by Alex Hayes
And then there’s Shri…
My heart drops. What I said to her was unforgivable. She’d shared her deepest wound, the abandonment of her mother. And I used that knowledge as a weapon. Even Jake hadn’t sunk that low.
With a sigh, I take the off-ramp toward the Jacobsens’ cabin.
If I have to grovel, I will, and if Shri walks away in disgust, that’s nothing less than I deserve. But I hope she doesn’t. I pray she’ll give me a chance to prove how much she means to me.
With forced calm, I maintain a sedate speed all the way up the driveway. I take the final turn and come face to face with a startling scene.
I hit the brakes as a police cruiser flies sideways across the driveway and slams into a row of pine trees. To my right, Cadi stands in front of the cabin, wearing that lizard getup, her arms outstretched and face pinched in concentration.
She did that. She used her telekinesis to batter a cop car. And god knows what she’s done to the officer inside it? What the hell is she thinking?
I drive toward her, stopping inches from the front steps, and leap out of the car. “Cadi, have you lost your mind?”
A piercing squeal and the groan of distressed metal makes me turn.
“Oh my god!” Cadi shouts, now behind me. “That didn’t even scratch him. Dean, get out of the way.”
Fingers wrap around my triceps and yank me backward.
“What the—” I swing to face her lizardy features.
She grabs my arms and shakes me. “This is for real, Dean. Your life’s in danger. Get in the house. Now!”
I glare at her. “For Christ’s sa—”
“Shut up and look!” She swings me like a rag doll to face the crumpled police cruiser.
Out of the vehicle steps a creature straight from Monsters Inc., only a thousand times scarier. A four-armed beast, seven feet tall, with blue skin and more muscle than a gorilla.
“What the hell is that thing?”
“The enemy!” Cadi shrieks. “Now get out of the way!”
I trip up the steps backward. “How the hell do we get rid of it?”
“We kill him,” a girl’s voice says.
Turning, I spot another reptile girl like Cadi. What is it with the lizard getup? “Who are you and where the hell is my brother?”
Cadi hustles me toward the door. “He’s hiding in the barn with Shri. The Jacobsens are inside the house, hopefully armed with guns. Maybe you could help them.”
“What? I’ve never used a gun.” Fuck. Did I fall asleep and wake up in some parallel universe?
“Well, you’re more use inside than out here,” Cadi insists. “Humans are no match for an Evatenon.”
I grab her arm. “And you are?”
Cadi jerks away. “I’m the best we’ve got.” Her voice quivers.
“And me,” the other lizard girl calls.
Cadi gasps. “Rowan, he’s coming!” She throws out her arms, palms forward.
The blue monster flies through the air and hits a tree.
Cadi slaps a hand to her chest. “Thank goodness.”
But the monster guy rolls back to his feet, looking bigger and badder than ever.
“What’s its weakest point?” I demand, hoping to get a sense of what we’re dealing with. “Does that thing even have one?”
“What?” Cadi’s face pinches.
“The base of the neck,” the other girl says. “Mr. Scrim said there’s no muscle there, so you can damage the spinal cord if you hit that spot hard enough.”
Same as humans. Makes sense.
Cadi pulls in a breath. “Assuming you can get close enough without having your life force sucked out of you.”
I turn to her. “What?” Life force? What’s she talking about?
“Cadi, he’s heading back to the cruiser!” Lizard Girl shouts.
“Dean, go inside. Please.” Cadi shoves me toward the door.
My eye catches the silver of Idris’s BMW. Yeah, he was heading up here when I left. “Where the hell’s your boyfriend?” I can’t keep the chill out of my voice. “And why isn’t he helping?”
“Unconscious. I left him under the stairs.” Cadi gives me another push.
“Jesus!” That’s all I get?
“Come on, Rowan. We need to draw him away from the buildings.” Cadi throws me a glance. “Find the Jacobsens, and if Idris is awake, tell him what’s going on out here.”
As I back through the front door, I see the blue monster peel away one of the police cruiser’s doors and pull out this silvery weapon the size of a rocket launcher.
37
Cadi
“He’s armed!” Rowan shouts.
Crud. “We need to lead him away from the others.” I dart across the veranda and skirt the wall of the cabin.
From behind me comes the electric whirl of the Evatenon’s blaster. I spin on my heels and push.
The weapon flies out of the creature’s hands, skips across the driveway and disappears into a clump of weeds. With a growl, he pulls a device out of his straining police issue pants and presses a button. The weapon chirps as if to answer.
Some kind of auto-destruct?
“Come on!” I speed around the back of the cabin and make for cover behind the storage shed.
No explosions. Yet.
The Evatenon lumbers after Rowan who races after me.
Why didn’t he go for his weapon?
He’s faster than a human but no match for a Livran. Rowan sprints across the grass and passes me.
I stop short, lift my hands and push.
The Evatenon flies up into the air, all four arms flailing, and slams into the driveway tarmac on his back. Without pause, he jumps to his feet, showing no sign of injury. He messes with something on his belt, then looks around, like he’s thinking up his next move.
The cabin’s side door swings open. Dean appears, brandishing a baseball bat. Rowan said the back of the creature’s neck was his weakest point. Is that what Dean’s thinking?
I’d roll my eyes if they weren’t fastened on what’s unfolding in front of me.
Did Dean not hear me say he’d never get close enough without being assimilated first?
God, he doesn’t stand a chance.
I push with my mind, intent on knocking that turquoise maniac across the pavement, but this time, it doesn’t work. My energy hits a barrier that bounces back and knocks me off my feet.
What the hell! I rub my rump and stand up.
Dean steps forward, baseball bat at the ready.
The Evatenon approaches, and Dean takes a swing. The bat bounces off the creature’s pectoral, eliciting no reaction whatsoever.
The boy’s eyes widen and his face turns white.
The Evatenon grabs him by his sweatshirt and slams him against the door. “Where is Dresandar?” the alien growls.
Dean stares at him, bat hanging limp in his grasp. There’s no way he can understand the rolling Rs and clicks of the Evatenon language. Unlike me, whose crystal translates.
Poor Dean!
Focusing, I attempt to throw the Evatenon with telekinesis and end up on my butt, again.
How’s he blocking me?
I suck in a breath. This is so not good.
The Evatenon shape shifts back to human. “Where is Dresandar?” he demands, in English this time. “The Livran boy. Where is he?”
“I-I don’t know,” Dean croaks.
How does the Evatenon know about Idris?
Rowan must’ve been right about Scrim’s phone. The creature was monitoring his calls.
I’m desperate to help Dean, but I’ve no idea how. If Idris were here, he’d blast the alien with a sonic wave.
“Dresandar. Where is he?” The violet-eyed cop shakes Dean, who’s never heard Idris’s full Livran name.
What does the Evatenon want with Idris, anyway? If he’s looking for a Livran to assimilate, why not Rowan or me?
Don’t tell me that monster’s sexist.
Then it dawns on me.
Mr. Scrim’s memories. The carer must have shared the locations of the other Livran kids with Idris. And if the Evatenon assimilates Idris, he’ll have access to those memories and will discover where the others are.
A gunshot cracks the air.
The alien in human form jumps backward. Blood blooms bright red from a wound in his bare chest. The creature transforms. His body swells with blue muscle and the bleeding wound disappears.
Damn it.
The door opens behind Dean and a wiry hand grabs his arm. Papa pulls the shocked boy to safety and the door slams shut.
The Evatenon grunts but doesn’t smash the entry to smithereens. Instead, he turns toward me.
38
Dean
I drop against the hallway wall, gasping. That monster could have killed me.
I’d grabbed the bat and stuffed a baseball in my sweatshirt pocket, thinking they’d be effective weapons against the creature.
Forget that. My affront was no more effective than slapping a bull with a rubber glove. The perfect way to piss him off.
“You okay, son?” Tom asks. His eyes and his rifle are aimed at the door’s window.
I wipe my brow and nod.
A groan drifts from the direction of the staircase.
Tom glances around. “What was that?”
“Idris, I’m guessing.” I head for the stairs to find out.
A dull thud. “Ow! What the hell?” Definitely Idris.
I yank back the curtain and peer into the gloom of the under-stair closet.
Idris sits, bent over, rubbing his head amid a scatter of boots and shoes. He squints up at me. “How the hell did I get here?”
I shrug. “But we could use some help. There’s a big-assed blue monster outside, and Cadi and this lizard girl are trying to take it on.”
“Cadi!” Idris launches himself into the corridor. “Where is she?”
“Round back,” Tom shouts. “Dean, do you think we could nab that creature’s weapon? Stop it using the thing if nothing else.”
“Yeah.” If the blue beast is hassling Cadi out back, then I’m safe heading to the front. I dart down the hall and through the front door.
The weapon’s heavier than it looks. Easily fifty pounds. I haul it onto my shoulder and jog back to the cabin.
Tom lets me in, and we head to the rear, where Mrs. Jacobsen stares, grim-faced, through the sliding door, a black pistol at the ready.
Idris is outside, standing on the stone steps. Observing. Meanwhile, a freaking blue monster is moving in on his girl.
Why the hell isn’t he down there helping her? Is he in shock?
Maybe he doesn’t recognize her in that lizard getup. If so, I know exactly how he feels.
Visible through the sliding door, Cadi backs toward the swimming pool, the blue beast closing in on her. If she goes much further, she’ll take a plunge.
“Cadi!” Idris shouts.
She glances up and nods. Seems she’s got a plan in mind, while her lizard friend is positioned on the far side of the pool.
I glance at Mrs. Jacobsen, the silver cannon still resting on my shoulder. “Let me through.”
She nods and pulls open the door, and I carry the alien weapon outside.
Cadi reaches the pool edge and stops. The alien creature steps closer, clicking and clacking at her in some weird language. It grabs her by the sweatshirt and reaches one of its four hands toward her forehead.
With a cry, she tugs out of its grasp and steps backward over the pool edge. But instead of dropping like a stone to the bottom, her foot lands solid on the water’s surface.
Just like the night I saw her walking across the water of the lake, using some kind of telekinetic levitation.
The blue dude lunges for her, misses and disappears under the water with an enormous splash.
Cadi dashes across the pool to the other side without disturbing a drop of water. The surface might as well have been made of solid stone.
“How the hell did she do that?” I mutter.
Idris breaks focus from the scene below. “She didn’t,” he replies. “I did.”
“What?” I stare at him, but only for a second.
A sharp crackling reverberates from the direction of the pool. A layer of fog rises as the water turns white and ices over. The lizard girl leans over the edge, her hand in contact with its surface.
She did that? Jesus, what else can she do?
The lizard girl hops to her feet. “Are you okay?” she calls to Cadi.
I’m halfway convinced I’m dreaming again and turn back to Idris. “What do you mean, you did it?”
“I made the water solid for her. Neat trick, huh?” He frowns at the weapon I’m holding. “You planning on using that?”
“Maybe. If I knew how. Why? You want it?” I’m not even sure he’s strong enough to lift the thing.
He smiles and holds out his hands.
As I toss the techno cannon at him, his body turns liquid silver and then green and scaly. Just like Cadi.
What the hell?
39
Cadi
Rowan and I turn back to the swimming pool at the sound of a strange hiss.
The solid white ice in the pool starts to glow blue and bubble.
The liquid ripples and the Evatenon rises from its depths.
“Damn! How’d he do that?” Idris shouts from the back porch. His shoulders stiffen and I sense determination flowing through him.
A vortex swells at the center of the pool, bubbling and building into a dome. From its center, a waterspout jets. It arcs high into the air and pummels the Evatenon clambering over the pool edge.
The blue guy topples backward into the aquamarine depths, then resurfaces. He flails at the edge of Idris’s whirlpool, then those massive biceps and pectorals start working, forcing the water aside as he fights the drag of the vortex and muscles his way back to the rim.
A second waterspout jets from the pool like an angry viper and strikes the Evatenon in the back, but doesn’t dislodge him this time.
I grip Rowan’s arm, ready to make a run for it, but she pulls free, and says, “Wait.”
She puts her hand to the water. White ice spreads from her fingers and crosses the pool, chasing the exiting Evatenon. It crackles and bites around the alien’s ankle as he lifts himself out.
With an angry growl, the creature struggles to free his trapped foot.
Fresh resolve builds in Idris, drawing my attention.
A whirling sound rises from the Evatenon’s bloated techno weapon. Idris points the device at its owner and pulls the trigger. A lattice of wriggling blue light surrounds the gun, enveloping Idris. He collapses to the deck floor and the silver weapon hits the wood planks with a clatter.
I gasp. Idris!
My crystal tingles. He’s still alive.
The weapon must’ve been booby-trapped, stunning him the way I had been when the Evatenon kidnapped and took me back to Daïzani, six months ago.
A throaty grumble jiggers out of the Evatenon trying to free himself from the ice. The stupid jerk is laughing. With a final yank, he tugs his foot free and stands, dropping two of his four hands to his hips and gloating.
Rowan steps to my side. “Is Dresandar okay?”
“Yes.” My stomach tightens as I swipe a palm across my forehead. “What do we do now?”
The Evatenon drops his hands and looks at us, chest still shaking with laughter. “You thought you could stop me with my own weapon. Livran fools.”
He reaches into a pocket in what’s left of his overstretched pants and pulls out a small disk-like object. Rotating it like a compass, he picks up some bearing or other, then strides past the swimming pool, toward the forest. And the crystal cave.
He must have overheard Mr. Scrim and me talking about the ar’n bala. Did he cause that earthquake?
Rowan takes a few steps after him. “He’s heading for the crystal tree, right? I can sense it.”
“But how’d he know?” I mutter.
“That device must be picking it up.” Her eyes grow wide. “We need to get after him.”
“Yeah, but we need Idris too.” I circle the pool and run up the back steps.
Dean crouches over Idris but moves aside to let me pass.
Can you help me? I ask my crystal as I kneel at Idris’s side.
My fingers press over the stone embedded in his chest as a gentle hum vibrates out of me. Seconds pass. Slow as molasses.
Idris breathes out a moan. He blinks, then his eyes focus on me. “Hey, babe,” he murmurs, and struggles to sit up.
I help him to his feet. “That Evatenon jerk is headed for the ar’n bala tree. We’ve got to stop him.”
“The what tree?” Dean demands, brow pinched and looking none too happy.
“No time to explain.” I glance at Mama and Papa, standing in the back doorway. “Hold the fort, okay?”
Papa nods. “Be careful, Cadi.”
Rowan, Idris and I jog toward the forest. To my amazement, Dean follows. Before we reach the tree line, a rumbling shudder shakes the ground beneath us.
I stumble and Idris catches my elbow. My heart contracts. “Another earthquake. It must be an attack on the crystal tree.”
Rowan picks up my urgency and races ahead down the trail.
Idris pulls me back as I start to follow. “What do you mean, another?”
I tug him down the hill. “The earthquake I told you about this morning.”
He moves along with me. “Could he have reached the cave that fast?”
The tension in my chest mounts. “I don’t think so, which means he may not be the only Evatenon around.”
Rowan stops to wait for us at the forest edge. “Dresandar, Mr. Scrim said the Evatenon would try to assimilate one of us.”
Dean catches up. “Wait a second!” He throws up his hand in a stop motion and looks pointedly at Idris. “You’re Dresandar?”
Idris nods but keeps walking.
“When that blue thing grabbed me, he asked for you. ‘The Livran boy,’ he said.”
My heart clenches. “I bet that’s because you have Mr. Scrim’s memories.”
