A sign ahead declared Las Vegas was ninety-five miles away.
“Where are we going?” she chanced to ask.
He lifted a hand and pointed ahead with one of his long fingers. “That way.”
“What is that way?”
“A place free of these questions, if I am fortunate.”
A rush of anger surged inside her, obliterating her fear. She was tired of being disrespected.
“I didn’t ask to be kidnapped by some green monster,” she snapped, “so you’re just going to have to deal with my questions! I’m scared, I’m tired, and I’m…I’m…just tired.” She clenched her jaw and pressed her trembling lips together. She inhaled deeply and stared at the road ahead.
Stupid, Zoey! Don’t antagonize him!
“I’ve just had a really shitty day,” she continued, unable to stop now that she’d started, “and this just made it even worse. If you want silence, well…you’re just going to have to kill me—” please don’t “—or throw me out of the car. I can’t just sit here and wonder what you’re going to do with me, or what’s going to happen. If you’re going to do something bad, get it over with already.”
He was quiet for a time, and utterly still. She glanced in the rearview mirror again to find that he’d changed position, hiding most of his large body in the shadows of the back seat.
“I wish only to return to my home,” he finally said, his tone softer. “Aid me, and I will keep you safe.”
“Safe…from what?”
“Though they are also human, I do not believe the people hunting me will leave you in peace, should they learn you’ve seen me.”
“The helicopters?”
“Helicopters?”
“The things flying in the sky.”
The fingers on her thigh twitched. “Yes. That is but a small portion of them.”
Zoey nodded.
Okay. We’re getting somewhere.
She could do this. This she could deal with, even if it was threatening to get into X-Files, government conspiracy territory. Too bad she’d never been interested enough in any of that stuff to pay attention.
Zoey caught a glimpse of him watching her in the mirror — that was definitely blood on his face — and quickly forced her attention to the road. “Did they…hurt you?”
He released a long, slow breath, and withdrew his hand from her thigh. The exposed spot felt suddenly cold.
“There has been much pain, yes. Harder to bear was the shame of being unable to fight back. Of being unable to protect my Umen’rak,” he said.
“Protect your what?”
“My Umen’rak,” he repeated. “My…team, to put it simply.”
“Where are you from? How did you get caught?”
“I am from someplace very far away from here. Far enough that it is likely beyond your understanding. As for my capture… They discovered me while I was in a weakened state, after crashing on this planet—”
“You’re an alien?” Zoey asked, eyes wide. It made perfect sense, now that it had been spoken out loud.
Monsters aren’t real, but aliens are. Yeah, that makes perfect sense, all right.
“I am an aligarii. You are the alien.”
“Sorry to break it to you, but on this planet, you are the alien. Not me.” She met his gaze briefly in the mirror; it was riveting and disturbing all at once. “You mentioned your omen…uhmeanr…your team. Are there…more of you here?”
“None living.”
None living?
The tone of his voice spoke far beyond his terse response. There had been others, they had died, and he carried the weight of their loss with him. Zoey could relate to that sense of loss and isolation.
“I’m sorry,” she said gently.
“Sorry for what?”
“For the loss of your people.”
“We are aliens to you. Why should you be sorry for their deaths?”
“Because you’re still a living being, and…and you clearly cared for those you’ve lost.”
The passenger seat creaked as he grasped it with two hands — two right hands — and used it as an anchor to pull himself into a partial sitting position. He filled the back seat completely, making it look like it had been designed for children. How hadn’t she noticed him when she came back to her car? She’d made a point of checking! Had she been so preoccupied with her emotions that she’d failed to notice the huge, green alien ducking behind her seat?
“That notion does not seem to be shared by many of the humans I’ve encountered,” he said.
“I guess you’ve met our government.” She frowned. “What will they do if they get you again?”
“Restrain me, lock me in a dark cell, and question me incessantly between their experiments until my eventual death.”
“Experiments?” Of course they’d experiment on him. He was an alien. “What…what did they do?”
The glow of his eyes flashed in the mirror for a second. “More than you would care to know.”
Even if she’d never watched the X-Files and wasn’t familiar with conspiracy theories beyond the one about the Illuminati running everything, she’d seen enough movies to have an idea of what might have been done, and her imagination took it far enough from there to send a shudder through her. Had some of his people died during such experiments?
“Okay.” She took in another deep breath, stretched her aching fingers, and shifted on her seat. This situation was beyond belief, and a small part of her still insisted it couldn’t be real, but…she wanted to help him. Hell, what did she have to lose? Everything else had already fallen apart. “If you swear you won’t hurt me…I’ll help you.”
“I told you I’ll keep you safe if you do as I say.”
“That’s not really the same as promising you won’t hurt me in the process. Safe could just mean…alive for as long as I’m useful to you. I need a promise.”
Her seat tipped back slightly as he clamped a hand on it and drew himself forward. She couldn’t help but lean away to keep some space between them. She wasn’t exactly in a position to make demands, yet here she was, throwing one out there like she had all the bargaining power.
“On my honor as an aekhora blessed by the Halvari,” he said, his low, rumbling voice sending a strange thrill through her, “I will do you no harm, and I will keep you safe, so long as you do not betray me.”
She had no idea what those alien words he’d used meant, but the solemnity in his words told her an aekhora blessed by the Halvari was something very serious and very important to him. Her tension diminished, and she eased back against her seat.
“Thank you,” she said.
Zoey squinted against the brights of an oncoming car, shifting her gaze to the rearview mirror. The fleeting light teased her with a glimpse of the alien’s sharp, angular features, and his reptilian pupils shrank to slits in the glare. His eyes were a vibrant green. Her favorite color.
“Are you willing to tell me your name, yet?” she asked.
He lowered himself onto his back, dipping into the darkness.
“Rendash,” he replied after a long pause.
Chapter Four
Rendash shifted to lay in the shadows, bracing two hands on the floor. The sounds of air rushing around the vehicle, the thrumming engine, and the wheels humming over the road were constant indicators of movement, but looking at the night sky through the far window almost created the sense that they weren’t moving at all. Those unfamiliar stars hung motionless; they stared at him, mocked him, twinkled with cosmic mirth.
Detachment.
Those old teachings could only go so far now. He’d won some room to rest, even if the inadequately sized seat forced him into an uncomfortable position with arms and legs folded up awkwardly, but how far could he truly hope to get?
He had no allies, no weapons apart from his own body, no idea of where he was, and only a vague direction in which to head. He and his Umen’rak had often operated on alien worlds without reliable intelligence,
but there’d always been some enemy to face, some invader to repel.
Earn the trust of the locals if you have a common enemy.
That wouldn’t work here. His only enemies here were human, and there was a chance, however small, that they were the only species on the planet. He couldn’t fight them all. At the moment, he couldn’t even handle a few. He needed human assistance to navigate their world, but why would any of them betray their own on behalf of a stranded aligarii warrior who’d already killed several of them?
And yet here was this human — this Zoey. She’d regained her composure quickly despite her apparent fear and had already gone so far as to demand assurance from him as though she had leverage in the situation.
But she does have leverage. Even if she doesn’t fully realize it, I’m at her mercy, not the other way around.
She didn’t conduct herself like any human he’d met — she was certainly nothing like the people who’d held him captive — and she possessed an internal strength that seemed rare in most intelligent species.
And her scent! It was alien and familiar at once, bearing a hint of the fragrant flowers that blossomed in the jungles of his youth. It was alluring, provocative, and had subtly dominated the air inside the vehicle since he’d moved close enough to smell its fullness.
He’d never been so intrigued by a female’s scent, but he couldn’t allow curiosity to dictate his actions.
There was only one question regarding Zoey that needed to be answered.
Can she be trusted?
He glanced up at her seat. Her body was blocked from his view, but tendrils of her brown hair — most of which was gathered in a messy knot atop her head — hung over the headrest, and her pale neck was visible between the thin metal supports. Her skin had felt strange against his arm; smooth and soft, so delicate he thought it might tear if he ran his scales over it too harshly.
Rendash’s fingers twitched; he longed to brush his fingertips over her bare flesh again, to learn its feel properly.
What was he thinking? She was a human female, a member of the species that had held him captive for four of their years, the species that was hunting him like an animal. She was his enemy. It didn’t matter if there might’ve been sympathy in her voice when she’d offered her condolences for his lost Umen’rak. It didn’t matter that she said she’d help him.
What obligation did she have to him? What did these creatures know of honor?
Honor…
Those questions were irrelevant; he would keep his word. If she did not betray him, he would keep her safe, even from her own kind.
“Rendash?”
Her voice broke through his thoughts, serving as a reminder of just how tired he was — normally, he’d never drift so deep into thought that he lost awareness of his surroundings. That was an easy way to get killed.
“What is it?” he asked.
“There’s something up ahead.”
Grasping her seat, he pulled himself up to look between the front chairs. There were more ground vehicles stopped ahead, their rear lights lit bright red. Zoey slowed her vehicle as they approached the congestion. Just beyond the line of transports, flashing lights bathed the surrounding wasteland in blue and red.
“What is this?” Rendash asked.
Zoey leaned forward. “Looks like a police checkpoint. I…I think they are searching the cars.” She turned her face toward him. “What are we going to do? They’ll see you.”
Thanks to the light from the vehicle behind them, he was finally offered a true glimpse of her features. Long, dark lashes framed her blue-gray eyes; those eyes were her most striking feature, wide and clear, snaring him within their depths. She had gently curved lines of hair on her brow over her eyes and full, pink lips that were currently downturned.
She was as bizarre looking as any human he’d seen, and somehow infinitely more appealing. There was a softness to her appearance to which he was wholly unaccustomed, a softness that made him want to touch, a softness that did nothing to diminish her underlying vitality.
“I will remain low,” he said. “Tell me when we near the view of the humans searching.”
At that moment, his life was entirely in her hands. Her small, soft, human hands. He held no illusions as to his ability to fight or flee on his own without significant recovery time. His strength was spent. His connection to his nyros was still disrupted by the human concoctions lingering in his system.
If she chose to betray him now, Rendash would be doomed.
“Oh God, I’m such a terrible liar,” she said in a rush. “They’re going to catch us. It’s not like I have tinted windows, Rendash. They’re going to see you and then they’re going to—”
“Quiet, human,” he snapped.
She obeyed. He felt a moment’s guilt for the wide-eyed, vulnerable, nervous expression that overcame her face.
Control. Detachment.
“They will not see me, and you do not need to worry over it,” he said, taking a gentler tone. “Be…honest without revealing anything. Do you understand what I mean?”
She breathed slowly in and out several times. “I’ll try.”
“Remember, Zoey, my life depends upon your honor.”
“More like it depends on my acting. No pressure either way, right?” She groaned. “We’re so screwed.”
Based on his understanding of screwed, her statement was nonsensical, but he didn’t waste time asking for clarification. Humans were often imprecise in their use of words. He couldn’t be sure if it was a result of their language’s complexity or part of that complexity.
He lay back, pressing as much of his body as he could into the narrow space between the rear and front seats — which turned out to be two arms, his left hip, and a thigh. The position was uncomfortable, but it would reduce the chances of the humans detecting any faint anomalies in the light while he was cloaked. Some creatures were more sensitive to such phenomena, and he wasn’t sure where human eyesight ranked in that regard.
“Okay. We’re getting close,” Zoey said. “Just a few more minutes.”
The flashing lights shed alternating blue and red glows across the ceiling of the vehicle. Rendash’s field of view was limited to the ceiling, the back of Zoey’s seat, and bits of dark sky visible through the rear windows. The situation was far from ideal, but he could do little about it now.
“Oh, shit. There’s a cop walking this way.” Zoey spoke rapidly, voice at a higher pitch. “He’s got a flashlight and it looks like he’s spot-checking the cars as he goes. There’s no way he’s not going to—”
“Control, Zoey. Control your emotions. Detach yourself from the moment. I am trusting you, and you must trust me.”
“Control,” she breathed. “I can do this. I can.”
Drawing upon whatever concentration he could muster, Rendash created a cloaking field; it crackled and hummed around him as though it would fail at any moment. He clenched his jaw and willed it to hold. Immense heat flared inside him.
The vehicle eased forward and stopped again.
“Oh my God, he’s going to see you,” Zoey rasped.
Several moments later, there was a tap upon her window. It was followed by a soft hum, and the outside sounds grew louder — the sigh of ground transports passing on the opposite side of the road, voices from humans in other vehicles, the wind flowing over the wasteland, and the distant beat of helicopters.
“Do you have identification, ma’am?” asked a male human.
Rendash tensed; this was the moment in which everything would fall apart. He wouldn’t to be taken again. He could only hope his nyros would be responsive enough to allow him a worthy final stand.
Zoey’s heart raced. Her nerves were frayed, and she swore she was dripping gallons of sweat. Couldn’t the cop see Rendash? Why hadn’t he said anything about the giant, green alien filling the backseat of her little car?
She stared up at the cop with a wide, strained smile, probably showing way too many teeth. “Yeah. It’s
in my purse. Can I…can I get it?”
The cop nodded and turned his flashlight toward the backseat for a moment. Zoey froze, heart lodged in her throat.
Oh God, this is it. I’m done for. Rendash is done for.
Shouldn’t she want them to find the alien? She could tell them she was forced into it against her will, that she was a hostage, that she’d been given no choice but to help him. She could tell them everything, and because she hadn’t done anything wrong they’d let her carry on with her life. She’d resume her trip to Des Moines as though nothing had happened.
But what would become of Rendash?
She stopped her mind from going there fully; the half-imagined torture sessions she’d conjured up before still weighed heavily upon her.
How could I live with the guilt of knowing I willingly allowed him to be tortured or killed?
Zoey turned away from the cop to reach into her purse. Careful not to turn her head, she shifted her eyes to the side as far as they could go to glance at the back seat.
Her heart stopped.
I’ve lost my fucking mind.
Rendash was gone. Like, gone-gone. There wasn’t a trace of the alien anywhere, except… There was a light coating of dust across the back seat, and the cushions sported large depressions as though something heavy was settled atop them. Had it always looked so broken-in?
“Quite a mess you have back there,” the cop said.
Him calling attention to it allowed Zoey to turn her head toward the back without worry.
Yep, just seat depressions and dust. No Rendash.
Zoey swallowed, and let out an uneasy laugh. “Yeah. I was babysitting a coworker’s dog this weekend, and well, you know how dogs are! They love to roll around in the dirt.” She grabbed her wallet, flipped it open, and turned back to the cop, forcing her smile to remain in place.
A dog, Zoey? Think maybe he’ll notice the total lack of fur?
“Here you go,” she said cheerfully, handing him her wallet.
Frowning, the cop turned his attention back to her and took the wallet, shining his flashlight down onto it. She realized only then that he was wearing sunglasses. The lights weren’t that bright, were they? Who wore sunglasses at night?
Claimed by an Alien Warrior Page 4
