Independents: Taoree Trilogy #2

by Michele Notaro

  “You need to make him accept you so you can focus on the task at hand.”

  “I have never, and will never force him to do something he’s not comfortable with. I told you to leave it.”

  Ozias sighed and ran his hand across his forehead, the same way Orrean always did. “I am sorry, Orrean. I didn’t mean it like that. I simply wish to see you happy.”

  This time, Orrean sighed. “I know. I will be fine.”

  Ozias shot Orr a small smile before saying, “At least he is a handsome one.”

  Orrean snorted. “He is that. He’s also incredibly stubborn.”

  I narrowed my eyes at that, but didn’t say anything since it seemed that Ozias hadn’t realized I could understand him yet.

  “Maybe in time, he will see.” Ozias blew out a breath before saying, “I’m grateful you came. I was worried when you didn’t show up in the first week.”

  “I told you I’d wait for Jeremy before coming.”

  “I know.” Ozias tapped the aluza lightly. “But I told you to simply grab him and bring him here.”

  “Do you think it so easy?”

  “Yes.” He snorted. “You’re much stronger than him and he’s yours. You had every right to snatch him up as soon as you knew he was your Balu. Any Taoree would’ve sensed it and let you keep the human.”

  “Wow,” Orrean said. “I didn’t realize you still believed in the barbaric old ways.”

  Ozias shrugged. “I just hope he was worth all the trouble.”

  I saw Orrean open his mouth to reply, but I couldn’t take it anymore, so I beat him to it and said in Taoree, “You do realize I can understand every single thing you say, right?” I glared at the wide-eyed alien and switched to English. “Stop being a dick.”

  Orrean jumped in, “Jeremy, Ozias is the leader of the Independents, show a little respect.”

  I snapped at Orr, “Don’t tell me what to do. I don’t give a shit who he is. He needs to stop talking about me like I’m not even here.” I turned my attention to the Independent King or whatever-the-fuck he was. “And by the way, I’m not a piece of property, you asshole, so stay the fuck out of it.”

  Ozias’s eyes went wide. “Enimus. You have a mouth on you.” He looked at his brother. “Good luck with this one… You’re going to need it.”

  “Hardy har har, so fucking funny,” I said. “Kiss my ass, King of the Independents.”

  Orrean sighed beside me, but didn’t say anything. I glanced at him and saw that he seemed resigned to his fate. Whatever.

  Ozias chuckled. “I’m sorry I was talking about you. I didn’t realize you could understand me.”

  “That doesn’t make it any better.”

  “I know,” he said with a smile. “And I apologize.”

  I eyed him for a moment, seeing his sincerity, before saying, “Apology accepted.”

  Orrean muttered under his breath, but I still understood him. “Oh, I see how it is. You accept his half-assed apology in a heartbeat, but can’t accept my full-hearted one.”

  I saw Ozias smirk, but I ignored him and turned to Orrean. “You are my family and you lied to me.” He opened his mouth, but I held up my free hand to stop him. “Omitting something on purpose is still a lie.”

  Orrean sighed again, but his brother was the one that spoke next. “Jeremy, I have also misled you. I had heard that you could speak Taoree and that you would be offended by some of the old ways of my people, so I was prompting you to see if you really did understand my language.”

  I gaped at him.

  “I apologize… again.”

  I looked at Orrean and asked, “Did you know he was goading me?”

  “Of course not. Why in the world would I want you to have another reason to be mad at me?”

  “You didn’t know he was lying about all that stealing me shit?”

  “I haven’t spoken to my brother directly in over six years. So no, I did not know,” he answered me quietly.

  I looked at Ozias. “I don’t know if I like you.”

  He grinned easily at me. “Hopefully I’ll change your mind in time. And for the record, I think stealing your Balu, no matter the circumstances, is terrible.”

  “Oh… um, okay.” I thought about everything he’d said to Orrean, then asked, “Who told you how to goad me?”

  He grinned again. “Nolan, Cal, and Wesley.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  After a short moment of uncomfortable silence, Ozias moved closer to the aluza, and put his hand flat against the side as he whispered to Orrean in Taoree, “I have missed you, my brother. A hole in my heart has filled since you returned. My soul feels more complete with you here, with you safe. I am so glad you made it, Orreannysius-Anyke Serparla. I do not know what I would do without you in my life. Love you I do, brother.”

  “And I, you, brother,” Orrean whispered back as he pressed his hand against Ozias’s hand on the other side of the glass.

  “Thrive and love,” Ozias said before fleeing from the room.

  “As bright as the stars,” Orrean whispered to his brother’s retreating back. Then he went back to staring at the ceiling.

  I wanted to ask him what that little saying was between him and his brother… if it was something just the two of them said, or if it was a Taoree thing. But I was still mad at him, and without the buffer of Ozias there, I didn’t want to talk to him for fear of losing my temper and screaming at him… or doing something worse, hugging him like my body wanted to do.

  So I ignored him and tried to sleep. When that didn’t work, I started counting the bricks on the ceiling. There were two thousand eight hundred fifty-seven bricks on the ceiling. I counted them… twice.

  Chapter Six

  “Are you two ready to get out of there?” the doctor, Relandin, asked when she finally showed up thirteen hours later. Thirteen hours that I pretended to sleep and Orrean, who obviously knew I was wide awake, allowed me to keep on pretending.

  “Yes,” I groaned. Orrean said nothing. He just kept staring at the ceiling. I wonder if he counted the bricks too?

  “Okay, give me about sixty seconds and I’ll release the aluza. You are still going to feel weak and probably have trouble walking, but after a few more days of rest and lots of food and fluids, you will be good to go.” She sounded way more cheery than the situation warranted.

  “Is Cal still coming back?” I asked her since she’d been here when Cal had told me so the day before.

  “He should be here any moment,” she said as she started messing with a white panel on the wall across from my head. She pushed a bunch of buttons and the clear plastic started opening up right down the middle. I hadn’t even seen a seam in the plastic—or whatever it was made of.

  Once the aluza was gone—where the hell it went exactly, I wasn’t sure; the floor, maybe?—Relandin stood right next to our table and started unhooking our hands. I glanced at Orrean for the first time since his brother had left, and saw that he looked like he was just staring off into space. He wasn’t responding to anything at all.

  I rolled my eyes at him and looked away just as Cal, Nolan, and Wes came in through the door with bright smiles. I smiled back at them right as my hand was suddenly freed. I snatched it away—ignoring the strange ice-cold feeling I suddenly had—and started to push up to a seated position. Cal ran right over and helped me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Wes pulling Orrean up, but the alien looked like a fucking ragdoll.

  Relandin unhooked my zheluangi, then moved to take Orrean’s off, and all he did was just slump forward so Wes had to hold him up.

  I rolled my eyes again and said to Cal, “So I’m allowed to eat now. Can you take me to some food?”

  He chuckled. “We’re going to have our meals in our room for a few days. There’s a huge mess hall where everyone normally eats, so when you’re feeling better, we’ll take you down and introduce you to some of the people. But that can wait for another day.”

  I put my arm over Cal’s shoulders and he grabbe
d my waist to help me stand. I felt wobbly, but he had me well-supported.

  I asked, “We have a room? Is there a bed too?”

  He snorted. “We have a suite of rooms together with a sitting room thing in the middle, like an apartment. You have your own bed.”

  “Fuck, yes.”

  “Come on, Orrean,” Wesley said from behind me. “I need you to help a little bit, at least.”

  Once again, I rolled my eyes at Orrean’s dramatics and said to Cal, “Please take me to the food.”

  He laughed again and called over his shoulder, “I’m taking him down. I’ll see you there.”

  We walked out the door and almost immediately, my chest started hurting. I rubbed at the spot as we walked, but with every step, the pain grew and grew. When we got to the end of the hallway, I thought I heard a loud sob coming from behind us, but I ignored it and the pain, and pushed through all the way to our suite.

  Cal led me over to a blue couch that was in a very white room. There was a wooden coffee table in the middle of the room with plates of food already on it. I eagerly grabbed one and started eating some chicken—fresh fucking cooked chicken—and some mashed potatoes. I thought I died and went to heaven. I looked at the other furniture in the room; there was a big brown leather armchair, a loveseat that had a very ugly floral print on it, and a small kitchen table with only four chairs. There was also a small kitchenette off of the living room area and a hall that must’ve led to the bedrooms.

  Cal sat on the ugly floral loveseat. “You feel okay after walking?”

  “Yep,” I said around my mouthful of real, actual meat.

  “Good. So wanna talk about it?”

  “Nope,” I snapped before shoveling in another bite.

  He sighed. “You are extremely annoying.”

  “I know.”

  “And you’re an asshole.”

  “I know. Doesn’t change anything.” I took another huge bite and moaned at the deliciousness.

  “You shouldn’t be angry with him.”

  “Don’t care if that’s what you think. I still am.”

  I saw him roll his eyes, but I didn’t pay attention to it.

  “He saved Wes’s life,” Cal pointed out.

  “He’s still a dick for lying,” I argued as I stuffed my mouth.

  “All of us would be dead if he had done anything differently,” he said.

  “If you like him so much, why don’t you date him… or mate him or whatever-the-fuck,” I suggested.

  “Asshole.”

  “Dickface.”

  “Douche-nozzle.”

  “Ass-weed.”

  The door to our suite opened before we could get too far into our name-calling and Nolan came in, saying, “Help me for a minute, Cal.”

  Cal immediately followed Nolan back out the door and soon returned with Orrean between them. Wes scuttled in behind them, carrying some weird thing that looked like it was made from the same clear plastic that the giant clear tube had been. The thing was shaped like a fender, only wider, but still curved.

  Cal and Nolan practically had to drag Orrean because he wasn’t helping them at all. He looked like he was still in ragdoll-form and I briefly thought about asking him if he was okay, but then I remembered that he’d been lying to me for weeks, months if you counted from when the dreams started, so I looked away and continued eating. They bypassed the living room where I was sitting and headed down a small hallway and through a door that I assumed led to a bedroom. Then they were gone and I could hear their voices, but couldn’t understand what was being said.

  When Wes came back out first, he was no longer carrying the clear fender-like thing. He plopped down next to me, gave me a look of annoyance, then started eating wordlessly.

  When Cal and Nolan came back out, I was finished eating and really just wanted to sleep, since I’d been unable to for the last fifteen hours in the medical room with Orrean.

  “Can I get some sleep?” I asked Cal, since he was the only one not frowning at me.

  “Sure.” He came over and helped me stand, then led me down the little white hall to a bedroom that had a puke-green dresser and nightstand, and a purple-striped comforter on a twin bed that was pressed against the wall. It wasn’t much, but it was perfect.

  He unceremoniously plopped me on the bed, then ran out of the room, only to pop back in a moment later with a glass of water and a pack of crackers in his hands. He placed the items on the nightstand before helping me get under the blankets. “I put a drawing pad and some pencils in the nightstand,” he told me, then rubbed my hair playfully and left the room, turning out the lights. That was the first time I really noticed that this place had electricity. I’d have to get the rundown of the place tomorrow, though I couldn’t fucking wait to draw. I was thrilled that Cal had been so thoughtful. While we were walking over the past few weeks, I didn’t really think I’d ever get to draw for fun again.

  For now though, I would have to settle on rubbing the dull ache in my chest and praying that relief came when I fell asleep—that was, if I could even fall asleep, knowing who was just across the hall.

  ***

  I was sitting in my room, eating my dinner—alone. I didn’t want to see Orrean, and my entire family was eating dinner with him in the little common room in our suite. Whatever. They could do what they wanted, I just didn’t want to be a part of it.

  “J?” Mandy’s quiet voice called out from the other side of the shut door.

  “Come in, Mandy.” My voice was a little hoarse from lack of use.

  She cracked the door, then slipped in, shutting it behind her. Then she stood there, looking uncomfortable for a moment, so I opened my arms as invitation and she quickly threw herself at me and squeezed my waist. I hugged her tight and kissed the top of her head.

  After a minute she pulled away, sitting on the edge of my bed, looking me over as she whispered, “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

  I smiled at her. “Me too, Peanut. I’m glad you’re okay and safe… how’s the school stuff going?”

  “It’s different.” She shrugged and looked away. “We’re working on basic things like English and math, but we’re also learning a lot about some of the Taoree technology. It’s actually kind of fun because they’re letting us use onypus, which are sorta like computers, but not really. And I’m learning Taoree…” She looked back over at me. “They’re also teaching us to shoot reelians and use shoians, and teaching us how to fight.”

  I could only blink at her for a moment before asking, “You’re learning to fight?”

  She nodded.

  “Why? …Why would they teach you that?”

  She shrugged again and quietly answered, “In case the base is ever attacked.”

  I let that sink in for a moment before finally realizing that it was probably a good idea to have them training, even if the reason for doing so was horrifying.

  Then I pulled her in and hugged her before tickling the shit out of her to make her laugh. She was giggling all over the place, which made me smile… probably for the first time since I’d woken up in that weird tube.

  After Mandy left, I pulled out my sketch pad and started to draw. It was amazing being able to express some of my frustrations on paper. I only wished I had some paint so I could put a mural on my walls. I’d have to find out if we could get some.

  After a few minutes of getting lost in my artwork, what I was drawing finally hit me. I sat there staring at the perfect replication of Colt. He was smiling in a way that I’d only ever seen him do when the two of us were laying in our shared sleeping bag, whispering under the stars. I’d drawn his hair sticking up all over the place and I hesitantly touched his curls, wishing I could run my fingers through them one last time.

  I took a deep breath and flipped the page. I’d just have to draw a landscape or something. That’d be safe enough to keep my emotions at bay.

  After I’d been working on my sketch for a good hour, Wes ended up coming in. We both sat on my be
d, leaning against the wall, my sketchbook all but forgotten in the middle of the bed. He’d just knocked, then came in without saying a word. We’d been sitting there for at least five minutes in silence. I had no clue what he wanted.

  When I couldn’t take it any longer, I blurted, “Why the hell did you get a tattoo?”

  He sighed and ran a hand over his shaved head. “I just… wanted to feel… here. I…” He sighed again before continuing, “I didn’t think we were going to make it, J. I really didn’t. You and Orr… you didn’t look good the last time I remember seeing you, but somehow you guys kept me alive.” He swallowed. “When I woke up after my surgery, I was just really thankful, ya know? But you and Orr were still in danger. We didn’t know if you could heal each other. They told us that you might not make it. That your… Balu connection might not be strong enough to help you heal.” He looked over at me. “I thought you two sacrificed yourselves for me… I was scared that I was going to lose my brother… my only family I have left.” His eyes welled up with tears and I couldn’t stand seeing my little brother upset like that, so I grabbed him and pulled him into a hug. He rested his head on my shoulder and I felt a little wet spot on my shirt, but he was crying silently.

  I whispered, “Even if I wasn’t here, you still have family, Wes. Cal, Nolan, Mandy… even Orr and Tabitha.” He nodded but squeezed me tighter.

  When he finally pulled away, looking a little less stressed, I smirked and said, “You still didn’t tell me why you got a tattoo.”

  He snorted and rolled his eyes. “I needed a distraction.”

  I almost asked him to explain why he got that specific one, but he seemed a little defensive. I didn’t feel like having him mad at me since everyone already seemed mad at me for the whole Orr thing, so I let it go for the time being. Though I’d get down to the bottom of what the hell that tattoo meant eventually.

  “Where’s that?” Wes asked after pulling himself together.

  I looked to where he was pointing and realized he was talking about the landscape I’d drawn. I picked it up and said, “Nowhere, I was just…” I trailed off as I further examined the sketch. Then I swallowed thickly.