Last Ascension

  “All right.” She crossed her arms in a defensive posture. He stared at her for a second. He"d let her down. She wanted his belief in the sudden epiphany she experienced about the green light.

  He couldn"t blame her. She"d clearly had a horrible couple of weeks. This was something she could hold onto.

  Except he knew better than to go down the rabbit holes alien abductions create. Once upon a time, a woman he trusted more than anyone else on the planet had looked at him and told him there were alien conspiracies in the world. It had taken him years to crawl out into the light.

  He wasn"t travelling down the X-Files brick road again. Not without solid, incontrovertible proof. They"d had a green, burning light assault their room. It had come out of nowhere. He"d seen weirder things in his time with his brothers. Usually they were mechanical and being controlled by maniacal imbecilic lunatics.

  Lael had already encountered evidence of the Organization earlier in the day. Finding them seemed a good place to start.

  ****

  “So this is it?” She wandered around his one-bedroom apartment, a palace compared to where she had been living. Before she"d been taken, she"d had a one bedroom in Hoboken, New Jersey. It had been about this size.

  She smiled as small details returned to her. Not everything was clear yet, but as long as little bits and pieces of her former life poked into her memory, she could be satisfied. For now.

  “It"s not much.” Lael shrugged. “But it"s all I need.”

  She pointed at one of the corners, where the ceiling met the wall. There were small black devices resembling small radio speakers positioned all over the room. “What are those?”

  Other than the unidentified devices, Lael"s apartment appeared pretty standard for a single guy living alone. He had functional gray furniture. There were no pictures decorating the wall, and a large television, probably too big for the space, sat in the corner.

  “I have a hard time tuning out noises. I can hear anything and everything for miles. During the day, I can shut it out. Focus, deliberately, on the things I need to concentrate on and shut out the details I can ignore. But when I try to go to sleep at night, it"s much harder. Every time the neighbor down the hall goes to the bathroom, it wakes me.” He pointed at the machines. “It"s a very intense white noise machine broadcasting on a level only me and the neighborhood cats can hear.”

  “And it helps?” She couldn"t imagine how annoying the whole thing must be.

  He shrugged. “Sometimes.”

  “I can"t believe you"d live in a city. Why aren"t you all the way out in the middle of nowhere?” Somewhere where he couldn"t hear anything for miles and miles….

  “I don"t want to be a recluse. I"m not some dude with a shotgun hiding in my house who doesn"t want to see anyone all day, and believe it or not sometimes being alone makes it worse.

  The lack of anything makes everything more heightened. It"s all nuts.” He walked into the kitchen, opened the fridge, and brought her a bottle of water.

  She opened the plastic bottle and drank deeply from it. “Thanks. I hadn"t realized how thirsty I was.” Her words dawned on her. “But you knew, didn"t you? This water, it wasn"t you being polite. You could tell I needed it.”

  He shrugged again, and she narrowed her gaze. Damn. Lael had a tell. When he got uncomfortable, he shrugged as if he didn"t care about the question, when clearly he did.

  “I don"t focus on everyone the same way. I can"t, or I"d spend my day running around feeding and watering and taking people to the doctor. But you"re here. It"s just you and me. I have very strong reactions to you, even in public.”

  She opened her mouth, but no words came out. This man—who should be a Guardian—built the same as a Greek god—had a very strong reaction to her?

  “Right.” He nodded but she wasn"t sure at what. “Um. You can have the bedroom. You"ll be safe here, and I can sleep on the couch.”

  Her heart kicked up, and he reached over to touch her arm. “It"ll be okay. You"re safe here.”

  “Why can"t I come with you? We were agreeing in the shelter to do this together. You said as long as I listened to you then I could accompany you on your investigation.”

  “Right.” Lael dropped his arm. “That was before shit got real. The green light? It was no joke. Whatever those people are using, it incapacitated everyone in the room. Even I felt uncomfortable. You can"t go with me if I have to bust in there.”

  His words were reasonable, but she didn"t believe him. Not entirely. Maybe it was the way he fidgeted with his wristwatch. Lael wasn"t a person who moved around more than he had to.

  “Are you not bringing me because I was abducted by aliens?”

  He lifted his hands in the air in front of him as if he wanted to ward off an attack. “We don"t know what happened to you yet.”

  “Yes we do, Lael. I was there. I got abducted by aliens.”

  “As I said, you can take the bedroom. You"ll be safe here.”

  She resisted the urge to pound of his chest. He wanted to change the subject so he acted as if she hadn"t spoken at all?

  “Not cool, Lael.”

  “Damn it, Margot.” A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I don"t know what I"m doing here, okay? I don"t believe in aliens. If some little green man wants to come in here and introduce himself to me, then I"ll change my mind. Until then? I"ll work on figuring out what happened to you.”

  “My first-hand account isn"t good enough?”

  “I believe you believe you were abducted by aliens.”

  She took a few steps away from him. Violence wasn"t in her nature, and it wasn"t okay for her to knock him in his perfectly square jaw. “Of all the condescending things to say. Fine. You don"t believe me, I guess that makes me a liar. Thanks.”

  “I don"t think you"re a liar. I think something traumatic happened to you, and you"re grasping at straws. Aliens are a good explanation. Easier than dealing with all the other horrible things which might have brought on a fugue state.”

  “Is that Psych 101?” She took a long pull from the water bottle he"d handed her. “Because I haven"t taken it yet. I have two more years of college to finish.”

  “I think it's good your memory is coming back.” He had the audacity to smile.

  She shook her head, amusement tugging at her lips. No way, no how should Margot be

  finding his stubbornness amusing. And yet she did. Massively.

  Her insides tingled, and she wanted to argue with him some more. Wow. She"d really gotten sick in the head during her time with the aliens. Why did arguing with Lael turn her on?

  Margot cleared her throat. “Why would I be any safer here than I was in the shelter? The aliens found me there. They"ll find me here.”

  Lael sloped his eyebrows down until his forehead wrinkled. He wanted to argue with her; she could see it, but instead he took a deep breath. Without saying anything, he turned and walked through the door. She bit down on her lip. Was he leaving now? Did he not think her very valid question warranted a response?

  He stopped and put his hand down on a small gray box by the front door. “Do you know anything about electromagnetism?”

  “No.” She studied communications in school. Somehow she didn"t think electromagnetism had been covered in her seminar.

  “Guardians are very susceptible to it. Our powers are somewhat dimmed when we have a lot of it around.”

  She walked toward the box, goosebumps popping out on her arms. “You keep a box of something which weakens you where you live?”

  “Most of the time I don"t keep it on.” He switched a button, and, although she couldn"t hear or see anything, Lael visibly shuddered for a second, and she reached out to grab him.

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Um.” He shook his head. “To protect you. Most of the machines the Organization have created can"t bypass this. The wave screws up their system. I"m not the tech guy. I don"t understand all of it either, but this will keep you safe.”

  “Lael, you
can"t have this on. It"s clearly making you ill.”

  “I"m leaving. I won"t feel the effects of it in a few minutes. I"ll turn it off later. You"ll be safe because I"ll be here.”

  Margot didn"t think too much about what she did. Instead, she pulled the obviously suffering Lael to her while touching the button Lael had used to turn on the machine with her foot. The red light on the device shut off, and his muscles unclenched.

  “Stay home tonight. We"ll go together in the morning to find your Organization. And maybe the aliens will make a second appearance and then you"ll believe me.”

  Lael ran a hand through his hair but didn"t pull away from her. “Margot, if you believe nothing else, please understand I really want to keep you safe. My main priority is to keep you protected.”

  “I believe you.” He was so warm. She wanted to melt into him and leave the troubles of the world somewhere else. “I really enjoy standing here like this.”

  He lowered his head and pressed his mouth against hers. He tasted of peppermint. She sighed, and he deepened the kiss. For a moment, she let herself not think about the questions plaguing her.

  Abduction and memory loss didn"t matter. The aliens poking and prodding fled away. Lael kissed her. Nothing else in the universe mattered.

  Chapter Five

  He pulled away from their embrace. Much as he"d enjoy nothing more than to strip her bare and lose himself in what he was sure would be the heaven of her hot core, he couldn"t go there.

  Not yet, not with so many things so uncertain.

  The Organization was alive and well, either recruiting or stealing people from halfway houses, and Margot thought aliens had abducted her. Some things had to happen before he let this go any further.

  How did his brothers maintain relationships with the world almost always nearly exploding around them?

  “Are you okay?” She put her head on his chest and sighed. The sound moved through him, making his cock jump. If she felt it, she didn"t comment.

  “Yep.” He sucked in his breath. “You"re right. Let"s hold off looking until the morning. I"ll call in sick for work. I probably have to quit anyway.”

  “Why?” She backed up a step to look up at him. Why did she have to be so small? He loved how tiny she felt pressed up against him, but her small stature also left her vulnerable. Someone could squish her.

  He shook his head. “Too many people have now seen how I can lift their chairs off the ground without breaking a sweat.”

  “Maybe you"re a body builder.”

  She was too adorable for words. “Do I look like a body builder to you?”

  “You look pretty built, Lael.”

  “Whatever.”

  She hadn"t spent enough time around the truly huge if she thought he looked anything like those guys. Lael had seen really muscled up people in his time who dwarfed him.

  “Come on, let"s get you to bed.”

  “I can put myself to bed.” She smiled, and he recognized the look. Were women born

  knowing how to tantalize, or did they pick it up somewhere along the way? “Unless you want to join me in there.”

  The Lael of even six months earlier—the one he had been working on changing—would

  have thrown caution to the wind and given her a whirlwind night, even if there was only a ten percent chance he"d really be able to let himself go without hurting her. Only he hadn"t spent so much time getting control of his fucked up nature to lose it now.

  “You can"t believe how much I want you.” He liked her. Flat-out rejection could give the wrong impression. “But this can"t happen right now. I"m not safe. You"re not safe. I don"t take risks. Bad things happen.”

  “Hmmm.” She rolled her eyes, and she looked so cute doing it he had to scoop her into his arms. She squealed until he gently dropped her on the bed.

  Lael had never had a woman in his room before. Sex usually happened other places, and it had been six years since he"d lived with anyone else. Even then, he"d had a whole wing in Ace"s house to himself since he had such a hard time listening to the noises other people made.

  But Margot didn"t seem to have that effect on him. He liked hearing her heart beat. It showed she was alive. The sounds of her lungs taking in air swayed through his mind but didn"t threaten to take over his thoughts. He could still reason. And when she touched him? He wasn"t

  compelled to rush her into bed to reach the pleasure before the discomfort threatened to undo him.

  He liked her hand on his arm. Lael pushed the thoughts away. He"d never keep his resolve to hold off on sex if he contemplated how much he actually liked the feel of her skin.

  “I may never ask you to have sex with me again.” She scrunched on the bed, leaning against the headboard.

  “I can"t lose my concentration, and, believe me, I find you distracting. It"s not safe. Bad things happen when I let down my guard.”

  “Bad things like the girl you killed.”

  He nodded. “Exactly.”

  “How long will go on before you forgive yourself?”

  Lael shrugged. “Forever.”

  She had tired eyes. He wished he could fix everything. Fix it so she didn"t have to experience sad, lonely days again.

  “That doesn"t sound like a very smart plan.”

  He leaned on the headboard so he could lay next to her. Not exactly where he wanted to be, but the best he would get until he could be sure she was safe. Maybe other people could manage to do two things at once, but he didn"t trust himself. Not when it came to keeping the promise of her safety.

  Everything had to wait.

  “Tell me about you?” He wanted to change the subject immediately. “Who is Margot Fox?”

  “It"s all still a little jumbled.”

  Lael took her smaller fingers in his hand. Her skin felt like silk, and he rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. “Tell me what you do know.”

  “I"m a college student in Trenton, New Jersey. But I can"t remember my apartment or my dorm. Not where they"re located.”

  He made mental note of her words. Maybe they could fly over there and…. He refused to follow his train of thought. Lael wouldn"t be flying Margot anywhere. Women who flew with him ended up splattered on the ground with their eyes staring upwards, unseeing.

  “What did I say to make you get such a horrible expression on your face?” She stared at him open mouthed.

  “Nothing. Go on. You don"t remember where you lived. What else?”

  “Um.”

  She scratched her head, and he let her other hand go. How did Margot always know what he was thinking about? No one else did.

  “I"m the daughter of a single mother. But I can"t remember her name or even what color her hair and eyes were. A daughter should know those things.”

  Maybe he"d run an Internet search, see if he could find any missing persons reports from Trenton about Margot Fox. His Handler would have done that at Powers. Dumb he hadn"t thought about it earlier.

  “We"ll work it out.” She yawned, and he wasn"t surprised. The woman needed to sleep.

  “Favorite food?”

  She grinned and rolled over until she leaned into his side. “Pizza.”

  “Well, then, we have that in common.”

  She pinched him, and he hardly felt it, but he made a show of rubbing at his skin as if she hurt him. “I can"t believe you turned me down for sex.”

  “You and me both.”

  After a while, her breathing changed, and he knew she"d fallen asleep. Some day maybe he"d tell her about how he could control his body temperature, and raising it just a little was the equivalent of putting the people next to him under a warm blanket. A bed, quiet, and his heat had been the perfect solution for making sure she got enough rest.

  His balls ached. He hadn"t kidded her when he"d said he also regretted they hadn"t had sex.

  Years ago he wouldn"t have hesitated. But then he"d dropped June.

  He closed his eyes, planning to doze for a while. When he woke maybe he"d sneak out
and see if he couldn"t get some work done on figuring out who she was before she landed in so much trouble.

  “Lael.” His brother called to him, but it felt really far away.

  “Draco.” He answered, but he was stuck in a dark hallway. No doors, no windows, only the sound of Draco"s voice to call him onward. “Draco, I can hear you.”

  “Ace, I don"t think this is working.” His brother sounded frustrated. “Lael, can you hear me?”

  “Let me try. The problem is on our end, not his.” Ace coughed for thirty seconds, and Lael"s stomach turned over. Whatever was going on, that couldn"t be good. As a rule, none of them ever got sick.

  “What are you saying?” Draco gritted his teeth. Lael couldn"t see him, but he could hear the jaw clenching anger. It had been directed at him on more than one occasion.

  “He can hear us. He might be answering. We can"t get his responses.”

  “Well, damn it, Ace, not good enough.” Something crashed.

  “I"m doing the best I can here. This is not new equipment, and it wasn"t made for this crap.

  I"m turning a toaster into a make shift telepathic walkie talkie. To say I"m doing the best I can would be an understatement. So, shut the fuck up.” Another coughing fit.

  “What"s wrong with Ace?” Lael called out but no one answered.

  Then, after a few seconds, Draco"s voice filled the area again. “Lael, if you can hear me the unthinkable has happened. We"ve been taken. We"re not even sure how exactly. But we"re here.

  Locked up in cages. We can"t get out. It"s coated in something. I"m not even clear what but it"s making us weaker and weaker. The family is safe. I think they are anyway. Wendy and Alice, they know what to do in the event of this happening. You remember the plan.”

  Ace spoke again. “We"re all here, Lael. We need you, brother. Please.”

  Lael hadn"t heard Ace sound pinched since he"d almost lost Alice, ten years earlier.

  “How am I supposed to help you?” Lael ran toward the voices, but there was nothing more than continuous blackness ahead. “Where are you? Who did this to you?”

  “Damn it, Ace. Pull it together. They"re coming. Listen to me, Lael, if you really are getting this, if you can hear us, it"s the Organization. They"ve returned again, Lael. Come and find us.”