by Lisa Lace
"Um. Part of that is true, but most of it isn't. If I could just-"
"This is illegal!" Mia shouted. "You can't just break into my home and do this."
"Technically I'm still outside, and I-"
"I'm calling the police."
"No!" he shouted back. "Please listen to me. Please. I know what this looks like, and I know you didn't believe Madison when she tried to tell you before, but you're in danger right now, and we need to go. Please."
His voice was clearly pleading, and his eyes were large and beseeching in the light. She was struck all over again by the strange gold color and found herself staring for a bit before she shook herself and glared. "Get out of here."
"Not without you, Amelia. Trust me, you don't want to stay here. It's not safe."
"How do you know my name?" That was probably the least important of the questions that wanted to spill out of her, but she was seriously starting to worry that the world was imploding around her.
Was this what came from opening her mouth and talking about her episodes? Her parents had always made it seem like it would be the end of the world if someone found out, and this was definitely making a case for them being right.
"I'll explain everything to you later. I promise," the man said. "But we have to move, and we have to move now. They're coming."
Distress was clear in his tone, and Amelia narrowed her eyes. "Who's coming?"
"The Shaddoc."
She supposed she'd expected not to feel anything when he spoke that word, but her stomach churned with anxiety. She didn't even know what that meant, and for some reason, it terrified her all the same. "W-who are they?" Mia asked. "Do they want to hurt me?"
"Probably," he said. "I'm not sure. But this is different from anything you've already experienced, and I need to keep you safe. Please come with me."
His eyes were compelling and he stretched out a hand to her. She could see that he was mostly in the tree that climbed the side of her house, and she made a face at the thought of shimmying down it in just her shorts and tank top in the middle of the night. And why was she considering this anyway? This man was probably just some raving lunatic.
Only... only she couldn't look away from him and that hand, and she found herself moving closer.
"I need... I need to take some things with me. Where are we even going?"
He made an impatient noise. "We'll come back for your stuff, I promise. They won't bother it. It's you they want."
"But why?" And furthermore, why was she entertaining this? Her heart was still pounding, and she felt like she needed to run, even though she didn't understand why.
"Because of what you've seen. Or who you've seen. I swear I'll explain. I have a safe place, and I really need you to come."
He sounded like he was going to cry or something, and Mia let that make the decision for her, however stupid that was. She grabbed up her cell phone from the nightstand at least, and then took his hand. He drew her through the window and into his arms, and she was surprised at the strength she could feel in him.
His body was warm against hers, and her cheeks flushed darkly at the thought that she was being held by an attractive man while she was barely wearing anything at all.
He didn't seem to be bothered by it, or even really like he noticed it. His arm was wrapped around her waist, and his other hand fished into his pocket. She couldn't see what he was looking at, but he said something in a language she'd never heard before that sounded like a swear and then they were moving.
And in this case, moving meant falling. He dropped out of the tree with her in his arms, and she barely had time to scream before they were landing.
Somehow unhurt.
"What was that?" she hissed at him, and he shushed her and led her down through the neighbor's back yard to where a car was parked. "You can't just..."
Mia spluttered. What was with this guy? He was climbing and jumping out of trees, parking his car in other people's backyards. Clearly whoever was after them was bad enough that he could break every rule of basic societal decency.
They didn't speak again until they were in the car.
"You know," she said. "You look familiar."
"We met at Madison's office earlier today," he replied, looking at her like she might be a bit slow.
Mia rolled her eyes. "I know that. I mean... from before. Have you ever been to Maryland?"
His gaze sharpened, and he looked away from the road as he was pulling away from the neighbor's house to glance at her. "I grew up there."
"So did I," Mia said.
"Do you... Did you know someone named Abon when you lived there?"
She frowned and thought back. She'd met a lot of people because of her father's job, but such a name did stand out in her mind. It took her a moment, but then she recalled the nice man who'd lived down the street from her school and worked at the library. She'd often talked with him about books that she'd read, and he always had a smile ready for her when she came in.
"Yes," she murmured. "He worked at the library and we used to talk when I was a kid." She snapped her fingers. "That's how I know you. There was a little boy with bright red hair and golden eyes who used to interrupt and ask for ice cream. That was you."
He grinned and nodded. "That was me. What a small planet." His grin faded after a second, though. "It explains why they're after you, though. You knew my uncle, and they want him very badly."
"The Shaddoc?" Even saying the name made her shudder.
He nodded. "Yes. My name is Asher, by the way. And my uncle was Abon. Is. He is Abon. But I don't know where he is, and neither do the Shaddoc, which is why they're after you. Why they take you."
Mia was starting to believe a bit more now. All of this couldn't be some massive conspiracy made up to make her think she was crazy, not if it was about people she hadn't seen since her childhood. "Is this about politics?" she asked, looking up at him.
Asher's lips curled in a smile. "Something like that. Though not politics like on Earth." He snorted. "Well. Maybe exactly like politics like on Earth."
"As opposed to?"
"As opposed to on other planets. Like the one I was born on."
And there they were. Back on this whole alien thing again. "Why should I believe anything you say about this? You could just be some attractive weirdo sent here to kidnap me or something. Or a crazy person."
Asher looked at her, eyes wide. "You think I'm attractive?"
"Will you focus on the part that matters, please?" Mia demanded, cheeks burning.
"Right. Okay. Just, hold on." He swerved, and the car did a one eighty at speeds that made Mia want to lean out the window and throw up. Instead of heading away from her house they were heading back towards it, and she wondered if Asher was giving up the game and taking her home.
Of course, instead of that he was pulling up behind one of the other houses and pointing at hers. "Look there."
She had to crane her neck to see out of the windshield at that angle, but what she saw made her jaw drop open. Right above her house was some kind of light. It was a pale, pale blue, eerie and unsettling. But the worst part were creatures. There was no other word for them. They weren't people.
Their skin was a sickly white color, made worse by the light that they were traveling through. From this distance they didn't look like the aliens she'd seen on TV. They were too bulky and too large for that, even though she couldn't see all of their features from where she was sitting. And somehow, they managed to fade right through her roof and into her house.
"How did they do that?" she asked, turning to look at Asher.
"It's the light. It lets them pass through whatever it shines on. It's old technology according to my Uncle, but they aren't as advanced as we are."
Mia blinked, rubbing at her eyes as if she was hoping that this would all be a dream. "Okay, so let's say I believe that you're an alien. Why do you look normal while those things look like something out of a low budget horror movie?"
Asher laughed. "I'm royalty," he said, as if that explained everything. And maybe in his mind, it did, since he didn't seem to be offering up any other explanation.
"Royalty."
"Yes."
"And so what, when you get a crown, you also get a set of human looking features?"
He laughed again and shook his head. "No, no. It's to do with bloodlines. The higher your class the more human you look. I don't know why, really. I think maybe somewhere down the line there's human in our blood, but that's how it is. Unless you're a member of the Shaddoc clan. They all look like that."
Mia shuddered. "Poor them. So that's what they've been doing? Beaming down into my apartment and taking me?"
"I think so, yes."
"How do they avoid being seen?"
"It's the light," Asher told her. "It's not on a wavelength that humans can see. Well. Usually. Obviously, you can see it, and that might have something to do with the fact that you've been taken by them before. I don't know. My uncle could explain it."
"So we're going to see him, then?" Mia asked. Maybe he could shed some light on this situation that didn't make her feel like her head was going to explode.
"No," Asher replied, shaking his head. "He's... I don't know where my uncle is right now. But neither do the Shaddoc, and that's what matters."
He got them moving again, at a speed that was definitely well over the speed limit, but Mia was pleased to be heading back away from her house. Those things were in there, hunting for her, and it made her sick to think that they'd been taking her for her whole life just about. Dropping into her room and carrying her up into their ship or whatever. Probing her mind.
"So wait. Dr. Prince said that a lot of people from the area I grew up in had been taken like I was. What's the deal with that?"
Asher glanced at her and then back to the road. "It's my Uncle. They've been taking anyone who ever really spoke to him for any good length of time and probing their memories. I can only guess they're looking for hints. Clues as to where he may have gone and why."
"And why do they want him in the first place."
"Because he can bring our clan back. And they want all of us dead."
Chapter 4: Novelty
There was a woman in his apartment.
With the exception of Madison, who Asher somehow instinctively knew wasn't into men, there had never been a woman in his apartment. Women were sort of a mystery to him, human ones especially.
He'd never dated or even really tried to get close to any women, even though his Uncle had always said that it would be fine if he wanted to make some connections here.
It wasn't that he was afraid to get close to someone and then have to leave them, it was more that he had no idea how to get close to someone.
And now there was a woman, a very, very pretty woman in his apartment.
Which wasn't the point at all, because he was supposed to be trying to keep her safe. But now she was asleep in his bed, and Asher was leaning against the wall of his room, watching her sleep.
Part of him wanted to text Madison and ask if it was creepy to watch a woman sleep, but it was very late, and Maddie didn't take kindly to being woken up when she was sleeping.
He was willing to bet that Amelia didn't take kindly to it, either.
She was different from any woman he could remember meeting before, but similar at the same time.
She didn't remind him of his mother.
Her hair was dark and her eyes were green, and she wasn't soft spoken or overly kind the way his mother had been. But Asher felt comfortable with her in the same way he had in his mother's arms all those years ago.
That was probably weird.
To avoid thinking weird thoughts (because he wasn't quite ready to leave the room yet) he checked his tracker. The red lights the symbolized the crafts of the Shaddoc had held steady for much longer than he'd been expecting, but finally they had moved away.
Apparently they wanted Amelia badly, then.
Surely she couldn't be the only one who had been close to his Uncle. Asher couldn't really remember. He remembered her now, of course. The little girl who had come in with her hair all shiny and her school uniform all pressed, to talk to his Uncle about books and her school work.
Abon had always looked forward to her visits, Asher remembered. He called her 'the little miss' because he had been so proper and well put together. For the most part Amelia had done the talking, but there had to be something.
There had to be a reason why the Shaddoc wanted her more than anyone else. Something they found in her memories, maybe. Something that would lead them to Abon.
But why would his uncle have told her about plans and not Asher? That didn't make any sense.
None of it really made sense, and not for the first time, Asher felt woefully ill equipped to be doing this on his own. He was a prince, and he was supposed to know how to handle himself, but for the life of him, he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing.
Amelia had asked him why the Shaddoc wanted them dead, and he hadn't had an answer for her. All he knew was that they had been at war since he was a baby, but no one had ever explained why before.
The Shaddoc were violent and mean, so maybe they were just bent on taking out all the other clans on the planet. Others had fallen to their might before, and Asher didn't know the reason for that, either.
He'd been so young then, but now he was an adult, and being in the dark about this was just a hindrance.
Find her. And then find me.
We will go home when the time is right.
Those words repeated themselves over and over in his head as he watched Amelia sleep. Was she the 'her' he was supposed to be finding. Was that phase one completed, then? It stood to reason that maybe she was, especially if the Shaddoc had such an interest.
"What do you know?" he whispered and then sighed.
His head was aching and he was very, very tired.
Finally, he let himself leave the room, heading for the living room and the couch. Asher missed living with his Uncle. Abon had been full of stories about his mother and them as children, and it never seemed lonely with Abon around. But now he had this little one bedroom apartment that he'd gotten when the Shaddoc activity had led him to this city.
It was small, and it was lonely, and Asher was tired of being alone.
He glanced back at the open bedroom door where Amelia was sleeping in his bed. It would probably smell like her by morning.
That was probably a weird and bordering on creepy thought to have.
He needed to sleep.
When he woke up, it was to look directly into a pair of green eyes that were staring at him intently. He swore and sat up, rubbing at his hair and blushing hard. "What are you doing?"
Amelia shrugged. "I just woke up, and I was confused about where I was. So I came in here to make sure you weren't some kidnapper. Or secretly one of those Shaddoc things."
Asher shuddered and fixed her with a look. "That's an insult, you know."
She shrugged again, not looking like she cared too much. "You came and took me out of my house. I needed to make sure. But you're still you, so I guess you're the real deal." Amelia paused. "What are your kind called, anyway?"
"We are the Nalyi," Asher replied. "Amelia, may I ask you something?"
"You can call me Mia. And sure, go ahead."
"Do you still think I'm attractive?"
She spluttered a bit. "There is a race of big, mean aliens after me, and presumably you as well, and you want to know if I still think you're attractive?"
He nodded.
Mia sighed. "You're very strange." But she had a smile on her face as she looked him over. "Your hair's a mess, and you look like you need eight more hours of sleep. But yeah. I guess you're still pretty attractive. The eyes are really nice at least." She blushed and got to her feet. "Do you have any food in this place? Aliens do eat, don't they?"
"Oh yes," Asher said, getting up as well. "We love to eat. I lo
ve to cook. Would you like me to make you breakfast?"
And when was the last time he had someone to cook for? He loved cooking, but it was only so enjoyable to cook for yourself over and over again.
"That would be great."
She smiled at him when she said it, and Asher found himself unable to look away. He had gotten used to seeing her look upset over the short time they had been together so far, but when she smiled, her whole face lit up, green eyes sparkling with good humor. Asher stared for a moment and then shook himself. "You can um. You can borrow some of my clothes if you want. It should be safe to go back and get your things later today."
"Yeah, okay," Mia replied, tugging at the hem of her tiny shorts. "So, I have to stay with you, then?"
"You... You don't have to, but I think. I think maybe you should. My Uncle always said that I was supposed to 'find her' and then find him. I think you're the 'her' he was talking about. Did he ever tell you any secrets or anything?"
Mia frowned and seemed to think about it. "Not that I can remember. And definitely nothing about aliens or secret plans. I'd remember that. I think, I..." She trailed off, frowning harder. "Wait. He gave me a book. I remember now. It was right before I changed schools to go to middle school. He said that we wouldn't really be seeing each other anymore and that it was for the best, but he wanted me to have something to remember him by. Because he thought I was a good kid."
Now they were getting somewhere. "Do you still have the book? What kind of book was it?"
"It was like a journal, I think. It looked handwritten, and it was all these symbols that I couldn't understand. I still have it. It's in a drawer back at my place."
Asher's heart raced at the prospect. They were getting somewhere.
Chapter 5: Puzzles
The drive back to her house seemed to take forever, and Mia found herself marveling at the fact that she was actually excited about this. None of this had anything to do with her, aside from the fact that she had spent a good amount of time talking to someone who turned out to be an alien when she was a kid, and now she was wrapped up in some kind of plot to get him back.
