Touched by an Alien (46 page)

“They represent our next level.”

“Is that what he’s telling you? Wow, and you believe him? You are one freaked-out piece of work, Bev.”

“Beverly.”

“Bev. You’re acting like a human, babe, aren’t you? Humans are the ones big on betrayal and lying, not A-Cs. I mean, that’s why no one but Jeff uses a nickname. It’s a human thing, and he’s the only one who gets it.”

“Gets what?” Beverly looked confused. So did the others. Martini just looked as though he was going to die.

“The right evolutionary choice is to mate with human-kind. Make us stronger, spread out your genetics, combine the two races. But Mephistopheles knows what that would do.”

“Destroy us!”

“Destroy him. And his kind. Either because we’d be able to reject the parasites or because they’d be able to join with us as they’re supposed to.”

“They create as they were intended.”

“They create as
he
intends. Not as God intends.”

I hit home with that. “There is no God.” But she sounded unsure.

“Wanna bet?” There were no more terrorists at the door. “Girls? I’d like to mention that you’re field operatives now.” They didn’t react. I hoped it was because they didn’t want to give anything away, not because they had no idea of what I was talking about.

Beverly seemed to have an idea, though, because she grabbed a needle. “Now, now. I’m not going to kill Jeff.”

“No? What are you going to do?”

She smiled, and it was a very evil smile. “I’m just going to make sure that he can’t cause any more problems. He doesn’t have to die. If I give him this shot, he’ll be allowed to live. Christopher, too.”

I knew without asking, but I had to ask anyway. “And what does that shot do?”

“Causes sterility.”

Martini’s eyes closed, and his face scrunched up. I could tell he was fighting to not react.
I want to get married and have a lot of kids.
He’d said it many more times than once. There was no way I was letting her do this to him. Plus, those were my potential babies she was trying to kill, too.

“Over my dead body.”

“Gladly,” she snarled.

“But, Bev, it’ll be the A-Cs who die. And you’ll go first. Or haven’t you put it together yet and figured out what, exactly, killed Theresa White?”

A MEMORY THAT WASN’T MINE
came rushing over me, as if I were watching a scene from a movie.

A woman and two little boys were in a bedroom, all cuddled into bed together, the boys on either side of her, one lying down. The woman looked close to death, but I could see a resemblance to both me and my mother. The boy with the smaller build had his eyes closed; it was clear he’d cried himself to sleep. The other boy was awake, tears rolling down his face. He had light brown eyes and darker hair than the sleeping boy.

“Aunt Terry, you can’t leave us,” he sobbed. “No one else loves us.”

“That’s not true, Jeff. My . . . illness is affecting what you can feel. It’ll all be okay.” She pulled something out from under her pillow. “I’ve put everything you’ll need in here. It’s for you and Chris, only, no one else. It’ll teach you what you need as you get older. Don’t tell anyone you have it, not even your parents or Uncle Richard.”

Jeff took what looked like a glowing cube from her and nodded his head.

“Now, I have to give you something, something only for you.” She leaned forward and blew into his ear. Jeff’s head rolled back, and Terry managed to hold him up. She rubbed his neck until he was conscious.

“What did you do? I don’t feel any different.”

“I gave you something to keep hidden. I hope you never need it, but if . . . the bad monster isn’t stopped, then I want you to give it to someone. Someone special.”

“Who? Chris?”

“No, and you can’t tell him, or anyone else, about this, Jeff. You have to promise me, a deathbed promise, that you’ll never tell anyone else, ever.”

“I promise, Aunt Terry.” He sounded as though he was trying to be brave.

She nodded. “If things don’t get better, then you find the human girl whose fear and hatred of evil give her courage. You’re looking for a protector, Jeff. Someone who can put her own safety aside to protect people she doesn’t even know.”

“How will I find her?”

She shook her head. “You’ll know when you do. That’s all I can tell you.” She hugged him and they lay down. She hugged both boys to her. Jeff went to sleep, too.

Terry looked right at me. “Save my boys. Please.”

 

The memory washed away. No one had moved; it had only taken a second. “What are you talking about?” Beverly huffed, as the girls gasped and Martini’s body sagged. I got the feeling he was trying not to cry.

I didn’t know where Christopher was exactly, but I hoped he was close by and in control. “Theresa went to Yates right after Mephistopheles manifested. She went for help. I’m guessing that Yates transformed into Mephistopheles and did whatever gross thing they do in order to spread the parasite, but Theresa escaped. She knew what was going on, but this was her father-in-law, and her husband and son were already suffering enough for his sins.”

I moved closer to Martini. “So she did what she had to do, the only thing she could, just in case things didn’t work out and the A-C operatives weren’t able to kill Mephistopheles.”

Beverly grabbed Martini’s collar and pulled him to her. “Don’t come any closer.”

“She implanted a memory into the only person she could, into the person whose talent was actually stronger than hers. A so-called memory that he’d be able to pass along to someone who’d interpret it correctly, when the time came. We’re calling it a memory, but I know what it was—a prophecy, if all went wrong.”

Martini opened his eyes and nodded. His eyes looked more tortured than I’d seen yet, which was saying a lot.

I looked over to Reader, but only so I could see the reflection. Christopher was moving in, as were the rest of my team. “Mephistopheles didn’t implant that memory in me, James. Jeff did.” Reader slowly closed and opened his eyes. Good. He’d seen them.

“That’s absurd,” Beverly said. “You’ve been affected by him. His implant is working.”

“Not like he wanted it to. He hit me with some kind of emotional overlay he’s been manipulating, that’s true, but I could never actually feel it. Jeff could, and it made me say some things that I wasn’t thinking to Christopher. But I have to believe Mephistopheles wanted me obeying him, and I couldn’t even feel his influence. Because Terry’s influence was already in me, protecting me so I could fight Yates and Mephistopheles both.” I looked back to Martini. “You implanted it right when we met. That’s why I fainted.” He nodded again and looked even more ready to die.

Beverly laughed. “So you’re saying Jeff knew all this time and did nothing?”

Martini shook his head, almost imperceptibly. But he didn’t have to. I’d known the truth even before Terry showed me. “Jeff didn’t know. Terry wasn’t going to saddle a little boy with this knowledge.” I looked into Beverly’s eyes. “She programmed him to find me. And, by the way, girls? I’d say the time is now.”

Claudia and Lorraine moved. Or I assumed they moved. Because things were a blur. But when the blur stopped, the terrorists were unarmed and on the ground, and my side had the guns.

Unfortunately, Beverly had Martini. She’d ripped his shirt open. Even in this situation I could look at his chest and get turned on. She held the needle right at the base of his neck. “You move and I’ll ensure he never has a reason to care about proliferation of our race ever again.”

There wasn’t a lot of time. But we had all I needed in the room already. “Christopher, fastball!”

The needle flew out of Beverly’s hand and shattered. Being hit by a baseball traveling at least two hundred miles per hour will do that.

Beverly shoved away from Martini, but not before Walker slammed the door shut. She was in the room, but moving so fast I couldn’t see her.

“She’s going faster than we can see,” Lorraine called to me.

Okay, no worries. “Hughes, batter up!”

He tossed the bat to me, high, and I caught it and stood in front of Martini. I knew she was going to try to get him again, even before Christopher, especially since my three pilots had him surrounded.

I swung the bat out and waited. She slammed into it, and the force spun me around. As we stopped—Beverly bent over the bat—I saw she had some nasty-looking implements in her hands as well as another needle.

I pulled the bat back and swung it, right at her head. “Get away from my man, you fugly-loving cunt.”

I connected and she went flying. She hit the wall, and Jerry bent down. “She’s dead.”

“Good.” I meant it. I dropped the bat and grabbed Martini as he slid to the floor. “Jeff, baby, hold on.”

He leaned his head against me. “I had to—”

I kissed his forehead. “Hush. I know. You did the right thing.” I reached behind him to try to get his wrists untied but I couldn’t do it.

Christopher came over, knelt down and took care of it. “Jeff, why didn’t you tell me?” He put his hand on Martini’s upper arm.

“Couldn’t . . . promised . . .”

“It’s okay, Jeff. It’s all right.” I held him more tightly and tried not to be afraid.

“He’s fading fast,” Claudia said as she came over. “We have to give him some adrenaline.” She had a needle in her hand.

Christopher grabbed her wrist as I shouted, “Nothing from this room!” Claudia looked confused. “Everything in here’s suspect. Beverly wasn’t kidding—Yates doesn’t want Jeff or Christopher to reproduce. Jeff needs adrenaline when he’s like this, so don’t trust something that says adrenaline if it’s in here.”

Claudia shook her head. “We don’t have any more time.”

I couldn’t let him die, couldn’t lose him. But somehow, I knew what to do. I put my hands on both sides of his face, so he had to look at me. “Jeff, baby, it’s okay. Just look at me, only at me. I know it hurts, all the emotions, all the feelings. They aren’t trying to hurt you, baby. Come on, you can shut them out, I know you can.”

“Can’t . . . burned out . . .” His eyes closed.

“Jeffrey Stuart Martini, you open your eyes and look at me.” He did, and he looked shocked. “You know how to block. I know you’re tired, but it’s not an option. Yates is still out there. If you die, he wins. You promised me you’d never let that happen.”

“Mother?” Christopher whispered.

Lorraine came over and put her hand on his shoulder. “Hush.”

I could see Martini trying and also see him failing. My mind kicked—I had to do something, too. Just as Beverly had, I needed to send emotions to him. But not the ones that caused pain.

I focused my thoughts onto how being around him made me feel—safe, happy, smart, funny, pretty. I concentrated on what making love to him had been like, how incredible and satisfying. And I thought about him and Christopher and what they meant to each other. “You can’t leave us, Jeff,” I whispered. “We both need you around too much.”

It was helping, but it wasn’t enough. “Take care of him for me,” Martini managed to gasp out.

I had to hold onto him. There was only one thing I hadn’t done, one emotion I hadn’t allowed to surface. I admitted to myself that the emotion was real. I thought about what being without him would mean and how I’d realized somewhere in the last two days that I couldn’t face it. There was a word for this feeling, but I’d been afraid to say it, because I wasn’t sure if it was just lust.

But it wasn’t.

His eyes opened, and he managed a half-smile. “Really?”

“Really.”

He winced. “Guess I’d better . . . try to hang on, then.”

“I’d appreciate it.” I laid him down on the floor and wrapped myself around his head, stroking his hair and kissing his forehead. I could feel him getting a little stronger.

Footsteps, a lot of them. I could feel and hear them. “We’ve got company coming.”

The girls flanked us, Christopher, Tim, and Reader moved in front of us, and the five pilots stayed spread around the room. Everyone had their guns cocked and aimed. We were ready, remembering the Alamo. Walker waited until everyone was set, then he flung the door open.