by Milly Taiden
“Yes, I do. The elders in our family have…advised us negotiations are the best way to move forward.”
Nyl leaned away as if appalled. “Your family elders? They’re out of the times; they have no idea what’s going on. They’re going to be the death of our planet.” He sighed heavily and nodded. “My decision is made.”
“Your decision? Aren’t we here to discuss my decision?” Jane felt a pin prick in her upper arm, exactly like the one in her bedroom. She snatched Nyl’s wrist before he could pull away. She saw the poisonous needle-tipped ring on the first knuckle of his middle finger. “A poiring? Nyl, who are you?”
His smile turned devious and he stared directly into her eyes as her vision tunneled. “A man who will finally get what he’s wanted for a long time. Money, prestige, and you.” Jane felt her head slump forward before passing out.
* * *
Tony watched Cyn shift on Brock’s lap. “Ruveen, what’s the story with Nyl? Why is he so…”
“Afraid of everything?” Ruveen completed for her. The remaining three FPU crew looked on with curious eyes.
“It started when we were kids.” Ruveen’s smile dropped. “In our teens, he was the best close-combat fighter in our group, and my best friend. That’s why I always wanted to spar with him. To get better, you have to practice with those greater than you to improve your skills.
“His father, a highly loyal member of the premier guard, was the trainer during a practice. I wasn’t up to Nyl’s par, and I didn’t block a punch he sent. He knocked me down, giving me a bloody lip.
“His father blindsided him, side sweeping his knees. He took Nyl to the floor and beat him for daring to injure the heir: me. I believe he would have killed Nyl had I not ordered him to stop.
“It was awful. Nyl had to be incredibly humiliated in front of all his peers, those he’d be in the guard with for the rest of his life. We didn’t see him for a long time. My father, the ruler, wouldn’t speak about it or let me see him. He said it wasn’t his business how Nyl was raised. But it didn’t seem he approved of Nyl’s treatment either. But it was already done. Not much he could do.
“Life went on and Nyl eventually returned, but a changed man. He no longer met anyone’s eye, even when talking directly with them. He never joined in social opportunities or talked to friends, including me.
“No one in the group ever said anything about the incident with his father. I think we were all too embarrassed for him to say anything. But I wanted to know what happened to him during his time away. He wasn’t the same person. I remember things got a little weird, but I brushed it off, happy he was back.” Ruveen paused, eyes unfocused into the past.
“Ruveen,” Cyn started, “what was weird?” A bit of worry crept into her voice.
After a quiet few seconds, he answered. “It’s difficult to explain. It was just a feeling mostly. I told him I wanted to forget the past and start over as friends. Then his eyes glazed and he spoke like he had been programmed to say he wasn’t discussing the past, that everything was great, and he loved his father—his father was a loyal premier guard and loving dad.
“I’d known Nyl’s family for a long time, and I wouldn’t use ‘loving’ as the word. More like domineering and control freaks. But who am I to judge? If Nyl wanted to act like the whole fiasco didn’t happen, then so would I.
“He’s gotten better through the years. He at least talks to me now, but we see very little of each other. I was surprised when my mom said he was to go with me to visit my sister here at the cabin.” He stopped abruptly, glancing at Tony.
Tony felt on edge, jumpy. He thought about Nyl’s humiliation when Jane left him standing in front of everyone at their joining ceremony. Adding that to the man’s youthful disgrace…Tony was glad he wasn’t the dude. That much shame would change him, too, and not for the good. Tony hoped Nyl didn’t carry a grudge against her. Tony’s breath caught.
Brock turned Cyn to face him. “What’s wrong? I feel your unease.”
“Just a minute ago was the first time I’d seen Nyl. He’d been in hiding since we got here. When he glanced at me before he left with Jane, I felt a highly negative —”
Ruveen jumped from his chair. Brock and Cyn copied the action. “What’s wrong, Ruveen?” Cyn asked.
Ruveen stared at his comm link on his wrist and a blinking light. “It’s the ship. It’s been activated with my clearance code, able to take off anytime.”
Tony bolted for the door, Sari still in his grip. He had immense trust in his boss’s abilities. He didn’t need more proof to get to his feet to check on his love. He threw open the door and searched the area. No sign of Jane or Nyl, but the chair swing came to a slow stop.
TWENTY-THREE
Tony followed Jane’s and Nyl’s scents along the trail leading to the hidden ship. What was Jane thinking, letting him walk her so far from the cabin? But then, the Nyl she once knew would never have had the courage to try anything. Plus, Jane was a damn good fighter.
She could handle herself, though Tony would never admit that aloud to her. He didn’t want her getting any ideas about doing things on her own. Without him. His tiger took that second to remind him “on her own” and “without him” meant the same thing. Whatever.
Much farther down the path, Tony saw movement. His tiger gave his eyesight a boost. Something didn’t look right. Only one person was walking, but he smelled two scents. The image ahead passed through a break in the trees, stepping into light. He had his answer. Nyl had Jane over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes.
Tony remembered to put his girl down before shifting. “Sari, don’t be scared. I’m going to magically become a big tiger and save Jane from that man taking her away from us. You stay here where you’re safe, okay?”
Her eyes moved from him to the man getting closer to the ship. When his cub nodded, he sprinted away and burst onto four legs.
Disregarding all safety for himself, he navigated down the steep incline, really more like a barely controlled slide, dodging trees and leaping downed logs. He hoped a direct route to the ship would get him there quicker than the rambling pathway. Maybe not his brightest idea.
Nyl cleared the path and stepped onto a long camouflaged concrete landing pad that extended through the trees into a clearing. That’s how they hid it. They landed then rolled under the thick overhead tree canopy.
As Tony and his tiger watched Nyl approach the craft with his unconscious mate, a huge tree broke in half and crashed onto the pad. It rolled toward the ship, gaining speed, slamming into two of four legs the ship rested on, taking them out.
Nyl stopped and looked up the incline. His eyes popped wide when he saw Tony practically flying over the steeply dipping hillside.
The man ran to the tipped craft and swiped his hand along the ship’s side. A narrow section split from the rest and levered down, revealing a ramp into the craft. Even with his tiger, Tony wouldn’t make it there before the access closed.
With one end of the craft resting on the log that wiped out the legs, Nyl had a difficult time getting up the ramp. He grabbed the ramp edges to haul himself up. Tony was almost there. Nyl disappeared inside. The ramp lifted from the ground.
It was now or never. His tiger gathered all the strength his shifter side could provide and launched himself toward the moving door. He knew by his trajectory, he didn’t have enough distance to clear the raising platform.
Then he felt a push, as if the air wrapped around him and made him go faster, stay up longer. His front claws dug into the bottom ramp material and momentum flung his large animal body over the top.
Being a damn good feline, he landed on all four feet then tore through the ship after his prey.
Nose in the air, careful of an ambush, Tony stalked through the ship, one soundless step after another. A myriad of people had been in this place, but the only scent he was interested in was the most recent.
A tinge of fear floated among the heavy stench of…of something he’d smelled a few
times in his life. Pure madness. Insanity.
Professional profilers, like Erica, understood how these minds thought, or didn’t think. He wished he’d paid more attention to this stranger. From the moment Nyl walked in with Ruveen, Tony hadn’t like him. It felt like the man was hiding under a façade.
Beeps and clicks came from the room ahead. A slight vibration tickled his paws. Jane’s scent grew stronger. She must be in the same room as his target. Crouched onto his belly, Tony lifted one paw at a time, ever so slowly.
The console in front of the man was identical to the controls in the M&M ship. On the wall, a monitor flipped between different outside angles. Those were useless since he was already in—
A flash of pink among black shadows caught his eye in one of the angles. Sariana was heading toward the ship. No, no, no. She needed to be safe, away from there. Damn, he didn’t have time for a slow kill the man deserved for harming his mate.
Tony leaped toward the pair of seats behind the console. He raked a paw along the side of the pilot’s face and ear, knocking him to the floor. Tony shifted to face him, man to man. “What you’ve done to my mate is punishable by death with my kind. Anything you have to say before I kill you?”
Nyl stumbled to his feet. His hand covered the gouged side of his face, blood seeping over his fingers. “A measly shifter killing a premier guard? Our ancestors must have used the most ignorant species on this pathetic planet to make you.”
His words made no sense. “What are you talking about? I smell your brain’s production of chemicals. Similar to my mate’s brother, but with an acidic aftertaste. Sickening. Whatever your insane mind says means nothing.”
Nyl looked taken aback. “You’re calling me crazy? I don’t think so. Liand was nuts. He thought he could make the premier guard think he was the ruler.”
That caught Tony’s attention. “Why did he want Jane?”
“Seriously?” A smug smile graced Nyl’s face. He assumed he had the power now. “Jane can manipulate memories.”
“She can turn them on and off. What’s that got to do with anything?”
Nyl gave him a hate-filled look. “And you call yourself her mate. Please. I know more about her than you do,” he spat.
Tony relaxed his stance, crossing his arms over his bare chest, totally ignoring the fact that his junk hung free. “Like what? Tell me.” Tony couldn’t imagine this guy falling for this old interrogation tactic based on pride, but he wasn’t from Earth so maybe he wouldn’t catch on.
He rolled his eyes. “Again, we must’ve used the most stupid animals on the planet. Jane not only can ‘turn memories on and off,’ but she can change and implant new ones. If she says you’ve been to Mars, then you will feel, see, and taste Mars.”
Whoa. Tony wasn’t expecting that. “So Liand wanted Jane to change the guards’ memories to think he was the ruler so he could take over the planet.”
“Something like that.” Nyl waved a hand in the air. “I couldn’t care less. Jane was to be mine after he was done with her. Mine.” His eyes drifted to the back wall where Jane lay unconscious on the floor. Tony wanted to go to her, but he had to be sure the ship remained on the ground. If he was gone long enough, maybe Ruveen and the others would come looking for them. He needed to stall. One move from this guy and he’d finish him. Tony didn’t have time for games.
“So this is all revenge for what happened that one day you hit Ruveen when sparring and her leaving you at the altar?”
Nyl leaned against the wall, looking pale. His eyes glazed. “I’m not discussing the past. Everything is perfect and I love my father. He’s a loyal premier guard and loving father.”
Tony frowned. “What the hell was that? Ruveen told us about that day sparring. He said you hit him then your father beat your ass, embarrassing you among your friends.”
Nyl got worked up, his eyes darting all over the place. “Don’t speak of my father. I’m not discussing the past. Everything is perfect and I love my father. He’s a loyal premier guard and loving father.”
Well fuck! The guy was not just nuts, he was grade A whacko. Tony took a step back. Something really disturbing was wrong with this guy. The dude sounded like the phrase that always went through his own head when he thought about Jane being his mate. Mechanical, without feeling.
Sweat rolled from Nyl’s temple, matching the drip of blood. The acrid stench of chemicals floated from his body to sting Tony’s nose. It was like something wasn’t processing correctly in his head, producing extra matter that seeped through his pores.
He remembered someone, Jane or Ruveen, said too many deleted cells could cause the brain to breakdown. That would mean someone destroyed Nyl’s cells instead of just inactivating them.
The story Ruveen told about Nyl ’s father…Tony knew how ruthless people could be. He saw it every day in his caseload.
Nyl stumbled forward to the console and picked up a gun Tony hadn’t seen on the black surface. “Time for me and Jane to go home, shifter. We have a baby to make before she dies.” Nyl raised his blood-covered arm, aiming the gun. Tony had nowhere to hide from the bullet.
The reverberation of the shot in the small quarters nearly shattered Tony’s sensitive hearing. He’d need a bottle of aspirin for this headache. Maybe morphine, if he lived. Thinking of painkillers, why wasn’t he in pain? Shit, did he die that quickly?
His eyes opened—he didn’t realize he’d shut them. Nyl was plastered to the wall, hand and gun stuck out to the side. Tony refocused his vision and saw a bullet floating motionless a foot in front of his eyes. It dropped harmlessly to the floor.
He felt completely dumbfounded until he heard a deep breath behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see Sariana with one hand toward the man on the wall and the second was in line with the bullet on the floor. But her eyes roamed the ceiling, her cheeks quite red. Tony looked up, didn’t see anything, then realized her face flamed with embarrassment. He was still in his birthday suit.
Voices and stomping sounded from the back. Ruveen came into view, followed by the rest of the group. Brock took one look at a buff Tony and yelled back, “Buchanan, give me your jacket.”
“No way!” he called. “I don’t want my coat touching his junk.” Brock snapped his hand out while Erica peeled Trent from his jacket.
The important stuff covered, Tony rushed to Jane, prone on the floor. He lifted her into his lap and ran his fingers down her cheek. “Jane, cariño. Wake up.” Sariana knelt next to Jane and took her hand in hers. Jane’s eyes fluttered open.
“Tony…” Her body jerked. “Nyl. He—”
He pulled her closer. “Shh. It’s okay. Everything is taken care of. Sari and I got it under control.” He winked at the cub holding his mate’s hand, then his face turned serious. “Jane, love, I’ve been thinking that after we’re married, maybe a baby is a bit much to start with. Ya know, all the crying, all the diapers, long nights, snotty noses. Did I mention the runny poop?”
Sari giggled, hand over her mouth.
“How about we start with —let’s say—a very brave six-year-old with pink hair?”
Jane’s face lit up, then turned to the little girl. The young gaze dropped to her hand in Jane’s, in Tony’s, and said her first words. “I want my name to be Sariana,” her teary eyes lifted, “and to be part of your family.”
TWENTY-FOUR
After a lot of food and sleep, Brock parked one of the SUVs in the gravel parking lot in front of the warehouse Jane blew a hole in. Tony pulled up in a second truck next to them and stopped.
Soldiers were scattered everywhere: the woods, fence lines, roadblocks, coming in and out of the damaged warehouse, loading and unloading cargo trucks.
Important looking men hurried toward them. Just what Brock wanted on a full stomach, government bureaucracy. Fortunately, Wheeler - head of the bureau - was among the group so that meant Brock didn’t have to deal with much. Thank God for small miracles.
Wheeler introduced the crew to the Departme
nt of Defense heads. “Brock, thanks for sticking around and coming out here. We have a shit storm about to hit us from Washington. The area is secured and I have a feeling this will be our new non-existing Area 51.” Wheeler held out his hand to shake Brock’s “It’s been nice working with you, James. Maybe we all can have a drink some time.”
Wheeler looked at Ruveen. “Can I have a minute with you?” Jane’s brother and his boss walked away from the group, as did the Homeland men. Did Wheeler know Ruveen? What the fuck was the handshake for? It sounded like he was fired. Or the department was closing.
So much floated in Brock’s mind, mostly questions with scattered pieces as answers. What was really under the Wasteland? Where did it come from? What did the half human, half animal jars in the laboratory mean? Was Earth’s technology on its way to destroying the planet, like it did Jane and Ruveen’s?
Ruveen called Jane to join him and Wheeler in their little closed discussion. She glanced at the barren land, at Brock, then back to their huddle and nodded. After a minute, Wheeler shook hands with both aliens and walked away. “Brock,” Ruveen called, “all of you join us on the hill.” He motioned to the incline at the perimeter of the gravel parking lot they stood on.
The group gathered, looking over the narrow swath of ground called the Wasteland extending to the hills in the distance. Ruveen moved to the front. “Demon, come forward to help Jane and me.” Everyone looked at Brock with surprise on their faces.
Well, so much for secret abilities being kept secret. Now the group knew what each other were capable of. Looked like Tony got his wish about everyone working together knowing the others’ powers. Brock hated to admit it, but Tony was right. A team should work together with its best attributes among members. They would only be stronger.
Ruveen grasped Brock’s wrist and Brock wrapped his hand around the proffered wrist in a manly hold. No hand holding for guys. Jane rolled her eyes and took her brother’s hand. The three faced the rocky, dead dirt area.
