Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Xavier
I’m so shocked at the words that come out of Agent Smith’s mouth that I almost lose hold of my mist for the first time in thirty years. I couldn’t have heard him right.
An Aaz’axian on Earth?
And how does he even know what that is?
Their race has basically been extinct for many years now.
There are barely any left galaxy wide, so it’s incredibly unlikely for one to be here on Earth.
They scattered and stayed hidden once their tyrannical leaders had finally been defeated.
Over eighty percent of them were forced to fight and die for a cause they did not believe in, and then their women began to perish from a mysterious wastage disease until there were but a handful.
They are carefully protected and cherished, but are no longer able to bear children.
Some say it was their god punishing the Aaz’axians for their hubris, but why punish the many for the depraved acts and decisions of a few?
With the ability to glamour, there hasn’t been a sighting in years.
They chose to keep their heads down and exist in peace, so no one has seen an Aaz’axian in either of their natural forms in over a hundred years.
To be honest, I thought they had become extinct.
They were a very long-lived, slow aging race, so I guess it is possible for there to still be some around, but highly unlikely.
“No, that can’t be true. That race is extinct.” Eric shakes his head in denial. “You must have a Morpheian or another with ability to glamour, and they are tricking you.”
“There is no way to hold a glamour when you have thousands of volts coursing through your system. I assure you, he is an Aaz’axian.
” Smith waves the damn remote again, and it’s all I can do to stop myself from blasting it out of his hand with my power.
That wouldn’t go down well, however, so I rein in my anger. Barely.
“Very well. Lead the way, and I can use my powers to ascertain the truth there too,” I say mostly to reassure Eric and Lila.
My intimate has been following along with the conversation, even if she doesn’t quite understand the full significance of it.
I’m not even sure if she’s heard of the Aaz’ax and their war with the Una’s over the orb of power.
She is still willfully behind on her alien knowledge.
We need to fix that as soon as we get a moment to breathe. We can’t have her making mistakes.
Smith doesn’t wait for us, he just takes off in the direction of the holding cells.
There are not as many people running around now.
Most of them used their brains and made themselves scarce after I proceeded to lift the idiots pointing weapons at me into the air.
Although, I did make sure all their weapons wouldn’t work first, and it’s not like they can use the weapons Eric must have already floated up there.
It isn’t zero gravity where they can float around—they are held in place by my magic.
He takes us down a level, and although I’m distracted by what he just told us, I make sure to keep an eye on my intimate.
Lila is easily distracted, and I don’t want her wandering off and getting herself shot by some trigger-happy maniac.
Everyone here has itchy trigger fingers when it comes to us, but as we pass a large black door that has a big “No Entry, Authorized Personnel Only” sign, she slows and turns her head to look back at it before stopping, her beautiful face frowning.
She walks back toward it, and her breath hitches and she roughly grabs at her chest.
“What’s wrong?” I ask her quietly, not wanting to draw Agent Smith’s attention. He and Eric are far enough ahead though, and they haven’t noticed we’ve stopped.
“When I walked past this door, I got this deep ache right here.” She points to her sternum. “It’s almost like I need to go in there. Something’s calling to me, Xavier.”
I eye the door suspiciously now. Whatever could be calling to Lila? Do they have more aliens stashed behind there? I reach out with my magic, but before I can allow it to seep under the door, Agent Smith finally realizes we’re not with them.
“What are you doing?” he demands, his voice echoing down the corridor.
“That section is off-limits to everyone but people with Level 1 clearance, which you do not have. Hurry up, I don’t have all day.
” He sounds impatient, but when I turn to look at him, he also has a glint of worry in his eye.
Interesting. I’m torn between doing as he demands to keep the peace and saying fuck it all to hell and investigating behind the door, but before I can make a decision, Lila does it for me.
“Come on, let’s rescue my friends. The weird ache is gone now, so maybe it was just concern for them and not what’s behind the door.” She reaches through the mist and grabs hold of my hand, tugging me to our destination.
Reluctantly, I let it go. I can always sneak back in and check it out at another time.
As much as Agent Smith thinks this base is protected and the only way in and out is via the teleportation platform, I can teleport in without the platform.
I don’t like the idea that they have an area that is off-limits on this level.
It’s supposed to be the EAA level, and access should be granted to anyone from the Galaxy Circus as representatives of the Galactic Federation.
Smith opens the door to the holding area, and we approach the cells.
It’s clean and sterile and blindingly bright.
There are quite a few forcefield fronted cells down here, with special protections to cater to all the different aliens that may be placed in them.
A warlock, probably a grandparent of mine, placed the spells on them many years ago when we started coming to Earth.
I can see directly into the first few. There is only one person in each.
They must have all been separated when they were brought in.
Susie is in one, and Mark is in another.
On the opposite side, I see Aura, and next to them is Xane.
My idiot cousin looks like he heaves a sigh of relief at the sight of me, and I feel a smug grin lift my lips.
I’m never letting him live this down. His eyes drift from me to Lila, who is still holding my hand through my mist, and I see him scan her body, his eyebrows jumping with surprise before he gives me a nod of approval.
Idiot. Like I care if he approves or not.
“Well, let’s get on with this. Do your thing.” Smith waves his hand in the direction of the two humans, and although I would like to strip his skin from his body for speaking to me like that, Lila squeezes my hand before she drops it, easing the impulse.
Right, must not kill the agent. Diplomacy is probably not a strength that I would claim for myself. I’m a little too blunt, which is appreciated throughout the galaxy, but not so much with these Earth Alien Authorities. It’s why the Adams brothers tend not to involve me with them.
I step up to the first cell, and Smith brings down the forcefield.
Before I can send out my magic to assess Susie, Lila pushes me out of the way, and both girls break into sobs as they throw their arms around each other.
Thankfully Lila remembers her new superstrength and doesn’t literally kill her friend with kindness.
They are both talking a million miles an hour, and I’m having trouble following their words.
“Miss Adams, remove your arms from my prisoner before I shoot you.” I turn slowly to look at Agent Smith, thinking he wouldn’t be dumb enough to point a weapon at my intimate, but sure enough, the idiot is, and my vision goes red.
Growling, I thrust my hands out, choosing the least physically damaging way to incapacitate the asshole.
The weapon in his hand disintegrates before he goes flying backward, his body slamming against the forcefield of the cell behind him.
There, his body starts to convulse from the shocks, and I see his head flop to the side as he loses consciousness before dropping to the ground.
“Xavier,” Eric admonishes, but not too hard, and the grin on his face is the complete opposite of the tone coming out of his mouth.
“He dared to point a weapon at my intimate. He deserves much worse, but I am aware of the delicacy of the situation, so I allowed him to live. I will make sure he doesn’t remember.
” I wave my hand and turn off all the cameras in the room, as well as erase the footage of the last couple of minutes while we wait for the girls to calm down.
Finally, the two girls pull apart, their faces streaked with tears, and I allow the mist to pull back from my body now that there are no extra eyes.
Susie and Mark have seen my human punk glamour but not my real form, and Susie’s eyes widen as she takes it all in.
Her gaze flicks to Xane and back again before she gasps.
“You two look similar.”
I scoff. “Please, he is but a poor imitation of the real thing.” Susie frowns, and Lila smacks me as I see my cousin flip me off from the other cell.
He must be able to hear me, but when he says something, the words don’t penetrate.
“Well, that’s not a nice way to greet the person who is saving you, Xane. Maybe we’ll just leave you here.”
Lila smacks me again, and I sigh. “You just wait, you’ll be begging me to put him back after five minutes in his company.”
Although I’m acting put out, I’m relieved my favorite cousin is okay. He was my best friend growing up, and I would hate for anything to happen to him.
“Okay, Miss Susie, what is this we hear about you being an alien?”
Susie’s eyes drift to Eric who asked the question, and she frowns. “Wait. Who are you?” she asks, and Eric chuckles again.
“Ah, yes, you would remember me like this.” He activates the glamour he had been wearing when they had first met.