out why at first—not until I realized that he agreed to sign over full custody with no contact about six months from when I was born. You see, he didn’t need Aaron anymore because he had me.”

  “But that still doesn’t prove that Aaron can use the Nexus?”

  “No, but I’m fairly convinced that my father wouldn’t have fought for custody if he couldn’t. After seeing the file on Aaron, I searched for one on me and I found a contract between my mom and him awarding him custody during the year and her custody during the summer. It was created the same day he dropped the case with Aaron. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Like I said, my father is very technical—about everything.”

  “But what if he doesn’t even know about any of this, Adam? He was five. If Laris hasn’t had contact with him, he might not even know. And even if he can use the Nexus, he hasn’t been training for years like you?”

  “No, but to be honest the power to control the Nexus mostly comes with age. Sure, I’ve been training and preparing, but why do you think my dad waited until I was 18? Because I needed to be old enough, adult enough, big enough. And Aaron’s 25—”

  “Still. Gosh, Adam. This is so crazy to me. I can’t imagine how he’s going to react.”

  “Yeah I get that. That's why I thought it better to go see him in person rather than a phone call or e-mail. I’m not going to know unless I try. Maybe he’ll be thrilled. Maybe he’ll want to meet the father he’s never known.”

  “Or maybe not.” I say doubtfully.

  “Well aren’t you quite the pessimist. Don’t you want me to stay?”

  “Of course,”

  “Then why don’t you believe me? I need you to believe me. I need you.” His fingers begin gently caressing my palm.

  “I do, Adam. Or rather I’m trying. But this is all so new, and I'm used to things not going my way, you know?”

  His fingers stop moving and his eyes lock on mine. “I’m sorry, Sage.”

  “Me too,” I say and my face falls from his gaze. What is wrong with me? This is Adam.

  “Don’t be,” His voice is like tired and I feel a quiet tension raise up between us. “You’ve made some really good points. Don’t be sorry. Get some sleep. We need to leave early.” He crawls out of my bed and flips off the bedside lamp. He crosses the room and disappears into the bathroom. Faint sounds follow, the faucet turning off and on, the steady hum of the shower. I curl onto my side and face the wall. Adam’s frustration and hurt at my doubts in him releases painful shame inside of me. I can't cry. I can't sleep. I’m just breathing…deep and painfully slow.

  In and out.

  The bathroom door opens again, sending patches of light into the motel room. Adam’s shadow scatters across the walls and disappears, and the room is completely dark again. The bed shifts and groans.

  He doesn’t sleep either. I hear him tossing, sighing. Time passes, marked by the bright red numbers on the alarm clock. Adam’s bed squeaks and his footsteps pad across the floor. The front door opens and the night sweeps in. And it closes.

  I am alone.

  Chapter Nineteen

  After a silent breakfast of stale cookies and bottled orange juice from the hotel vending machine, we are back in the car shortly after sunrise. Dark circles hang underneath Adam’s eyes and he keeps his lips pressed together in a taut line. The guilt still burns inside me, but I keep it to myself, afraid of worsening the growing tension between us. Why can’t I trust him?

  We cross into Iowa before the sun reaches the top of the sky. The highway weaves through miles and miles of farmland bathed in daylight. It is past lunchtime when we pull off the freeway into a large truck stop boasting gas, showers, and 24-hour hamburgers. Adam parks in front of the building between the entrance to the Truck Mart and Burgers In A Flash. A family of four crosses the sidewalk in front of the car and enters the restaurant.

  Adam turns off the car and wraps his hands around the steering wheel until his knuckles turn white. Drops of sweat drizzle down his forehead, and his raspy shallow breaths fill the car. How had I missed that? Was he using the Nexus again?

  “Adam?” I lay a hand on his shoulder. Heat from his skin seeps through his t-shirt, and I pull my hand away. “Oh god, you’re burning up. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” He gasps. “I just need to stop…catch my breath.”

  “Is it the Nexus?”

  He doesn’t answer. His rapid breathing is slowing down.

  “Adam?”

  “Yes, Sage. I had to.” There’s annoyance in his voice. “I need to throw my father off until we get to Nevada.”

  Guilt curls in my stomach. If only we had flown. “I can drive,” I say.

  “No.” He leans his head against the edge of the steering wheel. “Just give me a minute.” He’s pale and looks so tired.

  “Maybe food will help.” I glance at the door to the fast food place. “Are you hungry?”

  “Yeah, a little.”

  “What do you want?”

  “What?” His cheeks flush, and the sweat on his skin thickens into a shiny layer.

  “Food. I’ll go get it.”

  “No,” he mumbles. “I can—” His eyes disappear beneath heavy lids. I pause, wondering if I should leave him here, like this. I pull the door handle and he blinks his eyes open.

  “I’m coming with you,” he says.

  “Whatever,” I say. Outside of the car, it’s warm and sticky and the sun blazes overhead. I open the glass door and wave Adam in before following. A gust of air-conditioning greets me.

  A girl no older than me is behind the counter, handing two large paper bags of food to a young couple. Her curly brown hair is pulled into a ponytail, and her brown eyes are framed with square, pink glasses. She smiles and nods as they take the bags. The woman brushes my shoulder as they pass and leave the restaurant.

  “I need to use the bathroom.” Adam says through several loud breaths. His face is pink and his wet curls are plastered to his forehead.

  “Are you going to be okay?”

  “Yeah, order the food. I’ll be right back.” He walks to the hallway next to the counter where a black sign saying “Restrooms” hangs. He wobbles, stopping and grabbing the wall for support. I step in his direction, ready to rush to him but stop. What am I going to do? Go in the bathroom with him?

  “Can I help you?” The girl at the counter smiles brightly. I glance at the menu on the wall behind her. I have no idea what Adam wants.

  “Uh yeah,” I step forward to the counter, and press my palms against the red plastic. Squinting at the choices, I don’t hear the door behind me opening and closing. And opening and closing. And opening and closing.

  The girl behind the counter is no longer looking at me
. She no longer smiles. Her eyes, dark with concern, drift over my shoulder to the door. I turn around.

  A crowd of about thirty men stand inside the door, blocking the window and the entrance to the parking lot. A gray-haired man in a charcoal business suit stands in the center, surrounded by other men in matching suits. Older, younger, thinner, heavier. There are tattooed men in leather. Men in uniforms. Men in shorts and polos. One wearing scrubs. For a brief moment, I’m overcome with the urge to laugh and start singing Y.M.C.A.

  But their eyes. Black, beady, and almost crazy-like. All of them. The gray-haired man steps forward, his gaze sliding over me to the girl at the counter. He grins. A creepy, sadistic grin. And then he pulls out a gun.

  I’m frozen. My feet stuck to the floor, my limbs heavy and unmovable. I’m not even sure my heart is being.

  He’s pointing a gun. Not so much at me, but at the girl at the counter. I steal a glance at her. Her eyes are wide with fear, her body trembling.

  I look back at him. He doesn’t seem to notice me. He’s focused on her.

  My gaze darts between them both again. There is an invisible cord between the two. The gray-haired man steps closer and the girl trembles harder. Closer. Harder. Closer.

  “Wha-what do you want?” she finally asks him, the words stumbling out.

  “Sage,” says the gray-haired man in a creepy voice that sends shivers through me. “We’re here for Sage.”

  What? Me? It’s not like Sage is a common name or anything. But he's not looking at me. I shiver and look toward the bathrooms. My heart no longer feels frozen—now it is racing at an impossible speed. Where is Adam? I need Adam.

  “What? Who? Who’s Sage?” she asks. She glances around the restaurant. It’s only me and the crowd of men standing behind the gray-haired man. I wonder if they all have guns too. Their eyes are all focused on the girl at the counter. Where is everyone else? The family I saw come in here. The other workers. Adam. It’s just me and the girl and all these men and a gun.