"Oh, so you're not biased against Hernando because he's part Pure Blood?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Olivia Anne. I don't judge people on the basis of their heritage."
"Really? Forgive me for thinking you'd more worried about having grandkids with fangs than the fact he's an ambassador. Most mothers would be happy to tell their friends their son-in-law is a diplomat."
"Son-in-law?" Her mother's expression clouded, changing from worried to outright horror. "You don't mean you two have...have..."
Olivia didn't feel like letting her parent off the hook. Why not make her think she and Hernando were married? For all she knew, his declaring of love and wanting to be "bound" to her meant the same thing as a legal marriage in Earth societies. "It's between the two of us. I am an adult now, remember? You can't live my life for me."
She stomped out of the room and up the stairs, taking them two at a time, slamming the bedroom door behind her. Tears of anger coursed down her cheeks. She sniffed them back and plopped face down on her bed, crying herself to sleep.
*****
The dream began twelve months ago with her standing in her cell in the quarantine detention facility located somewhere in the Appalachians. At first, the returnees had all been separated and interrogated individually at the United Nations building before being shuttled to the remote destination located in a little known valley of West Virginia, as she'd eventually gathered from their keepers. Her relief of being back on Earth could barely keep her anger at their ill-treatment in check. She had paced the small area of the locked room, staring out the tiny window at the wooded peaks in the green of early summer and wondering what they had done to deserve such unfair treatment
It had been her idea to land in the middle of the U.N. General Assembly while they were in session—and why not? Their first group of returnees included people from over two dozen countries. What easier way to repatriate them all than by passing them off to their respective ambassadors?
Of course, the diplomats freaked out at the sight of fifty people suddenly materializing in front of their eyes during a Security Council hearing. The security guards were on top of them before they could take a step or say a word. When the members of the august body first glimpsed Hernando's fangs as he smiled in friendship... Olivia shuddered at the thought. Their horrified shouts and screams reverberated ten-fold in the large hall.
We are being invaded! We're being attacked! How did they get in? How can we stop them?
Hernando kept silent after he realized his presence had caused alarm, allowing Olivia to take over as spokesperson. "Don't panic," she had told the assembly. "We're human abductees who have returned home."
Her words had little calming effect. Hernando had been seized and separated from the rest of the returnees, guarded by a large contingent of law officers. She and the other abducted humans were rounded up, questioned as to the truthfulness of Olivia's assertion they were all—save Hernando—human beings and had been missing for some time from their homelands. A thorough medical check-up, which included blood testing and fingerprinting, placated the officials that those claiming to be human were indeed human and had, for the most part, been reported as missing to authorities.
Why they all had to be shipped to a low-security prison—what else could she call it?—to be kept away from the public's eye made little sense to her. She had informed the guards they were all healthy and the Portal dematerialization process had killed off any bacteria or germs that they may have had on their bodies when they were transported, but their guards acted like they all carried Ebola or worse. Their bunny suits and gas masks weirded her out.
More thorough medical examinations had followed. Olivia worried about the Peruvian sisters, Maria and Anita. They were simple country girls. How were they coping with being separated from each other and dealing with people who looked more like "aliens from outer space" than anyone on BloodDark ever did?
Aliens. I'm dreaming about being treated like an alien, like I don't belong here. On my home world, why do I feel like I don't belong?
Her dream shifted to several weeks later in their quarantine period. The bunny suits and gas masks had been replaced with men and women wearing military fatigues and the blue berets of the UN. She and the other abductees were now allowed to socialize with each other in the mess hall and exercise yard. Olivia gave a sigh of relief when the sisters were reunited. They were in good spirits, but her heart had plummeted when she spied her African friend looking dejected and still without her baby.
"When are you going to release us?" she had asked a guard the day the bunny suits came off. "You know we're not going to infect the planet with some strange alien virus. You've had time to check out our abduction stories. Why can't we talk to our families? Why are we being treated like we've committed a crime or something worse? We're victims not criminals!"
"It would be better for you all if you were just simple criminals," the blond woman with a Scandinavian accent had replied with a shrug. "We'd know what to do with you if you were."
Not quite human—not quite alien. We've become some other sort of hybrid being. We're not "pure blooded human" anymore. We are to be watched and guarded. We are not allowed to associate with the general populace. We have become aliens in our own lands.
Is this how the Pure Bloods of BloodDark felt after their ship crashed? Did they sense they could never return home again? Did they understand what life would be like for them if they returned, altered in their genetic make-up, the discrimination, the recriminations, the fear?
The dream shifted again. Olivia's words had struck home, or so she'd like to think. Probably the united effort of all the returned abductees emphasizing how they didn't constitute a threat and their families should be informed of their return had worn down their captors' patience. She'd never forget the sunny day when she spied the plain white school bus coming over the ridge toward the front gate of the prison as the detainees strolled the exercise yard. As the bus door opened and the people inside filed out, Olivia's heart leapt into her throat.
"Mom! Dad! It's me!" She had run into their arms and buried her head against their shoulders, baptizing them with tears of happiness. Wails of relief echoed across the mountain valley as spouses, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, were reunited with their loved ones.
All except her African friend whose name Olivia could never quite pronounce.
"Where are her people?" she'd demanded as the guards escorted the families into the mess hall for a meal. "She has a family—she has a baby and a husband."
"We're working on it." The gray-haired military type she assumed was in charge gritted his teeth like the mere notion of speaking to Olivia made him uncomfortable. "Her people don't show up on any recent census records. It's a pretty remote area where her tribe lives, and there's not many speakers of her dialect."
Olivia stood tall and crossed her arms, staring daggers at him. She was not going to be brushed off. "You could have at least brought someone on the bus who speaks her language so she'd not feel left out of the reunion."
Military Type shrugged. "It's not up to me. Besides, no one is sure her family still exists. Maybe the vampires took the whole lot of them and they're still there—wherever there is."
As Olivia's parents hurried her away toward the mess hall, she realized what the gray-haired man had said to her. Vampire. Hernando? It sounded like they were no further along in deducing where BloodDark was than the day they had materialized at the U.N. as well. Had Hernando kept silent all this time? Why hadn't he tapped his bio-transmitter, sending the emergency signal to be retrieved?
The ruling council decided before they left BloodDark Hernando alone would have the Portal signal transmitter implanted, since none of the abductees expressed an overwhelming interest in ever returning. The ruling council had also decided Hernando would be the only BloodDark native representative to Earth and no others would transport to Earth until he gave the signal it was safe to do so. Sending a Pure Blood was out of
the question, and the majority of Overseers were considered to be in the Pure Blood's camp and untrustworthy. A Quadsang such as Hernando was the best possible choice to act as ambassador.
Olivia thought his pointed canine teeth gave Hernando a sexy appearance and fit well with his handsome features, light brown skin and dark chocolate-brown hair and eyes. Little did she realize how upsetting his fangs would be to humankind at first sight.
Olivia had brought her parents to sit with her African friend, hoping their cheerfulness would break through the language barriers and help ease her friend's heartache. She vowed she'd see her friend returned home to her family before long. She vowed she would see Hernando again and establish him as BloodDark ambassador to Earth.
Eventually she did. Within three months, the abductees had all been repatriated and Hernando recognized as the first U.N. official representative from another world.
The images of the dream faded.
I know why the day the bus arrived stands out in my memory. It's because of the pure joy of being reunited with my parents and because after so many weeks I knew Hernando was alive and keeping the authorities on their toes. It kept me going. It kept me fighting. It kept me working on the blond guard until she agreed to mail a letter for me to a "friend of a friend" who I knew could get us out of that place, and it worked. The independent journalists arrived and the media circus broke the story worldwide. We were set free.
I helped one group of people break their chains of slavery on BloodDark, and then I helped us who were unjustly imprisoned on Earth to be released. I am a fighter. I am a solver of problems. I will solve this one.
Chapter Four
Her family would never forget this Thanksgiving ever. A regular Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? moment awaited them.
Olivia found it next to impossible to contain her excitement. Already this morning she had dusted and polished the furniture in the living and dining rooms, vacuumed the carpets and rugs, scrubbed the bathrooms until the porcelain surfaces shined, and helped her mother unpack and wash the family china to set the Thanksgiving table. This family reunion would be one for the record books.
A familiar chime on her cell phone made her squeal and almost drop the platter she was drying. "Sorry." She lay the precious antique plate down on the counter and darted out of the kitchen. She peeked through the front window sheers and watched as the limousine rolled around the corner and drove up the block to stop in front of their house.
"Are your Uncle Biff and Aunt Martha here already?" her mother called out from where she was making gravy on the stove.
"Not exactly." Olivia bounced up and down in place as she waited for her guests to ring the doorbell. She couldn't remember being more excited in her life to spring a surprise on her parents and extended family. Even serenading them with her horrible rendition of O Holy Night at Christmas when she was five couldn't top this.
She pounced on the door just as the bell chimed. "Hernando, Valori, Annara—how lovely to see you. Won't you come in?"
Olivia escorted her BloodDark friends from the entry way and into the living room proper, taking their traditional long cloaks to hang on the coat stand. "I apologize for the cold and snow. It's been a very odd autumn weather-wise in the Midwest. Last year it was almost 80 degrees Fahrenheit on Thanksgiving Day."
"You did tell me about snow, remember?" Valori's dark gray eyes twinkled as she pulled Olivia into a hug. "I didn't believe frozen water could fall from the sky. I thought you'd made it up just to laugh at me when I fell for it. Now I see you were telling the truth."
Olivia squeezed her friend and then let her go. "I'd never tell you a lie, Valori, and well you know it."
"It's good to see you again, my sister in arms," Annara said, giving Olivia a quick hug. She whispered into Olivia's ear, "Have you told Hernando about our plan?"
"Not yet. He'll be of more use to us being kept in the dark at this point," she whispered back.
"What? No hug for me?" Hernando's wicked grin made her heart beat faster. "You don't even miss me after... how long?"
Olivia pulled him into her arms and kissed him soundly on the lips. "It's only been a month since you visited at Halloween and scared all those trick-or-treaters on our front porch with your Dracula impression. Or had you forgotten?"
He returned the kiss with equal enthusiasm, letting her up for air after she started feeling light-headed. "I need a good reminder from time to time," he murmured.
The basement door squeaked opened. Olivia's father came first up the stairs. He had been demonstrating his latest model railroad layout downstairs to her eight-year-old identical twin cousins, Peter and Paul, who'd arrived an hour earlier.
"Who's this at the door?" her father asked. "Your folks said they were getting another pie and some more wine. That was the quickest trip to the grocery store on record." Julian paused and smiled a welcome as he took in the three newcomers in the living room. "Hello again, Hernando, and these lovely ladies are?"
"Dad, these are my very dear friends from BloodDark, Valori and Annara." Olivia extended her hand out to remind them of the Earth custom of shaking hands. "Valori, Annara, this is my father, Julian Brown."
Valori presented her hand first to shake. Julian let go of it in mid-shake, flinching like he'd received an electric shock. Valori grinned. "I see where Olivia gets her courage now."
"You do?" He chuckled. "I always thought it was her mother's pig-headed stubbornness. Olivia's got more than her fair share of that trait."
"She shares her mother's trait, too, but she's learned a lot from you. She senses how hard it was for you growing up, bullied for being a good student while living in a poor area, and for being looked over for promotion in your career because of the color of your skin." Valori stopped as she saw the look on Julian's face turn from one of humor to amazement. "Am I not correct?"
Olivia came to her father's side. "Uh, I forgot to tell you, Dad. Valori can see the future and learn a lot about a person just from shaking his hand." She guided Valori over to the sofa. "Why don't you have a seat now, and I'll get us all something to drink."
Annara stepped up and shook Julian's hand before he could respond. "Nice to meet you, sir. Never fear, I don't read minds. I'm just your regular girl who can shoot an insect off the top of your head at a hundred paces."
"How comforting to know." Julian mopped his brow with his ever-present pocket handkerchief. "Are all your friends from the other world this...fascinating, Ollie?"
"These are my normal friends, Dad. You'd love to meet the more fascinating ones."
The twins came crashing up the stairs and into the living room. "Cousin Olivia, do all your friends have fangs like the ones we saw in the online video?" Peter asked.
"Just me." Hernando smiled and kneeled down to tousle the strawberry-blond hair of the rambunctious boys. "See?"
"Cool," Paul said, mesmerized. "How did you get them?"
"I suppose from my father. He's half Pure Blood. It makes me what we call a Quadsang, a quarter Pure Blood. Some Quadsang have pointy teeth and some don't. I lucked out and got the cool fangs."
"Awesome!" the twins cried in unison.
"Okay, boys, let's leave your cousin Olivia and her friends to converse in peace. I can show you some of my other models in my study." Julian did his best to steer the twins out of the living room, but they'd have none of it.
"Can we take you to our school and show you to our friends?" Paul asked. "They'd never believe us if we told them we ate Thanksgiving dinner with a vampire."
"We don't call people from BloodDark vampires, remember, guys?" Olivia reminded them. "They're people just like us."
Peter giggled. "People with vampire teeth."
"All right, let's scoot." Olivia's father sighed and took Peter by the hand. Paul crossed his arms and set his face in a fixed stare, refusing to budge. "Paul? Listen to your Uncle Julian. I don't want to tell your mom and dad you didn't listen to me when they get back from the store."
"I want
to borrow Ollie's camera phone and take a picture of her friend's fangs," Paul insisted. "I can send it to Aaron's phone 'cause his parents got him one for his birthday."
"Here, you can use my camera phone." Hernando rose and retrieved his mobile device from his cloak pocket. "I'm pretty famous here on Earth, so you two better get in the picture so your friend believes you actually ate Thanksgiving dinner with me. How's that, guys?"
"Great!"
"Olivia, would you be so kind?" Hernando adopted his diplomatic posture as she called it, handing her the device with a slight nod of the head.
"Sure, why not." Olivia accepted the camera phone and positioned the twins to stand on either side of Hernando. He knelt on one knee and put an arm around their shoulders, smiling broadly at the camera. "Say cheese."
"Can we say blood instead?" Paul asked. Peter giggled.
Why didn't I see this coming, showing off in front of my BloodDark friends? Olivia frowned. "No, you may not. It's cheese or nothing."
They obliged and she snapped the photo. "There. You give me your friend's email, and I'll send it. You guys happy now?"
"How about a video?" Peter tilted his head and grinned. "That way Aaron will know it's for real and not a fake picture."
"Out. Now." Olivia pointed to the hallway. She had lost all patience. Her father steered the boys out of the living room and toward his study. She breathed a long sigh of relief and returned to her guests. "I apologize for the interruption. Hernando is used to the publicity hounds, but I don't think I'll ever be—even when they're my own pushy little twin cousins."
"Your cousins are well-loved and wanted, I can tell," Valori said with a far off look. "Their mother was overjoyed when she discovered she was pregnant with two babies."
"You can tell just from looking at them?" Annara's frown demonstrated her doubt. "Their mother isn't even in the house."
Valori nodded. "She's coming up the porch stairs, and I can sense her happiness at being with her extended family, her joy today at seeing her favorite niece."
Olivia's Return Page 3
