“Sal . . . ” At my warning, his gaze darted back to mine.
“Lila, what is it?” Adam was at my side. At our sides, but I couldn’t look at him.
“Tell Sal. Tell him now.”
“What’s wrong?” Adam’s voice was soft agony in my ear, but Sal’s alien eyes still met mine unashamedly.
Don’t you even think about it, you bastard. “Tell him, Adam! Tell him your child is yours. That your wife is yours. Tell him now.” No alien was going to lay claim to my child. Eileen’s mouth moved against my shoulder blade, but I couldn’t hear over the gathering roar in my head. My child! Mine!
“I am not here for your young one.”
“Damn straight you’re not!”
“What?!”
“Mom . . . ?”
“We should discuss this privately.”
“There’s nothing to discuss!”
“Yes, there is.”
“What’s going on?!”
“You do not remember, Lila. I am so sor—”
Adam’s sudden lunge took us all by surprise. In a fluid blur, he grappled Sal’s head and wrenched it with a sickening grace. It should have caused an abrupt death—but it didn’t. Instead, with an electric crackle that made the very air vibrate, Adam dropped to his knees, arms outstretched in a humiliating charade of subservience.
Eileen screamed, and Sal’s expression was instantly contrite.
“I was not the one,” he said as he offered his hand to help Adam stand.
Not the one?
Adam ignored Sal’s gesture and straightened with a powerful, swift movement.
What one?
Eileen sobbed into my back, and I pulled her around to tuck her against my side.
“He’s okay, baby. He’s okay . . . ”
Impossible. Eileen’s father was definitely human.
“Mom? No . . . ?”
I kissed her curls.
Very human.
Adam’s chest moved into the space in front of me and my eyes followed his arm as it lifted.
Obnoxiously so, from what I remember . . .
His hand slid under my hair and around the back of my neck.
From what I remember.
My body shivered at his touch.
What have I forgotten?
“Lila. Look at me.”
I looked beside me, at my precious daughter’s exquisite face, taking in the worried creases between her lovely, frightened eyes. Tears still quivered on her thick lashes, and I swept them away with my thumb, cupping her cheek with my palm.
“World’s a pretty weird place, huh? Lucky I’ve got you.”
With a funny cry she buried her face against my neck, laughing and sobbing at the same time. “L-lucky I’ve g-got you!”
I was vaguely aware of Adam’s hand trailing down my back and lifting away, but all that mattered at the moment was wrapping my arms as tightly as I could around my daughter. When she snuffled against my collarbone, I peeked down.
“Need a tissue, angel?”
She pouted. “You’re such a mother.”
“Well, I don’t want boogeys on my neck.”
We were trying too hard, maybe, but all her life, we’d only had each other. A goddamned alien science project wasn’t going to change anything between us.
With a squeeze, I released her to step around Sal and grab the tissue box from the sofa table. Tossing it to her, I was suddenly conscious of how very, very still he was. I quickly moved back to Eileen and Adam.
“So. We’ve established that Eileen is mine and that if you were human you’d be dead now.” I felt Adam tense and shift his weight, but I wasn’t worried. Sal could afford to be magnanimous. “Bring Cara and Traveler back and we’re done here.”
“It is not that simple.”
“Don’t start that again. Now I know that you know that humans can handle exceptional children just fine.” Eileen and I linked arms, and I raised an eyebrow to level a good glare at Sal. “Unless you think I’ve done a bad job?”
“Hardly. But this is only a provisional exception. I do not want to mislead you.”
“Well, then explain that part. What are the conditions? Surely, your team knows we’re not going to blab to anyone. You’d just mind-wipe us if we did, so . . . ”
“They’re divided, Lila. And I’m betting that Sal, here, isn’t sure what side he’s on.”
“I have chosen.”
“My mom isn’t a side, you jerk.”
“Nonetheless, I am now her advocate. And yours. And . . . ” his sigh was all too human, “ . . . if your mother wishes it, I will be the advocate for the adam’s wife and child as well.”
Adam made a strange growling noise. “What a load of—”
“I do! Wish it. Thank you.” I bit my lip and took a chance. “And Miss Hester and her family. If they need it. Please . . . ?”
Eileen and Adam both stared at me, but Sal nodded.
“I will do what I can, but you and I have much to do if we are to prove your value.”
“My value?”
“That is the condition that was set.” His gray eyes skimmed my face. “Do not be afraid.”
“I’m not.” But I sure as hell wanted to know why a bunch of aliens thought a plain Jane, everyday . . .
Ah. Well, then.
“We will speak further, but for now . . . Adam, do you wish for Cara to be returned? You should know that she chose to—”
“Stop right there. What do you want with Lila?”
“Adam, don’t worry about—”
“The details are not your concern, Adam.”
“What the hell is that supposed—”
“Your wife and child are your concern.”
I don’t know about Adam, but I clearly picked up on the unspoken “and Lila is mine” and I wasn’t really sure how I felt about that. Sal was right about the first part, though.
“Adam. He’s waiting to hear you say it. Tell him to bring her back.” A scattered thought occurred to me and I stretched to grab Sal’s arm. “Wait! We’ll have our memories, right? We’ll remember what’s happened?”
“Yes, although you may prefer to—”
“Don’t you touch any of us.” Adam’s anger was quiet again, constrained within him, but somehow that made him seem all the more menacing—in spite of the emptiness of his threat.
Sal flashed his teeth in a boyish grin. “I do wish we—”
“Sal.” A tiny shake of my head stopped him,
