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“You’re a monster,” I snarl. “And a fool. There are billions of us and only thousands of you. You’re a fool if you think you’ll be seen as anything other than a threat to be exterminated if you attack.”
She tilts her head at me. “Vermin outnumber humans and you have found an elegant solution to that problem. Extermination. I assure you that your pale human skins are nothing against a Draci’s fire.”
I grin at her. “We have ways to make fire, too. Fire the likes of which you’ve never seen before.”
But as soon as the bloodthirsty words come out of my mouth, I pull back from the bars of the cage. Am I really suggesting that I hope humankind engages in a battle with the Draci that would surely end in massive bloodshed on both sides? Is this bloodlust part of my transformation?
I drop a hand to my stomach. Or is it something far more primal than that? I have people who might be lost if this Draci attacks Earth. Juliet and Ana, and their mates. And First. Not to mention our… our babies. Because I haven’t forgotten what I learned right before she showed herself and knocked me out.
Twins. I’m pregnant with twins.
And First has no idea where I am.
“Be that as it may.” The Draci stands up, apparently done with me. “No Draci has ever run from a conflict, and we have waited centuries to find our new homeland. We will not run from a fight.”
I reach for the bars and cling to them as I lurch forward again. “But what if you didn’t have to? Why won’t you try it Shak’s way? He’s trying to work out a peaceful solution with the government to allow you to land. You just have to give him time—”
“I have waited a third of my lifetime!” the Draci hisses, striking at my cage with her foot.
I jerk back, the entire cage rattling from the blow.
“We will wait no longer. Commence landing procedures,” she says to the room at large in her harsh language.
My heart leaps into my chest. Oh God, she means to invade now? As in, now now?
I need more time! I need to try to escape and warn someone. I need to get to First and tell him we’re having twins. I need to tell Shak that—
“Onscreen,” the Draci who’d kidnapped me says, and at the front of the room, a large display drops down and suddenly I can see stars, and Earth looming large in the distance.
“We’ve decoupled the communications systems and the cloaking is in place?” she asks.
“Yes, Sovereign,” answers one of the Draci from the front of the room.
“Begin descent.”
At her command, we begin zooming forward. Earth, which had seemed big, grows larger and larger until it encompasses the entire screen as we approach. I barely feel any movement, which has to mean the spaceship we are in is huge.
But when we hit the atmosphere I certainly feel it. The entire craft shudders as the display lights up with fire upon our entrance to the upper atmosphere. We don’t slow.
I clutch the bars of my cage even though I know it is a false sense of steadiness and security. I am pregnant with a hybrid human-alien, sprouted wings, and am on an alien spacecraft headed to enslave the human race.
I literally cannot even wrap my head around how bad this all is. And for the moment can’t do anything other than pathetically cling to the bars of my cage as we hurtle through the Earth’s upper atmosphere. I don’t even know what to pray for—a safe landing? That we crash or are nuked out of the sky so that everyone I love would be safe?
Instead, I squeeze my eyes shut and think of First, and wish so hard he could have known that I am carrying not one, but two of his children.
Twenty-One
FIRST
I hobble, in extreme pain by the time I reach the ridge. The sun beat down on me all day, burning the weak patches of human skin. My face, for instance, as well as my arms and my back. The human half blisters, on fire from the sun. No wonder these weak creatures cover themselves with clothing.
Draci scales are far more resilient. We’re a more durable, resilient species in all ways.
Yet, I have to admit, my broken wings are a hindrance once I attempt the hike up the near sheer rock face of the ridge.
I am used to the nimble, thoughtless agility afforded me by my wings. Being forced to use the awkward hands and feet of this hybrid human form is infuriating. At least my hands are still clawed and I can get a better grasp at the cracks and crevasses than I imagine a normal human might.
When I am halfway up, I almost tumble to my death, but at the last second, I am able to scramble and catch purchase on the sheer rock wall with my foot claws.
