Alien-Under-Cover (21 page)

The agent leaned her head against the chilly window. It didn’t matter that it stained her forehead with dirt. Her soul was so dirty, nothing attached to her body on the outside could be worse. Winter was coming and she was afraid. Afraid of the procedure she had no choice but to undergo.

Her only hope of ever being free was the one thing that might kill her or drive her insane. According to the database, only three agents had ever survived a second procedure. There were rumors that one agent had gone through a third change and had disappeared. Some said he now lived as a crime lord in one of the cities. Others said he was a recluse on some mountain.

Until she lost herself in that little room where a machine stole your face, she’d pray for Sarah. Use every tool at her disposal to find her and give Julia enough information to save her.

The agent pulled out the large knife she’d pegged into the wooden window frame and twirled it expertly. But first, she had a date with a bitch capable of selling her own daughter.

Chapter 16

The TC bleeped again.

“It is your uncle,” Zurian said.

“I don’t want to talk to him.”

Julia tried to shrug off the hand he’d placed on her shoulder. It might be cowardly of her, but she’d prefer to pretend her uncle didn’t exist. Five years was not long enough away from him. Natalie and everyone who knew her here thought she was a decent human being. She couldn’t bear to see disgust in their eyes when they find out who her family was.

Zurian very deliberately placed his other hand on her shoulder, cocked his head, and seemed to listen. “He is broadcasting one sentence over and over.”

“What?”

“I have your parents.”

The world narrowed and twisted, until all she was aware of was the tunnel in front of her and the roaring in her ears.
Breathe
, she kept repeating to herself.

Julia had left them behind because she couldn’t bear to be in their presence anymore. Couldn’t accept what they were so proud to be. Hearing those words made her face how much she’d missed them. The world came into focus again.

She looked up at Zurian, became aware that he cradled the back of her head. How did he know it throbbed like crazy?

“I don’t know what to do.”

“We will allow him audio only. Do not let him frighten you into telling him anything.”

Julia nodded and took a deep breath.

“Activate, audio only,” Zurian said.

“Hallo, Julia.”

She couldn’t help a slight recoil at her uncle’s oily voice.

“If you want to make sure that your parents are okay, you’d better put me on visual,” he threatened.

Julia had no doubt her parents would pay if she didn’t do as he said. She looked up at Zurian. “
Please
,” she mouthed.

Zurian nodded, grunted something, and disappeared at the same time her uncle’s figure hovered above her TC. For a moment, she blinked in confusion, forgetting Zurian’s camouflage abilities.

“Ah, I see you decided to see reason,” her uncle said and moved to the side.

Her parents stared at her with wild frightened eyes, gagged and tied to chairs. Julia gasped, instinctively stepped toward them, and held her hand out.

Her mother’s blue eyes, so like hers, pleaded with her. She also saw acceptance beneath the plea. Her mother believed Julia would refuse to help them. Her father stared at her and ever so slightly shook his head. So he’d never told her uncle that she’d seen him beat up the most important person in the country. What did her uncle want in return for their safety?

She’d like to call him a few choice words but knew better than to incite his temper. He’d only take his wrath out on her parents. “What do you want?”

“I thought seeing your parents would put you into a more cooperative frame of mind.” Still fit and in shape at sixty-four, the crazed look in his blue eyes had gotten worse.

She looked at her parents. “Mom, Dad, it will be all right.”

“No it won’t. Not unless you get me a sit down with the faction that killed Murdoch and John,” her uncle said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she bluffed.

He turned and hit her mother on the jaw with his fist. “Do you know now?”

“No,” Julia screamed. She saw her mother’s head jerk at an odd angle to her neck. “I cannot make promises. You have to give me a day to find them and talk to them.”

“If I don’t hear from you by twelve, they die.” He smiled at her and she couldn’t stop herself from taking a step back. “Just a little something to get your attention.”

He viciously punched her mother in the face again and Julia watched in horror as she screamed behind her gag. Her uncle motioned to someone who walked into viewing range. A small compact man started to punch her father.

“Stop, you can’t do that. Mom’s a Benzoni.”

This was unheard of. One firm rule in her family had always been that no one touched a Benzoni without consequences.

“Dad’s a Benzoni by marriage.” She tried to sound firm and calm but the horror of seeing her parents hurt like that leeched any control out of her.

“I’m the only Benzoni that matters,” he screamed.

“You’d never get away with killing a blood Benzoni.”

What had happened to him in the last five years? He and her parents used to be friends.

His smile was crazed. “Try me.”

Zurian cut the connection. She jumped up and tried to grab his shirt but her hands couldn’t find purchase. She slapped her palms flat on his chest.

“Why did you cut the connection? He’s crazy, he’ll kill them.” She couldn’t stop shaking.

“We will rescue your parents.”

His expressionless features blurred through the tears.

“I’ll go with you.”

“You will stay here.”

“What? No I’m going with you.” She needed to be there, to see with her own yes that they were all right.

“This is warrior business.”

“They are my parents. I have to be there. Please don’t keep me from them.”

“As your warrior, they are my responsibility.” He stroked her hair behind her ear, pressed his forehead against hers, and left.

She stood with her hands clenched into fists. “Sometimes I could just kill him.”

The hours dragged and she kept seeing the fear and resignation in her mother’s eyes. The blood as that man hit her father over and over. Her mind threw up the picture of years ago—her father beating that good man until he was reduced to a puddle of blood and bones.

“They’ll be all right Julia. I’ve seen the Zyrgins in action,” Natalie said.

Julia nodded and quiet sat down next to her.

***

Zurian walked in hours later. She was only vaguely aware of the other warrior walking behind him. She jumped up from the couch where she and Natalie had sat waiting and grabbed his shirt. “Where are they?”

He pressed his forehead against hers. “They are safe, I offered them sanctuary here.”

Her shoulders slumped and she rested her forehead on his chest. “But they preferred to stay,” she whispered. She should be used to it by now. Once before she’d asked them to choose her and they’d chosen a life of crime.

“Yes.”

“He had them beaten in front of me and still they won’t leave.

“I can make them come to you,” he said in a sinister, soft voice.

She laughed through her tears and caressed his scarred cheek. “No, please don’t do that. They have to make their own choices.”

Just as he would have to learn that she made her own choices. And one of those choices was not to be with anyone capable of cold blooded murder. But she was very much afraid that leaving him would break her heart.

The TC bleeped. “You know I’m beginning to see the wisdom of blocking my TC.”

“It is from your uncle’s device.”

“He’s still alive?”

Knowing their ways, she’d expected them to kill him. She didn’t know how to feel about it. She’d tried to live her life with the belief that violence was wrong. But seeing her uncle beat her mother...Even knowing she couldn’t have stopped Zurian from killing him, she still felt guilty.

Killing was wrong and if she accepted it as right whenever it suited her, she might as well return to the family fold.

“No.”

Julia rubbed her tired eyes. “I suppose I’d better answer and see what’s happening now. It might be my parents calling.” Even as she said it, she knew it wouldn’t be them. Now that the crisis was over she and her parents wouldn’t have anything to say to each other.

“Activate, audio only,” Zurian said.

“Natalie,” a strange male voice said.

“Yes, who is this?”

“You don’t recognize my voice?”

“Jack?”

“Yes. I’ll keep this short.” This grim stranger didn’t sound like her carefree cousin Jack. “I guarantee your parents’ safety. I need to sort out things here. So please keep your goons away.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” How much did Jack know? Had he seen Zurian? He must be around twenty nine now. Still young but old enough to take over.

“Julia, they put my father’s head on a pike in front of the house,” he said, sounding weary.

“Cut connection,” Zurian said and Jack’s voice disconnected.

Julia slowly turned to Zurian. Her stomach threatened to expel its contents. At the same time, she was so angry, she thought her head might spin one eighty degrees. “You put my uncle’s head on a pike? Where his son could see it?” she screeched.

“Yes.”

“How can you do something so barbaric? Wasn’t killing him enough?”

“No.”

“You can’t go around killing people and putting their heads on pikes.”

“Woumbers.”

“What?”

“I only put woumbers heads on pikes.”

“That’s still wrong. I refused to stay with my family because of the violence they committed every day.”

He stiffened. “You will not leave me.”

“How can I not leave you? I cannot stay with someone who cannot see how wrong such behavior is.”

Was she doomed to be surrounded by people who had no inkling of decent behavior?

His eyes flashed red. “A breeder can never escape a Zyrgin warrior.”

Chapter 17

“Oh yes, I--What are you doing?”

He swung her into his arms and kissed her. Julia pulled back her sandaled foot to kick him but quickly changed her mind. She’d only break her toes on his tough shins.

Don’t think you can kiss me into submission,” she said when he lifted his head.

“I will kiss you into pleasure. You will accept that I am a good protector and fucker.”

“You can’t kiss me into pleasure while I’m still arguing with you.”

Julia went on her tiptoes and kissed him back. She opened her eyes a fraction and saw that his blazed red. At last, he was losing control. He wanted her as much as she wanted him. And who was she to think he had no idea of decent behavior when she was the one kissing him? She just wanted him to show a strong emotional reaction to
something.
She could’ve cried when she felt him reign in his emotions. His eyes bled back to black and he held her away from him.

“Let your eyes remain red. I want to make love to a man, not a robot.”

His eyes continued to turn slowly back to beautiful tar-pit black that meant he felt no strong emotion.

She could’ve cried. “You will never care for me, will you? The truth is you are incapable of showing any strong emotion.”

“I am not a puny human male.”

“Then what are you? A monster who enjoys murdering people?”

“I enjoy battle.”

“So you can enjoy battle, but not killing? Is that what you’re saying? It’s all right to murder people as long, as you don’t enjoy it?”

“I will be a good warrior to you.”

“I want a relationship with a decent, peaceful man. A guy who cares for me.”

“I will look after you.”

Disappointment almost overwhelmed her. He just didn’t understand. And if she stayed with him, could she accept who he was? She thought about the way he tensed when she looked at his scars. The proud way he stiffened and tried to pretend he didn’t care when she kissed them. And the skillful way he deflected her questions, her concerns.

He picked her up and carried her to the bedroom.

“Hey, don’t you move me around like a piece of furniture in the middle of discussing our problems.”

He laid her down on the bed. “We will talk later.” He shed his clothes with impressive speed and, while she was still trying to remember what they had to talk about, he lay down next to her.

Maybe she was taking the wrong approach. Julia turned on her side and with her head in her hand leaned over him. “So is it allowed for a humble woman to touch her warrior?”

He watched her closely, as if not trusting her sudden change of heart. “Yes.”

Julia leaned down and kissed his high cheekbones. She loved his pronounced bone structure. “I could tie you up and devour you,” she growled at him playfully and bit his chest.

She went airborne, tried to scream and brace for impact with the wall, when she found herself flat on her back with a very angry alien looming over her. Now his eyes shot red sparks at her, his hand around her throat.

“Repeat your threat, breeder,” he said right in her face, his incisors growing.

“I don’t know. I can’t remember what I said. Please, Zurian, you’re scaring me.” She pushed against this chest but couldn’t budge him. And how much longer could those incisors grow?

“You do not tie a warrior.”

“Please. I was just being playful.”

He leaned closer, his hand tightening around her throat, not hurting but promising retribution. “A puny female cannot kill me and eat me.”

“What?” Julia jerked and stared at him. This could not be happening. “Are you nuts?” She bit her lip. The last time she accused him of being crazy, he blew up at her. She didn’t need to make him angrier than he already was. Wait, what was she doing, thinking of cajoling him? “Get over yourself lizard man.”

“I am not a lizard.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

“Repeat your threat, breeder.”

Julia thought back frantically, what did she say to set him off? Then she could feel her eyes going round. She couldn’t help it, she opened her mouth to answer him and a loud roaring laugh erupted from her. “You thought--you thought--I--I wanted to
eat
you.”