Is my stomach showing as I suck it in? Kaila heard Brandy's mind. Actually, she looks really pretty with those big blues eyes and blonde hair. The silver is weird, but she has a power and she's really smart. She kind of scares me. Will Derek like her more than me?

Despite hearing Brandy's insecurities, Kaila was sick of her flip, sarcastic remarks. She lifted her eyelids and stared at Brandy. She envisioned a dart thrown at Brandy's chest.

"Ouch," Brandy cried, clutching her chest. Her demeanor swiftly changed. She scurried to her desk, head bowed. Reveling in her new-found power, Kaila knew she had to be prudent.

A paper football hit the back of Kaila's head. Wade leered at her. In his mind, she detected images of naked women on a computer screen, saw that he imagined doing to her all those things those men did to those women on the Internet. He had her naked, bent over-gross!

Kaila blocked him. She wanted to thrust a huge pole straight through the middle of his perverted brain but knew better than to start slamming every person in the school. She seethed with pent-up rage.

The fluorescent light above her blew out. All the students in the cla.s.sroom looked terrified but said nothing. Kaila drummed her fingers on her desk.

I wish Kaila wouldn't go with them. She heard Melissa's thoughts behind her. Then what will we do? She said she'd help us. I feel sicker every day. So tired. I can't sleep at night anymore. I'm scared. I'm seeing ghosts. And what about Pia? She's pregnant! n.o.body gay gets pregnant unless they choose it. Why can't she see what's happening? I thought she was our friend. I liked her, but she turned on us. G.o.d, this hurts. Aren't there any true people?

Kaila turned around and said, "I will help you. Have patience while I figure out what's wrong. I won't forget you." Melissa looked shocked.

Philip held his head on his arms on his desk. The teacher, Mr. Foret, exploded.

"My G.o.d, what's wrong with you people?" Mr. Foret shouted. "Wake up! Do I need to get a body bag? I'm going to have to call the morgue and tell them you died."

I used to care. Kaila heard the teacher's mind. But now I don't give a s.h.i.t.

Then Kaila heard Philip, who blearily lifted his head. Everyone on this evil planet is a hater. Every last one of them a hating b.a.s.t.a.r.d. This is nothing but a living, breathing never-ending h.e.l.l.

Amen, Kaila thought.

At lunch, in her silver jumpsuit, with her real hair exposed, Kaila felt like she had come home to her true ident.i.ty. The students in the cafeteria gaped. She heard their thoughts.

She is so weird.

I always thought she was an alien just like those other weirdos.

She was trying to hide it, but now it's out.

I'm kind of scared of her. Hope she doesn't look at me.

But Kaila didn't care. She was different and had talents and abilities that the rest of them didn't. And if they didn't like it, they could just stay on this cruddy old rotting rock of a planet where they'd end up killing each other anyway.

She cast a new aura, something beyond the physical, and the earthlings knew it. As she pa.s.sed, they cleared a path. She wore no emotion on her face. But inside, she boiled. She radiated that: one false move, one wrong word, and you are dead. She was done with being trampled on, of not knowing who she was, getting hurt and seeing others hurt.

"Hey," Pia nudged. "Order up."

Kaila realized the cafeteria lady had been asking her what kind of smoothie she wanted.

"I want nothing here," Kaila said. She didn't want a stupid smoothie. The hive fed on something else. She swiveled her long neck, heard Jordyn telepathically calling.

Coming, she responded with her mind. She broke from the line and burst through the doors to outside.

The hive stood underneath their far tree. Kaila strode across the field, hearing the students' thoughts.

OMG. Look at her. Always knew she was bizarre. She's going to them. She's one of them.

So let me be an alien, Kaila thought. There's nothing for me here. She twinged with guilt for leaving Melissa and Pia, but she had to heed her true calling.

But one thing first. She approached the prep tree and stood before Wade Stoops. She stared at him with large eyes. Noting his fear, she felt a ripple of pleasure.

She turned to Brandy Powell and Tara Melancon. They dared not say a word, their stupid mouths hanging open. They sensed her power. It was strong as moon's gravity crashing ocean waves to sh.o.r.e. There was nothing they could say or do. One wrong word and they had a problem. And they knew it.

She inhaled, breathing in their fear. Instantly, she surged as if she'd grown taller. Still, she hungered for something more.

Kaila pivoted and sauntered to the far oak tree. The hive stood in one line wearing their sungla.s.ses. She approached, the harshness of the earth sun's rays causing her to squint. She put on her sungla.s.ses. Now she looked like the other members of the hive. Jordyn stood in the middle of the line. As she approached, Echidna, Antonia, and Lucius stepped aside to let her stand next to Jordyn.

Welcome, they said telepathically.

Thank you, Kaila said, taking her place. She felt their energies merging.

The hive made a semi-circle about her.

Jordyn said, "We are going to start filling in the gaps. You cannot be one with us till you have all we have."

They removed their sungla.s.ses. Antonia, Echidna, and Viktor's eyes started turning.

Kaila wanted to scream, No mind scans. But she lifted her eyelids till her eyes were black as theirs beneath her sungla.s.ses.

This is not a mind scan. She heard them as a group. No fear. Quiet your mind. Listen. This is a download.

Then an array of mathematics streamed through her mind . . . and vibration, sound. She grew dizzy. All was mathematics and sound. The complexity, beauty, and sheer truth stole her breath. She flowed away from Earth, tunneling through a portal, saw the expanse of the universe, saw that the laws of physics were universal, vast and beautiful, complex yet orderly. She felt as if she'd dropped into a hole in s.p.a.ce and glimpsed the eye of G.o.d.

She fell to her knees.

Kaila knew she existed in a portal of the universe. She saw sound. How can one see sound, she wondered. And we are all . . . one. She became aware of every cell in her body, every atom vibrating.

"What're you doing?" Viktor called.

"We are one," Kaila said, staring at the sky. She longed to arch her chest, open her heart chakra as her mother called it, feed off the energy of this strange sun beaming to her. Every one, thing, and atom were connected in the universe.

"Too much," Echidna said. "Stop transmission."

Jordyn got to his knees. "I heard you," he said, taking her hands. "But get up. They think it's too much for you."

Viktor snorted. "Give her just one piece at a time."

"No," Jordyn said. "She got something we didn't have before."

Lucius snorted.

The sun blazed strong and fierce.

Priscilla Snowden appeared, kneeling next to Kaila and Jordyn. Tossing back her long platinum hair, she looked up at the hive. "She does have something you don't have."

"Get to your tree, pig!" Viktor spat.

"Kaila," Priscilla said. "Is this true? Are you with them now?"

"Yes," Kaila said, turning away from Priscilla's beautiful face. "I am with them now."

"I am always here," Priscilla said. "Call on me when you need."

Jordyn took Kaila's arm. "I will take you to our home now."

Chapter 12.

Kaila and Jordyn were inside a craft. Dim white light emitted from the walls, ceiling, and floor; its source undetectable. The air was dank and stuffy. A low vibration emanated from deep within the ship.

"I shouldn't do this," Jordyn said. "But I can't help myself." He looked around. "This is a break in time. We are permitted to be alone as I try and a.s.similate for you." He took her hands. "But I am so glad you're here." Current from his long fingers transmitted to hers.

She grew aware of the strangeness of the craft, its sterility, its whiteness, its silence, and in contrast, his warm arms enfolding her and the beating of his heart.

"I want to kiss you," he said.

She kissed him then, tasting his lips. His hard body pressed against hers as her soft body yielded to his.

I want you, I need you, she heard his thoughts.

I want you, I need you, she responded telepathically.

The kiss deepened; his lips moved more insistently.

He pushed her away. "Stop." He looked pained.

"No hurt," he said, moving a strand of hair from her eyes. "But we must always hold control. I lost control." He straightened. "I do not have all the answers. But I am learning much from you too. Come," he said, pulling her into a long corridor. "Are you hungry?"

Time flipped; she didn't notice how they traveled to the next room. But Jordyn held substance on his long fingers. It was gray and pink, soft and moist. He rubbed it on the top of her hand and her forearm.

"This is a way we eat," he explained. "You digest it through your skin."

The moist substance on her forearm dissolved into her pores. Then her mind grew more alert and clear. Jordyn, too, rubbed some of the substance on his arm.

"Our fathers do not have digestive systems like us."

"What is this?" Kaila asked, noting the substance dissolve through the pores of his skin. She felt the stuff racing through her blood, her heart beating it to her brain, making her feel alive, surging with energy.

"Come," he said, pulling her from the room.

"No wait, what was that?" Kaila asked.

"It is a way we feed." He pulled her with his three bony fingers. As he looked over his shoulder, he blanched and erected a mind-block, for everything to this point had been telepathic.

"Why are you blocking me?" she called.

"Come here," he said. "I will show you not death, but life."

Kaila's mouth went dry as the blood drained from her head. She ordered herself to dissolve her fear. Of course aliens were going to have different ways.

They came to a huge, circular, white room. This room housed tall gla.s.s tubes, like vertical aquariums, filled with an electric-blue liquid. Hundreds of these tall blue tubes lined the wall's round perimeter. Kaila stepped next to a tube taller than herself. Inside the liquid, something floated. It looked like a fetus.

"Here," Jordyn explained. "We are being born."

"We?"

"Hybrids. This is where we are born."

Hundreds of babies in the blue liquid vats floated in fetal position, some sucking their thumbs. With large heads and meager bodies, their veins appeared like blue lines in a road map in a canvas of gray skin.

The baby in the tube closest to Kaila rolled and opened its eyes. It stared out of the tank at Kaila.

Kaila jerked away and thrust out her palms.

Don't be afraid, Jordyn said, telepathically receiving her distress.

"Um, I am a little freaked out. That thing looked at me."

"Look at me."

Kaila peered into Jordyn's owl eyes. He lowered his head, licked his thin lips.

"I hear how you interpret this as cold, clinical, scary. But really it is not. When you get used to it, it will not seem so strange. Now, don't think me a douche, as the earthlings say," he said, trying to smile. "But to make you comfortable . . . I offer music." Strangely, the air filled with the country singer Patsy Cline's voice.

"Someday you'll want me to want you," Patsy crooned.

"The music we heard on the television at your house," Jordyn said. He pressed his cheek to hers. "Just hold me, let me feel your warm body and feel this song pa.s.s through us."

Somehow then, the room wasn't so sterile and ominous. Kaila shut her eyes, not wanting to see the floating babies in blue liquid but preferring to nestle against Jordyn, feeling his warmth, his life force and lulling to Patsy Cline's voice.

"If we are hybrids," Jordyn said, "then being half human, we can mingle something of Earth here whenever we want." He looked at her earnestly. "Not so scary then. okay?"

"Okay," Kaila replied. "But why do you like those old corny songs that my Paw Paw likes?"

He shrugged. "Like what we like."

"And when can we heal Paw Paw?"