Ultimate Passage: New Beginnings: Box Set ( Books 1-4) (12 page)

F
inn didn’t have
time to process this miracle. Not with Asazi soldiers a few yards away. He flew up, and up, and up. He wanted to laugh with joy at this amazing development. The first thought he had was how much this would help the Asazi in a battle with the Kormic. But he had more pressing issues to tend to, like saving Marissa, so he had to let that thought go. For now.

North. He knew that Houston was north of Galveston. And right now he needed to be able to hide amongst the human population. So he flew north.

In a short time he could see the city lights of Houston glowing in the distance. He made for the highest point with the least amount of light and alit on the rooftop of a high-rise in downtown Houston, overlooking the bustling, traffic-laden metropolis. He handed Marissa her clothes, though he’d enjoyed her body pressing against his for the flight.

She slipped behind a large metal box. He heard the rustling of clothing as she dressed.

“Now what?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. Things are confusing. My wings aren’t supposed to work. They never have. No Asazi has functioning wings. And earlier, when your fiancé and those guys attacked—I don’t move that fast. I never have.”

“Ex!” She emerged, folding her arms over her chest, angry. A beautiful, fierce vision, hair askew, eyes on fire with green light. “So what do you think? What’s different? Why do you have these... superpowers? Being on Earth? Being part human?”

He needed to think. And he didn’t want to voice his suspicions yet. They were too uncertain.

“So tell me more about where you’re from. And how you were on Earth before.”

He wanted to tell her the answers to her questions even less than he wanted to tell her about his suspicions as to why he could fly, or move so fast. But he owed her something. The least he could deliver was answers.

“Originally we lived on your world, among humans, occasionally interacting. Long ago we were banished. Sent to another world, one inhabited by others. We battled, we lost. My people, the Asazi, live in hiding from the Kormic. We have battles at times. We’re working to return to Earth to claim our lands. Some of our buildings still exist, here—on Earth. Earth’s people have no idea about us, only theories and speculation.”

“Why don’t you leave that other planet? If it’s so bad, I mean.”

“As I said, it’s not easy to move an entire population.”

“And Asazi are harvesting our eggs?”

“I can’t be sure that’s what our scientists are doing, but it’s the best I can come up with.”

“Why don’t the Asazi try harvesting Kormic eggs? Instead of traveling to the far ends of the galaxy?”

“It’s been tried, with captive Kormic. The results were disastrous.”

He paced up and down the roof of the high-rise. What could he do now? Who would help her? How could he leave her? Could he? Should he hide her and return to the ship and be a failure at his mission, but know that she was safe? What if his people scheduled another Wave? Would she be targeted? Would she ever be safe?

He wished he could talk to Kal, unsupervised, uncensored. Ask him if he thought there was a way to leave Marissa out of the mission.

He would go back to the ship, then wait and see if he had a chance for some privacy with Kal. If he was found, he’d claim he couldn’t find her. Would they know different?

They’d been at the hotel. Who were they following? Him or her? Him, probably. A thought came to mind. He took the phone out of his pocket and placed it in a crevice on the high rise-rooftop. He’d have to keep moving if this was how they’d found him. If they’d used the phone to track him.

He turned back to look at the woman, the vision—chest heaving, this dark-haired, curvy hellion. A woman who had become much more to him than he’d thought possible.

He sucked a deep breath in, knowing that his next step would be difficult. “I have to go.”

“
B
ullshit
.” Marissa stormed over to him. This man, this being, this beautiful image from another place that she was figuring out she didn’t want gone from her life. “You’re not going anywhere. You drop all these info-bombs on me. You leave my car in Galveston. I’m here in Houston, people are hunting me to do things to me—surgical shit. And you say you’re leaving?” She grabbed his arm, the hardness flexing beneath her fingertips. “Bullshit.” She looked into his eyes, seeing the pain in them as his face tinged with blue.

“I just want to go look for my people. To see if they’ve left. To see what’s going on. To see if you’re safe.”

She huffed. Men. Half-men. Whatever. “You just don’t get it, do you?”

“I think you’d be safer up here, than if you were with me.”

“I’d be trapped up here. At least you could fly me away if there was danger.”

“Listen,” he started.

She put two fingers over his lips and slid her other hand up his arm, over his shoulder, behind his neck, and pulled his face to hers. “Finn. Please.” His breath was warm against her mouth. She kissed his lower lip, sucked on it gently, traced it with her tongue.

“You’re making things happen.” His voice was hoarse, sexy.

“They’ve already happened.” She didn’t want to expand on that. How could she possibly explain to him that there were these feelings for him—strong ones—deep within her?

“Let me go check for you. I won’t bother you again after that if you don’t want me to. I’ll stay away.”

Disbelief flooded throughout her body. Did he still not get it? What did he think she’d meant by what she’d just said? “Finn, I don’t want you to leave.”

He leaned back and took her face in his hands, cupping her jaw, his gaze boring into her eyes, reaching her soul. His own expression was confused. “After everything—”

She shook her head. “I don’t get it either. I don’t want you to go, though.” She stepped back, hands on her hips. “And I sure as hell don’t want you to leave me here.” And yet she didn’t want to go close to the ship. Couldn’t they just run away somewhere?

The logical part of her brain laughed at her ignorance.
He’s not even an American citizen. He can’t hold a job. You’ll be losing your job in a matter of days. And you have no prospects.

Marissa rubbed up and down her arms, even though it wasn’t cold.

“What is it?” Finn tugged her top, pulling her back into his arms.

“I’m worried. You can’t go. We shouldn’t go. But we will. Then what? What will happen?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll fly us there. We’ll stay in a grove of trees nearby. They won’t see us. We’ll see what’s going on and then we’ll go.”

“And then?”

“We’ll make a plan. I’m not sure what that is yet, but at least let’s make sure my people go so you’re not under threat.” A smile lit up his face, but the frown that lined his forehead didn’t go completely away. “Ready?” He held his arms out.

She shivered, not sure if it was from the breeze that had picked up or something else.

F
inn inhaled
as much air as he could, filling his lungs, his chest. “Ready?” He tried to infuse confidence in his words, but he couldn’t even convince himself. What if he couldn’t fly again? What had allowed him to fly the first time? What if he took off from the roof and they plummeted to their deaths? So much for saving her.

“What’s wrong?” Marissa looked up, pushing her hair back from her face.

Her laser-sharp gaze saw right through him. He was convinced of that. Should he tell her? That wouldn’t solve anything.

“Nothing. Just checking the wind. Thinking things through.” His best bet would be to start the flying thing at the end of the building. That way, if they fell, they’d fall on the rooftop, making it serve as his landing strip, rather than crashing dozens of floors down, onto the concrete Houston sidewalks.

He took her hand and led her to the other end of the roof. “We’ll start here.”

“You’re worried.”

Damnation. She knew him too well.

“You’re worried it won’t work.”

“It’s still a foreign skill for me. I can’t say I’m used to it yet.”

“Finn. You can do this. You did it before.”

He’d been full of adrenaline and worried when he did it before. What if it didn’t work now? What if he couldn’t figure it out? “Let me do a test run first, just to be sure.”

“No way. You’ll leave me. You’ll go off on your own like you planned to do. Not a chance.” She hunched over, poised like a runner. “I’ll catch you if you try to fly off.”

He couldn’t help the laugh that exploded from his body. And it felt good. He’d never laughed so hard before. This sweet, tender woman was threatening to tackle him, and at the same time, she was the tigress who’d been in his bed earlier. He took her chin in his hand. “I won’t leave you. I promise on all that is holy. On all that I believe in.”

“You said you don’t believe in much.”

“I swear it. On my grandmother.”

“You test your wings. I’ll wait.” Her jaw’s set was determined, and her eyes were green flint in the semi-darkness. “Don’t go far, Finn.”

F
inn took a few steps back
, his face appearing cast in stone, resolute. Because he was wearing only a pair of jeans, his wings spread behind him, and he rose straight up, the air pushed by his flight fanning Marissa’s face. She bit back the giddy laughter that threatened to come out. She didn’t want him to know she’d been worried too. Worried that he’d crash-dive both of them into the ground below.

He made a slow spin around the rooftop, and her eyes stayed on him as he circled above her. She rotated with his motions, then—

Oh, god.

No.

He was gone from sight. Vanished. He’d plunged like a stone.

The same boulder dropped in Marissa’s stomach. No, this couldn’t be happening. She rushed to the end of the building, her lungs burning from exertion and fear.

She drew to a quick stop at the end of the building. She didn’t want to look over the side. She couldn’t bear the thought of seeing Finn’s body lying on the sidewalk, blood pouring out of him while a crowd grew around him, fascinated by the man with wings.

She dropped to her knees, then sat against the brick wall, her head in her hands. Hot tears coursed down her cheeks. She could still smell him on her body, and now he was gone. Forever. Her hero, her savior.

“I’m sorry, Finn.” Her tears turned to sobs.

A soft breeze fanned her hair. How could the world still be functioning, the traffic zooming, honking, the wind blowing, the moon beaming its faint glow, while down below an amazing man lay dead, just waiting to attract attention, to be featured on the news?

“What are you sorry for?”

Finn’s voice.

Finn!

Marissa raised her head. He was right above her, creating the breeze with his wings, his skin a beautiful green tint. She jumped to her feet, grabbed his legs and pulled him down.

“Don’t you ever scare me like that again. I thought—I—it looked like...” She wiped her tears away with impatient hands.

“I didn’t do anything. I was testing my wings.”

“It looked like you were falling. Like you lost control.”

With one fingertip beneath her chin, he raised her face, studying her. “You were crying for me? You were worried?”

“That’s hard to believe?” It almost seemed as though this was a foreign concept to him. Marissa struggled to remember that he wasn’t like her. But she couldn’t figure out what he
was
like. Did he not have emotions? If he didn’t, then why had he saved her?

“No.” A perplexed expression flashed over his features. “Ready?” He held his arms out.

She had so many questions to ask him, but this didn’t seem like the right time. Would there ever be a right time? A chance? A reason to ask him about the Asazi and his emotions?

She let him wrap his arms around her, then put her hands on his neck and turned her face into his bare chest, so that his wings weren’t encumbered. It struck her how commonplace it was now for her to see his colors changing and his wings there behind him.

She took a deep breath, inhaling his scent and the scent they’d created together. “Ready,” she whispered, so he couldn’t hear her. She was ready for whatever. Her adrenaline dropped, fatigue set in, and she nuzzled against his body.

M
arissa startled awake
. Something was different. She was still in Finn’s arms. She pulled her face away from his warm chest, away from the strong heartbeat. They were on the ground. Unsure of the level of danger, she kept her voice to a whisper. “Where are we?” Through the night’s darkness, she could see the silhouettes of pines and oak trees surrounding them. Scrub and brush locked out most of the moon’s faint light.

“In a thicket near the compound. I can see the entrance. I want to see who’s coming and going. If they look like they’re ready to go back. And what kind of threat they may pose.”

“What sort of compound is this?”

“It’s an underground one, on land our people own. We’ve owned the land for a long time. We own several properties scattered around the world. Have bank accounts. We’re preparing for our eventual Ultimate Passage.”

The chirp of crickets punctuated Finn’s explanation.

“So you do have a way to move to Earth? You could do it today if you had the transportation?”

“We don’t have the transport, anyway. But I believe that an influx that large wouldn’t go unnoticed, even if it was spread out over several countries.”

“What language do you speak, where you’re from?”

“Asazi. But we are all trained in English. Though we don’t use it except when we have to. Well, I did.” He shrugged. “My grandmother was American, and she felt more comfortable with that language.”

“She wanted to be with your people?”

“She loved my grandfather. And he felt the same way.” His skin glowed a blue tinge in the dimness. She had come to recognize that as sadness. Unless it had other emotions tied to it. She’d have to ask him sometime. “You don’t like emotions, do you? Are all your people that way?”

“Yes. It’s what separates us from baser creatures. Humans, animals.”

Marissa fought her anger at that revelation. “Baser? You’re comparing us to animals?”

“That’s not how I feel. That’s—” He visibly struggled for words, for an explanation, and a flash of orange flowed over his face and neck, then subsided. “How some think. Not all.”

A wave of sadness poured through her. “Was your grandmother happy?”

“I think so. She never said she regretted leaving Earth. She never asked to return.”

“That—”

Finn put a finger over her lips, then pointed.

Headlights were approaching from a distance.