11. Iris

ELEVEN

Heavy rain pelted the windows, a storm casting eerie shadows in the dimly lit room. Lordek paced back and forth, his alien features tense with worry. He stopped suddenly, turning to face me, his dark, probing eyes meeting mine.

"I'm sorry. I wish I could stay longer." His voice came out gruff.

Dismay coursed through me. I wanted to cling, but holding him back would only make the situation more tenuous than it already was. He should've left as soon as he could. We'd stolen a short time together when we should've been working on his ship to get it ready for him to depart.

"My ship isn't ready. I should've made the repairs." Tension clouded his voice. "But I have no regrets. None at all." He cupped my face and gently kissed me. "Not one. I wouldn't trade anything for the chance to be with you, Iris. I adore you and I'll love you forever. But I have to leave. My presence has already endangered you." Stepping away from me, he raked both hands across the top of his head. "I was a fool not to start working on it immediately but..."

He was injured. And we'd wanted to be together. Valid reasons when we believed they wouldn't find him.

Now their noose was tightening around us both.

Stark, cold fear bolted through me. Playing games and talking—even making love—had put him in greater danger. I wasn't worried about me. I'd find a way to survive. What could they do to me? I'd scream and go to the press. They couldn't lock me up forever.

"I'll help you as much as I can." It hurt to think of him leaving, but we couldn"t deny the danger lurking beyond my doorstep. It was stomping toward us already; flying overhead. It was a wonder the government hadn't found him already. "We"ll do it as quickly as possible. Then you can..." I couldn't name it. I didn't need to. The words hung in the air between us.

Soon, we'd have to say goodbye.

"Thank you, Iris," he murmured, stepping closer again. He stroked my hair, rubbing it between his fingers, his gaze searching mine. "I don't want to leave you."

"I don't want you to go."

He kissed me gently, then held me. It was all I could do not to cry, but I didn't want his last memory to be of me sobbing. I had to remain strong or I wouldn't be able to tell him goodbye.

Before the sun had started to warm up the day, we left Katie inside and made our way toward the barn, hovering close to the house and shed, studying the world around us while the rain continued to pour down. Clouds chased us across the sky, and the visibility was limited, but just because we couldn't see anyone, that didn't mean scopes weren't trained on us.

The feel of watchers made my skin crawl.

We crept into the barn and secured the door. I flicked the wall switch, bathing the big silver vehicle with dim light.

As I surveyed the damage to the ship, I couldn"t help but feel overwhelmed. It would be a monumental task to repair it, and we didn't have much time. But Lordek seemed undeterred, opening a large compartment on the side and pulling out parts the computer had generated.

"My grandfather used to restore cars in this barn," I said, pointing to the winch hanging from the rafters overhead. "We can lift the ship if we need to reach the underside." I waved to the long bench mounted on the left wall. "And you'll find all sorts of tools over there."

He nodded slowly. "Perfect." He strode over and pawed through the tools, selecting some.

My heart thudded in my chest. Sadness kept creeping in and stealing my breath. Each second I was with him was one less I'd have him in my life.

When I loaded the ship onto my cart in the dark, I didn't bother to check it out. I was too worried about Lordek to do more than make sure it was well hidden.

Let's face it, I'd offered to help him fix it, but I'd be useless other than handing him tools.

As he got to work on what looked like landing gear, I walked hesitantly around the perimeter of his damaged alien spaceship. It was a strange mix of metallic, sleek lines and jagged, broken edges that looked as though they'd been torn during impact. Could they be repaired well enough for the ship to fly?

Countless dents and scratches covered the silver metal, though none appeared to pierce through to the exterior. All the "glass" was intact—assuming the clear panels were made of glass. Even from where I stood on the ground, they looked thick, but what did I know about stuff like that?

A shiver tracked through me as I took in the strange, foreign symbols etched onto the side of the ship, symbols that seemed to pulse with power. While my lover might seem just like me other than his green skin and accent, he wasn"t human like those born on this planet.

It was both fascinating and terrifying that he could make his way here and survive such a horrific crash. That he could love me, make love to my body. That we could come together and fall for each other just like humans did every day here on Earth. We were the same—yet we were vastly different.

Despite its small size, the ship appeared incredibly advanced, with strange, glowing panels and intricate machinery lining the interior I could barely make out through the front glass.

"You can look inside if you want." Lordek lowered a narrow set of stairs and waved to them. "You can't hurt anything, so feel welcome to touch." He grinned. "Just don't start the engines."

"It's amazing. I'm stunned."

"It's just a simple ship. It suits me. It's taken me on many wonderful journeys." His voice deepened. "It brought me to you."

"I was walking down the road, going to a costume part, when I saw your ship blast across the sky. You crashed and I ran to you right away. I was scared but I was equally fascinated."

"I'm so glad you found me. So glad you rescued me."

I smiled, though I know it held more sadness than joy. Our time together had been too short. We'd done our best to stuff a lifetime into it, but it would soon be over.

With wide eyes, I climbed the stairs and stepped into a six by six foot chamber in the front of the ship. The bridge, I assumed, if the sci-fi TV shows I'd watched were anything to go by. One big chair took up the center, and the walls were covered with buttons and screens that flashed in a rhythmic fashion. A large windscreen took up the front section of the ship, with a pointed metal nose beyond. In some ways it was much like an airplane, yet in others, it was strangely alien, just like Lordek.

I took in the details of the ship"s interior with appreciation, admiring how much further ahead his tech was compared to ours—or what I knew of ours. Earth ships could travel to the moon, but as far as I knew, no manned crafts had traveled farther than that.

The feeling of being in an alien space vessel was foreign yet thrilling at the same time. I reached out and touched the wall. I was doing something no other human on Earth had done, touching an alien spacecraft. Well, unless the rumors about Area 51 harboring alien vessels were true, and no one really knew anything about that.

It was cool to my touch and felt like anything else on Earth. Shouldn't it feel different in some way?

When I climbed back out of the ship, Lordek was hard at work on one of the wings. He'd removed several panels and was busy tinkering with the delicate machinery inside. I could feel his concentration from where I stood, and a wave of admiration swept over me. He was so smart.

He motioned for me to help, and I ran over. "I need a tool that looks like this."

Something similar to a hand-held computer hovered beside him, its glassy screen showing a schematic of the wing. At his request, a tool appeared on the screen.

"I think my grandfather had something similar." I rushed to the bench and started opening drawers, inspecting everything inside. With two tools that looked like they might fit what he was looking for, I returned to Lordek.

"Yes." He took one and leaned near, giving me a quick kiss. "You're amazing."

"You're the one fixing a spaceship. I'm just hanging out, trying to look good."

"You're beautiful. More lovely than anyone I've met before, and it's more than your gorgeous surface. You're strong and resilient. Incredibly brave. I admire you so much."

"I don't feel that way right now." Actually, I wanted to cry.

"I've traveled through over thirty galaxies during the past eight years, and I've never met anyone as special you."

"I'm just a normal woman." My face heated at his praise. "You're wonderful. I'm glad I had the chance to meet you."

Our smiles fell, both of us reminded that he'd have to leave soon, that we'd never see each other again.

"Who helped me to her house when I was pretty much unconscious."

"Me," I said softly.

"And I'm much bigger than you."

I nodded.

"Who braced my broken leg? Who went out in the night, all alone, and somehow got a huge ship like this," He slapped the side of his vessel, "onto a cart and brought it here to hide in her barn?"

I straightened my shoulders. "I did that."

"Who then held me through the night when I had a fever."

"Me."

"Don't tell me you're not special. Don't tell me you're not brave. There's no one else like you, Iris. No one." He stroked his knuckles down my cheek. "Remember that."

His words brought tears to my eyes and a knot to my throat. It was all I could do to swallow it down.

"I'm going to miss you, Lordek. So much."

He dropped the tool and gathered me into his arms, just holding me longer than he should, longer than I should take. But I sucked down his warmth, greedy thing that I was. Until I stepped back and gave him a nod. I'd be the brave person he said I was because he was right. I had to be that Iris when he was gone.

After he'd finished repairing the wing, he moved on to one of the engines mounted on the back of the ship. I followed, ready to run for anything he might need.

He worked surprisingly fast, but maybe that part of the ship hadn't sustained much damage. Once he was done with the engine, he moved inside.

Looking around, he grunted. "I don't need to fix much here, thankfully. I'm nearly done."

I stood in the hatch opening holding a jumble of tools, my eyes stinging. Nearly done meant nearly gone from my life forever.

Finally, he left the ship and took the tools from my limp hands. He started down at me, gorgeous with a smear of grease across his face, his eyes alight with both excitement and sorrow.

"It's done," he said. "I believe it's flightworthy now. I can leave soon."

"What about fuel?" It couldn't take regular old diesel or gasoline, but what did I know?

"The exterior generates power as the ship flies. Resistance. It converts the friction to energy and transfers it to the engines." He glanced toward the ship. "Thankfully, none of those sections were damaged in the crash."

"What's next then?" Dread coiled tightly inside me. Soon, it would snap, and I wasn't sure what would be left of me. Nothing, probably. How could there be?

I wanted to grab onto him. Cling to him. Never let him go.

But he was starlight drifting through my fingers, and there was no holding on to something like that.

He tugged me into his arms again. "I don't want to leave you. I want to stay with you always. Treasure you for the rest of my days." Leaning back, he looked down at me with love in his eyes. "I wish I could. I'm so sorry. Maybe we shouldn't have been together."

"I'm glad we had that. I wish we could have more. Never regret what we did together." Tears trickled down my cheeks, and he wiped them away.

He kissed me, his mouth searing across mine, branding me in a way nothing else every would.

I pressed myself against him, holding him. If only we could stay this way forever, just us without the world intruding. Love shouldn't hurt this much.

No one should be allowed to tear us apart.

And that's when I heard footsteps outside the barn.