Lucius bobbed and swayed behind sungla.s.ses as if he were high on heroin at a blues concert.

Echidna moaned louder in the crescendo of ecstasy.

Priscilla Snowden appeared from nowhere, her beautiful face white as her hair. "Get away, predators!"

"Get lost, b.i.t.c.h," Viktor hissed, his eyes hooded.

Echidna licked her tiny lips, satiated.

Everything happened too fast. The blood drained from Kaila's brain. She felt Phyllis sinking as she wept. Sinking down into the earth and into a grave where she would never return.

Jordyn shouted, "Erect a shield on your mind, Kaila. Block her out!"

"I can't," Kaila sobbed.

"Block!" Jordyn shouted, shaking her. "Block her out."

Priscilla Snowden wrapped her arms protectively around Phyllis.

Phyllis was oblivious. In shock, her bulging eyes stared unseeing. Her head lowered as tears rained.

"I care, darling," Priscilla said, pressing her cheek against Phyllis's. "Hold on, don't give up, lift up."

But too late.

When Kaila realized Phyllis had surrendered, she gasped. This was the darkest abyss, a place of shame and loss with no hope.

Phyllis reached into her pocket and pulled out a gun. She held it to her temple and pulled the trigger. The shot echoed through the stadium.

Then her brains were all over Priscilla Snowden. Her body slumped in Priscilla's lap.

Again a freeze time moment.

Priscilla lifted her face to the night sky. Her beautiful blue eyes filled with tears. "Please, please, help them," she wept, cradling Phyllis's inert body.

Kaila's knees buckled as she traveled into darkness. She could still feel Phyllis crying. This was a hurt beyond death, a hurt staining the fabric of Phyllis's soul. Phyllis hovered in a dark place, a place of shadows. There were other shadow creatures there yet she was alone. It was the vastness of the night sky but dark as the deepest dungeon. And all she could do was weep with the loneliness of eternity.

"Kaila!" Jordyn's voice echoed above the darkness.

Kaila sobbed, lost. She wanted to lie down and curl into a ball.

"Kaila, please come up," Jordyn said, bear-hugging her. "Come up!"

She opened her eyes and buried her head on his shoulder.

Priscilla collapsed on Phyllis's corpse. Priscilla's strength and light weakened, like rain on a lit candle.

Then, security guards clamored with flashlights, shining on the blood spatters on Priscilla's white pants and Phyllis's blasted dead skull.

Kaila sensed Priscilla's waning strength, same as in the yoga cla.s.s.

"I have to go," Priscilla said gasping. "I have no more." Her face went white as snowy egret feathers. As the crowd thickened, trying to get a look at the dead student, she disappeared.

Kaila knew then, that she had to go to another place, that the longer the time she spent on Earth, the more her strength dissipated.

And no wonder.

All this while Jordyn held her.

"I hate this place too," Kaila said, sobbing.

"Don't hate, Kaila," Jordyn whispered.

"But I do. I understand why Phyllis felt so alone." Kaila withdrew from Jordyn. "This is a terrible place. An awful place. Everyone is cruel and vicious! We're surrounded by haters everywhere."

Viktor, Echidna, and Lucius hovered nearby.

"Get away from me! It's her pain, not mine."

But they leaned their heads near, their eyes large, feeding.

"Hear me clearly," Kaila said. "You will never feed on my pain again."

She wiped her cheek with the back of her hand and narrowed her eyes. "Because I will never feel pain again. From now on, I will no longer be part of the human race."

Dimly, she saw that Jordyn, Viktor, Lucius, Echidna, Toby, and Antonia understood. She felt them encompa.s.sing her, taking her.

"I submit to you," Kaila said. "Take me."

"No!" Pia cried. "Don't go with them!"

"It's done," Kaila spat. "And Pia. Don't blame me. If you had this choice, wouldn't you go?"

"Don't go," Melissa begged. "You said you'd help us."

"We can be friends," Kaila said. "But I will never again align with the human race. I turn my back; I spit on them."

Viktor stared with rapt interest.

"We will protect you," Jordyn whispered. "We are one, now, forever."

"Hereafter," Kaila said to the hive. "I want nothing more to do with this world. You have my total allegiance."

"What are you wearing?" her mother asked as Kaila came to breakfast.

"Oh, no, not joining that cult are you?" Nan asked, spooning scrambled eggs and grits on her plate.

Kaila had donned the silver bodysuit. She liked the material. You could ball it up to an inch in your pocket, then make it expand to a full outfit by shaking it. It didn't wrinkle or tear, and it repelled liquids and stains. It showed off her curves, her ripe b.r.e.a.s.t.s, her slender waist and long legs. Plus, it was the most comfortable thing she'd ever worn.

She had tucked her real hair beneath a baseball cap. She knew not to scare her mother too much.

"Leave her alone," Mike said, surprising her. "She likes that boy, Jordyn."

"I agree," Paw Paw said. "Leave her alone. Are you happy, Goosy?"

"Yes," Kaila lied.

She was venturing to another world and could never tell. Her family watched her with concern and love.

"Just let me be," she said.

At the bus stop, Kaila ripped off the baseball cap, letting her real hair hang loose down her back. No more pretending. This is who she was. An alien hybrid. Anyone questioning her could kiss her a.s.s.

On the bus, as she stood next to the driver and stared at the busload of seated students, everyone went silent. Red rage blazed from Kaila's head. One word, one taunt, and she'd make them pay. She strode to the back and sat between Melissa and Pia.

"Oh no," Pia said.

"You said you'd like me no matter what I wore."

"We do," Melissa said. "Please don't forget us."

For a moment, Kaila's stony heart yielded. "You're my friends."

They were lost, mistrustful puppies. She loved them still, yet pitied them. Earth people suffered deeply, while they inflicted pain.

"I won't forget you," Kaila said.

But when she stepped off the bus, she raced to the back of the school. People pointed and stared, but she didn't care. Melissa and Pia stayed behind.

She fell into Jordyn's arms.

"You are beautiful," he said.

"She does look beautiful," the hive exclaimed.

"If we could delight," Viktor said. "We would delight." Kaila realized this was as much as an earthly declaration as she would receive from Viktor.

"I admit," Echidna said, her perfect black bangs above her black eyes, "that if we could feel joy, I would tell you we experience joy."

"Oh, shut up," Kaila said. She threw her arms around Echidna.

"Stop. Now." Echidna grimaced and pushed Kaila away.

"I'm glad," Toby announced. He threw his thick arms about Kaila.

"Oh, Toby, you are a darling," Kaila said, hugging him.

"We understand," volunteered Antonia, who had her tufted hair held in check by a silver headband, "that this is your way. And so." Antonia opened her arms. Kaila and Antonia embraced.

"You are the brothers and sisters I never had," Kaila said.

"That may be true," Lucius said, always in sungla.s.ses. "But I shall refrain from the group hug."

"We take you," Jordyn proclaimed, his golden eyes glowing. "Now that you are with us," he said, "we need to infuse you."

The hive formed a circle around Kaila.

"Trust us," Jordyn said. "We are offering you protection. What happened the other night must never happen again."

"Human emotion can destroy you," Viktor said. "But it has benefits." He licked his lips.

"Though you receive thoughts," Echidna said, "we will show you methods of receiving and also how to block."

The hived lifted their eyelids and their eyes blackened. Kaila raised her chin, feeling the rising sun. She looked into their eyes and accepted their gift, feeling knowledge invade and permeate every cell of her body.

Simultaneously, her eyelids opened wide and her eyes went black. She was joining them, accepting them, feeling them, knowing them, absorbing their knowledge, thus unlocking the doors of her dormant powers.

The bell rang.

Kaila felt exultant in the rising sunlight, its rays deflecting off her silver bodysuit. She felt like she had a right and privilege-and the knowledge-to walk amongst the G.o.ds.

Jordyn gazed at her with the power of a distant sun.

Nothing will separate us now, he said with his mind.

Nothing, she said, gazing at him with black eyes.

Kaila strolled into English in her silver bodysuit. She may as well have walked in stark naked. She stared with defiance at everyone in their seats. They were humbled, for if they dared utter one word, she would silence them. Satisfied, Kaila took her seat.

Melissa poked her back.

"You okay?" she asked.

"I'm good," Kaila said.

"Um," Melissa seemed lost for words. "You gonna have lunch with me and Pia?"

In Melissa, Kaila saw all the loneliness, the insecurity and her dreams. But more so, she felt her friend's concern. It radiated from her, sure as the sun.

But Kaila could not commit to lunch. She had another place now.

Philip, the guy with the long hair, had his head on his desk. Kaila knew then that he was messed up on Somas, muscle relaxers. She received images of him living in a trailer in the woods.

She saw that his dad raised animals for dog fights. One had its teeth removed, helpless as bait in a vicious dog fight ring, other canines tearing his flesh apart. She saw the boy rooting through his father's medicine cabinet, stealing the Somas. If she were human, she might have felt sorry for him. Now he was a ridiculous human drugging himself to anesthetize negative emotion.

Brandy Powell pa.s.sed her desk, did a double take.

"Oh, so you are one of them today?" she twitted, tossing her strawberry hair.