Page 16 of Alokar
Hannah’s knuckles went white as her grip tightened on the weapon. “Maybe... I don’t know,” she muttered, her voice thick with confusion. Then her eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. “What the fuck is going on? You’re a Bigfoot.”
“Actually, I’m a Kerzak,” I admitted with what I hoped was a reassuring shrug.
“A what?” The sharp, acrid scent of fear spiked through her natural fragrance, making my nostrils flare. I hated that smell on her. I hated being the cause of it even more.
“A Kerzak,” I repeated, carefully enunciating each syllable. “My birth world is several million parsecs from here in the Koraha system.”
She blinked at me owlishly, then shook her head with sharp, jerky movements, as if trying to dislodge cobwebs from her thoughts. “Are you telling me you’re an alien?”
“I am an alien on Earth, yes.”
Her gray eyes went impossibly wider, and she took an instinctive step backward, as if somehow, she could physically retreat from my words. “And the creature that killed my dad?”
A rush of relief flooded through me as I realized she understood I wasn’t responsible for her father’s murder. “Also, a Kerzak. Yaard is a criminal. Tracking him down is the reason I came to Earth.”
“Just exactly how many of you Kerzak are on Earth?” Her eyes darted nervously toward the treeline, scanning the shadows as though she expected a cohort of my kind to come crashing through the underbrush at any moment.
“Right now, two that we know of. Me and Yaard. Although there have been others in the past,” I admitted, watching her face carefully for any sign of how she processed the information. I didn’t want to overwhelm her.
Confusion and disbelief warred across Hannah’s delicate features like storm clouds battling for dominance. After a long moment, wonder slowly replaced the turmoil in her expression,her gray eyes brightening. “Wait a minute, if you’re an alien, how do you speak English so perfectly?”
“My mom taught me.”
“Your mom?” Hannah blinked rapidly, her long lashes fluttering as she stared at me in bewilderment.
“My adopted mother Daisy is human,” I explained, watching as this new revelation sent another wave of shock rippling across her beautiful face.
Hannah’s lovely complexion paled, and she swayed slightly on her feet. “I think I need to sit down.”
Still clutching the rifle in white-knuckled fingers—though her grip had loosened considerably and the barrel now pointed more toward the ground than at me—she trudged back toward our campfire. Her legs seemed to give out as she reached the fallen log I’d dragged over earlier, and she collapsed onto it with a soft thud, her shoulders sagging.
I moved carefully, deliberately, and non-threateningly as I knelt by the fire. Spotting the wild mint I’d gathered earlier, I plucked a few of the fragrant leaves and dropped them into a tin cup, then covered them with steaming water from the small kettle hanging over the fire. The soothing herbal scent rose with the steam. I hoped the tea might help calm her frayed nerves.
She accepted the cup from my hands, her skin brushing mine for just an instant—a touch that sent electricity shooting up my arm despite the gravity of the situation. I settled myself on the opposite side of the fire, giving her the space she clearly needed. Her gray eyes tracked my every motion like wary prey watching a predator, but the rifle now rested loosely across her lap, more an afterthought than an active threat. Progress.
“How exactly did you end up with a human mother?” she asked, lifting the steaming cup to her lips with both hands to steady it.
“What I told you about my birth parents is true. Yaard murdered them.” Speaking his name aloud made my blood heat with familiar rage. “He then exiled me and my sister Vienda—her to a distant planet and me to the Gilese mining moons as a slave, along with many other younglings. When my human mother, Daisy, got abducted from Earth, she was sent to the mining moon as a slave as well.” The anger in my blood gradually dissipated as I thought of my mom’s immediate, unconditional warmth from the very moment she’d first laid eyes on me. “My adopted father, a Vaktaire warrior named Daicon, came to rescue her, and once we were free, Daisy and Daicon adopted me and my brother George.”
“George... is he a Kerzak too?” She studied me intently over the rim of her cup, steam curling around her face.
“No, he is a Garoot—they are a healer species,” I explained, watching as her eyes widened yet again at the mention of another alien race.
She seemed stunned, as if the casual mention of other species besides my own had thrown her completely off balance. Her cup paused halfway to her lips.
“And the baby sister you mentioned. What species is she?”
“Jordan is part human and part Vaktaire, born of the love between my parents,” I said softly, a smile tugging at my lips as I thought of my precious little sister.
Pure shock painted Hannah’s features, her mouth falling open slightly as the implication hit her.
“Wait a minute, you mean your human mother and this Vak....” Her voice trailed off, her eyes growing impossibly wider as the reality of what I’d just told her sank in.
“Vaktaire,” I supplied helpfully.
“You mean they….” She set her cup down with a soft clink and made a crude but unmistakable gesture with her hands—forming a circle with her thumb and forefinger, then penetrating that circle with the index finger of her other hand. The meaning was crystal clear, and a flush of pink crept up her neck to stain her cheeks. “How does that even work?”
“Pretty well, apparently,” I grinned, unable to suppress my amusement at her flustered expression. “My parents are very happy together.”
