PART THIRTY THREE

Max surveyed the group of his comrades and friends who had gathered in the living room for the meeting. He hadn’t revealed his reason for calling them together yet, though naturally everyone assumed it was to discuss the events of last night. However, the truth was that he was about to request a greater level of sacrifice than he had from any of them previously.

He was going to ask them to directly confront their greatest enemy.

Max rubbed his eyes in exhaustion, and knew how drained he must look, because he felt old and battered today. Beaten. But he’d be damned if he was going to let Nicholas win…if he’d let him kill his spirit. That much he’d determined in Liz’s arms as dawn’s earliest rays had spilled across their bedroom floor. He was ready to fight, and destroy their enemies once and for all.

And now he would ask his friends—the people most dear to him in the world—to enter the heart of darkness with him. He bowed his head at the thought, only their muted conversations intruding upon his solemn mindset. He gathered his energy and resolve into laser-sharp focus, then slowly raised his eyes again. Maria stared at him from across the room, concern flickering in her gentle expression, and Michael studied him more somberly.

As if Liz could feel his growing apprehension, she placed her palm softly on his thigh, stroking it almost imperceptibly with her fingertips.

Still connected, even without their bond—still woven together. Inseparable. She’d known his heart in that moment, had realized he was steeling his courage to lay out the plan. Her gentle prompting assured him of one fact.

It was time.

****

Their new house wasn’t a cabin, but more of an adobe cliff-side dwelling, with lots of sunlight and white walls. It should have been cheery, but something about the winter sunlight glinting off the white paint left Tess feeling hollow and cold. She hugged her arms around herself, trying to press out the chill that had descended upon her.

Max cleared his throat, signaling the end to all the chatting among the group. He looked exhausted, his expression strained, but something had changed in his expression since last night. Before, he had seemed haunted and lost—now he’d clearly regained his center, and there was the bright glimmer of determination, shooting like fire in his amber gaze.

"So, we’re here," Max began, glancing around the group. "Without casualty and for that, we can truly be thankful."

Tess watched as Liz tilted her chin upward, her posture radiating strength and support. Liz is thinking that she almost lost him, that we came so close to it. Tess wasn’t even sure how she knew, but somehow she sensed that Liz was forging ahead with brave resolution, despite how she felt inside.

Michael wasted no time, and jumped right in, frowning sharply where he sat on the white adobe hearth by Maria. "Maxwell, last night was too damn close."

"Michael," Max began with a weary sigh, but Michael cut him off.

"Max, listen. I’m not talking about the rest of us…or our own safety," he explained, running a hand through his hair. "I’m talking about you. And I think everyone else here would agree."

Michael glanced around the room, clearly seeking agreement as his eyes searched those of aliens and human alike. Yet no one spoke, only nervously averted their eyes. Except Serena, who met his gaze seriously, blinking as she ran her hand down the length of her ponytail thoughtfully.

"Am I not right?" Michael demanded when no one had spoken.

"None of us were pleased with the events of last night," Serena agreed. "But everyone is safe. That’s what’s important."

"No, it isn’t," Michael insisted, jumping to his feet. "Our leader was almost killed last night, in case you didn’t notice…Max and Liz were both put in unreasonable jeopardy."

"Michael, how could it have been avoided?" Max demanded, his voice sounding strained. "I mean, what would you have had me do differently?"

Michael sat down again quickly, shaking his head. "Not you, Maxwell…"

"What would you have had happen differently then?"

Michael’s voice was quiet, yet firm. "Max, these people are supposed to be protecting you."

Tess sucked in a sharp breath, her chest tightening at his words. Perhaps they struck her more deeply, painfully because of how tied she was to Marco now, but she swore she felt Michael’s statement pierce every one of Serena’s unit right through the heart.

"Michael!" Liz admonished, her small hand flying to her throat. "Please, that is so not right. If not for Serena and the others, Max and I wouldn’t be here today. We would be dead. You know that."

"She’s right, Michael," Max agreed. "No one can blame them for last night."

Michael rubbed a hand across his eyes, pinching the end of his nose as he fell silent a moment. "I’m not trying to step on any toes," he finally grumbled. "But all I know is that last night should never have happened."

"How the hell could it have been prevented?" Riley asked, his normally calm voice uncharacteristically tight, and Tess saw that his cheeks had flushed red with anger. Again, she felt a sharp pain right in her chest in reaction to Michael’s accusation—she knew how deeply it must have hurt them all.

"Well, maybe if we’d moved from the safe house sooner. How many months had we stayed in that one location? Almost a year, if I’m not mistaken."

"All of our intelligence indicated that it was still secure," Serena stated simply. "But Michael is correct. We must study what went wrong last night, and learn from it. Formulate a new strategy."

Serena’s voice was surprisingly calm, her back straight as an arrow as she met Michael’s gaze evenly. Tess had always respected Serena, but in that moment her admiration increased exponentially. Michael had made a deliberately inflammatory remark—for reasons she couldn’t quite understand—and yet Serena had not risen to his provocation, no matter how hurtful his words.

Tess watched as Michael opened his mouth, ready to reply, and then quickly closed it again. Serena had obviously taken him by surprise in her openness to his comments.

"I appreciate that Serena, but I don’t want to focus on last night right now," Max answered tartly. "There’s something much more important for us to discuss today."

Max stared at Michael pointedly, raising his eyebrows in question. "Unless Michael objects." Max’s voice was edged with sarcasm, and yet there was a kindness underlying his words. Tess never ceased to marvel at Max’s patience with Michael, and how intricately he seemed to understand him. Somehow, despite Michael’s blundering remarks, Max seemed to understand that he’d been seeking to protect him…had obviously been badly shaken by last night’s events.

"Go ahead," Michael grumbled with a wave of his hand. "Why should what I’m saying matter anyway, huh?"

"Michael, look, can you just shut up?" Isabel suddenly snapped from her seat on the sofa. "You can see that Max is trying to accomplish something here, so can you just let it go, okay?"

"Would all of you please just be quiet and listen?" Max suddenly roared, rising up a bit from where he sat with Liz on a short loveseat. "Please? How damn hard is it for me to call a decent meeting to order today?"

The room fell silent, as Max pressed his eyes tightly shut for a moment, clearly working to regain his composure.

Finally, he opened his eyes and spoke, his voice quiet and controlled again. "We don’t have time for any of this, guys. I have some information to share and plans to lay out," he stated, his voice regaining its usual calm tenor. "I need you all behind me now, not bickering and casting blame. Can you agree to listen?"

The group nodded, everyone waiting eagerly, yet none of them were prepared for his next words.

"Khivar will be on earth next week. This is our chance to strike," Max explained, his amber eyes searching all of theirs. "Once and for all."

"What?" Serena demanded, her brown eyes growing wide. "That’s not possible."

"It’s what Marco told me, Serena," Max explained. "And I need to know if all of you will follow me into battle."

"Max, you always have my full support…my unit’s, but I must take exception to this intelligence. Khivar has never risked coming to earth. I can’t see him taking that gamble now."

"Those were his words, Serena. I don’t even know how he’d do it, but Marco was definite about it," Max insisted, chewing his lip thoughtfully. "How could he have gotten something like that wrong?"

Serena narrowed her keen brown eyes, blinking a quick rhythm with her long lashes. "I’m not sure."

"How does Nicholas get his orders from Khivar so regularly?" Tess asked from where she sat beside Kyle on a small Southwestern throw rug. "If he’s never here, then how does he communicate with Nicholas?"

"Through an emissary," Anna chimed in, explaining the setup within the enemy camp. "There was always an emissary who would occupy one of Nicholas’s men. In fact, it was considered a coveted honor for anyone who was chosen for occupation. They prepared their bodies ahead of time with an almost religious fervor."

"Perhaps that’s what Marco was referring to," Max wondered aloud.

"I doubt it," Anna disagreed, frowning in thought. "No, Marco was too aware of how he always arranged his ‘visits’ in the past. This sounds like he was describing something much more definite…terrestrial."

"Okay…question," Maria asked. "Why couldn’t you just kill whoever Khivar was inhabiting? Wouldn’t that have killed him in the process?"

"Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way," Anna explained. "You would only have succeeded in killing the host, and then in the meantime Khivar would have simply released himself."

"So, if that’s what Marco means about Khivar coming next week, that’s not an option he could pursue, then?" Tess asked.

"It would only expose Marco, and kill the temporary occupant," Riley answered seriously. "Nothing else would be gained."

Tess shivered as Riley met her eyes seriously, his gaze communicating much more than his simple words had. Riley was worried about Marco, was afraid he’d gotten himself in too deep with Nicholas. Tess had always noticed how close Riley and Marco were, had observed their easy humor and brotherly bond on countless occasions. But this was the first time she’d ever sensed that Riley was genuinely frightened for Marco’s safety—even in all the months of his absence. She felt her blood run cold, as she remembered how very intuitive Riley was, and hoped his concern didn’t emanate from a prescient vision.

Max pressed forward, resting his chin on top of his folded hands thoughtfully. "What method would Khivar have for coming to earth?"

"None that I know of…at least not without investing several years of effort," Serena explained. "Which is why this bit of intelligence perplexes me. If only we had some way to ask Marco for more information…anything to give us more of an advantage."

Tess had been tugging nervously on a stray thread on the hem of her sweater, trying to ignore the apprehension that Riley’s eyes had triggered in her heart--had been willing herself to feel secure about Marco’s safety within Nicholas’s camp. Somehow, the errant thread seemed the perfect way to focus her energy outside of herself, to calm the swirling vortex of emotion that Riley’s simple look had unleashed within her. A single thread, unraveling slowly beneath her fingers, minute and specific. Controllable. It seemed to rein in her unbridled fears. This was something new in her spirit, this need to harness the fire inside, the way it grew and spiraled like ungrounded electric current.

He’s changed you, a soft voice wooed her. The voice mutated, altered…became throaty and deep. I’ve changed you…you’re like me, a part of me now…this is how I experience everything.

Tess drew in a sharp breath, shivering at how vivid Marco’s voice had felt within her mind, as if they’d been intimately connected for that brief moment. She stared around the room blankly, saw Serena speaking, yet couldn’t hear a sound. There was only the sight of her mouth, opening and closing…then Serena staring at her expectantly.

"Tess?" Serena asked again, obviously expecting a reply to some question that Tess had never heard.

"What?" Tess managed to gulp, feeling her face flush. She still felt strange and disconcerted, and her fingers tingled slightly with a fiery sensation.

"I’m just wondering if you could do it again?" Serena explained patiently. "On demand."

"Do…?" Tess asked blankly, her face burning now in embarrassment. She couldn’t possibly explain why she hadn’t been listening to such an important conversation.

"I’m wondering if you and Marco might be able to form a connection of sorts," Serena explained, studying Tess strangely. "After the way he warned you in your dream last night, I’m curious if you could forge the bond on your end."

"Marco dream walked you?" Isabel cried, her large brown eyes widening in surprise.

"No, no," Tess explained quickly. "It wasn’t like that at all. Not that planned…I don’t even think he knew he’d done it."

"How could he not?" Isabel questioned, wrinkling her nose in confusion. "I mean, you either enter someone’s dreams or you don’t."

"That’s not how we do…" Tess’s voice faded as she found a dozen pair of eyes staring right at her. Instantly, she bowed her head, focusing on where her hands were folded in her lap. She’d almost revealed far too much about how intimately bonded she and Marco had become, and now they were all waiting.

"Tess, this could be very important," Serena admonished gently, her raspy voice surprisingly kind. "I know this is awkward, but we need to know what you were going to say."

Tess met Serena’s steady gaze, saw alien energy flash urgently within the soft brown depths of her eyes. Serena’s power only fluctuated in such an exotic way whenever her emotions were escalating powerfully, and Tess realized she was just as worried for Marco as Riley was. All of his unit was concerned, and perhaps her most intimate dreams of him held the key to his safety—and to killing their greatest enemy.

"We meet…well, not meet exactly…sort of," Tess stammered quietly, focusing only on Serena, blocking out her awareness of all the others. "We meet in our dreams. Often…most nights."

"Explain a bit more, Tess," Serena pressed softly, blinking even more rapidly.

Tess dropped her gaze to the thread on her sweater again, and began working at it nervously, avoiding everyone’s penetrating gaze. "Ever since he left camp…God, before then really…we just meet in our dreams. I don’t know how else to explain it, except that we find one another in our sleep."

"So this isn’t planned like a dream walk?" Isabel asked quickly, and Tess refused to look up, just kept staring down. But it was Serena who answered the question, before Tess could.

"Isabel, I think I understand what Tess is telling us," Serena answered, her voice instantly soothing. "And we don’t need to pry further. All we need to know, Tess, is whether you believe it could be initiated intentionally."

"I’m n-not sure," Tess answered softly, glancing up at Serena. "Couldn’t Isabel just dream walk him if I can’t?"

"He’s too far away," Isabel explained. "You’re the one with the connection, it should be explored."

"I might be able to do that now because the dreams changed, ever since…"

"Ever since?" Serena asked a bit more urgently, and Tess suddenly felt cornered, as if she’d walked into some sort of emotional trap. Her breathing quickened unsteadily and she felt her hands grow clammy. She couldn’t explain the way they’d joined the night before, how somehow she’d nearly mated with him under such precarious circumstances.

"Tess, why don’t you step outside a moment with Serena," Max suggested quietly. "I think that will make this discussion more comfortable for you."

Tess nodded feebly, feeling her face flame as she quickly scrambled to her feet. She was suddenly incredibly grateful that her king and leader had always been, in the words of Michael, "a sensitive guy."

****

Tess followed Serena out into the frigid mountain air, squinting as her eyes adjusted to the bright winter sunlight. They had walked out onto a small gravel driveway area, just outside the house, and Serena turned to face her.

"I apologize for making you uncomfortable in there, Tess," Serena began, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder with a snap of her head. "I had no idea about the intensity of the dreams, or I never would have pressed you like that in front of the others."

Tess kicked at the gravel thoughtfully, glancing at Serena. "I understand."

"I’m not sure that you do, Tess," Serena answered seriously.

"What do you mean?"

"I’m not sure you understand the purpose of the dreams," Serena clarified, her brown eyes narrowing.

"Purpose? No, I guess I don’t…we don’t," Tess agreed, hugging her arms tightly around her body to keep warm. "They started almost instantly after we first met."

"They’re awakening you to one another," Serena stated quietly. "Because you don’t remember your past lives…the love you had for one another, the dreams are drawing you together. Have been from the start."

Tess’s mouth fell open, as she stared at Serena in disbelief. How could she have never realized it? Her feelings for Marco had begun intensifying crazily from the moment she’d first begun dreaming of him. The sensations the dreams had unleashed with her body had been so vivid and overwhelming, yet it had never occurred to her that there’d been a specific purpose.

"When you say ‘awakening’ us…" Tess stammered in confusion, though she was beginning to understand.

"It’s like our mating seasons, but a bit different," Serena offered. "Before we’ve first mated, sometimes we are driven to one another in the same way…only it isn’t cyclical. It simply doesn’t relent until we satisfy the need to mate."

"Oh," Tess exclaimed, her cheeks burning at Serena’s blunt words. "Oh…so, that’s why…"

"I apologize if I speak too bluntly," Serena interrupted, touching Tess’s arm with surprising tenderness. "I do not mean to embarrass you, Tess, and certainly not about my foster son of all people. He loves you. Deeply. I’ve seen it and felt it for a year now. There’s nothing to feel awkward about."

"I know," Tess answered, her voice coming out in a mortifying squeak.

"It is simple, Tess," Serena explained. "Just as I explained to you months ago that Marco is your destiny, it is true that the dreams are also part of that. They simply come to reinforce the mating urge."

Tess nodded and wondered why her heart had begun beating so unevenly, and her breath had grown ragged—and then she realized that Serena’s explanation had inadvertently aroused her. Knowing that all this time, their dreams had been a form of their mating urge, left her feeling giddy and lightheaded.

"Do…all Antarians…have this? Prior to mating?"

Serena shook her head quickly. "No, not at all. Only those with certain gifts…Marco’s strong intuition has played a part no doubt. But it also happens to those who are deeply destined…as you both have been in two lifetimes now."

Deeply destined. The words danced a surprising rhythm right down Tess’s spine, they were so monumental and true.

"But remember, Tess," Serena continued. "Destiny comes with a price…is a calling of its own."

"What do you mean?"

"You are destined because of your great love, yes," Serena explained, taking Tess’s hand within her own. "But you and Marco are also destined because of what you can do. Together."

"You mean, right now," Tess questioned. "I can contact him and turn the tide in this war."

"That’s part of it, yes," Serena agreed. "But it’s more than that, too. You and Marco are meant to join for a purpose, Tess. Your powers must unite. He is protector to the king and queen…he needs your giftings, too."

"Needs them…why? To become stronger?" Tess asked, stepping back from Serena, suddenly needing space.

"His empathy needs the covering of your gifts…to seal what is an unpredictable and dangerous power within him. Your own gifts will ground Marco’s, stabilize them permanently inside of him."

Tess nodded thoughtfully, as Serena’s words began to take shape within her mind, as the facts of the past few days began to assimilate into a certain logic.

"But it’s not just that he’ll assume your powers, Tess," Serena continued. "It’s that your powers will fuse together, and when they do, you will take a place beside him, not just as mate, but as warrior."

Your powers will fuse together…you will take a place beside him. The words hung suspended, echoing timelessly within the cold, mountain air.

"Oh, God," Tess cried suddenly, her hand flying to her throat, as comprehension dawned within her heart. No wonder she’d been feeling so strange since last night, so utterly changed by what they’d done.

"What?" Serena questioned, her expression growing serious.

"We-we’ve already…joined," Tess managed to gasp. "Not mated, but our powers…I don’t think I can explain. Except to say…the compulsion to join our powers has been just as intense as the need to mate."

"Oh," Serena answered slowly, drawing the word out thoughtfully, as she rubbed her chin. "I think I see…the mating urge has been dual. You’ve yearned to bond, but that impulse has been reinforced by this other need…to fuse powers."

Tess felt her cheeks flush even more deeply than they already had. "I’m not sure how, but last night…our lives depended on Marco’s being able to mind warp…"

"You have come part way, then."

Tess nodded. "I think it was…a form of…"

"Indeed it was, Tess," Serena interrupted with a brisk nod of her head, glancing back at the house. "Marco has become what we call in Antarian, T’lasthre. Your ‘near- mate.’"

"Then you…know what I’m talking about?" Tess asked timidly. "It’s done on Antar?"

"Not often, but yes," Serena agreed. "Enough that we have that very intimate word of endearment for it."

"So, Marco is my T’lasthre," Tess breathed, loving the way the word rolled off of her tongue. It felt as if she were describing something erotic and forbidden. Serena smiled faintly at her pronouncement.

"Actually, you would say, M’lasthre," Serena corrected gently. "That’s what you should call him, if you want to use the word. My near-mate."

"M’lasthre," Tess repeated quietly, still loving the sound of the exotic word as it played across her lips.

"Yes, and now you and T’lasthre must make contact," Serena announced, stepping toward the house. "So that we may learn what Marco knows of this visit from Khivar. But before you do, it is time that all of you learned more about the man you will confront. Your enemy."

Tess followed close behind Serena, as she led the way back toward the door to the house. "What do you mean?"

Serena paused in her steps, turning back toward Tess. "I mean, that all of you have much to learn of Khivar," She explained. "And why he is keenly interested not just in all of you. But also in Earth."