Chapter Twenty
Wyatt was going to have to handle this situation very carefully.
He didn’t usually carry an Alpha alien Defender, but he did have one hidden in his trunk.
Cam Gray, one of his six brothers-in-law, also the creator of the Defender to keep humans unaware of aliens in town, had insisted he keep one in his personal vehicle at all times.
Thus far, he’d never had to use it and he’d been grateful for that.
Having had a memory-wiping Defender used on his mind—more than once, as a matter of fact—he didn’t relish the idea of using it on someone else unless it was absolutely necessary. And he especially did not want to shoot Alienn’s new sheriff before the man had spent a whole month on the job.
Wyatt had sent the address to Sheriff Hollister before leaving home.
It was possible Hollister was going to be there waiting there for them.
If what Jett said about the abductor being a non-human was accurate, he was going have to consider his options and maybe break in that unused Defender tonight.
He did not look forward to it.
“If the sheriff beats us there, stay in the car until I talk to him.”
Beryl said, “No promises.” Her expression was the very definition of determined. It would not be easy to convince her that staying in the car was best. He glanced in the rearview mirror at her brother. Yeah, Jett was never going to stay in the car.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist, Beryl. I don’t know what we’re facing. Technically, I’m a civilian here tonight. This isn’t my jurisdiction.”
Jett said, “Beryl, let the man do his job.”
Beryl did not look happy, but she did nod once.
The turned from the paved road onto Wolf Track Road, which was mostly grown-over gravel.
There were two narrow grassy ruts on either side of a gravel strip in between.
It could’ve been worse, he supposed, but he didn’t want to have to replace all the shocks on this vehicle.
Technically, it was an SUV, but he’d never taken it offroad before.
As he drove carefully down the rutted track, Wyatt could see lights at what looked like an old barn about a quarter mile up the road. He slowed. He didn’t want to alert the occupants of the barn that they were about to have company.
As he drove closer, he saw Sheriff Hollister’s empty cruiser parked beside the crude structure pretending to be an oversized cabin in the woods. It was past rustic, leaning heavily toward rickety. Wyatt pulled his SUV up next to the sheriff’s cruiser, parked and turned his engine off.
In a low voice, he said, “Please, I beg of you, stay in the car until we clear the building of any danger.”
Jett said, “We’ll wait here for you, Wyatt.”
Beryl nodded and Wyatt didn’t wait around for any further discussion.
He exited his vehicle, eyes on a barn so old and weathered it looked like if he coughed on it, the place would flatten into sticks.
Inside the building, light of some sort seeped through the gaps in the boards that formed the walls.
It was hard for him to believe the structure had working electricity.
Camp lantern, perhaps? He couldn’t risk trying the door without knowing what was happening inside.
He moved toward the side of the structure, as there was no window at the front. He didn’t count the gaps between the wooden slats on the walls.
Wyatt hadn’t taken three steps when someone screamed. It came from inside the barn.
Behind him, Beryl leapt out of the car and ran toward the cabin.
Jett was right on her heels. To Wyatt’s great relief, he grabbed his sister from behind before she could run willy-nilly into a possibly bad situation.
She didn’t scream or speak, but she looked very determined to get inside that building.
Wyatt raced over to where Jett held Beryl, putting a finger to his lips for them to continue to be quiet while he went inside. Gun drawn, Wyatt walked around to the back of the barn, where a whole section of wall was missing.
Slowly, he walked toward the opening and carefully stepped inside. There was some sort of a bright light high in the space. Light spilled down in the center of the room but the rest was in shadows.
Wyatt’s eyes went to the sheriff, who lay flat on his back on the dirt floor, eyes closed, gun in his hand.
Jake, in a pool of light, was strapped to a long wooden table in the center of the barn.
He appeared to be unconscious, but breathing.
He also looked like someone who was being prepped for backwoods surgery. That was bad.
Wyatt lifted his gun, arm straight, elbow locked. He moved farther into the room. Behind him, he heard soft footsteps approaching, two sets of them.
So, both Beryl and Jett had decided not to wait for his signal. Great.
Wyatt didn’t waste time turning around to glare at them as he searched the building for a threat. And a plausible reason for why the sheriff was flat on his back. Was Hollister the one who’d screamed or was it Jake?
Wyatt glanced down at Hollister. At least the man was breathing. That was the first good news since they’d arrived.
Other than the table Jake was strapped to, which looked like someone’s old Sunday best dining room table for large families, and a smaller table positioned near Jake’s head, he saw absolutely nothing.
Wyatt squatted next to the sheriff and glanced down only long enough to put his fingers on the man’s neck to check for a pulse. He found a strong one and almost sighed out loud in relief.
He stood and, starting from the left, swung his gun arm slowly to the right. He had the strong feeling that they were not alone, that someone was watching them.
His eyes landed on the small table next to Jake’s head.
On it was a rounded cube-shaped something a little larger than a basketball.
Without warning, it lit up and started making noise.
A hundred small, multicolored lights all over the thing started blinking haphazardly.
It was a bit mesmerizing. Wyatt shook his head to clear his vision, deciding not to look directly at the object.
Behind him, someone sucked in a breath of surprise. It sounded like Beryl, but could’ve been Jett.
The noises the device made sounded, well, not of this world. Not quite whale song, not quite synthesized music—Wyatt couldn’t think what it sounded like.
Wyatt started walking toward the table. As he watched, he thought he saw what looked like a heat wave in the shape of a large man ripple next to where Jake lay helpless.
He felt Beryl and Jett come to stand on either side of him. Did they see the ripple in the substandard light, too, or was he imagining things?
“Do you see that?” Jett whispered.
“The wavy see-through shape next to Jake?” Beryl whispered back.
“Yep.” Wyatt kept his gun pointed at whatever it was as he reached for his taser. Without warning, he whipped it off his utility belt and shot directly into the center mass of the wavy air.
Two small barbed darts trailing wires shot from the taser and imbedded into…nothing. An invisible wall in the rippling air. Two little purple spots appeared in the air. A loud, unearthly shriek filled the room.
The two taser barbs flew backward and dropped to the ground as if an invisible hand had ripped them out. The heat wave moved toward the small table with the light cube. The pungent scent of cinnamon filled the air.
The device rose up and started moving, fast, toward another gap in the wall, and headed for the woods on the opposite side of where the vehicles were parked. With it went the rippling, invisible being.
“Did you see that?” Jett said again in awe.
Wyatt didn’t have time to rearm the stun gun, so he set it on the ground, tightened his grip on his firearm and called over his shoulder, “Call for medical and backup. And for space potatoes’ sake, stay in the barn until I get back. I mean it.”
Wyatt didn’t wait for a response as he chased after the light cube.
The smell of cinnamon remained strong as he followed the brightly lit device as it bobbed through the forest for almost fifty yards.
It winked out. Dang it! He’d been a car’s length from the thing when it went dark.
He sniffed the air. The cinnamon scent was fading.
He snatched his flashlight off his utility belt and snapped it on, but a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree slow flashlight beam search around Wyatt’s location yielded nothing. He’d lost the…light cube, or whatever it was. And he’d most assuredly lost the invisible being carrying it.
Trying to find any good news in all the bad news of tonight, Wyatt now had a pretty good idea of what the organic, cinnamon-scented purple goo they’d found at Jake’s house was. The blood of an invisible alien.
The further bad news was it was likely the lifeblood of an alien species Earth had not encountered before. Space potatoes.
Beryl was beside herself with worry for Jake and Sheriff Hollister.
Jett had called 911 for an ambulance and reported that Sheriff Campbell had requested backup.
As soon as the dispatcher confirmed the address of their location, Jett ignored the request to stay on the line and disconnected the call.
Jake hadn’t roused yet. Beryl was thankful he was breathing evenly as she looked him over from head to toes. A flash of blue caught her eye near his head.
She leaned closer. A tiny sticker held a thin blue wire against the skin behind his ear. The wire, which was a few feet long, trailed off the edge of the table. The other end lay on the small table where the brightly lit object had been. Was it some sort of connection? An alien connection?
Less than ten minutes later, Wyatt came back in. He looked spooked.
“What happened?” Jett asked.
“I followed the bouncing cube in the air deep into the woods until the lights went out. I can only guess it became as invisible as the being carrying it.”
“Crazy,” Jett said.
“Understatement.” Wyatt holstered his gun.