Chapter Five
Hawk stood on the other side of Susan’s desk and watched her cool façade splinter, panic flickering in her blinking eyes, her mouth wobbling.
The next second, the panic vanished. Her face smoothed with confidence, her eyes gazed at him calmly, her mouth pressed lightly together. Once again she was the girl voted by her sorority sisters Most Likely to Succeed “by fair or by foul.”
If she did, it wouldn’t be from climbing over his shoulders. Not anymore. A lightness came over him. He knew it wouldn't last – lightness never did – but he thanked the sexy alien for this fleeting moment.
“The FBI is your life.” She stood and leaned forward. She was five foot ten, and her three-inch heels put her eye to eye with him, her dark bobbed hair swinging forward. “You don’t mean this.”
He smiled. And didn’t say anything. Glad he’d waited a day. This way she wouldn’t suspect anything happened at the job to trigger this.
“You’re doing this to punish me, aren’t you?”
He smiled wider. “No.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Then we’re even. If you told me black was black, I’d wonder what color it was beneath the black coating.”
She sighed. “I wish you wouldn’t feel that way. The country needs you, Hawk. We’re going through uncertain times, and I’m not ashamed to admit that you’re my best man.”
“You’re wrong.” He leaned over the desk until their eyes were a half a foot apart. Her black pupils shrunk, her nostrils flared, and he could see the crack again, the fear.
Once her fear might have softened him, shamed him, but that sucker had left the building.
“Hawk –”
“Not Hawk. Not to you. Not anymore. To you, I’m Special Agent Higgens. And I’m not your man. I’m something else.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Your worst enemy.”
Her breath hissed in, but a smile curved her coral-colored lips and punched up her cheekbones. Her lids lowered, and she smoldered. Not with a warm heat like the alien’s. Hers was an icy burn.
She leaned forward another inch. “You wouldn’t be my enemy if you didn’t care. You still want me. You still love me.” She reached up and brushed a fingertip down the side of his cheek. “Stay. There’s no reason we can’t work something out.”
He was almost tempted to see what else she would do. Almost. But she wasn’t worth it. He drew back.
Yesterday he still would have hauled back. But he would have felt Susan’s chilly pull, even though underneath the patrician princess exterior was ugliness and betrayal.
Today he felt nothing for her. No quickening blood, no attraction, and best of all, no regret.
All because of the sexy alien.
Thinking of her, his blood quickened. He wanted out of here. He had bigger game to hunt than Susan.
“Goodbye.” He turned and walked away.
“You can’t walk away from me so easily.” The venom in her voice lashed at his back.
He kept walking.
“Do you think I don’t know you?” she called after him. “You’re up to something. I’ll be watching you. Whatever you’re up to, I’ll find out. Wherever you go, I’ll find you.”
~~
With the words, “I will kill that person,” barely out of Phyrne’s mouth, the hotel door opened. Deena squeaked, but Phyrne laughed. Liss’s silvery aura preceded her into the room, tall and magnificent, her full lips showing her generosity. Only in her soft blue eyes could Phyrne see her vulnerability and know she hadn’t grown into her magnificence. That she was like a plant trapped in a small space, with not enough room to spread her roots and bloom.
Now she’ll bloom, Phyrne thought fiercely. Now they would all bloom.
Ki followed Liss, slighter, shorter, slender as a girl, her black pants and white blouse impeccable. Before their trip to the casino, she’d learned how to use an iron and had taken out all their clothes and ironed them, even the ones that didn’t need it.
“The IDs will be ready tomorrow,” Liss said. “I released a few pheromones. If the forger had any notion of cheating us, it’s gone now.”
“Be careful.” Deena twisted her knees under her, her forehead knotting. “You could get pregnant, too.”
Liss and Ki exchanged glances, and Phyrne saw the baby news wasn’t a surprise to them. They probably knew when she stumbled out of the van and into their embrace.
“I’m not ovulating.” Liss sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed Phyrne’s flat belly. The white robe Phyrne wore bunched under her mother’s circling palm.
Phyrne leaned her head on her mother’s shoulder. It felt good. Her mother hadn’t been able to protect her from Argon, but Phyrne never questioned her love, even on the days when her world was gray and so was her aura, and she wondered if the Great Mother had deserted her.
“So what are we going to do now?” Deena asked. “We have the FBI after us. We know what that’s like.” She pointed at the TV, their font of Earthly knowledge about the police, the FBI, the CSI and the NCIS.
“We made it this far.” Phyrne lifted her head from Liss’s shoulder. “Kergeron men couldn’t stop us. Neither will Earth men.”
“We’ll find someplace safe.” Liss shivered and glanced around the room, as if any second she expected enemies to pop up, aiming blasterguns at them. “Someplace where we’ll blend in. Someplace no one will find us.”
“Is there a place like that?” Ki plunked down next to Deena, dropping a kiss on her head. Deena draped an arm around Ki’s shoulders, the corners of her lips lifting.
Phyrne tore her gaze from them. With an ache inside her chest, she thought of the female fetus destroyed by Argon’s command. Her daughter.
Her hands went to her stomach. She wanted this one to be a daughter, too. This one would live and thrive and be free.
Liss turned toward Ki and Deena. “Ki, remember when we were children, the story we heard about our uncle and his wife?”
Ki’s nose twitched. “You don’t believe they survived?”
“What uncle? What wife?” Deena sat straight, her face lit with curiosity. “Tell me. I want to know everything.”
A niggle of curiosity worked its way out of Phyrne’s grief. “I want to know, too.”
Liss withdrew her arm from Phyrne’s back, but remained next to her. “This happened before the war, before Ki and I were born, when Kergeron men were exploring other universes.” Her hands sketched pictures in the air with graceful movements. “My mother’s cousin was given an assignment to explore Earth. He took Yannel, his wife, with him. My mother said the ship signaled that they landed, but after that, nothing was heard.”
“Nothing was heard because they’re dead.” Ki’s voice was flat.
“Maybe they wanted to stay on Earth,” Liss said, and Phyrne heard wistfulness in her tone instead of hope. As though she knew she was asking the impossible.
“The cousin was a Kergeron male.” Ki’s frown dared Liss to argue. “Do you think he could live like an Earth man? Taking out garbage? Changing diapers? Caring for their wives when they’re sick?”
“I’m surprised he took his wife,” Deena said. “He must have loved her a lot.”
“He was too jealous to leave her,” Ki said.
Liss’s mouth curved down into sadness. “Ki’s right. Our mother said Yannel was so beautiful, boys followed her even when she wasn’t ovulating.”
“This was between wars.” Ki made a sweeping motion. “If there’d been a war, maybe he would’ve been killed and Yannel would still be alive. Too bad for Yannel.”
“Maybe she loved him,” Liss said.
“And maybe udzos’ farts don’t smell so bad that they could be used as weapons,” Ki snapped back. “What our cousin had, no one else could touch. That’s why he took her with him to Earth.”
“To her death.” Phyrne shivered and crossed her arms over her chest, picturing Argon looking at her as if he wanted to destroy her.
Every day she thanked the DaKem warrior who killed him.
On the TV a car commercial started, the man’s loud voice hurting Phyrne’s ears.
“Will you turn off that stupid thing?” she asked.
Deena looked startled, then picked up the control and shut it down, the inane voice stopping, the screen turning to black. As black as Phyrne’s heart felt right now.
With the TV shut off, she heard their soft breaths and the murmurs of traffic from the road outside. In the hall someone laughed and another person said something in a hard voice.
No one in the room was laughing. She peered at their dulled, limp auras and knew hers was probably faded and drooping, too. Then she lowered her hands to her stomach. She had a baby growing inside her. They were on Earth, not Kergeron. Instead of despair, they had hope.
Her energy returned, renewed and refreshed, and she sat straight. “What’s my new name?” she asked.
Liss lifted her hand and brushed it down the crown of Phyrne’s head to her nape. Phyrne leaned back into it. She wanted to purr like an Earth kitten.
“You’re still Phyrne. Dave, the man making the IDs, said it’s like a plant spelled F-E-R-N. None of our first names are odd for Earth, but we’re changing our next three names for one last name.”
“You won’t believe the last name Liss picked.” Ki shook her head at Liss. “Galaxy! I’m Ki Galaxy now. Next time, I’m in charge of IDs.”
“The name wasn’t my idea.” Liss’s face lit with laughter. “It was Dave’s. He said we looked like we came from another galaxy.”
“I don’t care if they call me Deena Universe.” Deena pushed off the bed and stood with her thin feet bare on the tan carpet, her body tense. Dark blue spiked her aura and it speared out. “I’m afraid we’ll get caught by Riald.”
“Riald doesn’t have any spare men to chase after us,” Liss said. “As long as Kergeron is at war, we won’t have to worry about anything. Everything from now on will be good.”
“Like yesterday?” Ki’s voice raised. “Because of what happened yesterday, Phyrne is pregnant.”
Liss turned to Phyrne, unshed tears glimmering in her eyes. She cupped her hand along the side of Phyrne’s face, and Phyrne leaned into her hand, taking comfort from the warm palm, the long fingers.
“I can’t wait to be a grandmother,” Liss murmured.
An ache pulsed inside Phyrne’s chest. A good ache. “And I can’t wait to be a mother.”
“We have money,” Deena said. “Now we need to find a home and settle in.”
Phyrne nodded. “My baby needs a home. It needs neighbors and friends.” Like the ones on American TV.
She tried not to look unhappily at Ki. Her gift made her see too much that was bad, and it colored her thinking.
“Maybe DaKem will win the war,” Deena said, her voice relishing every word, “and all the men on Kergeron will die.”
Liss gasped and bent forward as if someone kicked her in her stomach, one hand grasping the locket with the picture of the son she’d left behind. Feeling the same gut punch, Phyrne curved her arms around her Liss’s shoulders.
“It’s okay. Nothing is going to happen to Ottar. If he was going to die, Ki would have seen it.”
“We can’t be sure of that.” Liss twisted to gaze into Phyrne’s eyes. In her grief she looked older and no longer glorious. Phyrne knew from her own marriage that it was hard to be glorious when her child’s life was taken.
“I don’t see everything,” Ki said, her voice heavy.
Phyrne hugged Liss, cheek to cheek. “I miss him, too. He’s still my little brother, even if he’s a warrior.”
Her nose itched and her eyes prickled. If Ottar had known about their escape plans, he would have reported them. When Ottar turned thirteen and was taken from their home, his warrior companions became his family. Phyrne and Liss became foolish women.
Liss sniffed and pulled back. Ki reached across the beds, a tissue dangling from her fingers. Liss blew her nose loudly, then gripped the used tissue in her fist. Easier to use than Kergeron’s cloth nose blowers. Kergeron didn’t have disposable trees like Earth, Phyrne thought. What Kergeron had was disposable women and babies.
“Over dinner we can talk about a place to go,” she said. “Someplace we won’t stand out.”
“A place where Riald will never find us,” Deena added.
“A place where the FBI won’t find us.” Phyrne slid off the bed, hunger gnawing at her stomach. She needed to eat for the baby. Stepping to the chest, she saw something black and rectangular on the top, the size of a man’s wallet but flatter.
Phyrne reached for it. “What is it?” But even as she asked, even before she opened it, she remembered.
She flipped it over and looked down at a badge and an ID card with a picture of the man from last night, his face austere and unforgiving, his features sharp and strong.
“He dropped it,” Ki said. “I thought you might want it.”
Phyrne looked down at his narrowed eyes and the tense lines of his face. A man on the defensive. Despite his soft Earth skin, he reminded her of a Kergeron warrior, and she trembled.
“Something to remember him by,” Deena said.
Phyrne touched her stomach. “I have something to remember him by.” But she opened the drawer with her few clothes and dropped it in, a remembrance of her child’s father.
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