21
ARIX
I'm going to die, my human lover told me with her mind.
I screamed a scream of pain, but nobody heard me.
Max knelt in front of the window, firing shot after shot with his rifle, pulling back some sort of bolt mechanism each time to discharge the used casings. They clattered to the floor next to Liam, who was peering around the edge from the cover of the wall.
"Left tree," he told his brother. "He's moving right-to-left, darting from one cover to another."
"She." Max's rifle barked again, and he pulled back on the bolt. "That's Leslie. Jo went straight to her."
"Of course the cops are in on the conspiracy," Liam said, shaking his head. "You can't fucken trust nobody."
I roared at them and bucked in my chair, fighting against my restraints like a wild animal. Liam glanced back at me, but only to ensure I was still tied up.
"Hold your fire," he whispered. "Wait for her to come out from cover."
"Jo's squirmin'," Max said, a twinge of regret in his voice. "Shit, I hated to shoot her..."
"We had no choice. You saw the gun she had--it was self-defense. We're within our rights," Liam insisted.
"Still..."
I fought against their device, the photon isolator, crashing against its invisible walls with every ounce of strength in my human and Karak body. It was a futile effort, and did nothing but weaken me with each attempt, but I continued fighting because there was nothing else I could do.
Joanna was dying. Bleeding out in the snow, the femoral artery in her leg cut cleanly by the bullet. I could feel every cell in her body now that she was close, even though the photon isolator held me in place. That shouldn't have been possible.
Another thought for another time.
More than that, I felt a burning emotion from my human lover. Raw, desperate love for me. Concern for my safety. She needed to get to me, to save me, with every fiber of her being. Even though she was dying in the snow, that desire was her only concern.
"NOOOOO," I boomed, struggling against my restraints.
"Shut up!" Liam ordered. He turned back to his brother and said, "There. She's leaving the trees--she's in the open."
"She's going for Jo," Max said. "We should let her help her..."
"Shoot her," Liam snapped. "They came here armed. They don't want the truth to get out. We have to protect what we've found!"
"But Liam..."
"Shoot her."
Liam cursed and tried to grab the rifle, but Max wouldn't let go. They fought over the gun, pushing and shoving, and Liam crashed into the wooden wall with a loud crack.
"No!" Max said. "Stop!"
"Give me the gun..."
Liam pulled hard, and the motion caused him to fall backwards. He crashed through the camera tripod and fell to the floor, toppling the wooden stool in the corner.
The one with the photon isolator on it.
The device hit the ground and broke into three pieces of plastic and green circuit. Instantly, the barrier to me fell away.
I was free.
I immediately shifted into my Karak form, light shooting from my body to illuminate every crack and crevice of their shack. I rose up with my photon body, looming above the two terrible humans, fury guiding my actions.
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, I boomed into their heads.
"Please," Liam whimpered, folding in on himself with fear.
I wanted to kill them. The human part of me wished to see the light leave their eyes, to remain and watch their bodies grow still and cold and rot away with maggots. I desired it.
But a tremor of my Karak consciousness fought through. I had already broken one vow by making love to Joanna. There was still hope for me. I did not have to forsake another.
I could be better than them.
And as my fury fell away, Joanna's pain returned.
On photons lighter than the air itself, I soared through the gunshot-broken window and across the snowy ground. A woman I didn't know hunched over Jo's unmoving body, pressing roughly against her skin with both palms. Red was everywhere, spreading in all directions as if a bucket of dark dye had been overturned.
The woman--Leslie, I recognized from Jo's memories--looked up at me. Her eyes widened more than should have been possible for a human, round marbles of confusion and realization and fear.
Move please, I said into her mind, and to her credit she didn't budge.
"I need to keep pressure on her wound," she said out loud.
I can help her. Move.
Hesitating only a heartbeat longer, she fell backwards from my lover's body. I pulsed against Jo's frozen form, which was contorted in a way that wasn't natural. Her hair was splayed out across the snow like an angel.
I love you.
I poured my energy into her leg, finding the wound with thought and touch. I knew little of human anatomy but it was clear where an artery had been severed, and I quickly rearranged the atoms of the snow to reconnect them. Then I did the same for the fibrous muscles of her thigh, and then the outer skin, sewing her back together as best as I could.
"She's lost too much blood," Leslie sputtered, tears in her eyes.
But it was no problem for a Karak shifter. I emulated the molecules of blood that stained the mud and snow, rearranging the atoms in the air around me to refill her still heart. And the more I poured into her, the more I felt her body warm, and then in an instant her heart began beating again.
I stopped, and watched as the color returned to her skin.
Leslie trembled as she stared back and forth between me and Jo, so I shifted into my human form to calm her. I gave her what I hoped was a comforting smile.
"Hi," I said. "I'm Arix."
"P-p-p-pleased to meet you," she stammered, shaking my hand as if it were a poisonous snake.
"What..." Jo mumbled, eyes fluttering.
I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her to my chest, savoring how she felt. I inhaled her smell, which was mixed with the iron-rich scent of the human blood, but I didn't care at all.
"I'm here," I whispered into her hair, kissing her softly. "I'm here, Joanna."
"Okay." She sighed into my chest, still not fully aware of what was happening.
"NOBODY MOVE!"
Liam stood in the doorway of the shack, rifle raised to his shoulder. Max watched through the window, hidden beneath the sill.
I helped Jo support herself into a sitting position, and then I rose. "Your device is broken. You cannot hurt me. I can shift back into my Karak form before you pull the trigger. The bullet will pass right through me."
"Yeah, uhh, sure, alien," he spat. "But can you do all that and stop me before I shoot at her?"
He lowered the rifle an almost imperceptible degree. Towards Joanna.
"Liam..." Leslie began.
My human fury returned, tempered by the precarious nature of the moment. I could sense Liam's finger pressing tightly against the trigger. I could almost certainly reach out with my mind and force him to drop the gun before he fired.
Almost certainly. Not guaranteed. There was a chance he might pull the trigger as he realized what I was doing. And if he shot Jo in the head, there was nothing I could do to bring her back.
Fear for Jo kept me from the action. Slowly, I raised my arms.
"Don't do it," I said softly. "I won't hurt you. Just please don't hurt her."
Liam's hands were shaking. He was on the verge of a breakdown, unsure of what to do next. I could see him struggling to create a new plan, something logical and safe, and failing in the attempt. As the moment stretched, I realized we were hurtling toward a cliff. A decision was about to be made, and it was one from which none of us could return.
I can shield her with my human body. The selfless thought sprouted in my mind like a daisy in spring. Jump in front of her. Take the bullet. And hopefully have enough Karak consciousness remaining to heal myself, the way I'd healed myself that first night after Jo hit me with her car.
But before I could act, I sensed something. Something familiar.
Something Karak.
I am here, brother, it said in my mind. And I saw the light moving through the distant forest, drawing near with incredible speed.
I have come for you.
With jubilation, I watched my fellow Karak approach.