Challa (28 page)

Jebaral rubbed the back of his neck. “Somehow we need to convince Hall to let Challa go. Let her lead her own life now.” The Ruinos male looked directly at Challa. “Do you want to go back to the carnival?”

“No,” she firmly answered. Underneath the table, her hand squeezed Compton’s thigh, but he could also feel how it trembled. “My life is where Compton is, and he’s not part of the show.”

“That’s good enough for me,” DeGrassi said, scooting back in his chair and getting to his feet. “Come on. Let’s get over to the office and get this mess cleared up, the sooner the better. Hurry up. I’ll meet you two outside.”

“What about us?” Jebaral asked.

DeGrassi waved him off. “You and Hannah go ahead and get to work. This shouldn’t take too long, or be too complicated. Simon?”

“Yeah. I’m here.” The other Ruinos man stood in the kitchen doorway.

“You and Sarah heading out?”

Simolif nodded. “As soon as she’s finished in your office. You know how thorough she is.”

“Not a problem. Lock up when you leave, would you?” The deputy gave the man a pat on the shoulder as he walked by.

Compton hurried into the living room to pull on his socks and boots as everyone exchanged goodbyes. Five minutes later, he and Challa were following DeGrassi’s truck back into town.

Chapter 36

Confrontation

“I can tell you’re fearful,” Compton said in a soft voice. He was following the deputy as they headed back into town. In the passenger seat, Challa remained silent, although her hand crept over the console and clutched his thigh. She was trying to control her fear. Her emotional battle vibrated inside him. “What is this man holding over you? Why are you afraid to face him down and tell him you’re not going back to the carnival?”

He noticed her attention had been directed toward the thick trees lining both sides of the road. In fact, ever since DeGrassi had mentioned the fact that Ruinos loved running in the woods, Compton had been eyeing the surrounding forest with a new perspective.

Her hand squeezed his thigh again. He glanced over at her. He was trying to send her calming reassurance, but had no idea if he was succeeding. How he knew he could give her emotional support, he couldn’t explain. Neither could he pinpoint when he became aware of this gift. Ever since last night, he had felt like a human advent calendar. Every so often a new door in his psyche would open up to reveal an unknown part of himself, and of his connection to Challa.

“Challa?” He sent her an unspoken nudge along with his verbal one.

“Those years right after landing were…the worst. When Lawson found me, I was starving,” she told him in a dull monotone, as if she had disassociated herself from her confession. “He knew what I was. He understood I was a real alien. It was his idea to use my true self as one of the acts in the sideshow.”

Compton nodded, keeping silent so as not to interrupt her. A sideways glance at her saw she was looking out the windshield, but her gaze was focused from within.

“He gave me food and clothing, and a place to sleep. A place to feel safe. Pretending to be a dangerous alien girl for his sideshow was a small price to pay…until I wanted to make friends.” She paused for a moment before continuing.

“Lawson said my friends were the carnies. My family was the carnies, but he was the only person who knew I was a real alien. He made me swear not to tell anyone else, and then he threatened me if I dared to reveal the truth about myself. He told me…he said that people on this world are afraid of real aliens. He said if people knew I didn’t wear a costume, they would attack the carnival. They would find me, and drag me away, and probably put me in some sort of scientific research facility and perform all kinds of horrible experiments on me.”

She finally raised her eyes to look at him, but Compton already knew how gut-twisting the man’s threat had felt to her. “He took care of me, Compton. He protected me from those people who feared me…and they believed I was wearing a costume!”

“He put you in a cage, Challa. They put you in a real cage, and he put you in one up here.” He tapped his temple for emphasis. “He kept you hostage with threats and fear. That makes him no better than the Arra.”

“No. No, you’re wrong. Lawson isn’t anything like the Arra,” Challa told him. A wave of unimaginable fear crashed down on him. Cold and heart-stopping. Compton gasped as he fought control of the steering wheel. Bits and pieces of the horror she had witnessed and been subjected to stuck to his brain like poisonous burrs. Shaking his head, he gave her a look of pure shock. Challa nodded her head. “Lawson’s never hurt me. Not physically. He needs me to keep his carnival afloat.”

“Doesn’t matter. Your days with the carnival are over. You’re staying with me, and his threats won’t work this time,” Compton told her. Mentally steeling himself, he added, “Lawson thinks you’re one of a kind. He’s going to be surprised to discover he’s dead wrong.”

Their conversation ended as they entered the outskirts of town and stopped at a red light.

Tumbril Harbor was a relatively small town. Its main street was actually a state highway that ran through town, with half a dozen side streets crossing it perpendicularly. The town hall and jail sat at the corner of one such intersection. Challa pointed out the carnival owner’s ancient bus parked in front, across the street.

They pulled into the tiny parking lot behind the county jail and entered the offices through the back door. Compton could feel Challa emotionally holding his hand as they followed DeGrassi to the sheriff’s office. At first glance, Compton’s impression of Sheriff Klotsky was that the man was a seasoned officer. Although a bit on the heavy side, Klotsky still managed to project an aura of confidence and fairness, as well as common sense. Lawson Hall was already seated inside. “Gee. It feels like deja vu all over again,” Compton drily commented as the door was closed behind them.

Lawson Hall barely glanced at Compton as he jumped to his feet and rushed over to Challa, taking her by the shoulders. “Are you all right? How do you feel?”

“I feel fine, Lawson,” she told him, staring him straight in the eye. To further make a point, she pulled his hands away from her shoulders and stepped back toward Compton. “It’s time, Lawson. It’s time to let me go. I no longer want to be with the show.”

Surprised, Hall also took a step backwards. He redirected his attention toward Compton and glared at the man. “You put her up to this, didn’t you?”

“He didn’t put me up to anything,” Challa answered. “I’m in love with Compton. I’m staying with him.”

Hall frowned. It was evident by the growing redness in his face that the man was trying to control his temper. “You can’t stay with him, and you know why.” He turned to Compton. “You don’t know anything about this girl. You have no idea what you’re doing.”

Compton grinned. “You mean because she’s a Ruinos?”

Hall froze. Someone could have smacked him in the face with a two-by-four, and the man would have never felt it. Compton’s grin widened.

“I’m her true blood mate, Hall, in case she’s ever told you about finding a life partner.”

Hall searched the faces of the others in the room, the sheriff and the deputy. DeGrassi gave the man a nod. “Yeah. We know about Ruinos, too. In fact, I’m married to one. Challa’s not the only one.”

“Dear God, how many
are
there?” the carnival owner whispered.

“Still alive? We figure around two dozen. That would definitely put them on the endangered species list,” DeGrassi said.

“You kept Challa close to the vest because she was your meal ticket. I understand that,” Compton continued. “But you knew that at some point it would all come to a halt. You knew sooner or later you would have to let her go. Because she is a Ruinos, and a real alien, you knew you wouldn’t be able to keep her in the carnival forever.”

Hall appeared to wilt. “No, I couldn’t. But give me points for trying.”

Taking a step closer to the man who had watched over her for the past two years, Challa laid a hand on his chest. She wore a tender look on her face. “You protected me. You gave me food and a place to sleep. You made sure I was warm and taken care of and I thank you. But I have found a miracle here on your world. I have found my blood mate.

“Earlier, when I was so sick, it was because I was dying. It was because my body was reacting to being away from him, and I would have died if Thom and Tiron and the others hadn’t brought me here so I could be with Compton again.”

She started to say more when the door suddenly opened, and another deputy stuck his head inside. “We got problems, Sheriff.”

“Hold off,” Klotsky told him. “We’re almost finished here.”

The deputy shook his head. “This can’t wait. You have to come look at this
now
.” He disappeared, leaving the door open. At that moment DeGrassi’s cell phone went off . At the same time a vacant, distant look fell over his face. Almost mechanically, he answered without checking the caller I.D. first.

“What’s wrong, Roni?”

Compton felt Challa stiffen, and she instinctively backed against him, seeking his touch. DeGrassi turned to give the sheriff a warning wave of his hand.

“Get back to the house, Roni,” the deputy told his wife. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

He closed the phone without saying goodbye. “Roni couldn’t get to work because six miles outside of town the road’s been blocked by at least a dozen large, full-grown trees that were pulled up by the roots and piled from one side of the road to the other. The way’s completely impassable by car.”

“Sheriff?” It was the other deputy again, peering back into the room.

“Let me guess,” Klotsky rumbled. “Roadblock?”

The man gasped. “How’d you guess?”

“Off 223?”

The deputy frowned. “No. Off 2A south. About six miles out.”

“Fully grown trees that seemed to have been pulled up by the roots?” DeGrassi added.

“Yeah.”

“Who could have done something like that?” Compton asked, just as astonished that something so unusual could have occurred twice in the area.

Instead of answering, DeGrassi and the sheriff hurried out of the office. Compton, Challa, and Hall followed them as more calls began to flood the station.

“Sheriff, we have another roadblock sighted six miles north of 2A,” the woman manning a computer console called out.

“Ditto that for 802!” another voice shouted.

Klotsky swore. “We’re being circled.”

“By someone pulling up trees?” Hall asked.

“Not someone,” DeGrassi corrected the man. “By the Arra. They’re caging us in.” He looked at others, and Compton could see the man’s terror in his eyes. “Roni smelled the Arra on the trees. She’s contacting Simon and Jeb.”

“Can’t you fight back like you’ve done before?” Compton asked as he felt Challa’s rising fear as well.

DeGrassi ran a hand over his pale face. “You don’t understand. When we fought them before, it was in the middle of the night. It’s daylight out there now. The Ruinos are locked into their human forms until sunset. They can’t change. And if they can’t change, they can’t fight.”

Giving Compton and Challa a little push toward the hallway leading back to the parking lot, he ordered, “We have to return to the house. If we’re going to have a chance against them, it’ll have to be with all of us together. But we have to hurry! There’s no telling where the Arra are landing, or how many of them there’ll be.”

“I’m staying in town to see what comes down,” Sheriff Klotsky told them. “Keep a line open, Thom!”

DeGrassi promised as they rushed back to their vehicles.

Chapter 37

Road Blocks

Compton watched DeGrassi on the phone all the way back to his house. Lawson Hall rode with the deputy.

“Challa.” He could tell when she gave him her full attention. “Tell me about the Arra. Tell me everything you know and remember. On this world, we know that the best defense is the best offense. ‘If we know our enemy, then they are ours’,” he semi-quoted.

It was amazing how easy it was to slip into his lieutenant skin. The danger factor started his adrenalin pumping, and the fear surrounding this unknown enemy brought him back to a point of clarity. Compton, the easy-going country boy from Cooper sloughed away, leaving behind the rock-hard and hewn military man bent on a single mission.

“They’re large, but they have no bodily form,” she answered.

“What do you mean, no bodily form?”

“They…they’re like water. They’re fluid. They can assume any shape they want. And they’re white.”

“What about arms and legs? How do they maneuver?”

Challa shrugged. “They don’t have arms or legs. They sort of flow over things, and around things, and through things.”

Compton got a mental image of a smokelike creature, but with more substance than smoke. “What about weapons? What kind of weapons do they have?”

“They use an
adjac
, which is kind of like a knife only it does more damage than a knife. And they have a paralyzer.”