There was a crunch in the gravel behind her, and two arms snaked around her waist, pulling her gently into a warm embrace. She could sense without looking that it was Theyn, and she put her hands over his.
“Where is it?” she asked. “Your world, I mean.”
He took a breath. “I’m not familiar with the stars from this vantage point. The constellations are so much different than what I grew up with. Whichever star is the one you call Arcturus, then that is where my homeworld was.”
She leaned against him, and he tightened his hold. It felt so natural, so perfect, to be held by him this way. “What happened?”
He rested his chin on her shoulder. “The Taluans came.”
It was clear that he thought he’d said everything that needed to be said. “What are the Taluans?”
“The Taluans are a very destructive and rapacious race from the Yuroja System. They have denuded their own world of natural resources, so they go to other planets and strip them bare. They have destroyed a dozen worlds. They came to Ylia and destroyed her.”
His voice was thick with emotion, and she turned in his arms, embracing him. He pulled back, his hands on her waist. There were tears in his eyes, and his expression was haunted. “We were on a research station on Hido, our largest moon, when they came. We saw their harvesters appear in orbit over our world, saw the attack begin. We saw the water vanish and the land split. We saw the greenery disappear and Ylia turn dark.”
She rubbed his arm. “I’m so sorry, Theyn.”
Beno came to them at speed, rushing to his distressed partner’s side. He pressed against Theyn’s back, wrapping his arms around him as well, comforting him in his grief. Theyn was weeping openly now, and he pressed his face into Sera’s neck, one hand gripping Beno’s for dear life.
All those people, Theyn sobbed, unable to speak aloud. All that death.
Beno hugged him tighter, offering what comfort he could, and Sera stroked Theyn’s hair. He trembled in their arms.
“I’m so sorry,” she said again, at a loss for anything else to do.
They stood that way for several long minutes while the blond Ylian wept for his lost world. Joely and Asa stayed back by the car, discreetly giving the threesome their space. Beno looked over Theyns’ shoulder and into Sera’s eyes, his own expression sorrowful. She raised a hand to his cheek, and he turned to kiss her palm.
Hush now, Beno soothed his partner. Like the Phoenix, we'll rise again from these ashes.
We are the last, Theyn said, his heart broken. And we are trapped here with no way to go home, even if there was a home to go to.
We will make a new home for you here, Sera said.
A wordless flush of gratitude reached her from Theyn, and she kissed him. Beno stroked his hair, and slowly he managed to stem the flow of his tears and regain some composure. He stepped aside and ran a hand over his face.
“I’m sorry,” he said aloud. “I didn’t mean to -”
“Don’t apologize,” Sera said. “It’s understandable. Believe me, in your shoes, I’d be worse.”
He smiled weakly, and Beno squeezed his shoulder in support. Theyn cast a grateful look to his partner, then took a deep breath. “We should continue our journey.”
He was clearly embarrassed, and Sera and Beno didn’t want to make him feel worse by pursuing the subject. They returned to their companions and got back into the cars for another long ride.
As they drove, Beno spoke to Sera, and she could sense that Theyn was not party to the conversation. The unscheduled opening of his hibernation unit has affected his brain chemistry and made him emotional. He is very sensitive, but he normally doesn’t have breakdowns like that.
She smiled to herself. This method of conversing was very intimate, and she liked the way she could feel her lover inside her head. Are you afraid I think badly of him for grieving?
Some females might.
Not this female, she told him. I think it’s a strong man who’s not afraid of his emotions.
She could feel a twitch of surprise from Beno, and his response was, Hmm.
“Hmm?” That’s all you have to say?
She felt him smile. For now.
Before she could stop herself, thoughts and questions about the Taluans and the experiences that had left him scarred rose in her head. She felt him grow grim and quiet, but he did not close his mind to her. Instead, he let her in.
She saw his memory through his eyes, rapid images flashing in her mind as he showed her his story. She saw him as one of a squad of eight Ylians, all of them with flashing scales and glowing green eyes. They were in a metal corridor, stealthily creeping toward an open door with weapons in their hands. She was startled by a loud whine and a barrage of noise and flashes, and then she felt herself - no, not herself, Beno - falling to the floor, terrible pain in his gut. Rough hands seized him and dragged him, and she could see his squad mates lying dead in pools of glistening golden blood.
Darkness. Confusion. Pain. The emotions washed through her in short order, leaving her gasping. Then she saw Beno’s memories of waking in a cell, manacles upon his hands and feet, lasers forming the walls like the metal bars in an old-time jail cell. She saw monstrous creatures with reptilian features and huge hulking bodies standing on the other side of the laser barrier. They began to bark questions that the translator was unable to decode, and in his memory, she saw them growing angry. One of the creatures turned off the laser bars on one side of the cage and came through, grabbing her - no, she had to keep reminding herself, grabbing Beno - by the throat. He was held up and thrust back against the lasers. The sound of sizzling and terrible pain rose from his back as the alien reptile laughed in his face.
The memory shut off abruptly, and she jerked physically when it was yanked away from her. She shook her head, dazed.
I’m sorry, Beno said. It went too far. I didn’t mean for you to experience -
I’m a big girl. I can take it.
With all due respect, I’m a trained warrior, and I was unable to withstand the torture. Guilt tinged his mental voice, coloring everything with shadows. They broke me. I told them where my planet was. They didn’t even know Ilya existed until we fell into their trap.
She could see where this was going. It wasn’t your fault.
The hell it wasn’t! he snapped. She felt him take a deep, steadying breath. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to…
It’s all right. She sighed. In the driver’s seat, Joely gave her a quizzical look, but Sera shook her head and gestured for silence. Beno, they tortured you. Nobody can hold up to that.
His anxious grimness descended over him again. I was trained. I was on the special recon team. I should have been able to resist them.
How long ago was that? Before you went into hibernation, I mean. She realized that talking about the passage of time would always be a little dicey with her two aliens.
Ten years, he answered softly.
That was a long time to carry a burden like that. He saw her thought, or felt it; in any event, he addressed her concern.
We are a long-lived people. Ten years is not that long a time.
Sera couldn’t help herself. A hundred more questions rose in her mind, and she bombarded him with them without meaning to. He chuckled in her mind, and the sound and feeling of it warmed her.
We live until we’re killed. Natural death normally comes around our four hundredth year.
She raised an eyebrow. Whoa. Four hundred? I’ll be lucky if I make it to eighty.
A wave of dismay rolled from him to her before he could reel it back in and lock it down. Perhaps we can address that when the time comes.
Sera felt ridiculously happy that he was considering still being with her that far into the future. The implication of permanency thrilled her, and she was hard pressed to understand why. Normally she would be backpedaling like mad to get away from even the least talk of commitment. She didn’t understand why it was so attractive to her now.
Theyn’s voi
ce broke in gently. I’m sorry to interrupt, but we need to camouflage.
She blinked and looked ahead. The US/Mexico border was ahead. Guard shacks stood like booths on a toll road, and soldiers and officials from both countries manned them heavily. The crossing itself was over a bridge, just beyond which was a large plaza with the ubiquitous duty-free shop and currency exchanges. They were well back in a long line, even though it was the middle of the night.
She felt the tingle of camouflage surround her, and then she was invisible once more.
She watched as Asa, apparently alone in the car ahead of them, unloaded all of his good ol’ boy charm. She could see him grinning and chattering with the guards, and they shared a laugh. They waved him through after only a cursory glance at his passport, and he and his precious cargo of hidden aliens proceeded across the bridge into the United States.
Joely nosed the car forward and stopped by the guard shack. She handed her passport over to the guard, who glanced at it, then at the cleavage she had once again carefully put on display. He handed her passport back.
“Welcome home, Miss Thompson.”
She grinned broadly. “Thanks! You have a nice day, now.”
They drove after Asa, who was wasting no time getting through the border plaza and onto Texas roads. The camouflage continued until they were well away from the border. Asa led them onto a dusty side road, one that looked to be untraveled and almost neglected. The camouflage faded away, and Sera could see Theyn and Beno reappear in the passenger seats of Asa’s vehicle.
Joely chuckled. “That is so damn cool. What does it feel like?”
Sera considered her answer, then said, “Tingly.”
“Awesome.” She smirked. “Those two boys can make me tingle any time they want.”
A wave of jealousy swept through her, and Sera muzzled it as quickly as she could. She told herself that Joely was just teasing, but she really didn’t like the idea of sharing her men. She tried not to clench her teeth and looked out the window instead.
***
They reached Asa’s ranch just before dawn. All of the travelers were exhausted, and they were more than ready to get out of the car and go to bed. Asa unlocked the door to the main house and led them inside.
“Bathrooms are down here, right through that door, and upstairs, second door to the left. There’s four bedrooms,” he said. “One’s a kid’s room, so there’s only a single bed in there. I’ll take that one.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Joely said. “You’re too big. You’d fall out. I’ll take the single.”
He smiled. “Much obliged, ma’am.”
Like a good host, he showed them to their rooms, leading Sera and her two lovers to the same room without being asked. He nodded to them before he left, shutting the door behind him.
Theyn sat on the edge of the bed, an antique with a full mattress and a dark wood headboard. Sera sat beside him and took his hand. He smiled at her, his face full of the fatigue they all were feeling, and squeezed her hand.
Beno pulled back the covers on the bed, then took off his clothes, dumping them unceremoniously in the corner. He stretched out on the left side of the bed, leaving plenty of room for his partner and his lover to join him.
They didn’t take long to accept the offer. They discarded their own clothes, soiled after being worn in desert heat for too many hours, and lay down beside him. Sera was in the middle again, lying on her side, and Theyn and Beno turned toward her. The brunet’s arm wrapped around her waist, and Theyn’s hand rested lightly on her hip. She put a hand on Beno’s chest and the other on Theyn’s thigh, and with a contented sigh, she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Seven
It was well into the afternoon when Domingo Rodriguez finally left the hospital, his ribs taped and his left arm in a sling. Bandages were taped to his forehead and his neck and his left eye was swollen shut. His jaw ached from a bone bruise and he wanted nothing more than to go home and go to bed.
That would not be his fate.
Vasquez was waiting for him when he emerged, sitting in the back of an unmarked black sedan. The colonel’s driver opened the door for him, and Rodriguez reluctantly slid into the seat beside the man who was the source of all of his injuries.
“Call her.” Vasquez handed him his cell phone, already primed with Sera Cooper’s number.
“How did you – ”
“Don’t ask questions. Just call her.”
Reluctantly, he hit the ‘send’ button and brought the phone to his ear. Cooper’s phone rang several times, but finally she answered, sounding groggy. “Hello?”
“Are you safe?”
He could hear her take a deep breath, and she said, “Who is this?”
“This is Rodriguez.”
He thought for a moment that she wouldn’t remember him, but then she said, “Yeah. We are.”
“Where are you? We need to talk.”
She hesitated, and then said, “You can’t come here. There’s nothing to say.”
Vasquez scowled at him, and he began to sweat. “I have information that your friends need to here. I can only deliver it in person. Please… where are you?”
“We’re in Texas,” she finally said. “And I can’t tell you the address or how to get here, because I don’t know.”
His companion – or was that captor? – gestured to him to pursue the point, and he pressed, “Then can you find someone who does? This is very important.”
She sighed, and he could hear rustling and the creaking of bed springs. Even though it was the middle of the day, he had apparently woken her up. “Hang on.”
There was a long silence, and Vasquez hissed, “If you can’t convince her, this will go very badly for you.”
He wiped a hand over his brow, and then finally Sera’s voice came back on the line. “189 McCallister Road, Laredo, Texas. Do you need the zip code?”
“No. I’ll see you as soon as I can. Whatever you do, don’t leave.”
She hesitated again, then said, “I can’t promise anything. I’m not running this show.”
Rodriguez frowned. “Are you in trouble?”
“No. Nothing like that. Listen, be careful. You’re probably being watched.”
He suppressed an urge to laugh and bit back on his burgeoning hysteria. “I’m sure I am.”
“Well, don’t bring them here, whatever you do.” She sighed. “I have to go. But… thanks for all of your help.”
“You’re welcome.”
The call ended and he handed the phone back to Vasquez, who pocketed it. “Driver, did you hear the address?”
“Yes, Colonel.” He punched the destination into his GPS and the car began to move.
Rodriguez slumped in the seat, feeling like a traitor and a chump. The colonel chuckled. “Don’t feel so bad. You’re only a glorified office worker. You can’t hope to stand up to a man like me.”
He rankled. “When we get to America, you won’t have any jurisdiction.”
Vasquez smiled. “I’ve already taken care of that.”
***
Sera shut off her phone and pulled on her dirty clothes before she started drifting through the house. It was large and open, like she’d always imagined a ranch house would be. There was a cozy family room, an airy kitchen, and a veranda that surrounded the house. The front door opened onto a circular driveway, and on the other side of the drive was a long, low building like a bunkhouse. To the right was a stable, and beyond that was a massive barn. The green field beyond the barn, fenced in with white-washed wooden slats, was filled with cows who drifted aimlessly, grazing and chewing their cud and doing whatever it was that cows do.
It was all so normal, so uncomplicated. It seemed so at odds with the reality that she was finding herself in now.
In the kitchen, she found coffee and filters and set about making a fresh pot. She sat at the kitchen table while she waited and put her head on her folded arms. She felt so tired.
In this quiet moment, when she fin
ally felt a moment of peace, she was astounded by the things that had happened in her life. She had gone from being an archaeologist with a career-making find to being a fugitive on the run with aliens…actual, honest-to-God space aliens. She never believed in extraterrestrial life before. She had laughed at people who believed in it. Now she had to eat her words, and she was finding that the meal was giving her indigestion.
A hand touched her shoulder, and she looked up into Theyn’s shining blue eyes. He was standing beside her, dressed only in his underwear. She was struck again by how kind his face was, and how gentle he seemed. She wondered if that was the truth, of if he and Beno were running some sort of elaborate scam. How well did she know them, anyway? Why did she trust them so much? She felt her cheeks burn. How could she have slept with them on the first day she’d known them, when they were in control of her and had kidnapped her? It was sick.
Theyn’s forehead puckered. “Are you all right?”
“Fine,” she lied.
He sat across from her. “What’s troubling you?”
How could she tell him that her concern was whether she should be trusting him? If he was on the up-and-up, he would be hurt; if he was lying, he’d double down on the lies and then possibly he would step up his game. She didn’t know what to say, so she stayed silent.
The coffee pot finished percolating, and that gave her an excuse to get up and move. She could feel Theyn watching her, puzzled. The longer he was here with her, the more she was filled with conflicting emotions and confusing, contradictory urges. She wanted to run away, grab one of the vehicles in the drive, and make a break for freedom and the life she’d known before this whole mess started. She also wanted to grab him by those broad shoulders and fling him down on the table, showing him what a human woman could do to a body like his. Neither impulse squared with the person she thought that she was, and she felt overwhelmed by the storms inside her.
With a shaking hand, she grabbed a mug from the cupboard and began to pour a cup of rescue. Theyn rose from the chair he’d taken, and he took one step toward her. Her trembling increased, and the coffee dumped over her hand. She hissed at the scalding burn and rushed to the sink, where she threw on the cold water and ran it over her injured skin.
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