Crusader (Battle Born Book 1) (3 page)

The question only reinforced her suspicion that the three most bizarre situations in her life were connected. Her father had been present the first two times she’d seen a person with blue-ringed eyes. “What’s this about?”

“According to public records, Daniel Kane owns this property. You obviously live here. How are you connected to him?”

She was dying to know more about the mysterious people who seemed determined to disrupt her life, but one fact remained unavoidable. When she’d seen her attacker’s face, he’d tried to kill her. Aliens or not, these people didn’t want the general public to know they existed. “You’re eight months too late. Daniel Kane is dead.”

He remained at her bedside tense and silent. She still couldn’t see his face and it was driving her crazy. Curiosity shoved aside caution and she reached for the lamp on her nightstand. Her fingers found the switch but he whipped out his arm and grabbed her wrist.

“Don’t. It’s better if you don’t see me.”

“Why?” Her father’s death had been ruled a suicide, but she’d always thought it was murder. If this man was connected to the others, maybe he could help her find the truth. “I’ll help you, if you help me. But I need to see your eyes.”

“My eyes? What do my eyes have to do with anything?” He sounded
almost
convincing.

“Your friend grabbed me from behind.”

“He’s not my friend.”

She went on as if he hadn’t spoken, needing to say it all before she lost her nerve. Or before common sense took over. “I don’t think he meant to kill me, until I saw his face.”

“How did you see his face if he was behind you?”

“There’s a mirror over the couch. He noticed me looking at him and that’s when he turned violent.”

He was silent for a moment then spoke in a low rumble. “What makes you think I won’t react the same way?”

“If you’d wanted me dead, I’d be dead.” He didn’t argue, so she pushed a little further. “I’ve seen your kind before.”

“My kind?” He chuckled. “FBI agents?”

She tried to sound calm and assertive, but her hands trembled. “People with bright blue rings in their eyes. My father was involved with them.”

Without responding to her claim, he said, “The man who attacked you was after information. If you have Daniel Kane’s research or have access to it, the man who attacked you will return.”

Would she never be free of that stupid research project? It had wrecked her parents’ marriage, made her mother doubt Ashley’s sanity, and likely cost her father his life. Exasperation built inside her soul and set her body in motion. She turned her back on the stranger and crawled off the other side of the bed.

“There’s nothing here to find.” She grabbed her jeans off the chair and pulled them on, each movement revealing her agitation. “I’ll just leave and let that bastard figure it out for himself.”

The stranger moved around the bed and slowly approached her, keeping the light from the hallway at his back. “If he’s convinced you can lead him to the research, there’s nowhere you can hide.”

She zipped up her jeans then turned to face him and her surroundings blurred. Her knees buckled then strong hands grasped her arms, keeping her on her feet, barely. She looked up into the stranger’s face and her heart dropped into her stomach. They were perpendicular to the light from the hallway and she could finally see his face. His features remained in high relief, but his eyes gleamed in the semidarkness, his common brown eyes.

“You’re human,” she murmured as she stubbornly searched the brown for any hint of blue.

With a warm chuckle, he eased back without releasing her entirely. “You sound disappointed.”

She didn’t know what she was—disappointed, relieved, confused, even a little angry. She’d been so sure Bandar was one of them. “But you’ve seen them, haven’t you. They’re real and they aren’t human.” She held her breath, afraid he’d brush her off like so many had before.

“What’s your name?” His voice was soft now, caressing.

“Ashley,” she answered automatically.

“Ashley Kane? As in Daniel’s only offspring?”

She didn’t see the benefit of lying. Maybe if she answered some of his questions, he’d answer some of hers. “Yes. Daniel Kane was my father.”

A slow smile curved his lips and his dark eyes shimmered. Still no hint of blue, but other realizations rolled through her. He wasn’t just handsome. His features, what little she could see of them, were undeniably masculine, yet striking. He had the sort of face photographers loved, all sharp angles and graceful hollows.

“Bandar really is my name,” he told her, “but you’re right. I don’t work for the FBI.”

“Can we go sit down in the living room? I’m still feeling sort of woozy.”

“Of course.” After making sure she was steady enough to stand on her own, he grabbed the bag of candy off the bed then followed her from the bedroom.

He was being polite and mostly nonthreatening, but she couldn’t let herself forget all the strange things that had happened already. He didn’t appear overtly alien, but he emanated power, a sort of controlled intensity. Maybe he was some sort of hybrid. Or he could have been altered so he’d blend in more easily with humans. Bandar? What kind of name was that? Female names were getting sort of wacky, while male names remained mostly traditional. At least on Earth. The stipulation made her smile. Suddenly all the thoughts she’d been suppressing for years didn’t seem so outrageous.

“Do you work with the aliens or are you trying to stop whatever they’re doing on Earth?”

“It’s my job to apprehend the one who attacked you.”

That seemed plausible, yet it was still frustratingly vague. “You’re a cop or a bounty hunter?”

He tossed her the bag of candy then sat in a chair facing hers. “Eat or your wooziness will get worse.”

He was clearly comfortable giving orders, but she didn’t feel strong enough to object. She sat down then reached into the bag and grabbed a handful of the chocolate teardrops. “What are they called?”

“Hershey Kisses.”

She rolled her eyes, not in the mood for any form of humor. As she struggled to organize her thoughts into succinct questions, her gaze drifted to the spot across the room where she’d been stabbed. She’d collapsed on the carpet and blood had been everywhere, yet no sign of the struggle remained. “What happened to the mess?”

“I took care of it.” His dark brows arched. “Would you rather I left it for you?”

At least he hadn’t tried to convince her she’d imagined the entire thing. Rather than fixate on the unimportant detail, she returned to her original question. “The man you’re attempting to apprehend. Do you know what his race is called? I know there are others like him on Earth. I’ve seen them.”

“They’re called Rodytes. When did you first see one and how many have you seen?”

Her heart fluttered, making her feel almost giddy. He’d just confirmed that she hadn’t imagined them, had even given them a name. Rodytes. Her father had been involved with Rodytes.

And she wasn’t crazy! She wanted to shout it from the rooftops. She’d lived with the stigma of emotional disorders for most of her life and now someone had confirmed her wild stories.

Emboldened by the validation, she let the story come pouring out. “My mother thought my father was cheating on her, so I tried to prove her wrong. I was so desperate to save their marriage that I hitchhiked all the way to Dad’s lab.”

“Hitch hiked? I’m unfamiliar with the term.”

More proof that he wasn’t human. “I asked complete strangers for a ride in their cars. It used to be a common practice, but it’s no longer safe. Too many whack jobs running around out there.”

He nodded, but she wasn’t sure he understood. “What happened at the lab?”

“That’s when I saw the first one, the first Rodyte.”

“Male or female?”

“Male.”

“Other than his eyes, was there anything remarkable about his appearance?”

He kept each question conversational. It just felt natural to respond. “He had blue streaks in his hair, but the man who attacked me didn’t. Maybe the blue streaks were cosmetic.”

Bandar shook his head. “The vast majority of Rodytes have dark hair, but only organic or pureblood Rodytes have the highlights. Generally the highlights match the
phitons
in their eyes, which come in a variety of colors by the way.”

“
Phitons
? Do you mean the glowy rings in their eyes?”

“Yes, though the rings don’t always glow. Generally that’s a sign of elevated emotion or the access of a magic ability.”

“Good to know.” Magic ability? Rodytes could work magic? She shook away the distraction. She’d never understand all this if she didn’t focus on one thing at a time. “The three I’ve seen all had blue rings in their eyes and all three were glowing.”

“Tell me about the third one.”

Ashley hesitated. Her encounter with the female Rodyte led to sixteen years of humiliation and self-doubt. Did she really want to reveal such a hurtful incident to a complete stranger? He watched her silently, obviously waiting for her answer. Now that she could see him clearly, she was even more convinced he wasn’t human. He was too big, too intense, too damn savage. He’d been nothing but kind to her, but menace simmered just below the surface of his calm exterior.

“You might not even realize what you know,” he coaxed. “Every detail is important.”

Pausing long enough to unwrap another piece of candy, she decided to tell him the entire story. “She was actually the second one I saw. The man tonight was the third.” Ashley put the chocolate in her mouth before it melted on her fingers and went to work unwrapping the next one. “I knew my mother wouldn’t believe what I’d seen at the lab, so I never mentioned it to her. Besides, I was only thirteen. I didn’t want to admit I’d hitchhiked all the way to the lab.” She shivered. “I was damn lucky I made it there and back safely. It was a really stupid thing to do.”

“Was the female also at your father’s lab?”

“Oh no, she was in my father’s bed—on top of him to be exact.” The silky-sweet taste coating her mouth didn’t make the memories any easier to bear. She’d been old enough to understand sex, but she’d never actually seen two people going at it. Up close and personal, and one of the participants had been her father. She shuddered, the image still amazingly clear after all these years. “Mom and I returned early from a shopping spree and we walked in on Dad and the Rodyte woman. She grabbed her clothes and ran from the room while my parents started screaming at each other. I was too horrified to look at my father, so my gaze just sort of stuck to his lover. Her long black hair was streaked with blue and the rings in her eyes were so bright her entire gaze glowed like sapphires.” She’d also been strikingly attractive, just like all the other Rodytes Ashley had seen.

Just like Bandar.

“Did your mother see her?”

Ashley shook her head. “All she saw was a naked woman having sex with her husband. I told her what I’d seen a few days later, even admitted what I’d seen at the lab. She didn’t believe me, thought it was my mind’s way of dealing with the shock of seeing my father’s infidelity firsthand.”

“What about your father? How did he react when you told him what you’d seen?”

“I never really got the chance. Mom kicked him out, so I had to sneak around to see him at all. Besides, our relationship was so strained after that night we never talked about anything important. By the time I turned eighteen and could see him whenever I wanted, I’d spent so much time with therapists they’d convinced me I’d imagined the strange glowing eyes.” She put sarcastic emphasis on the last phrase. If the story ended there, she might have been content with the outcome. As it was, she’d barely begun to explore her unanswered questions and Bandar was the first person she’d met who was likely to know what the hell she was talking about.

“Did you reconnect with your father after you turned eighteen?”

Apparently he wasn’t finished with his interrogation. He better intend on being as cooperative as she’d been or they were going to have a serious problem. “Sort of. We shared awkward lunches and numerous phone calls, but it was never the same. He was distant and, I don’t know, troubled, as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.”

“How did he die?”

She set the candy aside, more interested in her elusive visitor than her favorite comfort food. “Are you going to answer my questions once I’ve answered all of yours? Maybe I should hold off until I’ve learned some of the things I want to know.”

He smiled and Ashley’s heart did an irrational flip. No one should be allowed to be that attractive. It wasn’t fair to everyone else. “Ask away. I have nothing to hide.”

There was just enough challenge in his tone to make her respond in kind. “Are you wearing contacts or were your eyes altered in some way?” It wasn’t the first question she’d meant to ask, but it was suddenly the most important. She’d trusted him with one of the most painful memories of her life. If he wasn’t willing to share as well, she was wasting her time.

He laughed and glanced away. Guilty conscious? “You think I’m Rodyte?”

“Don’t answer my questions with questions. It’s annoying.” All amusement vanished from his expression and his features hardened. So why wasn’t she afraid?