Amanda Ashley (38 page)

“Why are we going back to Silverdale, of all places?”

“You'll see.”

“Alex!”

“If I tell you, it will spoil the surprise. Do you think you can find your way to the lab from here?”

“I found it before, didn't I?”

“It's going to be light soon.” He pulled off the road and switched off the engine. “I'm gonna get in the trunk now. We should reach Silverdale about midnight.”

“I'm not going another mile until you tell me what's going on.”

“Trust me, Kara. You'll love it.”

“Stubborn man! Are you sure they won't regain consciousness before we get to Silverdale?”

“I'm sure.” He kissed her then, one long sweet
kiss, then got out of the car and opened the trunk.

Kara followed him. “Are you sure you'll be all right in there?”

“I'm sure.” He kissed her again, quickly, then climbed inside the trunk. “Close the lid for me, will you?”

“All right,” she grumbled. “But I can't promise I'll let you out again.”

“You will,” he said with smug male arrogance.

“Maybe, maybe not.” With a shake of her head, Kara closed the lid. Maybe
she
should write a book, she mused as she slid behind the wheel and started the ignition. Only who would believe it?

At dusk, she pulled over and opened the trunk. Alex grinned up at her, then climbed out of the trunk. “Everything all right?”

“Yes, they're still out.” She watched him stretch his arms and legs. “Are you okay?”

“Never better.”

They reached the lab an hour after midnight. Kara shivered as she looked at the building. She had hoped never to see this place again.

She waited beside the car while Alex carried Barrett into the building, then came back for Jarvis.

“Are you sure you know what you're doing?” Kara asked as she followed Alex into the lab and shut the door.

“Yes, ma'am.”

She followed him down the dimly lit corridor, watched as he placed Jarvis on a metal table. Barrett, still unconscious, was strapped to a second table. An image of herself and Alex strapped to those very same tables flashed through her mind.

“Now what?” she asked.

“A little ErAdonian magic,” Alex replied.

And then, while she watched, he filled two syringes with his blood.

Slowly, incredulously, she realized what he was going to do. “Why?” she asked, watching as he prepared to give Barrett a transfusion. “Why are you giving him your blood?”

“It's part of the magic,” Alex said, grinning. “Wait and see.”

He refused to say more. Taking her by the hand, he led her into the corridor, backed her up against a wall, and kissed her.

“I love you,” he said, nuzzling her neck. “Did you know that?”

She nodded, her mind going in circles trying to figure out what he was going to do while her body responded to his touch.

Just when she was about to pull him down on the floor, she heard a low groan.

“He's awake,” Alex said, taking her by the hand. “Come on.”

Barrett and Jarvis were both awake and tugging against the straps that held them.

“Turn me loose!” Barrett demanded.

“All in good time,” Alex said.

“What are you going to do?” Jarvis asked, his voice ragged with fear.

“I'm going to conduct a little experiment of my own,” Alex said. “Now, who wants to go first?”

Kara shook Barrett's hand, nodded to Jarvis, and then followed Alex out of the lab.

When they were in the car, the laughter she'd been holding back bubbled up. She laughed until her sides ached, until there were tears in her eyes.

“That was wonderful,” she said, gasping for air. “If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed it.”

Alex grinned at her as he pulled away from the curb. Rolling down the window, he took a deep breath. For the first time in months, he felt that everything would work out after all.

“You weren't kidding before, when you said you could make me forget you, were you?”

“No.”

“A handy trick.”

Alex nodded. He had given Barrett and Jarvis just
enough blood to create a mind link between them, and then he had invaded their thoughts and erased all memory of himself and Kara from their minds. It had left him feeling weak and on the brink of exhaustion, but it had been worth it.

While he rested in Barrett's office, Kara had gone through the lab to make sure Hamblin had destroyed the last blood sample Barrett had taken and anything else that related to Barrett's work, or to the two of them.

When Barrett and his henchman woke up, they wouldn't remember anything.

Kara slid a glance in Alex's direction. “You share a mind link with them now, don't you?”

Alex nodded. If he was so inclined, he would be able to communicate telepathically with Barrett and Jarvis. He doubted he would ever feel the need.

“Are they going to have increased life spans?”

Alex shrugged. “No doubt they'll enjoy remarkably good health. As for longer lives, only time will tell.”

“What about me?”

“I gave you considerably more blood than I gave either of them. I would say there's a good chance you'll live a long and healthy life.”

Kara stared into the distance, trying to absorb what that might mean, wondering if she'd live as long as Alex, wondering what it would be like to stay young and healthy for another hundred years.

“Kara, are you all right?”

“Yes. I was just wondering what our next move is going to be.”

“We need to find a place to spend what's left of the night. Tomorrow, you can call your grandmother and Gail and tell them it's safe for them to
go home. We can pick them up tomorrow night, if you want.”

“Home,” Kara said, caressing the word. “I can go back to my apartment.” She smiled, her eyes glowing.

Alex nodded, wondering if she meant to go back to her old life now that the danger was past. Not that he could blame her. She was a vibrant young woman. Now that the danger was past, she was probably regretting her marriage to a man who lived in the shadows, who couldn't share the sunlight.

His fingers clenched around the steering wheel. If she wanted to be free of him, he would let her go, even though he knew it would kill him to do so.

It was near dawn when they found a motel. Kara waited in the car while Alex got a room.

Inside, she sat on the bed, wondering at Alex's abrupt change of mood. He'd been jubilant a short while ago; now he looked morose, as if he had just lost his best friend.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

He nodded. “Just tired. I'm going to bed.”

“I'm hungry,” Kara said. “I think I'll go see if I can find something to eat.” She smiled at him. “I don't guess you want anything.”

“No.”

“I'll be right back.”

He nodded, wondering if she would come back. If he hadn't been so utterly weary, he would have probed her thoughts, but he lacked the energy.

She kissed him on the cheek, grabbed the car keys from the dresser and left the room, thinking as she did so that they would have to return Barrett's car once they picked hers up from Eagle Flats.

Lying back on the bed, Alex stared at the drapes. It would be morning soon, and he'd be trapped in this room until the sun went down.

On their wedding night, he had been so certain of her love, but now the doubts of two hundred years plagued him. Why would she want to spend her life with him? He was an alien. He couldn't stay in one place more than ten or fifteen years. He'd never be able to take their child on outings to the beach or the zoo or the park or do a hundred other things that a human male could do. How long would it take before she grew tired of the way he lived, before she started wishing she had never married him at all?

With a low groan, he covered his eyes with his arm. Life would have no meaning without Kara. If she left him now, he'd have no reason to go on living.

Kara, please don't leave me . . .

She was standing at the cash register, paying for a hamburger with the works, onion rings, and a chocolate shake to go, when Alex's voice sounded in her mind.
Kara, please don't leave me. . . .
The anguish in his voice was like a knife in her heart.

Collecting her change, she hurried out to the car. Placing her order on the passenger seat, she drove back to the motel as fast as she dared. The depths of Alexander's grief brought tears to her eyes even as she wondered why he thought she was leaving him.

I'm coming, Alex.
She sent the words to his mind, marveling that she was able to do so. She repeated the same three words over and over again until she
reached the motel. Inside, Alex was stretched out on the bed, one arm flung over his eyes.

Dropping the sack from the hamburger stand and the car keys on the dresser, she rushed to the bed and sat beside him.

“Alex? Alex, what's wrong?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Nothing! I heard your voice in my mind begging me not to leave you, and now you tell me nothing's wrong! Talk to me, Alex.”

“There's no reason for you to stay with me now,” he said, his voice devoid of emotion. “You can go back home and get on with your life.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You said you wanted to go back home. I won't stop you.”

She stared down at him, frowning as she tried to make some sense of his words. “I don't know what you're talking about. You're my home.”

“Am I?”

“Alex, I love you. You believe that, don't you?”

“If you say so.”

“I do say so. Please tell me what's wrong. You're scaring me.”

“I just want you to be happy, Kara.”

“I am happy. Happier than I've ever been in my life.”

He didn't look convinced. Feeling as if she were spying, she probed his mind, and there, deep down where he tried to hide them, she found the fears that were troubling him.

“Alex, I love you just the way you are. You must believe that.” She took his hand and pressed it to her belly. “I'm having your child, Alex, and it's going to be beautiful and healthy, and we're going to
live happily ever after, just like Cinderella.”

“Kara!” Choking back a sob, he drew her into his arms. “Forgive me for being such a fool.”

“I forgive you. I only meant I was happy I could go back to my apartment because it meant I could pick up my clothes and stuff. You're my home from now on, Alex, whether we're living in Moulton Bay or on top of your mountain. You believe me, don't you?”

“I believe you, Kara. I'll never doubt you again.”

“See that you don't.”

“Do you want to eat your hamburger now?”

Slowly, she shook her head. “I'm not hungry for food any more.”

“Oh?” A smile played over his lips. “What are you hungry for?”

“What do you think?”

He grinned at her. “Me, too.” He held out his arms. “Come here, Mrs. Claybourne. I think I can satisfy your appetite.”

“I know you can,” Kara said, slipping her arms around his neck. “But be warned, Mr. Claybourne, I get hungry often.”

“I'm counting on it,” Alex said, and knew he would never doubt her love for him again.

With a sigh, he enfolded Kara in his arms and knew that, at long last, he had found a home.

Eight years later

Kara and her brother, Steve, exchanged smiles as Gail crossed the stage to accept her diploma.

“Hard to believe she's all grown up, isn't it?” Steve remarked.

Kara nodded. It didn't seem possible her little sister was graduating from high school. In the fall, Gail was going to college to study anthropology, parapsychology, and astronomy.

Hard as it was to think of Gail as a young woman, it was even harder to believe that her brother, Steve, had finally shaken the wanderlust out of his system and settled down. He had gotten married three years ago to a lovely girl he'd met in South America, and they were expecting their first child in December.

Kara glanced down the row of seats. All the people she loved best were here tonight. There were tears in Nana's eyes as Gail accepted her diploma; Elsie Zimmermann was beaming with pride.

Looking farther down the row, she saw Alex. He was sitting in the aisle seat, looking as handsome as ever.

He met her gaze and winked at her.
I love you.

She felt a smile tug at her lips.
And I love you.

It still amazed her that she was married to such an incredible man. So much had happened in the last eight years. His books, now written under his own name, were consistently on the top of the
New York Times
Best Seller list. Their family was growing.

She smiled at her three children. They were all beautiful, all perfect, from their firstborn son, Alexander, now seven, to their youngest daughter, age two.

Kara rested her hand on her swollen belly. Their fourth child was due in another seven weeks. Their son was hoping for another boy to even things out.

All Alex's fears had been groundless. Alexander had been born with a minimum of pain and fuss, as had their two daughters, Lena and Katy Jay. The only hint of their alien heritage was the pale brown stripe that darkened their spines. The doctors had said it was nothing to worry about, just a peculiar sort of birthmark that would no doubt fade in time.

As for herself, she had suffered no ill effects from receiving Alexander's blood. Quite the opposite. In the last eight years, she hadn't aged at all. As for their children, they had all been blessed with remarkable good health. None of them had been sick a day in their lives. Alex had told her that ErAdonian
children grew to maturity normally, and then the aging process slowed. It remained to be seen what long-term effect their union would have on their children.