Astounding! (26 page)

John was looking back at him.

He was still too thin and frail-looking. But the marks on his skin had faded, his heartbeat was strong and steady, and his eyes bright and aware.

“Carter?” he rasped.

Before Carter could reply, he heard distant shouting. And it occurred to him in rapid succession that he’d caused a power outage, neither he nor John was supposed to be here, and John was naked and weak. Maybe Freddy would be able to explain himself out of this situation, but Carter didn’t have the creative capacity.

“We need to go,” he told John gently. Carter staggered to his feet, scooped John into his arms, and began walking back to the car. It was a long way, and John was heavy despite his thinness. But a bit of preternatural energy still zipped through Carter, and he was more than willing to endure an aching head and protesting muscles when John’s arms were wrapped around his neck and his face buried in his shoulder. Under the camouflage of night, Carter carried him back over the dam to the fish hatchery parking lot. With considerable grunting, he managed to settle John in the backseat, and then he covered him with the rain jacket, a wayward towel from the footwell of the passenger seat, and several unfolded pieces of newspaper.

“Sorry,” Carter said, stroking John’s cheek. “I didn’t think to bring extra clothes.”

John just blinked at him. He still looked dazed.

Nobody tried to stop them as Carter pulled out of the parking lot. He exhaled in relief once he was back on the freeway, heading west. He cranked the heater and turned on the radio, but all the stations were off the air.

What had he done?

A few miles down the road, and before panic could fully set in, the lights across the river blinked on. By the time he got to Troutdale, it appeared that authorities had fully restored power to everyone. The radio stations came back on the air and immediately began discussing a freak power outage that had covered the entire western United States. An announcer recklessly speculated on whether it was the act of terrorists or the result of a massive computer glitch. Carter could have given him an easier explanation—it takes a hell of a lot of energy to create enough mass to save a life.

“Are you okay back there?” Carter asked.

The answer was faint but unwavering. “Yes. I’ll be fine.”

W
HEN
THEY
got home, Carter hoped that anyone watching him help John into the house would assume John was very drunk. And that they wouldn’t notice he wore no pants—although that might certainly support the alcohol assumption. At least John got inside on his own two feet, albeit with his arm over Carter’s shoulders. Carter led him to the bed and ran a bath; John still felt cold, and bits of bark, dirt, and leaves stuck to his skin.

John sighed loudly as Carter helped him into the tub.

“Do you want something to eat? To drink?” Carter knelt on the soft rug beside the tub and trailed his fingertips over John’s skin. He couldn’t quite believe that John was
here
, in the flesh.

“Not now.” John’s eyes were closed. “This is nice.”

Of course, what Carter really wanted to do was interrogate him—find out how he’d returned and why. And how long he could stay. But Carter didn’t have the heart for it, not with John looking fragile and exhausted. So he contented himself with delicate touches and a gentle rubdown with a soft washcloth. He didn’t say much, because the tiny bathroom, the little plinks of droplets from the faucet, the slight pressure of skin against skin… those things were intimate and good.

When the water began to cool, Carter eased John out of the tub, leaned him up against him, and toweled him off. They walked slowly into the bedroom, where Carter tucked John in before shucking his own clothes and climbing in beside him. John immediately scrunched against him with a satisfied little groan. Carter kissed his forehead, but John was probably already asleep.

“I’
M
REALLY
sorry, Tam. I’ve had this sort of… unexpected emergency crop up. I won’t make it in today.”

Even over the phone, she sounded concerned. “Are you all right?”

“I’m good. No worries. I just have to take care of some things today.” And possibly for a while after that, but he didn’t mention that part. “I’ve already called Karl and Ery to reschedule the window thing. You won’t mind the Halloween theme for a few more days?”

“Halloween is my favorite holiday,” she replied with a chuckle. “I’ll survive. Take care, Carter.”

After hanging up, Carter walked back into the kitchen. John sat at the table with a blanket around his shoulders and a steaming cup of coffee and tall stack of pancakes in front of him.

“Sorry,” Carter said, taking his seat. “Mine aren’t as good as the ones at that restaurant.”

John chewed and swallowed, then gave a small smile. “Yours are just fine.”

“How do you feel?”

“Tired. Weak. But give me a few days and more pancakes and I’ll be good.”

Carter nodded. They stared at one another, each daring the other to begin the questioning. Carter broke first. “What the hell, John? What did you do to yourself?”

“I came back.” He paused and looked frightened and uncertain. “Is that all right?”

“All—all right?” Carter almost couldn’t speak. He lurched out of his chair and around the table and gathered John into a firm embrace. “It’s more than I dared even dream of.” He kissed the top of John’s head. His hair was soft and smelled like mint.

After a few moments, however, Carter drew back a bit and crouched down. Cupping John’s face with his palm, he asked, “What happened?”

“I couldn’t… I couldn’t stand being away from you. I missed you. Nothing felt right without you. I wanted to go home.”

Shit. Carter’s throat tightened and he had to swallow. “Home.”

“I tried to convince my people to bring me back. It’s not like they needed me for anything. But emotional appeals don’t work with them. They refused. So I came back by myself.”

“I thought you said that was impossible. The particles would harm you, you said.”

John’s answering smile held little humor. “And they did.”

“But…. Fuck! You could have died!”

Tactfully ignoring the way Carter’s voice had broken, John shrugged slightly. “I was dying anyway. I was just… cold data, floating nowhere. I needed to be real. With you.” He ran his fingers through Carter’s messy hair, and Carter sank to his knees and leaned into the touch.

“I tried to gather energy as I traveled,” John explained. “To protect myself, and also to make my body when I got here. But that’s hard to do. I lost a lot of it along the way. And I didn’t…. The first time I came here, I built myself very slowly. It took me weeks. This time I tried it all at once. It didn’t work very well.”

“Why did you end up at the dam?”

“I was aiming for here. For you. For home. But the streams of energy drew me there.” He chewed his lip and narrowed his eyes. “How did you find me, Carter? How did you… save me?”

Carter looked steadily at him. “Don’t you know? You could tell even before you left, couldn’t you? You changed me.”

“Oh… no. Oh, no. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean—”

Carter caught his hand and squeezed it. “Stop it. It’s a good thing. An
incredible
thing. Even if I hadn’t had the chance to save you—and God, I’m so grateful I did—this thing you did to me would have been an amazing gift. For Christ’s sake, don’t ever be sorry about it.”

The long look John gave him seemed to assess the truth of what Carter had said. And then, through methods human or extraterrestrial, John must have sensed that Carter meant every word. John’s huge smile provided a counterpoint to his watery eyes. This time he initiated the hug.

They stayed like that for a long time, even though Carter’s knees began to protest. But eventually Carter had to ask another question, the one he dreaded. “How long, John?”

John sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe… maybe they won’t bother to come after me. It’s not as if there’s anyone who will especially miss me. They’re angry that you know about us. But they’re more ruled by logic than emotions, and perhaps they’ll see that it’s just not worth it for them to travel back here.”

He didn’t sound convinced, but Carter didn’t want to contradict him. He touched John’s arm. “I guess nobody really knows how long they’ll have. Let’s just enjoy our time together, okay?”

The sadness didn’t leave John’s face, but his eyes sparkled a little. “Enjoy?” he repeated. He waggled his brows.

“When you’re strong enough,” Carter said with a laugh.

“Then I better eat more pancakes.”

C
ARTER
CALLED
in to work again the next day, which was a little disingenuous of him. The emergency was over, and John was doing much better. But lying in bed with John all day as they became reacquainted with each other’s body was a hell of a lot more fun than selling books. So they spent the day making love—human style—and napping, and eating, and making love again. And just plain cuddling for all they were worth.

Carter told John all that had happened in the months since he’d left. Not that any of it was earthshaking. He’d gotten a job and made a few friends, that was all. But John wanted to hear about it, and Carter’s news pleased him.

“How are Freddy and Keith?” he asked, idly paying with Carter’s chest hair.

“Fine. They were sad when you disappeared. They liked you. They were really there for me, though. I still haven’t told them about my… metamorphosis.” He chuckled. “I wonder what they’ll say when they find out it was
me
who fried the RV?”

John went still. “You can’t use electronics. Oh, Carter, I didn’t—”

“Don’t even start. It’s a small price to pay. I don’t particularly miss gadgets. It’s kind of freeing, in a way.”

“Good,” John said with a sigh. His hand wandered to Carter’s belly, then farther south. “There are better ways to spend time, I think.”

E
VENTUALLY
C
ARTER
had to return to work. He didn’t want to let Tammy down. Besides, after not doing much more than making love for a few days, he was sore and a little restless. His dam adventure hadn’t done anything to deplete his own energy stores. If anything, he needed more activity than before. He was also relieved to learn that the power outage, although widespread, had been very brief and hadn’t caused any deaths or major damage.

He called Ery and arranged to meet him at Far Out in a couple of hours. Then he showered, dressed, and ate the breakfast John cooked for him.

John walked him to the door, looking slightly nervous. “Carter? Would it be all right if I stopped by your store sometime?”

“Of course! In fact, do you want to come by today? Man, I bet Karl would love to meet you. Tammy too, once I tell her you exist.” Previous to this, all he’d told her and his other new friends was that he’d recently and painfully lost a lover. They’d been sympathetic and hadn’t pressed for details.

“You don’t mind if your friends know about me?”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake! I have the hottest boyfriend in town. If I could go near computers, I’d be bragging about you over every form of social media I could find. And as for your… eccentricities, well, now they’re pretty much my eccentricities too. Besides, Karl’s weird too.”

“He’s also an alien?”

Carter mused. “I don’t think so. He’s something else. One of these days you and I can sit down with him and Ery and play Name That Creature.” He’d accepted Karl’s unusual status unquestioningly. There was certainly something ethereal about the guy. And if the universe had room for someone like John, the Earth could have room for someone like Karl. Maybe a lot of not-quite humans walked the streets of Portland. It would explain a lot.

The corner of John’s mouth twitched. “I’m the hottest boyfriend, huh?”

“By far.”

With a sexy little growl, John pulled him close. They kissed fiercely enough that Carter was sorely tempted to head back to bed. He parted from John regretfully. “Come by soon. You can hang out all day if you want. Tammy won’t mind. We have comfy chairs and all the books you could ever want.”

John’s lips were kiss-swollen and his hair was mussed. He was delicious. But he gave Carter a gentle little shove. “Go work. I’ll see you soon.”

Carter jogged to work as usual. He tried hard not to imagine John’s people showing up while he was gone and whisking John away. Yes, it was a possibility. But Carter and John couldn’t spend every single minute with each other—that wouldn’t be healthy. And it wasn’t as if Carter could stop the extraterrestrials from stealing John even if he was there. He just had to hope for the best, savor however much time they had together, and keep reminding John that he loved him. Maybe that would give them each a bit of solace if they were separated again.

That he
loved
him. Christ. Carter ran faster.

Tammy clearly wanted to know what had kept Carter from work, but she didn’t ask and he didn’t tell, at least not right away. He unpacked a bunch of boxes and shelved the contents, then spent a good half hour helping a customer who wasn’t familiar with spec fic at all and wanted to impress her new girlfriend, who loved the stuff. She bought over three hundred bucks’ worth of books, which brightened Tammy’s demeanor considerably.