Reborn

by Fall, Carly

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” he repeated after a moment.

  She nodded and looked up at him, remembering the previous evening. Hudson wasn’t some monster, he was…Hudson. Big, beautiful, kind, selfless Hudson.

  Okay, now that was established, he had just told her he wasn’t human.

  She supposed she should continue her with her flight response, but she was too tired. Reminding herself that he had had ample opportunities to hurt her, and he hadn’t, she decided get some answers on what the hell all of…this was.

  Besides, what was she going to do? Outrun him? Beat him up? Tried that and failed. He had over a hundred pounds on her, and both thoughts were utterly ridiculous considering the circumstances.

  “Hudson, look at me,” she said quietly.

  He slowly lifted his gaze. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said quickly.

  No, she didn’t think that he would hurt her.

  “Okay,” she said, listening to her gut. “I get that. But what is… this, Hudson? What’s going on with your eyes? And how did your face heal so quickly?”

  Hudson took a deep breath, sat down on the stair landing with his back against the wall, and stared at the floor. The glow from his eyes cast the small landing in a warm yellow light.

  Beverly had the distinct feeling she was about to be let in on a huge secret. Hudson would have to tell the truth, because he was already knee deep in this tale.

  “Hudson?” she asked, “what’s going on?”

  ***

  Hudson planted his ass on the concrete landing and stared at the floor, amazed at his own stupidity. He felt like banging his head against the wall until the damn thing crumbled. He thought for a minute about which one he would like to see crumble, and decided his head.

  Hell, maybe just a couple of taps against the wall and he would get some sense knocked into him.

  What in all that resided in Heaven and Hell was wrong with him? Why didn’t he think about Beverly noticing his wounds, cuts, and bruises gone when he went to Cohen for a healing? Of course she was going to notice that hey, he looked like he had been put through a wood chipper the day before, but now, surprise! All cleaned up. Just a couple of scratches. Move along, nothing to see here.

  What-fucking-ever.

  The truth of the matter was that he hadn’t been thinking, because he’d been so preoccupied by how good he felt, how the pain was barely even a hum within his system. That had been his focus, not keeping things hidden from Beverly. Hell, she knew his darkest secret, his biggest shame. He felt like there was nothing that he should be hiding from Beverly because she knew him inside and out. She knew about Iris, she knew about his suicide attempt. She knew about his family, and even his twisted brother—something he hadn’t even shared with Noah. Never had there been a human—or an SR44 being for that matter—who knew him the way Beverly did. His mind had simply forgotten that minor detail of him not being human, that he could lay down for a few minutes with Cohen and erase bodily damage that would take weeks or months for a human to heal.

  And how in God’s name had he slept all day? He had honestly thought it was seven in the morning. Bacon and eggs territory, not steak and mashed potatoes. He had never slept all day before in his life. With the silo not having windows, it was impossible to tell day from night unless the Warriors’ eyes lit up.

  Ah, man. This was a fuck-up of epic proportions. He tried to remember when one of the other Warriors had screwed something up so badly. Sure, Talin had messed some stuff up on the computer, Rayner had broken a rule or two. Or ten. So had Noah. Cohen had accidently set the silo on fire. Even that didn’t come close to this. But something to this degree? Nope, he couldn’t think of anything else. Congrats, asshole, you just won some type of Boy Scout badge for epic fuck ups.

  That was something to write home about.

  “Hudson?” she asked, “What’s going on?”

  He looked up at Beverly. She sat a couple of feet away, her cheeks flushed from her workout and her attempted escape, a shimmer of sweat on her skin and her arms across her chest. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail with a few stragglers hanging around her face that refused to be tied down. At least she wasn’t running and screaming from him anymore.

  He tried to think of some lie, like maybe he had in practical joke contacts. That didn’t explain his miraculous recovery though, and it was a stupid, weak lie to begin with. Not that him telling her that he wasn’t fully human wasn’t a tell-tell sign as well.

  Not seeing any other way but to plow forward with the truth, he took a deep breath and began talking.

  Chapter 30

  Beverly sat in stunned silence, staring at Hudson, shocked at what he had told her, and any fear she had left slowly trickled away.

  “So, even though you know this, Beverly, you can’t say anything to anyone when you settled in a new place. It’s so dangerous for you, and for us as well. I would hate to see anything happen to your pretty little self. So please, promise me.”

  She nodded her head, and she had a thought. “Faith and Abby? Are they from…SR44 as well?”

  Hudson shook his head. “Faith isn’t. Faith is human. For her story, you can go ask her. And Abby…” he took a huge breath, “Abby is my daughter.”

  Could this get any weirder?

  “Your daughter?”

  Hudson nodded.

  “But you two are practically the same age!”

  Hudson gave her the little smile she loved so much, the one with the dimple. “Not really. There’s actually quite an age gap between us.”

  “How old are you? And where’s Abby’s mother?” she whispered.

  “We’ve been here on Earth for two hundred and twelve years. I’m somewhere between eleven hundred and twelve hundred years old, although I actually quit keeping track of that long ago. I’m supposed to live until around two thousand, give or take a century or two. And Iris was Abby’s mother.”

  She looked him over from head to toe. Eleven hundred years old had never, ever looked so good.

  And to think she had been worried about how she would look at forty.

  Abby was Hudson and Iris’s daughter. The way they spoke to each other made so much sense now, it was crystal clear.

  So she was sitting here having a chat with a being from another planet. An alien. An extraterrestrial. Who had a daughter who looked and seemed so…normal.

  She had never given much thought on whether she believed in such things, but she supposed that at this point, she didn’t need to give any thought to the belief, because the proof was sitting right in front of her. The doctor in her was speaking volumes, wanting to get her hands on the potion or herbs, time machine, or whatever he used to heal himself so quickly.

  “How did you heal so fast?”

  “Cohen has special healing abilities. It’s complicated, but involves combining the energy of the injured along with Cohen’s, and he’s able to heal us.”

  She imagined the implications on the human medical field, and goose bumps rose on her flesh.

  On a personal level, she thought about the past few days and her ignorance of what she had been living with. She had found them all so kind, so bonded, so much a family. It was something she had wanted again, and she found it very comfortable to be among them. Even if they had sort-of kidnapped her.

  These…people? Beings? They were generous and kind. They loved each other with ferocity. They were what she could only hope to have one day.

  “Do the other’s eyes turn yellow, too?”

  Hudson shook his head and explained that each had their own unique SR44 color.

  “If I went upstairs right now, what would I see?”

  “You’d see a bunch of guys with dark eyes. We have special contacts that Talin developed to help dull the glow of our eyes.”

  “Where are yours?”

  Hudson pushed back a piece of hair that had escaped from his ponytail and looked down at the floor. He cleared his throat. “Being the intelligent
guy I am, when I woke up I thought it was seven in the morning, so I took them out. I’ve never slept through the day like that, but then...”

  After a beat of silence, she asked, “But what?”

  He looked back at her, and after a long pause, he said quietly, “But I’ve never had such an amazing night as last night.”

  Beverly felt the heat rise in her cheeks. She felt the same. Hudson was everything and more than she had ever experienced or imagined. He was an incredible lover, concerned about her needs before his own, and he was also very skilled, because he found her buttons quickly and pushed them frequently.

  She also loved the talks they had had throughout the night. His confessions about Iris were surprising, and she knew that he would never love anyone again. Which hurt, because she was beginning to have serious feelings for him, not just blatant lust of a beautiful man. There was much more beneath the stunning exterior that was Hudson.

  “Me neither, Hudson.”

  As she stared at him and the warm, yellow glow emanating from his eyes, she wondered what this screw-up meant for Hudson.

  “What are the others going to say when they know that I know?”

  Hudson shrugged. “What can they say? They’ll probably curse at me, but then that will most likely be the end of it.”

  Beverly nodded, feeling brave. “Should we go up and see exactly what happens?”

  Hudson let out a laugh. “You just want to watch me get my hide torn to pieces.”

  Beverly looked at him. That was the last thing she wanted. She actually was thinking that maybe everyone would go easy on Hudson because she was there, hoping that the “be polite in front of the company” rule held fast in this house.

  Wasn’t she becoming protective.

  Chapter 31

  On the ride up to the top floor of the silo, Hudson thought it was probably a good thing to have Beverly around. Before Abby and Faith had come into their lives, there had been hard-set rules that they simply didn’t break. Noah had been the first to breach them, and Rayner had pretty much put an ax through them. Hudson thought things had loosened up a bit with Abby and Faith entering their secret folds, and maybe his fellow Warriors would go easier on him in mixed company. But he seriously doubted it. He felt in his soul that Beverly could be trusted, but he had a feeling he would have to convince the others. In fact, he was pretty sure things were about to ugly.

  With a capital U.

  The door to the elevator slid open to the kitchen area, and Noah was in there with Rayner.

  “I’m telling you, Noah, ice cream with sprinkles. Bring some to her, apologize for being such an asshole, and—”

  Hudson watched Noah’s head snap over to where he and Beverly stood. Rayner stared at them with his mouth practically hanging open.

  There was a brief moment of silence while Noah processed what he was seeing. His eyes darted from Hudson to Beverly and back.

  “What the fuck, Hudson?” he said in a low voice. Hudson watched Noah’s eyes turn angry, and then he yelled, “Are you kidding me?!”

  Hudson had known Noah for a lot of years. Hundreds upon hundreds of years, and he knew that no matter what he said at that point, he wouldn’t be heard.

  Noah was on a roll, and Rayner had stepped back and taken a front seat against the counter, his arms crossed, watching everything.

  Noah paced back and forth, put his finger in Hudson’s face a few times, cursed like there wouldn’t be any curse words left in a few minutes, and finally stopped, breathing heavily.

  “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Hudson. Like I don’t have enough problems. Abby’s pissed at me, Jovan’s getting into trouble over in the U.K., we’ve got one firm spawn of a Colonist who was eating a human, another possibility, and now this.”

  Noah shook his head and turned around.

  “I’m not a problem, Noah,” Beverly said. Hudson noted how she had partially hid herself behind him while Noah was on his rampage, but now she stepped out a bit. “I’ll never say anything to anyone. I promise.”

  Noah turned to look at her, and Rayner remained where he was. He still hadn’t said a word, but he looked at Hudson like he had a dick growing out of his forehead.

  “For your sake, Beverly, I hope you can keep that promise. If the government gets wind of what you know, they’ll stop at nothing to get all the information out of you that they can. And I mean nothing.”

  Noah ran his hand through his hair and stared at Beverly again. “There have been people who have claimed to see aliens, and some of them have disappeared. Others aren’t even able to recall their own names, let alone function in society. They end up in some facility where they piss in a bag and are basically a vegetable. Others end up dead. So yeah, pretty Beverly, you better keep that damn promise. For your own safety. Not to mention ours. Because see, once they get everything out of you they can, then they hunt us. None of us are interested in being sliced and diced in the name of science or some other bullshit.”

  He turned around and looked at Rayner. “Can you believe this shit?”

  Rayner remained silent, not giving any indication of whether he believed the shit or not.

  So much for his fellow Warriors going easy on him in mixed company.

  “Noah, I trust Beverly.”

  “I don’t give a flying fuck, Hudson. This is an epic screw-up. It was fucked from the beginning when Rayner brought her back here. Hell, for all our sakes we should probably just get rid of her!”

  Hudson growled, a sound that came from the very depths of his soul. He pushed Beverly behind him with such force that she stumbled a bit. He took a couple of steps toward Noah. When they were face to face, he said, “I’m not exactly sure what ‘get rid of her’ entails, Noah, but it better be walking out that door with all her limbs attached. If it doesn’t, and you try to do something, I will kill you. It will be an ugly fight, but I will kill you.”

  “Back up, Hudson,” Noah growled right back at him. “Now.”

  There was a moment of silence while Hudson and Noah stared each other down. Hudson was glad Rayner stayed exactly where he was against the counter, because his anger was off the charts. If Rayner had advanced on him, he might snap and end up killing them. He was the assassin of the group, after all. He could annihilate Rayner in a minute or two. Noah would be more difficult, but he would get the job done.

  He hadn’t heard the ding of the elevator through the rage that raced through him.

  “Oh, for God sakes,” he heard Abby say, her soft footsteps sounding across the tile. She came up to them and gave them both a push. “Would you two knock it off? Please, not in front of the company. Have your pissing contest some other time.”

  Hudson heard her gasp as she noticed his eyes, and then Noah stepped away.

  “Well,” Abby said quietly. “I guess our little secret is out.”

  “Yeah, it is. And I’m heading downstairs to take out these contacts. I hate these things,” Rayner said, stepping around everyone.

  Chapter 32

  Beverly watched as Rayner passed and was startled when he gave her a wink. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to remain calm, thoughts of little white droplets of delusion dancing through her mind.

  She abhorred violence having seen the effects of it through so many patients. Not to mention the after-effects. She had consoled many families who had lost loved ones because of violence, and she admired Abby for inserting herself between the two men. To her, it looked as though Abby was putting herself between two loaded guns waiting to go off.

  Closing her eyes, she inhaled, wanting a pill, but remembering the breathing techniques she had used in rehab to get her through rough patches. She concentrated on the air going in and out of her lungs and not what was going on around her.

  “Hey, are you okay?” She hadn’t heard Abby come up next to her and jumped when she felt her touch her arm.

  “It’s okay, Beverly,” she said quietly. “I can’t believe how bad you’re shaking. I know that sometimes they c
an be a little scary. They bark loud, but they never bite. Faith and I were just about to go to my quarters to have some cocktails and some girl talk. Please, come with us.”

  Beverly looked at Noah and Hudson. Both were pacing the area like mad bulls waiting to be let out of their shoots. They were ready to charge at any minute, and she knew she didn’t want any part of it, regardless of what Abby said. This was stressing her out and making her anxious, and she needed to get away from it.

  “I...I would like that,” she said. Abby wrapped her arm around her shoulder and guided her back to the elevator. Once they were in, she said, “I love Noah, but he’s been a little too alpha for a couple too many days. I know it’s stress because he has so much going on, but I’m done being his punching bag.”

  Beverly took a step back. “He hits you?” she asked incredulously. Beverly had thought that his threat of ‘getting rid of her’ was empty, but maybe not. Maybe her first impressions of these people had been totally wrong. She looked at Abby, completely surprised by her statement, as she had witnessed nothing but love between them. Noah looked as though he worshipped the ground Abby walked on, and Beverly couldn’t imagine him laying a hand on her. But she had seen cases where things didn’t appear as they were.

  “Oh my God,” Abby said, bringing her hand to her mouth, her eyes growing wide. “I didn’t mean it like that. No. No, Beverly.” She took a deep breath. “What I meant was that Noah has been a little short with me. He’s been irritable and grouchy. Noah’s never laid a hand on me. I mean, he’s laid his hands on me, but...”

  Beverly watched as Abby’s face got red.

  “Oh hell, I’m tripping over my tongue.” Abby closed her eyes and took another deep breath. When she opened her eyes, she met Beverly’s. “What I mean is that he’s never hit me. He’s not cruel. He’s a wonderful man, it’s just that he’s under a lot stress right now and he’s being difficult. Does that make sense?”