by Amanda Boone
Paran swiped the blood away and grabbed Evelyn in the same movement. “Evelyn, calm yourself.”
“No!” She hardly realized that she was yanking Pelyn back and forth. He cried out to her, out to the both of them.
“Mom, let me go!”
“He’s my son! Human! My son!”
“You can’t keep him from himself!” Paran’s voice had a sickened husk about it.
“Stop it! Mom, you’re hurting me!” Pelyn’s screech tugged at her nerves.
Paran went for both of them, but he only had two hands and not nearly enough force.
She didn’t know how to stop, how to undo what she had already done.
“Mom!” Pelyn’s voice gained a strange base.
She felt something seize her mind from the inside out, reach inside her and touch her. She froze, as time seemed to have stopped, and with it, the world around her. She caught Paran’s eyes first, but they reflected exactly what she felt.
This wasn’t his doing.
He stepped away from her with the kind of slow movement that suggested he was wading through water. She followed his gaze to Pelyn, who had stepped several paces back. He stood with his hands outstretched in front of him, his fingers webbed out as far as they would go, his eyes bloodshot, a thin stream of blood seeping from his nose.
Pelyn, stop it. It was a weak thought at first, but then it grew until she was zipping across the lawn toward him. “Pelyn!” The scream ripped her throat apart. “You’re hurting yourself! You have to stop!”
Paran followed her. “Son.” He knelt down across from him.
But Pelyn’s irises were no longer visible. His tense body melted before their eyes.
He collapsed onto the wet ground, he sweat-covered body convulsing.
Chapter Five
Evelyn resurfaced with a deep breath, as if she had been held under water for far too long. “This is my fault,” she whispered. “He wanted me to stop. He just wanted to talk to you.”
Pelyn had unwillingly released the both of them from his hold. Awe and wonder seized her mind at the fact that her son had just displayed the most power she had ever seen in another young being, but she had to ignore that. The sight of her little baby shaking uncontrollably, foaming at the mouth, made her stomach lurch, made bile collect in the back of her throat. “Pelyn!” She knelt next to him, part of her wanting to embrace him, part of her afraid to touch him.
“We have to rush him to the colony.”
“What colony?” She slipped her cell phone out of the pocket of her robe, those three numbers already dialed.
The look on his face was enough to draw a resounding “hell no!” from the pit of her stomach.
Pelyn had gone silent and still in front of the two of them. “I’m taking him to a hospital.”
“No. They won’t know what to do with him.”
Evelyn ducked her head, narrowing her eyes at him. “He had seizure.”
“It’s not that simple. If you take him to a doctor, they might make him worse.”
Evelyn gazed down at her lifeless son. She had already made enough mistakes and was not interested in making yet another one simply because of her pride. She had isolated him from his kind for his entire life, and now she could no longer deny that they were his best chance at survival.
Paran hoisted Pelyn up into his arms and followed her back into the house. Evelyn took time only to slip a pair of jeans on and grab her purse before she climbed into the backseat of Paran’s truck with Pelyn in her arms. She stared at her son while Paran rushed them through the streets that formed the outskirts of Boston, weaving in and out of other cars, people who looked suspended in time.
Soon enough, they reached a field off road. In the center sat what looked like a heavily streamlined, tiny, private jet. “What—”
But Paran had already rounded the front of the truck and was lifting Pelyn out of her arms. They loaded into the aircraft and buckled in. Evelyn stared nervously at Pelyn before gazing at Paran. She watched with curious eyes as he started the aircraft up, the roar of the engine filling the entire cabin.
His eyes flitted across the control panel, his fingers flipping this switch this way and pressing that button down. Soon enough, they were racing across the field, leaving deep tracks in the mud. Evelyn held herself as he grabbed the joystick. His jaw clenched with the strain as he lifted the aircraft off the ground.
The events of that morning ran through her head over and over and over again as she tried to pinpoint where exactly she had gone wrong. As she searched for the moment that, if she had a time machine, she would go back to and undo, she pressed her right temple into the seat strap, filing her nails down lower and lower.
It was as she hung in this limbo that she felt something snatch her hand. She turned to find Paran holding her, his eyes as deeply worried as hers, the same expression of horror on his face.
She realized just then that he was the only person on the planet that could understand what she was feeling, the only being with a pulse that she could share her mind with. As she held his hand and raced on the road to saving her son, she felt a part of something for the first time. Suddenly, she didn’t want Pelyn all to herself anymore.
Thirty minutes later, Paran dropped out of the cloud bank to reveal a terrain covered in snow and cut with stony mountaintops. “Where the hell are we?” she whispered.
“I think it’s what you call Ellesmere?”
Evelyn furrowed her brow, trying to remember where she had heard that name before… “Canada? How did we get to Canada in less than an hour on a jet?”
He grunted, preparing the craft for landing.
Evelyn watched as what looked like a tightly paved runway quickly approached.
“This isn’t a jet.”
Evelyn grabbed both sides of her seat as he landed the craft, the wheels popping out just in time to stop the vehicle from scraping the ground. Her entire body shot forward as they raced across the runway, Paran’s brow furrowed and his jaw set as he labored to land the craft correctly.
Evelyn gazed out of her window at the settlement around them. The buildings looked familiar and yet different, as if they had their own flare to them, something alien, something advanced. As Paran slowed the craft to a stop, a team of men, tall and muscular, ran toward them from out of what looked like a massive garage.
Paran didn’t waste a second. He climbed out of his seat and went for Pelyn, picking him up and slamming his fist against a button. As he did this, an automatic door opened, letting cold air rush in.
By the time Evelyn could follow him, he had stepped down onto the runway. Paran spoke quickly to the men that met him. One of them nodded and ran back toward the building while the other turned his attention to Pelyn, examining him with a furrowed brow. More men exited through the hanger and came running toward them. Among them was a tall Kaharan with dark hair and black eyes. He yelled orders at all the others and went straight for the boy, picking him up and running back through the garage.
Evelyn instinctively followed. “Where are they taking him?”
But Paran grabbed her by the arm, stopping her in her tracks. “That was Kal, one of the best Kaharan doctors that ever lived. Your son is in good hands now.”
Chapter six
Evelyn paced back and forth in the short hallway that separated her son’s hospital bed from the rest of the hospital. They had rushed him in right after Kal had introduced himself before hastily explaining away Pelyn’s condition. He said something about how her son had exhausted himself by expelling all of his energy by using his powers. Evelyn took that to mean that it had been her fault. If she hadn’t had been so adamant about pushing Paran away…
Now Pelyn was lying there on what could very well be his deathbed. All they could do was wait.
“Evelyn?”
She raised her head just in time to watch Paran approach her from the main hallway, a look of soft determination in his eyes.
Just seeing him made her want to break
down. He was the bucket for her tears. “I haven’t heard anything. I don’t know what to do.” Before she knew it, she was falling into his embrace.
He encased her in his strong arms, resting his chin on her forehead. “There’s nothing you can do.”
She had cheated herself out of moments like this, when the only person fighting for her was herself. All of that time, she could have been bending into him, trusting him. “I—” If she hadn’t been so broken, so worried, so ashamed of herself, she never would have admitted it. But now, with her staring right into the face of the truth, and her son nearly dying because of her, she saw no reason to deny it any further. “I made the wrong decision. I failed him as a mother.”
Paran took her face in both of his hands, forcing her to face him. “You failed yourself.”
Evelyn scoffed. “Why? Because you’re such a catch?”
He took her hand, lifting it to his lips and planting a kiss on it.
Evelyn felt her body respond in that familiar way, her heart pounding against her chest and in her ears, her hot, thin blood zipping through her veins, the chill running up her spine. It was like that first sip of coffee in the morning, that first gulp of strong vodka, that first hit of marijuana. It was essential and yet luxurious. It was a wonder she had let herself go without it for so long.
“Because no one should have to tear themselves away from their true mate and raise his child, a creature stronger than she could have ever imagined, all on her own.”
Their lips were dangling toward each other, hardly separated at all, one’s hot breath coating the other’s face. “You’re the only one who could have changed my mind, the only one who could have saved the both of us from myself.”
“And yet you made yourself unavailable to me.” His jaw trembled as he grabbed her cheek. “You kept my boy from me? Ten years I lost. Why would you do that?”
“I couldn’t let you teach me dependence and then leave me all by myself.”
“I wouldn’t have. I’m certain that in ten years of living with you, of existing with you, I could not have found one reason to desert you.”
Evelyn had to talk around the lump in her throat, the declaration of love she was certain she could never deserve. “Ten years is a long time.”
Paran pulled just far enough back to get a good look at her eyes. “And yet, when I look at you, I still see the woman in the bar with the bourbon and the smirk.”
Evelyn shook her head, smiling in spite of herself. “I actually couldn’t stand that drink.”
Paran chuckled. “You can’t be serious.”
“I just thought it would ward off the opposite sex.”
“So what were you doing there?”
Evelyn raised an eyebrow. “A girl can’t just hang in a bar?’
Paran let out a quiet laugh.
Evelyn wondered what it would be like to hear that laugh over the morning headlines at breakfast, or while sharing a TV show with him on a Monday night. “No. I was working on a project for my philosophy class. Had to survey the crowd, so to speak.”
He nodded, a pensive look in his eye.
“And what were you doing?” Evelyn nudged him.
He wrapped his arms around her again, speaking with his nose in her hair. “I work as a cultural scientist here. My job is to relay human customs to the Kaharans so that we’ve got a better chance of fitting in.”
Evelyn planted a kiss on his neck, the act surprising even herself. “I can’t believe two beings with the same gift in the same place one night doing the same thing happened to meet and make a child.”
He lifted her chin, unleashing the full force of his eyes.
For the first time since they had landed at the Kaharan settlement, Evelyn felt calm. By letting go of her puppet strings, she felt more naturally in control than she ever had.
“Have you ever heard of anything more beautiful in your life?” Paran asked, lowering himself toward her.
“More beautiful than us?”
He answered her question with a kiss. Their lips assumed a familiar dance, his mouth consuming hers, hers embracing his. His tongue jutted into her mouth, the thick muscle commanding the entire environment, daring her to challenge him. She wouldn’t dare.
They stood like this for longer than time itself, until they were interrupted by the sound of a door being opened.
“Paran?” An exhausted Kal poked his head out of the doorway. “Evelyn?”
Evelyn stepped away from Paran, her eyes wide with anticipation. “Yes?”
“Pelyn just woke up. I think he’s going to be okay.”
Evelyn’s knees went weak.
But before she could collapse…
Paran caught her.
THE END
Military & Soldier Collection
If you want more detail or to jump directly to one of the books, go to the Table of Contents, by clicking here.
SEALed by my Stepbrother
A Military Romance
Chapter 1
Ana thought of Dante when she was alone at night and when she looked over at their daughter sleeping next to her. She was five now, which made him gone for almost six years. They had cut ties before he had left to join the Navy. He didn’t want anything holding him back to the small town that he came from. Ana had agreed, agreeing to anything to make him happy. She loved him more than life, but she knew that he had to go, never being happy in a place as small as Orson. It was too small for him and so was she, as a small town girl.
But it had not ended the way she had thought it would. She had been pregnant, but with his real feelings clear, she never called him. Ana figured that Dante didn’t want to know, so she quit school her senior year and got a job to support them both. She got a lot of help from her mother and then, her mother’s new boyfriend the last couple of years, had stepped in, in some capacity for a male role model. Even after a couple of years of them dating, she didn’t know too much about Jeffrey’s other family. She knew he had some older kids, one about her age that was in the military. It never occurred to her that it might be Dante he was talking about. How could she have known? Things like that don’t happen for no reason.
It was when she saw a photo he flashed from his wallet. It was a picture of Dante his last year of high school. He was a year older than her and had graduated the year before. Her heart raced and she held her daughter, their daughter closer to his chest. “I can’t wait for you to meet him Ana. I think you guys will get along good. Don’t you remember him from school?”
“Yea, but he was older, so it was just in passing. I think everyone made comments that he should’ve tried to keep going in football.”
“Yes, yes, well after what happened to his mother, there was an anger in him that had to be run through. He is only home for a time, but it has been six long years since I’ve seen him in Orson and I hope I can talk him into staying a little longer. He is only supposed to be home for a couple of weeks. It is just not enough time after so long away.”
She couldn’t agree more, but Ana was more nervous to see him again after all those years. Their parents were getting married the next weekend, just to make it all more unseemly and to make it seem as bad as it really was. He didn’t know of course, she was sure of it. Dante hadn’t been bothered to come home in many years and he had long since forgotten about the girl down the block that he used to fool around with. If only she had been granted the same reprieve to forget about him, maybe she could have moved on in the last few years. Instead, Ana was reminded of him on a daily basis.
“Are you okay dear? You have been really quiet this evening.”
Ana shook her head. “Yeah, I guess I am just tired is all. I have to run to Mary’s for some studying.” Ana started to get up and her mother frowned.
“Well I thought you were going to meet Dante dear?”
“I will be back later mom. Really, we will have plenty of time to get to know each other.”
“Okay. I just want everyone to get along.”
&n
bsp; Ana took her daughter’s waiting hand and headed over to her friend’s house. She really didn’t need to study, but she had to get away from all of them. Ana had one last semester in school and she would graduate with her Bachelors. When she dropped out of high school, she thought she would never get to go back, but she found a way and now was almost to the end of the tunnel. Ana knew then that no matter what, she would be able to take care of her daughter. She had no illusions that she would have any help, so her plans were for her to do it all alone.
And she was fine with that, she really was, but the idea of having to be around Dante, left her questioning everything. No one knows who the father of Christine was and Ana didn’t know if she should even say anything to him. If Christine didn’t have the same dark eyes and hair as her father, no one would ever guess. Would he notice that her eyes were the same as the ones he saw in the mirror every morning? Should she say something or just let it go and be however it is going to be?
“Where are we going mommy?”
“We are going to see Mary and Ashlea baby.”
“Yay.”
She fastened her into her seat and Ana started towards her friend’s house on the other side of town. Mary was actually the only person in Orson that knew who Christine’s father was. She was the only person in the world that she trusted to not say anything. She had to tell her the news that she had heard. Dante was going to be back in town that night. It wasn’t just his daughter that he had left, he had left her dying inside and she wasn’t sure if she could stand to be around him again. All the pain of when he left came back three-fold.
They pulled up to the small clapboard house and Christine was out of the car before she could stop her. She was at the door banging before she got her purse out. “I wish I had that kind of energy” She thought to herself.
Mary let her in and she bounded to her daughter’s room. The girls were almost the same age and they even had the same teacher in school, fast friends that were never apart for more than a few hours. It was heartwarming to see their kids playing, as they had when they were girls.