Chapter 54: Chapter 54: Risking Exile

CARTER

They sat down across from each other in the white plastic chairs his mother had left sitting in their front yard ever since July 4 of last year. Above, the wide blue Texas sky stretched out to the edge of the universe. The chairs were a bit wet from recent rain, but at least they were sturdy. Carter was worn out from his frantic drive and also, from his fist fight.

But at least Allison had stopped him before things got any worse.

She leaned forward in her wrinkled Subway uniform and ruefully shook her head. “I’m sorry I couldn’t reach you sooner. Your mind is chaotic. You’re slippery in here.”

“I see you,” he said numbly. He was more than a bit ashamed of how he hadn’t.

He only barely remembered what had happened before he’d started dreaming, but he knew he’d been shot. If Allison was in his mind... it must be pretty bad. Was he dying out there?

Also, he’d absolutely totaled his truck. He glanced at his driveway to where both vehicles still sat, with his broken baby’s hood deep in the passenger side of Steven’s cherry-red monster. Maybe he could still get those dents out with enough work.

Allison snapped her fingers. “Look at me. Focus on me here, Carter. You’ve been shot, so even as fast as we communicate in here, we can’t take forever.”

His gaze snapped back to hers. “Focused on you. Still getting used to dream talking.”

“We have never done this before. Of course it is difficult.” She smiled a little, trying to comfort him. “Though if we’re making comparisons, I picked up driving much faster.”

Carter snorted. “Driving’s not the same as talking to a woman in your head.”

“You are not wrong. But you are safe for now. Nothing can harm you here, no matter how scary it may seem in the moment. I will protect you, both in here and out there.”

“Right,” Carter agreed. “So why’s my heart still going a hundred miles a minute?”

Allison visibly concentrated, and then her Subway uniform faded into the same lacy corset and cutoff jean shorts she’d worn when the played pool. “Perhaps I am responsible?”

He laughed and shook his head. “Okay, that might just keep my attention.”

“Just so you’re aware, it’s going to be difficult for us to have a detailed conversation with you still being so new to mental communication. Your brain is not used to focusing on logic and reason while in this state. So no matter how odd this dream becomes, you need to remember where you are and who I am. If the world become strange, focus on me.”

Behind her, his whole football team was cheering for him. At their head Alex, the quarterback, put a hand to either side of his mouth and silently shouted “She’s hot!”

Carter resisted the urge to flip him the finger and focused on Allison. “Eyes on you, honey. And we’re here to talk about how I have to leave you, right?” She was probably going to try to talk him into letting her take him to the hospital, which would be the end of their relationship. “But that’s not going to happen. I don’t ever want to stop being your partner.”

“Leaving you is not what I want at all. That is so far from what I want that I find it difficult to even acknowledge the concept in here. But a gunshot wound is far more serious than even a knife wound, and you will die unless you receive human medical attention.”

“But you can heal me,” Carter said calmly. “You said you could the night I got stabbed, even though you didn’t want to. And you patched me. So patch me again.”

A lizard skittered out from under his chair, and he jerked his foot up impatiently as it skittered off into the grass. “Dammit! What is it with all the freaky lizards?”

“Focus on me,” Allison reminded him. “Ignore the rest.”

He felt a little like a student caught staring out the window during class. And when he looked at Allison again, she was dressed like a teacher... sort of. Though teachers generally didn’t wear plaid skirts with pantyhose, and they certainly didn’t wear a top tied like that.

Despite the situation, Carter chuckled. “Hot for teacher?”

She glanced down herself, rolled her eyes, and looked up. “You did this, not me.”

“I’m sort of not sorry.”

“But this is different, Carter. I have studied your wounds. The bullet tore through one lung and grazed your heart. You are very lucky you are not dead, and you will be dead without human medical attention. I cannot simply patch you, this time.”

“Then heal my body. Syren style.” Carter narrowed his eyes. ‘’You can heal me, Allie. You can’t hide that from me in here. Why won’t you?”

She shuddered and bit her lip. “Because I could never take your family away.”

He couldn’t understand that at all. “What does my family have to do with this?” He wanted to remind her that she and Larika were his family now, too.

“If I heal you,” Allison whispered, “I could force you to leave behind your home.”

“There’s no guarantee I can’t one day go back to Texas. Even if we stay on the run for years, it won’t be forever.”

“It will be forever. And for you, not just me.”

Carter knew he was missing something. “Okay, just lay it on me. How is this different?”

“If I heal you... I will change you. Any new cells I generate for you will look human to any doctor who examines them, and once they are part of you, your body will not reject them. I will make sure of that. Even so, these cells will not be human cells.”

“So?”

“So Tharon hunters will then have a reason to arrest you that has nothing to do with me. Even if were to one day dissolve our partnership, you would continue to be hunted.”

“I’m fine with that. I already told you.”

“You are not listening, Carter. If I put my cells into you and reconstruct the places where you are broken, you will survive. But you will also not be a human any longer, at least not entirely. Once my cells are part of you, you will be part syren.”

“Oh,” Carter said. “So... I’ll get mind powers too?”

Allison sighed dramatically. “That would be wonderful, but no. You will remain unchanged to human observers, but to others, you will now be alien. Like me.”

“So that means... if a Tharon touches me, I’ll read as alien.” Carter leaned forward in the chair at her and ignored the blimp sputtering across the sky. “Still, what can they do?”

“Far worse than they would do if they found us and you were partnered with me, but still human. Once you violate interstellar law, the gloves come off.”

“Yeah, that tracks.”

“As a human, they will dismiss your actions as coerced and assume you were driven by greed and sex. They would not take you off planet. Rather, they would simply wipe your mind of all memory of me, up to and before we first met, then dump you in a field and leave.”

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That thought terrified him. “You said you’d never do that without my consent.”

“I would never do that,” Allison clarified. “Tharons have no such moral scruples.”

He was finally starting to get an inkling of just how serious this might be. “All right. I think I understand now. So once you put your cells in me... I’m an alien.”

“So far as they see it.”

“And Tharons, they arrest aliens. They take them off our planet, off Earth.”

“Yes. Aliens are not allowed to visit or tour planets like Earth, those that have not have been uplifted and inducted into the interstellar congress, without first signing a dozen forms and approval from the system cluster council. Once I heal you with my cells, and you become alien, it will become illegal for you to continue to live on Earth. That means that if anyone looking for me ever comes across you, even if we later part, they will remove you.”

Carter sat back in his chair. “I get it now.”

Allison blinked rapidly as she watched him from her seat. “So you understand why I must deliver you to the hospital. I love you, and I want nothing more than to be your partner until we merge for life, but I can’t watch you die and you can’t leave behind your family.”

Merge for life? What did that mean? He didn’t have to think about it now, because he was going to ensure they had time to find out.

“I do understand that, Allie. But we’re still not going to the hospital.”

“If I heal your gunshot wound with a donation of my cells, you will live. But you will no longer have the right to live here, on this planet, according to interstellar law. So by letting me heal you, you are agreeing to risk exile in any case where an alien detects your presence.”

“And that means I’d get to travel the galaxy with you?”

“That is unlikely,” Allison said. “I would be placed in my pod and returned to my stubborn partner, while you, I suspect, would be donated to a zoo.”

That actually sounded sort of interesting. “You have those?”

“Some races do,” Allison said grimly. “It continues to be a topic of much debate. Regardless, while human subjects are not as sought after as others in your stellar cluster, there is interest. You would be placed in a nice home and given a nice mate.”

“Shit,” Carter said then. “An arranged marriage.”

“And arranged everything else,” Allison said. “They would also expect you to breed.”

“Yeah, I’ll pass on that.” Carter frowned. “Thanks for telling me all this. This was a whole lot to hash out when I was bleeding to death after I got shot.”

She stood. “So you understand. We will go to the hospital.”

“Nope.” Carter rose as well. “You’ll heal me up with your amazing Allison cells, and then we’ll avoid your hunters like we have been. Together.”

Allison clenched both fists and glared. “I cannot ask you to commit to that!”

“I’m not committing to that. I’m committing to you. I love you, Allie, and I know you love me. This isn’t rocket science.”

“We have been together less than a month! You cannot make that commitment now!”

“I just did.”

“I cannot ask you risk exile for me.”

“You aren’t asking. I’m volunteering. It’s this whole thing I can do.” He took her in his arms, and while she weakly tried to fight him off, she wasn’t really trying.

He breathed, or thought he did. This was a dream. “It’s clear to me how there’s something deeper between us. I feel it in here.” He concentrated on her, then smiled as he caught the concept floating beneath her surface. “We click.”

She almost pushed out of his arms. “What did you just say?”

“We just click, Allie.” He pulled her close again and held her. “That’s how your people can tell who they would fit with, right? You feel it in their mind. You’ve felt it since they day you made me think I was dreaming on my couch. Our minds click, syren style.”

“Yes,” she said softly.

“I feel that too. It’s probably why I fell for you so hard and so fast. We were mentally compatible from the moment we met, like soul mates.” He kissed the top of her head. “I’m yours, Allie. And you’re mine. I’m one-hundred percent in my right mind and willing to risk anything, even alien abduction, if we can stay together. That’s my choice. I’m making it.”

Her eyelids fluttered as she stared up at him and gripped his arms so tightly he felt her fingernails, even in this dream. “Carter...”

“Am I lying? Am I wrong?”

She slowly sank against his chest and shuddered, then wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight. “No. You are not lying.”

“So we’re agreed then. No hospital. No jail. No goodbye. You’ll heal me up with your awesome alien cells, I’ll restore your energy the dirtiest way I know, and then we’ll cuddle in the bed until Larika gets back and then... who knows? But we’ll be together.”

“Yes,” Allison said quietly. “We will be together.” She nuzzled his chest. “I never wanted to ask this of you, but... I will not feel guilt. I will accept your decision and add this to the hundreds of reasons why you drive me out of my mind with lust.” She kissed him. “And love.”

“Good. So before we wake up, you mind if I put you in a maid uniform?”

She stepped back. She was, of course, already wearing one, though it was the sexy maid outfit and not a real one. He had an overwhelming urge to spin her around and bend her over.

“Carter.”

“Yeah?”

“Sex will happen later. I must focus on healing you now. You need only dream.”

“And when I wake up, you’ll still be there?”

The heat of her love washed over him like warm air on a cold morning. “Every day.”

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