Reborn

by Fall, Carly

  And it felt really, really good. His pride had stopped him from ever telling one of his fellow Warriors. Besides, what could they do for him? He imagined they would feel bad for him, but besides Talin and Cohen, none of them had ever really been in love prior to Abby and Faith showing up, so they wouldn’t understand. Prior to Abby, he supposed that Noah would give him an uppercut and tell him to get over it. But now that Noah was mated, Hudson knew he could understand. But before Abby? Yeah, the guy would have tried to beat it out of Hudson.

  So here sat Beverly, who had discovered his greatest secret and pretty much flayed him, exposing his raw insides and just how far at his own personal rock bottom he had fallen.

  Feeling a bit of elation, what he did next surprised them both.

  He took her in his arms and gingerly drew her to him. He heard her breath catch, and then her arms slowly snaked around his neck.

  It felt good. He didn’t know a lot about her, but she wasn’t some miscellaneous stranger, as was usually the case with the women he came in contact with. Her body was small and warm and very comforting, like hot chocolate and a warm fire on a bitter cold night.

  “Thank you, Beverly,” he said softly. “Thanks for everything.”

  He heard the smile in her voice when she said, “I didn’t do much, Hudson.”

  He chuckled and inhaled her pretty scent. Something like springtime-fresh and slightly flowery. “On the contrary, Bev. Give yourself some credit. You saved my life. You stitched me up, and now you made me vow not to end my life. I don’t take vows lightly, Bev. So yeah, you’ve saved it twice.”

  She laughed and held his neck a little tighter. After a moment, he let go of her, and they were eye to eye, their faces just inches apart.

  “I’m here if you need someone besides your friends to talk to,” she said in a low voice.

  He couldn’t keep his eyes from her lips. They were full and soft and…well, they were just so damn kissable. Her breathing was coming in shallow spurts, and he watched her eyes grow darker. He found it interesting the way the color changed depending on her mood. When she was angry or…feeling desire? Was that what he was seeing? Whatever it was, her eyes became a very dark green. When she laughed or smiled, they seemed to lighten to something like a fern or asparagus. He wondered what she would say if he said her eyes were an asparagus green. He smiled that he could equate the color of someone’s eyes to food, and he wondered if that was a sign of an excellent chef or just fucked up brain neurons.

  A real smile. He smiled because he was…happy?

  Huh.

  Shit, he hoped his lip didn’t split again with this smiling stuff.

  He remembered she had said something about starting over. Did that starting over include an abusive husband or lover? Did starting over mean she was running from someone or something? He needed to know exactly what it meant, and if he could help her, he would.

  Well, well, well. She had found out his secret, gutted him, exposed him raw. Yet, she had only offered a glimpse at her poker hand. He decided he needed to know more about the elusive Beverly and this “starting over” business, not to mention the “I’ve lost everything” stuff.

  “I’ve showed you mine, Beverly, although against my will. Now it’s your turn to show me yours.”

  Her eyes flared, confusion dancing across her face, and he wondered exactly what she was thinking.

  “Secrets, Beverly. Secrets,” he clarified.

  As he gently pulled her back against the mattress so they were side by side, shoulder to shoulder, staring up at the ceiling, he could feel Beverly’s uncertainty, but he wasn’t about to let this one go.

  “I’m really not comfortable talking about things, Hudson.”

  He let out a bark that sounded a little bit like a laugh. “And you think that little discussion we just had was easy for me? Do you think it’s easy to be found out like that? C’mon, Bev. Maybe I can help you in some way. I want to help you.”

  She continued to stare at the ceiling, and he wondered if she was going to talk. “Seriously, Hudson, I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

  Turning his head, he studied her profile. “Why don’t you start with what happened with your mom,” he said quietly.

  After a moment, she closed her eyes and started talking.

  ***

  As Hudson listened to her quiet voice, the demon pain inside him was replaced with a stark raving rage aimed at himself. He had only felt this type of anger when confronted with a Colonist.

  He had to admit, it was a nice change from the pain.

  Describing her mother’s suicide and the effect it had on her had made him cringe. How could he have been so selfish? The hurt and betrayal she spoke of made him hate himself just a little bit more. If he had done even a tenth to Abby of what was done to Beverly…

  The thought shook him to his core, in a very unpleasant way. Yes, he knew Abby would be sad, but he figured she would eventually get over it. What if she didn’t? What if she fell into a life of drugs…or worse? What if he damaged her beyond even what Noah could do for her? Her mother had been taken from her, brutally murdered, and here he was, thinking about taking his own life…willingly.

  Jesus. He was such a selfish prick. To think he could have sent his beloved Abby on a downward spiral as deep and ugly as Beverly had been on…he vowed to himself he would simply have to find another way to deal with the carnage Iris had left in his heart and soul.

  As he berated himself over and over, raining a litany of silent curses on himself she said, “And I’m not a doctor.”

  Chapter 20

  Beverly shut her eyes, unable to believe that she had actually come clean with everything. Everything. She cringed inwardly as she wondered what his reaction would be to that little bomb.

  “I’m sorry?” he said quietly.

  “I’m not a doctor, Hudson.”

  Hudson went quiet for a moment. “Well, why…were you…why did you tell Faith you were? If you hadn’t, you wouldn’t have had to come here.”

  Now it was Beverly’s turn to go quiet. “I was once, Hudson. My medical license was stripped from me when I was caught stealing pain pills from the hospital pharmacy. I was a drug addict. I don’t know why I told Faith I was a doctor. All I can say was that it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Faith seemed panicked, but very sweet. I felt I had to help her.”

  Hudson nodded, imagining the big, brown puppy-dog eyes that Faith had laid upon Beverly. “How did…how did it all happen?”

  “It was pretty simple. I was walking back to my room, and Faith ran into me. She said her friend needed a doctor, and that was about it.”

  He was quiet again, obviously processing what she had said. “Well, Bev, you’re still a doctor. You care about people, you want to help them, and you’re a badass with a needle and thread.”

  She didn’t say anything, but stared at the ceiling.

  “Not having some stupid piece of paper doesn’t mean that you aren’t a worthy person, Bev. It doesn’t define you. You may not be able to practice medicine, but that doesn’t change the person you are. It’s not everything you are. There’s more to you than the title of doctor.”

  She felt her body relax, and tears formed in her eyes. It felt good to be accepted for what she was, flaws and a tragic, rocky past included.

  After a while she whispered, “Thank you,” threading her fingers through his.

  “For what?” he mumbled, almost asleep.

  “For just being so accepting of me.”

  He acknowledged her words with a squeeze of her hand, and they both let the exhaustion they shared lull them into a deep sleep.

  Chapter 21

  Hudson woke, his neck stiff, his fingers still laced with Beverly’s. He checked the clock which read five. He was guessing afternoon time, which meant they had slept most of the day away.

  He looked at Beverly and debated waking her, but decided against it. She looked so peaceful and calm, and he didn’t want to disturb
her. From what she had described, she hadn’t had any peace and calm in her life in quite a while.

  He thought about their chat, and how different this woman was from the rest of the women in his life. He was actually getting to know Beverly, not just have sex with her. The last time he had done that, he ended up falling in love. Iris. The thought of her name brought a scorching pain within him, and not of the heartburn kind.

  He certainly wasn’t going down that road again. No. Fucking. Way. Even if there were room in his decrepit heart for love, he wouldn’t let it happen. Chances were too good that things would get even worse for him. He would never love unless he was loved first.

  Jesus, that sounded childish, but his heart had been slowly put through a meat grinder for the past twenty-seven years, and he wasn’t about to add a little salt to the wound to make it even more pleasant. It was just going to have to be that way because he couldn’t put up with any more pain.

  And speaking of which, he really needed Cohen back so that he could get a little relief from his demon. He needed to workout. Badly. The cooking wasn’t doing it, and he certainly wasn’t in any shape for fighting, but maybe…

  He turned back to Beverly. Damn, she was pretty. Maybe he should get the good ex-doctor between the sheets and roll around for a little while. He wasn’t really in any shape for that either, but there were always different positions they could try out…

  Nah. She deserved better than him, way better than what he could give her. She needed to be worshipped and made love to. He had nothing to offer but raw fucking.

  So he would just have to deal until Cohen got home.

  He lifted his torso from the bed and cursed silently while looking at his watch. He was due for a briefing session with the Warriors in fifteen minutes.

  ***

  Hudson found the rest of the Warriors in the War Room waiting for him while tossing around a football.

  “Sorry I’m late,” he said, making his way to a chair and catching a toss. As he threw it to Talin, he noticed that they always sat in the same chairs in the War Room, just as they did in the dining room. Neptune, the overweight black cat, jumped up on his lap curled up into a ball, and began purring. Hudson smiled and stroked the fat feline.

  “No worries,” Noah said. “Now that everyone is here, let’s get down to business. This one’s pretty ugly. You know that guy that cannibalized that other guy’s face in Florida?”

  “Oh, man, please don’t tell me it’s a Colonist. Please, Noah. Just once make one of these sickos a human,” Rayner said, crossing his arms across his chest, closing his eyes and leaning back in the chair, the leather creaking.

  “Wish I could, my man. Wish I could.”

  “But he can’t,” Talin chimed in. “I did the family tree. It ends at his grandpa, and we know what that means.”

  There were a few hushed curses and then silence.

  Yes, they did know what it meant. They had found that an untraceable family tree meant a Colonist was involved.

  “The tree ends at Grandpa, so it looks like he passed on some of his stellar genes to his grandkid,” Talin said. “And there’s more good news. Looks like another guy with tendencies to gnaw on people has turned up. He’s on the run from the police. I’m trying to get a handle on his family tree as we speak.”

  Talin glanced over at his computer. “Still working. Hopefully it will be done soon.”

  Hudson sighed. He hated those Colonists and the havoc they wreaked on the people of Earth. The guilt he felt ate at him, but he also knew within his heart that their mission was a losing battle. It didn’t matter if they caught all the Colonists, because their offspring would carry the genes of evil that the Colonists had running through them.

  But cannibalism? This went to a whole new low of demented and a new high on the gross meter. However, it shouldn’t have been a surprise. Jeffrey Dahmer, another Colonist, also liked to dine on his victims. Those Colonists had so many wires crossed.

  “So what’s the plan, Noah?” Rayner asked.

  “Well, thankfully the police were able to gun down that guy in Florida. I’m hoping they’ll get this other guy as well. Talin’s looking into it to see if either one has ever become a daddy, and then…well, we’ll just go from there.”

  “Any new info on the fucker who sliced and diced Hudson?” Rayner asked opening his eyes. Hudson knew that Rayner would love nothing more than to give that Colonist a long, slow, painful death for messing with Faith and killing her family.

  “I’ve been watching the police reports in the area, and there was a maid that went missing at the hotel Hudson was staying at, but that’s about it. A couple other possibilities but, nothing that screams Colonist behavior,” Talin said.

  “In the next couple of days, I’ll be going through the reports Talin’s been gathering,” Noah said. “Right now I’m up to my nuts in this shit in the U.K. that Jovan and Cohen are working on.”

  Rayner nodded. “I can take a look at the reports and see if anything stands out. Do we have crime scene photos as well?”

  Talin nodded. “I downloaded them last night.”

  “Good,” Rayner said. “Maybe Hudson should look as well. Or at least give them a one-eyed glance.” After a moment, he burst out laughing, as did everyone else.

  “The swelling’s going down,” Hudson said above the laughter. “I’m not a total Cyclops.”

  The laughter continued, and when it died down, Hudson said, “When I’m healed, Rayner, you’re going to regret that.”

  Rayner waved him off as Noah said, “Okay, lay of Hudson. Although that was fucking funny, Rayner.”

  Suddenly Hudson felt like an insect was crawling on his stomach. He stood and pulled up his shirt. One of his wounds was oozing, dripping down his torso. “Aw, hell,” he said.

  “Looks like you got yourself a leak,” Talin said, tossing the ball to Noah.

  Hudson nodded.

  It seemed as though Beverly would be staying around whether he wanted her to or not.

  Chapter 22

  Charles sat in the car parked on the lip of a cliff. Through his binoculars, he stared off into the desert, seeing nothing but brown dirt and cacti, and he had to wonder if his obsession with killing these Warriors was making him a little mad. By human standards, he was already stark raving fucking crazy. By Colonist markers, maybe getting there.

  Now his left eye twitched full time, but his right hand was also shaking. He didn’t know if it was the rage, irritation, or determination to get the job done that was making him lose control of his muscular function, but whatever it was, he was certain that killing all the Warriors would bring him a little bit of peace so he could continue his life.

  He looked at this obstacle of killing the Warriors as a brief pause, like when you were walking down the street and your foot itched and you had to stop to dig into your shoe and scratch it. He would get past this and onto his normal path. Hell, maybe he could even convince Diego to take him back. That was if Diego didn’t dismember him first.

  Diego had provided a shield for him to work under, but that didn’t seem to matter now. If he killed the Warriors, he was convinced that spilling Warrior blood would make him invincible. He would be able to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, and it didn’t matter.

  And he intended to rain down death wherever he went.

  Flipping on the radio, Ozzy Osborne’s “Crazy Train” blared, the chorus sinking in: I’m going off the rails on a crazy train.

  No shit.

  He rubbed his hands against his pant leg. He had been here for who knew how many hours waiting and watching the barren desert for his chance to move in. When that would come, he didn’t know. He imagined he would see an SUV with one or more of the Warriors in it, and then he would take advantage of the depleted numbers and somehow get into their little hidey-hole.

  He laughed out loud as he imagined flaying Hudson like a fish and strangling that redhead very, very slowly. He’d also like to get his hands on that pretty
blonde female and have a little fun with her.

  That blond Warrior who had rescued Hudson also had it coming. Shit was about to get really ugly for the Six Saviors.

  He giggled some more and had a thought. What was the one thing that him and the Warriors had in common? Of course. It was the government finding out that there were aliens living among humans. Charles had also kept tabs on what happened to the “aliens” who were caught, as well as the people who claimed they saw aliens. The data wasn’t pretty.

  Visions of the Six Saviors laid out on slabs of metal and being dissected alive danced in his vision. He began bouncing up and down on the car seat, terribly excited by the images his brain conjured up.

  But who would he call? What government agency handled “alien” calls?

  He pulled out his phone and decided that Google would have the answer. Hell, they had the answer to everything else.

  Maybe he’d step back and let the government handle the Six Saviors. The thought made him a little sick. He wanted every one of those bastards for himself. Maybe he’d even make a necklace of their teeth or something like that.

  Oh yeah, he was off the rails, fully riding that crazy train.

  He began to hum while checking out where to turn in alien life forms on Google, but not to the song on the radio. It was a completely tuneless string of notes that sounded as pretty as a Beethoven symphony to his ears.

  Chapter 23

  Beverly woke feeling renewed. She had no idea how long she had been asleep, but she hadn’t slept that well in ages.

  She turned her head to look for Hudson and was disappointed when she found nothing but empty space next her.

  Lifting the pillow, she brought it to her nose. God, she loved that sexy, smooth, yet edgy smell Hudson had. It sent warm, sensuous waves through her body, all ending up in a big ball of desire in her belly.