“Special gifts?” Isobel frowned. “What does that even mean? Other than being on the Spectrum, Brandon also has sensory processing disorder and dyspraxia but I don’t know—”
“No, like gifts gifts,” Kat said. “Like my Shad—he’s a shadow twin, a third born when there were only supposed to be two. Of course, that makes it hard for him in Twin Kindred society. War and Peace will grow up together and eventually call a bride together, the way their fathers, Deep and Lock did. But Shad will be a loner in a world where everyone else has a partner.”
“I’m sorry.” Isobel felt her friend’s words like a knife. It was her most constant fear for Brandon—that he would never be able to connect enough to find someone to love.
“No, it’s all right.” Kat lifted her chin. “Because even though Shad is different he has…special abilities. He knows things sometimes—things he should never be able to know. He can always find things I’ve lost or mislaid—he just goes right to them. And then sometimes…” She broke off, shaking her head. “Never mind. The point is, I believe Shad is special because he’s different. Maybe it’s the same with Brandon.”
“I don’t know,” Isobel said doubtfully. “He’s never had any, uh, precognitive dreams before.”
“None that you know of, you mean,” Kat pointed out. “We know how incredibly bright he is. And how creative.” She shrugged. “Or maybe he’s just in tune with the will of the Goddess. I’ve heard it said that little ones are more attuned to her—easier for her to reach.”
Isobel shifted uncomfortably. She didn’t like to disparage Kat’s religion but she didn’t know if she could buy into it just because her friend did.
“Now I made you uncomfortable,” Kat said, clearly reading her body language. “Sorry, doll—didn’t mean to. Look, all I’m saying is maybe you should give Commander Hail a chance.”
“He did hit it off with Brandon remarkably well,” Isobel admitted. “The two of them seemed to really like each other.”
“That’s good!” Kat exclaimed. “You know, every boy needs a father or two around to help raise him.”
“You’d certainly know about that,” Isobel said dryly. “With three sons and two husbands.”
“Yup, I’m completely outnumbered,” Kat said cheerfully. “But I don’t mind. Deep and Lock are really good dads and they make sure I get plenty of girl time with Liv and Sophie and our whole group. Look…” She put a hand on Isobel’s knee. “I wouldn’t be so quick to push you in the direction of a strange guy if he was human. But Kindred are different—they’re more honorable, more trustworthy. It’s in their genes.”
“But that’s just it,” Isobel protested. “Hail told me his genes aren’t all Kindred. He said that part of his DNA is, um, Bolaxian.”
Kat frowned. “Bolaxian?”
“He said it’s a race of semi-sentient beings who have these awful urges,” Isobel told her. “To fight and to…to breed. He called that part of himself a beast.”
“Hmm. I think I’m beginning to see why you’re worried.” Kat frowned. “Did he say anything else?”
“Only that he would never hurt me because he kept his emotion damper turned down low enough not to let those urges overcome him.” Isobel shook her head and sighed deeply. “Don't get me wrong, Kat—Commander Hail is incredibly attractive.”
Kat grinned. “In a strict, cop-about-to-give-you-a-ticket kind of way. I mean those mirrored shade things—his oculars—”
“I know, right?” Isobel exclaimed. “Those are really intimidating when you first seem them. But he’s scarcely less intimidating with them off—or retracted, I guess.”
“You’ve seen him with them off?” Kat’s eyes widened. “I never have.”
“His eyes are gorgeous,” Isobel admitted. “Pale blue, like a Husky’s. But how gorgeous he is isn’t the point. The point is, if I was on my own I might be willing to give him a chance. But with Brandon…” She shook her head. “I just can’t take chances.”
“I understand,” Kat said quietly. “You should do what you think is best, hon.”
“What?” Isobel was confused. “So you’re not going to push me to give him a chance again?”
“I’ve said all I’m going to say.” Kat held up her hands. “If the Goddess wants the two of you together, it’ll work out somehow. In the meantime, I’m just an innocent bystander. Now tell me again about the baby food tasting game? This shower is going to be so much fun!”
Isobel could tell her friend was deliberately changing the subject but that was all right with her. She decided she needed some time to think about everything Kat had said. But she knew one thing for sure—she wasn’t about to trust a man who had what he called a “beast” inside him. No matter how handsome or strangely compelling she found him to be.
Still, she couldn’t help the little pain in her heart when she thought of how he’d told her how beautiful he thought she was…or how well he and Brandon had gotten along…
But no. She had to be a responsible mother and do the right thing—she had to protect her son from any possible threats, she told herself.
Even if it broke her heart to do it.
Chapter Six
Kat walked her to the docking bay and gave her a hug goodbye. Hail was waiting for her by his ship and Isobel wondered if he had been there all along or if he’d gone and done something else while she visited with Kat. She opened her mouth to ask him but then closed it again. Somehow even casual conversation with the big Kindred seemed dangerous. As though if she opened her mouth something she didn’t mean to say might come out.
Maybe something along the lines of, ‘Hey, why don’t you come by my place for supper tomorrow night?’ whispered a little voice in her head. ‘Or I was wrong earlier, maybe we could just try going out for a drink.’
Yes, maybe something like that.
Isobel kept her mouth closed and tried not to notice how big and muscular he was or how good he smelled when he leaned over her to fasten her safety harness in place. God, what was that cologne he was wearing? It smelled sharp and fresh and clean and utterly masculine—utterly appealing.
Hail, for his part, was silent except for a few words at lift off. Isobel wondered if he was angry with her—if he hated her for rejecting him. But he didn’t act cold or angry—just withdrawn.
She wondered if he had turned down his emotion damper so he couldn’t feel the negative emotions their last encounter must surely have caused. She supposed she couldn’t blame him if he had—there were plenty of times in her life when she would have liked to turn off her feelings. Hail was actually pretty lucky he had that option.
They were halfway back home and the viewscreen was showing the blue-green ball of the Earth growing ever closer before Hail really spoke to her. There was a little white dot on the viewscreen that appeared to be circling the blue globe she called home but Isobel assumed it was a satellite. And soon her attention was drawn away from the viewscreen to look at the man beside her.
“Isobel,” he murmured, looking away from the complicated array of instruments “I know you have no interest in seeing me again but there’s something I want you to have.”
“You do?” She looked at him uncertainly. Was he about to give her a keepsake to remember him by? Some awkward gift that would make her feel guilty and regretful every time she looked at it, wondering what might have been if she’d been brave enough to give him a chance?
“Yes,” Hail said. “But it is not for you.” Reaching into an inside pocket of his uniform shirt, he withdrew a folded piece of paper and handed it to her.
“What is it and who is it for if not for me?” Isobel held the folded paper in her hand, uncertain if she was supposed to open it or not.
“I went by the Tolleg surgeon who services and maintains my oculars while you were visiting with your friend,” Hail explained. “I asked him to print out the specifications and a complete schematic of my oculars. I thought…” He cleared his throat. “I thought Brandon might find it interesting.
”
“Oh…” Isobel murmured.
“Go on. You can look at it if you like.” He gestured at the paper.
Slowly, Isobel unfolded it. There was a complex, multicolored design schematic that made no sense to her but she was certain Brandon would love it.
“That gives all the specifications necessary to build a working pair of oculars like mine,” Hail told her. “Of course, I do not know if your young one has access to the materials needed.”
“Titano-lithium struts,” Isobel read. “Hardovantium screw plates…yeah, I’m not sure I can find this stuff at the local Home Depot.” She looked up at Hail. “But Brandon will love it anyway.” Reaching out, she dared to lay a hand on his knee. “Thank you, Hail. This is beyond sweet.”
A slight smile quirked the corner of the big Kindred’s mouth.
“I just wanted him to remember me.” He looked at her and raised the mirrored oculars so that they were looking into each others' eyes. “And I hope you will too, Isobel. I know I’ll never forget either one of you.”
“Oh, Hail…” she said helplessly, feeling more drawn to him than ever. She’d turned guys down before, mostly before she’d met Mitch and made the mistake of marrying him. But none of them had ever been so kind and gracious about it. More than ever she wished she could take back her hasty words and tell him she wanted to give this strange attraction between them a chance.
But she kept remembering what he’d said to her earlier… “I have a beast inside me…that’s what I call that part of myself…” Isn’t that what he’d said? Something to that effect, anyway. And how could she possibly risk Brandon’s welfare by getting involved with a man who had such violence bottled up inside him?
Sighing, she tucked the paper into her purse and glanced at her watch. Six thirty. She should get home in time to tuck Brandon into bed. Isobel was glad she hadn’t missed reading hour. He always got so upset if his nighttime routine was thrown off…
Suddenly a bright light was shining in her face. The brilliant glare dragged her out of her thoughts and she shielded her eyes, trying to see where it was coming from. It seemed to be pouring out of the viewscreen which no longer showed the curve of the Earth. Instead it had become a blazing window of white light—light so bright she felt she might be blinded by it if she stared at it directly.
At the same time, she heard Hail curse in what sounded like a foreign language—something harsh and guttural and somehow extremely masculine. The surprise in his voice made her instantly worried. If he didn’t know what was going on then something really bad must be happening!
“Hail?” she asked, not liking the note of panic she heard in her own voice. “Hail, what’s going on?”
“Don’t know. Goddess, that light—where is it coming from? We’re not close enough to any star to be inundated like this.”
“Where is the Earth?” Isobel asked, her panic growing. She reached for him, feeling blindly, wanting the reassurance of his hand in hers. She found it and Hail closed his fingers around hers and squeezed tightly.
“Don’t know,” he said again. “My instruments have all gone blank. Look.”
He gestured with his free hand at the control panel in front of him. Isobel squinted her eyes, trying to see. Sure enough, all the displays and read-outs that had been busily scrolling and blinking just a few moments before were completely blank now.
Oh my God, Isobel thought. What’s happening to us? Where—
But she never got a chance to answer her question. For at that moment, the brilliant light intensified so much she had to close her eyes or risk losing her vision completely. The light seemed to grow and grow until it wasn’t just light but heat as well—a warm tingling that flowed through her veins until she wondered disjointedly if the light had replaced her blood.
Feels so strange! I’m tingling all over, from the inside out. What’s happening?
Then, as abruptly as the light and tingling had started, they stopped.
“It is all right, Earth female.”
A thin, high voice spoke to her and it took Isobel a moment to understand that she wasn’t hearing it with her ears. The voice—which sounded like someone who had sucked in a lung-full of helium—was being projected directly into her head.
“It’s all right,” the strange, high voice repeated. “You can open your eyes now. You are safe aboard our ship.”
Chapter Seven
Isobel opened her eyes and found that a face was peering into her own.
The person looking at her—if it could be called a person—had a round, bulbous, oversized head with small, pinched features except for the eyes. Those were wide and round and huge—pure black with no iris or white that she could see.
The immense head—much larger than her own—was completely bald and perched on a slender neck attached to a body no bigger than a child’s. The person wore no clothes that she could see but there was no obvious genetalia either—only a small, sexless slit at the crotch, not much bigger than the slits of its nostrils. Its skin was dark, pearlescent gray and when it raised a hand to touch her, Isobel saw six long, thin fingers instead of five.
Isobel screamed and tried to roll away from it but somehow she couldn’t move. She was being held in some kind of force-field that restrained her body’s movement. The hand descended anyway and came to rest against the side of her head, lightly touching her temple.
“There now,” said the high, thin voice. “There is no need for panic. We simply wish to study you.”
“Why do you bother speaking to them, Fsst?” a second high voice said. Another small, gray person with the same bulbous head and huge black eyes was suddenly standing beside the first. “You know they cannot comprehend. They are too primitive.”
“They are like animals—you must calm them, Grrn,” the first person—(alien?)—told the second. “It is better if they do not panic. Only with calm subjects will we be able to get accurate test results.”
Test results? Isobel thought. Oh my God—what kind of tests are they going to run? Who are these people?
They looked exactly like the little green or gray men you always saw on alien autopsy shows. Area 51 conspiracy theory kind of stuff.
Aliens, Isobel began to realize. I’ve been abducted by aliens!
But how was that possible? She and Hail had been safely strapped into the shuttle, almost back to Earth. How could she—Hail! Where is he?
Isobel tried to turn her head and this time the invisible field around her allowed her to move—at least a little. Looking to the right—the two little gray men were on her left side—she saw Hail was laying beside her on a clear glass table.
He was completely naked, his long, muscular body arranged in lines of relaxation. His black eye shades—oculars, as he called them—were retracted, making his face look more open and strangely vulnerable. At first Isobel was afraid the big Kindred was dead but then she saw his massive chest rise and fall.
He’s just asleep, she realized. Asleep or drugged. But which was it? And would Hail be strong enough to fight off the invisible force holding her down so they could escape from here when he woke up? If they let him wake up…
As if in answer to her mental question, Hail’s eye snapped open and he immediately began to fight the invisible bonds that held him.
“The male is awake, Grnn!” one of the little gray men exclaimed to the other. They hurried over to Hail on their short, stumpy little legs and one of them—the one called Fsst, Isobel thought—laid his six-fingered hand against the side of Hail’s head.
“Calm now,” Isobel heard him saying. “Be calm, warrior—we wish only to study you.”
“Who are you?” Hail growled, his deep voice harsh with menace. “And what have you done to Isobel? If you’ve hurt her—”
“Hail, it’s all right. I’m all right,” Isobel said quickly, although she didn’t know if being strapped down naked to an alien autopsy table, or whatever this was, qualified as being “all right.”
Hail shot
a glance at her and Isobel was so relieved to see him awake and alive that she almost didn’t mind him seeing her naked…almost.
“You see?” Fsst said soothingly. “Your female is unharmed. Both of you will be released after we study you and run a few tests.”
“Who are you?” Hail demanded again. “And how dare you kidnap and restrain us? I’ll fucking kill the both of you if you don’t let us go right now!”
“Be cautious Fsst,” the other little gray man cautioned. “This one has the capacity for extremely high levels of aggression.”
“Which is why I am attempting to calm him, Grrn,” the other replied.
“Such attempts are unnecessary. We need to get our study underway immediately and record our findings before the time bubble bursts.”
“But we haven’t gotten the results of the genetic tests yet,” Fsst objected. “We can’t possibly begin the study without them!”
“Yes, we can—and we will!” Grrn declared. “I will not wait upon any more niceties. The study starts now!”
Suddenly Isobel felt like she was falling. The invisible bands that held her to the clear glass table were gone—in fact, the table and the floor and everything else was gone too. She was in freefall.
But her stomach barely had time to lurch and her muscles to spasm in the sudden weightlessness before the sensation ended—over as quickly as it had begun.
Instead of being strapped down, she found she was now standing in the middle of a perfectly round, cylindrical room with white walls and floors. Soft, diffuse lighting was coming down from the ceiling and the temperature was neither too hot nor too cold. Which was good, Isobel noted, since she was still completely naked.
Across from her, Hail was standing, also naked, with a frown on his sharp features.
“Where are we?” he growled. “What is this place?”