*It's a shorter chapter, I'll admit. But you wanna know about the aliens, right? Well, here we goooo!*
Chris Garfield stepped back and kissed my hand. “If your Jeremy doesn’t mind, my dear, would you like a tour of my home?”
I didn’t need to look at Barton’s face to know that he’d tell me to go. “I think that’d be just fine, Mr. Garfield,” I replied smoothly.
With an arm looped easily around my waist, we walked away from the rest of the group toward one of the large staircases. “Please, Princess, just call me Chris. It’s so much more…familiar.” He winked, a gesture that seemed a lot more provocative than Barton’s had been. What did I get myself into?
The first floor of that mansion had a pretty simple layout. It was gigantic, with no large pieces of furniture to clutter the area. That or all of it had been put into storage for the event. There were two grand staircases, one on each side of the room. At the top, they merged together to make a large platform that branched off into a hallway with several rooms. Every single door was hung open.
“Any particular reason you’re willing to show your guests all of your things?” I asked out of genuine curiosity.
“I prefer the doors that way. We wouldn’t want any guests sneaking away for some fun time. Those places aren’t nearly as comfortable as the bedrooms, anyway. Remind me to show you them later.” The hand on my waist was beginning to make me uncomfortable, but I pressed onward, ignoring the feeling in my gut that told me something was going to turn wrong. Very wrong.
I made myself keep talking. “Will do.”
“The second floor is off limits, so it’s just the two of us up here. Are you enjoying yourself, Jenna?”
I ignored him when I spotted a closed door at the very end of the red carpeted hall. Could that be where his information is? I thought, tilting my head. I gave a shaky, but hopefully convincing, laugh. “Maybe it isn’t just the two of us after all.” I motioned in that direction.
He laughed back. “No, no, that door stays closed.”
Aha! I tugged a little on his arm. “Will you show me what’s in there?” I kept my voice light and cheery, without any hint that underneath was hiding a very desperate girl.
Chris looked a little wary of me. “No… I don’t know.”
“Aw, please?” I giggled a little and hid my mouth behind my hand. That was girlish, right?
He wrapped his arms around me until my fists were clenched against his chest. “What will you give me if I do let you in?” He leaned in until his forehead was resting on mine. “Hm?”
I lifted my chin until our noses touched. “What do you want?”
His breath still reeked of booze and desperation. It was warm against my face. Dark, animal eyes watched me. “Kiss me,” he growled, more seductive than dangerous, though I had a feeling it could work both ways.
I pushed against him, moving myself backward. “Only if you show me the room first.” I grinned, because I knew there was no way he could say no.
Right on cue, he slipped around me and stuck a key in the lock. Opened the door. Walked inside. Held it open for me.
When I walked in, all of the lights were off, and for a minute I was afraid I’d made a mistake. Maybe it wasn’t the room I should be in. But once it became illuminated, I saw there was no way I could be wrong, for on a hundred screens around the walls, the aliens’ yellow eyes watched me.
I feigned surprise; I’d expected no less. “Those are those alien things that attacked on Thanksgiving!”
“Indeed, they are. Are you afraid of me yet?” His voice came from the corner as he shut the door behind him, sealing out any possible spies. He was too late; the spy was already in.
I shook my head. “No, you don’t scare me. Are you studying them or something?”
“Close. I’m actually working with them. I brought them here. I’m on a hunt, you see.”
Chris’s shiny black shoes made clicking noises as he walked across the tile. His fingertips brushed against one of the screens, pulling up several other pictures of the aliens. Mixed in with the bunch of headshots were pictures of the Avengers fighting against them. I was in there, too, but he couldn’t know that. I looked way different in those photos.
I moved to his shoulder. “A hunt for what?”
He ignored me, instead focusing intently on a picture of me, standing with my fists clenched on the roof of that office building. I was in my post-bandage outfit, showing a lot of skin. Was that what caught his eye?
“Does this girl look familiar?” he asked me quietly.
“Yeah, she’s Animo, right? That new hero that joined the Avengers?”
“That’s right. Have you seen her anywhere else?”
I was confused, and I didn’t bother hiding it. “No, I don’t think so. Should I have?”
Chris’s teeth clenched together, and for barely a second, anger and frustration flashed behind his eyes. “That girl that went missing from Iowa. Doesn’t she look similar to this girl?”
“What girl from Iowa?” It felt weird, denying my own identity. Like I was trying to pretend I wasn’t alive, wasn’t real. Just a story, a figment of this man’s imagination, twisted as it was. “Has it been on the news?”
He gave a grunt of irritation. “Several times over.” And then his fingers were tapping away again, bringing a picture of me and Jenna to the foreground. “That one there.” He pointed to me. “Doesn’t she look a lot like Animo?”
That was an Iowa picture. He had a picture of me from home. I could understand the ones from New York; who hadn’t seen me then? But the other one… How many more did he have? Why were they there in the first place? Terror and a dawning of realization began to set in.
“Why are you so interested in this girl?” I barely whispered the words.
He fixed me with dark, dangerous eyes. “This girl, her name is Kristy Monet. The aliens are looking for her, and so am I. This is our mission, Jenna. I have to find this girl and deliver her to them.”
I backed away from the screen, shaking my head furiously. “So, you’re just going to kidnap this…this innocent girl and take her to those monsters? Why?”
“She’s the whole reason they came here. Once they have her, they’ll leave. It’s as simple as that.” He was talking like there was nothing wrong with what he was doing. Like it was absolutely acceptable to hand over a sixteen year old girl.
My hand gripped the doorknob. “I’m leaving,” I told him, opening the door and walking out.
Chris lunged out after me and gripped my wrist. “Hold on, Princess. At least let me escort you back to the party.” He took my arm in his once more and led me back to the landing at the top of both staircases.
There we were, standing in the very center of the landing, looking out over the railing. The party was still raging below us, and there were a lot more drunk people than when I’d left. I could pick out a few of my friends: Thor was talking up a group of girls; Stark was doing the same on the other side of the room. Barton was lounging at the bottom of the stairs, a glass in hand.
“I’m sorry if I frightened you. But you wanted to see.” Chris Garfield’s voice was quiet and tentative.
“Why me? Why did you pick me?” I inquired just as quietly before noticing what I’d just asked. I was talking like I was myself, not my disguise. “Why’d you choose to show that to me, I mean,” I added hastily.
He traced little circles on the bare skin of my wrist. “You seem familiar to me, Princess. I’m not sure why, but I feel like I know you.”
“We’ve never met before.”
“No, but if I could just…” His hands found the edges of my mask and began to raise it off my face.
I panicked; I’ll admit it. My hands flew to his as I moved my head forward, kissing him. Slowly, I lowered his hands from my face, feeling safer than I’d been before. The mask was still on; he wouldn’t identify me just yet.
But there I was, kissing the man who was trying to deliver me to the aliens. Well, he did ask for a kiss, I thought, like that justified anything. Desperate times called for desperate measures, however. And that made it perfectly okay for me to twist both of his arms, knee him in the stomach, turn on my heel, and flee.
I surprised myself quite a bit when I reached the bottom of the stairs without tripping once. Barton gave me a mixed look, but I didn’t bother stopping; I knew he’d follow me. So I ran right past him, shoving through the crowd. Thank God no one could see who I really was. It was not good publicity for a new heroine. But the people melted aside easily, throwing wary glances at each other.
Stark, Thor, Rogers, and Banner met me at the door. I breezed right by them and found Natasha leaning against our car. “What’s going on?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.
I flung open the door. “Just get in!” She obeyed.
Stark climbed into the driver’s seat; Rogers sat next to him on the passenger side. Thor slid into the way back with Natasha and I, while Barton and Banner sat just in front of us.
As we drove away, Stark glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “What the hell happened?” he exclaimed. “I was having a wonderful conversation with some pretty women.”
I crossed my arms and leaned back into the seat, glaring angrily out the window. The initial shock hadn’t quite worn off, but fury was replacing it quickly, boiling under my skin. Fury, I thought with a dry smile. Fury. He lied to me. They all did.
“I can’t believe you called me Jeremy,” Barton said, turning in his seat to look at me. It was a futile attempt to diffuse the tension I was radiating.
“Shut up,” I growled. “I don’t want to talk to you right now.”
“Look, I’m sorry if I offended you by calling you my – ”
“I said shut up!” I snarled. He quietly turned back around.
Stark was muttering up front. “Someone get her some tampons.” Rogers elbowed him, making the car swerve into the other lane. Bright lights shined through the windshield, and our oh-so-capable driver jerked the car back into the right spot. The other vehicle was very generous at laying on the horn. “I don’t give a damn what you think!” Stark shouted back at them.
No one spoke to me after my outburst at Barton, and that suited me just fine. Stark was easily speeding, but no police officers stopped us, meaning we got to one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. bases quickly.
A small plane waited to take us up to the helicarrier. I clamored in at the back of the pack, choosing to sit right next to the door. I was the first one off when we landed.
Strolling down the hallways with long strides, understanding was beginning to set it. Rogers had told me I was special. He didn’t say just how special I really was. “You don’t deserve any of what’s coming.” That’s what he’d said. And what were coming were the aliens. And if any of my guesses were correct, I was probably going to die. I just knew it.
“What happened?” Fury boomed.
I looked up. Consumed by my own thoughts, I hadn’t noticed we’d reached the conference room. When I did, I lifted my head and fixed the director with an icy stare. It wasn’t anger, no; it was disgust. “Did you plan for it to happen like that?” I asked, genuinely curious. My tone of voice was plain, no emotion.
Fury was silent, watching me in contemplation. “Plan for what to happen?” he finally replied. His voice sounded like it was hiding something.
I was tired of the games. “Stop lying!” I screamed. “Tell me why it’s me!”