Kaelar also dipped into Chloe’s psyche, taking her fear. He didn’t take all of it. He left enough to give her a good sense of caution—to let her function, but without being paralyzed by the fear. He wasn’t sure he’d survive this, and Chloe needed to be able to run at the very least.
His feet swayed as he stood, his injured leg burning once more.
“Kaelar, stop!” Chloe might not be able to see what he was doing, but she could no doubt see him swaying on the spot as he was assailed by more negative emotion than he knew how to deal with. So much evil energy was almost impossible to hold, but he had no other choice.
He ignored Chloe and kept going. One of the Zalfa gasped and collapsed.
Moments later, the Zalfa holding Chloe collapsed as well and she immediately ran to him.
Kaelar tried to reach out for her, but his arms didn’t seem to be working. One of the Zalfa was still clinging to consciousness and he kept pulling the emotion from him, determined to down them all.
His chest tightened and he struggled to breathe, but he kept going. Darkness threatened to swallow him and he knew he didn’t have long.
Chloe would have to deal with the rest of it. If she was thinking quickly, she’d search Kaelar and find his tablet with Santa’s details. Hopefully, she’d contact Santa, who would send reinforcements to deal with this mess.
At worst, she’d call the human authorities. It would mean the secret about aliens living on Earth would be out, but perhaps that would be for the best. The Zalfa weren’t a threat when separated from their technology, which the police would do as a matter of protocol.
Everyone would be fine. Everyone except him.
Kaelar could feel the evil energies filling him up, and he realized why no one ever siphoned this kind of emotion. It was too toxic to deal with in such large amounts. His whole body swayed and his vision was already turning gray. He was gripping onto consciousness by sheer willpower.
Finally, the last of the Zalfa collapsed.
Almost at the same time, Kaelar fell to his knees.
Chloe went down with him, her hands on his face. Kaelar could see her palms cupping his cheeks, but he couldn’t feel it. The emotions he’d siphoned were slowly drowning him, and he felt everything going numb.
“Kaelar! Stay with me, please. I’ll get help. You’re in a hospital. You’re going to be okay.”
Kaelar shook his head slightly. A human hospital would be able to do nothing for this kind of ailment. By the anguished expression on Chloe’s face, she knew it. He tried to force out words, to say some kind of fitting goodbye to his mate, but his tongue was a thick, useless slab of stone in his mouth.
Chloe cried as she held him. Kaelar could sense her sadness and he fell forward into her. Carefully, she laid him out on the ground. He expected her face to be the last thing he ever saw and he was content with that.
It didn’t go how he had expected.
Chloe’s tears stopped and an expression of fierce determination replaced them.
“No. I’m not going to lose you, not now. I’ll find a way. Just hang on, Kaelar. I will save you.”
Then, she was gone. Kaelar didn’t know where she went and his protests somehow never made it out of his mouth. Now, he was left staring at the cloudy sky. Fat snowflakes had just started to fall.
Why had his mate left him? He was sure she had a good reason, but Kaelar couldn’t remember it right now. He wanted her beside him. He could feel himself fading. Was it too much to ask, that her face was the last thing he saw before his vision finally faded for good?
Unable to see Chloe, Kaelar let his eyes slip shut, immersing himself in the memories of her. Yes, this was what he wanted.
He hoped Chloe reacted quickly to confine the Zalfa. He had no idea how long it would take them to wake up. Being drained off all emotion entirely… It wasn’t something that had ever been attempted before. The effects were unknown.
Something crashed annoyingly in the background. Once, twice, and then again. Kaelar wished the sound would stop.
Couldn’t he die in peace? He’d given most of his life to the people on this planet. The least they could do was let him have a few moments of quiet as he left them.
His vision flickered and faded. Kaelar’s chest rose and fell weakly, his heartbeat slowing. He wasn’t fighting it anymore. It hurt too much. Death would be better than this awful numbness, underscored by anguished emotions of every type imaginable.
Kaelar’s eyes slipped shut as consciousness fled.
He knew that it wouldn’t be long before his life force fled too.
Chapter 18
Chloe
Chloe scrabbled over the bodies of the Zalfa, stumbling in her panic. She could tell Kaelar was fading. She didn’t know exactly what he’d done to knock the Zalfa out, but she knew that it was killing him.
As a doctor, she knew how to treat a variety of illnesses, but not this one.
No, if she wanted to save him, Chloe would need to find a way to take into account who he was. And what she was. She paused to think.
Her eyes moved from Kaelar to the bodies of the Zalfa, and then to the truck that supposedly was their ship. She knew that reilendeer could collect joy. She also knew that joy seemed to improve the children’s conditions at the hospital and that the Zalfa just happened to have a huge tank of joy with them on their ship.
Could it work on Kaelar too?
She had no idea how to give him joy, but if there was some way for her to take the joy the Zalfa had stolen and get it into Kaelar, maybe that would help him fight off whatever was slowly draining the life from him. It was a slim hope, but it was all she had.
Behind her, Kaelar’s breath rattled. It was a terrifying sound.
Chloe fought the urge to run back to him. She wanted nothing more than to hold him in her arms and comfort him. That wouldn’t save him, though. Crying his name and kissing him as he faded wasn’t going to help. She was a doctor and she had to find a way to save her patient.
First, she needed to get the spaceship to stop pretending to be a truck. Kaelar had said there was some kind of field around it. Chloe ran to the ship and pulled the “truck’s” door handle. It didn’t open, but the illusion flickered.
She yanked it again until it finally came off. Apparently, damaging a part of the illusion caused the whole thing to fail. The truck vanished, and in its place was indeed a large, metallic spaceship. Chloe would’ve been awed if she hadn’t been in such a hurry.
She was working on pure adrenaline as she examined the ship. It seemed like she had pulled off some kind of vent cover, which had been pretending to be a door handle, but to her misfortune, it wasn’t a way to enter the ship.
Running around the ship, Chloe looked for some way in. The metal sides seemed to be joined together seamlessly. She banged on them uselessly, but they wouldn’t give.
Right, so they were doing this the hard way.
The Zalfa had a number of metal devices with buttons and levers. Chloe had no idea what they did, and she didn’t have any chance of figuring them out in time to help Kaelar. Instead, she picked up a heavy panel-like thing that could be used as a lever.
Choosing the biggest seam in the ship, she hoped that it was the door and wedged her lever inside. It didn’t want to go in properly, and she had to use a heavy handheld kind of tablet to bash it in. The noise echoed all around the loading dock, and it quickly drew spectators.
Glancing over her shoulder, Chloe gave the hospital staff a relieved smile. “Come and help me!”
“What are you doing?” Sadie stared at the ship in disbelief. “What is that? And what happened to Kaelar?”
One of the other doctors was already kneeling at Kaelar’s side, but Chloe addressed Sadie. “No time for explanations now. Please, trust me. I need to get this thing open.”
She’d worked here for years, and apparently, the people here did trust her. Sadie was the first to step forward, but soon, a good half dozen others were doing the same. Together, the
y pulled on the makeshift lever.
At first, there was no effect, but slowly, the door started to creak in protest. Metal began to pull away from metal and a small gap emerged. As soon as it was big enough, Chloe slipped inside, ignoring the warnings from the people behind her.
The ship was lit on the inside, and there was one passed out Zalfa in what looked like a control room. Whatever Kaelar had done, it must have reached him too. Chloe ignored the Zalfa, searching the ship for anything that looked like a tank of joy.
It didn’t take long to find.
Kaelar had described the red glow of joy. Right in the belly of the ship was a huge tank made of some clear substance. It glowed a warm red that lit up the room.
Chloe looked around for something to use to smash it open, but there was nothing handy. She walked up to the panel to find blinking lights and flashing text in a language she didn’t understand.
She could go back and get help to smash this thing open, but Chloe didn’t know how long it would take. The walls of this thing looked thick. She was comforted to know that another doctor was staying with Kaelar, but they couldn’t really help him. Only she could.
Chloe slapped her hand against the panel. Surely, one of these buttons had to open the tank? She didn’t know which one, which just meant she had to press all of them.
On pressing the third button, there was a slight hissing sound. The top of the tank opened and joy started spilling out. Chloe found herself laughing, smiling so widely that it hurt her face. It was a high unlike anything else. It was rapidly making her dizzy, so she hurried out of the ship and into the fresh air.
The joy was leaking out of the gap in the door, so concentrated that everyone around could see the red haze, even though humans couldn’t usually do so.
“Bring him here!”
Her orders were followed without question. Kaelar was carried to the ship and tilted sideways to get his antlers through the small gap. Inside, Chloe knew she should be worried about him, but she was incapable of feeling anything except happiness.
Kaelar’s breathing was weak, but as the joy surrounded him, he started to breathe more deeply. The surrounding joy seemed to disappear into him. With each passing second, the color came back to Kaelar’s face. His heart rate became strong and steady once more.
Chloe could have cried with relief, except the tears that were running down her face were tears of joy. She pulled Kaelar’s head onto her lap. The joy was definitely helping him, that much was clear even without monitors to tell her the exact numbers. Now, there was nothing to do but wait for him to wake up.
The joy was still slowly leaking out of the ship, but Chloe didn’t care. They could worry about distributing it properly later.
A few of the doctors and nurses laughed around her as well, their expressions mixed with happiness and confusion. Chloe promised to explain everything to them later.
Kaelar’s head turned fitfully from side to side and Chloe cradled him in her lap.
“Kaelar? Can you hear me?” He reacted to the sound of her voice, turning his head toward her, but his eyes were still closed. He seemed somewhere between conscious and unconscious. At least, he was showing more signs of life.
“Chloe?” Sadie asked, grinning widely at the effects of the joy. “What should I tell everyone? I mean, there’s a spaceship here. I’ve so far convinced everyone they don’t need to call the police, but that won’t last for long.”
Oh, no. Chloe hadn’t thought of that. She’d been so worried about Kaelar that she hadn’t given any thought to the consequences of revealing a spaceship parked in the loading dock of a hospital.
“Stall them. Give me as long as you can.”
Sadie grinned and nodded, leaving with the rest of the hospital staff.
Chloe started going through Kaelar’s pockets. He had a number of them in the reindeer costume he typically wore, no doubt to store presents for children. There were no presents right now, but Chloe smiled in relief when she found an ordinary tablet.
She quickly scrolled through the contacts. Sure enough, Santa was listed. She pressed the call button and waited. She was expecting to see a portly man in red with a long white beard. Instead, an extremely normal looking woman answered.
“Kaelar! We’re so happy to hear from you. We’d started to—” The woman frowned and her expression turned suspicious. “—worry. You’re not Kaelar.”
“Don’t hang up,” Chloe said quickly, turning the screen so that the video call picked up Kaelar’s unconscious form. “You work for Santa, right?”
“How do you know about that?” The frown hadn’t disappeared from the woman’s face. “Is Kaelar okay?”
“I—I think so. I’ve got that in hand. I need help with something, though. Kaelar told me everything. About the Zalfa and… Well, everything.” She was starting to ramble and she wasn’t sure what to do about it—except laugh. Her head was dizzy with joy and she fought to put on a more serious face.
“Sorry, uh… There’s some joy leaking around here,” she explained. “There’s a spaceship parked in the hospital loading dock and there are a number of witnesses to what has happened. If you want to keep the aliens a secret for now, you’ll need to get here and do some damage control.”
The woman’s mouth rounded in surprise, but she quickly collected herself. “Understood, thank you. I will speak to Santa and send in teams as soon as I can. Has anyone called the authorities?”
“No, but it’s only a matter of time. One of the nurses is trying to stall them, but that won’t last forever.”
“I’ll put a communications blackout in the area. This is the hospital in the town where Kaelar is working, correct?”
“That’s right. There are also a number of unconscious Zalfa here. I’m not sure when they’re going to wake up, but when they do, they’ll likely be angry.”
The woman’s expression sharpened in alarm. “We’ll have to take them into custody while we wait for the galactic authorities to arrive. Thank you for calling. Are you sure Kaelar is going to be okay? Do we need to send a medical team?”
“Maybe send the medical team anyway, just to check him over. I think he’s going to be alright, but I’m no alien doctor.”
The woman nodded. “We’ll be there soon. The blackout is going into effect now.”
The call disconnected. Chloe sighed in relief and turned back to Kaelar, smiling as she looked down at him.
Chapter 19
Kaelar
Kaelar didn’t know what brought him back to awareness. The evil energies inside him were eating him alive. It was easier to drift away—not to fight anymore.
But for some reason, he suddenly wasn’t drifting anymore. There was something on the edge of his consciousness that seemed to be fighting the negative emotions he’d drawn in.
Kaelar pulled in a deeper breath and it felt like the breath of life.
Joy. It was everywhere.
He couldn’t fathom how, but the concentration of joy in the air around him was higher than he’d ever sensed it. He started pulling it inside him, using it to purge the emotions that were slowly smothering him.
He’d taken in a lot from the Zalfa, but there was so much joy here—enough to conquer even their boundless hate and greed.
Slowly, Kaelar started to come back. He could feel his body again. He was lying on something hard, though his head was pillowed on something softer. Someone was stroking his antlers gently.
Chloe.
He recognized her touch at once. It was lucky Kaelar was still so weak, or he would have been driven mad with desire at that touch already. Even now, his cock was slowly starting to respond.
He groaned, trying to grab her wrist and guide it away. Kaelar didn’t know what the situation was, but he was fairly certain this wasn’t a good time or place to have sexy times with his mate.
His hands didn’t respond as he commanded them, merely fluttering weakly.
“Kaelar? Can you hear me?”
“Chloe…�
�� His voice was slurred and his eyes still didn’t want to open, but Kaelar could feel himself getting stronger by the second.
“You’re okay, Kaelar. Just keep taking in the joy. Relax, everything is going to be alright.”
Her voice was soothing. Although Kaelar had about a million questions, for now, he accepted her word that things were under control. He lost track of time as he pulled joy into himself.
Eventually, his eyes flickered open. The room slowly came into focus and he saw that they were inside a spaceship.
Kaelar tried to sit up, alarmed at their new location. He hadn’t been inside a ship since he’d come to Earth and he didn’t know what they were doing in one right now.
“Easy there.” Chloe helped him get upright with a hand on his back.
“Where are we?”
“We’re in the Zalfa ship. I managed to release the joy they were storing. For a minute there, I thought I’d lost you.”
“Me too,” Kaelar admitted. “I thought I was done for. What about the Zalfa?”
“Still unconscious, but they’ll be dealt with soon. Santa is sending some teams of people to sort it out.”
Kaelar sighed in relief. “Good. I assume you found his number on my tablet?”
Chloe smiled. “It seemed like the right call.”
“It was.” Kaelar couldn’t help but smile back at her. “I’m not sure what he’ll do, but I’m sure it’ll be for the best. I should focus on grabbing as much of this joy as possible. It’ll spread out around the town naturally, but I have a few places I want to deliver extra.”
“I don’t think that’ll be needed. You should rest.”
Kaelar loved the look of concern on her face, even though she was still smiling. “You should get out of here. Staying in a concentration of joy this high makes humans a bit loopy.”
Chloe shook her head. “I’m not leaving you.”
Kaelar didn’t really want her to leave, so he simply resolved to keep an eye on her. Everyone in the surrounding area was likely to be a bit high off the joy that had been released, which could make for an interesting few hours.
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