by K. L. Wallen
As soon as Stacy entered the kitchen, Favian whispered, “Might I have a little privacy? Turn off the monitors please.”
He stood up and went into the kitchen. “What can I help with?” Favian followed Stacy’s instructions and an hour later, he was enjoying a meal that didn’t come from a food dispensary.
Conversation flowed with ease. Stacy told him about her patient, and her job. She explained that she already extracted stem cells from her patient and had been manipulating the cells in the lab for some time now. “It can be a slow process,” she noted.
She asked Favian about his work and family. When the phone rang, she ignored it in favor of listening to Favian.
It was while they were cleaning up the kitchen that Stacy spontaneously reached up and pulled him down for a kiss.
Favian had never kissed like this before, but thanks to the material Ivanoff supplied him, he was prepared. Pzians brush their lips against their partner’s cheek. They don’t mesh lips or do tongue frolicking. Favian pulled her closer and angled her head so he could deepen the kiss. After a couple of minutes of passionate kissing, Favian kissed her forehead. “We have to stop.”
“Why?”
“Because, I don’t want to stop.” He groaned when Stacy shifted and felt his bulge. “I’m sorry. I should be going.”
Stacy ran her hands down his chest. “Impressive,” she softly uttered. “How about dinner at your place next time? I’ve got obligations to take care of this weekend, and will be busy getting everything ready for Cory’s operation next week.”
“I’d love to prepare a meal for you. Let’s say as soon as Cory’s operation is done? When will that be?” Favian shifted again and Stacy chuckled. The pants he replicated had a little too much give and his rod was upright and pushing the material outward. The instinct to breed had never hit Favian before. He had thought about entering into a breeding contract one day, but never had a reaction, such as this, to a female, before Stacy.
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to inflict pain. Actually, I do but I’m not prepared to help you relieve the tension just yet.” She cleared her throat and changed subjects. “So, if his primary care physician approves, it will be next Thursday. That’s the soonest I could get a room and an anesthesiologist at the medical center. Can I give you a ride home?”
“No, the cold air will help with the pressure,” he blushed. “I’ll just go work this off now.”
Stacy raised on her tippy toes and ran her hands over his biceps. “Just one more kiss and I’ll let you go.” She parted her lips as Favian dipped his head.
Chapter 17
Gabriella stepped outside the trendy Hollywood fashion store and waited for Detective Crawford to follow her out. She spotted him while waiting for the replacement her agency was sending to take over the obnoxious Nash Steel’s case.
“Are your clients always such assholes?”
“On occasion. So what do I owe the pleasure of your company to, this time?” She began walking to her car, confident he would keep stride. It wasn’t much of a surprise when she saw his car next to hers. “So how long did you have to wait to get that parking space?”
“Actually, quite a while. I feared I was going to have to call for a tow truck to haul the other car away,” he chuckled.
Gabriella laughed. “So detective, you do have a sense of humor underneath all that gnarly.”
“Gnarly? Just what ever do you mean?” He held his hand up to his heart.
“Now detective,” Gabriella teased. “We both know you’ve gone beyond extreme and into the danger zone with me. So let’s cut to the chase. What now?”
“I wanted to discuss the teenage girl, Sarah, with you. The one you rescued.”
Gabriella pulled her keys out of her purse and pushed her finger down on the fob to unlock her door. “I haven’t any idea what you’re talking about.”
“Your car was spotted at the restaurant, dropping off the girl.”
“In case you haven’t notice yet detective, there are thousands of the same model and color of my car on the road.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Is that it?” Gabriella opened her car door and tossed her purse onto the passenger seat.
Lance grabbed hold of the door before she could close it. He leaned in and scanned the front floorboard and the back of the car as she buckled her seatbelt. “Ms. Powers, one day you won’t be so lucky and I’ll be booking you for homicide.”
“I still haven’t any idea what you’re talking about detective but I get the feeling booking me for homicide wouldn’t bring you pleasure.”
He readjusted so his lips were near her ear. “No Gabriella, it wouldn’t bring me pleasure. If you would just call me, when a situation arises, I can help you. Legally.” He pulled back and made eye contact with her. Before he had time to think about what he was doing, he tilted his head and kissed her. She tasted minty and smelled like heaven. She smelled of warm vanilla and cinnamon.
Gabriella took her right hand off the steering wheel and cupped the detective’s cheek. The tip of his tongue tasted like peppermint, and he smelled rugged, like a man should. She parted her lips a little wider to allow him full entrance.
Lance reluctantly pulled back. His prior thoughts of what it would be like to kiss her paled in comparison to the actual act. The urge to take her home and make love to her until she promised no more escapades and promised to remain with him was overwhelming. Instead, he handed her his business card that had his cellphone and private home phone numbers written on the backside. He pressed it to the palm of her hand. “Please.” Detective Lance Crawford straightened and closed her car door.
*.*
Detective Crawford knew Gabriella wouldn’t have left behind any evidence that could link her to the case. He illegally, and secretly, entered her home while she spent the night at her mother’s house across town. He searched for discarded food wrappers that he assumed would be in a zip-lock style bag, and her shoes to see if any of them had soles that would match prints found at the crime scenes. He also rifled through her home for a supply a baseballs and bats. His search was not only fruitless, but was cut short. Inexplicably, every light in the house turned on, her alarm clock started beeping, and the televisions turned on—sound full blast, with a woman host explaining how to get rid of wrinkles. How appropriate he mused as he vacated the premises. Once he was outside, Gabriella’s house went quiet and dark. This was the second time Lance experienced shivers racking his body.
Several months back, in the middle of the night, wearing dark clothing and a ski mask, Detective Crawford placed a tracker under her wheel well. The next day, he was chasing a city bus. He removed the tracker and tried again the very, next night.
This time he centered it under her car. He sat in his car down the street with a thermos of coffee. He followed her to work and left to go to the nearest fast food restaurant to use the facilities and get a bite to eat. He reentered his car just as his cellphone beeped. He slid his finger across the screen and was surprised to see the tracker he placed under her car was more than twenty miles away traveling on a road that led out of town. He caught up and discovered he was now following a horse trailer.
Lance went back to her neighborhood and scanned all of the homes on her street. He found no homes with exterior cameras, except for Gabriella’s house. It was then that he felt shivers rack his body, and suspected that Gabriella was the real deal. Somehow, she knows these kids need help. Just like, she knows how to bypass operational city cameras. There’s truly something special about Gabriella Mendez-Powers.
*.*
Gabriella was thoroughly stressed by the time she made it home, although you would never be able to tell by looking at her. She called into the office and said she’d be in after lunch.
She pulled a diet soda out of her refrigerator and ran her fingertips over the mermaid magnet. “Clair, what am I to do?”
It was Nayen, who responded with a second vision.
Gabriella placed her palm over the magnet and clut
ched the diet soda in the other hand as she was mentally transported to another time. She knew she was still in her kitchen, the feel of the magnet strong under her hand as if anchoring her, but this was no longer her kitchen.
She stood on the shore of a lake. There was a warrior in a boat, that appeared to be made of reeds and she wondered where he came across the reeds, as she saw no reeds near the shoreline or in the water. She had always thought them to grow where fresh water was abundant, and not in the forestlands.
Gabriella scanned the surrounding wilderness. She saw and then heard the call of a bald headed eagle. She had never seen one outside of captivity or that wasn’t in pictures, documentaries, or literature. The forest was teaming with sounds of insects, and chirping from birds hidden in the trees as if calling out sporadic warnings to other smaller birds to stay hidden until the threat of the eagle passed. Gabriella had heard that the larger birds of prey would feast upon the smaller birds when unable to secure rabbits, squirrels, snakes, rats, and other preferred meals. Besides the abundance of woodland noise that didn’t in the least bit scare her, she could have sworn she heard the roar of a bear and prayed she was downwind of the mighty predator. The air was pure, untouched by pollution. She looked up at the sky and wondered how many stars and constellations she would be able to see at night. Would there be so many she could pick out the North Star. If she could locate that, identify the constellations, and track the direction of the sun setting and rising, she might be able to figure out exactly where she was.
She refocused on the warrior in the boat, and watched as he soundlessly dove out of his boat and into the lake. Eerily, his dive into the lake didn’t so much as warrant the tiniest of ripples. It was as if he were seamlessly swallowed by the water. The warrior was down there for such a long period-of-time that Gabriella thought to dive in after him.
Gabriella decided to give it to the count of five and then she’d go in. One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, the warrior surfaced. By her calculations, he was down there for about eight minutes. She had never known anyone to hold his or her breath as long as she could, until now. Gabriella had heard of a few world records where people were able to hold their breath, with special training, for up to 16 minutes; however, after 8 or 9 minutes she would feel panic set in and surface.
When he turned in her direction, she raised her hand and hoarsely called out, “Nayen?”
“He is my twin brother,” came the soft reply next to her.
Gabriella knew she crushed the soda can but didn’t see the can, or any of the soda that she felt sliding over her hand. “You startled me.” She turned and faced Nayen. “Why are you so familiar? What is it that you want from me?” Just like her first encounter with Nayen, the words filtering past her lips were in his ancient language. A language she had never learned and could only speak and comprehend when in his netherworld presence.
He didn’t respond to her questions. Nayen swept his hand from left to right, and brought up another location. This one had familiar rock formations that she recognized from a social studies report she did in school. Nayen showed her the Navajo National Monuments. As suddenly as the vision appeared, it ended.
Gabriella winced at the mess she had to clean up on the floor. “Well, thanks for not making this one scary and gruesome.” She walked to the sink and rinsed her hand off. She next tossed the can into the garbage and set forth cleaning up the floor before the soda turned sticky. “I know where to go. I’ve got vacation days, I’ll make arrangements,” she mumbled as she pulled a few more sheets off the roll of paper towel.
“Thanks Clair,” she uttered next in gratitude for keeping her grounded and not stranded in the Land of Nayen.
Chapter 18
“Commander Dorn, don’t you have any cute warriors closer to my age you can bring over?” Aideen asked as she snaked her hand around his arm.
Adal turned to hide the mirth she was feeling at the youngling’s unorthodox questioning.
Commander Gharm was about to correct, sternly, the young human female but couldn’t after he made the mistake of turning his head down so he was looking straight at her. What he saw wasn’t disrespect—it was familial. She was addressing him as if he were family.
He lifted his arm up so her hand now wrapped around and rested comfortably on his forearm. “No, Aideen, I don’t. You’re much too young for any of my warriors.”
“I’m not that young,” she protested. “I’m going to turn twenty in another month. I’m in college.”
Aideen turned when she heard her brother Robert snicker. “Oh, shut up,” she shouted at him.
She turned back to the Commander. “Well, do you have any sons close to my age? On your planet?” Aideen’s eyes shone brightly as she asked. “My parents are trying to figure out the logistics so we can take a trip there as soon as Robert and I finish college.”
“I have one son that is two years your senior. He will be assigned to a warship soon.”
Aideen puckered her lips and blew out a puff of air. “Oh. Well maybe the warship he’s on will be the one to pick us up.”
“Perhaps,” Dorn replied as Aideen pulled her hand free. He caught one last glimpse into her multi-hued green eyes and wondered what his son’s younglings would look like if his son and Aideen were to become life-mates. Dorn held in his grin as he pictured dark-haired, green-eyed younglings, a combination of the two species, darting around his small estate. He would make sure to place a request with the Fleet Commander to have whichever warship his son is assigned to, be the one to retrieve the MacKenna clan, when the time nears.
“Aideen?” he called as she started to walk away.
Aideen turned on her heels. “Yes?”
“What are you studying, at your college?”
“My major is math. I like math. Right now, I’m taking Calculus and Differential Equations. Next semester I’ll take multivariable calculus if my grades are good enough. I know it’s nerdy but I’m good at it for the most part. There are a few equations I’m having problems with, but will get there. In time, I’m praying I’ll find myself smart enough to take on topology and stochastic processes. I’m also going for a minor in I.T., which means Information Technology. Basic computer programming, the internet, webpages, that sort of thing. That’s more of a hobby, something fun and artistic. I’m taking a few of those courses also right now. They’re really easy.” She shrugged her shoulders, a common action for her, and added, “My brother is just studying Advanced I.T. He wants to go into gaming. He likes virtual reality games. Robert’s very creative. He hopes to one day create virtual reality simulations for our law enforcement and military.”
The Commander didn’t understand the word ‘nerdy’ but got the impression she said it as if others perceive her choice of subject matter ignoble. “You have chosen well, regardless of what your peers may think. On your next visit, please bring what you are studying. I would like to take a look, and may be of help, with your parents’ permission.” He knew he said the right thing by the width of her smile. “Now go on. Your parents are waiting for you.” Dorn intended to have a conversation with Favian to see if the electrodes the Pzian warriors use to gain information quickly would be suitable to the human brain. If so, he would discuss this with her parents. Dorn also didn’t entirely understand what she meant by ‘gaming’ and planned to have Varun investigate. He did understand virtual reality and could see where they could also help young Robert. His offer to help them with their studies would only extend to the current knowledge base as is on Earth, until such time they decided to relocate to Pzianian.
Blaize and Favian worked together to make sure everybody would be safe when they transported to Earth. Favian handed Robert gear for him to wear in addition to his helmet. He didn’t want to see the youngling harmed when he, as Aideen put it, took a header.
Robert groaned when Favian handed him the neck and shoulder guards he was to wear under his shirt.
Conall nodded his head in approval and info
rmed Robert, “You will wear that.” The way he said it left no room to argue.
“Don’t act like a baby,” Aideen reprimanded her brother. “It won’t be as bad as when you put on a cape, shouted you were Superman, and jumped off the roof. Good thing you landed in the bushes.”
“I was five.”
“You were stupid.”
Bridgett stepped between the two of them and put an end to their argument. She and Sherry led them down the hall to the entertainment room. Bridgett called over her shoulder, “Adal, will you be free to join us soon?”
Adal regarded her commander before responding, “I’ll be there shortly.”
Warrior Tyce Owynn remained in the room, and silently observed and mentally made notes as Conall and Nolan interacted with Blaize, Favian, and the Commander.
Blaize approached Nolan to see if he had any more information on the female who rescues younglings.
“I do. Her name is Gabriella Mendez-Powers. My brother says she is a widow. I looked her up and found that her husband was killed by a caribou, while he was hunting. That’s an unusual thing to happen. Caribou don’t normally attack people, they run away. Anyhow, Sean didn’t have much more to share other than she’s been brought in for questioning multiple times and has a gift for avoiding public cameras. No charges against her were ever filed, nor has she ever been arrested. Only questioned.”
“Is that normal for humans to be only questioned?”
“Yes, that’s common. What makes her uncommon is the number of times she’s been brought in for questioning. Each time it was in connection with a different child being recovered. The only connection the cops have between the cases is Ms. Powers. There’s a detective, Sean heard, that has taken up trailing her in his spare time. She is either in the right place at the right time, repeatedly, or she’s gifted,” Nolan responded.
