The Host

I glanced up at Jared and Ian. They were both staring openmouthed at the interspecies family in the park.

“No,” I murmured to myself. “No one would force the parents if they wanted the child. And just look at them.”

The father had his arms around both the mother and the child now. He looked down at his host body’s biological son with staggering tenderness in his eyes.

“Aside from ourselves, this is the first planet we’ve discovered with live births. Yours certainly isn’t the easiest or most prolific system. I wonder if that’s the difference… or if it’s the helplessness of your young. Everywhere else, reproduction is through some form of eggs or seeds. Many parents never even meet their young. I wonder…” I trailed off, my thoughts full of speculation.

The mother lifted her face to her partner, and he kissed her lips. The human child crowed with delight.

“Hmm. Perhaps, someday, some of my kind and some of yours will live in peace. Wouldn’t that be… strange?”

Neither man could tear his eyes from the miracle in front of them.

The family was leaving. The mother dusted the sand off her jeans while the father took the boy. Then, holding hands that they swung between them, the souls strolled toward the apartments with their human child.

Ian swallowed loudly.

We didn’t speak for the rest of the evening, all of us made thoughtful by what we’d seen. We went to sleep early, so we could rise early and get back to work.

I slept alone, in the bed farthest from the door. This made me uncomfortable. The two big men did not fit easily on the other bed; Ian tended to sprawl when he was deeply asleep, and Jared was not above throwing punches when that happened. Both of them would be more comfortable if I shared. I slept in a small ball now; maybe it was the too-open spaces I moved in all day that had me constricting in on myself at night, or maybe I was just so used to curling up to sleep in the tiny space behind the passenger seat on the van’s floor that I’d forgotten how to sleep straight.

But I knew why no one asked me to share. The first night the men had unhappily realized the necessity of a hotel shower for me, I’d heard Ian and Jared talking about me over the whir of the bathroom fan.

“… not fair to ask her to choose,” Ian was saying. He kept his voice low, but the fan was not loud enough to drown it out. The hotel room was very small.

“Why not? It’s fairer to tell her where she’s going to sleep? Don’t you think it’s more polite -”

“For someone else. But Wanda will agonize over this. She’ll be trying so hard to please us both, she’ll make herself miserable.”

“Jealous again?”

“Not this time. I just know how she thinks.”

There was a silence. Ian was right. He did know how I thought. He’d probably already foreseen that given the slightest hint that Jared would prefer it, I would choose to sleep beside Jared, and then keep myself awake worrying that I’d made Jared unhappy by being there and that I’d hurt Ian’s feelings in the bargain.

“Fine,” Jared snapped. “But if you try cuddling up to me tonight… so help me, O’Shea.”

Ian chuckled. “Not to sound overly arrogant, but to be perfectly honest, Jared, were I so inclined, I think I could do better.”

Despite feeling a little guilty about wasting so much needed space, I probably did sleep better alone.

We didn’t have to go to a hotel again. The days started to pass more quickly, as if even the seconds were trying to run home. I could feel a strange western pull on my body. We were all eager to get back to our dark, crowded haven.

Even Jared got careless.

It was late, no sunlight left lingering behind the western mountains. Behind us, Ian and Kyle were taking turns driving the big moving truck loaded with our spoils, just as Jared and I took turns with the van. They had to drive the heavy vehicle more carefully than Jared did the van. The headlights had faded slowly into the distance, until they disappeared around a wide curve in the road.

We were on the homestretch. Tucson was behind us. In a few short hours, I would see Jamie. We would unload the welcome provisions, surrounded by smiling faces. A real homecoming.

My first, I realized.

For once the return would bring nothing but joy. We carried no doomed hostages this time.

I wasn’t paying attention to anything but anticipation. The road didn’t seem to be flying by too fast; it couldn’t fly past fast enough as far as I was concerned.

The truck’s headlights reappeared behind us.

“Kyle must be driving,” I murmured. “They’re catching up.”

And then the red and blue lights suddenly spun out in the dark night behind us. They reflected off all the mirrors, dancing spots of color across the roof, the seats, our frozen faces, and the dashboard, where the needle on the speed gauge showed that we were traveling twenty miles over the speed limit.

The sound of a siren pierced the desert calm.

CHAPTER 48.Detained

The red and blue lights swirled in time with the siren’s cry.

Before the souls had come to this place, these lights and sounds had had only one meaning. The law, the keepers of the peace, the punishers of offenders.

Now, again, the flashing colors and angry noise had only one meaning. A very similar meaning. Still the keepers of the peace. Still the punishers.

Seekers.

It wasn’t as common a sight or sound as it had been before. The police force was only needed to help in cases of accidents or other emergencies, not to enforce laws. Most civil servants didn’t have vehicles with sirens, unless the vehicle was an ambulance or a fire truck.

This low, sleek car behind us was not for any accident. This was a vehicle made for pursuit. I’d never seen anything quite like it before, but I knew exactly what it meant.

Jared was frozen, his foot still pushing down on the gas pedal. I could see that he was trying to find a solution, a way to outrun them in this decrepit van or a way to evade them-to hide our wide white profile in the low, gaunt brush of the desert-without leading them back to the rest. Without giving everyone away. We were so close to the others now. They slumbered, unaware…

When he gave up after two seconds of frantic thought, he exhaled.

“I’m so sorry, Wanda,” he whispered. “I blew it.”

“Jared?”

He reached for my hand and eased up on the gas. The car started to slow.

“Got your pill?” he choked.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Can Mel hear me?”

Yes. The thought was a sob.

“Yes.” My voice only barely escaped being a sob, too.

“I love you, Mel. Sorry.”

“She loves you. More than anything.”

A short, aching silence.

“Wanda, I… I care about you, too. You’re a good person, Wanda. You deserve better than what I’ve given you. Better than this.”

He had something small, much too small to be so deadly, between his fingers.

“Wait,” I gasped.

He could not die.

“Wanda, we can’t take the chance. We can’t outrun them, not in this. If we try to run, a thousand of them will swarm after us. Think of Jamie.”

The van was slowing, drifting to the shoulder.

“Give me one try,” I begged. I fumbled quickly for the pill in my pocket. I pinched it between my thumb and forefinger and held it up. “Let me try to lie us out of this. I’ll swallow it right away if anything goes wrong.”

“You’ll never lie your way past a Seeker!”

“Let me try. Quick!” I pulled off my seat belt and crouched be-side him, unfastening his. “Switch with me. Fast, before they’re close enough to see.”

“Wanda -”

“One try. Hurry!”

He was the best at split-second decisions. Smooth and fast, he was out of the driver’s seat and over my crouched body. I rolled up into his seat while he took mine.