Alien Me (6 page)

“If these aliens want energy, why don’t they come up here and get it themselves?”

“They keep their world hidden from humans because they don’t want us to have their technology. They say such knowledge is a privilege that we haven’t earned yet. On top of all that, they think we’re fools to allow computers to run our lives the way they do. According to them, by letting computers take over, we have summoned a demon into our lives.”

Sean pulled out the wallets he had taken from our attackers and tossed them into my lap. At first I recoiled because of who they belonged to, but I picked them up with hands still red with Sean’s blood.

“Open them and touch the badges. Tell me what you feel. I know you can tell the fake from the authentic, so don’t try to tell me you can’t.”

Reluctantly I did as he asked. I wanted to pursue the question about souls, but right now I was more worried about saving my flesh. “They’re solid gold.” I’d always been able to tell the real from the authentic in gems and metals, something that amazed my mother and impressed my father. “How did you know those men were imposters?”

Sean put the car in gear and started down the street. “I got suspicious when the vice principal didn’t recognize the security guard. And I could feel something from the guard. I could feel something and not with my senses. I don’t know how to explain it. But I did.”

I had felt something from one of them too, the nervous beating of his heart.

“Those badges were only props.” Sean slowed as he drove into a residential neighborhood. “We may have fought these guys off, but more will come. And I’m one hundred percent sure we’re being tracked right this minute by our cell phones.”

“They hacked our phones?” I asked as I pulled mine out of my pocket.

“I’ll bet the microphones on our cell phones are transmitting every word we say. The Original People might scoff at our use of computers, but that doesn’t stop them from tapping in.” Sean tossed his phone into my lap. “Take the batteries out of your phone and mine. We can’t use them now.”

I fumbled with the phones, prying open the little doors and popping out the batteries. “Our parents are going to freak out. And I’ve watched a lot of murder movies, and the police are going to ask why our blood is all over the floor and our clothes but neither of us has any wounds.”

“My dad’s a lawyer. We’ll let him figure that out. Come on. There’s a spring in that drainage ditch over there. We have to hurry.” Sean put the fake police officers’ wallets and badges in his backpack. “I’d be willing to bet that some of these houses have security cameras. Our parents will at least know that we left this park alive. Leave the phones.”

“Why are we going to a drainage ditch?”

“Because there’s a spring in it. You’ll see when we get there. Come on.”

I fell in next to him and almost had to trot to keep up. He was tall and his long stride ate up the distance. “Why do we need a spring?”

“We need a spring so that we can fall through into Geminay. You won’t know what I’m talking about until you see it with your own eyes. You’ll have to trust me on this.”

“Were those men Sworn Assets?” I asked, my stomach turning over. It troubled me to think of myself as someone capable of murder even if it was in self-defense. I’d always been a good girl, cooperative, easygoing, not one to make waves. And yet I had completely incapacitated those men with my bare hands using an ability I didn’t know I had. I wasn’t sure how to accept that new part of me.

“No, but they’re hybrids, like we are,” Sean said.

Suddenly the sound of squealing tires ripped through the peaceful air of the park as two cars raced around a corner. Several mothers who had brought their children turned their heads to look. The cars stopped suddenly and the doors flew open. Four men in wraparound sunglasses sprang from the vehicle and began racing toward us.

“We have to run,” Sean said.

I didn’t need to be asked twice. We dashed down the bike path to an area with signs warning people not to enter because it was a sensitive wildlife habitat. Sean boosted me over the chain-link fence and threw himself over. Once our feet were on the ground, we started slipping and sliding downhill through tall grasses into an area of cattails and wild shrubbery. Sean stopped at the bottom of the ditch where the silent wet sand undulated as if boiling. Tall grasses and bushes hid us from sight. I expected some sort of alien-looking transport machine, but there was nothing down here except an ordinary Minnesota wetland.

I looked around in confusion. “Now what? Are we going to hide in the weeds?”

“No, we’re going to jump into that spring and fall through into Geminay. But first you have to take my hand. And this time don’t shoot energy at me the way you did at school. Concentrate on keeping your energy close to your heart and away from your fingertips.”

“Why do I have to hold your hand?”

Sean grew somber. “Because I’m not strong enough to fall through, but you are.”

The notion that I could do something I didn’t understand and had never seen performed before baffled me. “What makes you think that I can do what you can’t?”

“Because you saved us from the attackers and used their energy to heal our wounds. I couldn’t have done that. I would be dead by now but for you. From what I’ve seen, you’ll be able to get us into Geminay.”

I started wondering whether we shouldn’t be talking to the police. I wanted the sure bet, not Sean’s faith in powers and talents that I couldn’t control or even knew I had.

“You’re wrong about whatever you think you see in me. I don’t have anything.”

“You do. I can see it. There’s a white aura around you whenever you’re in the sunlight. That’s what will allow us to fall through. But right now your energy has red sparkles, and that’s what I saw the two times you blasted me. You’ll have to pull that in before I can touch your hand. Concentrate on your energy. Pull it in as if you’re trying to draw your blood away from your fingertips. Then touch my hand. You can do it. I know you can.”

Just his saying so didn’t exactly inspire confidence in me. I closed my eyes and concentrated on drawing my energy back into myself, and very gingerly, as if I were checking to see if a burner on the stove was hot, I touched him. This time I felt a tingle, a pleasurable tingle, not the full-on electrical jolt from before.

Sean smiled. “There. Now we can jump.”

I looked into the spring and all I could think was that we were going to get gritty and wet. “No, we can’t. I do not believe that we can jump into that mud and end up in a new world you call Geminay.”

“You don’t believe what just happened to us?”

My sense of reality was so seriously shaken that I started to think I was going down the same path as Jonathan. “Maybe some of it. This freaky day doesn’t exactly inspire faith.”

Sean didn’t release my hand. “Faith makes its own reality.”

“Crazy people say that.”

Suddenly something whizzed past my ear. Sean clutched me into his chest and flung us both into the bubbling spring. I didn’t feel the bracing cold of the spring water. Instead I had the sensation of falling into white light as it swirled and pulsed all around me. Sean’s arms dropped away and there was no wind as I fell, only the sensation of floating and movement, no air, no breathing. I wondered if this white vacuum was Geminay. I didn’t feel any fear, just a sense of curiosity and wonder. The descent was silent until I heard myself and Sean landing on the grass, banging down on the ground where we had been thrown. We were flung into craziness.

People were running past us screaming. We could hear the clash of weapons and the shouts and groans of soldiers fighting. I sat up and someone tripped over me, striking my shoulder, and went flying. With a cry, I dragged myself over to a tree and pressed myself against its trunk. A fluttering sensation tickled my eyes and a new spectrum of color awakened in them. Even though the red light here was dim, I could see as well as if it were noon on the surface. As I searched for Sean, I realized I had never seen so many shades of red. Two enormous planets, one of them ringed, were visible through the trees in the red sky, beautiful and imposing. Streaks of colors, like the northern lights, moved in glowing patterns around the blush-colored sun. An arrow whizzed past my ear and planted itself in the tree trunk behind me. Suddenly Sean came crashing through the brush.

“Run!” Sean shouted as he grabbed my arm and propelled me along with him.

The two of us crashed headlong through the brush and trees. Animals, one striped and hairy like a long-necked zebra and another like a spotted moose, ran past us. Both had empty saddles, their stirrups flying wildly. People plunging through the trees in mortal terror were coming toward us. We tried to run ahead of them, but some were faster. Their shoulders banged into mine and Sean’s in their mindless dash. The forest floor was uneven and studded with plants and roots. I tripped and fell, and Sean, shouting my name, was carried away with the horde.

Drums echoed, the noise banging against my body as it thudded through the macabre trees. The ground in this forest was sloped and rolling. It enhanced the sound of a thundering cavalry of those strange animals. Soldiers wearing golden body armor and bearing swords raced past in a noisy herd. The rumbling of the Earth got under my skin and made my hands shake. In the distance a horn sounded and then another.

“Sean!” I screamed. “Sean!”

“Darcy!” he shouted back. “Where are you?”

“Over here!”

We called to each other a few more times before Sean broke through the dark underbrush. He was dirty and gory from what had happened in the vice principal’s office, but I had never been happier to see anyone in my life. In the distance another horn blew, long and low and as menacing as a growl. The sound terrified me almost more than the riders.

“What is going on?” I asked.

“We’re in some kind of war,” Sean said, looking around frantically. “I think that the Treaty must have been broken when we touched. I think this is our Houses going to war.”

“We caused an actual war?”

“We’re Sworn Enemies who touched.” Sean looked around us anxiously. “If we get separated and you get captured, tell them that you’re Lady Darcy and demand to see Lord Sylvan and Lady Naomi. You’re a duchess. These soldiers have to listen to you.” Sean grabbed my hand. “Let’s see if we can get back to the spring and fall through back to Earth. With any luck we’ll fall through to a different spring far away from that park. Come on.”

Sean and I started running, keeping our heads down. The air seemed electric, humming and buzzing and whistling with the sound of arrows. Sean stopped next to an outcropping of rock and we hunched down in its cover. Four soldiers, two of them mounted on the strange animals, were circling the spring where we had just fallen through.

“We could wait until it gets dark and sneak past those guards,” I said softly.

Sean shook his head. “It never gets dark here. These people came from a planet that didn’t rotate so one side is always toward the red sun.” He was looking around us. “You see that wall over there? I think we’re in what’s supposed to be the neutral zone between the two Great Houses.”

“You call this neutral?” I said, clutching the ground.

The words were barely out of my mouth when two riders flew over the rock we were hiding against. The animals hit the ground and dug their cloven hooves into the Earth, leaving long grooves. One of the riders, a young man, wheeled his mount around and charged at us, all the while swinging an ax. Sean let the ax swing by and then grabbed the soldier’s arm to pull him from the animal’s back. The other rider, a female, drew her sword. I screamed and threw a rock at her head with all my might. The rock struck with a slight thump, dropping her from the saddle. In the meantime, Sean had pulled the other soldier from the saddle and the two were struggling on the ground. The soldier broke free and drew his knife. At that moment I threw another rock, toppling him with a blow to the back of his head.

“How did you do that?” Sean asked in amazement.

“I pitch for my school’s softball team.”

“And thank goodness you do,” Sean said as he went for the reins of one of the animals. The other one shied away and disappeared into the woods.

“Do you know how to ride one of these things?” I cried.

“I ride horses.” He swung himself into the saddle and reached his arm down for me. “How different can it be?”

In one powerful motion Sean had me behind him on the animal. With a click of his tongue Sean had us running headlong through the uneven and rolling forest. The animal was incredibly strong and surefooted. It jumped fallen trees and ditches and streams as if we were in a steeplechase. I held onto Sean’s strong body as we raced through the forest. I could see that Sean was taking us as far away from the battle as possible. An arrow whistled past us and then another hit my arm. I screamed just as our mount collapsed under us and pitched us forward. Sean and I hit the ground hard and rolled. The animal lay wounded and began wailing a sound that made me want to cover my ears.

“Run!” Sean shouted to me.

I struggled to get to my feet, but the wind had been knocked out of me, and I staggered. Four men ran toward us, one of them with a net. He flung it at me and missed when I ducked. Sean responded with a roar, launching himself toward them. He fought them furiously.

“Run!” he shouted to me.

I didn’t want to leave him.

“Go!” he yelled again.

Feeling like a coward, I fled, leaving him and our wounded mount behind. I ran back the way we had come and didn’t stop until I was panting and shaking with exhaustion. I had started crying at some point. I didn’t know why, but I thought it was the sight of Sean fighting so valiantly for us. The arrow, now broken, still protruded from my arm. Gasping, I pulled it out and dropped it on the ground next to me. I leaned against a tree trunk for no more than a moment when three men and two women found me. They enclosed me inside a circle and one of them backhanded me to the ground.

“What is this?” he asked in disgust as his eyes scanned my clothes. “Your stench is all over these woods!”