Wrong Alien (TerraMates Book 6) (26 page)

There had to be a reason why the Shaddoc wanted her more
than anyone else. Something they found in her memories, maybe. Something that
would lead them to Abon.

But why would his uncle have told her about plans and not
Asher? That didn't make any sense.

None of it really made sense, and not for the first time,
Asher felt woefully ill equipped to be doing this on his own. He was a prince,
and he was supposed to know how to handle himself, but for the life of him, he
had no idea what he was supposed to be doing.

Amelia had asked him why the Shaddoc wanted them dead, and
he hadn't had an answer for her. All he knew was that they had been at war
since he was a baby, but no one had ever explained why before.

The Shaddoc were violent and mean, so maybe they were just
bent on taking out all the other clans on the planet. Others had fallen to
their might before, and Asher didn't know the reason for that, either.

He'd been so young then, but now he was an adult, and being
in the dark about this was just a hindrance.

Find her. And then find me.

We will go home when the time is right.

Those words repeated themselves over and over in his head as
he watched Amelia sleep. Was she the 'her' he was supposed to be finding. Was that
phase one completed, then? It stood to reason that maybe she was, especially if
the Shaddoc had such an interest.

"What do you know?" he whispered and then sighed.

His head was aching and he was very, very tired.

Finally, he let himself leave the room, heading for the
living room and the couch. Asher missed living with his Uncle. Abon had been
full of stories about his mother and them as children, and it never seemed
lonely with Abon around. But now he had this little one bedroom apartment that
he'd gotten when the Shaddoc activity had led him to this city.

It was small, and it was lonely, and Asher was tired of
being alone.

He glanced back at the open bedroom door where Amelia was
sleeping in his bed. It would probably smell like her by morning.

That was probably a weird and bordering on creepy thought to
have.

He needed to sleep.

When he woke up, it was to look directly into a pair of
green eyes that were staring at him intently. He swore and sat up, rubbing at
his hair and blushing hard. "What are you doing?"

Amelia shrugged. "I just woke up, and I was confused
about where I was. So I came in here to make sure you weren't some kidnapper.
Or secretly one of those Shaddoc things."

Asher shuddered and fixed her with a look. "That's an
insult, you know."

She shrugged again, not looking like she cared too much.
"You came and took me out of my house. I needed to make sure. But you're
still you, so I guess you're the real deal." Amelia paused. "What are
your kind called, anyway?"

"We are the Nalyi," Asher replied. "Amelia,
may I ask you something?"

"You can call me Mia. And sure, go ahead."

"Do you still think I'm attractive?"

She spluttered a bit. "There is a race of big, mean
aliens after me, and presumably you as well, and you want to know if I still
think you're attractive?"

He nodded.

Mia sighed. "You're very strange." But she had a
smile on her face as she looked him over. "Your hair's a mess, and you
look like you need eight more hours of sleep. But yeah. I guess you're still
pretty attractive. The eyes are really nice at least." She blushed and got
to her feet. "Do you have any food in this place? Aliens
do
eat,
don't they?"

"Oh yes," Asher said, getting up as well. "We
love to eat. I love to cook. Would you like me to make you breakfast?"

And when was the last time he had someone to cook for? He
loved cooking, but it was only so enjoyable to cook for yourself over and over
again.

"That would be great."

She smiled at him when she said it, and Asher found himself
unable to look away. He had gotten used to seeing her look upset over the short
time they had been together so far, but when she smiled, her whole face lit up,
green eyes sparkling with good humor. Asher stared for a moment and then shook
himself. "You can um. You can borrow some of my clothes if you want. It
should be safe to go back and get your things later today."

"Yeah, okay," Mia replied, tugging at the hem of
her tiny shorts. "So, I have to stay with you, then?"

"You... You don't have to, but I think. I think maybe
you should. My Uncle always said that I was supposed to 'find her' and then
find him. I think you're the 'her' he was talking about. Did he ever tell you
any secrets or anything?"

Mia frowned and seemed to think about it. "Not that I
can remember. And definitely nothing about aliens or secret plans. I'd remember
that. I think, I..." She trailed off, frowning harder. "Wait. He gave
me a book. I remember now. It was right before I changed schools to go to
middle school. He said that we wouldn't really be seeing each other anymore and
that it was for the best, but he wanted me to have something to remember him
by. Because he thought I was a good kid."

Now they were getting somewhere. "Do you still have the
book? What kind of book was it?"

"It was like a journal, I think. It looked handwritten,
and it was all these symbols that I couldn't understand. I still have it. It's
in a drawer back at my place."

Asher's heart raced at the prospect. They were getting
somewhere.

Chapter 5: Puzzles

The drive back to her house seemed to take forever, and Mia
found herself marveling at the fact that she was actually excited about this.
None of this had anything to do with her, aside from the fact that she had
spent a good amount of time talking to someone who turned out to be an alien
when she was a kid, and now she was wrapped up in some kind of plot to get him
back.

It was actually a welcome break from all the other things
going on in her life at the moment.

The big question was solved, it seemed. Now she knew why she
had been having the episodes for most of her life, and she'd expected to feel
bitter or something considering it was because of Asher's uncle, but honestly,
she felt nothing but relief. Relief at knowing that this wasn't a failing on
her part. She didn't have some illness that was causing it; it was all
external, and she was only being targeted because she knew someone they wanted.

Of course, it should have been scary, because Asher made it
seem like the Shaddoc would go to any lengths to find Abon, but they hadn't
hurt her so far, right? Apparently just a little memory probing, which sounded
harmless but made her wonder how they did it.

She'd seen enough science fiction and alien movies that she
had images of herself laid out naked on a cold metal table while tall creatures
with large eyes poked and prodded at her.

It explained her headaches when she woke up if they were
rooting around in her brain for something, and she wanted to give them a piece
of her mind for treating her like some kind of science fair experiment.

She grumbled about it under her breath, looking out the
window as she drove and then jumped when Asher laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" he asked, and when she glanced at him, his
eyes were large and earnest. She was constantly finding herself fascinated by
the color of his eyes. No one she had ever seen before had eyes that color, and
Mia was lost in them for a moment before she remembered that he'd asked her
something and she nodded.

"I'm okay. Just. Supremely annoyed that those Shaddoc things
have been spending years playing with my head. Who knows what they've seen
since they started?"

Asher shrugged. "Everything, I'd imagine. If they're sifting
through looking for stuff to do with my Uncle. But they wouldn't be interested
in most of it, so you don't need to worry about that."

His voice was so cheerful, and Mia shook her head. "Just because
they aren't interested in it, doesn't mean I want them seeing everything. A
girl's gotta have some privacy, you know."

He blinked, eyes darting from the road to her face as he
drove. "So it bothers you that they've seen your memories, even if they weren't
really paying attention to them?"

"Of
course
it bothers me," Mia replied, looking at
him like he was insane. "Do you know how much embarrassing stuff is in my head?
And that's where it's supposed to stay. There aren't supposed to be people or
aliens or whatever poking around in there looking at all the times I've tripped
over stuff or spilled stuff or fought with my parents." And just then it was
occurring to her that they would have seen other stuff, too. Like her first
fumbling kisses and the times when she'd been intimate with other people, as
few and far between as they were. "Ugh." She dropped her head into her hands,
not even wanting to think about that anymore.

Luckily, Asher was pulling the car up to her house a moment
later. From the outside, there was no way to tell that a bunch of aliens had
essentially broken in and tried to grab her the night before, and she could
only hope that the inside would tell the same story.

Her hands shook a bit as she unlocked the door and let them
in, and she sighed with relief with the worst of the damage seemed to be that
the Shaddoc had opened all the doors in the place and rifled through a few
things. Nothing was missing from what she could tell, and nothing was broken.

"I'm going to get dressed and hunt down the book," Mia said
to Asher who was looking around her place with open interest. "You stay down
here and don't start going through my stuff. One group of aliens invading my
privacy is enough, thanks very much."

He nodded solemnly and raised a hand in something that could
have been a salute. Mia snorted and went to her bedroom to put on clothes that
weren't her pajamas. Asher was attractive, but he was something like a massive
puppy. Either way, she'd seen him eying her legs in her small shorts, and she
would feel much better and more in control once she had some clothes on.

Not that she particularly
minded
him looking, but.

But it was best not to go there.

They had come here for a reason, after all.

Once she had changed into jeans and a t-shirt, she opened
her closet door and stood on tiptoe to reach the top shelf. There was a box up
there that she had kept there since she'd moved in. In it were most of the
happy memories from her childhood. Things like concert tickets and the first
piece of art she'd ever gotten a positive critique on, a few photos, and the
book that she'd gotten from Abon.

It had been years since she'd looked at it, and once she'd
found it in the box, Mia opened it. The words made no more sense now than they
had when she was a child, the letters twisting and turning over the pages in a
pattern that made no sense to her at all.

Presumably, Asher would be able to read it, so she tucked
the small, leather bound book under her arm and headed back down the stairs to
where she'd left him.

Asher had moved from examining the trinkets on her mantel to
sitting on the couch, tapping his fingers against his knees while he flipped
through the channels of her television.

He looked up as soon as she walked in, eyes bright. "Did you
find it?"

"I did. It still makes no sense to me, but here." Mia handed
it over and sat down next to him, watching as he stroked fingers over the warm
leather with an almost reverent look on his face.

It was funny how it had been so long since she'd gotten the
book that she'd almost forgotten about it altogether, but now that it was back
out and she was watching Asher touch it, she could remember exactly how it'd
happened.

It was summer, right before the new school year was about to
start. Her parents were off at some kind of fundraiser or charity event, and
Mia had walked the distance from her house to the library, a tote bag bulging
with books at her side. She'd had a week to go before school started up again,
and she wanted to get in as much pleasure reading as she could before then.

She had a vivid mental image of walking into the library and
painstakingly taking each book out of her bag, arranging them in a stack
according to size on the counter before she'd pushed them all to the librarian
to check back in.

The woman had smiled at her warmly and told her to take her
time choosing new ones.

Mia remembered that she hadn't looked for Abon right away.
She'd gone over to the young adult section to browse what new books they had,
adding five or six to her bag right away. By the time Mia made it over to the
section where Abon worked, her bag had been loaded down, and he'd immediately
taken it from her and placed it on the table so she wouldn't strain herself.

She could remember how warmly he'd smiled at her. His eyes a
bit darker that Asher's, more a warm honey color than brilliant gold.

"You'll be off to a different school this year, won't you?"
he'd asked.

Mia had nodded. "Yes. It's on the other side of town. My
father says it's the best school in the city." No one had asked her opinion on
this school, of course, she'd just been informed that was where she would be
going when the new school year rolled around.

"I'm sure it is in your father's eyes," Abon replied kindly.
"I suppose I won't be seeing too much of you then. Once you change schools."

And that was one of the worst parts of it all. The library
was one of her favorite places to go after school, within walking distance
even, and she'd spent most of her time there when her parents were working. But
now she'd be lucky if she even got to come on the weekends anymore. Her parents
were going on about her taking more responsibilities and coming with them to
functions so the people could see her and how much she'd grown.