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Hannah glanced out the window to see his black jacket billowing in the wind. Well, shit. She got out too and followed him as he strode up the dead-end street.
It was dark outside now, the sun having completely set behind the ocean. The roar of the surf hummed in her ears.
Heriot held his silver bag in one hand, glancing down at his tablet in the other. He looked up and turned left onto a dirt path. It cut across shadowy fields of coastal nature preserve. Most of the people milling about on the street were descending wooden steps to the beach down below. Only a few brave souls were entering the path to walk along the dark windswept cliff.
“Where the heck are we going?” she tried to yell to him, but the wind and the roar of waves crashing on rocks drowned out her words.
And why was she following him? Did she want to be with Heriot until the last second in order to give him a tearful goodbye? Or was she there to leave with him?
Hannah trudged behind Heriot, following the dim green glow of his tablet as they hiked along the narrow, rutted path through the rough grassy field. To her right was the cliff and the roar of the Pacific Ocean. Over the rise in front of her she could make out the distant peekaboo of red and blue Fourth of July fireworks.
Heriot stopped. She bumped into his back. “Follow me,” he ordered and took her hand as he turned right, cutting off the path and stepping through the thick grass, going straight to the cliff. And they stood there, on the edge of raw natural beauty. The vast, dark ocean stretching off to infinity in front of them.
There was no one else here. Everyone following the path had quickly walked forward to make it over the rise in time to watch the fireworks. No one was this far back, in the utter dark next to the cliff.
“W…why are we standing here?”
Heriot pointed down, over the edge. “This is where my brother is waiting for us. Our ship is cloaked and hidden down there, invisible to human eyes.”
She leaned forward slightly to look over the sheer cliff, making out the distant outline below of white foam crashing around dark, jagged rocks. “Down there?” she squeaked. “There’s a spaceship hovering on top of the ocean?”
“It is the perfect place to hide the ship. You and I need to get on board and leave. The gate we arrived through is set to deconstruct soon.”
Hannah glanced back up in time to see fireworks exploding in the nighttime sky over Heriot’s shoulder. The far-off boom reverberated in her chest. From this vantage point they could easily make out the multi-colored circles blooming above the distant, sparkling coastline of Cayucos.
Heriot turned. “What is that?” he asked.
“Today is the Fourth of July.” She shrugged. “It’s a celebration.”
“Of what?”
“An American holiday.”
He shook his head. “We need to leave right now.”
Her jaw clenched. “Heriot…”
He slid his tablet in his pocket, stepped forward and pulled her into his arms. Oh hell, he smelled so good, it was hard for her to think clearly when he did this.
“You are my truemate and we are leaving Earth togetherright now,” he told her.
She lifted her chin. “Baby, I’ve only known you for like, nine hours. Nine. Hours. And you expect me to leave Earth and go live with you on some planet where there aren’t any humans?”
“Yes. R’Etor is much better than Earth.”
She snorted. “How can I decide on such an important decision so quickly?”
“I expect you to decide because you are my mate and being with me is now the most important factor in your life. We are mates, Hannah. I cannot live without you. And I cannot live on your planet because they are primitive and have not made first contact. They would never accept me or our younglings. It would be disastrous. But you can live with me on R’Etor. There are often other species living there. R’Etor know of humans. You would fit in easily. And with this hair”—he picked up one of her curls again and placed it against his nose and inhaled—“you will in fact be a celebrity for this hair. It is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The R’Etor will be as entranced with you as I am. But they will know you are mine.”
“My job. My planet…”
“R’Etor is your planet now. As my truemate you will automatically be considered a citizen. You can join Herriot & Jadzion.”
“That picture you showed me, of the golden castle in the snow. Is that actually your home, or just somewhere nice on your planet we can visit?”
“It’s my home. You and I will live there with our younglings. It is very large. We will all be comfortable. And also, my planet is clean. It is a healthier environment for our younglings to be raised in.”
“Younglings?”
