Shifting Fate (The Neturu Chronicles Book 4)

by Sarah Carter

  “Other aliens?” Connor suggests.

  “I think we would know about that,” Lexi says. “You have no idea how technologically advanced we are.”

  He shrugs his shoulders. “Maybe they are more advanced than you.”

  “But again, why come after Lexi then,” Ashe says. “Why not go after her parents or Master Blakely.”

  “Master?” Connor snorts.

  “It’s how you address the head family,” Ashe replies. “Boys are master. Girls are mistress.”

  Connor turns to Lexi. “Mistress Blakely.”

  “Or Mistress Lexi,” she states. “But usually just Mistress. A lot say Miss because I hate Mistress.”

  “Interesting,” Connor replies. “Well, Mistress Blakely, I think you have a real mystery on your hands.”

  “What do you think they want?” Lana asks, running her fingers across the symbol.

  Lexi shakes her head. “I have no idea. They aren’t attacking me or trying to kidnap me.”

  “If they know what you can do, I doubt they would try any of that,” Ashe states. “That’s asking for an ass kicking. Especially if they saw what you did the other night.”

  “That’s very true,” Connor agrees. “If they saw you the other night, they also know you can literally kick their ass. You took down those other two guys with no problem.”

  “Also, if they know about the Neturu, they must know who your father is. Who your family is. I wouldn’t mess with that,” Lana interjects.

  Crossing her arms, Lexi goes, “How do they know I won’t go to my father anyway?”

  “That’s true,” Ashe replies. “Why would they think that you wouldn’t go to your dad?”

  “Do they know I know?” Connor asks. “If they’ve been following you, maybe they saw us in the woods the other night. You did use your powers there.”

  She nods. “That’s a good point. If we were followed, maybe they saw. If they know you know, maybe they realize I won’t go to my dad.”

  “What if they are trying to make contact?” Connor suggests. “What if they know and want to talk to you?”

  “This is a weird way to go about it,” Lexi snorts. “Why not just approach me?”

  “Because you could put them through a wall,” Ashe answers. “You really are kind of scary. Especially if they don’t personally know you. They may not know that you are the sweet girl that you are.”

  With a sigh, Lexi goes, “Then what do I do?”

  “Wait to see if you can catch one of them,” Ashe says. “Keep up your guard. Watch closely.”

  “What if they want to harm me,” Lexi whispers.

  Ashe raises his eyebrow. “What could they possibly do to you? You could kill them without blinking.”

  Connor turns to her. “You can kill people?”

  “Yes,” Lexi answers softly. “I could snap someone’s neck with a thought.”

  His eyes widen and he pales. “That’s scary.”

  “Well, I won’t lie,” Lexi says. “It’s true. I could destroy everything around me in a few seconds. I’m very powerful, but I would never do that. I’m about peace and love. I want to protect the world, not destroy it. I use my powers for good, not evil.”

  “That’s good to know,” Connor replies. “Maybe these people don’t know that.”

  “I don’t know,” Lana says. “If they followed her, they would know. She isn’t aggressive.”

  Connor nods. “That’s true.”

  Lexi shakes her. “The only time I have been aggressive was the other night when those guys attacked us. But they had a gun to my head. What was I supposed to do? I wasn’t going to let them shoot me. No one can blame me for that.”

  “I don’t think anyone does,” Connor replies.

  “Until we know who they are, there’s no way for us to know what they are thinking,” Ashe states.

  “So, how do we figure out who they are?” Lana asks. “Unless we catch them, next time they show up.”

  Ashe looks at Lexi. “Next time they should up, unleash your powers.”

  She shakes her head again. “No, if they know about me, they would just get scared. And if they didn’t know about me, I don’t want to out myself.”

  “So, what are you going to do then?” Ashe inquires. “Just wave?”

  “I don’t know,” she sighs. “What should I do?”

  “Make them freeze into place,” Connor suggests. “Then they can’t move, and you aren’t technically attacking them.”

  Lexi rolls her eyes. “Pretty sure that’s still attacking them. That’s a threat. Do as I say or I’m going to control you.”

  “You don’t know if they mean you harm,” Ashe interjects. “You might have to show them that you aren’t going to take any crap.”

  “Maybe,” Lexi sighs. “I’m not sure what to do.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to tell your dad?” Lana asks. “It might be necessary.”

  Thinking about it for a minute, Lexi shakes her head. “No, I would have to tell him about Connor, and he would definitely go in and erase his memories. Anyway, we really have nothing to go on. What could they do? Add extra security? I already have so much of it. What else could they do? I’m also all the security that I need. We know how destructive I could be if I wanted to.”

  “True,” Ashe says. “I guess we wait and see if they show up again.”

  “What do we do in the meantime,” Lana asks.

  She looks at the symbol on the tree one more time, and then Lexi sighs. “Let’s go swim. We can’t act like anything is out of the ordinary. Otherwise my parents will know something is up.”

  “All right, sounds like fun,” Connor declares.

  Chapter 11

  “Did you have fun?” Lexi asks, as she parks in front of Connor’s house.

  “Yeah,” he answers. “Your friends are great.”

  “You sure bonded with Ashe,” she laughs.

  Connor grins. “He’s a riot. He will totally get along with Derrick.”

  “We should get everyone together next weekend,” Lexi suggests. “It would be fun.”

  “Will your friends be here next weekend?” Connor asks.

  Lexi grimaces. “We send ships to get them. So, it takes like an hour.”

  “An hour around the world!” Connor gasps.

  She bites her lip. “That is landing and driving them over here. We could make it all the way around the world in seconds.”

  “No way,” he exhales.

  “Yeah,” she replies. “It would send out a massive sonic boom and a trail through the hemisphere.”

  “So, no radar can detect your ships.”

  Shaking her head, Lexi says, “No. It’s almost like a cloaking.”

  “Aliens,” Connor whispers. “It’s incredible.”

  “You really can’t tell anyone,” Lexi sternly states.

  He smiles at her. “Lexi, who would believe me? Maybe if we were at some sci-fi seminar or something. Or an alien abduction convention.”

  “Well, at least wait until we abduct you,” Lexi scoffs.

  “No probing.”

  “No, we don’t probe,” Lexi declares. “We tie you by your toes from the ceiling.”

  Connor rolls his eyes. “That doesn't sound very advanced. That actually sounds medieval.”

  “Oh but we do it by suspending you in the air, freely.”

  “Like flying!?” Connor exclaims.

  “Uh huh,” Lexi says.

  Shaking his head, he stammers, “I want to see that.”

  “I wish you were Neturu,” Lexi groans. “There is so much I want to show you.”

  “The whole idea is incredible,” Connor exhales, staring at her wide eyed.

  Lexi nods. “Yeah, we are fully advanced. I’ve been to Jupiter.”

  “What!” Connor gasps.

  “I had to do a paper on the planet when I was younger, so my dad took us there. Actually took us into the planet. There wasn’t really much to see. It was all gas. But it
was cool nonetheless.”

  “Oh how incredible! I wish I could even see space.”

  She tilts her head. “I can fly a runner ship. But, they might notice that you are there.”

  “You can fly a ship? That’s so cool.”

  “You’d surprised what I can do,” Lexi laughs. “Yeah, but I can fly a runner ship.”

  “What’s a runner ship?”

  Waving her hand from side to side, Lexi says, “It’s kind of our travel ships. The most they can carry is forty people. We do short, quick trips with them. They are fast, though.”

  “Can they go into space?” Connor asks.

  Lexi answers, “Yeah, everything we have can go into space. They are spaceships.”

  “That’s so crazy,” he exhales.

  “It's so normal for us,” Lexi snorts. “This is all so incredibly normal.”

  “What’s the craziest thing you could do to the human race?”

  Biting her lip, Lexi says, “Like to the human race?”

  “If we started a war,” Connor states. “What could you do?”

  “Deactivate your bombs with a click of a button,” Lexi replies.

  “Like...what kind of bombs?” Connor asks.

  She smiles. “Anything with electronics. We just deactivate them. Atomic bombs, we would just make them disappear.”

  “Where would they go?”

  With a grin, Lexi leans over and whispers, “We have beaming technology.”

  “No way!”

  “We used to have to be really close to do it, and now we can do it from space,” Lexi declares. “We have ships surrounding this planet all the time.”

  He shakes his head and stammers, “Really?”

  “Oh yeah, of course,” Lexi scoffs. “We have to keep things under wraps. It’s a very delicate process. Keeping everything hidden. Someday we will have to come out of hiding; we want to make sure it goes smoothly. We have a very tight policing system for our species. It’s called the guard.”

  “That’s the security that you have,” Conner counters.

  She nods. “Yeah. It’s the guard. The scariest policing system on this planet. We keep a tight leash on our people. We don’t want to come out of hiding with a bad record. We don’t want to be outed because of something bad. We want to prove we are a peaceful race.”

  “Interesting,” Connor whispers. “My little mind is blown. BOOM.”

  “You would never have guessed, huh?” Lexi laughs.

  With a dumbfounded look, Connor says, “No, I would never have guessed. You think alien, and it’s either little genderless grey men or something out of Hollywood.”

  “Something out of Hollywood?”

  “Yeah, like aliens,” Connor explains. “Something giant and terrifying that’s going to eat our brains.”

  “Ummm, no,” Lexi says. “Though I think we encountered a few of those beings on our way here.”

  He jerks back. “Other aliens in space?”

  “No, we didn’t encounter any of those,” Lexi replies. “It was other planets. I’m of the Merjyet line. I can access the secure files.”

  “The what line?”

  “Merjyet,” Lexi enunciates. “It’s what you call the royal line.”

  Raising his eyebrows, Connor declares, “Your alien language is crazy.”

  “Well, it is an alien language,” Lexi laughs. “We thought your languages were a little weird.”

  “You weren’t even alive then,” Connor scoffs. “Right!? You're not secretly hundreds of years old.”

  She smiles. “No, I’m sixteen. Will be seventeen real soon.”

  “That’s cool. How long do you guys live?”

  “Around 100 years or so. We sometimes hide our elderly away because if they live past a certain point, it grabs people’s attention.”

  “Makes sense,” Connor replies. “So, physically, how do you differ?”

  “We are humanoid,” she replies, smirking. “We are very similar physically.”

  “So, if you took off your clothes?” Connor presses.

  Lexi laughs. “You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”

  “Can I see?” he asks with a wink.

  She narrows her eyes playfully. “No, you may not see.”

  “I want to see an alien body,” Connor declares.

  Shaking her head, Lexi snorts, “That’s not going to happen.”

  Connor smiles at her. “Maybe someday.”

  “Maybe...” Lexi starts. “Probably not though.”

  “Ohhhh,” Connor exclaims. “I guess I got put in my place.”

  That makes Lexi frown. “I always thought I would die a virgin.”

  “Why do you say that?” Connor asks, furrowing his eyebrows.

  She shrugs. “No one was interested in me. Everyone was scared of me. Even now, we can’t stay together forever, so it’s not like it’s going to matter.”

  “You’re not going to die a virgin,” Connor scoffs. “I’m not saying it’s going to be me, but you’re not going to die a virgin.”

  “You never know,” Lexi sighs. “I could.”

  “You’re not going to end up alone,” Connor promises, gripping her hand.

  Lexi looks down at their interlocked hands. “You are the only one who’s not scared, but you are human, so it doesn't matter.”

  “Do you really think your dad would make you give up someone you love? I mean, if you truly loved the guy. Your dad would go out of his way to destroy that for you?”

  Shrugging again, Lexi replies, “I don’t know. It’s a major rule. One of the most major, if not the most major rule. We do not come out to humans.”

  “I don’t think he would make you do that,” Connor states, squeezing her hand.

  “You don’t know him like I do,” Lexi responds quietly. “I’m his daughter, but sometimes ruling his people comes first. It has to. We have so much at stake. It’s not as easy as a father/daughter relationship. It’s a, there are hundreds of thousands of lives at stake, kind of relationship.”

  “It had to be hard growing up in that, huh?”

  She looks up at him and frowns. “Try being in that and be an absolute freak. It was hard. It was so hard. I have the title but I’m not really Neturu.”

  “You’re not?” Connor says, curiously.

  Lexi shakes her head. “No, I’m mostly Kenga. I was engineered a little differently. So, it’s not like I’m part of the bloodline anyway. I can’t rule. My brother will.”

  “Because he’s a boy,” Connor counters.

  “No, he's the next in line. We made the decision that I wouldn’t rule because I wasn’t Neturu. I couldn’t continue on the line. I don’t want it anyway.”

  Connor sits back in his seat and waves his hand. “You don’t want it because you can’t have it or you don’t want it at all?”

  “I don’t want it at all,” Lexi answers. “I can barely stand being part of this family. I definitely don’t want to rule it.”

  “Makes sense,” Connor says. “I don’t think I would want to rule either. You would have no freedom. No freedom to just do what you want to.”

  She puts out her hands. “Exactly, I want to be able to mess up and have it not affect thousands of people. I don’t know how my grandfather and dad do it. I would be so paranoid of screwing up.”

  “My thoughts exactly. I want to be free to do what I want,” Connor states. “I don’t want to have to answer to anyone.”

  “Well, you technically do. Your government is like our royal family. You have to abide by laws.”

  “I realize that, but that’s not what I was saying. I don’t want to live by a set of rules just because of who I am. I would suspect that your father had to grow up under scrutiny. Never really got to be a teenager.”

  Lexi raises an eyebrow and laughs. “I’m pretty sure he went on a few adventures himself.”

  “You think?”

  She nods. “Yeah, pretty sure he had a crazy life. My dad lived under a set of rules but p
ushed the envelope as much as possible. I haven’t done that yet. I’ve been a very good teenager.”

  “Except now.”

  “Except now,” Lexi whispers, looking down. “I don’t know what I would do if someone found out.”

  Shaking his head, Connor reassures her. “I’m not going to spill your secret. People would think I was nuts, so what would the point be?”

  “You never know. There must be one conspiracy theorist that would believe you.”

  He smiles. “Do you guys monitor stuff like that?”

  “Yeah, we have technology that follows every phone call, every email, every website,” Lexi declares. “We strictly monitor stuff.”

  “You monitor every email?” Connor gasps. “You can do that?”

  “You'd be surprised what we can do,” Lexi snorts. “We monitor everything. Our supercomputers make your supercomputers look like something from the 70’s.”

  Connor slowly shakes his head. “That is crazy to think about. I believe you, but it’s scary.”

  “No one is really sitting there looking at this stuff,” Lexi replies. “The computers scan for keywords.”

  “That makes sense. How incredible.”

  Lexi smiles. “We are an advanced alien race.”

  “What’s the craziest alien thing that you guys do?” Connor asks, with a big grin.

  She thinks about it for a second. “Other than space ships?”

  “Yeah, what advanced stuff can you do?”

  “We can make animals from a simple DNA sample.”

  His eyes widen. “Like something from Jurassic Park?”

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Lexi answers.

  “Could you grow a human?” Connor gasps.

  With a nod and a smile, Lexi says, “Yes, if we wanted to, but we won’t. That’s not what we do.”

  “But that's what happened with you, right?” Connor counters. “You were engineered.”

  “Yes,” she replies. “I was engineered, but my mom was crazy. We don’t have the technology or know how to do what she did. I mean, we probably have the technology but no idea how she did it. Nor would we want to.”