But that’s…

The alien clicks, the sound snapping me back to reality and I blink.

But he’s not looking at me, his gaze is on the water, and when my eyes drop back to his wrist, there is nothing wrong with his suit.

The spike is gone.

I’m imagining things.

As he heads toward the water, I can only stare.

“Adira, are you okay? Where were you?” Sam’s gaze is searching my face and I blink again a few times.

“I—I’m fine.” I shake my head. “I was hiding. Or trying to. But…he found me.”

Sam’s gaze flicks toward the alien. “They took us from the machine. I think…I think they destroyed it.” Her voice drops as if she is exposing some secret.

No one has ever been able to destroy an orb.

“So you saw it too. I didn’t just dream about all of this.”

Sam nods, her eyes still wide as she looks at the aliens moving near the water. “They saved us.”

I want to believe that with every inch of my heart.

I want to believe these aliens came to destroy the other ones and as I stare at this strange being’s back, I want to think that Sam is right.

Off to the side, Mina makes a sound, pulling my attention away.

There’s light perspiration on her brow and her lids are low but she smiles at me.

She smiles.

I gulp as I move to squeeze her hand.

“Mina,” I whisper. I thought she’d been sleeping.

That’s what usually happens to the women that are bred.

The parasite takes everything from them.

They simply become a host.

As I touch her hand, Mina gives me another faint smile.

She’s fighting it. She’s strong.

I want to tell her it will be all right but I don’t know if I dare to believe that myself.

So instead, I move closer to her.

That’s when my gaze catches something in the trees nearby.

A form that moves in the darkness.

My heart skips a beat as it materializes into one of the aliens and I freeze.

He’s hovering among the trees behind us and his eyes are so dark that, coupled with his suit, he almost completely blends into the night itself.

Unease crawls up my spine.

How long has he been there?

I didn’t even notice him.

The fact that he is so close by and I had no idea…

Alarm shoots through me as my gaze darts around the darkness behind and around him, but I do not sense any others.

He looks at me for a mere second before his gaze lands on Mina again where his focus latches.

I swear I hear a hiss, much like the one Lava Eyes did, but the dark-eyed alien doesn’t move from where he is standing. I’m not sure if his intent was to conceal himself from us or if it is just an effect of the darkness.

“What are they?” I whisper.

“Very, very alien,” Sam replies.

“What do you think they want?”

Sam shrugs and moves closer to me and Mina.

Her gaze suddenly finds the one with the dark eyes and I hear when her breath catches.

“You didn’t see him there, did you?”

She shakes her head, her eyes wide.

“I don’t know what they want, Adira, but they scare the shit out of me.”

I settle back against the mound of dirt at the root of one of the trees and force some of the tension to leave my body.

They haven’t attacked us yet.

They aren’t even coming close to us.

I take a moment to allow myself to feel the extent of damage to my physical being.

Everywhere aches and the amount of energy I’m releasing just trying to stay this alert is quickly taking its toll.

It’s not as cold as it should be here out in the open. The fire helps.

And then it hits me that there is a fire.

I jerk back upright, staring at it.

“They made it after I commented that Mina was cold.”

My eyes widen a little, my gaze flying back to Sam.

“They can understand us?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. They haven’t spoken to us. They only stare.”

Even as she says this, I look down toward the water and I can see Lava Eyes.

He is walking back toward the shore and his eyes are focused this way.

Correction. They’re focused on me.

“They’ve just been in and out of the water. Bringing things up. I think…” Sam pauses, her voice falling low. “I think they’re dismantling that thing.”

My gaze shoots back to her. “The machine?”

She nods hesitantly.

For a few moments, we just stare at each other, afraid to even hope.

I swallow hard.

“Maybe they’re different from the other aliens,” she whispers. “Maybe they were sent here to help us.”

I stare at her. “If so, sent by whom?”

Sam shrugs.

I stare at her for a few moments, the implications flying through my brain.

“We don’t know,” I finally say. “They could still be our enemy.”

There’s a sharp click and a growl that makes me jerk in surprise and my head snaps up.

Lava Eyes isn’t even close to us, he’s several feet away and my voice was low.

There’s no way he heard me…

But those eyes are definitely locked with mine.

And I get the distinct impression that what I just said pissed him the hell off.

The night grows ever darker. But I remain awake.

I cannot sleep.

Even when Sam dozes off and Mina’s eyes close, my eyes remain open.

Around us, the aliens have kept their distance. Yet, they watch us with an intensity that keeps me alert.

There isn’t a second where a set of strange, slitted eyes aren’t directed our way.

They’re different colors, their eyes, but all are mostly dark or some variation of red.

The more I look at them too, I realize I’m differentiating between them.

It’s not only their eyes that are different. Some of them are bigger than the others.

But they all do one thing…

They watch us.

How Sam sleeps while being observed is beyond me.

Mina, I can understand.

As the minutes tick by, her body’s resources are slowly being depleted.

The parasite will keep her barely alive until it is ready to be extracted…and then what?

If these new aliens are really enemies of the machines, I shudder to think what they will do when they find out Mina is carrying a spawn.

This beats on my mind, along with the fact that we are once again in a precarious situation, and I fight sleep.

More than once, I doze only to jerk awake to find Lava Eyes looking my way.

His gaze doesn’t startle me anymore and I wonder if it is a good or bad thing that I am getting used to them.

To him.

Chapter Ten

ADIRA

My body jerks as I come awake and the first thing that shoots to my mind is the fact that I fell asleep.

I fly to an upright position, ignoring the aches in my body as I squint.

It’s morning…and we are safe.

We’re still alive?

But…

Every hair at the back of my neck stands on end as my eyes rise.

My gaze moves up dark legs, higher, higher, as if in slow motion, my eyes wide, my heart hammering against my chest.

They are standing all around us, some crouching, but all looking at us intently.

I pull my legs toward me as I scramble back, and the trunk of a tree slams against my spine.

Sam grunts and rises slowly, blinking the sleep from her eyes.

“Sam…” I whisper, my eyes moving around the aliens surrounding us.

Mina is still asleep, but I know it wouldn’t have mattered if she was awake or not.

I doubt she can run in her condition.

“Sam!” I hiss as my gaze darts around the group.

It is morning.

The sun is rising and the light only makes these beings look more intimidating.

Humanoid but not human at all. I cannot think of a human, bar The Rock and The Mountain, who would stand a chance against them.

The alien’s gazes are intent. So intent, a sick feeling begins to develop in my stomach and I find myself searching for…him.