I Married An Alien (14 page)

I took a breath, trying to curb my rolling stomach. Some fresh air would have helped, but all I could smell was the rank body-odor of my companions. It dawned on me then that Jordan didn't smell anything like an Earth man. His scent was always so enticing, sweet and erotic at the same time. Perhaps it was because we were mated that every other man now smelt off to me. I had to admit the whole Terron male partner thing had a lot going for it, particularly since nature had made them so attractive in the first place.

Anita, Derek just had an idea
. After so many minutes of silence, Jordan's voice inside my head startled me.

Yes Jordan
, I responded. Please make it a good one, like you've just discovered you can teleport me out of this craft! I thought to myself.

Can you see the control panel from where you're sitting?

I shifted a little in my seat, not wanting to draw the attention of the guy sitting next me. Craning my neck a little, I saw the console, lit up with bright flashing lights and digits. Most looked like hieroglyphics, but some were numbers.
Yes, I can see it.

Good. In the centre there's a readout that could show the same numbers on it constantly. If these numbers are there, they will be the co-ordinates of their destination. I'm hoping they programmed it in, since they're not natives and hardly seem to know how to fly.

Yes, they're making me quite air sick,
I replied, hoping I could find the numbers he meant and actually read them. I shouldn't have worried. As Ruth I would have had trouble without my glasses, but Anita appeared to have near perfect vision.
It reads 45:57:19. Does that help?

Silence came from his end, and then, after about a minute he said;
Perfect thanks. But why they would want to rendezvous in the middle of the Bengalona Forest is beyond me!

It's nice and quiet and no one can see them,
I thought back, seeing nothing but a dark vista of trees below us.

That's it. Keep your spirits up. Derek's programmed the coordinates into our hover. We'll be with you soon
. He was obviously trying to reassure me, and hearing his voice did help to allay my fears a little.

"We're almost there," the guy in the front passenger seat said as he peered out of his side window down into the wilderness below us.

"Where?" Mr Brown demanded from the driver's seat. "I can't see anything."

"That's because all the lights have been turned off, but I just spotted the clearing, and the tracker your guys set says we're here."

"All right. All right, Then guide me down. Flying these things is a nightmare."

So they didn't fly these craft on Earth. I could just imagine the nightmare traffic chaos all those hovercars would cause, particularly with the amount of road rage Sydney's congested streets had suffered in my time. Taking to the air would only have made things worse. It did make me wonder just what kind of transport system they did have on Earth now. After suffering for so long with fuel shortages until the discovery of
hytana
oil, maybe they'd finally had the sense to make public transport more reliable.

After some more stomach-lurching twists and turns, as well as a bone-jarring ride across some rough ground, we finally came to a halt in a clearing, surrounded by the tallest trees I'd ever seen. This was probably why they had chosen to hide a space shuttle here. Those enormous trees would conceal it from every angle save directly above. I assumed the craft taking up most of the clearing was a shuttle. It looked like a small jet with extra large engines, a ramp lowered for easy boarding.

As my gun-toting companion ordered me out, I wondered how I could delay their departure long enough to enable Jordan and his team time to arrive. Since I had no idea how far behind me they were, I didn't know how much time I had.

Instead of obeying his order, I bent double, and groaned. "I feel too sick to get out right now, thanks to your partner's stunt driving."

"Oh come on!" He nudged me with the butt of the blaster. It should have got me moving, but I really did still feel queasy, and in no hurry to test my rubbery legs, not unless he really did threaten to shoot me with that thing. Even though Jordan had told me they wouldn't use their weapons to kill, I figured being 'stunned' wouldn't be particularly pleasant either.

We're here Jordan. And they're making me get out of the hover now. When do you think you will you be here?

We're over the forest. The tracker is counting down quickly. A few minutes. What kind of craft have they got? Terron or Earthean?

How should I know?
I asked in frustration, gazing at it again. To me it just looked like a large, souped-up jet fighter from my own time, with that pointy nose and swept back wings.

I thought I heard Jordan make an exasperated noise inside my head, but since I didn't think we could communicate emotions, merely our thoughts, I suspected it had probably been something from outside.

"What's the hold up back there?" Mr Brown demanded from the now open side door.

“
She's complaining about feeling sick from the ride."

"Just great," Mr Brown muttered. "We're already behind schedule. "Just carry her, you idiot."

"Don't you dare touch me," I snarled at them. "I'll get there. Just give me a minute." I made a big pretence of breathing deeply, and then looking around for my shoes. Surreptitiously I nudged one further under the seat. "Has anyone seen my other shoe? I'm not going out there in bare feet. That grass looks awfully spiky.

"Oh, for Christ's sake!" Mr Brown shoved the other guy aside to begin groping around under the seat. "Here it is!" He shoved the slipper into my hands.

I put it back down onto the floor, and slowly slipped my foot into it, knowing I had prevaricated enough. "All right, I think I can stand now." As slowly as I dared, I inched across the bench seat to the open door, and climbed out of the vehicle. I thought better of pretending to sway, since I didn't want any of them to lay their hands on me. But I did walk as slowly as I thought I could get away with towards the craft.

Clearly this wasn't fast enough for Mr Brown, because he grabbed hold of my arm. "You can feel sick all you like once you're strapped into your seat. Now come on." As he jerked my arm, he stumbled to one side, his weapon hitting the rough stony ground with a clatter. I stared down at him in disbelief, wondering if his own stunt driving had made him sick enough to suddenly pass out cold for no apparent reason.

As I turned to the guy on my other side, I saw him spin around and aim his blaster into the darkness, but he didn't get to fire a single shot. He too toppled over backwards, his body jerking once as he was stunned into silence. At least I hoped he was only stunned. Since I hadn't heard a single shot, I wasn't entirely sure what was going on around me.

Then I saw the most wonderful sight imaginable. Jordan was running towards me, a massive blaster of his own clasped in both hands, powerful legs pumping, long blonde hair whipping back from his determined face as he ate up the distance between us.

As I began to run towards him, he skidded, coming to a halt as his left leg buckled under him. Despite the dimness of the night, I saw blood bloom against the fabric of his light blue trousers.

Chapter
Eleven

"No!"
I screamed, turning to see who had shot Jordan, but the Human male was already tumbling down the ramp out of the space-craft, no doubt stunned by one of Jordan's companions.

Another Terron male was already running past me to check if there were any more aboard the ship. He looked vaguely familiar.

I reached Jordan at the same time as another woman did. "Dana!" I gasped, recognition dawning. The man who had entered the craft had to be her mate.

"Yes, hello Anita. I think I had better get the medical kit!" She followed my gaze down to Jordan's leg, which he was now clutching in both hands, trying to staunch the blood flow.

"Who said they would only shoot to stun? That blast was lethal, damn it!" she added over her shoulder as she began to jog back to her own hover. I hadn't noticed it until now, parked beneath overhanging branches on the other side of the clearing. As I watched her, two other vehicles shimmered into view as if by magic. I rubbed my eyes, not believing what I was seeing.

But I had no time to ponder them further because Jordan groaned, and I crouched down beside him to slip my arms around his shoulders and bury my face against his wide shoulder. I was so relieved to see him again and realized just how much I'd come to care about him in the short time we'd known one another. I strongly suspected the bond he claimed only to affect him really was a two-way thing, because all I longed to do was kiss him all better again.

It wasn't until Dana had returned carrying a rather large kitbag that he let go of his injury to return my embrace. He crushed me against his big body, and covered my mouth with his, kissing me hard and fierce. It felt like heaven to be back in his powerful arms and feeling his lips and tongue mesh with mine. His wonderful masculine aroma clouded around me, infused me, and for a moment I forgot that we were sitting in the middle of a dark forest with him bleeding all over the place, and other people running everywhere.

"Thank the lord we got to you in time," he murmured against my lips. "I am so damn happy to see you… owww."

We both glanced down to see Dana place something against his wound. It looked like a square piece of clear gel. To my amazement I watched the blood flow ease and the wound begin to close underneath the jelly-like substance. Another amazing piece of twenty third century technology, I couldn't help thinking. Just like the invisible hovers.

Within minutes Jordan's leg was healed, but his trousers were still a mess. Another minute later, he set me away from him, and scrambled to his feet, testing his leg.

"Good as new," he declared, grinning at each of us in turn. How I loved that big, bright smile of his. "Now, that is a Terron ship, Anita." He motioned to the craft. "Mind telling me why you couldn't tell the difference?"

"I've never seen one before," I admitted, wondering why it should be such a big deal.

"With an influential father like yours, and prospective in-laws who own the biggest damn oil refinery in the southern hemisphere? Somehow I doubt that."

"I already told you the reason," I muttered, knowing it was probably not a good idea to reveal too much within Dana's hearing. But she didn't appear to be too interested in what we were saying, already carrying the medical kit back to their waiting hover.

"Yes, you conveniently left the story open on tablet for me to see." He pulled something from an inside pocket of his jacket and handed the flat oblong device back to me.

I accepted it, glancing briefly down at it, but the screen was blank. "Maybe now isn't the time to talk about it," I said, as Dana's mate made his way back towards us from the space ship.

"One pilot disabled," he asserted, patting his blaster. He waved over a group of soldiers who had emerged from the other hovers. "Take them into custody and question them." He thumbed over his shoulder, then continued to us; "I think we had better take you two back to Administration and find you a safe room until the morning. Tomorrow looks like becoming a very interesting day indeed."

It wasn't until Jordan and I were sitting in the back of Dana and Derek's hover that my exhaustion finally hit me. Once the excitement was over and the adrenalin rush had eased off, I sagged against Jordan and closed my eyes, relieved I could finally rest.

But it was difficult to relax with Jordan beside me, stroking my hair, his breath warm against my forehead, making me all too aware of his big solid presence.

"You are such an enigma, my dear Anita," he murmured against my skin. 'But I suspect we shall get to the bottom of everything tomorrow when you don't arrive back on Earth as they had hoped."

Yes, tomorrow was going to be another action-packed day, but right now I was too exhausted to think about it.

I did doze off eventually, Derek obviously a far more experienced hover pilot than Mr Brown. I didn't even feel the landing, not until Jordan scooped me up into his arms and began carrying me like a child into another monstrosity of a building. It seemed to stretch up into the sky forever.

"I can walk on my own," I protested as various people greeted us in a vast foyer that was so shiny and bright it hurt my eyes.

"I know, but I like holding you in my arms," Jordan remarked with a grin.

"Aren't I getting heavy yet?"

"You weigh practically nothing at all."

"Stop showing off what a great big hero you are and put me down," I urged, not used to be coddled like a child, or being told I was a lightweight.

"Yes, I suppose I'd better, since we seem to have a welcoming committee." With that he set me down, but still held me close against him, like he never wanted to let me go again. Several tall Terron men wearing official-looking robes over their loose pants and shirts, strode towards us from a bank of elevators.

"Welcome back, Jordan Demantena," the first man intoned, not looking the slightest bit welcoming. His blue eyes remained cold, and his mouth compressed into a thin hard line as he stopped in front of us. His long blonde hair was braided at the sides, like the officials who had presided over our wedding ceremony.