Sebastian halted, grabbing Alyssa’s elbow to stop her and turning her to face him. “Why the hell would you ever think that, Alyssa? Have I ever said or done anything to make you think I don’t want kids with you, that I don’t want to be with you? I love you. You are my future. Everything from that dream you shared with me… I want that! And the sex, that was indescribable, but we’ll figure out how to control it. You are strong, and so far, I mean, nothing happens when we kiss or hold hands. I don’t mind the sex or what it did to us. I promise, we’ll be okay. Please, don’t give up on us.”
Alyssa balked at the hurt on his face, and his fingers digging into her arm. “I… I’m sorry, Sebastian. I didn’t mean… I just…” She bit her lip, searching for the words to make things right. “It’s… well, we haven’t talked about this since we found out about these changes I’m going through. We didn’t even talk about that, uh… experience or what it means. For heaven’s sake, you were gone by the time I got out of the shower. You didn’t say anything to me or kiss me goodbye. I thought I scared you away!”
“No, darlin’, I wasn’t scared. I got called to an early teleconference with David Giles. I didn’t have a chance to do anything except get dressed and run out the door. It had absolutely nothing to do with you.” He searched her eyes, but she glanced away.
“I don’t know what’s happening to me, Sebastian,” she said sadly, “or what’s going to happen with me. I don’t know if I’m going to want to have kids the way I am. I’m a freak. I’m a freak with weird connections to a new species. What if our kids inherit everything I have? What will that do to them?”
“Darlin’, if they’re anything like you, they’ll be absolutely perfect. I’ll love them, no matter what strange abilities they have.”
“Strange… That’s exactly what it is. Strange. These things that have been happening to me—they suck! The Karans can get inside my head, and I don’t know how to keep them out without Lyssa’s help. And Valel keeps… He…”
“What?” Sebastian gripped both of her arms, jerking her toward him, panic on his face. “What’s he doing? I see him staring at you all the time. He doesn’t say anything, but I can tell he’s too interested in you. Has he hurt you? Tell me, Alyssa.” His eyes gleamed with worry and building rage.
“Not really.” She looked away. Shame ate at her soul as the memory of the shared vision flashed in her mind’s eye. “Not hurt, just… I don’t know how to explain it. He’s gotten inside my head… showed me things I didn’t want to see. He thinks we have some sort of metaphysical connection, that we should be together.”
Sebastian let her go, pacing in front of her with his hand tangled in his hair.
“I told him it wasn’t real,” she whined, panicked by his reaction, “just a side-effect of whatever’s happening to me. I tried to tell him it’s probably the same with the other Karans, but I haven’t been that close to them, or touched them to see if they react the same as when he touched me.”
“He touched you?” Sebastian barked, startling Alyssa. She hugged herself tighter, resisting the urge to retreat from his building anger. “When? When did he touch you?”
“Uh, at the hospital. He caught me when I tripped. Then last night, he tried to touch me when I went for a walk.”
“That son of a bitch. I’m going to—”
“Stop it!” Alyssa stepped in front of him, halting his pacing. “You’re not going to do anything, Sebastian. You’re the leader of the coalition. You can’t get all hot-headed and do something rash. We need the Karans on our side.” His eyes narrowed and his jaw ticked rhythmically. “I’ll learn how to keep them out of my head. I’ll stay away from them and Valel. Kora and Jordan said I can work with Lyssa to figure this out. We’ll figure this out!”
Staring into her eyes with his own piercing blues, Sebastian seemed to reach down into Alyssa’s very being, searching for answers she didn’t have. In a blink, he stepped forward and enveloped her with his strong arms, squeezing until she nearly couldn’t breathe. She didn’t protest, just hugged him back, thanking the heavens for this wonderful man.
They walked the rest of the way home, Sebastian’s arm draped over her shoulder, hers around his waist. Instead of going straight to their house, he steered them up to Kora and Jordan’s door. Maira answered his quiet knock.
“Hey, you two,” she said softly. “What brings you by? Is the party over?”
“Not quite, although I think the Karans would’ve preferred to avoid the event altogether.” Sebastian tensed when he mentioned the hybrids. “They don’t seem comfortable with all the attention.” He led Alyssa inside as Maira held the door open for them.
“Probably not used to being around so many humans.” She shut the door behind them in that quiet way people do things when babies are sleeping.
“Jordan and Kora around?”
“In the kitchen with Edward. Lyssa was fussy after the festivities,” she said, shaking her head. “That child is not happy with her new restrictions, always reaching for her momma. Poor Kora couldn’t sit long enough to eat supper, and had to wait for Lyssa to go to sleep. We’re just cleaning up the leftovers now. You two hungry?”
Alyssa smiled at Maira as they walked into the kitchen. “No thanks.”
“We ate at the party,” Sebastian said.
Jordan jumped up from the dining table where Edward sat. Kora waved from beside the sink. That girl cleaned so much, Alyssa sometimes worried she might have some sort of compulsion because of the way she grew up and the way Sen treated her.
“What’s up, you two?” Jordan motioned for them to sit down, moving to help Kora finish the dishes.
“We need to talk about the Karans.”
“Is there a problem?” Edward crossed his arms over his chest, his ponytail hanging over his shoulder.
Alyssa bit the inside of her cheek and scrubbed her hands over the tops of her thighs, wishing Sebastian had given her time to mentally prepare for this conversation with her friends. “Not really—”
“Yes,” he said in a firm, pissed off voice. “They’ve been invading Alyssa’s mind.”
“Well, it’s not quite that—”
“What else would you call it?” Sebastian challenged her with his eyes.
“I, uh…” Her insides quivered with fear and uncertainty at his reaction. She’d never seen Sebastian this worked up.
“Bas, dude,” Jordan said, “chill, man.”
“I can’t.” He jumped up and started pacing in front of the sliding glass door that opened to the backyard. “Valel wants Alyssa. I trusted him, brought him back with me, invited him and the others into our group…” Sebastian pushed his hands through his hair, clasping them behind his head.
“I don’t understand,” Jordan said.
Edward looked at Alyssa with worry lines in the corners of his eyes. “Can you explain, please?”
As Kora and Maira sat at the table, and Jordan leaned against the counter, Sebastian continued to pace while Alyssa repeated what she’d told him. She left out the shared vision part, but Maira didn’t seem surprised. Alyssa sighed, wondering if Maira had heard everything she told Jess on the drive to Seattle. Mothers! They hear all and see all.
“None of them tried anything today,” Alyssa said. “In fact, they seemed to stay well away from me all day.”
“Doesn’t mean they won’t try again,” Sebastian grumped from the corner where he’d stopped his pacing. “They can’t do this to her. It’s wrong. They’re harassing her, and I won’t stand by while they try to break her.”
“Bas, you can’t go off half-cocked.” Edward turned in his seat to look at Sebastian. “You have an obligation to the coalition and this community. The Karans are an important addition to our cause. If you start acting distrusting of them, then everyone else will too. No matter how you feel about them, we must present a united front. We must show everyone that we trust them and accept them as partners in our cause. Anything else at this point will only create a rift between us
and them. Then we’ll be three species battling each other for one planet.”
“He’s right, bro,” Jordan said. “Whatever’s going on between them and Aly, we’ll work it out. You can’t do anything stupid. You have to set the example. Let someone else handle this, like… Nait, or Ela, or Lorn. Lorn’s easy-going; they’ll trust him, and listen to him, I’m sure. You know he cares about Aly, and will do whatever it takes to protect her.”
Sebastian glared at the floor, his jaw set in a hard angle, and his arms and ankles crossed as he leaned in the corner. He shook his head slowly, his lips pinched in a thin line. After several long blinks, he finally tipped his head up, chin out.
Alyssa exchanged worried looks with Kora and Maira.
“Fine.” His voice came out gruff, like he didn’t want to agree but had no choice. Which he really didn’t. “Fine, I’ll let Lorn handle this, but if they don’t back off…”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we have to, son.” Edward reached up to pat Sebastian’s arm in a fatherly way. Alyssa saw Sebastian’s temper drop a couple notches at the gesture. Since Edward and Maira had joined the gang, Jordan and Sebastian had turned to them more and more, drawn to their good-natured, caring, parental ways.
“Now,” Edward said, standing, and heading to the cupboards, “how about a nightcap to calm your nerves? You’ve got some long days ahead of you. We all do, really. How about we get some sleep tonight with a dose of good ol’ fashioned medicine?” He pulled down a couple bottles of liquor and grinned at everyone.
Alyssa smiled back, thankful for his wisdom, and the possibility of going to bed with a more subdued Sebastian. Maybe she’d get some sleep herself, without those unwanted dreams of a certain naked Karan.
Chapter 23
“As if I didn’t have enough problems with Kayn still after me,” Alyssa muttered as she shuffled in a crouched position beside Jess. They brought up the rear of their small team, one of several circling around a small encampment with at least twenty Zook guards milling around tents with human slaves inside.
“Lorn spoke to Valel and the other Karans this morning. He said they seemed very agreeable. Hopefully you won’t have to worry about this anymore.”
Sebastian put his hand up, stopping the team behind a cluster of dense bushes. After their last raid, he insisted Alyssa be in his team. They’d even had a brief argument about her not going anywhere alone for the foreseeable future. She knew he worried about her, but she wasn’t thrilled about having to be babysat all the time.
“We’ll see. I haven’t even met the new Karans to know if the same thing will happen. Valel said they only did that out of instinct. Who knows what’ll happen if one of them tries to touch me. What’s going to happen when the next shuttle arrives, and the next? There’s going to be a bunch more Karans at the settlement. If Valel can’t stay away from me, how’s he going to keep the others from trying to get in my head? I can’t carry Lyssa around with me everywhere I go.”
Jess grinned. “No, but with her teeth starting to come in, I bet Kora wouldn’t mind if you did.”
“Er, no thanks. Can’t carry around a cranky baby on raids, not that Sebastian wouldn’t love an excuse to make me stay behind.”
“Give him time. He’ll get over it. Just stay away from Valel and practice keeping things closed up tight in your head.”
“Easier said than done.”
Sebastian motioned for them to move again. He’d managed to set it up so their team would handle backup and cover fire, if needed, instead of leading the attack like he usually did. Although he appeared calm and hadn’t confronted the Karans, he happily arranged for them to be on the frontline, to “test” their skills in combat.
Fortunately, neither the Karans nor Ian noticed his passive aggressive maneuver, and the Karans seemed eager to prove themselves. Valel volunteered to run an all-Karan team, but Sebastian and Ian both nixed that idea. The Karans needed to show they could work with humans and take orders like any other member of the coalition.
Once Sebastian got the team in position, he stationed himself on the other side of Alyssa and Jess, putting them between him and a younger guy with a buzzcut named Mark. They’d mixed up the teams with people from their group and people from Ian’s group.
“Stay down,” Sebastian whispered. “Once Ian’s team moves in, the action will start. Keep your eyes on the Zooks and cover the Karans. I don’t know how much experience they have in actual battle.”
Alyssa and Jess scrunched down low, taking cover behind a pair of pine trees. Sebastian kneeled behind a holly bush, peering through his rifle scope. From what Alyssa could see, they had a bonfire with the tents surrounding it. A light drizzle came sporadically, briefly dampening the fire.
Vi had graciously helped Alyssa and Jess get the appropriate clothing needed to withstand the persistent rain of the Pacific Northwest while out on a raid. As the moisture chilled the skin on the back of her neck and hands, Alyssa sent up a silent “thank you” to Vi for the warmth she retained under her waterproof jacket, pants, hat, and boots.
“Eyes open, everyone. Ian’s team is on the move,” Sebastian called in a loud whisper to the other six people lined up along with them.
Alyssa looked through the sight on her rifle and watched as the lead team jogged in a crouch toward the camp, rifles up and ready. They caught a single Zook on the edge of the perimeter, bashing him on the head and knocking him to the ground. Looking for Ian’s team to repeat the action and whittle down the opposing force little by little, she gasped when she heard shots.
“What the fuck?” Sebastian jumped up to stand behind Alyssa’s tree for a better view.
Lowering her rifle to stare out at the scene playing out a few hundred yards away, Alyssa shook her head, shocked. The Karans moved almost in unison, leaving behind the teams they’d been assigned to. They spread out, encircling the camp in stealthy silence, like cats stalking prey.
Moving without pause between shots, they took down every Zook in the camp, most of them with bullets to the head. By the time Ian yelled for a ceasefire, the Karans had cleared the camp. Scared faces peeked out of the tents, but none of the captives came out.
“Fuck! What a clusterfuck,” Sebastian growled and took off running. “Stay here!”
Alyssa looked down the line. Everyone on their team muttered to each other, wondering if he meant all of them or just Alyssa and Jess.
“You heard him,” Mark barked. “Stay here and stay down. There could be more Zooks. Watch your backs.”
Alyssa and Jess spun around at the same time to look at the woods behind them. They exchanged a “what now” look, shrugged, and turned back to watch the activity in the camp.
“What happened?” Jess asked, leaning against her tree.
“No idea.”
“Looks like the half-breeds fucked up the mission,” a guy said from down the line.
“Shut it!” Mark glared at the guy.
“All clear!” was yelled five times before Sebastian called all the teams into the encampment.
“Get the vans in here,” Sebastian said to Jack, who looked baffled.
“Sure thing. Guess I didn’t need my medic pack after all.” He pointed at Daniel and a woman Alyssa didn’t know to follow him before taking off at a jog.
“Valel,” Ian hollered, “get your people over here now.”
The Karan narrowed his eyes at him, but nodded and turned on stiff legs, walking away in long strides.
“The rest of you, prep the captives for transport. Bas, a moment please.”
Watching the two men talk too low to hear, Alyssa let Jess pull her away, her boots squishing in the thick mud. The crackling bonfire smelled of burning pine, but the tents reeked of unwashed bodies and other things she didn’t want to think about.
Moving from tent to tent, they coaxed the frightened people out, helping them into the waiting vans, and giving them blankets while passing around canteens of water. Alyssa kept her eye on Sebastian, Ian, and the Kar
ans. The two men spoke animatedly as the Karans stared at them with stony faces, barely blinking in response.
When they finally broke apart, Sebastian and Ian wouldn’t say anything other than what was necessary to get everyone in the vans and away from the camp. Alyssa and Jess sat by the back doors of their transport, watching the doused fire smoke and the moonlight shining down on unmoving Szu’Kara bodies.
***
The large conference room looked more like a miniature movie theatre than a place to hold meetings. Rows of seats faced a low stage with a podium. A long table sat between the seats and the stage with twelve chairs around it. Sebastian, Ian, Cecily, Jordan, and two other people stood clustered together at one end of the table.
Watching from an aisle seat in the last row, Alyssa leaned her head on her hand, fatigue setting in. Everyone, other than the Karans, sat in scattered groups of two and three, waiting for the meeting Ian had called when they returned to central command.
Lorn had been waiting with the intake team. His job was usually to assist with the Zooks they brought in from these raids, since he couldn’t stomach being out in the field where it was possible he might witness the death of one or more of his people. Jess went to be with him, instead of coming to the meeting. She knew he’d be devastated by the night’s casualties.
The low murmur of people talking and feet shuffling lulled Alyssa. Her eyelids drooped as she watched Sebastian stand with his arms crossed and his face stern, his scarred eyebrow raised almost constantly. She envisioned running her fingers through the white hair at his widow’s peak and kissing his forehead to smooth away the worry lines.
Something bumped her hand resting on the chair arm on the aisle side. Her vision of Sebastian cut to images of running through the dark camp and shooting a surprised Zook before he had a chance to swing his weapon around to return fire.
Unchained: The Discordant Earth Series Book Two Page 17
