He cupped her cheek and ran the pad of his thumb over her lower lip. “You should always be protected. I don’t want to see you harmed, Lauren.”
And if he kept that up, she’d slide down the trunk in a pile of goo despite that fact they were under attack. All the breath left her lungs in a whoosh as she just stared at him. “I don’t want to see me harmed either.”
That sounded so lame , but when you had a hunk of masculinity looking down at you like you were the most precious thing in the whole world, not a lot of words readily came to mind.
Neon blue hardened into flints. “Do you understand, Lauren?”
She nodded, immediately missing his palm when he released her cheek. He started climbing down, immediately looking for her when she just stood there staring at him. At his frown, she quickly followed his lead.
Several people passed them, crashing through the foliage, both on the same tree and those close by. She was a whole lot slower without suction-cups for fingertips. She climbed as quickly as she possibly could, but even then, twigs and gnarled knots scratched her skin and clothing.
“How far up did he take me?” She panted. She really felt like Jack climbing down the beanstalk. Bursts of flame seemed to follow them. Leaves and branches rained down, hitting her, trying their best to dislodge her grip. Creatures squealed and barked. Shouts and yells of the people sounded throughout the forest.
She gasped as a lancing pain sliced down her arm. The steaming end of a jagged branch cut her as it fell. Blood welled and started to drip.
“Lauren! You’re hurt!” Jo’Aquin started to climb up to her, his face tense.
“It’s OK. Keep going. Let’s just…get to the ground.” She was tired and hurt. Her limbs trembled, and her grip was becoming weaker. She didn’t know how long she could keep climbing. If she stopped now, she didn’t think she could keep climbing. “How tall can this tree be?”
Jo’Aquin went to speak, and she held out a trembling palm. “Don’t say it.”
A flash and a fireball erupted on a nearby tree. She jerked. Lost her grip. Her foot slipped, and she slid. She dug her fingernails into the bark, desperately trying to stop her slide. Her leg snagged in a branch. An arm at her waist. Something hard pounded into her stomach, and her breath whooshed out.
She gasped in a breath. Her chest locked. Her mouth gaped open. She tried to breathe. Nothing. Once. Twice. Then her chest released and she sucked precious air into her lungs. She panted, hanging limply over the branch. Her whole body trembled.
“Lauren! Lauren! Do you hear me?” Jo’Aquin’s voice filtered through the ringing in her ears.
She managed to lift her head and nod. The thump of the branch into her gut still pounded through her body. Her world spun before she grasped at solid heat. Her wrists were tugged upwards. “Hold onto me.” It wasn’t a question.
She nodded. Another fireball. So close. She dove her face into his chest. Numbly,. She realised he was doing the very thing she’d argued with him about. However, she hurt too much now to care.
She hugged Joe close. His scent surrounded her, and she drank it in. His strength. His tenacity. It was calming, so calming. A part of her knew that she was a burden, but another part, a bigger part was so shell-shocked that her body was a separate entity that her mind could no longer control.
They flew for a moment. His arms came around her before a final jolt. Her eyes snapped open. They were on the ground!
There was a flash of fire. Dirt flew as another fireball hit the ground. Jo’Aquin uttered a curse and darted away, hunching over her. She still clung to him. But she was hindering him. Slowing him down too much. If she didn’t run for herself, she’d not only kill herself, she’d kill him. Adrenaline surged through her limbs.
“Let me down.” She dropped her legs from around his waist knowing he wasn’t going to listen to her. “I’m slowing both of us down. I’m okay now.” Her feet hit the ground, but his arms were still around her. “If you don’t let me go, we both die.”
She grabbed his hand, turned and barrelled through the underbrush. Colourful leaves flashed by, and still fire thundered around them. Jo’Aquin dodged as another fireball hit the dirt right in front of them.
There was a yell. MalCom’s face through the leaves, hailing them. Jo’Aquin darted towards him. Another fireball. Jo’Aquin jerked sideways around raining debris. There was a hole. No, not a hole. A cave.
Faces shadowed in the darkness. MalCom. Mother. Strangers. A line of fire streaked down, burning through the foliage. Lauren ducked and protected her head as dirt pounded over them.
“It’s as if they know where we are!” Lauren gasped.
Jo’Aquin’s eyes narrowed and his mouth drew into a straight line before his fingers tightened around her hand. “Faster.”
She was propelled by his strength and speed, her feet barely touching the ground. Fire thundered after them. Jo’Aquin barrelled into the cave entrance as a fire-ball dug into the earth behind them. They landed heavily, limbs tangled and panting. Rocks and sharp gravel cut into her shoulder. Fire streaked into the cave, blasting shards of rock over their heads. Jo’Aquin covered her body with his.
“Mother!” Jo’Aquin roared.
Dazed, Lauren looked up to see Mother’s face hovering above hers.
“They’re tracking her.”
“What?” Lauren jerked up, but was held down by his large hands on her shoulders.
“Look at me!” Mother crackled. Confused, Lauren looked into Mother’s gnarled face and milky eyes before darkness devoured her.
12
“S he’s beyond help. She’s too far gone to be of any use.” A dry voice drifted through deep layers, as though echoing down a corridor.
“There must be something we can do.” Tension laced the deep, masculine voice.
No-one spoke. She was about to drift off in the heavy silence, when anger jolted her upwards. “Tell me!”
There was a heavy sigh. “Only one thing, if she’s to be saved from her fate–and all others.”
Beyond help. Saved. Fate . Confusion laced her mind. They spoke about her? It was the last thing she wanted to do, but she fought through the veils that wanted to take her back into the darkness.
With immense effort, she forced her eyelids to crack open to flickering firelight. Shadowed silhouettes sat around a small fire, hunched over the flames. Sitting between them, Mother accepted a steaming cup from MalCom. Jo’Aquin sat beside her prone form, rigid and downcast, staring at Mother. Lauren shuddered. She wouldn’t want to be on the other end of that look.
“Tell me, and it will be done, old woman!”
She wanted to speak. To ask them what they were talking about, but her body refused to do much more than lie there…wherever she was. She felt strange. As though she wasn’t quite in her body, like her spirit and body had settled into a misaligned three-dimensional drawing.
“Free us all, and she will also be freed,” Mother said. Why did she always have to speak in riddles? Her words brought no comfort. They never had.
Jo’Aquin’s head hung and his shoulders rounded. He looked so alone. Lonely. He needed comfort. It took a lot of effort to move her arm, but she managed to curl her palm over his massive thigh.
He turned to her, surprise washed his face. He placed his palms on her cheeks, moving so quickly to kneel in front of her that all she saw was a blur. “You’re awake!”
Lethargy tugged her limbs, but her eyes managed to stay open. “I think so.”
“Easy.” Jo’Aquin helped her sit up, hands supporting her body when she would have slumped back to the ground. She was just so tired, it was a struggle to do much more than pant as though she’d run a marathon.
Dark shadows danced on brown rock around them, hard and cold. A dank earthy smell struck her nostrils. There was a distinct lack of colourful leaves and sunshine. They weren’t in an igloo. Or on the tree. “Where are we?”
“Deep in a cave. Do you remember the attack?”
She f
rowned, her mind ticking so slowly, as though she was mentally wading through mud. Images flickered…fire, falling people, yelling. Screams. Blood. Bodies. Memories assaulted her. A horrible taste stung her tongue as bile threatened to rise. She grasped Jo’Aquin’s forearms, terror racing through her. “Reptiles!”
Running. Tripping. Dodging flames and explosions. Mother’s face looming bigger and bigger until it was all she saw. She clawed Jo’Aquin’s forearms. “Everyone’s in danger!”
Jo’Aquin’s fingers momentarily tightened around her arms. “The crystals in this cave protects us.”
Lauren swallowed thickly. “Shanaea. She’s hurt. Fell…”
He shook his head, his gaze hardened. “She didn’t make it, Lauren.”
“Oh God, Oh God. Oh God. No!” Not that sweet girl. Lauren’s gaze slid from face to face, but no-one denied it. The same look was etched into their features. Tiredness. Horror. Shock. Loss. Resignation. She clutched Jo’Aquin, drawing strength from him. That beautiful girl. She had her whole life in front of her. Now dead. “No. It can’t be.”
“Many died in this attack,” MalCom said. “If we don’t act, more will die. It all comes down to you.”
She looked, uncomprehending, at MalCom. He looked as weary and shell-shocked as everyone else, but there was a grim set to his mouth and a determined angle to his chin. “Me? What am I going to do?”
“Not now, Leader! She is still recovering,” Jo’Aquin said.
“Better to be recovering than dead like so many others,” MalCom muttered.
Her heart beat a rapid path. “Why does it come down to me? I don’t even come from this world. I don’t know anything at all.” She looked from person to person, confused as all hell about why MalCom would think something would ever come down to her.
Mother shuffled closer to the fire and splayed her gnarled fingers towards the heat. “It’s the implant.”
“Implant? From the Reptiles. You said you took it out.” At least she thought Mother had taken it out. She’d certainly lived through something . Dread swirled in the pit of her stomach. She tried to ignore it, but doing so only seemed to stir it up even more.
“I did. But some part of it remains in your body.” Firelight reflected in Mother’s black eyes.
Lauren put her fingertips to her forehead. She didn’t feel anything. No lump. No bump. “How can you tell it’s still there?”
“Because the Reptiles tracked you. There’s a residue of the implant in your bloodstream. That was how they found our village,” Bitterness laced MalCom’s voice. “We were safe. Hidden. Until you came. It is the only explanation.”
Lauren struggled to breathe as his words sunk in. “No. No! I can’t… I didn’t know…I’m sorry...so, so sorry.”
“The implant is made to dissolve into the blood. Changes your DNA when it takes hold. The implant becomes a part of your body. Takes over the mind. I saw it happen to my people. Men. Women. Children. Lost,” Mother said. “You’ll be lost too. It will just take a little longer.”
Her gaze darted from Mother to Jo’Aquin. “Deny it, Joe. Tell me it isn’t true. Tell me she’s wrong!”
His mouth thinned as he struggled. Pain flashed over his face before he schooled it perfectly back in place. “I cannot.”
Lauren gasped in deep breaths. Stared blindly at the fire. She thought the implant was gone. That she was safe. Now she was doomed to be a mindless slave to the Reptiles. A deep shudder ran through her body. Those evil creatures would own her. She would be powerless. They would be able to do whatever they wanted to her, and she would have no control.
Her skin scrawled. She scratched her arm. There was dirt underneath. Filth. She couldn’t quite get to it. “Get the rest of it out. Get it out of me now!”
Mother shook her head, “It cannot be done.”
Lauren licked dry lips, scratching harder. “Then…then I’m going to…”
“You’ll be enslaved like our people. It’s only a matter of time,” MalCom said, pinning her with a dead stare.
She blinked up at Jo’Aquin, tears blurring her vision. A trail of blood welled where she scratched. She watched the trail slide across her skin as though it wasn’t her arm.
“No! No.” Her chest constricted. Breath was trapped in her lungs. She hiccupped with the need to breathe, heat cloaking her skin with perspiration. The Reptiles had tracked the village through her. Everyone had been safe. Now they were dead. They’d lost their home. But she was still here. They could still be found because the implant could still be tracked. “They’ll find us again. Kill more people!”
She dug her fingers into the solid flesh of Jo’Aquin’s thigh. “I…I can’t let that happen. Kill me. Please. Kill me now before they attack and kill any more people!”
Jo’Aquin wrapped her hand in his, sure and strong. She didn’t realise how cold she was until the heat of his hand spread into her fingers. She looked up into his face, expecting to see…well, she didn’t know what she expected to see, but it wasn’t the anger that radiated towards her. “Joe?”
“You will. Not. Die .” His face darkened into something resembling rage.
He was angry ! Well, she was angry too! More than angry. Rage bubbled up from the place she’d kept locked so tight for years. Pressure built, tighter and tenser, straining against her better judgement until the lid couldn’t stand the strain any longer. It had taken as much abuse as it could. When the lid snapped, so did she. “You think I want this to happen? That I want to be here? That I want to die? I didn’t ask for that fucking lizard to come and steal me from my planet. I was lost! In the middle of nowhere. I didn’t even know there were aliens. The best thing that could have happened is if they killed me right then and there. Then I wouldn’t have had to come here, and…have a hope after…after cancer…after death, and…then have it all taken away from me. So much death. I can’t…can’t take it anymore. I just can’t.” Tears tracked down her cheeks. She hadn’t realised she’d been crying until one slipped on her lips and she tasted salt. She brushed it aside with the back of her hand, angry at herself for crying. She’d done enough of that for a hundred people for ten lifetimes.
She should have ended it all on that lonely stretch of highway, and innocent people would still be alive. She was done with crying. Done with death. Done with everything. She scratched both arms now, itching like a thousand ants were beneath her skin.
The world spun and the next thing she knew she was captured with one arm about her shoulders and the other beneath her knees. He hugged her to his solid chest while he ripped a bundle of branches from the fire.
“Where are you taking her?’ MalCom stood.
Jo’Aquin paused. “She needs to understand. She needs time.”
“She does understand,” MalCom said.
“She doesn’t know everything. I will tell her. Away from you.”
She slung her arms around his neck as he stalked into the shadows of the cave. “Joe? Joe! Where are we going?”
He didn’t answer. She tried to wriggle from his arms, but all he did was tighten his grip, holding her immobile. Instead of being afraid, she felt the opposite. Impossibly safe and secure, as though in his arms he would protect her against anything. The itching died down.
But that wasn’t reality. It was just a facade.
Just like these last few days in the tree house. A reprieve. Death was her life on Earth, Mike’s death, the smell of death at all of those hospitals, the subsequent death of her life, her despair. It had chased her from Earth.
On they walked, past people resting against cave walls, until they reached a tunnel that was quiet and damp, far away from the village refugees, away from accusing eyes. Flames danced over the damp cave walls. A trickle of water sounded deeper into the blackness.
“Put me down, Joe.” She sounded as tired as she felt. Defeated. Drained.
He stopped, reluctantly freed her legs and slowly slid her down his big body. She felt every lump of lean muscle over every inch of her body
until her feet hit the ground. She stepped back, her legs shaky.
“We’ll work a way around this.” Jo’Aquin’s dark eyes searched her face before he gently pushed her back and balanced her on her feet. She immediately missed his body heat and the solid wall of muscles holding her safe. Too bad she couldn’t copy that and take it with her into the afterlife.
She offered a shaky laugh. “You sound so adamant. Believe me, death isn’t something you have control over. I should know.”
“It isn’t your time, Lauren. You deserve life.”
His voice was low, gravelly. His neon eyes glowed, even more now they were mostly in the dark. Something in that look called to her. Made her think that her life was worth more than she’d ever given it credit for.
Lauren pressed her palm to the centre of his chest. His heart beat strong and steady beneath those toned muscles, and she couldn’t help but brush her fingertips over that wide expanse, feel the ridges of muscle undulate beneath her fingers.
She sighed, offering him a tight smile. “You know, death is a funny thing. You spend your whole life trying to avoid it. You eat right, stay healthy, do all the right things, all to grasp a bit of extra time. The truth is, all of that stress goes away when you accept your death.”
She bit her bottom lip, studying his chest. “Nothing can stop the inevitable. Just like a terminal disease. In reality, I was dead the moment they took me from Earth. It’s just a bit delayed. It’s up to me to accept my death now. I can’t put these people in any more danger than I already have. I can’t live with myself if I cause any more death.”
Jo’Aquin clutched her shoulders. “You have a choice.”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t. Not really. It’s only a matter of time before I turn into one of those mindless slaves. I feel it already, like something’s itching in my veins, waiting to come out.”
A muscle worked at his temple as he studied her for a long moment. “Lauren, you don’t understand. There is a way you can survive.”
13
JoAquin_An Alien Abduction Paranormal Romance Page 8
