Page 29 of Alien Rescue

“They abandoned me a few hours after I was birthed,” he said with absolutely no emotion, but the warrior, who always met her gaze straight-on, stared into the fire. He tried to look unconcerned, but in that moment, he wasn’t the alien conqueror threatening her country. Instead she saw a man with a wound on his soul, inflicted by his parents when they abandoned him.

“That’s terrible, how did you survive?” She’d like to spend a few hours with his mother and father.

His lips pulled back from his teeth; his eyes flashed that savage red. “I killed and ate anything smaller than me.”

A shiver crept down her spine and cold settled around her throat like a noose. She should never forget that he was capable of savagery. “How big were you? Our babies couldn’t do that.”

“I have seen human babies; all they do is make noise and soil many diapers.” He flashed his teeth. “A warrior once offered to pay me to change his small human’s diaper.”

“And did you?” she asked, fascinated at this glimpse of their daily lives.

“No, I enjoyed his terror and left laughing.”

He went back to staring into the fire. “I would have been as tall as your knees,” he said at last.

“And you survived?” She couldn’t imagine the kind of emotional anguish he must suffer from knowing his family left him for dead. Her mother at least had come for her, when she desperately needed help, even if no one else in the family had. It had led to tragedy, but she didn’t have to live with the knowledge that her mother had rejected her at birth, the way Zanr had to.

“They left you in a desert? But you said you found food.” This just got worse and worse. If she ever met them, she’d have a few things to say to the people who abandoned him.

“You have to know what to look for.” Again, he spoke with absolutely no emotion, but his voice sounded like dark thunder with a sad song woven through the claps.

“But you said your hands were deformed.”

“I still had teeth,” he said, matter-of-fact.

“Wow, you must’ve been a strong child to be able to overcome that. I admire that.” Her heart ached at the thought of a baby Zanr having to kill some animal with his teeth so that he could survive.

He looked up at her at last, and those pitch-black-and-red eyes, that she always thought opaque, showed so much grief it felt like a punch in her gut. She had to concentrate not to jerk back. “I am a warrior. It allowed me to show my strength.”

“How did you get back with your people?”

“The Parenadorz found out and came to the desert to get me. He took me to the warrior camp to be trained.”

At least someone had cared about him. Had realized it was wrong to abandon a baby. “Were your parents punished?”

“No.”

Indignation stole her ability to speak. She jumped up, her clenched fists on her hips. “That’s unbelievable. They should be in jail,” she sputtered.

“Our customs are different.”

“I’ll say.” Feeling foolish, she sat down again.

“I do not wish to speak on this subject anymore. We need to find the scientists before they detonate the bombs. We believe they joined the human resistance.”

“There’s a human resistance?” Her heart beat overtime. And she felt pride for her fellow man for getting organized against their enemy this fast. Did the resistance know about the alien nest in the mountain? Maybe she could help them put the bomb there. Everything inside her rebelled at that idea. Thinking back, the way the warriors had pretended to be shot had been almost playful. They’d been careful not to touch her. Her stomach turned at the thought of harming Zanr and those warriors. But if she didn’t fight them, what would that say about her loyalty to Earth?

“Yes, they will detonate the bomb in Portland. Millions will die.”

Horror grabbed her by the throat.

Her family lived in Portland.

Chapter Ten

Everything, every feeling, any ability for movement stopped inside her. Around her, nature paused, as if holding its breath to see if she’d move. The sound of the fire that wasn’t a fire crackled loud in the early predawn. His words echoed in her ears. Her family might not consider her theirs anymore, but they’d always be her family. They hadn’t left her in a desert to die; instead, she’d been sent to one of the few good boarding schools, at least.

This changed everything. What was that old saying? The enemy of my enemy? “If I agree to help you, I want your promise that you will go after the weapons and not the scientists or the members of the resistance.” They should be dealt with by human forces.

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