“Oh, hey. Look at that. She’s coming to,” said the cockroach-man from earlier.
“Where am I?”
Donnie pulled her in protectively, and she tried to wiggle away. Donnie had never been that strong, but right now she wasn’t going anywhere.
“You’re at our headquarters. Just stay quiet and I’ll get you out of here alive,” Donnie whispered.
Well, shit. That didn’t sound good.
“I’m not taking her to a cell. She’ll do fine in a guest room. I’ll stay with her and see what I can find out. In the meantime, post some guys outside. If that alien comes, you don’t know what he’s capable of.”
Maddie tried to call out again to Kal, trying to tell him to stay away. Everything in her was muted. What if he couldn’t hear her? Maybe he wouldn’t come if he couldn’t track her. If only they could have waited to kidnap her for a few more days. Super inconvenient to not understand her new powers.
She giggled to herself.
Yeah, she sounded drunk. Maybe the panic would set in soon enough.
“Shit, she glows?” someone asked.
Donnie’s voice spoke up. “No she doesn’t fucking glow. It’s something he did.”
“Maybe she should go straight to the lab,” said the girl.
Maddie decided that woman would be a cockroach too or maybe a praying mantis. She seemed like a huge man-eater.
“No. I’m not taking her to the lab. The agreement was that I would get him if she was protected. I said I knew how to get the alien, but she was supposed to be protected.”
The woman’s voice said again, “yeah, that was before we knew she was one of them.”
Maddie could almost feel the anger rolling off of Donnie. “She isn’t. I told you she’s human. Her mother was one of those clairvoyants in town. She’s just human. A telekinetic, but that’s about it. She’s not rare to this organization and you only need her to get that fucking alien.”
Silence fell for a minute. Maddie might consider thanking Donnie later for saving her, but then again it sounded like he’d just sold her and Kal out.
“Fine. Take her down. Find out what she knows.”
11
Kal clutched his chest as a string of pain ripped through him.
“Kal? You okay?” Eadric asked.
It took him a second to catch his breath.
“Yeah. No.” Flexing his back, he rolled his shoulders, trying to release the tension.
The chair fell to the ground with a crack as he abruptly stood. “It’s Maddie. Something's happened.”
Five sets of eyes, all glowing and on alert settled on him.
“Can you reach her?” asked Barak.
Kal tried to sense her. Their connection was weak, and that only meant that she was alive, but surely not okay.
He closed his eyes, pushing away everything but her. He tried to follow the threads only he could see. So weak.
“No. I can’t. She’s not far, but she’s weak. Something’s happened.”
His dragon woke, spreading his wings. Kal allowed him to take some control, see if he could sense anything new. Stretching his hands as their claws sat just below the surface. Nothing.
“I can’t sense her. I felt a shot of panic and pain. I don’t understand what’s happened. I need to go.”
Kal stepped off the ship and out into the same familiar surrounding of the desert. They’d moved the ship a few miles away, enough to throw off some sniffing lab coats. No one had found them, but it was too close for comfort.
It had been a good call to allow Cy to remain with the ship. He’d get his turn soon enough, but he was the most trained in emergency proceedings. Too bad right now that was of no comfort to Kal.
“I thought this planet knew nothing of us?” he screamed back.
Sucking in the air, fighting back the rage, the shift, he waited for a plan to come to him.
“How is it that within a matter of a day they’re sniffing up our asses? Is it coincidence that some strange people were out here and now my mate is in danger?” Kal growled.
He started pacing in the sand. “I can’t get a read on her.”
Eadric came up beside him. “That mate of yours is strong. I’m sure she can handle herself. But, as soon as you have a read, I’ll fly with you. Just keep her from turning me into some kind of bird.”
Everyone laughed, except Kal. He couldn’t. Her life was in danger. There was no doubt.
“I’m shifting. My dragon might have a better chance of hearing her.”
They all backed away as Kal’s skin burned away into scales.
The air parted as his wings tore free. Rearing up on his hind legs, he prepared for battle. His dragon landed back on all fours, sniffing the air, listening for her. His brothers all stared intently at him.
Just as he was about to say there was nothing new, a weak sound of her voice came to him.
Don’t come for me. They want you.
He stopped thrashing about, waiting. Nothing. The dragon growled.
Eadric crawled up alongside him, ready to take flight in his own dragon form.
Someone has her. They want us.
Sniffing the air, he tried to make out her magic. The air too thick with other magic that he could pick out her, but that didn’t seem right. This town would be a curse just as much as it was his blessing. He wouldn’t be able to make her out, not clearly, not from here. Not if she was weak.
I’m going to her house. We need to start there.
Eadric’s massive head nodded, the red-hued skin and wings unique just as Kal’s orange was to him. They all had a unique color on their underbellies, yet all were similar in so many ways.
I will follow. Eadric said within their minds.
The other four stood and nodded.
We will wait for your call. Responded Cy.
Kal watched as Deo stood in the way.
You do not take on the enemy without reporting back first. We weren’t aware of any threats.
Kal nodded his massive head and pushed up into the sky, shimmering as he camouflaged to the Earth's darkening sky.
The ground passed quickly, but to Kal the
