Starseed (14 page)

“
Yes, I trust you.”  She squeezed his hand in return.

“
Let’s go back the way we came. Maybe, there is another way out at the rock slide.” 

She turned sideways and let Kole take the lead
. The cave became larger as they crawled forward and once again they were able to stand. She stretched her arms and legs in relief for her cramping muscles. The utter stillness of the dark was seeping into the recesses of her mind, giving her the creeps. If Kole wasn’t here with her she’d be screaming her head off.

The muffled sound of a wolf howling filled the silent cave
. Kole stopped in his tracks. “Do you hear that?”

“
Yeah, it must be outside on the ridge. It sounds far away. I hope it isn’t hurt.” 
I wish we were out there with it.

The sound seemed to be going away from them in the direction from which they had come
. It would stop, then howl and move on. Kole listened to the pattern of the howling. “We need to follow the sound of the wolf. Hurry.”  He grabbed her hand and tugged her along the cavern wall.

“
What?”  Maybe, she didn’t hear him right. “We’re in a cave. How can we follow the wolf?”  She was confused as he pulled her down the tunnel. “And why do we want to follow him?”  

“
Trust me, the wolf is our friend. Come on.”

They were nearing the rockslide when the cavern started filling with smoke
. “Wh..where is that coming from?” Elle stammered, not wanting to believe what she was seeing. The smell of burning oil filled her nostrils. Scared beyond reason, the black smoke burned her eyes.

“
I don’t know. There’s nothing in here to burn. Stay down close to the floor. We’ll crawl back the way we came.”  He pointed the light toward the ceiling. The dark smoke was going upward. “Something has to be drawing the smoke out of here.”  

Rough rocks cut the palms of her hands and her throat hurt from the smoke as she crawled after Kole
. Her heart hammered against her ribcage. She shivered. Someone was trying to kill them. Her vision was coming to pass at an alarming rate.

“
It’s going to be okay,” Kole said. The wolf howl sounded closer. “We’re almost there,” he said. He pointed the flashlight toward a crack in the tunnel and clicked it off. A thin stream of light trickled in toward them. The smoke was going out the fissure. “Come on, it’s only a bit farther. We’re going to make it.” 

When she had a coughing fit from the smoke, he held her close to his side and crawled further into the crevice pulling her along with him
. The smoke didn’t seem to phase Kole, but she was having a difficult time catching her breath. She was gasping for air.

“
Elle, you’ve got to trust me.”  His gaze was intense, his eyes wide with fear. “Do you trust me?”

“
Yes, I . . . I,” she coughed, “I told you before, I trust you.”

“
I have to do something about this smoke or we’ll both die.” 

“
Okay,” she said and coughed again trying to catch her breath.

He pushed her behind him and pulled a glowing blue marble from his pocket
. With a flip of his wrist, the cavern was bathed in a golden light. The next thing she knew they were sitting in a golden bubble filled with fresh air watching the smothering black smoke rising around and above them. She shook her head. What had just happened? She was probably in some kind of shock from what Kole had done, but she was breathing fine. “Ho-how did you do that?”  Elle stuttered, not believing what she had witnessed, and pushed away from him.

“
How can that be? We were choking on oily smoke. Now we’re in a crystal clear bubble filled with fresh air.”  She looked at him long and hard. She had always suspected he was different, but this…this was insane. It couldn’t be happening. Maybe she hit her head and was dreaming. This just wasn’t possible. Then she realized his eyes with the intense blue gaze could see right through her, all the way to her soul. And he had blocked her every time she had tried to read his aura. A twinge of fear slowly crept up her spine. Exactly, who was she with? This wasn’t a dream.

“
Elle, it’s okay. I’m here for you.”  He reached for her. “I mean you no harm.”

“
Who are you? What are you?”  She tried to scoot farther away from him bumping into the side of the flexible bubble. “How did you do that?”

He reached for her hand
. She let him take it. Turning it sideways, he brushed his fingertips across the tiny fingernail shaped scar on her wrist. “Remember?” he said and gently rubbed the tender skin.

She felt like she was in some kind of trance or time warp as the vision of a wolf turning into a glowing golden boy filled her mind
. The image that had haunted her from her dreams since childhood turned into reality right before her eyes. And she knew. Kole was the golden boy. She gasped. “I . . . I don’t understand.”  Her limbs had turned to lead and her mind was shutting down from overload.

“
I don’t expect you to. That memory was blocked by me until just now. Here, sit and relax for a minute.”  He touched her hand.

She blinked and then there she was, sitting on a huge flat rock in dim light with a bottle of water in one hand and Kole by her side holding her other
. The smoke was gone. The protective bubble had disappeared and she had to admit she was feeling better, less crazy. Maybe she imagined the whole thing.

“
Let me explain,” Kole said.

She looked around to see a wide opening with moonlight streaming through the large crevice at the top of the cave
. The wolf was at the edge of the opening peering down at her with his piercing blue gaze. She sighed in frustration. Even Kole’s animal had blue eyes. “Tell me, what’s going on,” she said in a shaky voice trying to gain some kind of control of the situation. “I want to . . . need to know everything. What happened when I was a child? That wasn’t a dream. I was on a spacecraft with you.”  She tried to get a grip on what she was saying. Something had always struck her as strange about Kole, but until now, she had never thought of him as an alien.

“Yes. I was there and in your dreams,” he said, and squeezed her fingers. “I am from far, far away from Earth.”

She had to be in some kind of shock
. He was telling her he was an alien. And she had no idea. Where had her intuitive powers gone? Why couldn’t she read him? She bit her lip digesting what he had just shared with her.

“
I’m here on a mission to retrieve ancient records that were left by one of my ancestors and to.”

She interrupted him before he could finish speaking
. “Did you kill the horses?”  At the thought a shudder went through her body. What kind of person was she dealing with? Was he a person?

“
No, someone else did and your father will find that out from the tests the vet did on the animals.”  He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “You have to believe me. I’m not that kind of alien. I would never do anything to harm defenseless animals.”  He pulled a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory bar from his pack and handed it to her. “Eat this. It’ll make you feel better.”

She took the bar and
unwrapped it. The taste of a heavenly chocolate melted in her mouth. She closed her eyes wishing she were at home. All this should be easier to handle with chocolate, but it wasn’t. This had to be some kind of nightmare. It couldn’t be real. It just wasn’t feasible. Shortly, she’d awaken and be back in her bed in Sweetwater. That’s what it was. She was having a bizarre nightmare. When she opened her eyes this would’ve all been a bad dream.

“
Elle. This isn’t a dream. You’re safe here. I need you to sit and wait for me and get your strength back. We don’t have much time and I have to get something from further in the cave. After you’re rested we’ll talk more.”  He reassured her with a smile as he stood. “I promise I’ll be right back. Then we’ll get out of here and I’ll explain everything.”

She felt weak so it didn’t matter where he went
. “Okay, I’ll wait here.”  
After all where could I go
? She sat there in the moonlight, digesting what she had seen and heard in the last hour. She pinched her arm and shook her head in disbelief. Sure enough everything Kole had told her was true. She wasn’t dreaming.
If only Sara could see me now, out in the caves with an alien and his wolf, friend, guardian or whatever it was
. She laughed. And all this time, she’d thought she was the alien
.

What would he do with her when he returned
? She didn’t think he would harm her. Now that she’d had time to think about it she realized he had been there protecting her since her car broke down that night when all this strange stuff had started happening to her. And the wolf had been around, too. She had seen the magnificent animal many times lately, and had taken it for granted, thinking there were lots of wolves in the area. She should have known when she was the only one seeing it that something was out of whack.

Some kind of psychic she turned out to be
. An alien had been stalking her and she wasn’t even aware of it. With soft chuckles, she nearly fell off the rock she sat upon. She composed herself and heard a low whimper coming from above her. Frightened, she glanced upward. The wolf was watching her. Could a wolf grin? It looked like he was smiling at her. She grinned back. “When I get out of here, I’ll scratch behind your ears.”  She had a good feeling about the wolf.

He sniffed the air and scampered away, leaving her alone in the moonlight
.

She sipped her bottled water and ate some more chocolate
. Everything was better with chocolate. A lot of things began to tumble into place. Maybe, this was why he wasn’t attracted to her. Just maybe, his kind didn’t have romance. But when he looked into her eyes, she felt as if they were meant for each other. Psychic blocks or not he couldn’t disguise the emotion, his true feelings shining bright in his gaze. In other circumstances, she thought he would have been her soul mate.
This was why he told me in the salon he wasn’t looking for a relationship. He wanted me, but for whatever reason, can’t do anything about it
.

An alien and an Earthling just didn’t match up
. Talk about conflict in a relationship. She laughed. Her life had gone topsy turvy. Just her luck. The first man she had been attracted to in ages and he was from out of this world. Literally.

Right at this moment, he was in the cave retrieving ancient records from an alien race—his people
. Well, that’s okay. She had always believed there were others out there. Now, she knew for sure. Maybe he was trying to get in touch with his roots. She understood all about that. She had to be strong enough to step up to the plate and help him in any way she could. He wasn’t going to harm her. She was attracted to him. In her mind she started making a list of top ten reasons why she shouldn’t date an alien.

The number ten
reason. His parents won’t like me and he probably has strange friends. Oh, my goodness, she didn’t even know what he really looks like on his world or if he has family or friends or maybe a wife. Her heart clinched at that thought. She remembered the beautiful tall women from the spacecraft with the white hair and blue eyes she saw when she was a kid. Would he look like them?

Number nine
. He dresses funny. In her mind’s eye she was seeing him that first night in the bell bottom jeans, paisley shirt and the long hippy hair tied back with a leather string. No wonder he looked so funny. He actually thought that’s the way we dressed. Unfortunately, he was behind the times a few decades. She laughed and chewed on some more chocolate letting it melt in her mouth helping to calm her nerves.

And the number eight reason
. He knows what I’m thinking. All those times she felt like he knew what she was thinking, he did. He was reading her mind. Let’s face it on any planet that would be hard to live with. And not only could he read her mind he could block her memories. Now that was kind of scary.

The number seven reason
. I’ve got legs, he’s got . . .? I don’t know anything about what he’s got. What does he really look like? Maybe on his world they have four arms and six legs. Flashes of pictures of tabloids ran through her mind of so called aliens. Big heads and bug eyes would bother her for sure, but that couldn’t be Kole. It just couldn’t be.

And number six is a doosey
. He’s from out of this world. I probably couldn’t even live on his planet. He didn’t tell me where he’s from, as if it would matter anyway. There’s no way I’m leaving good old planet Earth.

And the number five reason
. He’s strange and mystical, actually, beyond mystical. He has magical powers I can’t even begin to understand. How did he make that bubble with the fresh air appear out of nowhere? If he can do that what could he do to me if we got into a disagreement?

And the number four reason
. If this should turn serious what about the children? I’ve always wanted a family and children of my own. I don’t even know if he could have sex with me let alone children. She sighed. Even though I have all these pent up feelings for him he might not be able to make love. Maybe this incredible attraction I have for him is just coming at me from left field. Maybe it’s all in my head. After all he’s never done more than hold my hand.