Invaded (37 page)

The stomping of heavy boots drew Cara’s gaze upward. Troy had returned, clutching
a small yellow case beneath his arm. He dropped to his knees and placed the device
on the floor, then
pressed the
on
button and untangled a set of electrodes and wires.

“Oh my God,” Cara whispered.

It was an external defibrillator. All major centers—even shopping malls—stocked them
near the fire extinguishers, but she’d forgotten all about them. With new hope, her
hands
flew into action, lifting Aelyx’s shirt so Troy could affix the adhesive patches over
his ribs and collarbone.

An automated female voice from the machine’s speaker advised, “Stand clear. Do not
touch the patient.” They obeyed, and after a brief pause, she intoned, “Shock advised.
Charging. Stand clear.”

Troy pressed the red
shock
button, and they watched Aelyx’s rib cage lift and fall. When the machine ordered
another round of CPR, Cara delivered thirty quick compressions
followed by two breaths. The female’s voice talked her through several more rounds
as it counted down two minutes. Each second was torture. Cara felt Aelyx slipping
further from her
reach.

“Stop CPR,” the voice ordered. “Analyzing heart rhythm. Do not touch the patient.”
Another pause. “Shock advised. Charging. Stand clear.”

“Please,” Cara begged Aelyx, God in heaven, the Blessed Virgin, the Sacred Mother,
and whoever else might be listening as she punched the flashing red
shock
button and drew
back.

Please work. Please!

His rib cage lurched, and again, the woman’s voice advised a round of CPR. But as
Cara placed her fist over his heart, she felt a stirring of motion, a nearly undetectable
hum of life
beneath her trembling fingers. Moving to his throat, she closed her eyes and felt
a pulse growing strong and steady. Aelyx moaned and shifted in discomfort, and Cara
released a sob of pure joy
while tears plunked onto his chest. He blinked up at her and rubbed a hand over his
ribs, clearly sore, but very much alive.

Cara turned to her brother and threw her arms around his neck. “You’re a genius!”

The machine droned, “No shock advised. You may touch the patient,” so Cara took the
woman’s suggestion and dusted kisses over Aelyx’s forehead and cheeks.

Grinning, Troy peeled an electrode from Aelyx’s chest. “I can’t take credit for the
idea. I saw Aisly using one on Jaxen about ten minutes ago.”

Cara froze. “Did it work?”

“Yeah.” Troy’s beatified expression showed how well Aisly had brain-bleached him.
He had no idea that Jaxen’s revival was bad news. “But before I could call an
ambulance, they took off for the elevator. Seemed like they were in a hurry.”

Aelyx and Cara shared a worried glance. On a normal day, disappearing in Manhattan
was effortless, but this afternoon, with thousands of bodies, umbrellas, and tents
lining the streets, finding
the pair would be like a living edition of
Where’s Waldo?

“Did you reach Alona?” Aelyx croaked.

Cara nodded. “They’re all safe.”

He didn’t speak again, at least not verbally. But she felt his gratitude mingled with
love and the words inside her head,
Then it’s okay. We did it.

The rest of the afternoon was calm by comparison—odd when Cara considered the magnitude
of signing her name beside the president of the United States and all of
Earth’s major leaders. As hard as she’d fought for this alliance, Cara expected to
feel a thrill of accomplishment when the ceremony ended, but honestly, she was glad
to put it behind
her. She’d had enough excitement, and now she wanted to go home.

Skipping the celebratory gala and the glitzy after-parties, she and Aelyx snuck to
the penthouse to rest, where they spent a quiet evening cuddled up in bed. While crowds
cheered and fireworks
erupted above the Manhattan skyline, Cara rested her hand over Aelyx’s heart, letting
its steady beat lull her into the first peaceful sleep she’d enjoyed in weeks.

Cara shut down her laptop and stowed it safely inside her luggage between a stack
of uniforms and the
Star Wars
Snuggie her parents had given her as a going-away
present. Ordinarily, she’d keep the computer by her side, but she decided to take
a vacation from blogging during the voyage home. She’d already received her antinausea
medication, so
once the shuttle delivered her to the main transport, she intended to spend the next
week suction-cupped to Aelyx’s side.

“Miss Sweeney?” said the L’eihr attendant from the other side of the luggage cart.
When she glanced up, he asked,
Are you sure you won’t shuttle up with The
Way?

I’m sure
, she told him.
After what happened yesterday, I’m not letting Aelyx out of my sight.

The man smiled in understanding and signaled the first shuttle to depart without her.
Once we load your cargo, we’ll board the second shuttle.
He nodded toward the other end of
the hangar to the steel cryogenic box holding David’s body.

Cara’s stomach sank an inch. Her first official act as a member of The Way had been
approving Syrine’s request to bury her
l’ihan
on the colony. Until now, they
hadn’t planned for a cemetery—L’eihrs preserved a genetic sample, then cremated their
dead—but Cara couldn’t say no, not when she knew how it felt to lose her whole
heart. The few minutes when she thought she’d lost Aelyx had left her with a permanent
mark on her soul.

She peered around the dim hangar until she found him talking with Syrine near the
coffee station. His hair had grown long enough for a stumpy ponytail, but one lock
slipped from its clasp, then
another and another until everything spilled free in a honey-brown riot. Exasperated,
he shoved his hair behind both ears. It made Cara smile. Hitching her bag over one
shoulder, she strode to join
him.

“How’re you holding up?” she asked Syrine, offering a gentle shoulder squeeze. She’d
noticed Syrine had refused to engage in Silent Speech, which made sense. If their
roles were reversed, Cara would want to keep her grief private, too. “Anything I can
do?”

Syrine shook her head and blew into her Styrofoam cup, peeking over the rim with unnaturally
wide black pupils.

Good. She was still sedated.

“I have something for you,” Aelyx said to his friend. After checking to ensure no
one was watching, he reached into his pocket and pressed an object into Syrine’s hand.
“Hide it well, or they’ll take it from you at the checkpoint.”

Forehead wrinkled in curiosity, Syrine uncurled her fingers, revealing a tiny brown
speck resting in the center of her palm. “What is it?”

Aelyx closed her hand and covered it with his own. “A pear seed.”

Cara didn’t understand, but Syrine smiled and brought that hand to her chest as if
the seed were more precious than plutonium. Tears streamed down her face, but they
looked like the happy
kind. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I’ll guard it with my life.”

An hour later, Cara palmed her transport chamber’s security panel, retracting the
door with a
hiss
. Aelyx followed her inside the closet-size bedroom, and they
took a few moments to simply stand there in the darkness. Shell-shocked, maybe. So
much had happened in the past twenty-four hours that it seemed surreal. So much loss—but
triumph, too. Cara
tried to shake off the shadow of heartache and focus on the future.

It was all any of them could do.

Aelyx took her hand and brought it to his lips. “Can you believe this is actually
happening?”

“No. We’re starting over from scratch. I can’t wrap my mind around it.”

Aelyx took her cheeks between his palms and gave her a warm smile. His molten silver
eyes reflected the dim lighting from the port window, so beautiful it made her breath
catch. Just when she
thought the sight of him couldn’t stir her any more deeply, he proved her wrong. She
braided her fingers in his hair and marveled at the contrast of her pale skin against
his bronze cheek. He
was exquisite, inside and out. And all hers.

“True,” he said. “But that’s not what I was referring to.”

“Then—” she began before he silenced her with his lips.

He gripped her waist with powerful fingers, his touch both gentle and possessive as
he explored her mouth with the tip of his soft tongue. Her pulse jump-started and
rushed to some pretty
interesting places. Before Cara knew what had happened, her back was to the bedroom
wall.

He didn’t stop, eventually forcing her to break for air. While she tried to catch
her breath, he liberated both their shirts and bit the magical spot at the top of
her shoulder, the one
that made her knees go weak. Holding her against the wall with his body, he pressed
his fingers to her throat and counted the frenzied beats of her heart. A moment later,
he murmured against her
lips, “One fifteen,” then gave her a downright scandalous kiss—the kind that made
it clear what he wanted.

Cara rested a hand on his chest and gently pushed him away, afraid of exciting him
too soon after his trip into the white light. “Whoa, there. Let’s give your ticker
a break,
okay?”

His eyes practically glowed while one corner of his mouth lifted in a grin. “I don’t
want a break. I want
you
.”

“But you just died.”

“That was ages ago.”

More like twelve hours. She gave him a firm shake of her head. “Not happening. I just
brought you back from the great beyond. I’m not going to risk losing you again.”

“I’m fine, really,” he insisted. “And if anything goes wrong, the transport medic
can restart my pulse.”

“No way,” Cara said with a laugh. “I’m not going to the infirmary and telling them
I sexed you to death!”

Smiling, Aelyx peered at the ceiling as if picturing it. “I can think of worse ways
to die.”

“Well, keep dreaming.” She took his hand and led him to the bunk. Whether or not Aelyx
realized it, he needed his rest. “Because all you’re getting is a
cuddle.”

He heaved a mighty sigh but didn’t hesitate to scoop her into his arms once they lowered
to the mattress. She tucked her cheek against that perfectly molded spot where his
shoulder met his
chest, and they spent the next several minutes listening to the noises of the flight
crew priming the thrusters for departure.

Soon Cara felt the gentle pull of inertia as the transport picked up speed and jettisoned
them toward a new galaxy. When the rumble of the boosters died down and another minute
passed in
silence, she traced imaginary patterns on Aelyx’s chest and wondered if he felt the
same subtle tug of anxiety that she did.

“Hey,” Cara said. The brush of her fingertips prickled Aelyx’s skin into goose bumps,
but it was a good tickle. He loved her touch. “What are you
thinking?”

Aelyx buried his nose in her scarlet hair. Sacred Mother, she smelled delicious, of
citrus and cloves, temptation and warmth. He couldn’t believe she’d agreed to come
home with
him.

“Just how lucky I am,” he said.

“No doubt.” She placed a kiss over his heart. “If Troy hadn’t been there, I never
would have used a defibrillator on you. I was so hysterical that my brain kind of
shut
down.”

“There’s that,” Aelyx agreed, “but I was thinking more about you.”

“Me?”

He nodded against his pillow. “That you’re willing to leave behind everything familiar
and come with me to the colony. Sometimes I still can’t believe it.”