Chapter 25 #2
“This is a long, convoluted explanation for what happened today,” he murmured. That fatigue was back, tugging at the skin around his eyes. “It’s complicated, and I’m sorry I can’t tell you more. I would if I could. Believe me. But I’m telling you the truth when it comes to those marks.”
He tipped his chin toward my palm. I tugged my cardigan sleeve down over it, self-conscious for some reason.
His dark eyes found mine again. “You need to lie low until I figure out what’s going on here. With the markings. With the Enil. Most importantly, how to fix the signal you’re emitting and whatever else the halix’s done.”
Another denial tried to surface, and I clicked my tongue in protest, but he didn’t let me get a word in.
“I know it’s a lot to ask, but I need you to stay out of sight. Stay here, if that’s what you’d prefer. Where I can keep you safe.”
Even though I felt a floaty little flutter at the protectiveness, I shook my head. “Out of sight isn’t possible. I have work. School. A life. I’ve got midterms this week. I can’t just skip those.”
“Tell them you’re sick. Figure something out. I told you, the Enil are tracking the halix,” he said, his pointed gaze dropping to my palm before rising slowly to mine. “Its energy, Rae.”
Oh. Oh.
Oh no.
I took a step back, like I could outrun what he was suggesting. I was almost embarrassed it’d taken so long to catch on. “You think the Enil can track me now.”
“Yes.” Sky’s throat worked in a heavy swallow.
The blood drained out of my head so fast, I swayed.
He caught it, judging by the apologetic tilt of his full mouth.
“I’m sorry, Rae. But yes, that’s exactly what I think.
And I know you don’t want to hear this, but that energy pulse at Oasis was strong enough to scramble my synth-skin.
Something I didn’t even know was possible.
I have no idea what the range is on the Enil scanners, but… ”
I’d seen my own hand glow. I’d seen his alien form. I couldn’t deny something had happened, and it’d happened the moment I touched him with my marked palm. Too much of a coincidence to argue against the correlation.
Which meant, as much as I hated it, I couldn’t refute his assertion that something had changed. That didn’t mean I was ready to agree I was a Google Drive for an alien info cache. But my hand had shone like a star. Something was up.
As if reading my grudging acceptance, Sky nodded slowly. “I know this is your life we’re talking about. I know you’re overwhelmed, and I’m asking a lot. And I really am sorry this happened. I never wanted you of all people to get dragged into this.”
I wanted to ask what exactly he meant by that, but he wasn’t done. His voice hardened.
“But you don’t know the Enil. You don’t know what they’re capable of.
” He stepped even closer until I had to tilt my head back to meet his intense gaze.
“They won’t hesitate to kill you to get what they want.
They’ll tear you apart to extract whatever has changed inside you.
Even if it breaks you. Even if it kills you. They won’t care.”
I shuddered. Sky stared down at me, a muscle tightening in his cheek God, he painted a vivid, horrifying picture. Vivid enough, my insides pitched and rolled. If he was hoping to scare me, he was doing a great job.
Not that it took much. I could imagine all too well what the Enil could do.
Those clawed hands. That iron grip. The visceral fear while being hunted by a mechanical monster—it all slammed back.
The bruises on my arm were nothing compared to what it could’ve done.
This part, at least, I had no trouble believing.
I could believe they weren’t burdened by pesky things like a conscience.
A darker thought crept in. Sky was an alien, too. How was I to know he felt things like I did? Mouth dry, I took him in with newfound trepidation.
But as the doubts rose, I remembered the distress he’d shown at Oasis when I’d seen his real form. That had looked real enough. And so did the regret in his eyes now, as he watched my emotions play out on my face.
Like before, I tried to compare this version of him—the true version—with the one I knew.
His calm, steady presence behind the bar.
That polite, dimpled smile. He charmed old ladies as easily as he breathed.
Then there was the way he’d helped me that night he’d found me run off the road.
His quiet concern and his competence. Hell, he’d even opened my car door for me and waited to make sure I got inside my apartment.
Like a good guy. A good alien. A good, alien guy.
I knew he’d hidden his true self, but if that’d all been acting, he deserved an intergalactic Oscar.
Beyond the whole shiny-skin-and-murderybot-killer thing, he’d really passed as just another nice Midwestern guy.
He served drinks. Drove an SUV. Had a butt that looked like it’d been engineered for denim.
So then…what was real?
It had to be somewhere in the middle.
Was I looking at the real Sky? This tense, stressed-out version with a day-old beard and worry shining in his too-blue eyes? The mysterious alien visitor with the weight of the world on his shoulders who was pacing my living room and pleading with me to let him protect me?
That fluttery feeling was back, coupled with curiosity that itched like a rash I shouldn’t scratch. I shook both off. I couldn’t afford to wonder about him. About his past. About his species. About any parts of his…anatomy. Butt or otherwise.
This was my life. Not his mission.
“No,” I said, tightening my arms across my chest. “I’m not skipping midterms. There must be another option that doesn’t involve messing up my future.”
“Hard to have a future if you’re dead,” he muttered, clenching his teeth.
The retort hit home hard enough I flinched. When I gaped at him in dismay, he winced and hung his head.
“Sorry. That was uncalled for.” He inhaled deeply and seemed to gather himself before raising his face and trying again.
This time with less vehemence. “But even if I’m wrong and the Enil can’t track you directly, the last place the halix was seen was the university.
You can bet they’ll be watching. There are probably more Enil on their way here already.
That one in the lab was just…one. Of many.
” He scrubbed a hand over his mouth before fixing me with a resigned look.
“I’m telling you the truth. It isn’t safe. ”
I tried not to focus on the idea of an army of angry mechanical creatures from outer space and instead on the fact this particular alien was arguing against my autonomy.
I wasn’t stupid. I understood the stakes.
But surely…surely there was a compromise here.
If he could track the Enil, he could keep an eye out.
That meant I shouldn’t have to become a paranoid shut-in like those people I’d read about on the internet.
I squared my shoulders. “I appreciate that you’re trying to keep my brain matter intact, but Sky, I can’t just hole up in my apartment indefinitely or until this invasion is done or whatever.”
“It’s not indefinite.” He swiped a hand through his hair, gritting out, “And it’s not an invasion.”
“Potatoes, potahtoes,” I muttered, brushing off the flat stare he angled my way.
I still had a thousand unanswered questions, but my mind felt foggy. Probably because of all the new info I’d been cramming into it. The truth was so much more complicated than I could’ve anticipated.
But that didn’t mean I was about to blindly follow orders from some overprotective alien with a savior complex. I shook my head again. “No, Sky. I can’t.”
Challenge glinted in his eyes, a flash of stubbornness that sent equal parts apprehension and exhilaration zipping up my spine. I held his gaze, though. I was proud of the fact I didn’t waver.
An impasse. A good, old-fashioned standoff—except instead of the Wild West, we were in a sci-fi thriller.
A chill ghosted down the back of my neck. What happened if we couldn’t come to an agreement? Would he stop me? Would he make me stay? Would he steal me away inside his flying saucer?
A lump lodged itself in my throat, but something, my trusty gut instincts maybe, told me…no. He wouldn’t. After all, why bother trying to reason with me or explain any of this? If he was going to abduct me, that spaceship would’ve already sailed.
Maybe that was against his Creed, too, abducting humans.
Sniffing, I looked away. Another bright flash of blue lightning snuck through my blinds, evidence the fall storm was still going strong. Crazy weather for a crazy night.
And it was crazy. Insane. This whole thing.
This was what I got for not letting it go. For going after Professor Stern. For poking the UFO-shaped bear. Now I had a cryptic alien burn mark, an agitated extraterrestrial in my living room, and killer robot stalkers.
God, what a week.
When I turned back to Sky again, something in him had shifted. That tense frustration had drained from his expression. He gave a long-suffering sigh and squinted at me. “Okay. Fine. If you’re insisting on still going to class, then I’m going with you.”
“You’re…what?” I blinked at him. “You can’t just go with me to class. That’s not how college works. There’s no Take Your Alien to School Day!”
He leveled me a cutting stare, obviously not a fan of my hilarious sarcasm. “If you’re set on going, I’m coming with you. That’s the compromise, Raven.”