Fallen + Marli & Lalo (Fallen Invasion, #3) (11 page)

L
ater that evening, I got a call from Dr. Stevenson saying that work has been cancelled for at least the next four days.  He would call and let us know Monday night if our ban changed.  He also added that everyone in our group was safe.  The few members who lived alone had all joined each other at Ashley’s house.  He invited me to join them, but I said I would be alright.  My friend from out of town was visiting me.  He had military experience.

The thing was I had already spoken to Ashley and Ren.  Ren called us on three-way.  They asked me to come stay with them.  But if I did, I wouldn’t be able to help Lalo figure out what he was supposed to do.  Or I would have had to introduce Lalo.  I told them about Lalo the same way I did with Dr. Stevenson.  Briefly, we discussed what happened in Greele.  Ren concluded that it was terrorists.  Ashley kept mentioning aliens, so the conversation switched to Kallen.

None of us had been able to get in contact with him.  Worried that the worst happened, we came up with a plan.  I was to observe his house and see if he showed up while the others kept calling.  In the morning, we would search for Kallen if he never showed.  I planned to bring Lalo in case we somehow ran into the bad aliens.

Still on the phone, Dr. Stevenson again said to stay safe.  He let me know that along with more police coming into town so was a special branch of the armed forces and FBI.  I asked him if he had seen Kallen.  He took a couple of seconds to answer, which alarmed me.

“Uh, no.  No.  I haven’t seen him, but I did speak with him.  He’s fine.  It was less than an hour ago.”

“Where is he?” I asked.

“Uh Claireview,” he said.

I had known Dr. Stevenson for about a month, and I never heard him be so unsure.  He had a role in Kallen’s disappearance too?

“Isn’t that past Greele?” I said.  “He would have come back through there to get home.”

“Yes,” Dr. Stevenson said.

“So he’s stuck?” I said.

A car drove down the road to Kallen’s and my house the instant I released my last word.  The car slowed down to stop.  I advanced toward the window.  Lalo beat me there and slid a small piece of the blind up.

“Kallen,” he whispered.

“You know.  I’ll let you go now,” Dr. Stevenson said.  “If I hear from him again, I’ll get you on the phone too.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“I know the two of you have become close friends.”

“Yes, he has helped me a lot.”

Dr. Stevenson and I said our goodbyes.  Then I watched Kallen close his front door and assumed he flicked on the light.

“Something is watching us,” Lalo said, “from Kallen’s house.”

“What?” I said.

“To the right,” Lalo said.  “The kitchen area.”

How did he know that was Kallen’s kitchen area?

My eyes shot to the window.  There was someone there, peeking around the curtains.

“I hope it’s the woman from the truck,” I said.  “The one that wore a rose scented perfume.  You think they can see us?”

“Don’t think so.  But they are watching.”

Whoever was behind the curtains closed them.  I faced Lalo.

“What if it’s one of these spies he was worried about?” I said.  “What if they came to hurt him!?”

“Get behind me,” Lalo said.  “We’re going over there.  They won’t see us.”

“But how do we get in?” I asked.

“I know a window.”

“How do you—”

“I told you.  I didn’t trust him.  Come on we can talk later.”

Lalo made me grab the back of his shirt then he became invisible, or so he said.  I could still see and hold onto him.  We jetted outside of my house and jogged across the field to Kallen’s.

I was relieved not to hear a struggle inside.  But what if the being or person there killed him already?  My stomach was in knots again.

The window Lalo chose was on the first floor in Kallen’s deserted dining room area.  It was on the opposite side of the house from the kitchen.  The probability that they would come into that room was low.

Somehow Lalo opened the window without making a noise.  He had me let go of his shirt to climb in.  Then he helped me in and closed the window.

At first, we heard Kallen roaming.  Well, I hoped it was him.  The wooden floors creaked as if a taller, more solid built person patrolled them.  They turned the TV on, to the news.  To see we crept across the front of the house, towards the kitchen.  I saw Kallen’s head of hair that rose above the chair he was sitting in.  We made it into the foyer when a woman started talking.

“You know Kallen, watching that isn’t going to make things any better,” she said.

Relief escaped me when I heard the woman say Kallen’s name.  He was alright.

Lalo wrapped my arms tight around his waist.  “In case we need to jump,” I heard in my head.  For whatever reason I wasn’t startled, even though that was the first time I heard Lalo in my head.  I became glad he scared me that afternoon and made me practice connecting with him.  It was working.

The open floor plan allowed us to see Kallen get out of his chair in the family room and go into the kitchen from the foyer.  We didn’t move.

We can’t get closer?  We are invisible, right?

Maybe Lalo worried that they might be able to sense us.

“Kallen,” the woman said.  “Talk to me.”

“What we did was,” Kallen said.  “I can’t actually believe I did it.  After all of these years, all it took was seeing the others, and I snapped right back into my role.”

Phew, he knew her.

“It’s not your fault,” she said.  “What they did to us was wrong.  It’s going to take years to get away from it.  Chances are we’ll need therapy.  I try to do right by being in the force, staying away from new arrivals.  It is going to take a little time to persuade them all.”

“But I did nothing,” Kallen said.  “I stood and watched her tear him apart.”

“You knew she wouldn’t murder him.  And you couldn’t do anything out of their normal training there.  They need some time on Earth then you can talk to them.  Besides, you know the Emperor has to be sending down spies.  If you stopped them, you would be marked to be killed eventually.”

Kallen was full of sorrow.  I had never heard him sound so sad.  “She was one of the excited ones,” he said.  “She got a lot of kills in the other towns.  She loves the chase.  And I love her.”

“Naya will change too,” the woman said.  “They all will.  These are not the most dangerous ones.  That’s Dak and Marcus.”

I took a deep breath in. 
Please let Marcus be a common name.  Naya.  Naya.  Remember that name.

We heard the uncomfortable sound of a chair being dragged across the floor then the chair creaked as someone sat on it.

“You have to remember Kallen,” the woman continued.  “We changed with this earth too.  You were once like them.  That’s why you lead.”

“But that was long ago.  We had time to relax.  Naya said they gave her quotas.  She gave them to me.  What happened today was merely one of her quotas.  It’s going to happen again but be much worse.  We have to stop her.  She is assigned to keep an eye on the people at the hospital.  She will transform that guy she attacked.  I’m sure of that.  I don’t truly know how to stop her because I switch back to that leader.  That superior, lethal monster when I’m around her.”

“Kallen,” the woman said.

Lalo moved closer to the kitchen.  We saw Kallen sitting on a bar chair and the woman, who also had long, dark hair and brown eyes, stroll over to him.  She leaned into him and rubbed his hand.

“Forget about being with her,” she said.  “And be with me.”

“Martinez.”

“Don’t Martinez me Kal!  Call me by my name!”

“Don’t call me Kal!  I am not that monster!  Not here!”

Martinez sniffed like she was about to cry.  “Why do you always choose her?  Huh?  When we were little, and she wanted nothing to do with you, you chose her.  When we were teens, and she was hanging onto everything Lalo said, you chose her.  And now that she’s here,
in our home—Earth
, you choose her.  We were better together Kallen, remember?  For a few years we were happy.  Then she says she is coming here permanently and you chose her again.”

She sniffed some more but no tears trickled down her face.

“Shelie, I’m sorry, but I love her,” Kallen said.

“But she doesn’t love you.”

“She will,” Kallen said.  “The earth will transition her like it did to me.”

“Not in that way.”

“It will.  And if not—”

“If not what?” Shelie said.  “You’ll go after your little neighbor over there.  Your neighbor that you told everything about yourself except that you are the alien you’re obsessed with.  That neighbor, Marli.”

“Don’t,” Kallen said.

“Don’t what?  She also has a hold on you.  The kind where you make sure you protect her from us and forget about your duties.  Too bad you forgot about the duty involving finding Lalo.  We had a lead.  We knew he was here.  Now, everyone knows something is wrong.”

“It’s not that big of a deal.  We’ll still find him first.  We have a bigger army now.”

“It is that big of a deal,” she said.  “He is unique.  Whatever he decides—”

”But you found out he remembered nothing,” Kallen said.

“Yeah, and it’s only a matter of time until he remembers everything,” Shelie said.  “You did nothing Kallen.  And he landed closer to you.  I at least inspected Marli’s house and talked to him.”

“You could have exposed us if she saw you running around her house that fast at night.  You also lost Lalo so ...”

Shelie huffed.  “At least I did something.”

“Yeah, you made him hide.”

“You try following one of the most powerful and smartest aliens, and we’ll see how you do.”

“What you seem to forget is that I am pretty powerful and smart myself,” Kallen said.  “So are you.  Naya, she has the same abilities as Lalo.  However, she kept them hidden because she didn’t want to be used like they are using Lalo.”

Lalo made a move to take a step forward, but I pulled him back.  I didn’t know this Kallen.

“I think it’s a good time to tell Marli, don’t you?” Kallen said.  “She needs to know the full extent of the crisis she is in.  I’ve sensed Lalo hanging around.  It was the first morning he was here on Earth.  I haven’t seen him.  Saw some man get out of Marli’s car last night.  They went shopping.  I figured at least he can help protect her.”

“No human can stand a chance against him,” Shelie said.  She relaxed.  “And why are you so focused on her?”

“I’m positive she’s a connecter.  I think someone she works with has more information about what’s going on that we can’t see.  I think she gets visions of Lalo’s connector.  That’s why Lalo has to find her.  But he can’t see her abilities unless she lets him.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you would come out of nowhere,” Kallen said.  “Draw unnecessary attention.  This is a small town.”

“I’m sure she’s there now,” Shelie said.  “Everyone was advised to stay home.  We need to tell her.  Lalo, he has his ways.  He will find out in an instant.”

“Not necessarily.  Not if he doesn’t remember.”

“Look, I’m sorry Kallen,” Shelie said.  “The stress modifies my mood.  This invasion is about to happen and we aren’t prepared to fight.”

“I know and I’m sorry too,” he said.  “Let’s go help Marli.”

Shelie agreed and grabbed Kallen’s arm to get him up and out of the seat.

They were coming straight for us.  Lalo made sure my arms were secured around him before we flew straight up to the top of the ceiling.  Well, I felt like I was flying, but Lalo had jumped.  He secured his hands and feet on the walls, in the corner of the foyer.  Seconds later, Kallen and Shelie walked under us and out the door.

Lalo waited a minute to let go of the walls and land back on the ground.  My legs were jelly as Lalo helped me peep out the nearest window over to my house.

Shelie and Kallen were halfway there.  I wanted to open the window and scream out, but I wasn’t sure.  Kallen was part of some sort of terror attack.  He helped hurt some people.  How could I trust him?  What if he was the tall man in my dreams?  What if he also directed others to kidnap the homeless people?  If he was who we were searching for, we would need to be careful around him.  They could have detected us and made up all of that stuff about having remorse.

Then again, what if they were telling the truth about Lalo?  Was I dependent upon some super powerful killer?  Was it even safe for me to live with him anymore?  What if he remembered why he was there the next day after he arrived?

He does remember things randomly, or so he says.  He could be pretending to not remember to get me to let my guard down.  If Lalo finds those guys from my visions, they could hook up to attack everyone.

But I couldn’t put him on the street with all of the police in the area.  What if he was the key to stopping the bad things from happening?  What if he had been evil but changed?

Kallen and Shelie were at my house.  They saw my car then started running around my house when no one answered the door.

“We have to face them,” Lalo said, directing his attention to me.  “They might be able to help.”

“But I’m not sure they won’t kill us,” I said.  “What if these were the two I saw in my dream?  How can we trust them after Kallen did something horrible to someone?  He’s never told me any of this information.  He was simply obsessed with aliens.  I didn’t know he was one.”

“We’re going to have to take that chance.  He wants to protect you.”

“But protect me from whom?  The bad guys?  You?  Lalo, they have been seeking you.”

“I remember Shelie,” Lalo said.  “I left the house that day, trying to find answers.  I ran into her then knew I had to hide.  But if she wanted to kill me, she would have tried that day.”

“She wouldn’t have killed you in public,” I said.

“But I gave her the opportunity,” Lalo said, “out of sight.”

I was furious that Lalo left the house.  He could have been taken away from me.  This alone made Kallen and Shelie’s beliefs about him seem true.

Lalo helped me shuffle out of Kallen’s house.  As soon as we opened the door, the alarm rang.  Shelie and Kallen snapped their heads toward us like animals do when they hear an unexpected sound.  Kallen lifted a remote, ending the alarm.  Then they ran to us.