Page 20 of Etched in Stone
“I almost did. I would have. Jessenia. But she died. I haven’t felt the urge since-”
“My aunt. Great aunt. You were going to mate with her?”
“The Rose Syndicate, they captured me and by the time I escaped, she was gone, and Olivia and Margaret were all alone. I took them in, and we came here. Been here ever since. Olivia didn’t want to leave.”
“Olivia loved this place. I do too,” Jesse said.
“The Rose knows I’m here. It won’t be safe for either of us if they are determined. They obviously weren’t after me. Otherwise, they would have sent in a strike team to grab me off the roof.”
“They wanted me to make that amulet thing. And trade it, steal it.” Jesse stood up and fetched a picture. Ray recognized it immediately.
“It’s a sigil.”
“A what?”
“Sigil. It’s sort of a com link and transporter built into one.”
“Transporter. Like Beam me Up Scottie?”
“Similar, but it doesn’t work unless there’s a master beacon in orbit around the planet and as far as I know that’s at the bottom of the Atlantic. Besides, there’s no one out there to do the transporting.
Our ship was destroyed, and there’s no way to build another one that’s capable of opening a wormhole back home.”
Jesse was getting a rather glazed look in her eyes, as if she was having trouble processing all the information he’d just given to her.
“So why did they want me to swap a fake for a real one? Pablo said it was because they’d
recently lost access to a real one, but couldn’t he have just had one stolen?”
“I don’t know. I’ll have to ask my source,” he said.
“You have a source?”
“I have a source.”
“Is he an alien too?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Then I’m coming with you.”
9
JE SSE
This place was weird. Not only was it weird, but her entire life had suddenly turned weird.
One minute she’d been an artist living in New York City and the next she was on the hunt for information at an alternative night club about an alien artifact and lusting over the alien it had once belonged to. Not to mention that he’d flown her down the side of the building, after being shoved off by a Rose Syndicate hitman, into the alley in order to keep her apartment locked and bolted from the inside in case they decided to go poking around again. They must be suspicious by now as to why she hadn’t either been reported dead or called the police to report Pablo.
There were people of all types here, and everyone was letting their freak flag fly. She’d seen more than one person with horns and one guy had piercings in places Jesse didn’t realize were possible. Others were tattooed or made up nearly beyond recognition as human beings. It was the perfect place for an alien to hide or at least get a drink without anyone paying the slightest attention.
Ray had turned off his device thingy so apparently everyone else could see his true form. One woman paused to stroke his wings and Jesse was surprised at her own desire to punch that woman in the face. She must have noticed because she backed off, hands up in apology.
Ray motioned for her to sit at the bar. The bartender paused and gave her the once over. Was she too normal looking? Should she have put some color in her hair? Not that she could match the blue spikes of his mohawk or the perfectly drawn cat eyes under his red rimmed glasses.
“What can I get for you?”
“Something sweet, but funky,” Jesse stated.
