22
JOANNA
I was groggy, and there was a deep ache in my body that I couldn't explain, but Leslie's terrified tone woke me like a shot of espresso.
"Oh God, there's two of them."
A thick beam of light appeared behind the shack, rapidly approaching. I had only enough time to think, how did Arix get all the way over there? when it descended on Liam.
He whirled the rifle, but then it launched away unnaturally, like it had been kicked by an invisible boot. Liam screamed, and then hit knees buckled, and he fell to the ground and curled into a ball.
The beam of concentrated light, the Karak, drew near. Arix shifted back into his own form, which caused Leslie to yelp. Feeling my strength returning, I grabbed her hand and squeezed.
"It's okay," I said. "We're safe now."
The two Karak drew toward each other like magnets until their forms were practically merged. They spoke to one another, and I heard their voices in my brain.
How did you find me, Jerix?
Your ship released an emergency beacon in orbit, the other Karak said in a voice that was slightly deeper. You crashed minutes later. I was the closest craft, so I was released from my tour and dispatched to rescue you. I am sorry it took so long to arrive.
Three days didn't seem like very long at all to me, but I guess that said something about Karak transportation more than my silly human knowledge.
I am glad to see you, Arix replied.
The beam of light shifted, and I got the feeling Jerix was considering me and Leslie. You have interacted with this species.
Humans, Arix said. I had no choice. I woke from my crash confused and disoriented.
Jerix's voice held a note of disapproval. We will discuss it later. When we return.
When they returned.
Immediately, like a gunshot, I felt a pain in my chest. Here was the moment I had been avoiding, had hoped against hope would not come. Arix was going to leave me. Because of course he was; that's how these things worked.
I closed my eyes and prepared to say goodbye.
But then I felt Arix shifting, returning to a body of flesh and blood. I opened my eyes in time to see his almond eyes regarding me, and what I saw there was love. My own love mirrored back at me, and a deeper need all his own.
"No."
Arix responded out loud, a human word with a human voice. The other Karak, Jerix, seemed to shimmer in the air.
No?
"I have chosen to remain here," Arix said, voice growing hard. "There is nothing for me on Karak. And everything for me here." He didn't look at me, but I could feel my name on his lips, the subtext behind his Karak rebellion.
Jerix had no eyes, but I could feel his focus passing over me. Considering me. It made me shiver.
You may bring her with you, he said. We have crates for specimen. She will give us valuable information on Karak.
"No!" Arix blurted. "Humans are an intelligent species. And Jo, specifically, is not merely a specimen for me to return home with. She is mine. And I am hers." He looked at me, and for a brief instant nervousness twinkled behind his eyes.
"You are mine," I agreed, standing and wrapping my arms around him. He felt warm and solid. "I'm not letting go. Not now, not ever."
This disturbed the new Karak scout. He shimmered more violently, like a glass of water in an earthquake. I felt Arix stiffen in my arms.
"You cannot convince me otherwise, brother," he said softly. "Please. Let me stay."
"So, I, uhh... hey." Leslie gave an awkward smile. "Hate to intrude on the alien reunion and whatnot, but what do we do with these two?"
She jerked a thumb at the Jones brothers. Liam was still curled into a cat-like ball, while Max stood paralyzed, a wet spot on the front of his pants.
"They tried to kill Joanna," Arix said, voice cold and emotionless. "Self-defense dictates you can eliminate them without moral qualm. Correct?"
Leslie gave a nervous laugh, running a hand over her face. "Yeah, uhh, no. That's not how this works. As much as I'd love for these two to be out of my hair, I can't let them be killed in cold blood."
As ridiculous as the situation was with two Karak aliens standing before us, I could hear the cop in Leslie's voice. She wouldn't let anything happen to the Jones boys, no matter how much they deserved it.
And honestly? Now that they were subdued and Arix was safe in my arms, I didn't want anything to happen to them either. As intense as it had been just minutes ago, the heat of the moment was gone.
But then reality settled in.
If we couldn't do anything about them, and they knew what Arix was... what could we do? Especially if what they said was true: that they'd called other alien hunting nutjobs, who were fast on their way to Elijah at that very moment.
"We might have to get out of dodge," I said. "I can pack a bug-out bag and we can get as far away as possible. Otherwise these two'll never leave us alone."
Arix squeezed me tighter in his arms and said, "Whatever you want to do, wherever you want to go, I will follow. Just tell me where, Joanna of Elijah, Wyoming."
Leslie cocked her head. "Huh. You know, we might be able to..."
"I know that look," I mumbled. "She's got an idea."
"Your frigging right I do."
*
Leslie arrested Max and Liam and threw them in the back of her cruiser. Arix kissed me on the cheek and told me he'd meet me back in town, then put his head together with Jerix. I got the impression they were speaking telepathically to one another, a conversation none of us were allowed to hear.
As we drove back to town, I prayed that Arix would meet me back in town. But what if his words were only meant to calm me while he returned to Karak? The alien equivalent of, "I'm running out to grab cigarettes."
But I didn't think that was it. Somehow, I knew he would return.
Leslie threw the Jones brothers into a holding cell. By then the shock of the situation had worn off, and they were screaming at the top of their lungs about aliens and spaceships and an impending invasion of earth. Leslie led me into her office and closed the door.
"Got the town records here," she said, opening a locked cabinet. She rifled through them and pulled out a single folder. "And I've got my own personal records here." She opened another drawer, adding an almost identical folder to the one on her desk.
"Records?"
"The property records, which includes the town's copy of the deed. Here's the deed to your land, all two hundred acres." She slid it to the side and opened the other folder. "This is the deed to a different piece of land, in a different county. In a different state."
I eyed the paper. A nine thousand acre parcel, currently uninhabited. I flipped it over to see a topographical map of the property, with the Sawtooth National Forest bordering on the east.
"It's over in Idaho," Leslie explained. "My grandpa's land. I Inherited it a few years back, but never knew what to do with it. Didn't have the heart to sell it, and didn't have the time to hire someone to do anything with it."
"I don't understand," I said.
Leslie leaned forward on the table. "How about we make a trade?"
Maybe it was the blood loss--and blood regain--or the hastily-healed wound in my leg, but my brain seemed to move slowly as I figured out what she meant.
"You mean trade my land for yours? Leslie, your parcel is twenty times larger! How is that fair?"
"Don't much care about fair," she said. "Care about seeing my best friend safe and sound. Sign the deed, we'll swap 'em out, and that'll be that."
Idaho. A few thousand acres of my own, without the burdening responsibilities of what I'd done here in Elijah. A trickle of hope crawled up my spine.
"If we swap the land, my name will be on it," I said. "Public record." I jerked my head toward the office door, and the unseen holding cell beyond. "The Jones brothers'll hunt me until the day I die."
But Leslie smiled as if she'd thought about that. "I've got more ideas."
*
We left the station, and to my immense relief I saw Arix's form walking into town. I savored the way he strolled along, the shape of his hips leading up to the V-shaped body hidden beneath his coat. I allowed myself to feel hope again, that maybe he did want me just as much as I wanted him.
He took me in my arms outside the station, and our lips connected like they were made to. He kissed me long and passionately, as if it were a reunion after an eternity apart.
"Alright you two, get a room," Leslie chided. "We've got work to do."
She told us her plan. We agreed, then went back inside the station.
The Jones brothers were still shouting for help when we entered, but cut off the instant they saw Arix. Liam fell into an animal-like tremble, and Max froze like he'd been paused by a remote.
Arix and I turned to each other.
"I am taking you back to Karak," he said, loudly for their benefit. "Jerix has repaired my spacecraft from the junkyard. Are you ready, my love?"
He was a terrible actor. Like, really bad. But he was an alien, so he got a lot of leeway. And the Jones boys bought it.
"I am ready," I said in my best soap opera voice.
Nothing happened that I could see, but Max and Liam's eyes widened with wonder. Per our plan, Arix was touching their consciousness and blinding their vision, making it appear as it we were shifting into light. Arix took me by the arm and led me outside to complete the masquerade.
We stepped outside just in time for me to hear Leslie tell them, "Whelp. I guess we'll never see them again."
She met us around back a few minutes later. Relief was painted on her face.
"They bought it. You two are golden." She smiled sadly. "But you'd better get a move on. Don't want anyone seeing you after, in case they start asking questions when we do let them out."
Leslie looked awkward, toeing the snow with a boot. I wrapped my arms around my best friend and squeezed her tight.
"I'll miss you," I whispered into her hair.
"Me too." She pulled away. "Might be awfully boring here without you. Dunno what I'll do."
"You can find your own alien boyfriend."
"Yeah, uhh, I think I'll pass. I prefer my men to be, you know, men." She faced Arix. "No offense."
I grinned. "So long as those cheesy novels keep coming in, I think you'll be just fine."
She returned the smile. "I think so too." She shook Arix's hand. "Take care of her, mister alien."
He looked at me. "I intend to."