Runner's Moon Trilogy Megabook Series (55 page)

Simon? Hey, friend. Simon!"

There was a slight movement. DeGrassi turned to look at Sarah. "You're going to need to wake him. He's attuned to you." He glanced over his shoulder, adding with a hiss,

"Hurry! Before more of those things arrive!"

Sarah hurried over to the cage and knelt on the glassy floor. She handed the gun to DeGrassi, then reached through the bars with both arms and placed them on her life mate. His skin was warm. His breathing felt regular. But she knew he wasn't asleep. Neither was he awake. It was like he was caught somewhere between reality and unconsciousness.

"Simon? Simon, you gotta wake up." She gave him a shove. His body rolled listlessly. "Simon! Tell me how to get you out of there! Give me a sign or-or a mental image.

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Something! Help me to get you and Jeb and Hannah out of here! Simon!"

There was a low moan. Beneath her hands she felt his muscles tense for a second. She gave him another push.

"Simon, please! Show me how to get you out of here!"

DeGrassi suddenly jumped to his feet, sliding the bolt on the rifle at the same time. "Hurry, Sarah!" he said again, then stepped back into the corridor.

She turned back to her mate lying too still and too quietly inside his beautiful pearly cage. A surge of heat rushed into her face and chest, taking her by surprise. This is what his life had been before he landed on Earth, locked inside a cage just like this one. Alone. Facing each new day with terror and uncertainty.

Choking back fresh tears, Sarah dug her nails into his skin and gave him another hard shake. "Damn it, Simon! Let me help you! You need me, and I need you! Please! Simon! Don't leave me alone! After all you've been through, we can't be taken away from each other like this!"

She gasped for air. Her arms ached. Her whole body was one massive sore. She had put it through too much these past twenty-four hours, and now it was starting to refuse to work anymore.

She managed to crawl around to the other side of the cage, where she could see Simon's face. His Ruinos face. A face that had not too long ago ceased being frightening. In the dim light coming from the ship's interior, she could see the shadows of the contours of his nose and cheek, his forehead and chin that was Simon when he wore his human 756

persona. What she couldn't see were those incredible blue eyes with their greenish flecks. Flecks which trembled whenever he was overcome with emotion. Or when they were making love.

She bent low to where only a few inches separated them.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, she tried again. "I love you, Simon. Can you hear me? I came all the way down here because I had to talk to you. But you have to wake up and help me! I have to get you and Jeb and Hannah out of these cages, but I can't do it without your help!"

She had reached inside the cage to shake him again when her attention was drawn to the far wall, where white remnants of the creature DeGrassi had killed speckled that side of the room. It wasn't a memory that made her look that way. Nor was it a tiny voice speaking to her inside her head.

But she knew it was Simon. Guiding her. Answering her plea in the only way he could while his body remained rigid, trapped in stasis by whatever weapon the Arra had used on him.

Getting to her feet, she carefully made her way over to the wall, where she could see tiny lights embedded in portions of it. Green lights, blue lights, white lights, red lights, and yellow lights. A veritable rainbow of lights. Some were blinking; some were not.

"I found the lights, Simon. Now what do I do?"

She raised her hands as she opened herself up to him, allowing him to use her as an extra appendage. Right above her head was a set of seven pale blue lights set into the wall 757

in a straight row. Four lights were blinking, but three burned steady.

Sarah glanced back, mentally counting the cages in the room. Three were occupied. Four were not.

Seven cages. Seven lights.

The cages couldn't be more than four feet tall, if that. Just enough to where a prisoner could sit upright but not stand.

The controls were set at a distance too far up the wall for any of the prisoners to reach if they were inside one of the cages.

But not for a person standing on her own two feet. Without needing to think about what she had to do, Sarah stood on tiptoe and reached up to touch the three steady blue lights.

They began blinking, and behind her she could hear audible snapping sounds. When she turned around, however, the cages looked exactly the same as before.

"Shit! What now?" Frustration swept over her, and she angrily stamped one foot.

Lift.

"Huh?" Walking back over to Simon, she stared down at the thin bars. "Lift? Lift what?"

Think, Drumman! These cages are dinky. What would be the easiest way for the Arra to get a prisoner into one of them? Bend over and shove them through a door? Or...

Wrapping her fingers around the bars on top of the cage, she pulled upward. The top easily swung upward on its rear hinges.

Reaching down into the cage, she grabbed a muscled arm and tugged. Simon's dead weight was impossible for her to 758

lift alone. So would Jeb's and Hannah's be. She couldn't do this by herself. She needed help getting them out.

A sudden shotgun blast startled her, and she squeaked with surprise. Near the doorway lay the Glock. Rushing over, Sarah snatched it up and backed against Simon's cage, prepared for another one of those things to come into the room.

Sooner or later one would. Either that, or DeGrassi. No matter. She was prepared for whatever happened next.

She was with Simon now and nothing was going to separate them again.

It wouldn't be long before he woke up. She could feel it, sense it. And if it was the last thing she would ever do, Sarah was determined that once he regained consciousness, she was going to tell him to his beautiful inhuman face how much she loved him.

Firmly setting her sights on the doorway, she prepared herself for the worst.

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Chills wracked her body, but Sarah kept her grip on the heavy Glock. Her arms burned with the agony of keeping them parallel to the floor, but she gritted her teeth and refused to drop her aim.

Another shotgun blast had roared outside. She estimated that despite the two odd turns in the ship, they really weren't more than a few dozen yards from the entrance.

A shuffling noise. Adrenaline shot through her, making her go stiff with apprehension, until she remembered that those globby Arra didn't shuffle. Or scoot, or make any kind of noise other than the squelchy sounds that came from them when they were being blasted by a loaded shotgun. Before she could grasp the significance of that, she heard a voice call out.

"Miss Drumman?"

Miss Drumman? Who the hell...

"In here! We're in here! I need help getting them out of these cages!"

White light played along the wall leading into the corridor.

The beam of a flashlight grew closer, and presently two men stepped into the room. Sarah recognized Sheriff Klotsky from the lumber mill. She saw his eyes take in her naked body. In the next second he holstered his gun and handed his light to the officer behind him before unbuttoning his shirt and 760

handing it to her. She gratefully accepted it, needing its warmth as much as its covering.

"How are they?" he asked her.

"Alive. They got knocked out somehow."

"How do we get them out of these things?" the other officer questioned.

"Raise the top. I already unlocked them, but Simon's too heavy for me to lift out by myself."

Klotsky gave her a surprised look but handed her his flashlight. Sarah held the lid open as he managed to drag Simon out and lay him on the floor. Sarah dropped to her knees to touch his face, placing little kisses on his lips and cheek.

"Buetell, go get DeGrassi. It's going to take all of us to get them out of here. But first let me have your shirt."

The deputy nodded, quickly stripped, and hurried out.

Sarah glanced over her shoulder and saw Klotsky helping Hannah into the other shirt. The woman was coming around, but her movements were sluggish. Jeb, on the other hand, was still out, and that was beginning to worry her.

She felt Simon shift beneath her hands. She glanced down to see the wonderful green glitter of his eyes staring up at her. At the sight of them she smiled affectionately. "Have I told you lately how much I love you?" she whispered, not caring if the sheriff heard or not.

"Not for the last fifteen minutes," he managed to respond.

His voice was husky and desert dry.

"You heard me?"

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"From the time you met up with Tiron and Thomas," he admitted.

She nodded. She knew he had been with her all the way, guiding her and somehow managing to keep her unafraid regardless of the danger.

Their attention was drawn back to the doorway where Buetell and DeGrassi re-entered the room. Seeing Simon coming round, DeGrassi gave him a smile and a nod. "Think you can manage on your own?" he asked.

"With Sarah's help, yes."

Slowly, he got to his feet and draped an arm around Sarah's shoulders. Hannah was led out by Sheriff Klotsky, and the two deputies carried Jeb between them. Sarah and Simon started to follow at the rear when Simon pulled back and stopped.

"We have to destroy this ship."

DeGrassi nodded. "Give us a couple of minutes to get clear."

Sarah stared at her mate. "Can we make it out in time?"

"Not a problem. Let me rest here while you set the timer."

"Me? Set the timer? How..." Her words trailed off as an explanation settled into her mind as clearly as if she'd been trained to perform that specific action. Simon gave her a grin.

Turning back to the wall, Sarah went directly to the two golden-yellow lights flanked by the green ones. Punching each one in order, she stepped back to make sure the timer had begun ticking off the seconds. Overhead a small orange strobe started flashing.

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They hurried out of the ship and into the small clearing where everyone was waiting for them to emerge. Backing off several more yards until the trees were between them and the ship, everyone watched as dark clouds erupted from the doorway. In the next instant the ship seemed to glow internally. They heard several crackling sounds, loud pops, and sizzling noises that reminded Sarah of fireworks going off on the Fourth of July. The light intensified briefly, then faded away. She turned to Simon, who was now able to stand on his own without using her as a crutch.

"That's it?"

"Yeah. That's it."

"What about debris?"

"It'll continue to implode for another hour, until there's nothing left."

"What about the Arra?"

"All dead," DeGrassi announced flatly.

"We'd better hurry and get Jeb back to the cabin," Klotsky commented. "Dr. Fitzhugh should be there by now."

The trudge back to the house didn't seem to take as long as it did going in. A pale light was already beginning to spread through the sky, and Sarah glanced over at her Ruinos lover.

He answered her unspoken question with a shake of his head.

"We're not turning today. We need this time to heal, and we can't do it properly if we've shifted."

He kept his arm around her shoulders, and he added a squeeze to her upper arm. To their left DeGrassi held Tiron, who was beginning to come out of her paralysis. Hannah 763

walked beside the sheriff and the deputy, who were carrying Jeb between them.

"How many people know about you?"

Simon gave a slight shrug. "In Tumbril Harbor? No more than a dozen, if that many. But each person who knows can be trusted to guard our secret."

"We know the Ruinos are not here by choice," Sheriff Klotsky spoke up. "We also understand their need to remain in hiding. And their desire to live a peaceful life. Personally, Miss Drumman, I would rather place my life in the hands of a Ruinos than in any other man's." He glanced over at DeGrassi. "How's the little lady?"

"Fine, thank you," a weak voice answered, slightly muffled from where Tiron was nuzzling the underside of her husband's chin.

Sarah sighed loudly. "Boy. Well, all I can say is it's been one helluva day and night. All I want to do is climb into bed and sleep for the next ten to twelve hours straight," she announced.

She got another squeeze on the shoulder. "Just sleep?"

Simon whispered in her ear in a teasing voice.

"You're insatiable," she grumbled, but she was unable to keep the smile from coming over her face. Neither could she stop the reaction rushing over her body as it tingled with expectation. A furtive glance down at his nude body revealed he was becoming as excited as she was. Thank goodness it wasn't full-on daylight.

Vaguely Sarah wondered how soundproof the cabin was.

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Sarah gave an irritated little growl and pushed the folder containing papers and photographs away from her. "Well, fuck."

"Unless that's a request," a voice teasingly called from across the room.

Hannah poured her a fresh cup of coffee. "You've been studying those notes all day, Sarah. Why not give it a break?"

Sarah nodded, reaching back behind her head to knead tense neck muscles. However, a large pair of warm hands beat her to it. She closed her eyes and allowed Simon to massage away the stiffness. "If only I could figure out a way to get my tenure without risking giving away the presence of the Ruinos on Earth."

"I have every faith in you that you'll find it," Jeb commented. His sincerity was like a pat on the back. Sarah glanced up and flashed him a grin. The man was reclining on the couch in the living room, but he was able to see right into the open kitchen, where the rest of them were sitting around the table.

"I hate the thought of having to go back to work tomorrow."

"Think of it this way," Simon said as his hands continued to perform magic on her scalp. "We have a wedding to plan."

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She giggled. "Okay. That does make me feel better. But if I don't get this tenure, that's going to put me in the unemployment line by June."

Simon shrugged. He was still in his Ruinos skin, a pair of cutoff jeans his only attire. Dropping a kiss onto her hair, he went into the kitchen to get his own refill. "Don't let it bother you, Sarah. I can support us both until you find another position."

"Like what? My life is the stars. All I've ever wanted to do was to study them and to teach others how to love them like I do." She lifted one of the printouts of the shots she'd received from Hawaii and looked over it again for the hundredth time. "Besides, if I can keep my job at NSU, then I'll be able to keep my direct access to the 'scope. That way I'll be able to foresee any Arran spacecraft entering our atmosphere, and you guys can send out a warning to the other Ruinos."

It was a damn good thing she kept her laptop in the trunk of her car whenever she traveled. Ditto for the fact that she always carried a backup of her work on the little portable memory card she stored in her purse. After a day of bed rest—or at least bed, she smiled to herself—everyone was spending Sunday eating and relaxing. She had no classes on Monday, thank goodness, which would allow her the whole day to return to Templeton. As a plus, Simon would be motoring along right behind her.

It was early evening, and Hannah was washing the supper dishes. Having had her offer of help turned down, Sarah had retrieved her work from her car, which Deputy Buetell had 766

delivered around noon. She was hoping that the few days away from the project would have given her a fresh eye on the work. And she might be able to find a way to save her years' worth of study. Unfortunately it didn't appear too promising at this point.

Adding sweetener and creamer to her coffee, she sipped her drink as quiet descended over the cabin. A moment later Jeb remarked, "Car's coming."

Hannah snorted and threw a dishtowel onto the counter.

"Get used to that, Sarah. Our Ruinos mates have ears that could hear a rabbit fart a mile away."

"It's DeGrassi," Jeb continued, smiling. He was still too weak to return to work on Monday, but Sheriff Klotsky had already phoned the mill and explained to Jeb's boss.

Simon took the seat next to Sarah and pulled the folder around to look through its contents. Sarah watched him as the sound of the car engine steadily grew louder, then ceased. Presently there was a quick knock at the door, and Tiron and Thomas entered the house. Tiron was in her human guise, but as she walked through the door she changed into her true self. Sarah slowly shook her head, amazed at how natural it all seemed now. It was like belonging to an extended family, something she had never experienced in her life, yet had always dreamed of. A loving family, albeit slightly dysfunctional in its own alien way.

"How are you doing?" DeGrassi immediately asked Jeb as they shook hands.

"Better. Another day or two, and I'll be able to go back to work. Only Dr. Fitzhugh says no heavy lifting for a week."

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DeGrassi gave a bark of laugher. "For me that would be no lifting anything heavier than five pounds. For you it means nothing heavier than five hundred." His eyes found Sarah sitting at the table in front of the laptop. "Roni and I came to thank you again for your help," he told her.

Tiron walked over, and Sarah stood to accept her hug. "I watched you protecting my Thomas. I wanted to say thank you, as well."

"You are welcome. In fact, it should be me thanking you."

Sarah felt the familiar sting of tears in her nose and rising into her eyes. "Had you not sat me down and explained to me about Ruinos, I don't think I would have accepted Simon as quickly as I did. I mean, I know that deep in my heart I would have eventually taken him in his Ruinos form. But if I hadn't done so the other night, I would never have been able to find out where the Arra were. Or where they had taken you. Or how to release the cages. Or all that other stuff." She swiped at the wetness in her eyes with the back of her hand and gave a little wave of her arms. "Oh, hell. You know what I mean."

She and Tiron laughed softly and hugged again before the Ruinos woman went to join her husband on the other side of the table. Hannah went to pour them coffee.

"There's another reason why we came by," DeGrassi announced, thanking Hannah for the mug she placed in front of him. He stared directly at Sarah. "How did you know I carried another weapon? And how did you get to be such a good shot? Are you holding out on us, woman?"

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Sarah noticed the grin creasing the corners of his lips, and she chuckled. "It's no big deal, really. I had to take on a lot of odd jobs to put myself through college. One of them was working at a firing range. I gathered up spent cartridges and sorted them. Even learned how to fill them. Got to spend a lot of time practicing my shot." She shrugged. "As for the Glock, I just had a feeling you had an extra weapon hidden somewhere on you. I mean, you being a cop." She glared right back at him. "What did you have in that damn thing?

Hollow point?"

"Armor piercing," he replied.

Sarah started. "Aren't those things illegal?"

DeGrassi raised his mug to his lips. "Yeah." He took a drink.

"T'korra, what's this picture of?" Simon broke in, holding up a photograph.

Sarah glanced at it. "Oh, that's one of the first rogue ships I spotted." She pointed out a trajectory arc to him. "It was taken September sixteenth, six years ago. See? All pictures are time stamped right there in the corner."

"September sixteenth?" Hannah echoed. She looked over at her husband. "That's when we first came to Tumbril Harbor."

"It's the night Carl tried to kidnap you, and the Arra almost managed to steal me away," Jeb elaborated.

Sarah froze in her chair. Her mind was churning, spinning, sorting and dissecting a million pieces of information like a computer. Something was nibbling at the back of her mind, but she couldn't piece it together. Not yet, anyway. But given 769

another morsel to chew on, or another bit of the puzzle to fit, and it would come to her. She took another sip of her drink.

"You wouldn't happen to have one of those pictures dated for May, would you?" DeGrassi asked.

Simon answered for her. "Yeah. In fact, it's right here. Is this also a picture of one of the Arran craft, Sarah?"

"A small one," Sarah said. "Just like the one in September." She frowned at DeGrassi. "Why May?"

"Because that's the time one of those ships landed almost in Roni's backyard and tried to make off with her," the man said.

The wheels continued to spin. She felt herself getting closer and closer to ... something. It was dangling just out of reach and irritating the hell out of her. But she had faith in herself. Sooner or later Sarah trusted that whatever was annoying her would eventually come to the surface.

"Isn't it odd that they managed to land almost right next door to us?" Hannah commented off-handedly.

Sarah sat up. "Right next door?"

A warm hand closed over hers where it lay on the table.

"What are you thinking?" Simon asked in a low voice.

She screwed up her face in thought. "Coincidence?"

The remark made DeGrassi sit up straight in his chair. "Not quite. At least, we don't think so."

"Why not?"

"Because we already know what brought the Arra straight to us," Hannah said. "Whenever a Ruinos doesn't change by daylight, the Arra are able to track them. Then, after dark, they land and take them captive."

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Shifting her eyes from one to the other, Sarah slowly shook her head. "I don't believe it," she finally said. "Are you telling me that the Arra can track you down because you don't take on your human form during the day?" Making a rude noise, she added, "That theory has more holes in it than the Titanic."

DeGrassi planted his elbows on the table and leaned over.

"Explain."

"If the Arra can track you by day, then they can track you by night. You all resume your true selves at night, right? So why haven't they been able to take all of you back by now?"

She was on a roll, and they knew it. Her observations were more of a thinking-aloud process than an explanation. It wouldn't be long until she was able to find the answer they had been seeking for six years.

"No. There has to be a reason why the Arra landed when they did. Something ... something led them to you. Because if they could track you by day in your Ruinos form, like you claim they can, then what's to stop them from landing during the day to come after you?" She looked to Simon. "Are they allergic to sunlight?"

Simon shook his head. "No. I've seen many times when the Arra have been exposed to direct sunlight. And ultraviolet light. Radiation. No, direct sunlight doesn't affect them that we know of."

"So they landed at night, and practically right on top of your house. Which can only mean something else brought them here." She chewed on her lower lip as she thought. The photographs shuffled in her hands like a deck of cards. "Jeb?

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That night you said they came for you ... was that the first time you encountered them after your initial landing on Earth?"

"Yeah."

She looked up a Tiron, who nodded.

"Simon?"

"Other than that time they tried to make off with Jeb, and I went to help him fight them off, the other night was my only other encounter," her mate replied.

"Hmm. Don't you find that odd?"

"How so?" DeGrassi rumbled.

She waved a hand around the table. "That all of you could go for years without detection. And then, boom! There they are, right at your doorstep. Something alerted them.

Something you did or—" Her inner light bulb began to brighten. "Hannah! Jeb! You said the Arra showed up at your cabin here?"

"Not this cabin," Hannah corrected her. "Our cabin at the motel. Wendy's place."

Sarah smiled. "Anything earth-shattering happen right before they appeared?"

"Yeah."

They all turned to see Jebaral sitting up on the sofa. His face was flushed, but not from illness. "Hannah and I had made love for the first time in my Ruinos form. Her blood line formed in my arm that next morning. I phoned Simon, but of course he already knew because her line had formed in his arm as well." He raised his face. "The Arra appeared that night."

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"Fuck! Same here!" DeGrassi exclaimed. "I went to Roni's place, and we made love with her in her true form. The next day my blood line was in her arm, and it was that evening when all hell broke loose."

Sarah turned to Simon, who was nodding. "Then we made love when you were Ruinos," she whispered. "We saw my blood line in your arm..."

"And they were here that night," Simon finished, his eyes widening.

Sarah swiveled around in her seat to look at Hannah. "You told me the Arra couldn't force the Ruinos to reproduce because only true mated couples can have babies. Right?"

"Yeah," both Hannah and Simon answered.

"So how do the Arra know when true mated couples have found each other?"

That question had everyone staring at each other. Tiron finally shrugged. "We assumed it was because they were aware of when we had an orgasm."

"On the ship," Sarah pointed out. "But what about here on Earth? How in the hell did they know? If they're so hot to get you back, how come they've left you alone until now?" She leaned further over the table. "How come they didn't come after any of us until after we'd found our blood mates?"

Tiron glanced down at the single iridescent thread running down the inner side of her left arm. Sarah turned to see Simon also looking at his. Reaching over, she placed a fingertip on one of the lines. "I will bet you any amount of money that these blood lines are the answer. Somehow the Arra found a way to keep track of these lines, no matter 773

where you are. On the ship, or here on Earth. When one of them formed, they were alerted to the fact that a true mating had occurred. Then all they had to do was come down and snatch the both of you up and take you away."

"But they didn't come after me that first time," Hannah protested.

Jeb broke in. "We don't know that for sure. Remember, Carl was after you, too. When the Arra made their move, Simon showed up to fight them. Then Sheriff Klotsky got caught up in it, too. The Arra never had the chance to take you because we fought back first."

"Same here," DeGrassi mentioned. "I was away from Roni, off in search of a serial killer when the Arra struck. But I'm willing to bet, too, that they figured I would come after her to save her. That our connection would lead me right to them, which it did." He grinned broadly. "They just weren't expecting me to be armed or to put up a fight."

"They were coming after us, t'kor," Sarah told Simon.

"They had homed in on my blood line forming in your arm, which is why they landed here."