"Yes, you've told me how proud you are of me a million times, Mom." Olivia couldn't be too angry with her mom praising her. She hugged her mother back and then let her go. "However, you must realize I can't agree with you on everything about BloodDark. I think it's worth saving. It's worth helping them establish a new society which guarantees equal rights for all its inhabitants—including the bloodsuckers, er, Pure Bloods."
"You're a better person than I then." Her mother's concerned tone didn't soften the blow. "It's why I worry about you and Hernando. I just want you to be safe, sweetie. You'll never be safe if you're associating with individuals who put others at risk because of their position in society."
"Oh, so you're not biased against Hernando because he's part Pure Blood?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Olivia Anne. I don't judge people on the basis of their heritage."
"Really? Forgive me for thinking you'd more worried about having grandkids with fangs than the fact he's an ambassador. Most mothers would be happy to tell their friends their son-in-law is a diplomat."
"Son-in-law?" Her mother's expression clouded, changing from worried to outright horror. "You don't mean you two have...have..."
Olivia didn't feel like letting her parent off the hook. Why not make her think she and Hernando were married? For all she knew, his declaring of love and wanting to be "bound" to her meant the same thing as a legal marriage in Earth societies. "It's between the two of us. I am an adult now, remember? You can't live my life for me."
She stomped out of the room and up the stairs, taking them two at a time, slamming the bedroom door behind her. Tears of anger coursed down her cheeks. She sniffed them back and plopped face down on her bed, crying herself to sleep.
*****
The dream began twelve months ago with her standing in her cell in the quarantine detention facility located somewhere in the Appalachians. At first, the returnees had all been separated and interrogated individually at the United Nations building before being shuttled to the remote destination located in a little known valley of West Virginia, as she'd eventually gathered from their keepers. Her relief of being back on Earth could barely keep her anger at their ill-treatment in check. She had paced the small area of the locked room, staring out the tiny window at the wooded peaks in the green of early summer and wondering what they had done to deserve such unfair treatment
It had been her idea to land in the middle of the U.N. General Assembly while they were in session—and why not? Their first group of returnees included people from over two dozen countries. What easier way to repatriate them all than by passing them off to their respective ambassadors?
Of course, the diplomats freaked out at the sight of fifty people suddenly materializing in front of their eyes during a Security Council hearing. The security guards were on top of them before they could take a step or say a word. When the members of the august body first glimpsed Hernando's fangs as he smiled in friendship... Olivia shuddered at the thought. Their horrified shouts and screams reverberated ten-fold in the large hall.
We are being invaded! We're being attacked! How did they get in? How can we stop them?
Hernando kept silent after he realized his presence had caused alarm, allowing Olivia to take over as spokesperson. "Don't panic," she had told the assembly. "We're human abductees who have returned home."
Her words had little calming effect. Hernando had been seized and separated from the rest of the returnees, guarded by a large contingent of law officers. She and the other abducted humans were rounded up, questioned as to the truthfulness of Olivia's assertion they were all—save Hernando—human beings and had been missing for some time from their homelands. A thorough medical check-up, which included blood testing and fingerprinting, placated the officials that those claiming to be human were indeed human and had, for the most part, been reported as missing to authorities.
Why they all had to be shipped to a low-security prison—what else could she call it?—to be kept away from the public's eye made little sense to her. She had informed the guards they were all healthy and the Portal dematerialization process had killed off any bacteria or germs that they may have had on their bodies when they were transported, but their guards acted like they all carried Ebola or worse. Their bunny suits and gas masks weirded her out.
More thorough medical examinations had followed. Olivia worried about the Peruvian sisters, Maria and Anita. They were simple country girls. How were they coping with being separated from each other and dealing with people who looked more like "aliens from outer space" than anyone on BloodDark ever did?
Aliens. I'm dreaming about being treated like an alien, like I don't belong here. On my home world, why do I feel like I don't belong?
Her dream shifted to several weeks later in their quarantine period. The bunny suits and gas masks had been replaced with men and women wearing military fatigues and the blue berets of the UN. She and the other abductees were now allowed to socialize with each other in the mess hall and exercise yard. Olivia gave a sigh of relief when the sisters were reunited. They were in good spirits, but her heart had plummeted when she spied her African friend looking dejected and still without her baby.
"When are you going to release us?" she had asked a guard the day the bunny suits came off. "You know we're not going to infect the planet with some strange alien virus. You've had time to check out our abduction stories. Why can't we talk to our families? Why are we being treated like we've committed a crime or something worse? We're victims not criminals!"
"It would be
