Pygmalion

By DocPaul

Chapter Thirty-one: Our Destiny is written in the stars…

Day Forty-five: Thursday, 2:17 am

“You need to sleep, Tess,” Maria frowned at her friend as Tess paced the loft. Kyle refused to stay at the loft. He and Jim came with them, helped to get both Jonathan and Max inside, but then they returned to the bombing site to help find more survivors.

“I can’t.” Tess crossed her arms in front of her stomach. Her back hurt. A lot. After all those hours buried alive, she needed to walk more than anything. And she needed her husband.

Maria studied the unhappy woman, whose shoulders were tight and held stiffly. Going into the kitchen, she tried to be quiet as she started cooking. Julia was asleep on the sofa, waiting for Sean to come home. It had been a long few hours. The television was showing live coverage of the entire situation. Julia had fallen asleep watching it while chewing her nails to the quick.

“What are you making?”

“A cake. Chocolate. It’ll help.”

Tess finally sat down on a barstool at the kitchen counter. “I can’t stop seeing him almost dead, Maria. It was close. So close. Moments before they found us, I heard his breath moving in and out, and then it stopped. I thought he was gone. I just lay there, too afraid to breathe, move, or feel.” She wiped a tear away. “I can’t take this anymore! All the worry and fear. I want a normal life!”

“You’ll get one. You’ve got one, Tess.”

“No, I don’t. I’m in love with and married to Kyle, while having my alien husband’s baby, while he’s in love with a man! Four of us. There are four of in this relationship, and then you have to add in baby Zan. There is nothing normal about any of that!”

“Zan?”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you...Max wants to name the baby Zan. His name from our last life in Antar.”

“Zan?” Maria paused in breaking eggs into a bowl. “He really wants that?”

“Oh, yeah. He does. I hate to admit it, but the moment he said it, I knew he was right. That the baby was Zan. Not Jack. Not Philip. Zan.” Tess reached over and tasted some of the batter that Maria was whipping up. “Good. Put in extra chocolate, okay?” She sniffed, trying to control her emotions, and said in a small voice, “I remember him.”

“Who?”

“Zan.”

“The baby?”

Tess laughed and shook her head. “No! Max. I remember Max as Zan. I remember my feelings for him.”

Maria stopped stirring to look at the younger woman. Tess looked devastated.

“When?”

“Tonight. Max stood on the other side of the shield, our hands touched with the flowing energy of our son between us...and I remembered. In a flash, I remembered him. My husband. My King. Zan. There have been other things I remembered from before, but tonight there were feelings too.”

Maria quickly poured the cake into pans and placed them in the oven. She wiped her hands and grabbed two bottled waters out of the refrigerator. Coming to sit beside Tess, she opened one for both of them. “I take it this isn’t a good thing?”

“No. No it is not.” Tess laughed. “Do you know what it feels like to understand the difference? I was in love in my last life. He was my childhood betrothed. I was promised to him from birth. Geraerd. He was…someone I loved from the moment I was born. Or what love felt like at the time. It was like a tempest. A raging emotion of lust, desire, need, and a want to be part of him. He died before our joining ceremony.”

“I’m sorry.”

Tess wiped away a tear. “It was an accident. Or so I thought.”

Maria frowned a question.

“Oh, it looked like a very tragic event. An incident that couldn’t be prevented. But he was murdered.”

“Tess…”

“By Zan.” Tess laughed bitterly. “I found that out years later. I was no longer contracted to Geraerd, and Zan and his advisors offered an alliance to my family. It was a way of bringing my world under his thumb, under his rule. I could’ve said no, but all I could think of was how my love was gone. Married to the King of Antar, my world would be a protected one, and my son…our son...would rule both worlds.” Tess shook her head. “I was a fool. A young, idiotic fool to believe I could tame or control Zan of Antar.”

“Bad boy?”

“The absolute worst. He wasn’t Kivar evil…just vain. Greedy. When he learned that his brother’s genetics were in the Granilith, that some aspects of mine and Vilandra’s were also present, but not the key, he was convinced that we were it. We were the prophecy. The Royal Four.”

Maria reached for the bowl from the cake and licked the inside. “I keep hearing this term. The Royal Four. What’s up with that?”

“There’s a legend in our solar system. Four components of a whole will control the Granilith, and as a result, those same four will hold the very life existence of our worlds in their hands. It was a legend of unequal power.” Tess shrugged. “In my past worlds, power and might is everything. The only thing.”

“So the dick version of Max, this Zan, assassinated your lover to take you as his Queen.” Maria stopped licking her fingers. “Wow, what a jerk!”

“He never would’ve if my genetics weren’t found in the Granilith. All the ruling families on the five planets genetically test their young as soon as they’re born. They’ve been searching for the coming of the Royals for a long time.”

“Okay, so tell me more about this Destiny thing that all these people keep telling me that I’m part of. Hello! Earth girl! Hell, easy earth girl at that! I was panting after that beautiful, studly piece of Antarian warrior the moment I saw him.”

“You were a goner, that was for sure.”

“Shut up and tell me my destiny. Make it good! Something like….I’m going to live long and prosper.”

“I can’t. That I don’t remember. I only remembered Zan. My life with him. Loving him.”

“You loved that prick? Yikes! Do I even have ice cream in this house? No! Too many guests. Damn that Sean for eating the rest of it last night. Okay, stop pausing for effect and just tell the story. Tell it all. Zan was a first class, grade A dick, but you loved him anyway. This is so romantic.”

“Anything but romantic. You’re joined to a person. Before marriage, there is this joining ceremony that usually happens at birth, a sort of imprinting on your mate. I was imprinted to Geraerd, but once he died, I was released. Zan was imprinted to some other, who met a ‘tragic accident’ long before that, so he was without a mate.”

“Yeah, tragic. Who would want him?”

“Actually many did. He represented ultimate power. Zan of Antar, once he took his father’s throne, was the most powerful leader of the Confederacy of Five. He held the Granilith in his hands, and his reign was absolute. He basically did as he wanted. His world demanded that he join to another…find a Queen, but he held them off. He was in love, or secretly joined to another. Sa’rel. Their love was a powerful attraction. Overwhelming. Forbidden. It was hidden. Unknown. Sa’rel came from a protector clan, Shifters. They were forbidden to marry out of their class. Because their powers were special, people feared that if they did marry outside their class, that the resulting children with their mixed heritage, would possess unrealized power. The Commander, Rath…Michael...was a prime example of what mixing genetics among classes and worlds could result in. A person of unimaginable power. Why do you think Vilandra and Kivar wanted to mate? Or Zan with me?”

“So how did you find out about this Sa’rel?”

“Hard to miss. Zan sold his bond to Sa’rel to another. Married off his love to another, but he didn’t give up his possession. I often found Sa’rel in my bed.”

“Shit! He brought his lover into your bed? That’s…” Maria paused. “The two of them?”

“Sometimes. Other times, the three of us.”

Maria’s mouth flew open. “No way! Way?”

Tess just nodded.

“Damn, Tessie, that means you were into threesomes in your last life.” Maria seemed to give it some thought. “Okay, Tess, I’m going to need you to remember everything…and I mean everything about Michael from his last life. You know, any strange and bizarre kinks or special…sexual habits. You know…cross dressing, threesomes, bondage…” Maria slapped Tess’ arm, “Oh, heck, forget the bondage question, I think I already know about that.”

Tess laughed. It was good to just talk to Maria. It had been a while. “I’ll let you know if anything comes to mind, but my only impression of Rath is that he was angry, violent, and irritated whenever he had to leave his battlefield. But sex? I have no idea. All I know was he hated Vilandra, and Vilandra hated him.”

“No! Michael adores Isabel…well, you know what I mean. As much as Michael can adore someone. He couldn’t hate her. And I refuse to believe she hates him.”

“It’s just an impression.”

Maria shrugged. Irrelevant. That was the past. This was now. “So did you hate this Sa’rel?”

Tess thought about it for a moment. “No. I couldn’t. Sa’rel was almost as abused as I was. Used. Zan forced Sa’rel into a bonding against what was permitted in our societies. Once bonded, Sa’rel had very few choices.” Tess looked down at her hands. “Forced to love someone against their will is nothing short of slavery. After a while, you don’t even remember when it started or if it will ever end.” Tess actually moved her fingers along the counter in front of her. “Sa’rel had it worse. Zan knew that they could never openly be joined, and he was married to me, so he sold Sa’rel off in marriage to another.”

Maria shook her head. “Are you sure?” This was impossible to imagine. “Max? That was our Max? He was so different. So mean.”

“He was the King. His decisions were the rule of the land.”

“And you remember loving him?”

Tess nodded. “Yes. I remember.” Tess grabbed Maria’s hand. “It’s not the same, Maria. The feelings, the ability to love doesn’t translate. I know that I feel things for Max, but they in no way eclipse or come near to what I feel for Kyle. It’s like light and day.”

“Max saved Kyle tonight. Whatever he was once, whatever Michael was when he was Rath, and even…Isabel...I don’t care. I know them now, as they are. There is nothing that changes who they are to me.”

Tess was quiet for a moment. “Does that include me? Does this pardon or amnesty...does it extend to me too?”

Maria held Tess’s hand tightly. “Of course. You…now you, I love.”

Tess hugged Maria tight, her eyes closing, “You have no idea how much I needed to hear that!”

Maria pulled back from Tess, her confusion obvious on her face. “What? What is it, Tess?”

“It’s Zan…Max. In my last life….I murdered him.”

~~~

Maria sat with Mr. Boo in her lap, watching both Tess and Julia sleep. Julia was on the sofa, and Tess refused to go upstairs and sleep in Maria and Michael’s bed knowing Michael’s feelings about that, so she slept sitting up in an oversized chair. She told Maria that her back felt better sitting up anyway.

Maria couldn’t stop thinking about what Tess had told her. It was strange to think of them…all four of them...so different in their previous lives. How could a little human DNA make such a drastic change? But it did. Rath, Michael’s Dupe, was not his former self, but technically she supposed that Rath was more like Michael’s former self than Michael was. He had had just a little less human DNA and more alien essence and so was completely different from Michael. Maria rested her head in her hands.

Michael. He had broken the connection with her ten minutes ago. It was getting easier. She had to concentrate to hold the focus, and only three times did she lose her connection to Michael. Once when Tess was telling her what she remembered about her past life, again when she told her that she killed Max…or Max’s previous form…Zan, and then when she ate half a chocolate cake in comfort.

Ten minutes. Where was he?

That thought circulated through her head every sixty seconds, counting down Michael’s arrival home. It was late. No, technically, it was early. Very early. So caught up was she in her thoughts, that she totally missed his arrival until he was standing in the doorway. Sean and Kyle were behind him.

“Hi.”

Maria looked up, startled. “Hi!”

He looked tired. Sick. Covered in sweat, grime, and blood. Sean and Kyle didn’t look any better. Both men quickly kissed Maria, and went to be with their respective mates, but Maria stopped Kyle.

“You okay, Kyle?”

Kyle nodded and kissed Maria on the forehead, holding her close. He was lying. How could he be okay knowing that people died in an explosion meant to kill him? Collateral damage. It wasn’t acceptable.

“Yeah, M, I’m okay.”

“Liar,” she whispered softly and she hugged him tightly to her body. “Tess was worried. She tried to wait up, but her back was hurting and she needed to sleep.”

“That’s okay, baby sister. I’m taking her home. I need to sleep for a week.”

“Are they still out?” Michael asked, breaking into Maria and Kyle’s conversation.

“Max and Jonathan? Yeah. We put them in the guest room, so it looks like Sean lost his bed. Jonathan is really burned out. I don’t know when he’ll wake up. Max is okay. He woke up a few times. He used too much power healing so he’s basically refueling his reserves. He can’t do a thing right now. His powers are sort of hibernating or gone. Hard to say until he feels better.”

Kyle yawned and tried to wake Tess. She was deeply asleep, so he easily picked her up and headed for the door. He wanted to go home. Now. He needed to go home and spend some time with his wife. Today was too close. He had almost lost her and the baby. And his own life. The nightmare would haunt him for a long time. Kyle couldn’t think of the other lost lives, the cost of one man’s vendetta against his father, and all those that his father loved. He couldn’t. Not tonight.

“Kyle, stay the night.”

“Nope, sorry Maria, but I really need to sleep in my own bed. Lend me your car. Mine is surprisingly gone.”

Michael tossed Kyle the keys to the Jetta. He understood how Kyle felt. The man needed to go home, shower, put his wife to bed, crawl in next to her... and hold her…knowing she was alive, that they were safe. He opened the garage door for Kyle, and came back in when he was through to see Maria staring at Sean.

Sean hadn’t even bothered to shower. He had simply shifted Julia over on the sofa, climbed behind her, and pulled her on top of his body. He was already asleep.

“You hungry?” Maria asked softly. Her eyes were wandering over Michael’s tired body. God.

“Starved.”

Maria beat him upstairs. Moving into the bathroom ahead of him, she quickly started a bath. “Max and Jonathan….”

“Will sleep until morning.” Michael said as his hands came from behind to circle her. He quickly removed her clothing. His was already gone. The hot water hit his skin in a hiss, and he sank down, pulling her with him. “Are you as turned on as I am?”

Maria looked at him with fire in her green eyes. “More. I could eat you alive.”

“Good,” Michael breathed as she straddled him in the water, taking him inside in one quick movement as her moan devoured his.

Sex. This was more than sex. It was different. Whatever it was that they were together, was continuously changing. Evolving. When they first met, there was overwhelming lust that quickly became so much more than either of them wanted, expected, or even thought to have. Then love gave way to a need to touch constantly. Once they conceived the babies, sex was a frenzy of feeding, a means to survive with a touch of desperation. Since the change, it became a union. A bonding of their bodies at a cellular level. Now it was more. The desperation had been lost, to become this overwhelming need to be the other person, to be in each other, to touch and feel each other. Focusing together, it was as if every cell in his body coalesced into every cell of hers, and the result was nuclear. He could feel himself moving through her, in her when they joined. The more often they did it, the more he wanted it. He never understood how lonely it was living a human, trapped alone inside a shell of skin. Now he was no longer alone.

It was uncertain where they were going. All they knew was wherever it was…they were going together.

~~~

Michael was on his fourth cup of coffee when Max appeared at his shoulder. Sean and Julia were still asleep, as was Maria upstairs and Jonathan in the guest room. “Want a cup?”

“You have to ask?” Max sat himself down next to Michael as Michael poured him a cup. “I thought you’d still be asleep.”

Michael made a noise under his breath. He wished he was, but he couldn’t sleep. It was almost seven in the morning, but none of them planned to get up. They were all off work, including Julia who was given time off for her personal emergency.

“I couldn’t sleep. After I wire myself with another cup of coffee, I’ll go try again.” Michael looked at his partner and brother. “Is Jonathan still out?”

“Like the dead. He hasn’t even moved.” Max looked at Michael, the strain of the past few hours creasing the lines around his eyes. “How many?”

Michael stared into his cup. “Thirteen confirmed dead. Twenty-three injured, and eight rescued with minor injuries, including Tess and Kyle.” Michael rubbed his face hard. “It was a long night. I did as much as I could to help move and alter the rubble to get to survivors, but I had to be careful.”

“I know.” Max drank his coffee thoughtfully. “Did Maria help you?”

“Yeah.”

Max nodded. “Focus. Damn, Michael, you should’ve told me.”

“I had no real words to explain it.”

Max looked at his brother. “So now we know.”

“Yeah. We know.” Michael drank his coffee. They had now discovered why in their last life they had no control or ability to tap into their natural powers without a cost. They had lacked a focus. “So Jonathan is like Maria.”

“Apparently.”

Michael nodded. “That explains it then.”

Max looked at him in confusion.

“Why I hated him. He was too much like her. I guess I always thought he was a natural choice for her. A perfect mate. He understood her. And they got along like…”

“Like they belong together.”

“Yeah.”

The two men lapsed into silence, trying to understand all the ramifications that came with this new information. They had been strong in their last lives, but now, with the ability to focus power, what did that mean for them?

Max stared at his coffee. “Michael....I remember being Zan.”

Michael didn’t bother looking at Max. He waited.

“I remember being him. Pieces. Parts of my life. Not all. But enough parts to make me wonder if I should’ve been brought back to life at all.” Max rubbed his face shaking his head. “The man I was…it wasn’t pretty. He was….I...was a monster.”

Michael looked down at his hand holding his cup. Vilandra was a monster. His Dupe, Rath was such a nightmare, he couldn’t even find words to describe all that Rath was. They…what they once were,   didn’t make sense. Why save them? Why bring them back?

“I don’t know, Max. I really don’t know. I can’t remember what it was like to be Rath, but I do know what my Dupe felt. He was lost. Alone. In pain. The very act of living was killing him. He couldn’t be who he needed to be, and trapped on a world that saw him a monster, he was helpless. My Dupe didn’t do helpless well.”

“I know what it felt like being Zan. God help me. I felt it coursing through my veins when I moved the green shield that my son, Zan created to protect his mother.” Max shut his eyes. “I felt…strong. And when I picked up that strand, I could feel the sheer power of it! The ability to heal was rushing through me.” Max turned troubled eyes on Michael. “It felt too good. I healed Kyle, Jim, and then I healed Tess.”

“That wasn’t a bad thing, Maxwell.”

Max looked like he was going to be sick. “Not the act, no. But how I did it?” He gulped hard. “I sensed Jonathan. I felt him collapsing. The focusing crystal in my mind became dim.”

Michael frowned. That wasn’t his experience. Maria never dimmed. She seemed to get brighter, more brilliant, almost the purest of crystal as time went on. God! Michael could feel his body leaping at the thought. She was so damn beautiful. Looking up at the dark bedroom, Michael’s eyes closed sensually. Clearing his throat, he tried to concentrate on what Max was saying.

“I could feel him going down. It felt great for me. The power! It was arousing.”

Michael didn’t comment. He didn’t need to, because he knew the feeling.

Max continued, “But that’s not what it felt like to Jonathan. He was in pain. By the time I broke the connection, he was in real pain.”

Michael became more attentive. Pain? Maria never mentioned anything about it hurting in any way.

“The thing is…” Max licked his lips. “I didn’t want to pull back. I didn’t want to let go of the connection, even when I knew I was hurting him.” He raised tired and horrified eyes to Michael. “What does that make me?”

~~~

“Maria?”

“Hmm?”

Michael scooted into the bed with her, moaning at the warmth and soft feel of her. He was in trouble. Real trouble. Things between them kept changing, intensifying, and he was having a hard time…not staying hard. Not that being aroused all the time was anything new for him, but he understood what Max was saying. Power. Control of power. It was a potent aphrodisiac.

It was too difficult. He couldn’t resist. He searched for her, reached for her both physically and mentally. Too many damn people in his home and he could care less. Maria made a soft welcoming sound in her throat, wrapping her arm around his neck. His power surged through her the same time as he entered her body physically. She made a laughing noise in her throat. Yes!

~~~

“I didn’t mean to do that.”

Maria wearily lifted her head from his chest to look at him. “Do what?”

Michael moved his hand to her face, sweeping the hair back as his fingers brushed against the soft skin. God. His eyes followed the shadow on her cheek from the downward brush of her eyelashes. “Maria. I feel like I’ve looked at your face for a thousand years. I could almost draw you in my sleep.”

Maria sat up, her eyes heavy as her hand moved up his chest to stroke the lines of his neck and jaw. Her eyes traced a small scar he had just under his chin from a blade that he encountered some time during those years he spent on the streets. Rathman. It made so much sense now. Maria moved her mouth down to trace the scar with her tongue. He was so tender. Gentle. The suppressed caged violence and barely restrained power was tempered by something in him so very deep.

“What did you not mean to do?”

Michael opened his mouth as her finger outlined his mouth, and he pulled the finger inside. They had to stop. It was pulling at him again. “I didn’t mean to come upstairs and jump you.”

“You didn’t?” Maria smiled. “That’s new. What did you mean to do?”

Michael scratched his eyebrow. “I need you to go somewhere with me.”

“Okay.” Maria sat back, ignoring her own nudity. “Where?”

“Alex’s source is willing to talk to me…to us,” Michael said softly. This was not such a good idea. He hated it. He didn’t want her or the babies anywhere near an unknown alien.

“You’re okay with that?”

“No. But it’s the only way he’ll talk to me. He wants to meet you.”

Maria shared a long lingering look with Michael. Meet her. Again. Damn. Before she met Michael she hadn’t had a date in forever, let alone sex. Now it was like she was some damn exotic dancer with beer flavored nipples at a Superbowl party. “Is Jonathan awake?”

“No. Max will stay with him.”

Michael wouldn’t ask her to do this if it wasn’t important.

“Let’s get dressed.” Maria got out of the bed. “Honey, what does a person wear to meet an alien?”

“Wear that red thing. I like you in red. What other aliens may like you in, I do not care.”

Maria smiled as she went to search her closet for something red, something that still fit. Her smile soon faded. Her thoughts darkened and nagged at her. What was it about her?

~~~

“May I ask you a question?”

“Sure. But no sexual details. My husband is a private person.”

Michael smiled at Maria’s usual sass. He quickly told her all that Max told him about Jonathan’s pain. She was unusually quiet.

“Does it hurt, Maria? When we do this thing we do, does it hurt?” Michael looked at her as they stopped at the red light. “Am I hurting you?”

“No.” Maria concentrated on the light. “No. It….for me it feels like...” She paused and closed her eyes. How to give it words? Meaning? “I can’t say. It feels just the opposite. I feel so good that it’s unbelievable. Think of the most turned on you’ve ever felt. Think of what it feels like to have the bottom drop out of your stomach, that tingling in your groin. How your breath catches in your throat, and whispers past your teeth as your sight narrows and all you can see is someone you so want to fuck! That’s what it feels like.”

“Sexual.”

“Hmm. Yeah, but more. Hard to explain. It feels like being really in love.” She looked at Michael. “Hunger. Want. Yearning. Desire. It feels like what I feel when I look at you. Gentleness. Amazement. Awe. The list is endless.”

“Max burned out Jonathan. In a short span of time, he burned him out.” Michael pulled into the parking area across from Club Hell. Turning with his arm along the back at the car seat, he stared at Maria for a moment. “I never burn you out. Why?”

Maria shook her head, but she tried, “Maybe it’s control. Max said that he wanted to keep pushing his power. He felt…strong. Maybe what we do…Jonathan and I, maybe that’s why you need us. We’re your controls. We stop you from abusing your powers. Too much, you burn us out, and you’re forced to back down.”

“Okay, maybe that’s true, but then why can I push everything I am through you, and you never waver? Never dim in intensity?”

Maria leaned towards her husband, her mouth softly touching his as her hand rested on the spiral marking his chest. “This. Maybe it’s this.”

Michael looked down at his mark and then at hers.

Maria shrugged. “The mark we share is more than skin deep. It’s in our blood. In the root of us. Perhaps that’s why I couldn’t focus for Max.” She kissed him, her mouth pushing into his lungs as if it was his own. “I am for you, Michael Guerin. Only you.”

~~~

Alex looked up as Michael and Maria entered the dark club. He was sitting at a table with a drink at his elbow, happily indulging himself in a bout of chain smoking. After all, he had never said he had iron control. Frowning, he blinked as he watched Michael and Maria approach. Shutting his eyes, he looked again. They shimmered. Then they were normal. Damn. Too much nicotine. He was hallucinating.

“Well, we’re here. Where is this source?” Michael asked testily.

“Here.”

Michael and Maria turned as a form appeared out of the gloom. Freddie. The man approached them warily. “I understand that you wanted to speak to me?”

“We did.” Michael said gruffly.

Freddie stared at Michael almost in awe, and Maria noticed that he could barely stop himself from bowing and averting his eyes. Then his gaze turned from Michael to Maria.

“You insisted that my wife be here. Why?”

Freddie shrugged. The Commander’s mate. So many legends. So many speculations. It was said that she could clear the most troubled of minds. So much was unknown, but here she was. “I always wanted to know what woman could change my Commander’s destiny.”

Faced with the situation, Michael was momentarily at a loss for words, so Maria butted in first, “You’re an alien?”

“Yes.”

“What kind?”

Freddie smiled. “Celzian. On Earth I’m called a Skin, but I’m a special type of Skin. I’m a Free-radical. Once I was a Dissident.”

“Celzian?”

“From the planet Celzia. The home planet of the Commander’s mother.”

“A ‘Skin’?” Maria repeated. Alex had told them about Skins, but it really made no sense.

Freddie came forward slightly less warily at answering Maria’s questions. “An alien who needs to employ a special type of technology to survive.” He plucked at his skin. “This is a husk. It’s a living, breathing shell made from human DNA, flesh, blood and bone. Like a living organism, it forms a relationship with my native form, and together we live as a new unit.”

Maria moved forward, motioning for permission to touch his skin. He nodded.

“Parasitical? Or purely symbiotic?” she asked as her fingers brushed his arm. It felt real. Like real skin with a soft down of hair. The follicles responded to her touch.

“A little of both. The Husk is parasitical, but what was its perspective? I think it would consider the alien inside the parasite. The relationship is purely symbiotic. A husk has no purpose except to host an alien…without one, it dies. Without the alien, it isn’t sentient. An alien in our natural form cannot survive long on Earth. We would suffocate. So the husk technology allows us to take on a human form, use what looks essentially like human lungs, and then blend in to the culture. Over time, the husk and the alien create a very unique type of alien…one that can learn to use and feel human emotions. The longer we’re in husk, the more humanlike we become, the more capable of understanding and feeling human emotions, and the more like our host husk’s original DNA harvest.”

“Impressive,” Maria smiled slightly at him.

Freddie stared at her. He was in awe. Never had he ever thought to be so close to her. Shutting his eyes, he could feel it. He opened his eyes and looked at her kindly, “Is that all you wished to know, my Queen?”

Maria’s eyebrow went up at that, but she chose to ignore it. “Free-radical? Dissident?”

Freddie laughed softly. She was as inquisitive as he imagined she would be. She was everything he imagined. He could feel her. The clarity. It was like having a head cold that suddenly cleared.

“Dissidents were a group of aliens that were loyal to the Commander in his last life. They consisted mainly of his army, which was made up of Antarians and Celzians. There were others from other planets, but by far, the Celzians outnumbered them. They fought for Zan under Rath’s command, but their undying loyalty was to the Commander. They…we...pushed him to take Zan’s throne.”

“And he didn’t?”

Freddie looked over at the quiet Michael. “No. He had no wish for another throne. He was already destined to rule Celzia once his mother succeeded. He had no ambition to be a statesman. He was a warrior. A great General. The Commander was the most powerful soldier ever recorded. After Zan and Vilandra died, Rath almost destroyed Kivar single-handedly. But one man, one army….it was too much for him alone. He almost won though. Nicolas, Kivar’s First, killed him on the Plains of Nazcae, in the third Tribunal. It was the final wave. Rath left Kivar’s planet burning. He slashed and burned most of Antar in his wake. When he died, he left Kivar an empty throne…five worlds on the brink of destruction. Celzia itself burned all its lands. It refused to fall to Kivar. It followed its King. Rath. What Kivar gained from his victory wasn’t much. Decades later, he’s still trying to bring the world back to some sort of prosperity. The people can barely feed themselves, let alone pay tribute to Kivar.”

Maria sat on the edge of a table. “Is that why there is still a war?”

Freddie looked at Alex and shrugged. “Yes. Before Rath fell to Kivar’s forces, he left little. The worlds have been starved for resources and energy ever since. Kivar invested what he had to the project to retrieve the lost Granilith. Then recently, a new name appeared on the Book of Ascension in the Hall of Kings for Antar. Zan. Zan is the next King of record. The people have risen, demanding their rightful King, one that will restore their worlds and bring home the Granilith.”

Maria nodded. That word again. Granilith. “And a Free-radical?”

“Those of us who once were in Kivar’s army, Rath’s army, or Loyalists. An alien that came to Earth and deserted his post. I was once in Rath’s army from Celzia. When Rath fell, I was conscripted into Kivar’s army and sent here in the first wave to locate and protect the Royals. I met the Dupes. Thing was…no one knew there were any duplicates made. The only ones who knew of the Dupes were the King, Zan who had ordered them made, and the Shapeshifters who were sent as Protectors. I met the Commander….or who I thought was the Commander, and soon I left my post. He was very much like the Rath I remembered, but perhaps my body had been in husk too long. I don’t know. I just knew that what never bothered me before, suddenly did, and I could no longer follow him. I quit the war.” Freddie reached for one of Alex’s cigarettes. “I found music. Hell, the sixties found me. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. I never knew that life could be so crazy, so fun, and so full of everything.”

“You would like my mom. She has sort of the same mentality. Perhaps they made a mistake placing you in a husk harvested from a free-love hippie with a taste for peace?”

Freddie laughed at that. Cool, man. She was so on his page. He liked her. He really liked her. She had a penetrating way of focusing her attention on him alone. Asking him question upon question, unwavering, and in a non-threatening manner. He wanted to tell her anything. Everything. She was his Queen, or at least someone he would like to know.‘

“I loved music. I never wanted to go back to Celzia or Antar. I never want to return. For worlds that are red in color, they’re dull and gray compared to Earth.” Freddie paused as he drew on his smoke. He stared at Maria, totally unable to remove his glance from her, in awe and inspiration. “There are others here that are not so happy to be left on Earth. The Loyalists are those loyal to Zan, and they work to remove Kivar from Antar’s throne, and return Zan or his son to his seat of power. The Torrists are Kivar’s Skins. You will want to avoid them at all cost. His First, Nicolas, is their leader, and Commander,” Freddie looked at Michael, “you and he have a long history of hate and death between you. All others are the Walkers, humans taken over by aliens to walk on this Earth, and search for the Granilith. Kivar has been known to come to Earth in this manner.” He looked back at Maria thoughtfully. “They look for the Granilith. You and the Granilith. They knew that one day, somehow you and the Commander would meet, and wherever you are, the Commander would be, and therefore the Granilith would be there too.”

“You know me? You expected me to exist? How?”

Michael perked up a little. Good. He wanted to know that too.

“The Granilith had a book in it. A special journal. We called it the Book of Destiny. It was in a code that we could not read or translate…symbols. When Rath was born and he held the book, he could read it, but only parts, the parts that were coded by his genetics. It was inherent in his genetics…the knowledge to understand it. So we had a partial history of the Granilith. But only partial. Not even half.” Freddie looked at Maria. “Your genetics would translate the rest, along with the hybrid human part of the Commander. It’s the combination of your two genetics that is the Key.”

“This Granilith...?” Michael asked quietly. Freddie was shocked. Those were the first words Michael had uttered. “What is it?”

“A device of great power, almost a holy relic for our people…a Holy Grail. We worship power, and might. The Granilith is the epitome of all that. It’s what saved us and our worlds eons ago, re-energized our Suns and gave us another lifetime to live. Forces of energy are channeled in the Granilith, focused and capable of transposing, transporting, and transversing time and space. It’s true use and purpose is unknown to us. We took it from Earth many eons ago.”

“Who built it?” Maria asked. Freddie paused, almost faltering….ready to withhold that information. Maria saw that. She firmed her voice and demanded an answer, “Who built it?”

Freddie reached out a tentative hand to touch Maria…her stomach, but he held back by mere inches. “They did. Your twins. Mikey and Amanda. They built the Granilith. Your next child, the protector and key….the One, will sent it back to Earth’s past so we can find it.”

Maria looked at Michael quickly. Rath, their son Rath would send it back.

“Without them, none of us would exist. Our worlds would have died eons ago, and the Commander…your Michael would have never existed either.”

~~~

Max stood looking in the room at the unmoving Jonathan. Almost twenty-four hours had passed, and he had yet to move or even turn over. He was still as death.

“Is he okay?”

Max looked at Julia and smiled slightly. “Yes. He’s just tired from last night.”

Julia frowned as she looked down on the sleeping Jonathan. “I’ve never seen a person sleep so soundly or so long. Are you sure he’s okay?”

“I’m sure.” Max turned to the sound of tapping. Looking back into the room, he noticed Liz at the sliding glass door in the dining room. Max opened the door and let her in. “Liz, hi!”

“Max?” Liz looked from Julia to Max. “Where are Michael and Maria?”

“Out. They had to go do something.”

Liz looked around. Sean was still sleeping on the sofa. “House party?” She walked around the room, noticing the new section. “The new addition! How is it going?”

“Slow, according to Michael. He thinks they should be done in less than two days.” Max looked at Julia desperately. He needed her gone. “I was going to order some food. Sean will be awake soon, Michael and Maria will be back, and I need to wake up Jonathan.”

“Jonathan?” Liz looked around. Jonathan was a hard man to miss. He was much taller than Max.

“He’s asleep in the spare bedroom.” Max looked at Julia. “Julia, if I order food, do you think you can make a grocery run for beverages? I think we drank all the milk, and Maria is without ice cream if you can imagine that.”

Julia nodded. She was more than happy to be sent on this errand. She and Liz didn’t not get along, but she had a hard time around the woman, seeing her easy friendship with Sean, but somehow also feeling that Liz resented her. She quite glad to get away for a few moments.

“Thanks. I would go, but I hate to leave Jonathan.” Max quickly searched for extra cash.

Julia grabbed her bag. “Anything in particular?”

Max shrugged. “Anything. Everything. Whatever you want to get will be fine.” He grabbed the first menu from Michael and Maria’s takeout stash, as Julia left the loft. Quickly ordering enough to feed a small army, Max hung up.

“Why were you so hot to get rid of Julia?” Max grimaced. Damn, Liz noticed that. He hoped Julia did not.

Max looked over at the sleeping Sean. “She doesn’t know about the alien stuff.” He motioned for Liz to follow him. Pointing at Jonathan, he looked real worried. “Think you could check Jonathan over for me? You heard what happened last night?”

Liz looked at the deathly still Jonathan, her concern etched on her face as well. “I heard about the bombing, and that Kyle and Tess were okay.”

“They weren’t. Not at first.” Max quickly outlined the details for Liz whose concern for Jonathan increased.

“He hasn’t moved at all since?”

Max shook his head.

Liz squeezed Max’s arm as she walked around him to go into the room. “I’ll look at him for you.” She approached the bed cautiously. Jonathan. He was covered in a sheet, but his chest was bare. His hair was unrestrained and covered his pillow. Liz touched his skin. It was warm, but not unusually so. Checking his pulse, she could feel his heart beating loudly, strong and even. Sitting on the side of the bed, she checked him out.

Jonathan Stiller. What was it about him? He certainly drew her attention now, but he hadn’t at first. At first she ignored him. There were too many conflicting emotions inside of her. Feelings of being abandoned, anger at Sean for dumping her, anger at Sean for replacing her with Julia... Then a grudging friendship with Sean started to grow, as her life took another turn when she became roommates with Isabel.

Maria had been right. She had been sleeping. Inside, the real Liz Parker had been sleeping, waiting for who or what, she never knew. Someone to come save her? Life swirled around her, and she was oblivious. The day that she and Maria talked, she knew that she loved Maria DeLuca. Her mind cleared. Before she had been mesmerized by how alive Maria seemed. How she was able to affect and infect those around her with humor and a joy of living. Hell, any one person who could change Michael Guerin into a real human was something of a marvel! Liz wanted that. She wanted to feel that alive. Feel. Touch. Live. All of it. She wanted it all.

Then Sean. Sean had so many of Maria’s qualities. He made things happen. He made people around him respond. When Sean DeLuca entered a room, he was the center of attention. People noticed. When they were dating, it was a glorious thing to feel. He would drag her into a room, and people would smile at her, talk to her, and treat her like she was someone, just because she was with Sean. And sex? Sex with Sean was way better than good.

Liz studied Jonathan and sighed. First she had an attraction to Max, then Maria. From Maria to Sean, and now…Jonathan. Jonathan reminded her of Maria too, but there was something more there. They talked, and he warmed her…made her move closer. When she moved in with Isabel, Max and Jonathan came over a lot. And while Max and Isabel had this happy sibling banter going, she ended up talking to Jonathan. He stared at her intently. Listened to her. Asked her intelligent questions about her life, laughed at her jokes, and in his dark unfathomable eyes lived a world of understanding. He was so much like Maria in the way he singled a person out, like you were at that moment the other only person alive.

Liz’s hand unwilling moved up Jonathan’s chest. Alive. He felt alive. She quickly pulled back her hand and stood up. Collecting herself, she slowly turned to see a concerned Max patiently waiting.

“He’s just sleeping, Max.”

“I know, but is this normal? Should we take him to the doctor, maybe the emergency room?”

Liz looked down again at the still man, his long hard lean frame only covered by a sheet, and almost too long to fit the bed. He was exhausted.

“No. His vitals are good. His heart is beating strong, and he isn’t struggling to breathe. I think that he’s just exhausted. Let him sleep. He’ll wake up when his body lets him.”

Liz stood up and patted Max on the arm. He smiled and followed her out of the room shutting the door quietly. “Thanks, Liz. I really appreciate it.”

Liz made a strange face at him which made him laugh. They both collapsed on the sofa next to each other, and Max picked up her small hand and kissed the back of it. “Aw, you’re such a romantic gentleman.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m gay.” Liz laughed at that. “Really though, Liz. I really appreciate all you’ve done. I know that it’s been hard compromising your position at the Department to do things for us.”‘

“It…” Liz looked at Max and then away as if she wasn’t sure what to say. “I don’t just do it for you….all of you. I’m doing it for me too. I like being needed. I really do. It was the best way for me to be part of all of this, and I had the position and skills to help. What was I going to do? Say no?”

Max held her hand against this chest firmly. “I don’t like to think that you got roped into this against your will, and that it’s jeopardizing your professional life.”

Liz looked over at him and smiled. “Thanks. You’re worried and trying to protect me. I appreciate that.” She kept looking at him with a touch of speculation.

Max glanced at her, catching that look. “What?”

Liz laughed and shook her head, tossing her hair behind her back. “It’s just when I first met you…I felt this connection. Like you were someone that would make a change in my life. Then things got so busy and crazy, and I almost died.” Max’s hand tightened on hers. “Next thing I knew, I was dating Sean. God, that man could make me laugh. And you were dating Tess. Then came Jonathan.” Liz looked at Max. “Did you ever imagine that you would fall in love with a man?”

“No. Actually I thought I’d fall in love with you.”

Liz looked at him strangely, “Really? What happened?”

“I don’t know.” Max turned a little so he could meet her eyes, “When I first met this shy Liz Parker there was a spark in her eye. A lust and desire to live. Something more. It touched me. Held me in awe. You did. I swear, I never saw anything so fawnlike and perfect.”

Liz stroked the scar on her neck absently, “So...what happened?” She held her breath as her fingers rested on the scar. “This?”

“No. The scar doesn’t make you ugly, Liz. It doesn’t take away from you. It adds.” Max searched his mind, trying to pinpoint the moment, the exact moment he knew that he and Liz would never be together. Maria had held his attention, and now he knew it was because of this focusing thing she was able to do. But his original attraction to Liz had been so much more. “I think it was right after you survived. I came to see you in the hospital. I was already utterly enthralled with Maria, but she wasn’t ever really a possibility. I got there that day, and you turned in the bed, and our eyes met…and nothing. It was gone. Whatever was sparking between us was extinguished. Maybe it was the trauma, or maybe whatever I saw was so fragile that it was trapped in a moment…one I let go by. Then Sean came in and held your hand, and I swore I saw it come back as you looked at him.”

“Sean,” Liz said softly. “He did change things. I felt…” Liz gestured to her body, “That this body was useless, used….scarred, but he never looked at me that way. He worked so hard to get me to smile again. Laugh. It was easy to look only at him. He was there when I opened my eyes, almost like he was willing me to live. I was overwhelmed.”

Max laughed softly. “I understand that, I think. From the moment I saw Tess, it was like I knew her…or knew who she was inside. I wanted to know her more because there was this connection. It pulled and pulled on me. I was satisfied with my relationship with her, but not really so ecstatic that I couldn’t breathe.” Max brushed the hair from Liz’s face. “You used to take my breath away.”

A dimple appeared on Liz’s face as she smiled flattered at the thought. “I do, or I did?”

Max lied, “You do. Still do, Lizzie Parker.”

Liz hit his arm. “Liar, but that’s okay, I’ll pretend it is true.” She looked at Max seriously, “Knowing what you know now, about who you were, and who Tess once was in your life, don’t you think that it was meant to be? You were once married and now you share a baby.”

“I don’t believe in that, Liz. I don’t believe that we can’t have a say in our Destinies.”

Liz put her feet up on the table next to his as they both sat back. “I don’t know, Max. I think that just because you see something a certain way, doesn’t make it so. I think that some things are just meant to be.”

“Perhaps. But I need to believe that I am making the decisions in my life….good or bad. That I am the Captain of my own destiny.”

“Oh Captain, my Captain?” Liz asked softly.

Max smashed her upside the head with a sofa pillow, and followed her down on the sofa tickling her as she squirmed out from under his hands begging him to stop. Their laughter joining together in a carefree sound of living.

~~~

“You can’t know that!” Michael pronounced angrily. “No one can.”

“We can.” Freddie looked at the two of them, now standing together holding hands. “The journal was written by your children; it was encoded with your third child’s DNA. There must be a third child, because Maria’s DNA was altered after she conceived the twins, not before, and there is another. It wasn’t until Maria changed that all the pieces came into play. The twins’ DNA doesn’t have their mother’s altered DNA, only her human DNA. Your next child will be utterly unique. He is the Protector. The First will be your son, Commander. A man that is everything you are. He was the one that decided to send the Granilith back, to hide it in history. He will be everything you are today, but more.”

Maria sat down on the edge of a table next to Michael. “Did Rath say in his journal, this ‘Destiny book’ why they built it? How they could build it? Anything?”

Freddie was shocked at her question. Rath? She already knew that she would have another child, and she would name him Rath! Time flowed both ways; a door closed as a window opened. He would follow Rath, this Rath, to his death! “That wasn’t available. We were never able to translate that part, but it had something to do with protecting Earth. They built it to save their world.”

Michael exchanged glances with Maria, sharing a silent communication, and then looked at Freddie. “Can you get us this Destiny Book, or is it on Antar?”

Freddie looked uncomfortable. “No. It was sent with you, the Royal Four. It was thought that once you were on your way towards this Destiny, that the book would guide you.”

“Then where is it?” Maria asked. If what Freddie was saying was true, then her blood and Michael’s could decode that book today, and they would know the truth.

“It’s in the hand of the Shapeshifter.”

Michael sat up at that. “Shapeshifter? One or more?”

“There were once four. They came in pairs….mated pairs. Two sets were sent with the Royals. We never knew why there were four, but now knowing that there were two sets of Royals made, it makes more sense now. One pair was to go with the Duplicates, the other with the Royal Four.” Freddie paused and then looked back at the couple. “They are a protector class, called Shifters. They’re basically the Royal Bodyguard, or like your Secret Service. Your Protector has the book.”

“And where is he?”

Freddie glanced at Alex who had been quiet the entire time. “We don’t know. The Skins were tracking him through reports of alien activity. Silver handprints on dead bodies and the like. This Shapeshifter is a dangerous man. Very dangerous. He murdered his mate. He and his mate were destined to protect the Royals, but they had to split their protection when the other two Shifters died. One to take the Royals. One to guard the Dupes.”

“And now there’s only this one?” Alex finally broke his silence.

“During the crash one of the Shifters was killed on impact, and two taken by United States authorities. One got away wounded, but alive. The one Shifter who wasn’t captured…the mate,  took what they could from the crash and prepared a place for the pods, but the authorities had taken the pods as well. The pods were rescued by this Shifter, the mate. How? No one knows. And of the two taken by the authorities, one died during…‘exploratory’ surgery, and the other escaped after some experimentation. He’s the one that remains. His name is Torq’el,  and his time in captivity by human hands has given him a hatred of humans, one that after these long years has not abated.”

“Hatred? And what does that mean?” Michael asked.

“It means he murders without remorse. He walks this Earth, more powerful than any human, more powerful than any alien, and he does as he wishes. No one can find him or stop him because he can be anyone.”

Maria frowned. “I don’t understand. There was another. His mate who had the pods….I’m assuming there were eight. Where did that Shifter go?”

“That Shifter’s name was Sa’rel.” Maria startled at that. Zan’s forbidden love sold to another! “Torq’el searched for Sa’rel and the pods. When they met up, Sa’rel told him that only four pods were retrieved, that the others were destroyed by the humans. Sa’rel told him to take the remaining pods, take them far away, and Sa’rel would create a false trail to lead the human searchers away in the opposite direction. The Shifter Torq’el took them and placed them in New York. In the sewers.”

“Wait, there were eight! So what did Sa’rel do with the other four, and why hide them from Torq’el? If it was their job to protect them together, why did he lie?”

“No one knows. Only Torq’el knows, but what we do know is that Sa’rel hid four, the Royal Four, from Torq’el, sending him with the Dupes and the Destiny book. Well, Torq’el, the Shifter who’s out there, realized he had the wrong pods when the ones he had couldn’t survive the atmosphere. The pods were breaking up, so he was forced to take them into the sewers, to live in an environment of heavier gases more like Antar’s atmosphere. He returned to the original site of the crash to find his mate, Sa’rel. He also came back to find out what happened to the Royals. He knew that they had to exist, because he existed.”

Maria thought about it for a moment. “I get it. If the Royals didn’t exist, there would never be a Granilith, your worlds would’ve never been saved….Michael would’ve never been born as Rath, re-engineered by the power of the Granilith, and sent to Earth to meet me...”

“Exactly. You would have never had your children. The Granilith would never be made. Never sent back. And our worlds and civilizations would’ve ended eons ago. So the fact he still existed…”

“Meant that Destiny was still in play,” finished Michael.

“Correct. He realized that Sa’rel had deceived him. Torq’el was given Sa’rel by the King himself. And he never trusted his mate. Sa’rel had one loyalty…Zan, and Torq’el was beginning to realize that Zan gave Sa’rel special instructions….ones that did not include him. He remained in the area searching the desert. He searched it for years and interacted with the Native Americans here, made friends and a life. Looked for anyone that could tell him anything about the crash. It was just a matter of time before his traitorous mate returned to collect the Royals when they emerged.”

“Nasedo.” Alex said, his first words in a very long time. Michael looked at him, his eyebrow raising. Alex sighed, “My grandfather helped a man, a special man when he was a boy. A man that became sick; he was not human. Our people called this man ‘Nasedo’. It means ‘visitor’. He later killed a man who was once his friend, but he spared my grandfather, who as a young boy saved his life. It was debt of honor of sorts, but with it came a vow of silence.”

Freddie nodded. “Your Nasedo would be Torq’el. He searched until the seventies, determined to find his mate, Sa’rel. This Nasedo tracked his mate to this isolated gas station, and while they were engaged in a fight, a young woman who had been waiting for her husband happened upon them. Torq’el murdered her because she saw them, saw what they were. A young woman by the name of Shelia Hubble. And he also murdered a Sci-Fi writer of the name Atherton, a man he once called friend, but a man that came too close to knowing and exposing what he was. He killed anyone he suspected might be his mate in disguise. Anyone that got in the way or discovered anything about him.”

“You said that he is the last remaining Protector,” Maria said. “What happened to this mate? This Sa’rel?”

“This Nasedo found Sa’rel working with a movie crew. After years of hiding, he finally found Sa’rel. There was a terrible confrontation, a fight about the betrayal and a demand to know where the Royal Four were. Sa’rel  refused to give up the location…refused to give up the Royals to a Shifter who was always questionable, one that was too powerful and had his own thirst for control. It is said that the fight was to the death, and this Nasedo walked away alive, but not knowing where your pods were. That was how you were lost. Your protector Sa’rel was murdered by Torq’el, this Nasedo, and no one ever knew where Sa’rel hid you. When you were ready to emerge, your protector, Sa’rel was no longer alive to come for you.”