by Ruby Ryan
Leslie nodded to herself. "Already figured that part out. You know those fliers they spread all around town every few months?"
I frowned. "The doomsday ones? Warning us of an impending invasion, or that the supervolcano is going to erupt, or any other idiotic thing they've heard of?"
"Yep yep."
"What's that have to do with Arix?"
"Well," Leslie said, fiddling with the computer in her cruiser, "whenever they get one of those apocalyptic ideas in their heads, they go running to their bunker in the woods. We pay attention to that, because it's a sort of early warning system for us against their shenanigans." She tapped the computer screen, and a route appeared. Six miles. "They've gotta be there."
"Then what are we waiting for?"
Leslie closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened them again. "We're waitin' for me to calm down. My heart's still pounding like the drumline at a football game. I need a minute, Jo."
I grabbed her hand and squeezed. Aliens were a tough pill to swallow. Especially since Leslie didn't have the luxury of banging one first.
Leslie started the car and sighed. "Alright. Let's go save your alien boyfriend."
I felt my resolve harden. We had a plan. We knew where Arix was.
And no matter what happened, I was going to make sure I saved him. Even if it meant him leaving me after.
20
JOANNA
The route led us along the main highway for three miles before turning down an unpaved hunting trail, which was nothing more than two snow-covered wheel tracks. The forest loomed close on either side as we wound our way through the woods.
"I rescind my previous objection," Leslie announced.
"Pardon me?"
"The part about not drawing your weapon until we're in danger. Scratch that--we're going in hot this time. One, because you didn't listen to me anyways back at the junkyard. And two, because now that I know aliens are really involved, we don't need to go by the book. Because the book sure as hell doesn't say anything about what to do in a situation like this."
She laughed at the absurdity of that, and I laughed with her.
"If Max and Liam finally caught themselves an alien, they sure as hell aren't giving him up without a fight." Her mouth became a thin line on her face. "Badge or no badge. This might get ugly."
"It was ugly when they took Arix," I said, bitterness creeping into my voice. "He was in agony, Leslie. What they did to him... nobody should experience that, human or otherwise."
Leslie looked sideways at me. "You really care for him, don't you?"
I love him.
The thought sprung into my mind immediately. A reflex out of my control. I loved Arix, and I think he loved me, and it didn't matter at all how long we'd known each other.
"I do care for him," was all I said. Leslie looked at me a moment longer but didn't push the issue.
A structure appeared through the trees in the distance, even smaller and more run-down than the one at the junkyard. The brakes squealed loudly as Leslie slowed to a stop.
"This is the place." She nodded. "Same as before: follow me toward the building. I'll kick the door in and go first, while you cover me from the doorway." She looked at me. "Think you can do this?"
"I'm not afraid," I said, and I actually meant it. There was only one emotion running through my brain in that moment, and it left no room for fear.
Leslie nodded again, more to herself than me, and exited the car.
We approached much in the same way we had at the junkyard, except instead of piles of metal we moved from tree to tree. The branches were barren and didn't camouflage us at all, not with our brown jackets against the white terrain, but it was the best we had.
The shack rose before us. There were windows on either side of the door, and a strange light glowed from within. Arix is inside. It was almost as if I could feel him there, the fire of his soul reigniting anew to warm my skin.
The light flickered.
Pain invaded my brain and coursed through my body, down my spine and into my legs. My knees buckled and I fell to the snow, face crunching through the crust. I bit my lip to keep a moan from escaping, and the pain went on and on.
"What is it?" Leslie hissed, bending over me. She look around nervously.
The pain subsided, but its echo reverberated in my body. It was fresh in my mind, like a bright spot on your vision when you blinked.
"They're torturing Arix," I said, pushing to my feet.
And before she could stop me, I was sprinting directly at the house.
Leslie may have shouted at me, or it was my imagination, or maybe it was my connection with Arix and I was hearing him in my head, shouting at me to stop, telling me not to come. I didn't care. The only thing I felt was love, love for Arix, and I needed to do whatever it took to save him.
The trees disappeared, and then I was in the clearing leading to the shack.
I drew my gun and pumped my arms as I ran. I tried to think of a plan, but thought was difficult then, so I commandeered Leslie's plan: knock the door down, find Arix, shoot anyone who tried to stop me.
I was thinking of that plan when a gunshot rang out, a flash from the window of the shack.
My leg gave out and I crashed to the ground, sliding three feet in the icy snow. Pain shot up my leg from the fall, but as I tried to get back up it wouldn't obey, and as I twisted around I saw red spreading from a hole in my jeans.
I've been shot.
Leslie was screaming, and more gunshots rang out from her gun or theirs. I felt myself go into shock as I stared at the blood, there was so much of it, gushing from my leg to stain the pristine snow.
I'm going to die, I thought as the cold began to spread.
21
ARIX
I'm going to die, my human lover told me with her mind.
I screamed a scream of pain, but nobody heard me.
Max knelt in front of the window, firing shot after shot with his rifle, pulling back some sort of bolt mechanism each time to discharge the used casings. They clattered to the floor next to Liam, who was peering around the edge from the cover of the wall.
"Left tree," he told his brother. "He's moving right-to-left, darting from one cover to another."
"She." Max's rifle barked again, and he pulled back on the bolt. "That's Leslie. Jo went straight to her."
"Of course the cops are in on the conspiracy," Liam said, shaking his head. "You can't fucken trust nobody."
I roared at them and bucked in my chair, fighting against my restraints like a wild animal. Liam glanced back at me, but only to ensure I was still tied up.
"Hold your fire," he whispered. "Wait for her to come out from cover."
"Jo's squirmin'," Max said, a twinge of regret in his voice. "Shit, I hated to shoot her..."
"We had no choice. You saw the gun she had--it was self-defense. We're within our rights," Liam insisted.
"Still..."
I fought against their device, the photon isolator, crashing against its invisible walls with every ounce of strength in my human and Karak body. It was a futile effort, and did nothing but weaken me with each attempt, but I continued fighting because there was nothing else I could do.
Joanna was dying. Bleeding out in the snow, the femoral artery in her leg cut cleanly by the bullet. I could feel every cell in her body now that she was close, even though the photon isolator held me in place. That shouldn't have been possible.
Another thought for another time.
More than that, I felt a burning emotion from my human lover. Raw, desperate love for me. Concern for my safety. She needed to get to me, to save me, with every fiber of her being. Even though she was dying in the snow, that desire was her only concern.
"NOOOOO," I boomed, struggling against my restraints.
"Shut up!" Liam ordered. He turned back to his brother and said, "There. She's leaving the trees--she's in the open."
"She's going for Jo," Max said. "We should let her help her.
.."
"Shoot her," Liam snapped. "They came here armed. They don't want the truth to get out. We have to protect what we've found!"
"But Liam..."
"Shoot her."
Liam cursed and tried to grab the rifle, but Max wouldn't let go. They fought over the gun, pushing and shoving, and Liam crashed into the wooden wall with a loud crack.
"No!" Max said. "Stop!"
"Give me the gun..."
Liam pulled hard, and the motion caused him to fall backwards. He crashed through the camera tripod and fell to the floor, toppling the wooden stool in the corner.
The one with the photon isolator on it.
The device hit the ground and broke into three pieces of plastic and green circuit. Instantly, the barrier to me fell away.
I was free.
I immediately shifted into my Karak form, light shooting from my body to illuminate every crack and crevice of their shack. I rose up with my photon body, looming above the two terrible humans, fury guiding my actions.
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, I boomed into their heads.
"Please," Liam whimpered, folding in on himself with fear.
I wanted to kill them. The human part of me wished to see the light leave their eyes, to remain and watch their bodies grow still and cold and rot away with maggots. I desired it.
But a tremor of my Karak consciousness fought through. I had already broken one vow by making love to Joanna. There was still hope for me. I did not have to forsake another.
I could be better than them.
And as my fury fell away, Joanna's pain returned.
On photons lighter than the air itself, I soared through the gunshot-broken window and across the snowy ground. A woman I didn't know hunched over Jo's unmoving body, pressing roughly against her skin with both palms. Red was everywhere, spreading in all directions as if a bucket of dark dye had been overturned.
The woman--Leslie, I recognized from Jo's memories--looked up at me. Her eyes widened more than should have been possible for a human, round marbles of confusion and realization and fear.
Move please, I said into her mind, and to her credit she didn't budge.
"I need to keep pressure on her wound," she said out loud.
I can help her. Move.
Hesitating only a heartbeat longer, she fell backwards from my lover's body. I pulsed against Jo's frozen form, which was contorted in a way that wasn't natural. Her hair was splayed out across the snow like an angel.
I love you.
I poured my energy into her leg, finding the wound with thought and touch. I knew little of human anatomy but it was clear where an artery had been severed, and I quickly rearranged the atoms of the snow to reconnect them. Then I did the same for the fibrous muscles of her thigh, and then the outer skin, sewing her back together as best as I could.
"She's lost too much blood," Leslie sputtered, tears in her eyes.
But it was no problem for a Karak shifter. I emulated the molecules of blood that stained the mud and snow, rearranging the atoms in the air around me to refill her still heart. And the more I poured into her, the more I felt her body warm, and then in an instant her heart began beating again.
I stopped, and watched as the color returned to her skin.
Leslie trembled as she stared back and forth between me and Jo, so I shifted into my human form to calm her. I gave her what I hoped was a comforting smile.
"Hi," I said. "I'm Arix."
"P-p-p-pleased to meet you," she stammered, shaking my hand as if it were a poisonous snake.
"What..." Jo mumbled, eyes fluttering.
I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her to my chest, savoring how she felt. I inhaled her smell, which was mixed with the iron-rich scent of the human blood, but I didn't care at all.
"I'm here," I whispered into her hair, kissing her softly. "I'm here, Joanna."
"Okay." She sighed into my chest, still not fully aware of what was happening.
"NOBODY MOVE!"
Liam stood in the doorway of the shack, rifle raised to his shoulder. Max watched through the window, hidden beneath the sill.
I helped Jo support herself into a sitting position, and then I rose. "Your device is broken. You cannot hurt me. I can shift back into my Karak form before you pull the trigger. The bullet will pass right through me."
"Yeah, uhh, sure, alien," he spat. "But can you do all that and stop me before I shoot at her?"
He lowered the rifle an almost imperceptible degree. Towards Joanna.
"Liam..." Leslie began.
My human fury returned, tempered by the precarious nature of the moment. I could sense Liam's finger pressing tightly against the trigger. I could almost certainly reach out with my mind and force him to drop the gun before he fired.
Almost certainly. Not guaranteed. There was a chance he might pull the trigger as he realized what I was doing. And if he shot Jo in the head, there was nothing I could do to bring her back.
Fear for Jo kept me from the action. Slowly, I raised my arms.
"Don't do it," I said softly. "I won't hurt you. Just please don't hurt her."
Liam's hands were shaking. He was on the verge of a breakdown, unsure of what to do next. I could see him struggling to create a new plan, something logical and safe, and failing in the attempt. As the moment stretched, I realized we were hurtling toward a cliff. A decision was about to be made, and it was one from which none of us could return.
I can shield her with my human body. The selfless thought sprouted in my mind like a daisy in spring. Jump in front of her. Take the bullet. And hopefully have enough Karak consciousness remaining to heal myself, the way I'd healed myself that first night after Jo hit me with her car.
But before I could act, I sensed something. Something familiar.
Something Karak.
I am here, brother, it said in my mind. And I saw the light moving through the distant forest, drawing near with incredible speed.
I have come for you.
With jubilation, I watched my fellow Karak approach.
22
JOANNA
I was groggy, and there was a deep ache in my body that I couldn't explain, but Leslie's terrified tone woke me like a shot of espresso.
"Oh God, there's two of them."
A thick beam of light appeared behind the shack, rapidly approaching. I had only enough time to think, how did Arix get all the way over there? when it descended on Liam.
He whirled the rifle, but then it launched away unnaturally, like it had been kicked by an invisible boot. Liam screamed, and then hit knees buckled, and he fell to the ground and curled into a ball.
The beam of concentrated light, the Karak, drew near. Arix shifted back into his own form, which caused Leslie to yelp. Feeling my strength returning, I grabbed her hand and squeezed.
"It's okay," I said. "We're safe now."
The two Karak drew toward each other like magnets until their forms were practically merged. They spoke to one another, and I heard their voices in my brain.
How did you find me, Jerix?
Your ship released an emergency beacon in orbit, the other Karak said in a voice that was slightly deeper. You crashed minutes later. I was the closest craft, so I was released from my tour and dispatched to rescue you. I am sorry it took so long to arrive.
Three days didn't seem like very long at all to me, but I guess that said something about Karak transportation more than my silly human knowledge.
I am glad to see you, Arix replied.
The beam of light shifted, and I got the feeling Jerix was considering me and Leslie. You have interacted with this species.
Humans, Arix said. I had no choice. I woke from my crash confused and disoriented.
Jerix's voice held a note of disapproval. We will discuss it later. When we return.
When they returned.
Immediately, like a gunshot, I felt a pain in my chest. Here was the moment I had been avoiding, had hoped against hope would not come. Ar
ix was going to leave me. Because of course he was; that's how these things worked.
I closed my eyes and prepared to say goodbye.
But then I felt Arix shifting, returning to a body of flesh and blood. I opened my eyes in time to see his almond eyes regarding me, and what I saw there was love. My own love mirrored back at me, and a deeper need all his own.
"No."
Arix responded out loud, a human word with a human voice. The other Karak, Jerix, seemed to shimmer in the air.
No?
"I have chosen to remain here," Arix said, voice growing hard. "There is nothing for me on Karak. And everything for me here." He didn't look at me, but I could feel my name on his lips, the subtext behind his Karak rebellion.
Jerix had no eyes, but I could feel his focus passing over me. Considering me. It made me shiver.
You may bring her with you, he said. We have crates for specimen. She will give us valuable information on Karak.
"No!" Arix blurted. "Humans are an intelligent species. And Jo, specifically, is not merely a specimen for me to return home with. She is mine. And I am hers." He looked at me, and for a brief instant nervousness twinkled behind his eyes.
"You are mine," I agreed, standing and wrapping my arms around him. He felt warm and solid. "I'm not letting go. Not now, not ever."
This disturbed the new Karak scout. He shimmered more violently, like a glass of water in an earthquake. I felt Arix stiffen in my arms.
"You cannot convince me otherwise, brother," he said softly. "Please. Let me stay."
"So, I, uhh... hey." Leslie gave an awkward smile. "Hate to intrude on the alien reunion and whatnot, but what do we do with these two?"
She jerked a thumb at the Jones brothers. Liam was still curled into a cat-like ball, while Max stood paralyzed, a wet spot on the front of his pants.
"They tried to kill Joanna," Arix said, voice cold and emotionless. "Self-defense dictates you can eliminate them without moral qualm. Correct?"
Leslie gave a nervous laugh, running a hand over her face. "Yeah, uhh, no. That's not how this works. As much as I'd love for these two to be out of my hair, I can't let them be killed in cold blood."
