Without moving an inch, Cara turned her eyes to Aelyx, whose black shirt and dark jeans camouflaged into the scorched wood, but his arms were trembling from holding still in such an awkward position. He’d pressed his forehead against the bark as if trying to become one with the tree. Just then, one of his shoes skidded against the charred bark, sending debris raining down on her and pelting the dried leaves on the ground.
Eric’s gaze immediately fell on hers and locked there for one eternal moment. Her breath hitched and she bit her lip, praying that Marcus and Brandi hadn’t heard it, too.
With a barely perceptible shake of her head, she asked him to keep walking.
“Hey.” Marcus halted, bringing one hand up like a defendant swearing an oath. “You hear something?”
“Yeah.” Eric broke eye contact and pointed to a ravine in the opposite direction. “Over there. Sounded like a squirrel.”
“Naw, man. It came from that way.” Marcus nodded ten yards ahead of her position, and Cara held her breath, willing herself invisible. She’d picked the wrong day to wear a pink sweater—it was a miracle Marcus hadn’t spotted her yet.
“You wanna split up? I’ll check over there”—Eric hooked a thumb toward her—“and you two head that way.” He pointed to the ravine.
“No,” Brandi said. “If our team’s gonna bag him, we should stay together. It’s the only way to take him down.”
“She’s right,” Marcus said, absently rubbing his upper arm. “That bastard’s crazy strong.”
Eric laughed dryly. “Scared? You’re the one with the gun, for chrissakes.”
“No, dickweed.” A tremor in Marcus’s voice betrayed his fear. “I was trying to help you, but whatever. Good luck with your pansy-ass Louisville Slugger.” He stalked in the other direction and Brandi reluctantly followed.
Once they’d moved out of her line of vision, Cara released the breath she’d been holding and watched as Eric made his way to her in slow, deliberate strides. He crouched down and pretended to study tracks in the dirt, sliding his gaze to the side to observe Marcus as he whispered, “You can’t stay here. There’re more coming.”
“Is my dad okay?”
Using his baseball bat as a walking stick, Eric pushed to standing and stepped around her, making a show of inspecting a patch of thistle. “Guess so. Got the crap beat outta him, though.”
She started to ask about Mom when more chunks of burned wood pelted her head, and she shielded her eyes and glanced up to see Aelyx resuming his climb. Eric flinched, noticing Aelyx for the first time.
“What’s he doing up there?” Even in the lightest whisper, Eric’s unadulterated loathing for Aelyx came through loud as an air horn.
“Getting his ship down.”
Brows pinched together, Eric crouched low again, tipping his head and scrutinizing her face as if she’d grown a second nose. “Do you see a spaceship?”
“I’m not crazy,” she hissed. “The cloaking device makes it invisible.”
“You’re not screwing with me? He’s really got a ship up there?”
She nodded.
“Where’s he gonna drop you off? The base?”
“He’s not dropping me off, Eric.”
It took a few seconds for him to figure out what that meant. When the realization hit him, he rocked back on his heels and landed on his backside. “No effing way! They’re evil, Cara—they’ve been poisoning our water! Our crops, too! That kid confessed to it.” He turned his glare on Aelyx, and it didn’t escape her notice that his hand tightened around the bat with white-knuckled force.
“It’s a lie. He was killed for no reas—” She bit short her reply when the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. The winter air had long since covered her skin in goose bumps, but something else had chilled her deep inside. She’d been so caught up in her conversation with Eric that she’d stopped monitoring Marcus’s and Brandi’s distant footsteps, and pure instinct paralyzed her once again. They were close. She sensed it.
Eric must’ve felt it, too. Springing to the balls of his feet, he swept the forest with his wide-eyed gaze. He crept toward the ravine, calling, “Johnson! Greene! Find anything over there?”
Cara’s heart pounded so hard her fingertips throbbed. She peered into the branches as if she could lift Aelyx to the top through sheer will. He was so close—just a few more feet. Flexing her fingers to restore feeling, she silently moved onto all fours and then crawled around the tree to reposition herself out of sight.
That’s when she noticed Marcus’s size elevens planted right in front of her.
With a gasp, she glanced up just in time to see Marcus draw back his rifle and slam the stock into her left cheekbone. White-hot sparks exploded behind her eyelids while the crushing force sent her head slamming against the frigid ground.
“Damn, baby,” Brandi said from nearby. “You don’t mess around.”
Cara’s lips parted in a silent scream. When she curled onto her side and covered her face, Marcus used the opportunity to kick her squarely in the ribs. She heard bones crack within her chest, her lungs emptied, and pure pain blinded her.
“Stop!” Eric demanded. His shoes scuffled and scraped right beside her ear, but the sensation flew to her mind’s periphery as she struggled to breathe. Nothing existed but her need for oxygen—even pain gave her a temporary reprieve while she opened her mouth wide, coaxing air into her flattened lungs.
That first glorious breath tasted sweeter than ambrosia, but relief lasted only a moment before agony returned with the fury of ten nuclear bombs. Eyes watering, she cried out and pushed backward, away from the grunts of the boys fighting inches from her head. Each movement sent barbs skittering across her raw nerves, but she scooted across the soil until her spine met the resistance of solid oak.
The second her vision returned, her eyes found Aelyx. He’d reached the shuttle and held one palm against its invisible hull, but his gaze darted back and forth between her and the violent shoving match nearby. She didn’t need Silent Speech to understand his dilemma: should he stay with the ship or come down to defend her?
Cara shook her head, scraping her temple against a pillow of dried twigs. Don’t do it, she silently implored. Get the ship down! Before long, more Patriots would find them, and she couldn’t run anymore. She couldn’t even sit up.
Suddenly, Eric’s body hit the ground and skidded to her side, spraying her with dirt and cracking her shoulder with his discarded baseball bat. Before he could scramble to his feet, Marcus cocked his rifle and pointed it at Eric’s chest.
“Just stop, man,” Marcus said, panting. “She’s the enemy. You’re thinking with your wang!”
Brandi pointed her golf club at Cara. “She’s been banging Aelyx for months. You think she gives a damn about the rest of us? My mom says we’ll end up as slaves to the L’eihrs, cranking out their half-breed spawn, and she’ll be safe on the other side like the traitor she is.”
“Exactly,” Marcus said. “She’s not human anymore.”
“Take your head outta your ass!” Eric pushed off the ground and charged Marcus again, shoving aside the barrel and then pointing at her. “That’s Cara. The same girl who let you cheat off her in sixth grade. My girlfriend for three years! She’s one of us!” He turned to Brandi and said, “You used to be friends.”