“How do you know? How can you be so sure?” He knew for certain there was no absolution for that type of sin, and yet what Marie said struck a chord deep inside of him, something so deep, so inherent, he knew the truth of her words. “Are you saying she lives on?”
She smiled, but it was a sad twist of her lips. “I know she does. I’m not saying it makes death easy. Too many people have come to me to say that it is. It’s the greatest pain of life, losing someone you love. But I see the souls of those who have passed. They always come back to soothe those left behind. No one is forgotten. And then there will come a time when we all will die and we will rejoin our loved ones. That’s the true circle of life. We are born. We die. We rejoin and then we choose to live again.”
He saw the weight of knowledge in her eyes, the certainty that what she said was true. He cupped her cheek in his palm, “You are precious, Marie. Your gifts… they are… you are…” Unbelievable. Inconceivable. Incredible.
“A freak.”
“What? No! Not that. Never that. Marie, this is a blessing. Why would you say that?”
“When you’re someone who can sense and see the dead, people tend to get creeped out. They reject what they don’t understand.”
“I don’t get ‘creeped out’. I don’t know what that means, but it doesn’t sound like anything good. I find your gift fascinating,” he said.
She chuckled, but there was no humour in the sound. “It’s a pity my parents didn’t.”
The muscle ticked at his jaw. “Then they were reprehensible.”
“They were scared. When your two-year-old starts talking about invisible friends and doesn’t stop seeing them—ever—you start to worry. They took me to all types of psychotherapists. None could get me to stop seeing them. They took me to doctors. No drugs could keep the dead away. They were my friends. Especially Black Feather.”
“He is special to you.”
She nodded. “He’s my greatest friend. My father. My grandfather. My mentor. My guide. My master. He’s always been there. He always will be there.” Real concern flashed across her face. “I’m so worried, Alastor. What if… what if we don’t get there in time?”
He straightened his shoulders, ignoring the flare of pain from his back. It was time to go. “We will help them. We will win.”
“How do you know? This entity... I’ve never felt anything like it. If it’s too strong for Black Feather, I just don’t know what we can do here.”
“We will find a way, Marie. I’ve lost everything. Everyone. But I will fight with everything I am, because now… now I have everything to fight for.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Marie was stunned speechless at Alastor’s words, and the fact he wasn’t running for the hills. One sniff of what she could see, sense, and do, and most men didn’t know what to make of her and immediately put her in the too-strange-to-be-around basket. All it took was an alien to see past her gift to who she actually was. Too bad there was no future for them.
Pink tendrils reached from him to sink into her, pulsing with his emotions, his intentions, and the essence of his soul, connecting them both on a level most would not understand or even know about. Understanding of who he was blossomed within her, so close to human, but not quite the same. She hadn’t made concessions for that, and she had to remember that she wasn’t on Earth and these were no normal circumstances.
She liked Alastor.
More than liked, in fact.
Desired.
Lusted.
What was more, he’d lowered his walls and opened up to her. Really opened up to her. Listened to her. Seemed to understand her. Was interested. In her.
Men didn’t really know what to make of her. She’d tried hiding that part of herself away from them, but inevitably it would come out. She couldn’t help it that sometimes she knew intimate secrets about people, but they seemed to hold it against her. At the very least it made men uncomfortable. They liked to keep their secrets.
So, she’d lived with the hole inside her, filled it with Black Feather. The one who understood and knew her the best. Until Alastor had awakened those latent urges she’d long given up on.
Her desire was a physical, tangible thing, and now that he’d opened himself up, it was all flooding in. She’d tasted his soul, his innermost emotions, and now she knew.
Theirs was a deep, soul connection. She would never walk away unscathed. All the ‘if onlys’ crowded into her brain. If only they weren’t on this mission. If only she was on Earth. If only Alastor wasn’t an alien. Pretty big ‘if onlys’. Too big. Too hard and too much to ignore and pretend they weren’t there.
“Time is running out. We should go.” Her voice was thick, the words even thicker. She felt like a jerk, brushing him off after what he’d told her, but it never would be. He would have to see there could be no future between them.
Regret pulsed through her like a writhing need, which she ruthlessly discarded. If only she could talk to Black Feather, but he wasn’t there. She was alone.
Only, she really wasn’t, was she? She had Alastor. Real and solid, and sexy as hell. Only why did her heart stutter and she felt like there were pins and needles under her skin? A hot flush crept up her neck.
She rubbed the centre of her chest, trying to wipe the ache away. But it grew until flames licked inside of her. Oh God, it was happening again. She gasped, mouth open, dragging air into her lungs, clawing at her skin to stop the fire.
“Marie! What is it?”
She squinted at him through tears. “It… hurts.”
Alastor ripped her suit open, splaying his palm on her skin. A blessed numbness eased the itching. Her breath hitched. “It’s… gone. What did you do?”
“I’m just touching you.” He lightly ran his hand over her shoulder and down her arm. She shivered, but for a different reason entirely.
“That… that’s making it feel better,” she admitted.
“Really.” It wasn’t so much a question, as a thought mulled over. “Do you mind if I try something? It will be very quick.”
She nodded, wondering why and what he asked, but before she could think any further, he lifted his hand and she was assaulted by flames beneath her skin before he touched her again. The agony disappeared. “Why is it doing that?”
“I believe we are close to the source. You’re picking up on the energy the same way you picked up on Seriat. Here, touch me. It seems to diffuse the energy.” He placed her hand on his forearm before he activated the Seeker and read the display.
“We’re only half a click away,” Alastor said.
She peered out over the flat sand and the twin moons that were nearly at the horizon. Grey tinged the sky with the first touches of dawn, but there was no pyramid in sight. “What am I going to do?”
“You mean, what are we going to do?”
She frowned, not understanding. He hooked a knuckle beneath her chin. “We’re in this together, Marie. It’s not just you against the world. Not anymore,” he said.
She scoffed. “Pot calling the kettle black?”
His frown mirrored hers.
“Forget the reference. It means that you’re the biggest loner I’ve met. You never say ‘we’. That isn’t in your vocabulary.”
“It is now.” She looked for the muscle that usually twitched at his temple, surprised to see smooth skin. His gaze, though, was no less intense. This time the emotions she felt coming off him were a mix of determination, protectiveness, and pure desire.
“That’s not what you said before.”
“That was before I knew the difference.” He trailed a thumb pad down her cheek and she shivered at the intimate touch. “I’ll hold your hand. Keep touching you, and when we’re there, we’ll decide what to do.”
His grip was firm. Consistent. Calming and steady. It wasn’t a hardship to let him hold her, either. His essence washed through her. She tried walling it off, trying to protect herself from feeling him, but his energy seeped through her best de
fences. Just as a soul connection should.
How had things changed so dramatically, so fast? Her mind reeled with the impossibilities until the point of a pyramid larger than the great pyramid of Giza dotted the horizon.
There were no reflections, no shadows, sucking up the light of the stars and the moons. Unlike the other pyramids she’d seen on this planet, where pastel colours swirled and reflected the colours of the rainbow like a constantly moving oil-slick, the matte black of this pyramid was disturbing. It certainly wasn’t natural. A sense of foreboding seeped into every cell.
Alastor squeezed her hand. “Are you all right?”
She steeled herself. “I’m just picking up on the energy of this place. It’s like it’s… dead.”
It pulsed with the same wrongness from the in-between, and she could hardly bear it. The evil was oppressive, dark, and heavy. She tightened her grip on Alastor’s hand, her heart pounding, breath coming in short gasps. Black Feather was too late. They were too late. “I think… I think the entity is already starting to come through.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The air was thick and stale. Even he could feel the change in it as they walked closer to the structure. It seemed to be coated in an oily sludge, and when they came closer to the pyramid, the pearlescent colours looked as though they had died. Pinks faded to dark greys, opalescent silver to black. Whatever was happening to it and inside, it wasn’t good, and he felt thoroughly unprepared.
The sense of rage and urgency he usually felt when he went into battle, the need to put himself on the front line, was absent, replaced with a calm. This situation was dangerous. He was dealing with an enemy that was utterly foreign. There were human women at risk. He didn’t know what he was walking into, had no back-up and he had the most precious thing in the world to protect in the event things got dangerous. Collecting this intel was of ultimate importance.
Maybe it was because he’d made his peace, or maybe it was because of Marie’s calming presence, he wasn’t sure. All he knew was that he had a lot to be grateful for, and even more to live for. He couldn’t leave things unsaid. Not when the situation was this dangerous. He would do anything to protect her, and that included sacrificing himself so that she might live.
He whispered in her ear, “Remember, whatever we see, we’re here to gain intelligence to mount the best possible battle. We get in, see what’s happening, and then get out. No matter how difficult that might be. No matter what we might see. Okay?”
“I understand. How do we get in?” Her voice trembled.
He initiated the Seeker to monitor inside the structure. The three-dimensional reader began to form above the data pad on his wrist. It only took a moment to see winding corridors and various rooms that came off the many corridors, but the centre was completely missing. Whatever was there was able to mask the scanner. They were going in blind.
He spun the image around, looking for an entry point not far from where they stood. Careful not to release Marie’s hand, he followed the holographic map until he found a door that was barely more than a rectangular indent in the smooth wall of the pyramid. He pressed in the centre of the shape and the panel receded to reveal the inky depths inside. The air held a slightly musty odour—cool, damp, and sickly sweet. The Seeker flickered. A deep, throbbing sound pulsed around them, like electrical interference, but on a grander scale.
He withdrew his laser and they stepped inside. The darkness fell about their bodies, dense and sour. Marie shuddered, the movement bone deep. Her skin was damp and chilled. Her lips fell open, panting with the beginnings of a panic attack.
He trailed his fingertips along her chin and waited until her gaze found his. He pressed his lips to hers, lingering until he felt her softening. He waited for her tension to ease before he withdrew and whispered in her ear, “You can do this, Marie.”
Her eyes focussed and her jaw firmed, and after a short moment, she nodded. He would protect her with his life, and he also knew that she had protection from the in-between. He wished she wasn’t a part of this, but no matter what he might think, he knew she had to be here. As much as he hated it, she was the only one who might have a chance of defeating this thing that was attacking worlds.
“Are you ready to keeping going?”
She nodded and he led her further down the corridor, where the air became more noxious and oppressive. The only thing that kept him going was knowing that so many lives were at stake.
The light from the Seeker washed over the walls, which were as black as the outside. It seemed the essence of the structure had been changed. A faint, blue light appeared ahead and he shut the Seeker off, sending them into pitch darkness. Marie’s fingers tightened and she stepped so close he felt every dip and curve of her body.
The light pulsed and the low-grade humming became more pronounced the further they edged forward. His gut kicked, protesting the sense of ‘wrongness’ with each step they took.
They inched closer to the rectangular open doorway. He flattened his back against the wall. He pressed Marie beside him, readied himself, and glanced inside. A cold sweat broke out over his body.
Inside was a large chamber that was several storeys high. Rows upon rows of hundreds of cells ringed upwards from the floor. Blue light illuminated each cell that contained shadowed, unmoving silhouettes.
Black clouds undulated above them. The mass swirled and pulsed as though it had a life force all of its own. The air was frigid, eddies carrying sparkles of ice that caught the blue light like twinkling stars. As he watched, the clouds puffed lower, devouring rows of cells as it moved.
His mind faltered, on the verge of rejecting what he saw. It was sickening. Horrifying. Human females, hundreds of them. And the clouds were... consuming them!
There was a strangled sound beside him. The horrified look on Marie’s face mirrored his tumultuous gut. Her mouth fell open, a wordless, garbled sound escaped. He grabbed her shoulders, pushing her back into the corridor and away from the chamber. She clung to his forearms, as though anchoring herself, her fingers clawing into his clothing. “Alastor… the… darkness…!”
“I have to get you out of here.” He wanted her far away from whatever the frek that was inside.
Her fingers tightened around his arms. “No! That’s the black fog that keeps people mind-enslaved. It’s… here. That’s what Black Feather was fighting. Oh my God. It’s already come into this world.”
His blood pounded in his ears. “We need to get back to the shuttle. Get to the Starlight. This is too big for you and me.” There was no way the two of them could stop it. He didn’t even know exactly what it was. He needed backup. Reinforcements. And to get Marie the hell away from here.
“There’s no time! Alastor, there’s no telling what damage something like this could do to this world. We have to do something!” Marie said.
He trailed the pad of his thumb along her jawline. “What can we possibly do? There are hundreds, maybe thousands of women to be helped. Do you possibly think the two of us can free them all? What of those clouds? What if we try something and fail? Become mind-enslaved ourselves?” They would be another statistic in a universe that would perish. The Starlight would never learn what was happening here. They would be the first to be destroyed.
“I will meditate. Try to understand what’s happening. Why those women are stuck in those things. At least then we can fully understand what we’re up against. It might… minimise losses. I can’t… can’t leave them there without trying something. We have no more time,” Marie said.
Frek, she was right. But Marie would be putting herself in danger. This thing was powerful enough to traverse dimensions. Even someone as talented as Marie might not stand a chance. He would not sacrifice her. “No, Marie. I couldn’t stand it if…” He drew a deep breath. “...if I lost you too.”
He stared into her large, violet eyes that always looked as though they saw so much more. “You’ve been through so much, Alastor. I understand. Sometimes you have to
risk your life in order to honour life.”
He knew that. Gods, he knew that, but even knowing it didn’t make it easy. Yet he still had to respect it. He closed his eyes, feeling the muscle tick again at his jaw. Not to respect that decision would be not to respect Marie and her bravery. He would do anything for her, even help her put herself in danger. He would just be ready to help her out of it.
“What will you have me do?”
She nodded even though her small body trembled with fear. Brave, beautiful Marie. “Keep hold of my hand. I trust you to bring me back.”
“I’ll always bring you back. Whatever it takes.” He pressed her hard to his chest, his lips crashing over hers. She clung to him fiercely, kissing him back with her own rising urgency. They parted, panting, her lips swollen and wet, and when her eyes focussed on his, they held the weight of the world.
Gods, he’d do anything for this not to be happening. But that was only wishful thinking. There were no options. He wasn’t dealing with an enemy he could understand, much less try to defeat single-handedly. This one chance might mean the difference in this long, exhausting war.
“I’ll give you five minutes. If you don’t come back up in that time, I’m going to shake you awake until I see those beautiful eyes on me again, entity or not. Do you understand?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“You can’t do this in the middle of the corridor.” Alastor checked the Seeker and tugged her to a small alcove not far from where there were, just big enough to fit the two of them and where they could still see into the chamber. She settled on the sandy ground and rested her back against the wall.
There was just enough light to see the tension on Alastor’s face. It matched the way her stomach lurched and twisted. She didn’t want to take more than five minutes, but she didn’t know how long she would need—or really, what she’d do once she mentally traversed into a meditative state. This was so far out of her realm of experience it wasn’t funny.
Alastor: Sci-Fi Alien Romance (A Hexonian Alien Romance Book 3) Page 13