by Amy Sumida
“I have never killed children!” Kyrian swore.
“But you demolished cities?” I asked in a soft, stunned voice.
“The things I've done, I've done for the greater good and for my people,” Kyrian protested. “Sometimes cities must be leveled to make way for something greater.”
Malik laughed scathingly. “All you Arcs are the same; brainwashed into believing that you're just like the human myths portray you. Well, guess what, moron? Those myths talk about angels massacring people too.”
“And we know what they say about demons,” Kyrian shot back.
“Yeah, but those happen to be lies,” one of Malik's men said. “And you know it.”
“Malik, are your people planning to come to Earth to fight the Triari?” I asked in a soft, serious tone.
Malik looked at me, and his aura shifted into an honest, sapphire blue. “No, Amara; we're not. I swear to you that the Bleiten make war only when we have no other choice. We do not seek it out.”
“All right,” I said. “I believe you.”
Kyrian went silent, and so did I. It felt as if my world had suddenly turned over. What had been up was now down. I looked at Malik and saw an angel instead of a devil while the emotionless Kyrian had become a desperate romantic. Then I glanced at Davorin and everything righted. Dav was just as he had been four days ago; a hero with an innocent heart. Did I want a relationship with him? I didn't know yet. I didn't know what I wanted from any of them but damn if it wasn't nice to have options. And truth; knowing the truth felt like the first step to putting my life back in order.
I had found the truth about my past, and now, I needed to see the truth in these men so I could make a decision about my future.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Landry dove behind the bar for his blaster as soon as the Bleiten entered the bar behind me.
“Stop!” I shouted as everyone in the bar surged to their feet to fight off the Bleiten invasion... or possibly flee.
Everyone went still except for Landry; he stood up and leveled his gun at Malik.
“They're not who people believe them to be,” I said calmly. “Landry, they just rescued me.”
“What?” The gun lowered.
“We're not entirely good,” Malik said with a smirk. “But we're not the demons we've been portrayed as either. Most of the vile acts attributed to my kind were actually perpetrated by the Triari.”
Landry narrowed his eyes at Malik.
“The Triari killed my parents, Land,” I said evenly. “I saw proof of it and heard confirmation from one of the assassins.”
“Who was this assassin?” Landry growled. “And you had better tell me that he's dead.”
I grimaced. “Prince Traegur. I'm sorry; I should have killed him, but we were in a bit of a hurry to get off the battleship.”
“You're serious,” Landry said in shock.
“Even I have to admit that it's likely,” Kyrian added.
“You?” Landry gaped at Kyrian. “You said you were here to protect her!”
“I am,” Kyrian said firmly. “I was charged by my king to guard Amara, and that's exactly what I'll do; even if I have to protect her from my fellow Triari.”
“Are you saying that you helped a bunch of Bleiten rescue my daughter from a Triari battleship?” Landry asked blandly.
“Yes.”
“And so did Davorin,” I added.
“This is the strangest day that I've ever had,” Landry murmured. Then he saw how everyone in the bar was still standing; unsure whether to attack or run. “Sit down, folks. It seems that we may have been mistaken about the Bleiten.”
“No offense, Landry,” a patron said as he walked by; giving the Bleiten wary looks, “but I'll wait for some hard evidence before I drink in the same bar as one of them.”
A few more people muttered in agreement and left, but most of the others simply sat down and started to sip at their drinks as they stared at the Bleiten. I'm not sure if they believed that the Bleiten were Triari scapegoats, or if they were just too scared to dispute the Bleiten, Landry, or myself, but I was glad for their show of support—as tremulous as it may be. It made both the Bleiten and Landry relax.
“All of you sit down too.” Landry waved at an empty table near the bar that he reserved for his personal use. “We need to talk.”
We crowded around the table, and Landry brought over a bottle of Penbruth and several shot glasses. He set everything in the center of the table and then pulled my cell phone out of his pocket. Landry slid the phone to me, and I checked it automatically; I had five messages from President Colton:
We found the leak—not one of mine. Prince Traegur has refused to leave Earth.
Amara? Text me back immediately. Prince Traegur is MIA.
We found the man who took your picture; it was one of the bank robbers who we've had under surveillance but he vanished before we could pick him up. All of them vanished.
I'm getting worried; please respond ASAP. Those men are still out there, and I still haven't seen Traegur.
And finally; Amara, if you don't text me back, I'm sending the Secret Service after you. Yes; all of them.
I chuckled a little at the last text and immediately sent Colton a message explaining my silence. My phone was ringing just seconds later.
“I'm sorry, Landry, I have to take this,” I said. Then I answered, “Hello, Mr. President.”
After explaining my absence and the high probability that the Bleiten were not our enemy nor were they about to wage a war on Earth, I warned the President to be careful of any interaction he had with the Triari. Then I promised to call him back when I had more information for him.
“I'm glad you're safe, Amara,” President Colton said. “But now that you're no longer wanted for your blood, perhaps you should stay out of this.”
“No offense, Mr. President, but I'm too far into this to get out now.”
“At least be more careful,” he said. “If the Bleiten rescued you and aren't behind the bank robbery, then we have an unknown enemy on the loose.”
“Yes, Mr. President, that has occurred to me,” I said. “I'm going to discuss it with the Bleiten Lord.”
“Let me know if he gives you any answers,” Colton said. “And don't trust any of them just yet, Amara. The way this has all played out has left me very jumpy. I'm going to call another meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and tell them that it appears we've had a false alarm but to keep vigilant. I suggest you stay vigilant as well.”
“Understood, Mr. President.” I hung up and looked at Malik. “What do you know about a bunch of bank robbers speaking Bleiten?”
“What nonsense is this now?” Malik shook his head at me in amazement.
“Several days ago, the Wells Fargo Bank was robbed by a group of supernaturals—evidently not Bleiten—who spoke Bleiten,” I said. “They took a safe deposit box with Dr. Samuel Devlin's notes inside.”
“And?” Malik still looked confused.
“The name means nothing to you?” Kyrian asked with narrowed eyes.
“Devlin?” Malik asked. “I've never heard it before.” He looked at his soldiers. “Any of you know the man?”
They all shook their heads, and I exchanged a grim look with Kyrian.
“The Triari can't be behind this,” Kyrian said. “There's no way that our king would sanction the murder of a prince. If nothing else, I'm certain of that.”
“Murder?” Malik asked. “Is that what we're being framed for this time?”
I could hear the weariness in his voice, but more importantly, I could see it in his aura. Malik was tired of this routine and damn pissed that people kept buying it. I looked over the other Bleiten and saw the same bitter annoyance on their faces and in their auras.
“The killings at the hotel,” I said. “You really had no part in them?”
“Look”—Malik sighed deeply—“I'm not saying that I wouldn't relish killing a group of Triari, but I didn't kill those particular me
n and neither did any of my team. We are here for one reason only; to find you. As I told you earlier; we don't go looking for war. We were after eternal life; isn't that enough of a reason for us to be here?”
“But why?” I asked. “Why come looking for me now?”
“Someone tipped us off,” Malik said. “We received a message that the Amaranthine Elixir had survived in Dr. Elyonne's daughter.”
Malik pulled out a slim, rectangular device and hit a few buttons on it. A picture of me popped up above the screen; the same image that had been sent to the Triari.
“That's the same picture that was sent to us,” Kyrian confirmed it by bringing out his communication device and calling up the picture.
Malik scowled as he stared at the two holograms, and then he reached into his coat pocket. “We were also sent this.”
Malik pulled out a stained cloth and handed it to me. It was the other half of the bloody handkerchief Landry had found at my old home. I handed it to Landry, and he looked it over before he cursed with enough creativity to make my ears redden.
“You had my blood all along,” I said to Malik in a whisper.
“Not enough to make the elixir,” Malik said. “Only to track you.”
“You really didn't know where my family and I had lived?” I asked him.
“No, of course not,” Malik said. “We never knew that your father left the Triari at all. If we had, we would have offered him asylum. A man like him is worth far more to us alive than dead.”
“And the Triari knew that,” Landry growled before he started cursing again. “They killed Jetek to make sure he didn't go to the Bleiten.”
“This is the other half of that handkerchief, Landry,” I said calmly.
“I know,” he growled. “Why do you think I'm swearing, kid?”
“No; I mean that we thought there might be more pieces, but there aren't,” I explained. “There were two pieces; one at my old home and one in Malik's possession. So, how was the Bleiten lured to the Willard Hotel?”
“The Ungaru tracker swore that he caught your scent there,” Malik said. “But I didn't need to track you at that point; I already knew who you were and where to find you. And I knew you weren't at the hotel; I had seen you entering Davorin's apartment myself. But the tracker insisted that you had been at The Willard at some point and that you had bled while there. I was curious, and so I sent one man to investigate.” He nodded to one of the Bleiten; it was the man I'd seen on the hotel security footage. “Hendler. He reported that you weren't at the hotel but there were numerous dead Triari there; including a prince.”
“It was baffling,” Hendler took over. “I eavesdropped on the secret service agents and overheard them saying that it was some kind of chemical attack.”
“That's not our style,” Malik said.
“Wait a second.” I frowned as I took a good look at the Bleiten. “Is this all of your team?”
“Yes,” Malik said in a curious tone.
“Just before I reached Davorin's apartment, I was attacked by a Bleiten,” I said. “But he's not any of these men.”
“He wasn't a Bleiten at all,” Malik said. “I saw the attack you're referring to. I was about to step in and help you when you handled it yourself.” He grinned in approval. “That was nicely done, Amara. I had a good laugh over it.”
“Thank you,” I said distractedly. “But, what do you mean; he wasn't a Bleiten? I looked right into his eyes; he had Bleiten features and a Bleiten build.”
“He was too far away for me to see his features when he attacked you,” Malik said. “He did have the size to be one of our kind, but I assure you, he's not a Bleiten. I sent Everin after the man while I personally made sure that you reached your destination safely. Tell them what you saw, Everin.”
“As soon as your attacker made it into a crowd of people, he seemed to disappear,” Everin reported. “I determined that he was either a shapeshifter or possessed the ability to make himself invisible. With the crowd sheltering him, I couldn't even track his body heat.”
“A shapeshifter would explain how you saw a Bleiten that wasn't a Bleiten,” Malik pointed out.
“A shapeshifter,” I whispered. “That would also explain why those women swore that they had been abducted by a bleiten.”
“Are you talking about the women with purple eyes again?” Malik asked.
“That's right,” I confirmed. “Whoever is behind the abductions is trying to pin all of this on your people.”
“Tricky bastards,” Davorin huffed. “They nearly got away with it too.”
“But I'd know that shapeshifter if I saw him again,” I said. “There was evil in his aura.”
“You can see auras?” Malik asked with interest.
“She can see a lot of things,” Landry said with a warning tone. “Amara isn't a girl you can easily deceive.”
“Fascinating,” Malik murmured as he smiled slowly at me.
“Let's get back to the situation at the hotel,” Landry said. “If Amara didn't bleed there, how did her blood get there? Are you sure that you didn't cut yourself when you escaped, kid?”
“Positive,” I said immediately. “Someone had to have planted my blood. But who would have it?”
“That fucker that bumped into you!” Davorin shouted.
Everyone in the bar looked over at us.
“Let's not share this with the entire Supermarket, Davorin,” Kyrian said dryly.
“Sorry,” Davorin muttered.
“You're right,” I said to Dav. “It had to be the man who bumped into me.”
“That was right before the attack on the Triari,” Landry said with a nod. “Makes sense.”
“And President Colton just told me that they found one of the bank robbers on the White House CCTV footage,” I added. “He's convinced that it was this man who took my picture; the image that was sent to the Triari and the Bleiten.”
“What the fuck is going on?” Davorin growled.
“I wish I knew,” I said with a pensive frown. “Those bank robbers are obviously behind everything; the arrival of both the Triari and the Bleiten, the abductions, the Triari murders, and the reports of a Bleiten-Triari war. They must have known that their apartments were bugged, and they used it to feed us those lies.”
“This is a group of master manipulators,” Landry noted. “But the question is; what's their end game? What are they trying to manipulate us into doing?”
“Homeland Security has a couple of the men under surveillance,” Kyrian said. “We need to have them arrested and interrogated.”
“About that,” I said with a grimace. “It seems that they've vanished.”
“Vanished?” Kyrian asked with narrowed eyes.
“After Homeland Security discovered one of them on White House CCTV, they went to pick him up,” I explained. “But they disappeared.”
“Of course they disappeared,” Malik said. “They completed their mission; feeding you lies about us.”
“It appears so,” I agreed.
“There has to be another way to find them,” Davorin said.
“One of them had a very unique ability,” I reminded him. “It's harder to blend in when you drip toxic goo.”
“One of them drips toxic goo?” Malik made a horrified face. “That's disturbing.”
“Says the demon,” Dav huffed.
“We're not demons!” The same Bleiten soldier who made the protest before said it again.
“Yeah, yeah; to-may-to to-mah-to.” Davorin rolled his eyes.
“Can't I just kill him?” The soldier asked Malik in a whining tone.
“No; that will hardly help our demonic image,” Malik said dryly.
“But if we're going to be condemned for a crime, perhaps we should get some enjoyment from it,” the soldier reasoned.
“And that's how we got where we are,” Malik pointed out. “Remember what the King says.”
“Rise above the perceptions of others and be the man you wish to be,” t
he soldier dutifully said.
Every non-Bleiten at the table gaped at him.
“Bleitens with a strong moral code... I need another drink,” Landry said as he poured himself a shot.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
“Lord Malik, don't Alcantans produce a protective barrier on their skin when they're in an inhospitable environment?” One of the Bleiten soldiers asked.
We'd been brainstorming ways to find the bank robbers; in particular, the gooey guy—as we'd taken to calling him. When the soldier—I think his name was Everin—mentioned the Alcantans, everyone went still. According to the stories, the Alcantans had been wiped out by the Bleiten.
“They do,” Malik said with an impressed look at his soldier. “And Earth would be just such a place for them.”
“I'm just going to ask,” Davorin said. “Are the rumors on that one true? Did you guys kill the Alcantans?”
Malik sighed deeply and looked uncomfortable. “Unfortunately, that tale is true,” he admitted. “We were at war with the Alcantans, and they wouldn't surrender, even after they had taken tremendous losses. Every time we attempted to form a truce, they'd agree to it and then promptly break it. They took to attacking us in underhanded ways that began to cost us dearly. Our king made the difficult decision to exterminate the Alcantans entirely.”
“So, you're not as righteous as you'd like us to believe,” Kyrian said with a hard stare at Malik.
“I never said we were righteous,” Malik said evenly. “I said we've been your people's scapegoat for centuries. That doesn't mean that we're immune to the darker emotions or that we never make mistakes. But at least we admit our mistakes and try our best not to repeat them. The Triari wipe their dirty hands off on someone else and pretend they never stuck them in the mud, to begin with.”
“All right, tone down the sermon; I concede,” Kyrian said. “Let's get back to the Alcantans. Do you think this man could be one of them?”
“If an Alcantan had made it off their planet and all the way to Earth, his body would be in a constant state of defense,” Malik mused. “I suppose that could turn him into an oozing monster.”
