How did things turn out this way?

“Here, dear.”

“Ah! Yes, th-thank you.” I accepted the glass of chilled water handed to me by a stunning redhead.

“Are you sure you don’t want anything else? Tea? Juice? Syrup?”

“N-No. Water is fine. Th-Thank you.”

The woman smiled gently, and I lowered my head to hide a blush.

Tracy Geraghty had introduced herself as Hunter’s mother.

She could have told me she was his older sister, and I wouldn’t have questioned it. She didn’t look one day over thirty, and her physique landed somewhere at the crossroad of a movie star, a professional runner, and an erotic swimsuit model. Her face was gorgeous, her legs interminably long and powerful, and her hips flared out outrageously under a thin summer dress.

I did my best not to stare. Not only would that be incredibly rude, but I was also sure it had to break some unwritten universal rule.

“Thou shalt not perv onto thine bro’s thicc mom.” …or something.

Maybe somewhere in the Apocrypha.

“You silly boy!” Hunter Senior was berating his son. But his tone lacked the harshness it had when we first met him. “Why didn’t you tell me they were Barker’s kids right away?”

We’d relocated into the house and now sat in a rustically decorated living room, in comfortable armchairs arrayed around a hardwood coffee table. The flower-patterned curtains were drawn shut, and a warm fire crackled softly in the brick chimney.

Like his wife, Senior looked incredibly young in the bright interior light—at least, far too young to have a son in his twenties. I wouldn’t have given him ten years over Tracy, more so after the stern lines of his face had relaxed into an easy smile. Now, he looked like a more mature version of Hunter—though no less handsome.

My fingers twitched around the cold glass. Why is everyone here so hot?!

“Well, you didn’t exactly give me time to,” Hunter mumbled grumpily. He was back to looking wholly human, and he—unfortunately(?)—had gotten into some clothes. Not that the tight white shirt left much to the imagination. Ah, no! No! Down!

I drank some cool fresh water. It provided zero relief. I was still running a nasty fever.

On her way to the door, Tracy smacked Hunter on the back of the head. “Don’t talk back to your father.”

“But, mom!” Hunter protested. The woman raised an eyebrow in a way only mothers could pull off, and Hunter lowered his head, cowed and remorseful. “Sorry…” It was strange to see the always boisterous man reduced to such a quiet state.

Tracy smiled the smile of a victorious mother and stepped out of the room to fetch more drinks.

“Terry. Or do you prefer Terrikalospekian?”

“Ah? Wha-Who?” I stumbled on my tongue after realizing Hunter Senior was addressing me. “Ah. No, err, Terry. Terry’s fine. I don’t even know…” I trailed off, glancing towards Onyx.

My other friend had kept extremely quiet since the Geraghtys invited us into their home. The android—or was she some kind of cyborg?—was working on her neck. The tips of her right-hand fingers had popped off to reveal an array of tools, which she was using to pry open her skin and repair her damaged circuits.

I averted my eyes before the sight made me any queasier.

“Terry then.” Senior leaned forwards, elbows on his knees, and stared at me over linked fingers. “Terry, I must ask you…” His cold blue irises contracted as they fixed me intensely.

I gulped, my mouth suddenly gone dry. I drank another mouthful of water, struggling to keep my hands from shaking.

“What are your intentions towards my son?”

“Pfffft!” The entire mouthful sprayed right back out—and onto Hunter Senior’s face.

I paled. Oh, God. Could I ask for a worse first impression?

Before I could profusely apologize, something long and red whacked the back of Senior’s head. I barely caught sight of a scaled tail before it slithered back under the dress of Mrs. Geraghty, who had just re-entered the room.

“Trace! What was that for?!” Senior looked up indignantly. His expression exactly mirrored his son from a minute before.

“Leave the kid alone.” The beautiful redhead mother grinned innocently and winked at me. She set down on the table two glasses and a whiskey bottle.

“She’s a Draskelite! It’s a valid question!”

Tracy rolled her eyes, smiling indulgently as if she were dealing with a capricious three-year-old. “Dear. It’s obvious Terry here was raised as a human. They probably have no idea what’s happening, and their adoptive sister has been hurt. So pack up the alpha dad routine, will you?”

“I’m just worried! They need to use protection!”

The couple kept arguing further while Hunter sat in mortified silence and poured himself a hefty measure of whiskey. My tall friend looked like he wished his armchair would come alive and swallow him whole to escape the awkwardness.

I sympathized. However, my mind had flown elsewhere: under the house, down a secret staircase, and into the small futuristic facility hidden beneath the Geraghty’s rustic manor.

Where Shivaya was being taken care of.

I remembered standing uselessly to the side as Hunter’s relatives set my sister’s broken bones and clamped them in metal splints. Then they’d put her inside a vat of green jelly. The glowing, pudding-like substance was filled with nanites, tiny machines invisible to the naked eye—or so I was told. They would infiltrate Shivaya’s body, scan it for physical trauma, and attempt to fix anything they could identify—including potential brain injury.

The nanites weren’t omnipotent, but as long as the damage remained within their capabilities, Shivaya would make a full recovery.

Hunter’s cousin, an Iskorn woman whose name escaped me, had walked me through the process in detail. But I’d barely listened, too caught up in the relief of knowing I had not gotten Gerald and Aponi’s daughter killed.

At some point, Hunter had convinced me to leave the basement, arguing that staring at the opaque vat and worrying myself sick wouldn’t make Shivaya’s recovery any speedier. “She wouldn’t want you to worry,” he’d said.

I’d almost snapped that maybe I wanted me to worry. This was all my fault, and I didn’t deserve to rest until Shivaya was better.

But ultimately, I had been too weak and exhausted to resist Hunter’s gentle urging.

Yet the guilt refused to go away.

Your fault, it whispered to me. This happened because of you. She’s hurt because of you. Gerald and Aponi almost lost their real daughter. Because of you. That’s just who you are, a fraud and a parasite. You don’t belong with them. You’re a menace.

You’re not even human! Draskelite. That’s what they called you. Something so monstrous they fear it more than an unkillable flesh-eating space demon!  

But you knew this already. You’ve always known. You’re abnormal. You’re an error. An intruder in that perfect family. You don’t belong. Sooner or later, you’ll tear them apart and get them killed.

Like you almost killed Shaya.

Leave. Now. You should leave on your own before you do more permanent damage.

I only realized I’d half-raised out of my seat when my phone went off.

The loud ringtone scared me nearly to death. Hurriedly setting my glass down, I fumbled for my pocket, face flushed with embarrassment as Katy Perry’s E.T. echoed through the sudden silence.

Shivaya had been the one to switch the ringtone as a joke, months ago, and I never got around to changing it because I secretly quite liked the song. Besides, no one ever called me anyway.

But of course, someone had to suddenly break that streak while I was in a room with actual extra-terrestrial beings, two of which I had a crush on.

Kill me now.

I swiped my finger across the screen, not even checking the caller’s ID—anything to cut the humiliation short—and brought the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

“Terry!?” Gerald’s voice came through the speaker. “Oh, thank God. Terry, are you alright?! Where are you?! Is Shaya with you?!”

My breath caught short. I’d only ever heard him so close to panic once, the time police called home to report Shivaya had been in an accident while riding her new moped. Her state had been critical. The drunk driver was dead after crashing into a lamppost.

Of course, Shivaya being who she is, she’d made a fast and complete recovery.

However, the horror in Gerald’s eyes as he listened to that phone call was forever etched into my mind.

“Terry?!”

I realized I’d yet to answer. “Yeah. Yeah, Dad, I– we’re fine.” I hesitated. Why? was on the tip of my tongue. Why was Gerald panicking exactly? As far as he should know, we were just out into the woods, watching the meteor shower.

It had to have ended by now, and I couldn’t find it in myself to care. Curious how your priorities can shift in just an hour.

I swallowed. “The-There was a last-minute change of plan. We’re at Hunter’s house.” I couldn’t hold it back. “Why, sir? Is… Is something wrong?”

I heard a yell something in the distance on Gerald’s side. He must have put his hand over the microphone, because his following words were muffled and clearly not meant for me to hear. “Enlarge the perimeter! And have Sanders set up a misdirection away from the site.”

Before I could ponder what any of this meant, he was talking to me again. “Terry? Sorry about that. I had to head back to work after all.” He’d recovered his composure. If anything, he sounded a little too composed. His voice was tight, dangerously controlled. “Is Hunter near you? –I mean Mr. Geraghty.”

I looked up to see all three Geraghtys and Onyx staring at me. I held the phone to Hunter Senior. “He wants to talk to you.” The older Iskorn didn’t look surprised. He took the phone and reclined in his seat.

“Hey! Agent Barker, wassup friend?” he spoke with the exact same forced casualness that Hunter affected to cover nervousness.

Also, had he just said Agent Barker?

“What’s up?” Gerald’s tone was flat. Frighteningly so. Though, I wasn’t sure how I was hearing any of his side of the conversation from across the table. “What’s up?” Gerald’s voice broke with anger. “I have a molten saucer in the middle of the woods. A crashed truck, ripped in half, with plates registered to your son. Laser fire impacts. Claw marks in a dozen trees. An arm! And enough human blood splattered around to call this a crime scene!

“And my kids were supposed to be in this exact spot, in this exact truck. And if I have the blood analyzed further, I’m pretty sure it’ll belong to either Terry or Shaya. Because the only other human supposed to be here appears to have lost a limb made of albarene. Which makes me question why an imperial android was hanging around my son, and whether it kidnapped and replaced my son’s friend! That’s ‘what’s up,’ Hunter!!”

Gerald’s voice had gradually lost its cool, until he was one decibel away from shouting. “Now, you better tell me what my kids are doing at your house instead of being dead in the woods. Because otherwise, help me God, lifelong friend or not, I’ll have you and your entire herd off-world by tomorrow morning.”

“Wow, wow, wow. Hold on there, cowboy. First, don’t threaten my family,” Hunter Senior growled darkly into the phone. He let a beat of silence pass to mark his point, before continuing in a softer tone, “Second, your kids are at the ranch because my boy flew them in after they fought off a Vraex’ein.”

I heard Gerald suck in a sharp breath. “Are they–”

“They’re fine, Gerry. The Vraex didn’t get to them. Your girl got a little banged up during the car crash, but Kyera has her in a nanite bath. As for the andro… Wait a sec.” Senior glanced at Onyx. “Hey, you, how long have you been part of the picture? I mean, do we have a traumatized girl tied up in a basement somewhere we need to rescue?”

“I understood your meaning the first time, Iskorn.” Onyx’s neck was fixed by now, and she’d begun working on the damage done to her abdomen. She looked up from her opened stomach cavity, her expression decidedly inimical. She had yet to recharge her batteries, and that showed. “I have been at Her Highness’ side since her hatching, and have lived under the human identity of Onyx Cheng for the past twenty years, three months and twenty-one days. No human was harmed for the purpose of this infiltration.” She caught me staring and pivoted to face me. “I promise.”

I couldn’t bring myself to answer in any way.

“Yeah, thought so,” Hunter Senior drawled. Then, returning to his conversation with Gerald, he added, “I have no concrete proof, but I don’t think you have to worry on that front.”

“…fuck.”

My eyes bulged out for the umpteenth time tonight.

Gerald never swore.

“Yeah…” Senior repeated. “But I really don’t think the rest of this conversation should take place on the phone.”

“No, you’re right.” Gerald sighed. “Any advice on how to deal with the Vraex’ein?”

“Fire. Lots of it. Or a big pool full of acid. Maybe one of those atom bombs you Earthlings seem so fond of.”

“…I’ll see what I can do,” Gerald answered dryly. “I’ll wrap things up here and be on my way to you. Can you hand the phone back over to Terry?”

“Sure. Here, kid.”

I took the phone back and cradled it to my ear. “…Sir?”

“Don’t worry, Terry. Everything will be alright. Whatever happens, you’ll always be my boy. Poni and I love you.” Someone shouted Gerald’s name in the distance. “I really need to go. I’ll see you very soon. Love you.” The line went dead.

I sat in stunned silence.

He knows.

The thought hit me with the weight of a swinging sledgehammer. My mind reeled, but my body remained frozen in place.

Gerald knows.

I didn’t think he did before, and I doubted he’d heard Onyx over the phone from where she sat. But somehow, with just the clues from this small conversation, Gerald had puzzled out more than even I could grasp at the moment. Obviously, he’d know about aliens beforehand.

Maybe Onyx being an android meant something I wasn’t getting.

The how’s didn’t matter.

Gerald knows I’m not human.

The phone slid from my grasp and clattered on the floor. I started shivering. Lights and sounds died around me. The walls of the living room started closing in. Darkness crept towards me from every direction, leaving me trapped in an inky emptiness, alone.

This is it, I thought.

The spark, the jolt that would make the Barker realize I was a stranger, a parasitic tick with its teeth hooked onto their lives. Whatever Gerald had told me on the phone didn’t mean anything. He was still processing. Soon, he would come to his senses.

They would rip me away, excise me like a tumor, throw me out and slam the door in my face. And they’d be right to do so. I was a lie. I was a danger. I didn’t deserve their love—or anyone’s.

My breathing caught in my tightening chest. At some point, I’d started hyperventilating.

Really, whom did I have? The Barkers were going to rightfully cast me away. Hunter was already terrified of me because, apparently, I was some sort of space bogeyman. And Onyx only hung around because she was programmed to.

I had no one.

I was alone.

A lonesome, loathsome, worthless monster.

. . . . .