by R. R. Banks
"I was not aware that you were coming until the captain contacted me to let me know that you were about to land. I do not appreciate being in the dark about these things. It is my job to protect and control this compound and when I am left unaware of what is happening, I am not able to do that properly."
"I'm sorry," Ivy said, her voice sounding confused and slightly hurt.
"If I may, sir," George said, stepping forward toward the king.
"Yes?" the king said, looking up at him.
"When I was selected to be a part of this program, I asked that Ivy come along with me. She has been my assistant for several years now and she knows how I work. I knew that having her here would make the process of getting my research done as well as teaching whatever classes I would have the opportunity to teach much easier and more efficient. Prior arrangements, however, made it so that she was unable to come along with me on my voyage here. I had expressed my regret about that and it seems that when her schedule opened, Ivy made the decision to join me here."
"I assumed that because there was an available shuttle and I was supposed to come with him in the first place that it wouldn't cause a problem."
Creia seemed unmoved.
"I should have been informed of this decision before you left the university. The compound is at a tense and vulnerable state right now and it is not acceptable for us to have situations like this occur because someone chooses not to communicate professionally."
Ivy hung her head and Zsilvia fought off the urge to feel slightly satisfied.
"I apologize, sir," George said, "I take full responsibility for this situation. I should have been clearer with her about my instructions."
Creia looked at George and his expression softened just slightly.
"I appreciate your nobility," the king said, "and I understand how important professional relationships such as this one can be to the success of a project. If you are willing to vouch for her, I will allow her to stay, but only with the understanding that she is to do nothing and go nowhere without express permission." He turned his attention back to Ivy, "Zuri will be responsible for you. You are to go nowhere without her, and do nothing that she does not explain to you."
"Thank you," Ivy said softly.
As the group turned to walk out of the meeting hall, George tried to catch Zsilvia's eye, but she looked away. She might not have been permitted to leave her role as his guard and protector, but that did not mean that she had to be alone with him or make any personal connection with him until the time came that she was able to get out of those responsibilities.
Chapter Seven
"Is there anything else that you can tell me about her?"
Ero was sitting across the bedroom from Rain, Zuri's field notebook balanced on his lap as he jotted down everything that Lynx told him about the woman. Lynx glanced over at Rain and patted her leg through the blanket. He had come to know that if he touched her through the blanket he was able to have contact with her without it immediately flashing him to the last moments of her wakefulness. He thought through everything he knew about her, including the fact that she was human. He hadn't shared that with Ero and he was still struggling with whether he should. For some reason he was still having a difficult time divulging that bit of information to him. He couldn't explain it, but he was still compelled to hold that detail about her inside himself and not share it.
"Lynx?" Ero asked, breaking him out of his thoughts, "Is there anything else that you can tell me about her? Anything that might help us understand her better?"
Lynx thought for another long second. Finally he stood and closed the bedroom door. He took a breath and met Ero's eyes.
"You can't tell anybody else what I'm about to tell you. No one. Not until Pyra comes back."
"Alright."
Lynx looked over at Rain. He rested his hand on her leg protectively and then looked back at Ero.
"She's human," he said.
He felt like he had to force the words out of his body and as they came out he knew that he was not going to be able to take them back. Ero looked shocked and he turned his gaze from Lynx to Rain.
"Human?" he asked.
"Yeah. I found out the first time I saw her." He reached into his bag and took out the picture of her that he carried around with him, "Look at the back."
Ero read the inscription that had told Lynx that Rain, and presumably everyone else in the settlement, had been from Earth. His eyes were wide when they lifted back to Lynx.
"I thought that humans had never made contact with Uoria before the first came to the compound."
"I did, too."
"Why didn't you tell anybody about this?"
Ero's tone was accusatory and Lynx snatched the picture back from his hand, holding it protectively and looking into the image of Rain's face when she was awake and smiling.
"Do you see how you're reacting to finding out? And your mate is human. Imagine how some of the warriors who don't think that the Denynso should have any contact with humans at all would react to finding out that there has been a settlement of humans on the planet for more than a century without anyone knowing. I was afraid that if I told anyone, no one would want to help me save them anymore."
"Knowing that they are human could make a difference, Lynx," Ero said, "There could be something about them that enabled the Covra to lock them for so long and keep them this way that is unique because they are human. We have to tell Ciyrs."
Lynx finally relented and nodded.
"I'll tell him when he gets back," he agreed, "Now would you mind leaving for a while? I want to have some time with her."
Ero hesitated and then nodded, standing up out of the chair and starting out of the room.
"You have to trust that the warriors will do what is right, Lynx."
"They'll do what they think is right for the Denynso and the compound. What if when they find out that the Light Ones are actually humans they decide that saving them is not what is right?"
Ero opened his mouth as if he had something to say, and then closed it again, stepping out of the room and closing the door behind him. Lynx sagged, putting his face in his hands. He felt like everything was closing in around him. He turned and lay down on the bed beside Rain, resting his head on the pillow beside her.
Gently moving the blanket aside, he rested his hand on her stomach. He felt the pull as the touch drew him into the last moments before the Covra locked her in place. It was something he had done many times before, the only way that he was able to see her moving and breathing. Though they were the same few seconds replayed time and time again, each time that he saw them he seemed to notice something a little different. He took time each venture into her thoughts to look around the room more or to listen more closely and see if there were any other details that he might catch. He was learning to control himself within the visions so that he could maneuver within the envisioned space and experience the things that he wanted to rather than just standing and watching helplessly as the gleaming black creature approached Rain's prone figure and buried the sharp tip of its leg into her belly.
The vision ended and Lynx took a breath before diving into it again. This time he controlled the stream of thought and forced himself to turn and look at the door to the bedroom. The Covra that attacked her had come from beneath her bed, but he had long thought that they were not the only ones in her house that evening. As he suspected, there was another of the creatures, this one larger and more gruesome-looking that the others, standing in the hallway, one of his pointed legs sticking just inside the door. He saw something that made his heart feel like it was going to stop.
Again the vision ended and Lynx shook his head, trying to clear it before he went back into the moments. He turned more quickly this time so that he was able to take a longer look at the Covra standing in the hallway. As he had seen the first time, there was something strange about the creature's front two legs. Rather than being smooth and black like the rest of his legs and like the l
egs on all of the other creatures, it seemed to be covered in translucent yellow orbs. They shivered slightly as if there was something inside them.
The next time that Lynx immersed himself in the vision he turned almost the instant that his mind materialized in Rain's room and he saw the Covra step in front of the door. Lynx turned sharply to look at the mirror and realized that Rain couldn't see its reflection. He watched as a smaller Covra slipped in beneath the front legs of the first, pausing just long enough to touch the end of one of his legs to one of the yellow orbs attached to the front of the larger creature's leg before climbing under the bed so that it was poised to attack Rain when she laid down.
When the vision broke, Lynx was breathless. He stared down at Rain, his eyes fixed on the area of her belly that the Covra had impaled. Jumping off of the end of the bed, he ran out of the bedroom and down the stairs to the living room. Ero wasn't there. He rushed out of the house and down the street toward the house that Ero had chosen.
"Ero!" he called from the street, hoping that his voice would carry up into the house, "Ero?"
"What is it?" Ero asked, coming around the house from the backyard.
"I know why the Covra have been keeping the Light Ones alive."
He was frantic and his skin felt like it was burning. He couldn't control the breaths that were tearing jaggedly out of his lungs and his head was light.
"Calm down," Ero said, "What are you talking about?"
"Do you remember how Ciyrs said that he didn't understand why the Covra locked them for so long? Bannack told us that Loralia said her grandfather had told stories of the Covra locking their enemies, but they always killed them very soon after."
The words came out of him in a stream that he could barely understand himself and Ero stared at him as if he was having even more difficulty.
"I'm not following you."
"The Light Ones. They've been here for decades. Just sitting here doing nothing. And the Covra keep coming back, but they leave them here alive. Why? Why would they do that when they could just as easily kill them when they weren't awake?"
"Bannack said that they are weak when they get older and they lock enemies because they can't defeat them."
"Exactly. They are old and weak and waiting for the next generation to be born. Loralia even said that she could feel that there were more around and that they would soon be here to defeat the Light Ones. We've been operating this whole time on the concept that the Covra have just left them alive because they were holding a grudge and wanted to come back here and look at the people that they were holding prisoner. That's not it. They aren't here to check in on the people."
Lynx started around the house toward one of the people who was locked in the alley between it and the house beside it. It was a man who had been injected by the Covra in his back. Lynx pulled the man's shirt up and looked more closely at the area where the Covra's leg had pressed into his skin. Just as he expected it would, the area around the injury was slightly swollen and seemed to move beneath his fingers when he touched it.
"They don't care about the people. They defeated them a long time ago," he said to Ero, pointing out the area on his skin, "They knew the minute that they locked them in place that they would never wake up again, but not because of the lock. When they come back here, they aren't checking to make sure that the people are still locked or even to gloat about them being here. They are here to check on their children." He pressed into the man's skin again, causing the slightly swollen area to shift. "They are using the Light Ones as incubators."
(To be continued in Part II…)
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Chapter 1
She closed her eyes and listened to everything that was happening around her. Two men, both of whom were flirting with her at various points of the night, were starting to get frustrated by her clear lack of interest. Though their ploys were envious and creative, one of which involved turning a napkin into a flower, she was not interested in finding someone to entertain her for the night. They were both attractive with soft, boyish faces and sharply dressed appearances, both were wearing fancy dinner jackets in a night club. Her interest was not piqued by them and she continued to listen on to what was happening around her, even if they continued to offer to buy her drinks in an attempt to bribe her into going home with them.
Behind her was a young couple having an argument. “Can’t hold her liquor,” she thought as she listened to the young, red-headed girl with an amazing figure slur her speech while arguing over just how many she drinks she consumed. The man beside her, a very handsome, well dressed man with a great body and well toned arms looked on with a stupefied expression. “He clearly hasn’t had enough.”
“Hey, Hannah,” said the young girl sitting in the booth beside her. She was skinny with a tanned complexion and beautiful, dark hair that flowed down to between her shoulders. “Are you alright?”
Hannah smiled as she opened her eyes and looked upon Alexis. “You’re not supposed to ask me that,” she said playfully. “We’re here tonight to take your mind off of that jackass. Tonight is all about you.”
Alexis sighed as she was reminded about the man who had just left her for another woman. Tad, her former lover and current ex-boyfriend was someone who didn’t deserve Alexis or what she had to offer. He was a skinny young man that she met in college that was more of a weasel than a human. He was slimy, crooked, and would say whatever he needed to say to keep Alexis around. “Hey, don’t start dwelling on that cockroach,” said Hannah as she placed her arm around her best friend and pulled her toward her. “He isn’t, and has never been, good enough for you.”
“But he was really sweet,” she replied meekly, prompting Hannah to remove her arm and gaze at Alexis sternly.
“That boy used you for your money and for your vagina!” she shouted, causing the two men who were still hanging around to focus in on their conversation. Hannah turned back to notice them staring, but shrugged her shoulders before turning back to face Alexis. “You are so much better than he is and can do so much better.”
Alexis shook her head as she reached for a small glass on the table in front of her. “Maybe I can just drink the pain away,” she said as she turned up the glass filled with a sweet smelling blue liquid.
Hannah smirked as she reached for her glass and drank it with her. “Well, I suppose there are far worse ideas,” she said as she raised the glass up to her lips and downed it before placing it back on the table and looking into Alexis’s beautiful, brown eyes. “If we have to drink your pain away, then let’s get after it.”
She smiled as she turned and slid down the booth toward the end with Hannah close behind. “Why don’t we try somewhere else?” asked Alexis as she placed her feet on the floor and turned back to look at Hannah. “There are too many creepy guys here for me to really feel comfortable letting go.”
“I understand,” said Hannah as she looked over at the two guys still sitting at the booth, both of whom were not invited to join them but provided a few free drinks. “Where do you have in mind?”
Alexis looked over at the two guys who were really perturbed now. “I don’t know,” she said with a slight wink. “Why don’t we just see where our feet take us.”
Hannah immediately picked up what Alexis was hinting at, knowing that the likelihood of the two men following them to the next bar was extremely likely and that they would be hounded and harassed for the rest of the evening. “We could try O’Conners,” she said, knowing that the two men were listening in and treating every drink that they purchased for the two ladies as an investment.
“Yeah, that sounds like fun,” replied Alexis as Hannah stood up beside the booth and
gathered her things. “Do you mind stopping by the rest room before we leave though? They only have one stall in the ladies room and I’d hate to have to wait in a line to use it.”
“Absolutely,” said Hannah. “Why don’t we head back there now and then we head over to O’Conners.” The two men looked over at the girls before looking back at each other, taking the bait and standing up from the booth. Hannah and Alexis walked away, stepping out into a hallway that led to the restrooms before ducking down another hallway that led to another exit. “Good thinking,” she said as they reached a side door and stepped out into the cold, New York City air.
“I’m not really in the mood to entertain a couple of men who are only looking to get into my bed tonight,” said Alexis with a smile as they started walking down the street toward the first cab they could find.
Hannah reached out and opened the door of the yellow cab and allowed Alexis to enter first, climbing into the backseat before getting in herself and closing the door behind her. “Poole’s,” she said as she closed the door and sat beside Alexis. The driver nodded before pressing the accelerator and taking off down the street. “I wasn’t feeling like seeing any of those men again either, to be perfectly honest. I got a bad vibe from them.”
Alexis looked out the window as the passed by the bar to see the two men walking down the street toward O’Conners. “Like what?” she said as she watched them look back toward the door to see if they were going to walk out.
“Like even if we did take them to bed tonight, they wouldn’t know what they were doing,” she replied in a sultry manner.