Chrystal Bones (Finding Home Book 1) (10 page)

“Nothing. I did nothing to her. It was the chrystal. You have to let me see to her."

"No, I don’t,” she said flatly.

"She is my sister,” the man said softly. Riley was stunned into silence. Blue was this alien’s sister. How could that possibly be. She felt Blue stir under her hands and turned back to her. Explanations could wait, right now she wanted Blue to wake up and it looked like she was about to get her wish.

Blue opened her eyes to see Riley leaning over her, concern radiated from her big green eyes. She struggled to sit up. Riley helped her and when Blue looked around she saw trouble waiting to happen. Jake had his gun out and pointed at two of the aliens. Leo looked like he was about to eat the third one. This was a mess and it looked like it was just going to get messier. Riley was asking her how she felt. Blue took a moment to think about it. She felt…fine. A little weird but okay.

She smiled wryly, "I can't say we weren't warned that something was coming.” She glanced at the aliens then back to Riley, "I'm thinking they are the something."

"Yeah, I think you are right,” Riley replied sitting on the ground next to her. Blue, carefully not looking at the alien Leo was holding off, nodded towards the two that Jake and Cole squared off with and said, "We should probably do something before Jake shoots someone."

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe we should let him. That would get them out of the way.” Blue just looked at Riley. "Alright fine,” Riley said with a sigh and hollered, ”You can put the gun away Jake. I told Cole he couldn't kill anyone today and neither can you. Maybe later though.” She glared at the alien men, making sure they got her meaning.

As soon as Blue stood Leo ran to her and coming up on his hind legs put his front paws around her neck grumbling at her even as he was hugging her. When Leo stood on his hind legs he dwarfed her delicate frame but he was always so careful not to knock her down. After scolding her for scaring him Leo settled at Blue's side.

Gathering all of her courage Blue finally looked up at the aliens and up. Wow they were big. Her eyes locked with the one closest to her. The one who had spoken to her. She gasped, her hand reached for him without conscious thought. It was him. His was the face in her dreams. The face she always saw before she woke in tears.

"Who are you?" she asked letting her arm fall back to her side. He was staring at her with what looked like love and wonder in his eyes.

"I am your brother,” he said in a smooth silky voice.

”I don't have a brother."

"Yes you do. You also have a mother and father who are going to be as happy as I am that you are alive."

"Alive?" she questioned, confused.

"We thought you were dead. The ship you were on was destroyed."

"So if you thought I was dead. You're not here for me,” she said slowly. "Why are you here? Oh crap. Did your ship crash?" Her thoughts went frantic at the thought of anyone finding them and her. She would not let them get caught. “We have to get you out of sight. Do you know if anyone saw you?”

“No. We did not crash. No one from this planet knows we are here.” Idris tried to soothed her. “It is a long story. We are here for you. I promise everything will be alright. Once we knew you were here, we came to find you."

"Uh guys, I really hate to break up this tender moment and all, but we have company,” Riley said. Blue saw a car filled with teenagers pull in. The teen boys piled out of the car talking and laughing. They went straight to the strange motorcycles. One of the teens shouted over to them, "Are these your bikes? They are so cool. Where did you get them?"

The tallest alien walked over to them and explained that the bikes were prototypes that they were testing on the road. The boys had a lot of questions but he soon had them on their way. Jayden walked back and told Idris, "We need to get somewhere we can talk without interruptions. I do not like being out in the open like this."

Before Idris could respond Jake demanded, “You are not going anywhere until I get some answers. What is going on here? Where are you guys from? And what was all that bright light, floating in air stuff?” The last question was directed at Blue.

There was no way out of it. She was going to have to tell him something. He had already seen too much. Reaching for his hand Blue held it in hers. She let his thoughts run through her mind. He really was one of the good guys. He was concerned for her, confused about what was going on and he had a lot of questions. His first thoughts were about protecting her and Riley from the strange men. There was no way he was going to leave until he was satisfied that they were safe. She was going to take a big risk and trust him.

Blue glanced at her watch to check the time. She told all of the men, "Riley and I have some unfinished business to take care of so we have to go. You guys can stand around posturing at each other or you can follow us. We can talk while we wait for the LCA to show up at the house where he had Scotty."

"LCA?" Cole asked puzzled.

“That's what they call Nate,” Jake answered. "Short for Lying Cheating Ass."

Cole chuckled. "That fits him to a T. I may never call him Nate again. I'm going with you,” he stated looking first at Blue then Riley. From the stubborn look on his and Jake’s face Riley knew there was no budging them.

The man who claimed to be Blue’s brother said, "We are going with you also.
Great
, Blue thought,
we have a freaking entourage
. She took a deep breath and said, "The house where he was holding Scotty is up the road about fifteen minutes. Follow us." She turned and walked to the Jeep. She opened the back door for Leo and quickly got behind the wheel. As soon as Riley was in she took off.

She really didn't care if they followed her or not. She just needed a few minutes to think without them all staring at her. Riley knowing this was silent for several minutes before she said, "Wow."

Blue gave a strangled laugh and agreed, "Yeah, wow." She didn't say anything for a couple minutes then, "They thought I was dead. Whatever brought them this way it wasn't me. I don't know why that’s what’s bothering me the most right now."

Blue pulled off the main road onto the same dirt track she had earlier. She drove far enough in to hide the jeep from passing eyes. She turned the Jeep off and laid her head on the steering wheel. The motorcycles and car pulled up behind her. "Guess we didn’t get lucky enough to lose them,” she sighed.

"You know, you don't have to do this right now. We can turn around, go home and deal with all of this tomorrow,” Riley said laying her hand on Blue's shoulder.

Blue lifted her head, "No we can’t." She pulled her shirt down to show Riley her throat. What had been a small dime sized chrystal this morning was now the size of a fifty cent piece. "When it, well, fused with me.”

"Is that what happened when you went all glowey and started floating around?” Riley interrupted.

"Yes, smarty pants, anyway, it dumped all sorts of information in my head. That’s what caused me to pass out. Kind of like overloading a computer will cause it to crash."

"Trust you to put it in computer terms,” Riley laughed. Blue smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

"Computers are what I know best. It's not just a matter of going home and not having to hide anymore. It's bigger than that. I don't have any of it sorted out yet. It will take me a while to go through what this,” she touched the chrystal, "is trying to tell me. I have to go with them,” she told Riley.

"I know,” Riley said sadly, knowing that Blue really didn’t have a choice.

Leo popped his head over the seat to look at her.
"What about me?
” he was saying to her. "Don't you worry sweetie, where I go, you go." Satisfied he laid back down unconcerned with the change his life was about to undergo, only that he would be with his human. "That goes for you too if you want to come,” she said to her best friend, already knowing the answer would be no. "We can talk about it later, right now I think we better get out before they lose patience." Blue looked out the window. The three aliens were standing at attention with arms crossed glowering at the two earth men, who were glowering back.

"You have to admit Blue, they grow them good-looking in outer space,” Riley said with a grin before opening her door and getting out. Blue took her first good look at them. Riley was right, they were very good-looking. In fact they could pass for human better than she could with her freaky eyes.

"Here's how it's going to work,” Blue told the alien men. ”Riley and I have unfinished business today. We are going to a house we rescued a kidnapped boy from a couple of hours ago. While we are waiting for the kidnapper to come back we can talk. If there’s time, if not we can talk afterwards. Right now this is my priority. Deal with it."

She turned to Jake and Cole, "We have a plan to keep the LCA away from Scotty so don't interfere no matter what." Then she turned and walked into the trees, Leo at her side and Riley following, holding a melon of all things. Giving each other a wary look the men followed.

Jayden said to Idris, "I thought you said she was sweet.” "She was a kid the last time I saw her. The little we know of what happened to her here would change anyone.” He protested.

Vihan said darkly, "Yes it would." If anyone would know what being tortured was like it would be Vihan. He was a completely different man now than he had been before his capture by the Ragillians. He rarely smiled and never laughed. He used to be almost as big a joker as Sparks was. But those days were long gone.

Riley and Blue stopped when the house came into view. Once again they looked around carefully before continuing to the door. Riley picked the lock quickly and they slipped inside followed by Leo and five big men who made the small rundown house feel even smaller.

"This is where he kept Scotty? In this dump?” Cole asked incredulously, looking around at the shabby interior.

Jake looked at Riley disapprovingly, “You picked that lock in under thirty seconds. Something tells me it's not the first time you have done that."

”Must be the FBI training that gave you such good instincts,” she smirked at him. "Get over it Jake. You've worked with us enough to know that what we do is not always completely legal."

"Do you really think he's going to come back here today?" Cole interrupted the lecture Jake was about to give Riley, to ask her.

“Yes, I do. For one thing he's neglectful, not abusive. He will want to check on Scotty and probably give him another dose of sleeping pills. He may not love him the way he should but he thinks Scotty is his ticket to maintaining the lifestyle he wants."

"Don't worry, if he doesn't show today I have a pretty good idea where he will be tonight,” Blue added.

Cole nodded then leaned against the wall and looked at Blue and Riley. "You girls want to start explaining now? Who are they?” meaning the aliens, "And what was that back at the side of the road?”

Riley took exception to the tone of his voice, "It really isn't any of your business. You are only here because of the LCA. When we deal with him you can go back to your cozy life and forget all of this."

"No I really don't think so. You are going to have to start explaining. Now, or Jake and I are going to start digging and you may not like what we find,” he threatened.

“Go ahead,” Riley shot back. "You won't find anything we don't want you too. Blue's just that good with a computer.”

"But there is something Blue doesn't want us to find,” Jake guessed.

When the aliens heard the implied threat to Blue they pulled weapons, that looked like strange guns, and pointed them at Cole and Jake. Blue leaped between them and Jake. “Stop!” she shouted. The aliens made no move to put their weapons away. The tallest one said in a deep gravelly voice that sounded like rocks rubbing together, "We will not let them hurt you." He was six foot seven inches tall and towered over her.

She craned her neck to look him in the eyes. His hair was shoulder length and jet black. He wore it tied back in a neat little ponytail. His face was square with sharp angles and he had the prettiest purple eyes. He wasn't handsome in the classic sense but he would have no trouble blending in with humans. Nothing about him screamed alien…

The way he looked at her and the confident aura surrounding him made her want to trust him. But she didn't have any trust to give. Not any more. "They can't hurt me and if they tried I could hurt them a lot worse,” she told him. "Put your weapons away." They reluctantly did as she asked after giving Cole and Jake a hard look that promised retribution should they say anything else offensive.

“Okay,” she said letting out the breath she held. "Okay, I can tell you some things. But what happened out there,” she waved her hand in the general direction of the clearing. "I'm not sure what that was."

"We aren't stupid Blue. They aren't from this planet any more than you are,” Jake said with conviction having gotten a good look at her eyes.
Well crap
, she thought sharing a look with Riley. She took another deep breath and let it out slowly. She was having to do that a lot today, if she wasn't careful she'd hyperventilate. "No, we are not from here. They are new but I landed here twenty two years ago." She let that sink in before she continued, "My spaceship.”

"It was not a ship. It was an escape pod,” the big alien said.

“Fine, escape pod." She stopped then asked, "What are your names? I can't keep thinking of you as the aliens." The big one grinned showing nice even teeth. “Jayden," he said.

"Vihan," said the next slightly smaller man in a raspy whisper. His hair was red. Not what passed for red hair here but a true blood red. He was bulkier than the other two and looked like he would be right at home in ancient times playing gladiator. He had a long wicked looking scar that ran from the corner of his right eye to his chin and another on his neck that disappeared under his shirt.

The one who claimed to be her brother just looked at her with out saying his name. She cocked one eyebrow in question. "You really don't remember?" he asked.

"If I did I wouldn't need to ask, now would I.”