Alien in the Family

at the same time, a fight I couldn’t comprehend but could just feel in the background—and I went flying.
    Landed flat on my back. Facing the ground. The trippiness was what I expected hard drugs to do to a person. Found myself glad I’d never indulged and swore to never start. My stomach didn’t enjoy the view.
    The wind was knocked out of me, so I got to see how upset and frightened everyone on the ground looked. Chuckie, Tito, Reader, and Michael were restraining Martini. All the other males from Earth were down, though they appeared to be alive. Animal Planet was fifty-fifty on the sexes. Bottom line—our side was battered.
    Uma thundered toward me, ax up. She swung, I dodged. Swing, dodge, swing. I was still on my back, and her legs were straddling me. I wasn’t going to luck out much longer.
    I saw someone extract from our group—Jareen was running, toward our bubble if I was any judge. There was something on her shoulder, and I realized it was a Poof. I wondered if Poofikins was alive or squished in my jacket pocket, but I was too busy dodging to say anything.
    Jareen grabbed my staff out of the ground. “Kitty!” She threw it, with a lot better aim than I had. It pierced the bubble we were in and sailed right for me. I grabbed Uma’s leg and used it to help slide myself under her. Rolled, jumped up, and grabbed the staff as if I’d done this move a thousand times before.
    Chose not to marvel. Spun and stabbed, just as Uma was spinning, ax over her head, and coming for me.
    The staff went through her stomach. All the way through to the middle and stuck there. I leaped back as she stared at me. “I . . . cannot die.”
    “Wanna bet?”
    The ax fell out of her hands and tumbled to the ground. She grabbed the staff with both hands and tried to pull it out of herself. The bubble we were in started shaking.
    Uma looked at me again. “I . . . cannot die. She . . . promised.”
    “She lied.” I watched the light go out of Uma’s eyes. “Sayonara, Bitch Leader.” I looked around. “ACE, we going down?”
    Yes, Kitty. Lilith is still fighting to survive.
    I thought about what I knew from when we’d first found ACE. “Take us down, to Jareen.” The bubble started to lower. “Soul sister! Need your help, if you’re up for it.”
    Jareen nodded, but Lilith still had some power, because our bubble shifted, far away from Jareen and the others. It was shaking, and I saw Uma’s body tumble out and hit the ground, staff still inside her. I knew she was dead.
    I also knew when the bubble was gone because I started to tumble as if gravity was back and seriously pissed that I’d ignored it for so long. I closed my eyes and winced. This was going to hurt. A lot.
    But it didn’t hurt all that much. Because instead of hitting the ground, I fell where I’d been falling for the past year—into Martini’s arms.
    “Ooof!” Okay, it wasn’t the most smooth or romantic thing he could have said, but I was okay with it.
    “I’m not that heavy!”
    “Baby, you’re not heavy at all. You just fell a long way.” He was shaking. “I hate it when you do that, you know.” I shifted and wrapped my legs around his waist. He grinned. “But I so love it when you do that.”
    I kissed him, hard. But not too long. “Jeff, you have to get me back to Jareen.”
    “I’m right here.” So she was. Forgot, all these folks had the superspeed. “Naked Apes are really into public displays of affection. It’s nauseating back there, and here, and you’ve rubbed off on the Cat People and Major Doggies, too.”
    “Jeff, meet Jareen, my new best friend forever. Jareen, we need to channel Lilith the Bitch Goddess through you. Jeff, need to get down.” Martini released me unwillingly.
    “Er . . . while that sounds great, I think I’ll choose not becoming like Uma.”
    Kitty, we must do it now. ACE cannot contain Lilith any longer.
    “Has to be now. Jareen, it goes through you, and you birth it. Somehow. Otherwise, Lilith will be around and able to join with someone like Uma, or someone worse.”
    Jareen looked apprehensive, at least as much as a Giant Lizard could. “Why me?”
    “Because you’re just like Kitty,” Martini said. “Only green and with a tail. But personality and brainwise? You’re her twin.”
    Kitty!
    “ACE is freaking, Jareen. Please.” I took her hand.
    She nodded. “Okay. Tell Neeraj—”
    We didn’t get to find out what she wanted us to tell him, though I could guess, because her