Banished To Earth Book One (26)

“You didn’t.” She lied.

“I see fear in your face,” said Pry, her voice trembling.

“Of course you do, ‘cause you can see in the dark.” Beth’s tone was sharp with sarcasm. “Why don’t I just turn off the headlights and let you drive?” She was trying but failing to make a joke.

Pry shrank into her seat. But Beth could not see her.

After a few moments of chilled silence. Nikki finally spoke. “You sound like Daddy, when you talk like that. I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I, sweetheart. Pry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. It’s all so crazy. And the eye thing, I don’t know why, but it really hit me. None of this feels real, then you looked at me with those animal eyes, and there it was staring me in the face.”

Pry looked up at Beth. “Yes. Your world has ended. And so has mine. But I did not love my world. It is easier for me. I have Chase, you and Nikki. I have never had so much.”

“You’re a peach, you know that.”

“That is good?”

“Yeah, peaches are sweet.”

“Thank you. You are also sweet.”

“Nah, but you are making me sweeter. You really are special. And I do think of you as my sister. Even though we just met.”

Something brushed against Beth’s face. It was Pry’s hair. Beth didn’t jump but leaned into it. “Feels like a kitten. It’s nice.”

“It loves you. Trusts you.”

Beth started to ask, ‘but what if it didn’t?’, then stopped herself. She had already said enough thoughtless words.

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  “You really think of me as your sister?”

  “Sure do.”

  “I had sisters on Phastanar, but…”

  “This sister thing is something else to you, isn’t it? I don’t have any sisters. Not until now. But it means something different where you come from, doesn’t it?”

“The other Crychee were never close to me. Then my Mother,” Pry sucked in a deep breath, “fell and died. Not long after I lost my warrel and mahrah. I still do not know what became of them. The Crychee sisterhood did not comfort me. They mocked me, forced me to watch a blood wallow. It was awful. I ran. They chased me, herded me into the caverns of Mynar. They caught me there and cast me into one of its’ shift portals. I found myself trapped in the Transit Realm, a strange place that is, and is not.

 Eventually, the Transit Authority determined I should be banished to Earth. I became a very small part of a much bigger plan. A plan to save Earth.”

“Save, why is it the bad guys always kid themselves into thinking they are the good guys.”

“Fear.”

“Yeah, big shots want to own everyone and control everything. They’re just that insecure.”

“I had lost everything I loved when they dropped me here. I was sent here to die. That was what I wanted anyway. Then Chase found me. He was supposed to kill me. Instead, he found me, and we are still finding each other.”

“Yeah, he’s a special guy, if not more than a little moody.”

“He has much on his mind.”

“Don’t we all.”

Pry cuddled up to Beth and lay her head on her shoulder. Nikki looked on. Her happy little face was almost glowing.

 

Chapter 17

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   They sat quietly, letting the starry moonlit night settle in around them. Its’ greyness embraced them, soothed them, transported them like a narcotic, or was it merely the simple peace of resolution? It did not matter. They were at least safe for the moment and, so far as they knew, headed away from danger, but only because Chase chose to face it for them.

    “Getting late, and Chase has not called.”

  Pry glanced at Beth. “If he were hurt, I would know it.”

  “You two are that connected?”

    Pry nodded, “I sense his presence in the world but little else.”

  “So, you can’t read his mind, can you?”

“Not yet.”

Beth detected a hint of whimsy in her voice.

“You two have an interesting life waiting for you.”

“Us.” Pry mewed.

Not long after that, Beth’s phone rang. It was Chase, of course. He told them everything, including his transformation. Beth was shocked, but ultimately grateful, as she came to appreciate his sacrifice.

Ignorance had shielded him from knowledge that would stalk him the rest of his life. He had lost that ignorance fighting for them. And he would pay the price, with self-doubt and self-loathing.  How could he not loathe the fact that a flesh-hungry beast was curled up inside of him, ready to burst out at any moment?

 How can something so dangerous be good? Pry's pretty face glowed green in the dashboard light.  A vampire lay just beneath the beauty. Now Chase harboured a werewolf deep within, just how deep, just how dangerous, Beth did not know.

 

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Pry had been nothing but angelic toward Nikki and her as well.  He doubted Chase’s inner monster would be so friendly. But then monsters were about to fall out of the sky, it’d be nice to have some monsters looking out for them. After all, war makes monsters of us all.