by E. A. James
Bane wanted to take her face between her hands and make love to her again. He wanted to make her his own the way he had almost an hour before. He wanted every inch of her for himself because she made his life complete in ways it had never been before.
“I have to go. The night guard will start his rounds soon. I will be back tomorrow night, and then you’ll get out of here. We’ll make sure everything works out.”
Hannah leaned forward and kissed Bane. It was the first time she made the move, and a first of warmth glowed in his chest, a feeling that slowly spread through his body and felt nothing like the consuming fire he’d felt while they were naked together. This was different. This was a kind of force that could sustain him through his lifetime.
He cared for her, he realized. Very much. She was someone he’d come to need in his life, and leaving her behind would create a hole that hadn’t been there before – a hole that only Hannah could fill. It was dangerous being that dependent upon someone’s existence, but that was the truth and it had happened without him being able to stop it.
Hannah got up, straightened out her clothes, checking that she looked decent in case she ran into someone out there. The last thing anyone here at the facilities needed to find out was that her relation with the specimens – with Bane – was much more than just an interest in species. That was much more than friendship, in fact.
She stopped at the door and turned to look at him. “Tomorrow night,” she said, and there was promise in her voice. She was going to be back for him, and he believed her. Hannah didn’t break her promises. She was pure and kind and true.
She turned and pulled the cell door shut behind her. Bane heard it click. He waited for the soft click of her shoes on the linoleum as her feet carried her away from him to a home he could only try and imagine. She was almost gone when something occurred to him.
He reached out, hoping it wasn’t too late. He found her, dim and fading as she moved further and further away, but he could still read some of her. He looked for something that resembled his own feelings, something that mirrored the shape of his heart. And he found it. It was the smallest flicker before she was out of range and it disappeared completely, but Bane hadn’t imagined it.
He felt complex feelings for her, and she felt the same for him. It wasn’t strong yet – uncertain – but it was there. Love was what she called it. Bane didn’t know how to describe it in his terms, but here there was a word for it. Love.
That was definitely it. He closed his eyes and lay back. Hannah would come for him. He knew now without a sliver of a doubt.
CHAPTER NINE
Hannah waited until the other employees left. The day had never felt as long or dragged on as slowly as it had that day. Two of the employees who always left at five on the dot decided to work late. It was as if everyone was set on finding some way to ruin her plans. Bane had to get out that night if they were going to stop a war from happening, and nothing was going Hannah’s way.
She’d sat with a fist of nerves turning in her stomach every couple of minutes. She hadn’t been able to focus, hadn’t been able to eat. At least none of the employees spoke to her which meant that it wasn’t strange that she was keeping to herself. She produced less work than ever before and Doyle had to ask her to rewrite reports twice.
He hadn’t seemed to think that there was a problem, thank God, or he might have gotten suspicious.
Finally, when it was well past six, the others left and Hannah was left alone. She hurried, finding the keys she’d jacked from her father’s office. She’d volunteered to take documents to him and the bio engineer whose responsibility it really was had been relieved. No one liked going face to face with Stirling, but it was a small sacrifice. Getting the key had been easy – he ignored her most of the time and started a phone call while she was still in the office.
Hannah walked to the cell. Bane was waiting for her on the other side. He looked strained, wrinkles of worry fanning out from his icy eyes.
“I couldn’t get them to leave,” she breathed, opening the door. He stepped through. He was naked, still, and they had to fix that. Hannah took only a moment let her eyes slide down his body and then she turned to the closet with all the coveralls. She found the biggest one and offered it to Bane. It was a little snug around his shoulders and his thighs but it would have to do.
“We have to leave through the loading dock. The night guard is posted at the front until his rounds are due.”
Bane nodded and Hannah led the way. They moved through corridors that she didn’t know very well. Hannah prayed they wouldn’t get lost. Every now and then she had to peek over her shoulder to see if Bane was still behind her. He moved on cat feet, so quiet that if she didn’t know he was there she would have sworn she was alone. He was a soldier, he’d said. It was apparent through the way he moved and the way he looked around him, listening for sounds.
Now that Bane was out of his cell a different side of him came to the fore. Hannah hadn’t seen him like that before – able and in his element.
They found the door – thank God - a garage door that rolled up to almost two stories high, made for the cages with the massive creatures they brought in from time to time. Creatures like Bane’s dragon.
To the side a smaller door was carved out of the big door and Hannah pushed against it. It was locked and none of the keys she had taken from the office worked. She cursed under her breath. A sense of urgency pressed her on. It was getting urgent. She realized that it came from Bane. He needed to get out there.
Bane tapped her shoulder lightly and she stepped aside from him. He placed a hand against the lock. Hannah watched him intently. She expected fire, brute strength, something violent that would break through the door and they would be out in the open, free. Instead, he concentrated on the lock, staring at it hard for a moment, and then it clicked open.
Well, that worked, too.
Hannah stepped through first. She would scan for people and when it was safe she would signal for Bane to step through. They couldn’t afford being caught just yet – the quieter they could slip away, the better.
Hannah had just stepped through the door when a hand clasped over her mouth and a thick arm wrapped around her body, lifting her off her feet so she had no leverage. She tried to squirm, screamed, but it came out as a mumble and her squirming didn’t help at all.
The attack forced her back down onto the ground, holding her at an angle where she had no strength. His hand was still clasped over her mouth. He looked at her and his eyes blazed like fire. They bore into hers. His face was pure menace and Hannah knew right away that he wasn’t from this world. She didn’t know how she knew it – she just knew.
He had brown hair. He looked human. But she was dead certain he came from Bane’s planet.
“Filthy scum,” he said and his voice left his throat in a hiss. He smelled like charred wood. It was strange, coming from someone that looked human. “Take me to him.”
She tried to speak but his hand was over her mouth, still.
“Scream for help and you’ll die,” he hissed again, and Hannah believed him. He took his hand away from her mouth, slowly, and she gasped for air.
“You’re looking for Bane,” she said. The fiery alien narrowed his eyes. “I’m helping him escape.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not. Read my mind. Reach into me and see that I speak the truth.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You know much about Bane. It is his rare talent to read a creature’s grid like that.”
A creature he called her.
“I’m telling the truth. He’s inside. I’m just—“
“Silence, human!” he cried out, cutting her off. He spat out the word like it tasted bad. “You will die.”
He raised a hand and it was the second time in so many weeks that Hannah saw the face of death.
“Hocus,” Bane’s sounded behind her. Calm and full of authority. The alien that held onto her froze.
“
Bane, you live.”
“I do. And she is saving me.”
The alien called Hocus glanced at Hannah and for a moment it looked like he was willing to believe Bane. But horror crossed his face instead and he threw her to the side.
“You will side with a human?”
Hannah fell to the ground and scrambled back. There was anger in the air, and Hannah knew what happened when anger was thrown into the mix.
“She is not to be harmed,” Bane said. “Or you will have to face my wrath.”
“You will die for a human?”
There wasn’t an answer. A pop sounded and Hannah covered her eyes. Bane was shifting. He’d lost his temper. With his own. For her.
Another pop followed, and a moment later roars filled the night sky. When Hannah opened her eyes the night sky was bright with shooting flames and two dragons fighting it out.
The one was Bane, blue-green and beautiful, like water on its scales. The other – Hocus – was orange, red and black, and he looked like the fire he represented. The fight was furious and the crashed into the building.
Alarms went off.
“Bane!” Hannah shouted but her voice was lost between the roars and the alarms. The authorities were going to arrive and they were going to find a full on extra-terrestrial war if the two men didn’t do something about their fight.
As if on cue, a whole fleet of ships appeared, lighting up the night sky as if it was daylight with floodlights. Everything was illuminated.
The sound of helicopters and fighter jets filled the air. The military had been alerted. Perfect.
“Bane!” Hannah shouted again. Her voice was again drowned out by a fighter plane that flew over them, highlighted against the backdrop of alien lights. It dropped a missile that aimed straight for Bane. The missile hit him in the neck with an explosion the size of a car.
Hannah screamed. Bane roared and tumbled to the ground. Hocus would have attacked if he hadn’t had his hands full with fighter planes that targeted him too. Hannah ran to the dragon on the floor. As she watched, Bane’s dragon started shrinking. The scales gave way to skin, and a few moments later he was a man again. Naked, bleeding from his neck, and unconscious.
“Oh, my God, oh, my God,” Hannah muttered. The war suddenly raged overhead, the aliens opening their own fire. If Hannah didn’t get Bane out of there they were both going to die.
She grabbed one arm and flung it over her shoulder, trying to get leverage. She got her feet underneath her and hoisted his limp body up. It was hard to drag him, unconscious and heavy, but there was no choice and adrenaline gave her the strength she lacked. Somehow she managed to get him back through the door and closed it behind them.
The war raged on outside but the sounds were muffled now that they were on the other side of a wall. There was only one place to go where she could take care of him and keep them safe for the time being.
Hannah moved again, her body sagging under Bane’s weight. She limped to the other side of the loading dock and pushed through a door. Everyone knew the pin code for the metal door and she opened it. A set of stairs led down into a pit of darkness. Hannah struggled, tried to get the door shut, nearly failed.
She hit the switch and lights flickered to life in intervals all the way down and into the bunker.
Step by step she went down, dragging Bane with her. They fell down the last four steps, Hannah unable to bear his weight any longer. She hoped she hadn’t caused more damage. At least here in the underground bunker – built for alien invasions like this – they would be safe.
CHAPTER TEN
The war was in full swing up above. The muffled sounds of explosions and roars penetrated the thick ceiling of the bunker every now and then. Hannah and Bane were safe for now but she didn’t know how long it would be before the authorities came to search the bunkers as well.
There were more dragons. A lot more. It wasn’t just one dragon that she heard now. She suspected that many of the soldiers from Bane’s planet had the ability to shift. Hell, for all she knew they all had the ability to shift into monsters of some kind. After the few short weeks of research Hannah only learned one thing: there was so much out there that they didn’t know anything about.
Humans had been arrogant, thinking that theirs was the only planet with life on it. Humans were arrogant to think they could beat the aliens with weapons when their personal skill was next to nothing.
Hannah swallowed, tried to shut out the sounds of war and turned her attention to Bane. It had been almost ten minutes and he hadn’t come to yet. What if the injuries were worse than she’d thought? What if it was her fault? What if she lost him?
Think positive. She had to stay positive if she wanted to get out of there. There was no turning back after she’d made her choice to help Bane. It was do or die. Literally.
Bane’s eyes fluttered and then opened, the diamond irises focusing on nothing in particular. Hannah was at his side immediately, leaning over him so that he could see her face. His eyes focused on her and there was a flicker of recognition.
The bleeding in his neck had stopped but there was dried blood all over his neck and chest and when he’d been unconscious he’d looked like a casualty.
“Are you alright?” she asked. Stupid question. He didn’t look alright at all.
“Where are we?” His voice was hoarse and when he swallowed he grimaced like it hurt him.
“In an underground bunker. When the war broke loose I brought you down here. I didn’t know if you were…”
She stopped, her voice catching in her throat. Bane’s face softened and he lifted a hand to her cheek. His touch was warm despite his pale features and she leaned her cheek into his hand, grateful for the fact that he hadn’t died.
“It takes a lot more to get rid of me.”
She sat back onto the cold floor just as another explosion shuddered through the ground.
“It sounds terrible up there,” she said. Bane nodded, closing his eyes.
“This is what I was afraid of. We were too late. There is death and destruction everywhere, innocents that are getting hurt for someone else’s war.”
Hannah nodded. She could hear the sorrow in Bane’s voice, see the pain in his face that was caused by what was happening up above and not by his injury.
“What can I do to help?” Hannah asked. She was at a loss. She felt like she was a failure. Her attempts to fix everything had resulted in a war that was going to kill so many, if not all of the soldiers.
“The war is dying down,” Bane said. His eyes were still closed. Hannah listened. The explosions were fewer and there was more time between bombs. The roars were halfhearted when they took place.
“Many are wounded. On both sides. Many have died.”
The words sliced through Hannah. Many have died.
“The rest of my people are waiting for me,” he said. “They’re in a place called Virginia. I can see the map in my mind’s eye. I will show you.”
Bane pushed himself up. He grimaced again but waved Hannah off when she wanted to help him. “I will be alright.”
He found paper and pens on a desk in the far corner and limped a little when he walked back to her. He sat down on the cold floor next to Hannah and drew what he saw. Hannah stared at the map as he drew, and a few moments later she recognized it. It was indeed Virginia, and the point that he drew was in a rural area.
“I know where this is. I can take you there.”
How she was going to do was a different story, but where there was a will… right?
“When I meet my people I will have to leave,” Bane said in a quiet voice. Hannah stilled She hadn’t thought about that – she hadn’t once considered losing him. She’d pushed it away because she hadn’t wanted to think about it.
“I’ll never see you again?”
He shook his head. She looked into his eyes, and her heart broke.
Bane touched her cheek again, ran his fingers into her hair.
“I know what you
feel.” He clutched his hand to his heart. “I feel it too.” He breathed deep. “My people aren’t like yours. If you come with me, they will accept you.”
Hannah frowned. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I want you to come with me.”
He was asking her to give up everything she knew – her life, her family, her world. Her planet. Was that something she was willing to sacrifice for him? How much did she have here on Earth to live for? She had a father she would never be able to please, a mother that was long dead, no friends and other family she was really attached to, a job that was a disaster.
