Independents
Taoree Trilogy #2
Michele Notaro
Copyright © 2017 by Michele Notaro
All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places or events are purely the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, actual events, establishments, businesses or locales is purely coincidental.
The amazing book cover was done by:
Soxsational Cover Art
http://www.soxsationalcoverart.com/index.html
Independents is Book Two in the Taoree Trilogy and is meant to be read as part of a series. This book ends on a cliffhanger, but there is a promise of a happy ending at the end of the trilogy.
This is a gay romance that contains adult language, adult situations, and sexual explicit material between two men. It is rather gruesome, so if you don’t like violence, death, blood, and the like, don’t read it.
It is intended for ADULTS ONLY.
Chapter One
It had been two days since my brother Wesley’s pain began. Two days since his Qiren—those fucking microscopic alien robots—started trying to melt his brain down to allow the Taoree to control him. Two days since Orrean and I started sending our energy, our light, into Wes to hold them off. Two days of pushing ourselves to go faster, move farther, and get closer to the Taoree Independent camp. Two fucking days and we were still almost two weeks away. Only two and my energy was completely depleted. Two of the fourteen that it’d take us to get there.
How will we ever get him there in time? How?
I can’t lose him. I just… can’t.
It was still weird to me that I was even able to help Wesley, since I hadn’t been able to help Colt. But Orrean had explained that I was able to with Wes because he was a blood relative. And even though Cal was a blood relative of Colt, he couldn’t help him because he didn’t have some weird connection with our alien friend like I apparently did. A connection that I had ignored since Orrean first mentioned it.
“Did you hear that?” Nolan asked from a few feet in front of me.
“What?” Cal asked him. He was standing behind Nolan, but in front of me and carrying Mandy, his ten-year-old little sister, on his back. Orrean and Wesley were walking on either side of me through a field we were using to avoid the roads.
“I thought I heard someone scream,” Nolan whispered to us.
All of us stopped walking and strained our ears to listen. It took a long moment, but then I heard it. A long, toe-curling scream that sounded like it could be at least a mile away.
We all looked around at one another, then Nolan took off at a run with us right behind him. Nolan and Cal were faster than me, so they pulled ahead. Wes was even slower than I was, so I stuck with him, and Orrean stayed with the two of us too.
I looked over at our alien friend and said, “You should go grab Mandy.” It was well known that Orrean was faster, stronger, and had more acute senses than us humans.
He nodded at me. “I’ll be right back.” Then he ran ahead to Cal and Nolan. I watched as he said something to Cal, then plucked Mandy off his back without either of them breaking stride. Orrean then slowed down to a walk, obviously waiting for Wes and me to catch up.
“You can run ahead, Jeremy. I’ll catch up,” Wes said, breathing heavily beside me.
“No way, little bro. I’m not leaving you and I can’t run much faster, anyway,” I told him honestly as I readjusted my—or Colt’s—blue ball cap on my head. I pretty much never took it off. It made me feel closer to him somehow. Normally Wes and I would’ve been right up there with Cal and Nolan, but my entire body was overly exhausted.
Wes didn’t say anything. He just nodded and kept running, or jogging, really. We were a lot slower than we should have been. The fleeting thought of I hope we don’t have to run from any Taoree crossed my mind, but I pushed it down. Better to focus on the here and now and the bloodcurdling screaming we were getting closer to.
“You okay?” Orrean asked both of us as we caught up to him.
“Fine,” I huffed out. Wes simply nodded again. I guess it was easier than wasting his energy by speaking.
We ran for a few minutes as Cal and Nolan got farther and farther from us. I didn’t like being that far from them, but I guess it couldn’t be helped at that point if we wanted to help someone else.
I watched from a distance as the two of them came to a stop with their shoians—the alien weapon made to take out a Feral, aka Feral Sticks—out and ready for attack. I was terrified when they turned a corner behind an old decrepit house and went out of sight.
“Fuck,” Wes panted out. My thoughts exactly.
“Orrean, you need to go help them. I’ll carry Mandy,” I said through my panting.
“I’m not leaving you three,” Orrean stated immediately.
“They need your help more than we do right now,” I argued with the alien who was wearing a hat and sunglasses with his hair tucked in his jacket. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought he was just a very tall human. Though there weren’t many humans that were six-foot-eight.
“I’m not leaving you, Jeremy,” he stated more fiercely.
“You need to help them, Orr,” I told him.
“They have it under control at the moment. I can hear them, and we’ll get there before I am needed,” he said, sounding angry and exasperated at the same time. That seemed to be a common combination when he was talking to me.
I gritted through my teeth, “Fine.”
We slowed down once we reached the old house and crept along one wall. I didn’t want to go storming in, in case there were others with weapons. Orrean put Mandy down next to Wes, then whispered into Wesley’s ear. I didn’t hear what he said, but Wes nodded grumpily and both he and Mandy stood against the house’s side. Wes put his arm in front of Mandy. I figured Orrean had asked him to stay back and protect her. Probably a good idea in Wes’s current state… not that I was much better at this point.
Orrean and I rounded the first corner and started walking toward the sound of voices. I couldn’t hear what they were saying yet, but I could tell they were fuming. As we got closer, I could hear Cal’s voice.
He was yelling angrily, “…you don’t, we will shoot you.”
A voice I didn’t recognize yelled back, “It’s none of your business, asshole, so move the fuck along!”
Nolan sounded more pissed than I’d ever heard him. “Release the girl, or you’re dead. All. Of. You.”
I turned and looked at Orrean with wide eyes. His face looked as horrified as I felt. I mouthed, “How many?” to him. He pushed his sunglasses on the top of his head and closed his eyes for a second, then flicked them open and held his hands up, showing me eight fingers. Twice as many of them than us. Well, shit.
I had missed the enemy human’s response, but heard Nolan say, “We will kill you.”
I heard a few chuckles and the spokesman of the other group said, “You and what army?”
Before I could do anything, Orrean yelled from beside me, “This army, dickhead.”
I knew my eyebrows went up to my hairline at his response. He had clearly been spending too much time with us if he was using curse words. I had never even heard him curse… at least not in English. Usually he only used Taoree curses, much to the amusement of the rest of us. When he saw my face, he did a weird shoulder roll that I always assumed was the equivalent of a shrug.
“Show yourselves or we’ll kill your friends,” Evil Spok
esman said.
“If you so much as harm one hair on their bodies, you won’t live to regret it,” Orrean responded. My eyebrows remained where they were—in my hair—because I wasn’t used to him being so livid and forceful. He was usually more on the quiet and calm side… well, unless I said something to piss him off, but still, he never sounded like that when he spoke to me.
As if reading my mind, Orrean looked at me and whispered, “No one threatens or hurts my friends.”
I nodded at him and whispered back, “Good to know. So what’s the plan?”
Evil Spokesman was yelling for us to come out, but we ignored him in favor of making a plan. Once I agreed, Orrean pulled his sunglasses back on and ran off into the shadows.
I yelled to the evil group, “You have sixty seconds to let the girl go and leave this area or we will take you out.”
“Shit, Darren, that was a different guy,” a new voice said. “They could have more people than we do. It ain’t worth it.”
Evil Spokesman answered, “The girl is mine. I ain’t gonna le—” his words were cut off by the sound of a flying bullet.
I knew that was the signal, so I stepped out in time to see the man who had been yelling fall to the ground from a bullet to his head. Orrean had gone around to the other side of the old house and taken out the leader of the group. There were a few yells, but it didn’t look like any of them had guns. Still, I aimed my gun—or my reelian, the Taoree gun that could kill humans and aliens alike—at the guy closest to me. Nolan and Cal both had their reelians each aimed at a different enemy.
Orrean came out, a reelian in each hand and aimed at a different man. He shouted, “This is your last chance. Leave now or we kill you all.”
The rest of Evil Spokesman’s gang seemed to have an easy time turning tail and running away. None of them even said anything; they just turned and ran.
Orrean shouted out, “If you hurt someone else, I will hunt you assholes down.”
Despite the situation, a small chuckle came out of me. I was completely amused by his cursing. It was kind of awesome. Orrean shot me a look with a half-smile before looking down at the woman lying in the dirt. His smile vanished and was replaced with a look of horror, so I followed his line of sight.
There was a woman with dark brown hair lying between an overturned table and some porch stairs. She had one ankle and one wrist tied to each, so her arms and legs were spread open in an X. Her clothes were in tatters, completely ripped up and exposing a lot of her body. Her breasts were visible and her pants were missing. She had blood and bruises all over her body. Her hair was covering her face, but I could hear her crying. I felt bile rise in my throat and had to turn away for a second to get my bearings and force the bile back down.
I heard Orrean whisper, “Enimus, favulis nob,” but I didn’t understand him since I wasn’t touching him.
Nolan took off his coat and ran over to her, placing it over the woman’s body. He spoke softly, “It’s okay. We’re not going to hurt you. I’m going to untie you now, okay?”
She didn’t speak or move. Nolan shot Cal a look before both of them got to work untying her. Once her arms and legs were freed, she immediately backed up against the porch and pulled her knees to her chest, using Nolan’s coat to cover her entire body. Nolan pulled out his water bottle and held it out to her, but she didn’t take it, she just stared at it.
“It’s just water,” Nolan told her. When she still didn’t take it, he took a sip, then held it out to her again. “See? It’s safe to drink.”
She slowly took it from him and took a long drink. When she was finished, she handed it back, still not saying anything.
Nolan knelt down in front of her, but not too close, then he took off his bag and started looking through it. He pulled out a long-sleeved tee shirt and held it out to her. She took it immediately, but didn’t move to put it on.
I turned away to give her some privacy and Cal walked over to me, obviously having the same idea as me.
Cal bent down a little to catch my eye, asking, “You okay, J?”
“Yeah,” I answered, not really sure why he’d ask me that.
“Good,” he said, then shocked me by pulling me into a hug.
I tensed in surprise, but relaxed into him when he didn’t let me go right away. He was shaking, probably from adrenaline, fear, and disgust at the situation. I rubbed his back and asked, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he said before releasing me, but keeping his hands on my shoulders. When I looked into his eyes, I could see him fighting some internal battle and I had no clue what it was, besides the obvious end-of-the-world bullshit we were dealing with. He whispered, “You look tired, J.”
“I am, but I’m alright,” I told him with my brows furrowed.
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Cal,” Nolan interrupted. “Do you have that extra sweatshirt?”
Cal gave me a quick squeeze before releasing me to look at Nolan. “Sure.” Then he went through his bag, pulling out a green sweatshirt and throwing it to Nol.
Orrean, Wes, and Mandy came around the corner behind me, making me jump. Orrean must’ve walked back around to get them, for which I was grateful. I didn’t particularly like the idea of either of them seeing the poor woman like that, but I also didn’t like the idea of them being separated from us. I nodded my thanks at Orrean before turning my attention back to the woman.
“What’s your name?” Nolan asked her.
The woman looked around at all of us with her light-brown eyes. I hadn’t been sure of her age because of the state she was in, but as I looked her over, I realized she was probably only a few years older than me… maybe mid-twenties. She moved her dark hair out of her face and focused on Mandy, who Wes happened to be holding in a hug. She stared for a while, then looked back at Nolan and cleared her throat, saying, “Tabitha Martin.”
Nolan smiled at her. “It’s nice to meet you, Tabitha. I’m Nolan, and this is my family. That’s Cal, Jeremy, Orrean, Wesley, and Mandy.” He pointed at each one of us in turn, then looked at my brother. “Do you still have those sweatpants in your bag?”
“I think so,” Wes said before putting Mandy down and looking in his pack. Mandy immediately went over to Orrean, who picked her up and started talking to her quietly and distracting her from the situation. I wasn’t stupid enough to think that Mandy, even at ten years old, didn’t understand what was happening. After everything she’d seen, heard, and been through, I knew she wasn’t naïve, unfortunately. Orrean’s calm presence would be good for her.
Wes threw his sweatpants at Nolan, who handed them over to Tabitha. We all turned away when she started putting them on.
A minute later, she cleared her throat. “You can turn back around.”
She stood there, looking tiny and way too skinny, but with her back straight and her shoulders squared. I had expected to see her hunched over or even still sitting on the ground, but I was happy she wasn’t. She looked strong as she faced off with us, and something about her made me instantly like her. I only hoped we could convince her to come to the Independent camp with us.
“So, uh.” She cleared her throat again. “Thanks for helping me out.”
“Of course,” Nolan said before walking over to Orrean. He whispered, but I was close enough to hear him. “Can you heal her?”
Orrean looked at me for a second before answering, “Yes.”
Nolan nodded, then walked back over to Tabitha. “So, um, we can help with your wounds.”
Tabitha took a step away from him. “Do not touch me.”
Nolan held up his hands to her. “I promise we aren’t going to hurt you. We have a,” he winced, “Taoree tool that can heal you. He,” he pointed at Orrean, “knows how to use it. He can show you and you can do it yourself.” He looked back at Orrean again. “Right?”
“Yes, I can give her the juhere,” Orrean answered, then looked at Tabitha. “I have to walk over to you. Is that okay?”
> The girl looked around for a moment before nodding to him. Orrean passed Mandy back to Wes before walking over to Tabitha. He slowly reached into his pants pocket and pulled out the black metal thing that always reminded me of a computer mouse. He flipped it around and pressed several buttons, making the juhere glow blue, then he held it out to Tabitha.
“You just have to hold it over your wounds. It will feel warm and soothing and only take a few seconds to heal you,” he told her.
She slowly pulled her sleeve up, revealing her sliced-open wrist that obviously happened from her trying to get out of the ropes she’d been tied up with. Orrean moved the juhere over her wound and the girl’s eyes went wide as she watched her skin knit itself back together.
“Holy shit,” she whispered before taking the juhere from Orrean and holding it over her other wounds. I focused on our surroundings as the poor girl went from one injury to another, making me lose track of how many she’d had.
When she was finished, she handed the juhere back to Orrean, saying, “Thank you. So, you’re one of them, huh?”
I tensed because I didn’t want her to try anything against Orrean. I liked the girl, but I would protect my family any way I could, and Orrean was definitely a part of my family now. I held my hand over my reelian just in case. I figured if I pulled it out, she would back off… or at least, I hoped I wouldn’t have to shoot her.
“I am Taoree, yes,” Orrean answered, bowing his head down slightly and pushing his sunglasses on top of his head to reveal his dark-purple eyes. Most Taoree looked like they had all-black eyes, with no white whatsoever, but if you looked closely at Orrean’s dark eyes, you could see that they were actually purple with a thin vertical black slit as a pupil. He told me once that most Taoree have some color, but they just look all-black from a distance.
Tabitha spoke to Orrean, “So, why are you helping humans?” She looked around at us humans, then back to Orrean. “They are clearly ready to protect you against me. What are you doing with them?”
Independents: Taoree Trilogy #2 Page 1