Sera hugged herself. “My God,” she said. “We’re dead.”
Chapter Ten
It took all three of the men and Asa’s truck to get the probe dragged into the barn, where they could conceal it from prying eyes. The Taluan body was tucked inside for the trip, and Joely and Sera grabbed shovels and a wheelbarrow to dig its blood out of the drive. It mixed with the dirt and created a foul-smelling green sludge, and more than once, both women were nearly overcome by the stench. When the stinking stuff had been collected, Sera pushed the wheelbarrow into the barn.
“Oh my sweet Jesus!” Asa swore, covering his nose. “What is that? It smells like something died!”
Beno looked unconcerned. “Taluan blood. It degrades almost immediately as soon as it spills. The smell will dissipate in a few hours.”
Theyn wiped his hands on his pants. “I’m going to dismember the body and set it out for the sunlight. It will decompose more quickly that way.”
Sera wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Will it rot as fast as its blood?”
“It should.” The blond Ylian returned to the probe with a hacksaw from Asa’s tool shed and a box of garbage bags.
Joely came into the barn, too, and stood with her hands in the back pockets of her denim shorts. “How can we find out what they were looking for, and whether they reported back?”
Beno gestured vaguely at the probe. “I can check the communication records, see who the last transmission was sent to and when. I’ll go through all of the instrumentation and see what I can learn.”
Sera went to him, putting her hand on his shoulder. He turned his glowing green eyes to her face, and his expression was wary. She sighed. “Thank you for defending us.” She consciously chose to speak in his native tongue, and the translator in her ear and the bond with Beno and Theyn helped her manage it without prompting. “I’m sorry for the things I said. I know you wouldn’t do those things to me, and I would never do anything to hurt you, either.”
He looked impressed at her linguistic skills but still irritated. “I guess you’d never turn on a fuck buddy.”
“You’re more to me than that,” she confessed. “You both are. I don’t have words for what you are, but it’s so much more than fuck buddies. I never should have said that.”
Beno’s wary look did not alter. “No, you shouldn’t have.”
She sighed. She deserved that. “I’m sorry.” Sera looked up into his eyes, not flinching from the directness of his gaze. “Please forgive me.”
He looked back in silence for a long moment, but she could feel his anger begin to melt. Finally, he turned up one corner of his mouth and said, “Forgiven.”
She pulled him closer and sealed it with a kiss.
Asa was staring, listening to their conversation. He shook his head. “That’s a fascinating language.”
The lovers separated, and Beno said, “Maybe I’ll teach you.”
“Deal.”
Theyn emerged from the probe with four bulging, heavy-duty black garbage bags. He dragged them out of the barn and into the field, dropping them in the open where the sun could bake them in the morning.
Joely cringed. “God, that’s nasty.”
Beno went to inspect the probe, and when Sera tried to follow him, he held up his hand. “There’s really only room for one person in here, and I think, given what our partner just did, it’ll smell too badly for you right now. Let it air out first.”
She had never heard him refer to Theyn in that way, but it made perfect sense to her. They were bound together, all three of them. “What about you? Won’t it make you sick, too?”
He pressed his lips together in a hard line and narrowed his eyes. “I’ve got experience with Taluan stink. I’ll be fine.”
She knew how deep and painful that experience had been. She nodded and ran her hand along his arm, trying to be supportive. He turned and went into the probe, closing the hatch behind him.
Drifting closer to the spacecraft, Asa shook his head. “You can’t even see any damage on this thing,” he said. “I don’t think my bullets even scratched it, and that shooter thing ol’ Beno’s got didn’t leave any marks, but it sure brought this bird down.”
Theyn spoke from the doorway. “It disrupted its magnetic field, creating an EMF spike that forced its systems to reboot. The only damage that would have been caused would be from the crash.”
“Can you force people to reboot, too?” Asa asked.
The Ylian looked confused. “People aren’t computers, Asa,” he said. “They don’t reboot.”
“I think he means, can you kill people with that kind of pulse?” Sera translated.
“Oh. No. The organic kill feature requires a different calibration. We rarely use it.”
“But for these things, you’d make an exception, I think,” Joely ventured.
Theyn nodded. “Without hesitation.” He looked down at his hands, which were coated in the stinking green blood of the dead Taluan. “Do you have water?”
Asa pointed him to a spigot, and Theyn set about washing up. He had a troubled, faraway look on his face. Sera could only imagine the things he was thinking.
A wave of shock reached them from Beno, and they turned to the probe in unison, their eyes wide. Theyn hurried over to flip open the hatch, but his partner was already scrambling out, his face pale.
He grabbed Theyn’s arms and told him in their own tongue, “We aren’t the last.”
“What?”
“There were other survivors!” He looked at Sera, who came to their sides. He gripped her hand. “I found a log. There’s a colony of survivors in the Deleton system, on Bruthes. Theyn, the Empress survived the attack. She and her court escaped, along with hundreds of others.”
A glittering gold tear slipped from Theyn’s eye. “My mother…” He shook his head. “But that was so long ago. Of course she’s dead now.”
Sera hugged him. “Your people weren’t all destroyed. That’s wonderful.”
“There’s more.” They looked to Beno, who continued. “The Taluans discovered that consuming Ylian flesh gave them benefits they hadn’t possessed before. They’re searching for every Ylian they can find, because…” He swallowed a lump in his throat. “Because they want to farm us.”
“That’s disgusting!” she exclaimed.
Theyn clenched his jaw. “And Bruthes? How are they reacting?”
“The log didn’t say. When we knew them, they were very pragmatic.”
The look he gave his partner spoke volumes, and Sera could feel a wave of nausea rolling out from Theyn through their bond. She took his hand. “Pragmatic,” he echoed. “That means that the colony is really a farm. They are cooperating with the Taluans to keep them from destroying their own world.”
“I would be surprised if they were doing anything different.” Beno sighed. “In their place, I can’t say I would do otherwise. A few hundred lives is nothing in defense of a billion.”
“No, you wouldn’t. You have too much honor for that,” Theyn disagreed. “You would fight for freedom and to protect your people.”
“I tried that once before. Look where it got us.”
Sera interjected, “It got you here, with friends, and still alive. You saved your partner and yourself. I think that’s a win.”
The crunch of tires on gravel in the driveway interrupted their conversation, and Joely turned to face the newcomer. She was silhouetted by the bright lights of the headlights, turned into a black shape in the glare. Asa came forward and closed the barn doors, shutting Sera and the Ylians on one side and Joely and himself on the other.
Can you camouflage the probe? Sera asked.
No. It’s too big.
Joely opened the door a crack and poked her head into the barn. “Sera,” she said, “it’s Rodriguez.”
She looked at her lovers, then said, “I’ll be right there.” Joely left, and she told them, “Stay here and out of sight. I don’t know if we can trust him or not.”
Theyn c
aught her hand before she could walk away. “Be careful.”
She smiled. “Always.”
Chapter Eleven
Sera joined Joely and Asa in the driveway. Rodriguez was making his slow exit from his vehicle, and she took in his battered visage and shook her head.
“You look like hell,” she said.
He gave a half-hearted smile. “I feel that way, too.” He shut the car door and limped toward them, a satchel in his good hand. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“They haven’t hurt you?”
Joely snorted, and Sera shot her a hard look. “No. Not at all.”
Rodriguez relaxed. “Good. I was so afraid I’d done something horribly wrong by letting them take you.”
“Yeah, about that,” Asa said, strolling forward, his massive arms crossed. “What made you think it was okay to let two aliens kidnap my mentor?”
He gestured toward his sling. “Look what happened to me for staying. I didn’t think she’d enjoy getting the same treatment.”
“Who worked you over?” Sera asked.
“The army. They were… displeased with my interference.” He sighed and leaned against his car. “Can we go inside and sit down? I’ve been driving all night…”
Asa nodded, slipping into his Texan hospitality. “Sure thing. Come on in. You got any bags?”
“No.” He held up the satchel. “Just this.”
Their host took the satchel so that Rodriguez didn’t have to carry it, and the Mexican archaeologist gave him a grateful smile. Asa led the way into the house, and Joely and Sera flanked Rodriguez as he went up the steps, ready to spot him if he should start to topple. He made it into the house without incident, and they got him set up in the living room on an easy chair.
“Thanks,” he said, his face a mask of fatigue and pain.
“No problem.”
Asa put the satchel down at Rodriguez’s feet and took a seat on the couch. Joely plopped down beside him, and Sera sat in another arm chair a few feet away.
Rodriguez reached into the bag and pulled out a manila folder, which he handed to Sera. “The fluid in the sarcophagus was similar to amniotic fluid, containing nutrients, hormones and antibodies, but it also had a few trace elements the lab wasn’t able to identify. The full chemical breakdown is listed there.”
Organic chemistry had never been her strong suit. She flipped through the folder as their new guest continued talking.
“There were a number of articles in a storage space at the bottom of the, I guess, coffin…”
“Hibernation unit,” she corrected, looking at a photograph of Theyn still in suspended animation.
“What articles?” Asa asked.
“There’s a list with photographs there in the file.” He adjusted his sling. “Everything that was in the coffin was taken to Mexico City. I don’t know where they put it, but the government has it.”
She found the list and photographs. There was a stun unit, like the one that Beno had been using, and a host of other objects that she couldn’t quite identify.
Beno, Theyn, she called. Can you hear me?
Loud and clear, Theyn responded. Is everything all right?
So far, so good. Listen, if I look at something, can you see it through my eyes?
I can’t, but Beno could.
Beno’s voice chimed in. Show me.
She examined the list and photographs again, focusing as hard as she could so that the images would hopefully be clear when he looked for them in her mind. What is all this stuff?
Ah, Beno said.
Ah?
She could feel Theyn smiling. I left the majority of our supplies with Theyn when we went into our separate pods. That’s what you’re looking at. The stunner you know…
Intimately, she quipped.
Now they both smiled. The second picture shows our communication unit. The third is scientific tools. The fourth is a medical kit… we could really use that. The fourth is Theyn’s totem.
Your totem?
He hesitated, then told her, I am a priest of the Burning One.
She blinked. Wow. You’re full of surprises.
“Sera?” Joely asked. “Are you okay?”
She looked up, surprised. “Oh, yes. Sorry. These pictures are just fascinating.”
Rodriguez nodded. “They really are. And so are their owners. I was hoping I would have a chance to talk to them. There’s so much we can learn from each other, don’t you think?” He fixed a focused look on Sera’s face. “Are they here?”
Asa saved her with a deceptive truth. “There ain’t no aliens in this house, Mr. Rodriguez.”
He looked disappointed. “Where did they go?”
The cowboy shrugged. “I can’t rightly say, sir. They left the house together.”
“So they were here.”
“For a while, yeah.” He looked into Rodriguez’s eyes with a silent dare to press the point. “But they ain’t here now.”
The newcomer tapped his toe once in agitation. “That’s unfortunate. Very unfortunate.”
Sera asked, “For whom?”
“For me.” He smiled. “Not many people can say that they’ve been able to speak to men from outer space.”
Joely stood up. “Listen, it’s hella late, and I’m tired. You said you’d been driving for hours, and you look like you could use a pain bill and a pillow. Let’s turn in and revisit all of this in the morning when we’re all awake.”
Rodriguez looked grateful. “That would be much appreciated, if you have the room.”
Asa nodded. “Yeah, we got the room. I won’t even make you take the stairs.”
“Kind of you.”
“I’m that way.”
Their host led Rodriguez down the hall toward a small first-floor guest room. Sera and Joely exchanged looks.
“He’s lying his ass off,” her assistant opined.
“I got that feeling, too.”
“I’ll bet he’s got a tracking device or a bug on him or something.”
Sera frowned. “It’s not outside the realm of possibility…”
I’m on it, Beno told her. Stay inside.
Not certain what else to do, she made her way up the stairs to the bedroom. She could hear Asa getting Rodriguez settled downstairs, then coming up to his own room to settle down for the night. Joely was already in her bed, fidgeting for a comfortable position, the springs creaking in protest.
Sera’s own room felt empty without her Ylian lovers there. Even though she knew they were just outside, she felt a hollowness as if they were a thousand miles away. She sat down on the bed, looking out the window at the bright moon and wishing she had never taken Rodriguez’s call.
What an idiot I am, she thought. I never should have given him this address. What the hell was I thinking?
Unexpectedly, Theyn’s voice answered her. What’s done is done. You had your reasons at the time. Be gentle with yourself. Everyone makes mistakes.
He was so reasonable and calm. She envied his serenity and marveled that he could stay so level-headed in the middle of what had to be an extraordinarily painful period in his life. Not everyone’s mistakes could cost the lives of people they care about, she argued.
Are you sure about that? Beno asked.
Theyn sighed. Both of you need to learn to forgive yourselves.
I will when I can atone for my sins, his partner said. Ah! Here it is. There’s a tiny transmitter on the vehicle, just under the steering column. His mental voice took on a tinge of satisfaction. Or there was.
She toppled over on the bed, her face settling into the pillow that had supported Theyn’s head last night. She could smell his exotic musk. She reached out and grabbed the other pillow, the one that had been beneath Beno’s head, and she brought it to her face. His spicier smell was there, and the combination of their scents made her mouth water.
I need you, she told them.
She could feel Theyn smiling. I would love to comply, but unt
il he leaves…
Come out here to us, Beno invited. There’s a loft over the barn filled with sweet-smelling vegetation. If you bring a blanket or two, it might be comfortable for sleeping.
Theyn added, Or anything else you might like to do.
She shivered. I can’t even tell you how tempting that is…
Then come down.
Beno’s voice was warm and seductive in her head, like the whisper of the devil on her shoulder. Theyn laughed softly in response, tempting her with promises of his own. She grabbed the bedspread and pillows from the bed along with a folded quilt from the closet and crept toward the stairs.
She tiptoed down the stairs, nearly holding her breath in her attempt to be quiet. The rest of the house was silent around her, the darkness hiding her as she tried to slink out the door. She had nearly reached the kitchen when she heard Rodriguez’s voice in his room.
He was speaking quietly, but in the silent house, his words carried. He was speaking Spanish. “I’m here,” he said. He hesitated, listening. “No, I haven’t seen them. Cooper is here, and her students. They said they left.”
She leaned against the wall, the bedding clutched in her arms. She listened harder.
“There’s a big ditch in the ground here, with some scorching on the soil. I don’t know what that’s from.” He paused. “No, not that much. Where are you?”
She wished that she could read his mind and hear who he was talking to, or the other side of the conversation. Maybe she knew someone who could.
Beno, she called. Can you read minds from a distance?
He seemed surprised by her question. If depends on how much distance, and whose mind…
Can you read Rodriguez from where you are?
There was silence as he tried. No. I’m too far away.
Theyn suggested, She can be your power locus. It should work, since we’re bonded now.
Awakening Page 9
