Charged - Book One (28 page)

I didn’t hesitate to give Aaron a quick look that
clearly said,
I don’t know about this
, and he slowly nodded.
We would talk about it privately.

Danel smiled again a big metallic smile. “Just think
about it, we have all the time in the world.”

A simple translation; it meant he had all the time in
the world to change my mind if I said no. I thought he would be
angry that Kye wasn’t bound to him anymore but he wasn’t. She would
never have to charge with him again and he seemed just fine with
it. Maybe he would let her go. I glanced over his neck and hands
and he did appear to be healing. The glowing veins in his hands
seemed brighter and the dark patches in his neck had completely
disappeared. For a second, he almost looked grateful.

After Collin checked all the screens, everyone left
the room but Kye. She sat on the edge of the bed just staring at
me, smiling. She looked so stunning in the deep red suit and
matching heels and I couldn’t sense any sadness from her at
all.

“I wasn’t sure it would work,” I said.

“Neither was I.”

“You’re light seems different,” I said. I noticed the
swirling illuminations under her skin were now yellows and pinks,
before there were greenish blues.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had this kind of
energy,” she said, stroking the back of my hand with her delicate
fingers.

“Do I seem depleted to you in any way?” I had to ask
and I knew she would be honest.

She reached out emotionally to me and closed her
eyes. She was concentrating and pushing through me into my brain.
Her emotions were open to me. She held nothing back and I felt
love, joy, and relief. I became slightly aroused when she reached
downward into my abdomen and she opened her eyes smiling and pulled
her essence back. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Your core feels just like it did the first time I
felt it after you merged with Ben. Do you feel any different?” She
said.

“Slight headache, but other than that I feel
fine.”

This was a lie. I wasn’t completely fine.
Emotionally, I felt drained but I hid this from her.

She grabbed some clothes that were at the edge of the
bed and put them next to me.

“Get dressed. We’ll get something to eat.” She then
crossed the room and sat in a chair facing me.

I was completely naked under the sheet and I found it
amusing that she wanted to watch me dress. Now, I was completely
aroused. I pulled the sheet off me, got up, closed the door to the
medical room and walked over to her. A gleeful little laugh escaped
her. She pushed her essence through me again with longing and
desire. I picked her up off the chair into my arms and kissed her
hard on the mouth. She let out a sultry moan and I placed her on
the bed.

“Lew, I can’t and won’t ask you to do it again; to
charge another companion. It’s completely up to you.”

She said this like it was difficult to form the
words, she was obviously thinking of something else. I brushed up
against her again, reaching deep into her and she let out another
moan. She was so small beneath me, so tiny. I tried not to put any
of my weight on her.

“I just need some time to think about it,” I
whispered into her ear as she gasped again. I hovered over her
propping myself with one arm and undressing her with the other.

We didn’t make it to the main hall until two hours
later.

After breakfast, I was left contemplating the one
thing everyone wanted from me, if I could charge another one.

STILL STUNNED FROM charging Kye’s core completely, I
strolled back to my suite to check on Zero. Kye could sense that I
wanted some time to myself to think and said she had other things
to attend too. When I opened the door, the dog bolted toward me
wagging his tail and I bent down and scooped him up. He was so tiny
in my mutated hand. I could pet his entire back with just one
thumb.

“I didn’t go anywhere. I’m here Z,” I said rubbing
his head. I wasn’t in the suite for more than five minutes when I
sensed Aaron approaching. I went to the door and opened it just as
he was about to knock. He stepped back for a second thinking I was
leaving but I just pulled the door open farther to let him in.

“You can link with me?” A curious smile appeared on
his face, as he walked in.

I guess I never told him that I could sense
humans.

“Actually, I felt you the night I woke up after I
absorbed Ben.”

“How did you know it was me?”

“It’s hard to explain. It’s like there’s an emotional
signature within everyone I know. It’s odd too because I linked
with a stranger across the hall that same night and there was no
signature because I didn’t know him. Then I felt you next door and
I just knew it was you. With the stranger, I could feel what he was
feeling. I think I actually startled him, but I only knew who he
wasn’t. I think knowing who you’re linked too is made the first
time you physically meet,” I said.

“Interesting. How you doing?”

“Honestly? When Kye merged with me, it was almost
unbearable. For Kye..yes, I’d do it again. But everyone just
assumes that I’m gonna revive all these hybrids. I was willing to
risk my life for Kye, not for every hybrid they made. But at the
same time, I
do
feel different,” I said, putting the dog
down.

“How?”

“I can’t explain it,” I said.

“Do you feel sick?”

“No, not like that. I feel great.”

Aaron then smiled at me. Yes, I’d just showed concern
because I felt physically better now than before I’d charged Kye.
And it did actually sound ridiculous.

“That could be emotional relief,” he said.

“It’s not emotional. I mean, I am relieved but it’s
something physical too.”

“We scanned your entire body a hundred times when you
were unconscious. There’s no change. I studied each scan myself,”
Aaron said.

I couldn’t pinpoint what was different but I knew in
my gut something had changed. Aaron’s smile faded and he started
rubbing his chin. The gears were turning.

“You know, you don’t have to do this. You don’t have
to charge them. It could kill you, there are no guarantees.”

I was expecting that spontaneous side of him to show
but there was only concern. And the phrase, “it could kill you,”
lingered. 

“I don’t think that I survived a merge with Ben, for
nothing. I have to believe that there was a purpose for it even if
I don’t like it.”

“You don’t think it was a fluke in your DNA, a
mutation, do you?”

“No, I never have,” I said.

“Look, I understand that you spent most of your human
life as a Seattle cop and that gave you a sense of purpose, but you
are not a Tanjennian, you just look like one. And I know Ben’s
memories can cloud this fact. You owe them nothing,” he said.

I couldn’t believe he was actually saying this. This
kid, who dragged me to the desert and dragged me down here to this
station was now telling me, “you owe them nothing.”

“You know that’s actually funny to hear it from you.
I thought you’d be the first to agree with this. And I know you
like your scientific explanations but I don’t need one,” I
said.

“You see, that’s the problem. There is no explanation
as of right now, so I can’t predict what can happen. I know you can
feel Ben inside of you, but you’re not Ben. They have technologies
and medical capabilities that they do not share with humans, things
that would really help us. And I know that trying to save others
makes you feel like you’re saving your mother but this won’t save
her. It’s too late for that.”

That last sentence stung a little, but there was no
denying it. I didn’t realize that he knew. Then it was clear he
must have always known, that would explain why he never asked about
her, because he already had the information.

“You always knew didn’t you?” 

“I knew the first day we met. You brought me that
laptop and I wanted to throw it in a trashcan and light it on fire
because I thought you were like the cops that locked me up. But
before I did, I researched you and I found out you were nothing
like them.”

“Lucky for me,” I said.

“Lucky for your computer,” he said smiling.

Since he already knew everything about me, I felt
justified in asking him a few questions.

“Why were you in prison?”

I needed to know that he hadn’t done something truly
terrible. And this fact had been etching at the back of my mind for
the last three months. He was silent for a moment so I started
making some coffee. He sighed like he didn’t want to have this
discussion and sat down at the table. I couldn’t help but laugh
under my breath at his bright red hair.

“Nice hair, you look like you’re on fire.”

“I do whatever Jessica likes and she likes it,” he
said running his hands through it.

When the coffee was finished, I poured us both a cup
and sat down. He just stared at the coffee. This was the first time
he actually looked his age. And he looked like things were weighing
on him. I’d forgotten for a moment how large his IQ was. He was
just some twenty-year-old kid. At least, when he was silent, he
was.

“Well?” I said.

“When I was sixteen, my photo was accidently put on
the FBI’s most wanted list because my name was very similar to a
terrorist’s alias. This was hilarious to my friends, but not to me.
Being the computer geek I am, I hacked into the system and added
one other teenager to the list, the son of the FBI Director. Just
to let them know how it felt. It didn’t take them long to find me
and they imprisoned me for ten months.”

This, I wasn’t expecting. I was hoping for larceny.
Not that the system, I worked for, for twenty years had failed
him.

“I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for and I’ve gotten
all the apologies I need,” he said.

“One more question. Why only ten months? That’s a
serious offense.”

“Oh, well, you dig deep enough and you find dirt on
everyone and I found some on the Director and I blackmailed
him.”

Okay, I really didn’t want to hear the word,
blackmail. However, I had to admit that living topside and passing
for human was over. It was completely over. I was also certain that
the FBI were still looking for me. And I didn’t think Aaron would
ever go topside again, something just told me that he wouldn’t. The
human laws just didn’t apply down here. I guess it was time I
started letting them go.

“You’re focusing on the wrong issue,” he said. “Think
about what I said and ask yourself if you’re willing to risk
everything. Yes, Kye might be upset if you decline but think about
what you’re doing.”

After he finished half a cup of coffee, he turned to
leave and I had to stop him.

“Why don’t you want me to charge another hybrid?”

He turned around, smiled and shook his head a
little.

“I
do
want you to charge another hybrid and
another and another, so they can figure out how to save their race.
I just wasn’t sure if
you
knew why you wanted too and that
you had options. I want their species to continue. I actually
prefer to be around Tanjennians rather than humans. Don’t you?”

All the characteristics of a twenty-year-old kid were
gone and he was starting to sound like Danel. Yet, with all of the
sick souls I locked up back when I was a cop, I couldn’t disagree
too much.

“Have you lost your faith in the human race?” I
said.

“Nope, I never had any. But I believe over time they
can improve with our help.”

He was talking as if he wasn’t a part of that race
anymore and I wasn’t so sure if he was. He’d been born with
Tanjennian genes and I wondered how much of that had really changed
him. I mustered up a little smile as he left the suite. Then I
started really questioning why I was considering risking my life
for a race that refused to help humans.

It didn’t take me long to find the answer. They tried
to help us more than once and we turned on them, we killed them.
Yes, this was thousands of years ago, but if I put myself in their
shoes, it would change me too.

LATER THAT EVENING Kye came back and we grabbed the
dog and headed to her suite where dinner was waiting. She said she
didn’t want to eat in the noisy main hall. But I could tell she
didn’t want me distracted. She wanted me to think about charging
another companion.

Dinner was pleasant but quiet and I was positive we
were both thinking about the same thing.

I knew I had plenty of time, possibly years. But I
already knew my answer. It was simply who I was. It was my nature,
every part of my being encompassed serving and protecting others. I
could no more change this fact than I could change the color of the
sky. I had the opportunity to possibly save a dying race. It would
be selfish and cruel not to try. And this time, there may not be
any pain at all.

We had just finished dinner and I saw no reason to
keep it to myself.

“I’ve made up my mind…”

Kye was picking up dishes from the table but put them
back down slowly. I sensed a tension building in her.

“That was quick, you don’t want more time?”

I heard a slight tremor in her soft voice.

“I want to try and charge another
hybrid.”             

She dropped the fork in her hand back onto the table.
I guess it wasn’t the answer she was expecting.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” She said.

“It’s not about want, but yes I want too. I just feel
I have to. It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t.”

She flew across the room and jumped into my arms. Her
eyes filled with tears as she hugged me tightly. I tried not to hug
her too hard and stroked the back of her head.

“We will keep you safe. I promise. And you can change
your mind at any time.”