CASSIE
The agents placed me in the back of a dark SUV with windows so dark it was difficult to see out. I’d told Jason my father wouldn’t hurt me, but I didn’t know if I believed that for certain. He’d changed so much.
The driver sped away from the school like he was on a life and death mission. All I would have had to do was ask Jason for help as they approached me. Both agents wouldn’t have stood a chance against him, but I didn’t want to out his secret. Not when I suspected this was nothing more than my father on a fishing expedition.
“I didn’t get breakfast,” I said. Neither agent answered. I would have sent a text to my mom letting her know where I was, but as I’d climbed into the SUV, the driver had taken my phone.
“Hey! I said I didn’t get breakfast, and it looks like I’ll miss lunch. Stop so I can at least grab a burger.”
The agent in the passenger seat twisted around to look at me. He was young, probably in his mid-twenties, and had that eager look of someone wanting to prove himself. “Prisoners don’t get to make demands.”
“I’m not a prisoner. You didn’t even read me my rights.”
The driver laughed. He angled his face to look into the rearview mirror, but I couldn’t see his eyes behind the dark sunglasses he wore. “The AE & DD doesn’t have to read you any rights. Our authority supersedes the police. We can hold you for months and never charge you with anything.”
My throat went dry, but I wasn’t about to let either of them know how scared I was. “Why am I here?”
“Save your questions for your interrogation.” The driver turned onto the long stretch of road leading up to the department. A few minutes later, the SUV stopped before a tall gate manned by two men with ammo bandoliers crossing over their chests. One of them shouldered his gun while the other approached the SUV. The driver lowered the window, and the guard carefully studied his ID, then peered through the window at me. Finally, he nodded and motioned for the other guard to open the gate.
I’d been here before, but never this way. The Alien Eradication and Defense Department had different sections spread across what used to be an Army base. I was escorted into the main building where my father’s office was housed, but to my surprise, I wasn’t led to his office. The agents guided me into a small gray room at the end of the hallway. The room resembled an interview room at the police station complete with a camera in the left hand corner of the ceiling.
The agent who’d driven pointed to a table in the middle of the room. “Take a seat.” They both stepped out and shut the door. Almost as quickly as it shut, the door opened, and my father walked in. He dropped a folder onto the table between us and took the chair across from me.
“Seriously, Dad? Is this a joke?”
He opened the folder, then looked at me. “Standard protocol is that when a family member of an agent is questioned, it can’t be by the related agent.”
“Questioned?” I gripped my clammy hands together beneath the table hoping I didn’t pass out.
“Not officially. I managed to keep that off the record.”
“I’m not an alien.”
He smiled. “I know that, Cassie.” After plucking a page from the folder, he slid the paper across the table in front of me. “See this?”
I studied the page showing bands of DNA fragments, deliberately playing dumb. “What is it?”
“It’s an analysis comparing the DNA samples taken from the shirt found on the cliff after Micah’s rescue.” He pulled the sheet away and tucked it into the folder, then pulled out a second sheet. “This is an analysis of the blood found on the shirt compared to a reference sample of blood. Your blood, Cassie.”
I kept my face frozen even though my first instinct was to jump up and run like mad. When I’d come up with the idea of helping Jason throw my father off the scent by coating his shirt with my blood, I hadn’t expected my dad to be able to trace it back to me. I hadn’t realized he’d suspect me. Deliberately relaxing my shoulders, I said, “Is that what this is all about?” I managed a fake laugh. “Why didn’t you ask me about it?”
“You admit it’s your blood on the shirt?”
I rolled my eyes, which I thought was a good touch. “Yeah. I got cut on the cliff that day, and when I hugged Jason after the rescue, my blood must have transferred to the shirt.”
“You never mentioned getting injured at the cliff.”
“When was I supposed to?” I crossed my arms and glared at him, thinking going on the offensive was the right approach to take. “It’s not like you were home then any more than you are now.”
“Cassie, I can’t protect you from this if I don’t know everything. I’m the lead agent, but I still answer to the government. If someone above me doesn’t believe you, it’s going to become a bad situation for you.”
I opened my eyes wide and let my lips quiver. “You believe me, don’t you?” I didn’t normally play my father, but I sensed that arguing with him might set him off.
With a cold expression, he tapped his fingers on the table. “No. I don’t. I think you’re hiding something.”
“I want to know where my daughter is!” Mom’s voice carried through the building, and seconds later, the door flung open. She entered, followed closely by an attorney I recognized from advertisements on television.
“Sam Grant, you stop this and let her go right now!” Mom tried to push past the agents.
Dad stood and motioned to the agents lingering in the hallway. “Escort my wife and the attorney from the building.”
I gasped. And it hit me that my father wasn’t going to let this go. I had trouble breathing when the thought occurred to me that I might be tortured for information the same way it was rumored Dad had tortured others.
“Don’t worry, Cassie. I’ll take care of this,” Mom promised as she was hauled backward.
Dad slammed the door almost in her face, then turned back to the table and picked up the folder. “You’ll be held until an agent who oversees the FBI arrives.”
“You’re going to make me stay here?”
“In the unlawful combatant holding facility.”
Unlawful combatant? That area was for aliens or people considered a threat to society. “We’re not at war, and I’m not the enemy.”
“We are at war. You’re not smart enough to see that.”
“Dad—” My voice broke. “I’m your daughter.”
“And I have a duty to protect this country. I can’t let my emotions for one person keep me from saving millions.”
JASON
Not knowing what was going on wasn’t working for me. I wanted to talk to Cassie. Pushing away from the table, leaving supper uneaten, I retreated to my room, and looked her home number up on the Internet. I dialed it, but the phone rang repeatedly with no answer.
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Evonie said dismissively. “Your dad thinks we can be out of here by the end of the week. Once we free the transport from the rock we can go home.” She sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m so excited I can hardly stand it.”
I couldn’t concentrate on leaving when I didn’t know what had become of Cassie. I looked up the number for the coffee shop, and called, then asked for Cassie’s mom.
“She’s not in.”
“Sydney? What’s going on?”
“Cassie’s mom and I were able to visit her. They’re holding her without an official charge for now. Cassie’s father locked her up over the blood on the shirt. The agency knows it’s hers.” Sydney’s voice had a slightly accusatory ring to it.
Cassie being held in a cage tapped into my primal urge. The blood pounded in my ears. My power heated and sparks of it flew from the tips of my fingers. My heart felt like someone had twisted it into a mass of knots.
I squeezed the phone hard enough to twist the receiver. “I’m going after her.” I got up to get my shoes.
“Don’t. You could make things worse.”
“No. I’ll find a way to save her.” I hung up.
Evonie blocked the door. “I won’t let you risk our safety for a human.” Disdain showed on her face and in the way she put her hands on her hips.
“Get out of my way.” I spoke quietly, but with a menace that was clear. When she didn’t budge, I put my hands under her arms, picked her up, and moved her. She ran after me into the living room, telling everyone I was going to the Alien Eradication and Defense Department. My father and Carl rushed into the living room wearing identical expressions of horror. “Son, why are you doing this?”
I didn’t have time to explain my feelings for her or why I felt saving Cassie was the right thing to do, but some force within me was driving me to get to her as fast as I could.
The drive to the agency didn’t take long. Though I’d never been there before, everyone in town knew where it was. I parked the truck a half mile from the gate and started walking. Since I couldn’t exactly march up to the guards and ask to see Cassie, I would have to use my power to get in without making things worse for her. Right before I came in sight of the guards, I paused to rotate my hands counterclockwise. The world around me stilled. Birds paused mid-flight. The wind stopped mid-breeze. When everyone and everything in my surroundings ceased to function, it created an eerie silence. I kept rotating my hands rapidly, longer than I’d ever done before, but I needed more than a couple of minutes to get in and out.
My body trembled, the pain building to a level that caused sweat to roll down the side of my face. I lowered my hands and rushed the gate. After unhooking a key from one of the guards’ belts, I unlocked the gate and squeezed through, then ran toward the building centered in the middle. As I ran, I passed two agents frozen while talking on the phone, another one getting into a car, and a fourth one kneeling to tie his shoe.
I opened the door of the administrative building. “Cassie!” I yelled. Nothing. I left that building and went to the next one marked Holding Facility. My steps sounded unusually loud on the tile. “Cassie!”
Sounding like she was in a tunnel, Cassie responded. “Jason?”
I ran down the hallway, accidentally knocking a briefcase out of an agent’s hand. I picked it up and put it back in his hand. When I rewound time, I had to leave everything exactly as I’d found it or it could mess things up when time returned to normal. I rushed to the end of the hallway. Cassie was in a cell, on the floor in front of the bars, her hands gripping them tightly. Seeing her like that made the primal side of me want to crush the bars into dust, but if I did that, it might prove to her father that Cassie was involved in covering for me.
I slid to a stop in front of her.
Covering her fingers with mine, I dropped to my knees. Her hands were cold and her fingers shook. “I can get you out of here. My family and I will leave. We’ll go into hiding until we can get the spaceship out.”
“Jason, if you help me escape, my father will know something’s off. I would have to run, too, and I don’t want to leave my mom or Sydney behind.”
I bowed my head. Seeing her behind bars, knowing she wouldn’t be there if not for me, was difficult. I’d always been able to do whatever I had to do and just walk away without looking back. But now, I knew that I’d always look back for Cassie. Always want to know if she was okay.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not.”
I lifted my head, searching her face to see if she was telling the truth. “I’ve turned your life upside down.”
“This will all blow over.”
“And if it doesn’t?” I didn’t even want to think about that possibility. If it didn’t blow over, Cassie would face interrogation. The threat of death. I clenched my jaw. I wouldn’t let that happen. I’d come out of the shadows and announce to the world I was a Tazavorn before I’d let Cassie suffer for my existence. She didn’t have an answer, but I didn’t expect one. “Hang on.” I went back to the hallway and slipped inside the office. The agent monitoring the cells was frozen in the position of lowering himself as if he was about to sit in the chair behind him. I scanned the cameras. There wouldn’t be any hint of me on the recordings. since I’d stopped time before entering the building. I checked the ceiling until I found what I was looking for, and then returned to Cassie.
“The duct work for the ventilation system crosses right over your cell. I’ll be in there.”
“What?” Panic filled her eyes.
“I won’t be able to see you, or touch you, but you’ll know you’re not in this without me. You won’t be alone in the night.”
Tears filled her eyes, and she blinked them back. “Jason, that’s an amazing, sweet offer, but I can’t let you put yourself at risk.”
I took a deep breath, knowing I had to tell her the truth. “I’ve been holding time frozen for about seven minutes now.” Already, I could feel how the effort was beginning to weaken me. I didn’t know how much longer I could hold the universe still or what it was going to do to me when time restarted. “Once I let go of holding time, I don’t think I’ll be fast enough to get out without being seen.”
She bit her lip for a second, then tried again to dissuade me. “You’re going to be bored and uncomfortable in the duct work.”
“Nah. You can sing me to sleep.”
A half-laugh, half-groan escaped her. “I sound like alley cats screaming when I sing.”
“Oh. Then hum.” I leaned forward, putting my lips on hers. I lowered my defenses, letting her in. When I finally pulled away, I stroked her chin. “I wish it was me in there instead.”
“I don’t.” She kissed me, hard and urgent, her lips clinging to mine.
I wanted to pry the bars apart, and pull her onto my lap and give in to all the fantasies I’d had about Cassie since the first time I’d kissed her.
A dull ache started in my life force and I reluctantly backed away. If I didn’t go now, in seconds, I wouldn’t be able to move. I had to get into the system now. I could feel the time freeze start slipping. In the office, I put a chair on a desk to reach the ceiling. Seconds later, I hauled myself into the dark abyss. Leaning back down, I used my power to push the desk back into place and slowly lower the chair. I was still fastening the vent cover closed when time restarted.
Giant hands of pain grabbed my organs and twisted them. Clenching my teeth together, I curled into the fetal position. My blood felt too thick to move through my veins and the mother of all headaches slammed into the base of my skull. Waves of nausea rolled through my stomach. Darkness beckoned, and I struggled not to pass out.
The agent monitoring the cameras picked up a hand-held radio. “Section three and four, what’s your status?”
“All clear.”
After a second, the agent said, “Section five, status?”
“There’s an unidentified vehicle a half mile from the gate. Sending in the tag now.”
The agent tapped on a keyboard, then said, “Belongs to Jason Taylor. Goes to school with Cassie. Sweep the area.”
I rolled over onto my back, fighting to stay conscious, and cursing my stupidity at the same time. I should have texted Eli to get the truck. Should have planned better from the beginning. If I hadn’t let Cassie get involved and help with the shirt, she wouldn’t be in this mess. Pushing myself up onto one elbow, I slowly and quietly dragged myself toward her cell.