by Rena Marks
“Is it Crested Ute that’s after us?” she asked.
“Yes.”
She released her breath on an exhale. “Why are you taking me back to Xenia?”
His voice was harsh. “Because it’s where you belong.”
What the hell did that even mean?
“Because of all the freak dicks fucking me?”
He grabbed her arm, his fingers digging into the soft flesh there. “I told you, Keith was a fucking idiot.”
Did he really think she was that stupid?
Chapter Nine
THE NIGHT WAS DARK before they could see the lights of the city of Xenia far ahead. Tom seemed to know exactly where to go—an abandoned storefront at the edge of a cliff overlooking the city in the distance. He kept her slightly behind him and held his hands out as if he searched for something that obviously wasn’t there.
She thought he was crazy.
Then, she thought she was crazy when his open palms bumped against something that obviously wasn’t there. He patted it down, appearing to mime a wall—a huge block. He felt downward, swept his arm open as if he opened a car door and scooted inside...sitting on a seat made of air.
What. The. Fuck.
It was a trick. It had to be a trick. Her brain couldn’t keep up with everything that was going on and she was losing it. But then Tom yanked her onto his lap and closed the car door. From the inner area, they were inside a vehicle. A hovercar—and she could see very real seats. An automated dashboard. But it was invisible from the outside. An invisible hovercar. A flying jet pack without weight or smoke.
“Go,” Tom said, and the vehicle lifted into the air. “Pathway: Home.”
They flew right over the trees, headed toward the city in the distance. She thought they’d fly over the wall. But they didn’t. Instead, he rolled right up to the main gate.
Two guards walked to them from the gate—one human and one Xeno Sapien. The human, she ignored. It was the other...monster she stared at. He was large and gray, with completely blackened eyes. No irises, no sclera, nothing. The window separating them rolled down and he peered inside, nodding at Tom and staring at her...like he knew her.
She shrank back. Jesus. Maybe...maybe while she was the Xeno Sapien prostitute, this had been one of her...johns. He looked at her like he knew her—and she’d never met a Xeno Sapien in her life. Maybe that’s who Tom was selling her to. They might be paying a lot of money for her return.
The dark black eyes were so deep she could see her own terrified reaction to him mirrored back. His expression was unfathomable. Then he leaned back and spoke to Tom. “Straight to the main hall.”
With a flick of his three-fingered hand, the massive gates that protected the city scrolled back and their car drove through, this time on the ground as if it had wheels.
She couldn’t help a shudder. Had those fingers touched her intimately? Dammit. She felt the agitation that rose in her like a thick, oily bile. She needed to remember. She couldn’t stand not knowing.
She was barely aware of Tom on the seat next to her, staring at her, his arms held out as if he would catch her if she fell, yet keeping a distance between them as if he knew of her aversion to his touch. This was the first time they seemed to not have any touching between them. The first time things became real, instead of the playacting he’d been performing to get her to trust him. Yet, there was something else going on here. Something she wasn’t aware of, couldn’t place her finger on. Apparently something she craved because hell, she’d allowed herself to fall for his charms.
“What’s the main hall?” she asked.
His eyes barely flicked to her. “None of this looks familiar?”
“No.”
“Do you feel okay?”
“No.” Something was wrong, she just didn’t know what. Something was off. Her stomach was nauseous and her breathing came in shallow, quick pants.
The car stopped and the door rose. She scrambled out, ignoring Tom’s hand. She didn’t want to touch him. There was a crowd of people on the massive, concrete steps leading to the largest building in the center of the others.
Odd looking people. People of different colors. People with tails. One striped, like a tiger. Another who looked like an angel. All of these...creatures. Staring at her as if she was the monster. Nowhere did she see a purple being. Nowhere was a purple baby. What was the truth and what were the lies? Did this child even exist? Was it some sort of fairytale they’d concocted to get her back?
She scrambled out of the car in a panic, her hand over her mouth as if she could stop herself from being sick. Behind her, Tom grabbed her arm. Oh, fine, now he chose to touch her tainted, whore body.
She yanked her arm from him.
He held out his hands in a placating move. “Easy, Ava. It’s okay.”
She panted, her breath heaving as her head spun. She just wanted the truth. “What am I doing here?”
“This is where you live.” His voice was soft, holding so many secrets.
“I don’t know this place. I could never live here. Among them.” The monsters.
“You do.” The woman who stepped up was beautiful—blond hair, which could only mean one thing. Wealth. High-status people were allowed a license to color their hair, their eyes, alter their appearance. But each altered physical attribute was logged. It wasn’t fair to represent yourself one way and have an original physical trait that could be passed along to offspring without the other partner knowing. “I know you don’t remember me. I’m one of your best friends. Irina.”
Ava shook her head. “I don’t know you.”
Another woman—one with dark hair, but just as beautiful—stepped near Irina. “And that’s okay. You’re not supposed to remember. It’s perfectly normal. Take it easy, you’re going to hyperventilate.”
She was huddled near the shrubs on the edges of the steps, as far away from the curious array of people as she could get.
Was one of them green? There was a man with green skin—like the Wicked Witch of the West. She shook her head to clear it. Damn her grandparents for showing her all those old Earth movies.
“If we can take you inside,” Irina said gently, “we can take you to medical. You’ll be able to calm.”
But Ava’s eyes were darting back and forth through the crowds of odd-looking people. “I don’t see anyone purple.” She meant to ask about the baby but instead, it came out all wrong.
“Covet. You remember Covet. Your mate.” Irina’s voice was triumphant.
“My...what?” Horror of horrors. What was this woman talking about? Was this something new to worry about?
“Me.”
She turned to Tom, startled. What did he mean? But then his beautiful dark eyes shone...and glowed slightly purple. Suddenly she knew what she’d thought she imagined before had been very, very real. The glow took over his eyes and just as abruptly as that, he had purple eye color.
She gasped, but he wasn’t done. The purple spread...over his face, down his neck, across his shoulders. He grasped the neckline of the T-shirt he wore and ripped—but it looked like the shirt might have ripped on its own anyway because he seemed to grow, wider, bigger, thicker, like the Incredible Hulk on steroids.
Only not green.
And that wasn’t all. He had bumps on his forehead, like protrusions for horns. His pupils were vertical slits like a cat. His sharp cheekbones sharpened further as he became non-human, standing out on his cheeks like ridges of ice, making the hollows between the bone and jaw more pronounced.
He had fangs.
Fangs. The rest of the teeth looked sharp.
And the miles upon miles of bulging ripped muscles.
Tom was one of them. Tom was one of the creatures.
And then it dawned on her that she’d already slept with Tom. She’d had him...inside her body. It was too much for her. Her head dropped down to her chin and she was out like a light.
COVET CAUGHT AVA BEFORE she hit the concrete. Her skin was cold and cl
ammy, despite the sun. She passed out because she was terrified—beyond terrified. Of him.
His true face.
Quickly he morphed back into the human’s look that he’d pretended to be for weeks. The human that had been dead for just as many weeks. Ava had ripped his arms off when she’d saved their precious daughter and left the bastard to bleed to death in the dirt.
“Let’s get her out of the sun,” Amanda said, saying nothing about his human form. He thought he caught a look of sympathy from Irina—his best friend, Blaze’s, mate.
He scooped up Ava in his arms and carried her into the medical wing.
He pondered what had happened back at the gate when Steele had stared into her eyes and communicated with him telepathically. She seemed to frighten even more.
There’s no memory inside. No sign of recovered recognition. Not one whit.
So will it be harmful to bring her back in through the gates?
Was there any reaction when you neutralized her implant?
Nothing. She never even noticed, though the scanner took quite a few minutes.
Steele had studied Ava some more, while she squirmed uncomfortably on the seat. She didn’t remember Steele at all. His obvious Xeno Sapien looks made her wary, as if she feared him. Ava had never feared their kind. Finally, Steele’s thoughts echoed through his head.
It’s good. Take her through.
He had seemed to catch on to Covet’s worry. His telepathic voice deepened. She’ll be okay, Covet.
“Lay her down,” Amanda instructed.
Amanda scanned her quickly and then injected her with a sedative to keep her from waking. “Will you lift her so I can get to her neck?”
He curled Ava’s head onto his shoulder while Amanda poked at the tattoo.
“You’d disengaged it fine. Her collapse wasn’t due to the implant.”
He let out the breath he’d been holding. Had he left any electrical impulse in it, it might have caused permanent brain damage upon her return through the gates. It was why he waited so long to bring her in, even though they were safe from the kidnappers. He’d spent an extra day in a safe house, just to prepare himself to make a decision. He had to decide if he really wanted to risk that or if he wanted to set her free instead.
He had to make a choice between losing his beautiful mate, the love of his life, and raising his child. There was no way Baby could live on the outside. She hadn’t shown any indications of being able to shapeshift, but then again, neither did he until recently. Ava, on the other hand, didn’t remember her life on Xenia. She could technically be introduced to her grandparents, who were friends of the Xeno Sapiens and lived on one of the higher realms of floating, man-made planets. She could live the rest of her life safely—without any memories of their family. Her mother had even agreed to move in with Ava and her ex-in-laws if that was the case.
He tried. He really did. He knew it was for the best that he leave Ava on the outside. But in the end, he just couldn’t do it. He tried to imagine what she would do if she were in his shoes and determined that she’d think some semblance of her life was better than none and it was worth the risk.
But he panicked when she began to display odd behavior. Horror when she saw Steele—who she’d been pretty good friends with, having seen him and Pax five or six times a week. They were the ones who’d developed her implant and monitored it constantly. But there was no recollection there at all.
And she was terrified at all the faces of the people she’d once loved. He didn’t dare bring Baby out, much as he desperately wanted to see their infant daughter. He had no idea how Ava would react to what she thought of as a baby monster. Why she was so opposed to the people she’d once loved unconditionally.
How she’d looked when he showed her his true form. The terror, the disbelief, the disgust, all overtaking her until she couldn’t handle it.
“Covet,” Amanda said, helping him to lower Ava. “I know this is hard. We can possibly help her by stimulating the hippocampus of her brain. But that requires surgery and some risk. We wouldn’t dare attempt it until she could heal emotionally somewhat. Her terror was too real outside.”
“I won’t scare her more. I’ll stay in this form.”
“This isn’t your true form. You’re not doing her any justice, nor yourself. She has to see what Covet looks like, not Tom.”
“No.” He turned to look at her to see her eyes filled with sympathy. “She made love to me in this form. Not my true form.”
Amanda sighed. “Introduce her to Baby. See how she reacts.”
“I don’t want Baby hurt.”
“You’d be surprised. Kids are resilient.”
“Knock, knock.”
He looked up at Irina’s voice. In her arms was his beautiful purple bundle of joy.
“Da!”
His sweet baby girl held her arms out to him and his heart melted. It had been so long since he’d seen her, nearly a month. He could see subtle changes with her. Her lavender hair was longer, wispier, her cheeks fuller. It had darkened just a touch. He wondered if, had he ever been a youth, his hair would have been lavender.
Blaze, his brother from another mother, as Irina liked to tease, had obviously dressed her. He loved outfits that had phrases written across the front like, “My Uncle is the best.” Or, “My Uncle is so handsome.”
Reson, his other best friend, used to snort along with him at the ridiculous tees. Until Reson realized the phrases included him also and then he would silently encourage Blaze to bring her the cheesy gifts. Reson began to teach Baby how to say Uncle Reson. So far, it came out Unk-Ree. It was the only words she knew, besides Ma and Da.
He didn’t know what he’d do without the guys. His best friends in the world.
He grabbed his little girl, whose chubby arms squeezed around his neck. He buried his nose in her hair, smelling baby goodness. “I missed you so much.”
Baby was slobbering his cheek, her version of kisses. He rocked her gently, his eyes closed. When he opened them, he saw a shimmer of tears in Irina’s eyes, matched by Amanda.
He cleared his throat and Baby pulled away. She held both of her pudgy hands over his cheeks, frowning at his human skin.
It dawned on him that his daughter saw him through the perfect disguise. She had come to him despite his looks.
“Da!”
He shimmered in his purple skin for a moment and she squealed in delight, planting her puckered wet mouth on his.
“Gross,” he murmured automatically.
She threw her head back and laughed.
Blaze had taught her the faceplant kiss, mostly to piss off Reson with the sloppy wetness she’d bestow. But no, Reson took it in stride, declaring her Uncle Blaze was a natural teacher at kissing, and then winking at Irina suggestively.
Covet was the one who always made Baby laugh when he’d wipe off her slobber with the back of his hand and say gross.
She’d laugh harder when Ava would smack him gently on the back of the head and force him to hold still for a re-kiss from the giggling baby, while he pretended to shudder. Then they’d all collapse in giggles, kisses, and tickles.
“Ma!” Baby squirmed in his arms, trying to get to Ava on the bed.
“Not yet, Baby,” he said, kissing her head. “Momma’s sleeping.”
“We’ll leave you all alone,” Irina said. “Don’t hesitate to call Blaze or Reson if you need us to pick her up. You have enough on your plate right now.”
She stood on her tiptoes to peck his cheek, kissing Baby’s purple cheek, as Amanda did the same. Then he turned, alone with his family.
He sat down in the chair, his daughter in his lap. It was naptime for Baby and she took a quick snooze cuddled against his very human chest. That was one thing he hadn’t been able to change when he took on the human form. The rhythm of his three hearts. The beats sounded like repeating echoes of a heartbeat.
Robyn had warned him not to let any doctors listen to his heart.
Ava bega
n to stir, then opened her eyes to see him sitting in the chair at her bedside. She was still, taking in the sight of the sleeping infant. For once, there was no terror in her eyes.
Her voice was a whisper. “How old is she?”
“You met her when she was a newborn, less than a week old. You took care of her for six months. We had a whirlwind romance, as you chased me relentlessly less than a week after meeting me. She’s seven months now. You and I haven’t seen her in a month.”
She snorted softly, the first humor he’d seen in her. Of course, it was probably easy to forget his true form, even with their purple daughter in his arms.
“My best friends, Blaze and Reson, have been caring for her primarily. We’d been talking about your mother moving here. You were sure she’d like to help with Baby’s care.”
“My mother could move onto Xenia?” Her eyes were wide.
“Yes. You’ve already picked a little cottage on the outskirts.”
“Can we visit it? I’d like to see it.”
“Of course.” Though, he’d probably call ahead to keep others away when they visited. He didn’t want to mention that the less human looking Xeno Sapiens lived on the outskirts of town, and she’d be subjected to that. For some reason, she had a fear of them now, whereas Ava hadn’t minded. Before.
Just then Baby stirred against his chest, rubbing her little eyes sleepily and looking around the room. When her gaze settled on Ava, she jumped, her arms out to be held.
“Is it okay?” Covet asked her. “I know it’s odd for you.”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll take her.”
He settled their daughter into her arms. Ava was careful not to touch him, which made his heart heavy. But Baby curled up with her, her small hand reaching up to touch Ava’s face like she couldn’t believe she was back.
This was an image he’d had so many times in the past; an image he never thought he’d see again. Baby, curled contentedly in his mate’s arms, her tiny hands touching her mother’s face like Ava was some kind of miracle.
She was a miracle. She’d saved her daughter, sacrificing herself when she knew the implant would destroy her mind.
