by Anna Lewis
“What… what’s this?” she panted, touching the item gently. “What’s going on?” She felt like she was in a nightmare, one that she could never wake up from.
“It’s killing me,” her dad spat out, the life already starting to drain from his face. He was growing pale, thinner, and sickly looking, and that made her feel ill. She had just gotten him back, she had just got the opportunity to find out more about herself, but now was being stripped away from her… and it was from the enemy that she was already having mixed feelings about. “I… I’m sorry,” he reached up and tried to touch her face, but he was already too weak to do so. “I’m sorry. I’m leaving you again, abandoning you when you need me the most.”
His words struck a chord with her, somewhere deep inside. They sounded so genuine, so hurt, and all of a sudden she wanted to comfort him on his last few minutes on Earth. Nothing else mattered, only that, and that was what she intended to do.
She leant her face down into his hands, and started talking. “I love you Dad, but don’t worry. I’m okay. I can do this alone.” Tears filled her eyes and started to splash onto his cheeks while he listened intently to her. “I know that you didn’t mean to leave me on my own before, I’m aware that it wasn’t what you wanted, but it happened, and that’s okay. I grew strong,” she was starting to sob, but she didn’t let that stop her. “I grew up, and now I’m okay. I’m going to get through this, I’m going to help the world become good again – I’m going to make Mom and you proud.”
“We are proud,” her dad whispered, using his last breaths to help her. “You are amazing, and you have done amazing things. I love you, my Talia.”
Talia held him tight, refusing to let him go, staring deep into his eyes while his life ebbed away and she realized that she didn’t need answers, she didn’t need closure, she didn’t need that bond. She knew that she was loved and that would have to be enough for her. She would get by on that, because she knew that she had to.
“I love you,” she whispered, as she finally dropped his lifeless hand. “I love you, and I’ll do this for you.”
With that, her grief bubbled into a red hot rage, and she went after the alien that she’d seen attacking her dad in a frenzy. It was dangerous to do so, but at that moment, she did not care about danger.
A red mist had descended over her eyes and there was no stopping that – not even at one point when she spotted Wade being taken on by some of his own kind. She did turn to help him, to race after him and at least attempt to save him, but another Ec’dua got in her way, and unfortunately she got distracted by that fight.
She carried on fighting with all her might, punching, kicking, attacking anyone that got in her way, and that was how she continued until she began to notice that the fighting was ceasing around her. She wasn’t quite sure what she’d missed, but when her brain finally switched on enough to pay attention, she realized that the numbers of Ec’dua had depleted, and that the ones that were still standing seemed mostly to be rebel fighters, in Wade’s faction.
She broke off panting, glancing around, trying to figure out what had happened, but it seemed like everyone was done. That was the moment that she finally allowed the emotion to get to her, and everything that had just happened all came to a head in her mind, and she collapsed on the ground in a heap, sobbing profusely.
Why had she lost her dad?
Why did she leave Wade when he so clearly needed her?
What had happened to B? Was he still alive?
She knew that she needed to stand up, to try and tackle at least some of those questions, but she was much too emotional to really consider that for the time being…
Chapter 9
As everyone around he began to gather up their belongings and finally put an end to the war, Talia burst out into a panic. She didn’t care about the carnage that had been left behind, and she wasn’t interested in the terms of the peace treaty that were being discussed. All she wanted to do was to locate B and Wade.
She wanted to know exactly where they were, if they were hurt or not, and what she could do to help them. Those thoughts consumed her mind almost entirely and that was all she could think about. She had already lost one really important person to her. She couldn’t lose anyone else. She didn’t know how she would even begin to survive if she did.
She even got to the point where she didn’t care what anyone else thought, and she started shouting their names aloud.
“B?” she yelled, thinking of all the purple shapes blurring past her. “Wade?”
She recalled his face as he was being hurt, and she suddenly realized that she had no idea how bad that was. At the time, she’d been too consumed by her anger about losing her dad, but now it was really hitting her.
“Talia?” someone practically whispered behind her, and she spun around to see the familiar human man that she needed to see so badly. It was B. “You’re okay?”
“I am,” she said as she fell against B’s chest, sobbing hard. “But I don’t know where Wade is. I… I saw him… he was getting hurt… and now…”
“Shhh…. Shhh… don’t worry,” B tried to reassure her. “Let’s go and find him.”
Chapter 10
Time passed. B and Talia searched and searched for Wade. Talia started to feel like they were never going to find him.
Maybe things were hopeless. Maybe he’d been killed, and that was killing her because she knew that it was her own damn fault. She could have helped him. It didn’t have to end up like it did.
“What are we going to do?” she wailed to B. “I can’t cope with this uncertainty.”
“I’m trying to pick him up,” he told her, clearly referring to some alien thing that she didn’t quite understand. “But there’s too much chaos here.”
She stepped back, no longer trying to interfere. Her eyes glanced everywhere. She really wanted to enjoy her reunion with B, but how could she when Wade wasn’t with them? It was the three of them now, all of them together, and she hoped that was how it always would stay. She had been more than happy with B, when it was just the two of them, but that was before Wade. Since he had entered their lives everything had been shaken up. She just couldn’t have B on his own, not anymore. It was all three of them, or nothing.
The searched on, Talia starting to lose hope.
Suddenly, B grabbed hold of her and gasped, “I’ve detected him, come on.”
Talia lit up, and grasped B’s arms. He led her onwards. “This way,” he said.
They followed the trail of Wade’s mind, despite the fact that it took them far away from the field. Talia didn’t know that she could trust it, but B looked so confident that she didn’t feel like she could outwardly disagree with him.
“He’s at the cottage,” he eventually told her confused. “Why is he there?”
They both picked up the pace, racing to get to Wade’s side, needing to know what was going on. It didn’t seem right that he would be there for no reason; something must have happened and they both feared what it might be.
Talia’s heart raced painfully against her chest, and her mind raced like crazy. She had a really bad feeling, remembering those aliens that were attacking him on the battlefield, and she feared that they were walking into a trap.
“Wait, wait,” she grabbed hold of B, pulling him back to her. “Wait… I have a bad feeling about this.”
“So do I,” he admitted. “But we cannot leave Wade in there if something has happened to him. We just can’t do that, it isn’t right. He’s ours now. We have to look out for one another.”
Talia nodded, knowing that B was right, but she was also acutely aware that they were no use to anyone if they were dead. “I know, but I think that your men found out that he was a rebel, and maybe they are using him to get to us or something… I’m not sure but I’m really scared. I don’t think this war is really over yet.”
B agreed with her, realizing that she was probably right. He knew his own race well, and he knew how they liked to take ove
r other planets no matter what. It wasn’t like the Ec’dua race to take losing in their stride. He figured that if they were smart enough to plan this ‘final battle’, then he was pretty sure that they would also have a backup plan in case of defeat… or at least some of them would.
A lot of the Ec’dua race didn’t agree with the war, and they didn’t like taking over the other planets, just to wreck another one and move on, but the ones that did fought hard for what they believed was their rights… and there wasn’t anything that could be done to stop them.
B knew these people well, and he knew what they were capable of. So he decided to follow Talia’s advice.
“Okay,” he hissed to Talia, pulling her close. “You’re right. It could be a trap. We need to be smart about this. So what I suggest we do is we go and find out what’s going on first. Once we have some information we can make a plan.”
“Come on then, let’s just go and see…” Talia was petrified with fear, but she was also very determined. This was Wade they were talking about, he was theirs.
They crept up towards the cottage, both of them remembering everything that they’d been through there. With heavy hearts, they anticipated what they were about to find. This was supposed to be a happy time, the possible end, the time where they looked to a possible future, yet here they were, rescuing Wade, and possibly walking into a trap that would kill them all.
For a second, Talia wondered what was going on with the peace treaty, if the humans were making the aliens go or allowing them to stay, but then she quickly did her best to shake those thoughts from her mind. There was no point in worrying about things that she couldn’t control, when she had something in front of her that needed her full attention. A solitary girl like her had no impact on what would happen for the future of their planet, but this right now… Wade needed her.
“What can you see?” she hissed to B, who was sneaking close enough to peek through the window. “Is he there?”
B didn’t answer for a beat while he looked through the window, before he glanced back at her with fear in his eyes. “He’s there,” he whispered, almost trembling under the pressure of it all. “He’s there and he’s really hurt. He’s not moving. I… I don’t think he’s alive.”
Talia froze in horror, an icy claw clutching her heart and choking her breath.
Wade couldn’t dead.
Could he?
To be continued!
Book 4: Life Goes On
The war is finally over, after years and years of fighting, and the humans have come out on top. The only problem is that the aliens have nowhere else to go, and the only ones that are left want peace between the races.
As peace negotiations take place, Talia, ‘B’ and Wade have their own problems. How will they get people to accept their strange and complex interspecies relationship, and what will happen when an unexpected surprise leaves everything up in the air?
Chapter 1
“What do we do?” Talia hissed at B, feeling the fear coursing through her veins. This was insane, far too much for her to deal with, and she honestly felt like this might be the last straw for her.
Her life had been a crazy up and down mess ever since she was six years old, and the planet had burst into a war with the Ec’dua alien race, and it didn’t seem to be getting any better. What humans hadn’t realized before the war kicked off, was that this shapeshifting race had been living among them for many generations, plotting and waiting for the right moment to start their uprising.
No one had been prepared for it, and it was safe to say that it had been something of a bloodbath… at least at first. Many people had died, and it had taken everyone a really long time to find their footing in a world at war.
After a while, humans had regained their confidence and they started to fight back, and with the help of an alien rebellion group who didn’t agree with the war, they had managed to overthrow the majority of the alien race in an epic victory. It had taken many years for the final battle of the war to come around, but when it had, the humans had won, surprising absolutely everyone.
While all that was going on, Talia had found herself in a very confusing situation where she fell hard for two of the Ec’dua race. It wouldn’t have been considered normal at all to anyone else, but to her, her love for B and Wade was the best thing that she’d ever experienced and she didn’t want to let it go. It seemed like the Ec’dua saw love a little differently to humans anyway, and that this sort of thing was normal to them. They were often freer with their feelings, more open with loving more than one person, and that was something Talia hadn’t realized that she needed before they came into her life.
She had been so focused on getting through the war, on dealing with her feelings, and coping with the aftereffects of that, that she hadn’t even considered anything else bad happening. But in the middle of the battle, just as Talia had been distraught at losing her father who she had only just found again after all those years of thinking that she was alone, Wade had been pulled away and it was clear now that he’d been kidnapped by some of his own kind, and possibly killed by them.
B had just peered into the building where Wade was being held – the cottage where the three of them had hidden in when they first found their unique love – and he wasn’t even sure if he was alive or not. The news was devastating to Talia.
“We need to get him back,” B said determinedly, ignoring the evidence that things really might not be okay. “We need to go in there and get him back.”
“But we don’t even know what’s going on in there,” Talia hissed back. She wanted Wade back as much as B did, but she knew that neither of them were going to be any use if they were both dead. “Like, how many are in there? What do they want? Can’t you find out by reading him?”
Talia wasn’t totally sure what the aliens had, but she knew for sure that they had some kind of mind reading power. Surely that could be helpful to them right about now? Surely it could help B to find out at least something…
“I can try,” B told her, looking a little bewildered. “But there’s no bond there… except with Wade, but he’s… well… I don’t know.”
Talia examined his face, amazed at how well he could show emotions on it when it was very human. She had only ever seen B in his human form – that seemed to be the way he felt most comfortable – whereas Wade often returned to his natural form. She loved the differences between them, it was what completed them as a threesome. But she wasn’t sure what she would do if he turned out to be dead. She didn’t know how she would even begin to carry on.
Of course, as the peace treaty was being discussed between humans and the aliens at that exact moment, it could turn out that all the Ec’dua were about to be banished anyway, sent away into the galaxy to start their hunt for survival all over again, but Talia was doing her best not to focus on that part. If she started to think about the prospect of that, she might just fall apart and for the time being she needed to have it together. If only for Wade.
“Fuck it,” B suddenly announced, shaking his head. “I’m going in. I can’t read anything but I’m not just going to sit here and to let things happen, Not when Wade is in there, maybe on the brink of death. I can’t do just stand here and do nothing… not after everything we’ve been through.”
He stalked off determinedly, and Talia followed closely behind. Her feelings for Wade were strong too, and she didn’t want to leave him either. She was terrified, her head racing all over the place, but at the same time there was nowhere else in the world that she would rather be. She didn’t dare ask B whether or not they had a plan, because she honestly didn’t want to know.
At least if they died, they would all be together. That might not be the outcome that she wanted, but it was much better than nothing…
Chapter 2
As soon as they stepped through the door, one of the guys inside grabbed Talia without her even seeing him, and he pulled her to one side, strapping her arms behind her wide back. She struggled viole
ntly against her captor, but she found herself so distracted by the three aliens looming over B that she didn’t keep up the fight for as long as she should have done. She was annoyed that they’d obviously been expecting them, and that they’d clearly walked into a trap, but her mind was currently spending most of its energy trying to work out what the hell was going on.
At first, she thought that the room was filled with an awkward silence, but she soon realized that the aliens were communicating in a way that seemed to be more normal to them – through their minds. Talia felt incredibly frustrated that she had no idea what was happening, but there wasn’t a damn thing that she could do about that. She was just going to have to wait and hope that soon things would be made clear to her.
She hoped that they were sorting something out, and that things would be peaceful, and that she and B and Wade might get a shot at a happy life together, but it quickly became clear that wasn’t going to happen. Her heart sank.
But as one of the alien attackers lurched out at B and started to fight him, a scream to burst from her chest and she snapped into action.
Once she realized that this was actually a dangerous situation, something flipped inside of her. As soon as that changed within her, she felt the old her come back, the badass one, the one who could take down any damn alien that crossed her path, especially in hand-to-hand combat. She had spent much of the war alone, fighting and defending just herself, and that had turned her into a capable warrior. As soon as she’d met B and Wade and they’d gone into hiding, she had softened due to love and the new emotions she was feeling. She had also found herself consumed by a lot of fear – it was a lot harder to survive when you actually had something to live for, someone to defend, but now that had all come to a head and her brain managed to zone in once more on only the battle, only what she needed to do to live. Of course she was distracted by B and his fight – she really didn’t want him to get hurt – but somehow she managed to ignore that and focus only on the thing she needed to do.