The Visitor: Alien Hunger Special Edition (29 page)

He didn’t say anything for several
moments. “I’m the same person you’ve always known—the man who loves
you—that I hope you love.”

Chelsey was warmed by the declaration
and briefly distracted.

Actually, she wanted to dismiss her
doubts completely, but there were too many questions in her
mind.

She pulled away to search his eyes. “I
do love you. You have to know that.”

He swallowed audibly. “It’s nice to
hear it …. I thought, but no one’s ever a hundred percent
convinced, you know.”

She managed a faint smile. “No. It
takes lots of reassurance.” She pulled away, plopping down on the
edge of the bunk they’d vacated. “I still need to know the whole
truth—now. I need to understand what’s going on.”

He shook his head, seemed to consider
joining her and finally turned to pace instead.

He struggled for words for
some moments, dreaded telling her something he knew she was going
to have a hard time even accepting—that would shock, horrify and
very likely infuriate her if and when she did accept it—but there
seemed no way around a bald confession at this point and he thought
it might be less of a shock to her if she heard it all now—before
they arrived at the new colony. “I’m not who you think I am.” He
frowned, shook his head as if by doing so he could erase his
mistakes, but he’d gone over and over them for days and finally
realized it didn’t matter
what
he could have done. What mattered was what
he
had
done
because he couldn’t start over and he couldn’t undo the damage—not
now. “I honestly thought I could make it work—here—that there was
no reason you
had
to know. Not that I’m saying that would make it ok, but …. It
couldn’t hurt you if you didn’t know.” He paused to gauge her
reaction, decided to ignore the dawning anger in her eyes, and
continued doggedly. “In the years I spent here before, I perfected
the role I was forced to play to gather the Intel my people
needed—or at least I
thought
I had.” His true background in the institute
where he’d been produced and reared had made him singularly well
suited for the life they’d invented for him. “I knew—thought—I
could blend in and that you’d be far happier here on your own world
with your own people

“
Stupid, of course, but I
didn’t think you could handle the truth and it wouldn’t have been
safe for you to know—it would’ve been dangerous for me, naturally,
but it would’ve been dangerous for you, too.

“
In any case, I’d already
established the lie before I ever met you and I wasn’t just under
orders. I was under close watch. I didn’t have a choice in
that.”

Chelsey gaped at him, so
stunned by the sudden revelation she couldn’t process it. One part
did stand out, however—glaringly. “What?” Cold terror washed over
her.
That
explained why the Feds had, to all intents and purposes,
taken her prisoner!
“Oh my god!
You’re saying … Are you saying you aren’t really
a doctor? That you
lied
to a
judge
? Don’t you know that’ll get
you in jail? Oh my god! Why would you do that?”

Resentment flickered
through Garryk. He had lost her trust and it seemed doubtful he
would ever be able to regain it. “I
am
a doctor … just not ….” He shook
his head. “I’m not from here,
mabay
. There are some things
I
couldn’t
tell
you, but I’ve been as honest about everything else as I could be.
Everything you know about who I am, now, is true. My past
isn’t—wasn’t.”

Chelsey blinked at him, more confused
not less. “But … but … your school records.”

“
That was an identity
invented
for
me—not
by
me—to protect me so I could get what they wanted. I was sent
by my people to scout, to find a new home for our people.” He
hesitated, but he wanted her to know that he hadn’t deceived her by
choice. “I was sent before anyway—when you and I first met. This
time I came ….”

He broke off uncomfortably.
Subconsciously, he believed he’d come for her, that she was the
magnet that had drawn him back to her world, but he hadn’t
consciously acknowledged that until he’d seen her again.

Well, not even then. Not at
first.

He was afraid if he claimed to have
come just for her that she would see the tiny cracks in that story
and pick it apart.

Like why had he been here for months
without contacting her before the party … that he hadn’t even known
was for her?

To his mind, it changed nothing. As
soon as he’d arrived he’d set about trying to blend with their
society and part of that blending meant finding work and earning
the money to pay his way in their currency.

And that was a huge part of their
mating ritual, for that matter—which made it even more
important.

That didn’t mean he hadn’t done it for
Chelsey.

But she might not see it that
way.

Chelsey stared at him as if she’d
never seen him before—because she abruptly felt like she hadn’t. He
might as well have been speaking gibberish.

Like the ‘gibberish’ she’d grown
accustomed to hearing when he made love to her, her subconscious
abruptly threw into the mix as a sudden revelation.

The ‘gibberish’ that might actually
have been his native tongue?

Knowing how desperate she was to
believe anything Garryk told her, she shook that thought. She
didn’t understand anything he’d said to her. But a sick feeling had
begun to gather inside her.

This was going to hurt—maybe more than
she could stand.

This was going to break her
heart.

“
I don’t understand. What
are you talking about?
They
sent you? Who? To scout for what? You’re not …
you aren’t a … Russian spy, are you?”

Frustration flickered through him,
impatience. Not with her, but with her government.

She didn’t believe
him—didn’t believe anything he’d tried to explain and he wasn’t
sure anything he could
say
would convince her.

“
Not Russian. I’m not from
this world, Baby. I was sent years ago—under the cover they
created, the background that you knew. I was sent to discover if
this world would be acceptable as a colony world, and I have to say
it would be if it was up to me. It’s a beautiful place—has a lot to
offer—mostly because of you.

“
The trouble is your world
is facing the same problem mine is—or was. It’s dangerously
overpopulated for the available resources and it’s only going to
get worse. It wouldn’t support a colony because it can barely
support the life here already.

“
We
haven’t been allowed to mate in three generations—to couple
or reproduce naturally. The government controls the births and the
donors for the minimal reproduction they allow. We were
desperate—not that I actually had a choice of whether to come or
not. I was institutionally bred and the government owns me—Or did.
I paid that debt by risking my neck coming here to scout for
them.

“
Unfortunately, I had to
report that Earth wasn’t a good candidate. But they have discovered
some very beautiful, very suitable colony worlds and now they’ve
lifted the mating ban.

“
I thought I could offer
you a choice—that I could stay with you or, if you were willing,
you could come with me.” Actually, he’d thought/hoped he might be
able to maintain his identity and he’d never have to tell her, but
he didn’t think that would go over well if he told her. “I don’t
have the luxury of options anymore. I didn’t really have any choice
but to go to the hearing or I would’ve avoided it. I did my best to
cover my ass, but something didn’t pass muster. I’m guessing they
checked my background and it didn’t hold up.

“
Those red flags brought
the Feds down on me—on us—They jumped me a few nights ago. Maybe
they were on to me right from the start and just hadn’t connected
the dots before. I don’t know. I did get that proximity alert and
that might not have been someone accidentally stumbling across the
scout ship. They may already have been looking for me.

“
Whatever the case, it
wasn’t safe for either of us for me to linger.

“
Jods
only knows what they would’ve done if they’d gotten me to the
facility they were heading for. I know I didn’t want to know.
I
had
to
go.
We
had to go.
I’m sorry as hell that it came to this, but they clearly know that
I’ve been living with you—possibly even that I’ve fathered a child
on you—and that means you and the baby were in danger even if I’d
considered leaving you. I swear I’ll do all that I can to make you
happy, to make it up to you. The new colony world is beautiful—as
beautiful as your world, maybe more … because it’s young and
unspoiled.”

Chelsey stared at him blankly, still
trying to wrap her mind around what he’d told her—and completely
unable to. It comforted her that, despite everything, he hadn’t
said she didn’t matter to him, but if he had truly cared wouldn’t
he have told her everything? Before there was no choice? “You’re
scaring me, Garryk. This doesn’t make any sense! You know that,
don’t you?”

Garryk stopped pacing. After studying
her for a long moment, he glanced toward the window. “Come on. I’ll
show you.”

Frowning, Chelsey studied him uneasily
for several moments and finally got up, following him to the
window.

Vertigo hit her the moment
she got close enough to take in the entire view. There was
nothing
but night
sky.

Well, besides the planet Jupiter that
looked way too frigging close!

Comprehension eluded her. She simply
stared at the view, trying to wrap her mind around it and explain
it, understand it.

It wasn’t a picture, optical illusion.
She tried to convince herself it was, but it just looked too real
to accept that.

“
I’m sorry as hell, baby,”
Garryk said gruffly. “I just … I didn’t know of any way to prepare
you for this.”

She stared at him, but she hardly
heard anything he said. “I … I need to lie down for a little
while.”

Relief flooded Garryk. “Good thought!
Rest, baby. I’ll be back to get you before we hit the wormhole.
That’s a little rough and you’ll have to get into safety
harness.”

Chelsey nodded, but she didn’t even
try to assimilate that. She felt like she was going to pass out and
that was all she could focus on at the moment. She returned to the
bed, crawled onto the surface and curled into a tight ball,
struggling with nausea and dizziness until, thankfully, she dropped
over the edge of awareness into nothingness.

She was certain she didn’t sleep
long—that time, which aroused uneasiness about her sleep before.
Because she still didn’t remember anything from the point that the
agents had dragged her into that car ….

Getting up after a moment, she looked
around until she discovered a bathroom.

By the time she’d managed to figure
out how to use it—with the help of the computer—she didn’t need any
more convincing. She knew she wasn’t in Kansas anymore. She just
wasn’t sure of how she felt about it.

Even so, she left the bathroom and
went directly to stare out of what she was now certain was a
porthole not a window.

The planet Jupiter had diminished
since she’d last looked—which meant she’d slept longer than she
thought or they were moving way faster than anything humanity could
manage.

But then they’d have to have
capabilities that left humans in the dust, wouldn’t
they?

She wasn’t floating. They knew how to
manipulate gravity or simulate it. They had the capability of
traveling from one planetary system to another—or possibly one
galaxy to another. She didn’t have a clue of where he was
from.

Or what he truly was—and what he truly
looked like, she thought abruptly, feeling the fine hairs creep up
along her spine.

She paced for a while, thinking,
trying to make sense out of a lot of information that didn’t seem
to.

Trying to decide if she felt
threatened, in danger.

She answered that fairly quickly. The
idea of being on a ship bound for god-knew-where was
terrifying.

But she wasn’t afraid of
Garryk.

She loved Garryk.

The persona he’d created was part of
her love for him, but it was more complex than purely physical or
purely emotional.

It was
everything
about him!

She’d never in her life
felt more … connected, more bound to another being, not even
Lawrence at the time they’d married—
before
her illusions had been
shattered—in fact at any point, even though she’d believed at one
time that she loved Lawrence completely.