Chapter Nine
Brooklyn
More reports on the radio; more missing girls.
The Parduss were back with a vengeance, and I was hating every minute of it. There was still a curfew in place, and there were army personnel everywhere now. There was no way to get away from them.
I went to work every day greeted by an army officer, was escorted to my car every night—which I couldn’t complain about.
But the threat of the Parduss was so real, it made me start to relive the past more than usual.
I had invited Korus to my place, and he hadn’t left for days. I was still just as excited to be around him as the first time we went out.
We spent our days reading and talking and making love. I tried to watch television with him, but…he got far too into the storylines. It’s like he didn’t understand it wasn’t real, or something. Whatever it was, it was adorable but intense.
Today we laid on my couch, kissing and teasing each other. I didn't know which Korus I enjoyed more. The one who took me hard and made me feel insatiably sexy and desired, even out in public, or the one who held me close to him and softly thrust inside me, savoring every moment we had in our little makeshift bed.
He slipped his tongue into my mouth and flicked it against mine, moaning as he did it. He pushed his pelvis against mine, waiting for me to grind against it, but there was a thought that I couldn’t shake.
“Can I ask you something that would probably take us out of this moment?”
He laughed at that and shook his head, biting my lip and pulling me back into our kiss. “I’d rather you didn’t.”
“Please?”
With an amused breath, he pulled back and smiled. “Anything you want.”
“Your, um…girlfriend,” I stammered. “How did she die?”
Korus’ brows raised quickly, looking at me with surprise. “Well, that was out of nowhere,” he said with a nervous laugh.
Maybe to him it was, but I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it since he’d brought it up so many weeks ago.
When he first told me, it was like a sad exchange of information. My kidnapped sister for his dead girlfriend.
But, now that I knew him better, the fact that he this whole other life before me was incredible…and infuriating at the same time. After all, you can't compete with a dead girl.
And if she died while they were still together, that meant that their love never had the chance to blow apart. He never had the chance for things to go sour or to fall out of love with her.
He loved her and then never got to see how it would turn out.
My past relationships all fell apart. Things may have been different with Joshua, but he existed in a terrible time in my life that would stain our love forever. Even seeing him the other day only served as a painful reminder of what happened to my sister.
He bit his lower lip, and I watched the skin catch under his teeth. He didn’t look particularly pained by the question. Instead, it looked like he wasn’t sure how to answer, or maybe how much he should tell me.
“She wanted a child,” he exhaled, and I nearly lost my breath.
“Oh,” I stammered out. “I didn’t know that.”
Korus gave a loud sigh and thinned his lips.
“And she died during childbirth?”
He shook his head. “There was a…” he said and then seemed to think better of whatever else he was going to say.
“I’m sorry, I know it’s probably hard to talk about,” I offered gingerly.
“No, it’s not that,” he said. “It happened a long time ago. It’s just, complicated.”
“Like, the medical jargon?” I smirked. “Don’t worry; it won’t confuse me.”
His eyes searched the room, suddenly far away.
“Let’s go back to our deal,” he said. “Back in the valley. One for one.”
I blinked, “What, you want me to talk about my sister?”
He nodded, and I set my jaw. Sure, go ahead and change the subject. Leaving me hanging about your secret love and possible baby.
“What made you so certain that she’s still alive?”
I thought about that for a moment and then shrugged. “There was never a question. I just knew.”
“How many of the Parduss took her?”
“Three,” I said. “They ransacked her ship. They hadn’t even left the ground yet. Can you imagine?”
“And they stole the ship?” he said, narrowing his eyes.
I nodded. “Yeah, as far as I know. They never found any of the bodies so…as far as I’m concerned, they’re all still out there.”
My parents had a funeral for Alexandra eight months after she went missing. There were more than four hundred attendees.
Alexandra was bounding with energy, tireless and hard-working. She loved travel and space. It was why she joined the terraforming project.
I loved that about her—her willingness to take on the unknown.
Now, don’t get me wrong, my sister was well-liked, but there was no way she had four hundred friends. It was the city who came—everyone who had heard about the abductions flooded out to show their support for our loss.
Alexandra was giving and exciting to be around, but she was also a stubborn bitch. Once she had her mind made up about something, there was no changing her mind, even if it was in her best interest. She didn’t take shit from anybody.
That’s why I knew she was fine.
And that’s why I never attended her funeral.
My parents and I hadn’t spoken much since then. They thought I betrayed her memory. I felt like they gave up hope.
We were at an impenetrable stalemate. And as far as I was concerned, we couldn’t get out of it until Alexandra came back.
Hell, maybe I was a little stubborn, too.
“You’re probably right,” he said, running a hand up and down my bare leg. “It’s no coincidence that the only people they took were females.” He swallowed, hard. “You ever think about why?”
“All, the, time,” I enunciated with wide eyes. “But nobody seems to want to find out. It was enough that the Parduss left. Which was…they won, you know? Our armies may have sent them away, but they still got what they came for.”
“Have you ever tried to do anything about it?”
I scoffed. “Of course! I offered my assistance as a medic to every space program I could think of. Anything that would get me out there and any closer to finding her. I would have done anything!”
“Where do you think she is?” he asked.
I crawled into his lap and stretched my legs out, nuzzling into the crook of his neck. “I don’t know. I’ve thought about it a lot. Maybe she got away.”
“Here, or wherever they took her?”
“Where they took her,” I said as though the answer should have been obvious. “If she escaped here she would have found her way back.”
“You guys were close?”
I nodded. “We fought. A lot. She was a pain in my ass,” I laughed, “But yeah, we were close.”
Then a mild silence raised in the air like a fog as Korus watched me. He brushed my bangs out of my eyes with the back of his fingers and looked me over, studied my features.
“What?” I asked with a bashful laugh. “You think I’m horrible don’t you, for saying she was annoying.”
He shook his head and said, “No.”
“Harping on my sister is something I do,” I argued for no reason. “And it’s nothing I wouldn’t say to her face. I mean, sure, people aren’t supposed to speak ill of the dead, but my sister isn’t dead.”
“I know she isn’t,” he said firmly.
“Right,” I said with a single nod and then kissed him on the tip of the nose. “So, my conscience is clear.”
He set his hand against my cheek and pulled my lips into his, leaning his forehead against mine when our kiss broke.
“I’ve gotta say,” I snapped up happily, “You make me feel justified about my opinions. Not sure that’s always a good thing,” I laughed, “But still makes me feel pretty fantastic.”
“That’s the last thing you need,” he teased. “An even bigger ego.”
“Hey! I save people for a living,” I mockingly bragged. “How much better does it get?”
“You saved me,” he said lowly and then offered a sad smile. “Physically, of course. But, you save me.” Then he put my hand on his chest and curled his fingers around mine. “I hope one day I can do the same for you.”
“That sounds ominous,” I teased and then kissed him. “You saved me right back, mister.”
I got off of his lap and wandered up to my coffee maker, hitting the little blue button and watching the liquid stream out into my oversized mug.
“Hey,” I said suddenly, peeking my head out into the living room. “You okay? You’re getting awfully deep today.”
“Mm…” he grunted.
Was that a yes? No? I hated that. Give me an answer or something to work with.
“So hey,” I called out. “I showed you mine. Now you show me yours.”
I peeped back into the living room to the oversized, navy blue suede couch Korus sat on and awaited an answer. “Which means,” I specified, “tell me about your girl. What was her name?”
Funny thing about Korus, I thought: he didn’t really get a lot of common phrases. Swear words and deep thoughts—those he had a handle on. Food names and allegories? Not so much.
“Silan,” he said, snipping the word out as quickly as possible. Maybe it hurt too much to say. “There was a sickness spreading around.”
I blinked as I stepped back into the sitting area, trying desperately not to spill my overfilled coffee. “What kind?” I asked.
“Um,” he trailed off, his eyes flicking back and forth as though remembering an event. “Brooklyn,” he said seriously. “I have to tell you something.”
He has a kid.
Shit.
I knew this was too good to be true.
“Okay,” I said, drawing out the vowel slowly, nervously.
“She was a researcher,” he blurted out. “Of the Parduss. She came into contact with a female and…their females are—”
“What?” I said, shaking my head. “Wait, she researched the Parduss? And you’re just telling me this now?” I laughed incredulously.
“It’s not something that’s easy to be public about,” he shrugged uncomfortably. “The Eniwan-err-their females, they’re dying.”
Emotion welled up in his voice, and he looked at me with some sort of desperation in his eyes.
“She came in contact with one, and I guess she must have gotten sick. The Eniwan either get sick and die, or they don’t breed females, and they don’t know why. Something is attacking them from the inside.”
I swallowed, hard. Suddenly my blood was racing.
“And, you think whatever this virus is latched on to Silan?” I asked.
He put his head in his hands and while he didn’t say anything, I knew the answer was yes.
“I’ve never heard anything about a sickness,” I said.
“Why would you?” he snapped. “Nobody here cares what’s happening to them.”
My brows lowered at that. Did he actually feel pity for these things?
“Silan said that’s probably why they were taking the females. To bring something healthy back to Cadir.”
“But if the virus attacked Silan anyway, then doesn’t that just prove that the sickness would attack humans anyway?” I protested, “That logic doesn’t make sense.”
Korus looked stumped at that, unsure how to refute my words.
“And what does that mean?” I said, my face twisted into an unimpressed scowl, “That they took Alexandra back to their planet to make her some kind of sex slave?”
“No,” he put up his hand. “They want her to start a new life up there. They didn’t want to hurt her or make her do anything she didn’t want to do.”
My rage fared up, and I backed away from Korus on the sofa. I could feel my face going hot. “And by that logic, she agreed to go with them?” I fumed.
“Maybe it isn’t as bad as you think. At first, yes, but maybe she likes it,” he offered hesitantly.
“Are you kidding me?” I exhaled. “She doesn’t.”
“But, how do you know?” he reasoned, trying to sound sweet. “Isn’t it better to think of her off happy somewhere than living in a prison?”
“She was taken from us, Korus! Kidnapped! That’s not something you grow to enjoy.”
He shrugged. “I just know—”
“—No, you seem to know a lot, Korus,” I snapped. “I told you all that about my sister weeks ago, and you’re just coming out with this now? And what the hell? You seem to be having a lot of interactions with these things all of the sudden. Back with your girlfriend and then out in the field?”
“So now you’re letting Joshua get in your head?” he asked, standing and looking down at me.
“That’s the only thing from my response that you deemed worthy of replying to?” I scoffed, incredulous. I stood up as well, meeting his indignant posture and throwing my hands on my hips.
“That’s a yes,” he said tersely.
“You know what? Yeah! Maybe he has a couple of good points!” I shouted. I didn’t even know what I was saying anymore or if I even believed any of it. But the empathy he was showing for the Parduss was triggering uncontrollable anger. Nothing he could say, no answer he could give would calm me down.
Korus grabbed his jacket off the coat rack and put in on in haste.
“Now you’re leaving?” I demanded.
“I need some time to think,” he said, as though I was the one who had offended him.
“Yeah, take all the time you need!” I screamed back, watching as he slammed the door behind him. “I’ll just be here, alone. Again.”