The Price of Discovery (28 page)

With the sun gone, only the glowing streetlights lit the way, but they were enough to cast long shadows down the street and along the sides of buildings.

Erin sat down and pulled her hand away. Enough contact. She had already seen where it could lead them.

Drakor sat next to her and ran his fingers through his hair. He wore the same shirt she had slept in the night she was over and the memories from then flashed before her. A tingling sensation raced to her toes, pebbled her nipples. Erin gulped. The shirt looked much better on him, emphasizing his broad shoulders and hard chest.

She had to look away and so she watched couples giggle and kiss down an alleyway, their bodies only silhouettes against the bricks. “So,” she squeaked, then cleared her throat. “Why did you ask me here tonight?”

“You have something I want.”

Erin bit her lip and held her breath. That could mean a hundred things. Did he want her? Her body? Or what she took from him?

“I am missing a Transmitter and I believe you have it.”

She let out her breath. So he knew she took it. Didn't matter how, but he knew she had it and he wanted it back. But if she returned it to him what proof would she have of their existence? Especially if they left Earth.

“Why do you need it?”

Drakor sighed. “I need it for when we return home.”

“Oh? And when are you going?”

He shrugged and watched someone walk past them. “Soon. There is no longer a reason to stay.”

Well, in that case, she had a story to write and she needed all the info she could get. Erin swallowed against the tightness in her throat and sat up taller. She knew he wouldn't stay forever, but she wasn't ready for him to go either.
 

“Drakor, why do you hate humans so much?”

His features hardened. “My friend Alaziri came earlier to seek out the resources on Earth. To prepare others that would follow with knowledge of the culture and the language.”

“And now he's dead. But you didn't know that before.”

“No, but I knew he'd experienced trouble when he first arrived. His house attracted too much attention.”

“His house?”

Drakor gave a weak smile. “He saw a picture once and recreated what he'd seen.”

She raised her eyebrows. “The cottage?”

“Yes, I suppose it was too odd in that location.”

“Is that why you live in a Victorian house? You didn't want to make the same mistake?”

He nodded. “When Alaziri finally returned with books and documents, we saw pictures of houses like that and so we had an idea what to do.”

Erin stifled her giggle. No wonder the house was like a museum, they took all of it straight from a book. Too bad their information was a hundred and fifty years old.
 

A couple passed by them and headed down the shadowed alley. Erin saw Drakor tense and she leaned over to get a closer look at who it was. Brundor and Rita. They seemed like the perfect match so she didn't understand why Drakor looked so concerned. Rita wanted hot guys, of which Brundor fit the bill, and Brundor wanted willing women, of which Rita fit the bill. What was wrong with that?

Erin tapped Drakor's arm. “Leave them alone.”

He pulled his gaze back to hers. “Tell me what else you want to know.”

Well, since he asked. “Why are you here? Why did your family come to Earth?”

“To find help for our lack of processing Vitamin D. I told you that already.”

She lifted her chin. “You told me something about supplements and vitamins. You could have gotten those and gotten out long ago, before your parents died.”

He glanced down. “I had thought that too when I first came.”

“What do you mean?”

“When we arrived here I thought it was only to find supplements, but I was wrong.”

Anxiety prickled under skin. The way he spoke, something in his words, told her that she might not like his next statement. She could imagine all sorts of reasons why that had come—everything from murder to kidnapping to colonization.

She swallowed and pressed her purse against her stomach. “What was the real reason?”

“We don't just need supplements to help us process the Vitamin D, as you call it.” He took a deep breath and glanced away from her to the alley of entwined couples.

“Well, what is it. What do you need? Why did you come?”

“We need the gene.”

She must not have heard him right. “The what? Did you say ‘the gene'?”

He nodded. “In order to fix the disfigurement and suffering on my planet, we need the working gene back into the population.”

“But
you
don't have any issues. Your bones look healthy.”

“Yes, my mother still had a working gene but my father didn't. He was an experiment to the Researchers. They gave him medicines and doses of an imitation Vitamin D, but they eventually killed him.”

Oh God, what a tragedy. “He-he died from an overdose of it, you think?”

Drakor looked at her again, his eyes raw with emotion. “I'm positive that's what killed him.”

“So how were you going to get this working gene from a human? Take blood?”

He stood up from the bench and walked to the empty building in front of them. His tense shoulders fueled the fire in her stomach. Then he pounded a fist on the brick wall.

“Are you going to tell me?” Erin said to his back.

“Ankra had a secret duty.” She could hear the despair, the edge in his voice. Whatever he was going to say, he did not approve of it. “She was…she can't…”

He sighed and leaned both palms against the wall, his back still facing her. “Blood wasn't enough to guarantee the gene. We needed more but we are not permitted to kidnap a living human.”

“You're taking a dead one?”

“No. We need the gene alive. But we couldn't impose ourselves to disrupt another creature's life. We couldn't just kidnap someone and take them from Earth.”

Erin watched his back move, the shadows from the street lamp moving along his muscled arms as he resumed pounding his fist on the wall. For the life of her, she still couldn't figure out what he was talking about. She stood up and went next to him.

“So what about Ankra, Drakor?”

When he turned to look at her there was fury and disapproval in his eyes. “A baby, Erin. Ankra was supposed to get pregnant and bring back a baby with a working human gene.”

Erin took a step back, bile bubbling up from her stomach and burning her throat. Her lungs tightened until she could barely breathe. “A baby? Greg's baby? She…she would take Greg's baby back and…and not tell him?”

“Look, I didn't like the idea either. Human genes should not be mixing with ours, there is too much distance in history.”

This was all happening too fast. She couldn't comprehend it. “History? What history?”

“Many thousands of years ago a race of beings came to Earth and took away many, many humans in their ships. They were brought to our planet, Elliac, and taught how to care for themselves. Eventually, the beings left them there alone. As a people, our ancestors were too primitive to understand how to fly machines or find our way home, so they stayed. Now, we have developed in a different path than humans. We are not the same species.”

Did mutations occur in that short of a time? Wouldn't they still be humans, but with different adaptations?
 

Erin's knees wobbled and her bowels cramped.

Drakor reached out for her, but she flinched away from him. “It doesn't matter. Ankra can't get pregnant. It isn't working. That's why we no longer have a reason to stay. And since I'm unable to get Alaziri, I've failed in everything.”

“Isn't…what isn't working?” She tried to take in a deep breath, but found it impossible.

“It's been three Earth weeks, Ankra would know by now. It's part of our culture. Females can plan their conception and know when they are with child and she is not.”

Erin hiccupped. “You-you came to steal-steal a baby…”

His midnight eyes narrowed, nose flared. “We weren't going to steal it. The child would be Ankra's too and Greg would have never known. Erin, are you feeling alright?”

She couldn't…couldn't catch her breath and tears stung her eyes. She had to get out of there. This was too much for her to handle, too much for her to grasp. A baby? They were going to take Greg's baby?

Drakor reached for her hand again but she yanked away in horror. Who was this man in front of her anyway? She didn't really know him, she didn't have any idea who he was or what he was or where he came from.

Erin took a step back and looked at him once last time. His jet hair curled gently over the shirt collar, framing a gorgeous face. Black, sexy eyes surrounded by thick eyelashes stared at her with uncertainty and worry. His tall, muscular body held a power that could steal her breath and make her writhe in ecstasy.

This was the man she once sought out, the man who made her feel alive, the man she gave her body to.

The man—the alien—who may have gotten
her
pregnant.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Drakor watched her go, fighting the overpowering urge to chase after her. The look of fright, of shock, of disappointment that plagued her face still haunted him. He knew she would have a strong reaction. He knew she would feel concern for her brother and his child, but something else must have made her face that shade of green.
 

Great Sun, this was all falling apart and fast. Obviously, he did a terrible job of being in charge of this mission.
 

Drakor waited until Erin was completely out of sight and then went to find Brundor. There was no use staying here any longer, nothing else for him to do. He wasn't ever going to get that Transmitter back, but what did it matter? No one could put it to any use without the codes and all the information stored on it was in his native language.

Sighing, he headed down the darkened alleyway, wrinkling his nose at the repulsive smells. It was so hard for him to see he had to get almost to the couple's faces before determining they weren't who he wanted. Finally, at the other end of the alley, he heard voices and recognized Rita.

The two of them were in a doorway. They had not spotted him yet but he heard Rita say, “Get the hell off me now!”

His brother murmured something Drakor couldn't catch but he knew what Brundor went through. He remembered the agony of his Crossing, the desire that left him feeling like a voracious animal ready to snap up his next meal with each blow of the wind. Drakor knew that once Brundor allowed himself to feel the urge, he would not release his prey easily.

“I'm warning you,” Rita said, her voice surprisingly calm. “Take your hands off of me.”

“But you brought me out here,” Drakor heard his brother reply. “You wanted me to kiss you.”

There was some shuffling noise and groans. “I wanted to kiss you, yes, but I also wanted to talk and you aren't doing that.”

Brundor pulled her closer. “Who needs to talk when there is so much else to do?”

Though his brother outweighed her easily, Rita gave him a good shove and a hard kick. “I'm not going to ask you again. Either take your paws off of me or you will find every cop in the city ready to tear you apart.”

She did another impressive maneuver and his brother tumbled backwards and landed on the ground. Drakor rushed over to him and yanked him to his feet.

“Oh, so big brother has come to save the day.” Rita crossed her arms. “I guess your girlfriend must be gone.”

Drakor ignored her and pushed Brundor down into open parking lot. “Go,” he whispered. “Now.”

A series of clicks on the sidewalk and she stood next to them. “Where are you going now?”

“You wanted him gone so I'm taking him home.”

She raised an eyebrow and shook her head. “Oh, no, he's not going that quickly. I'm calling someone on an assault.”

Drakor could hear Brundor's labored breathing next to him, could feel the heat from his skin. On his other side, Rita stared at him with a raised eyebrow and a no-nonsense grin. Suddenly, the aching in his skull increased to a nauseating pitch. Any minute now the situation would explode right along with his head.

There was no way Drakor was going to wait around here with Brundor while the local law enforcement came. Nor was there any way he could stay on this planet another day. Rita knew where they lived, she could come by at any time, bringing others who could destroy them as they did Alaziri.
 

Rita traced her fingernail down his arm and the goose bumps it sprouted weren't from desire. “I thought he could be like you,” she purred, “but he's no substitute for the real thing.”

Drakor clenched his jaw, using all of his willpower to prevent himself from pushing her away. “Must you call someone?”

She reached into her purse and pulled something out, unwrapped it and stuck it between her lips. “I'd rather have your tongue there instead of this gum.”

He'd rather be kissing Erin right now, just as he did inside. He would never forget the way she tasted, the way her body fit so well against him. A surge of raw need poured into his veins.

“I must bring Brundor home.”
 

“Suit yourself.” Rita opened her bag again and then cursed. “Damn, I don't have my phone. I'd go inside and make the call but I'm sure you guys will be gone by then.”

“I apologize if he hurt you, but none of this is necessary.”

Drakor stepped away from Rita and put his hand on Brundor's shoulder, guiding him toward the parking lot. Thankfully, there was no sound of Rita's shoes or her snapping noises behind them.

“Hey, don't think you've seen the last of me,” she called as they slipped into the trees bordering the pavement.

Drakor pulled out the Transmitter in his pocket and lead his silent brother to a secluded spot. Without another word, he entered the code and they swirled into the hazy light and away from Mickey's forever.