Uninvited: A Paranormal Urban Fantasy Novel (The Dark Skies Trilogy Book Two) (8 page)

I
t’s
a regular modern medical facility. Except the patients are all aliens.

We leave the old stone floors and timbered beam ceilings behind as we step into a state-of-the-art hospital ward. Twenty beds — ten on each side — stretch out before us.

Ruby and I follow the group into the medical ward until a woman wearing pink hospital scrubs and a nun’s black and white scarf blocks our path. “Hold on there, ladies. You're not going anywhere.”

“But that's my uncle,” I try to explain so she’ll let us continue on.

“Your uncle?” She eyes me skeptically. “He's a MoonEyed Blue, and you're clearly Lyrian. Not exactly sure how he could be your uncle?”

My mouth drops open in amazement. How could this woman size me up so quickly and accurately?

“It's okay, sister.” Dr. Maggie turns back to us. “Astrid can come in. But, no offense, Ruby, we have to try to keep contact with outside individuals to a minimum. For the sake of the patients.”

“Hang on a minute. If you knew everything that Ruby’s done for us,” I begin to protest, but Ruby stops me.

“Astrid, it’s okay,” she says calmly, “Really. You go.”

“Sister, could you take Ruby to their new room?” Dr. Maggie adds. “I’m sure she’d love to freshen up and get some rest.”

Before she leaves, Ruby promises to get our stuff up to our new room and ready for my arrival.

When I get over to my uncle’s bed, they're already giving him a transfusion of rusty blue blood.

“I’ve given him a compatible antibiotic,” Dr. Maggie explains, “Lucky we had a sick three-eared Electrapian in here a couple of weeks ago. Their blood matches your uncle’s type. Good thing we thought to have them give us a donation.”

“So he’s going to be okay?”

Dr. Maggie is quiet for a moment. “I'm not going to lie to you, Astrid. Your uncle is in pretty bad shape. It's a good thing you got in here when you did. But even with that said, it may be too late for your uncle. Such a deep wound from Draconian steel is almost always fatal.”

My heart drops. “When will you know?”

“We’ll know… ” Dr. Maggie shrugs, “when we know. I wish I had a better answer.”

Ouch. That’s not good to hear.

Once she’s gotten the transfusion flowing smoothly, Dr. Maggie moves to my side. “I know you don't remember me.”

“I’m sorry?” I study her face and rifle through my memory banks. I’m drawing a blank. “We've met before?”

“Oh, yes,” she laughs softly. “It was a long time ago when you were a very little girl. I gave you some of my old Barbie dolls, and you loved them.”

“Wait!” I can't believe what I'm hearing. “You’re Fitz’s daughter.”

“I am.” She extends her hand for me to shake. “I guess we should make it official. Very nice to meet you, Astrid Jones. I'm Maggie Fitzgerald. Dr. Maggie around here.”

I shake her strong but soft hand; a doctor’s hand. “Nice to meet you. Again.”

For a couple of hours, I sit and wait. The nurses keep trying to get me to go back to my new room where Ruby is waiting, but I'd rather stay with my uncle.

This is by far the most unusual hospital I’ve ever seen. About half of the beds are filled, each with different species of aliens. The one common denominator between them is that they all seem pretty human.

If I hadn't just been to the Gathering, where I saw a crazy assortment of alien beings, this might be a whole lot weirder. And, of course, there’s Tom. So, I know aliens come in all shapes and sizes.

After all, under my skin, I don't look exactly 100% human either.

When I ask the nun wearing pink scrubs if they have any less human aliens, she says, “Oh yes! We're quite lucky to have one of the best space critter docs in the whole galaxy working with us.”

“Space critters?” I repeat. “Is that what you call them?”

She winks. “No sugar, that’s just what I call them. It’s officially called the Non-humanoid Recuperation Center.”

Actually, the patient who seems the most out of place in this ward looks entirely human. When I first arrived, he was asleep, but while I'm reading a magazine, he’s awake and making a funny repetitive tick with his face.

“Oh hello, girlie,” the man says, seeing me glancing his way. “Are you one of the new students?”

“Oh. Uh. No, I’m just visiting.”

“The name’s Ray,” he says with a toothy smile. “Thought maybe you were one of the kids who goes to school here.”

Ray looks like he's maybe 35 years old, but it’s clear he's lived the hard life. Wrinkles line his tanned face, and his big hands are chapped from some form of manual work. Something makes me think he's a farmer or fisherman.

“Hey, Ray,” I reply. “I’m Astrid.”

“I have a bug in my head,” he tells me.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” I’m not sure if he’s kidding or not. “What kind of bug?”

“Oh, you know, the same one everyone’s got crawling around up there. That why you’re here too?”

“No, I’m here with my uncle. They just brought him in now.”

“The big blue guy? He’s your uncle?” Ray’s eyes narrow.

I keep forgetting my uncle is currently a huge blue alien.

“He’s not my actual blood uncle. But he raised me from the time I was a little girl, so I call him uncle.”

“Gotcha.” Ray picks up a heart-shaped candy box sitting on his bedside table. “Would you like a turtle?”

“A turtle?” I’m afraid he has real turtles in the candy box, but as he removes the lid I see he means the chocolate, pecan and caramel turtles. “My kids gave them to me. I think they're worried about my surgery. Have one with me, please.”

I take a bite of a nice fat piece. It's delicious. “These are really good.”

Ray takes one too. “They're taking the bug out of my head tomorrow. It's a pretty tricky surgery. But I got a good feeling about it. If Dr. Maggie thinks she can do it, then I believe she can.”

As if on cue, Dr. Maggie glides around the corner, stopping in her tracks when she sees us eating the turtles. “Ray! You know you're not supposed to eat 12 hours before your surgery.”

“I'm sorry, Doc,” Ray says, quickly chewing and swallowing his turtle. “Just trying to be welcoming to Miss Astrid here.”

Dr. Maggie confiscates the heart-shaped box. “I'm taking these to the nurses’ station, and you can have them back after your surgery.”

“You know as well as I do those fat nuns are going to eat all of my candy.”

“That’s not nice, Ray,” Dr. Maggie says as she walks away. “And I personally promise they will not eat your candy.”

When she’s gone, Ray turns to me and asks, “So your uncle one of them good aliens or bad aliens?”

“He's a good alien.”

“What happened to him?”

“He got stabbed by one of the bad aliens.”

“Them evil ones put the bug in my head.”

“I'm sorry to hear that.”

“Well, pleasure to meet you, Astrid.” Ray yawns. “Come back tomorrow after my surgery and I'll give you another turtle.”

“Nice to meet you too,“ I say as Ray closes his eyes. “And I'll see you tomorrow for that turtle.”

I
feel
an ache of sadness as I leave my sleeping uncle behind in the medical ward.

On one hand, he's resting quietly, despite being connected to a collection of monitors, wires, and tubes. The freaky bluish alien blood continues drip-dropping into his veins. I hope each little drop is making him stronger.

I’m relieved that we got him here, but I'm also terrified that it might be too late.

Walking back to the nurses’ station near the entrance, I see Jax waiting patiently near the door, scrolling through his cell phone.

“What are you doing here so late?” I ask, looking up at the clock on the wall to see that it’s nearly midnight.

“I'm waiting to walk you over to your room,” he explains. “Ruby’s already there and getting settled.”

“You didn’t need to wait. You could have come to get me.”

“I didn’t want to disturb you and your uncle.”

Retracing the path that brought us down here, I finally just go ahead and say what’s on my mind, “I thought you’d be mad at me. Because I left.”

“I was,” he answers honestly. Then adds, “But the Oracle pointed out that only a real heroine would walk away for the safety of the Stargate to save someone she loves.”

“She said that?”

“She even pointed out the possibility that the Stargate may have been a test. Perhaps you were destined to walk away the entire time.”

“Destined? That seems a little hard to swallow.”

He shrugs. “It’s hard to know what to believe when you’re dealing with these profound ancient prophecies.”

I laugh at the sarcasm in his voice. “If that was my destiny, then what’s yours?”

He opens one of the church’s big oak side doors, and we step out into the cool evening air. “My destiny is to get you to your new temporary home, so I can go back to my room and watch the baseball game I recorded earlier.”

“Where exactly are we going?” I ask as we cross the empty street.

“The dorms,” he answers, pointing toward the multi-story apartment-like building that we passed early. “Saint Benedicts runs a private K through 12 school for 700 special kids.”

“You mean, like, special needs?”

“Well, no, not exactly. More like special circumstances. But I'll let the headmaster explained all of that to you tomorrow.”

“Wait, what’s tomorrow?”

Jax hesitates, knows I’m not going to like his answer. “Fitz decided that you and Ruby should start school here. Immediately.”

“No!” I can’t believe.

Jax raises his hands in mock surrender. “Take it up with Fitz. Not me.”

I feel anger rising. “But I want to go back to Oakdale Prep. I mean I know a bunch of stuff has happened, but when this all blows over—”

“Astrid, I don’t think it’s going to blow over,” Jax cuts me off.

“Why not?”

“Didn’t you just burn down the gym?” he asks.

“Technically, that was Meegan McGovern,” I answer.

“Anyway, since we don't know how long you'll be here, Fitz figured it probably made sense.”

I don't know how I feel about this. I mean, I suspected I was never going back to Oakdale prep, but I sure didn't think that I would be starting in a new school right away.

“What about Ruby?”

“We gave her a choice,” he says. “And she said that she would do whatever you’re doing.”

That's Ruby for you. The most supportive friend ever. Hey, you have to hit the road and go into hiding because it turns out you're actually an alien with intergalactic shapeshifting bounty hunters after you, Ruby will stay by your side. You have to enroll in some weird school out in the forests of Oregon, Ruby will come to class with you.

Who could possibly ask for a more supportive friend?

As we cross the street, I hesitate to ask the one thing I really want to know. “Has there been any word on Chad?”

A shadow crosses his face. “Being captured by the Horlocks was an unfortunate turn of events.”

“Obviously,” I snap back. “Did someone talk to his family?”

“I'm sure someone did.”

“What would they say? How do you explain something like that?”

“I don't know. But I'm sure there's some protocol they follow. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time this has happened.”

“So then there’s got to be some sort of standard operating procedure to rescue captives from the Horlocks, right?”

“Unfortunately, no one has ever been recovered,” he says, looking away. “Once the Horlocks have you, there’s no going back. They change you. Permanently.”

“That can’t be true,” I say, shaking my head, refusing to believe him.

“I’m sorry, Astrid.”

“I can't stand the fact that it’s all my fault Chad was captured. And that Ruby has to go into hiding with me.” I’m on the verge of tears. “The guilt is crushing me. I’m sure both of their families are worried sick and brokenhearted. And it’s all my fault.”

“No, it’s not your fault.” Jax stops in the middle of the sidewalk.

“Then who’s fault is it?”

“It’s the Draconians’ fault,” he says firmly. “They’re the monsters to blame for all of this. You didn’t start this. The Draconians did.”

I burst into tears.

“It’s okay, Astrid.” He pulls me into an embrace, wrapping his strong arms around me. His warm body feels comforting against the crisp night air. “It’s all going to be okay. I promise.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do,” he replies. “This will all be okay.”

Hot tears stream down my face, and my shoulders shudder as I begin to sob. Jax just stands there with me and lets me cry.

A
fter I finally pull myself
together and wipe away my tears, Jax escorts me the rest of the way to my new home. Warm light seeps out from inside the glass double doors of a three-story brick building. A mosaic tile sign above a stone transom reads “Van Dainken Hall.”

“All students over the age of thirteen live here,” Jax tells me, pushing through the front door. “The little guys - the younger kids - live across the street in Tsoukalos Hall with the monks and the nuns.”

“Where do you live?”

“There’s faculty housing behind the Eye in the Sky building.”

“I don't quite understand why the Catholic Church is part of all of this?”

“It’s only a very small, very select part of the church. The larger official church doesn’t have a clue. Mostly because they aren't aware how serious these alien threats have become. Still, it's safe to say that we fly under the radar out here.”

I've never lived in a dorm except for two weeks one summer at science camp. I stayed in the dormitory of a private college. (Naturally, my over-protective uncle stayed in a hotel a block away.)

This place looks like any other dorm. It's not exactly Hogwarts with the harsh florescent lights, beige linoleum floors and gray walls that look like they haven’t been painted in this century.

We take the elevator up to the third floor, passing a cluster of students here and there. My fellow residents seem like an odd blend of kids. There's something almost quaintly old fashion about them. They're all wholesome and a little bit out of date.

In my life, I’ve attended eleven schools ranging from big cities, to small towns, to flat-out the middle of nowhere. And these kids don't look like any of the kids I’ve been to school with before.

But I can't quite put my finger on it.

Emerging from the elevator, I follow Jax down a long narrow hallway, lined with identical wooden dorm room doors covered with photos and cheery decorations.

Halfway down the corridor, we stop at Room 303. The only door in the hallway with no decorations.

“This is it.” Jax knocks.

“Come in!” Ruby calls from inside.

We enter to find her flopped on one of the two twin beds talking to a strange boy wearing baggy khaki overalls and an over-sized flannel shirt, leaning on the window sill. His flat cropped hair and innocent face makes him look like a farm boy from the Great Depression.

The two of them are in the middle of an animated conversation. Ruby’s all giggles and smiles. Oh boy. She’s smitten.

She manages to tear herself away from their conversation to say, “Oh hey. How's your uncle?”

“Resting comfortably,” I reply not wanting to tell her that Dr. Maggie is worried.

“This is Waylon,” Ruby introduces the boy. “He's a senior here and was kind enough to show me to my room and explain how things work.”

“Nice to meet you, Miss Astrid. Ruby’s told me all about you,” he nods politely. “Nice to see you too, Dr. J.”

My head whips around. “Doctor? You’re a medical doctor?”

“No, not like Dr. Maggie,” he says, brushing off the comment. “She’s one of a kind. Okay, I want to let you get settled. But I'll see you tomorrow, and we can start training.”

“Training?”

“We have a great gym here, and Fitz wants us to sharpen up your skills. Bring BrightSky.”

I usually object to more martial arts classes. I’ve only been forced to do them for my entire life. But now that I’ve seen the horrifying baddies that are after me, I know I must continue my training. Whether I want to or not.

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll bring BrightSky.”

“Alright then.” Jax seems surprised I’m not putting up a fight. “Have a good night then.”

As soon as Jax leaves, Ruby and I turn to Waylon demanding that he tell us what kind of doctor Jax is.

“No sir, ladies,” he chuckles. “If Dr. J didn't want to tell you himself, then I probably shouldn't either.”

“Waylon!” Ruby protests coyly.

“If you're here long enough,” he nods. “I’m sure you'll find out.”

Ruby walks Waylon out. I’m surprised that she’s all googly eyed over him. Retro farmboy has never really been her type.

But, hey, love’s a crazy thing.

When she comes back, I try to play it casual. “So… he seems nice.”

Ruby immediately starts swooning. “Oh my gosh, he's so cute! And sweet. And he has such a tragic past. His mom disappeared, like five years ago. And I guess there’s no dad in the picture.”

“His mom disappeared? Like ran away?”

“Well…” she hesitates. “I know it's crazy, but he thinks she was abducted by aliens.”

“Yeah, actually that doesn't sound so crazy to me at this point.”

“Hey, check it out. They sent us a bunch of new clothes and stuff.” Ruby spends the next twenty minutes showing me the dorm and all our new gear.

They've outfitted us with a basic supply of jeans, tee shirts, pajamas and sneakers. Apparently, they're going to let us pick out some stuff online, too.

It’s not exactly high fashion, but it’ll do.

After that, I take an amazing hot shower. It feels so good to wash my hair, wash my face and brush my teeth.

We've already missed dinner down in the first-floor cafeteria, but the chef sent up two huge pieces of lasagna, some salad along with a big slice of chocolate cake.

Ruby must be starving because she eats everything including the cake. Trust me; she is not a girl who usually does carbs.

After that, we’re both exhausted. Ruby climbs into bed and almost instantly fall to sleep.

In the dim light of our new room, I walk over to the wide double-hung paned window that looks out over a lit walking path that edges along the forest.

I spot something moving near an opening in the woods. A shaggy brown bear is scratching his back on a tree.

The bear sees me looking at him. Through his thick fur, I spot a flash of the red leather collar. It's Tom.

Well, what do you know? He hasn't run away, after all.

“G’night, Tom,” I whisper under my breath as he turns and ambles off into the dark forest.