Touched by an Alien

have felt the dichotomy when she was with Yates after he’d joined with the parasite.”
    “But she never told us,” Martini said quietly. “We were with her the whole time she was dying. We were with her when she died.”
    “My father wasn’t,” Christopher added.
    “Why not?” This sounded completely out of character.
    “We don’t know. He said he had to go on a matter of national security.” Christopher’s voice was bitter.
    “He went to his father for help. I mean, who else? He couldn’t know what had happened.” I knew why White had looked so bad when I asked him about this. He’d figured out that his own father had had something to do with his wife’s death. And he’d told no one, because who could he tell?
    “Then why didn’t she tell us, tell him, tell someone?” Christopher asked, the anger rolling off him.
    “Maybe she didn’t want you two to grow up knowing your grandfather was the most evil man on the planet. Maybe she didn’t want her husband to carry any more burden than he already had over his father.”
    “That would be stupid, and my mother wasn’t stupid.”
    “No,” Martini said slowly. “I can see why she’d lie. She probably thought our agents would take care of Mephistopheles right away, and then no one would know. She thought like you.” He looked right at me, and his eyes were cold. I knew he wasn’t ever going to forgive me.
    “Why are you the catalyst for all this?” Christopher still didn’t sound as though he believed any of it.
    I couldn’t think of a polite way to put it. “You’re both fighting over me. As flattering, and unusual, an event as that is, it’s also why I’m the catalyst. Yates is an empath. He could feel how you two felt about me, couldn’t he?”
    “Yates, yes. Mephistopheles, we don’t know.” Martini wasn’t looking at me now.
    “Let’s assume the talents have bled over. So he’s coming here to make sure the two of you never procreate, and the only way to do that is to kill you.”
    “So does he want to kill you so we don’t procreate with you?” Martini asked, still looking anywhere but at me. “And if so, why?”
    “Probably and evolution. Paul’s normal. You haven’t said that he’s the only normal hybrid. What if he’s stronger or if the potential is there? What if your entire generation marries humans, spreads out, mixes in as the rest of our races have? You’ll make humans stronger, not weaker, because the A-C internal organs are dominant.”
    “That would make us more appealing for Mephistopheles,” Christopher countered.
    “Maybe. Maybe it would mean we could fight him on a more even playing field. We don’t know what would happen if a parasite attached to, say, Paul. Maybe he’d become stronger, or better, or both. Evolution’s tricky, but this is what it’s about—Yates and Mephistopheles both want to stop your evolution.”
    “I think she’s right.” Reader’s voice came from behind me. “Sensors are showing that we have company coming.” His voice sounded odd. I turned to look at him. He was pale. “Jeff, Christopher … there’s a lot more than one heading for us.”

CHAPTER 40
    AT LEAST THEY KNEW HOW TO SWING into action when it mattered. “Get everyone armed,” Martini snapped. “Aerosols may work on Mephistopheles, but we don’t know about the others, so everyone should also take guns. You, too,” he said as he moved past me toward the back of the SUV. Christopher and Reader both went to the other car.
    I followed Martini to the back and grabbed a couple of spray cans. I could just barely get them into my purse. With everything in it, it weighed a ton. “Make sure none of this gets inhaled by any of you.”
    “I think we can manage to figure that out.” Martini picked up what looked like a machine gun and handed it to me. “Here.”
    “I can’t carry that.”
    “Take it.”
    “I can’t even lift it, and I’m not going to try to lift it.”
    “Take it.” He shoved it at me.
    I shoved it right back. “Look, it happened, okay? We stopped it. Because of you. Get over it before we’re all dead.”
    “Sorry to get in the way.” He slammed the gun back into the car. “Hope you two will be very happy together.”
    “Why are you just assuming that I’m in love with Christopher?” Before he could answer the ground shook. “What was that?”
    We both turned and saw what was coming toward us.
    Mephistopheles was flying, horrible bat wings flapping lazily. Beneath