Ull (Tornians Book 7), Page 3

  At her demand, Ull finally looked down at her. "Lady Abby is happy with Lord Ynyr."

  He didn't sound happy about that to her, and she didn't understand why. "He's your brother?"

  "Yes.”

  She waited, and when he didn't say more, she asked, "What's wrong with him?"

  "Nothing!" Ull immediately denied and felt the rage that always filled him when he thought of Ynyr and Abby's Joining start to fade away. To maintain it, he would have to tell Trisha an untruth, and for some reason, he couldn't do that. It was because of that he realized just how unworthy his dark thoughts about his brother were. He'd never understood where those thoughts came from. He'd always been incredibly proud of his brother, and all Ynyr had accomplished.

  "Ynyr is a fit and worthy male. Perhaps the best I have ever known. It is why the Emperor chose him to be a Lord. It is why Abby chose him to Join with and not me. They are extremely happy together, and Veron is correct." Ull looked to the other male. "She is happy and has conceived their first offspring. Which is another reason that we need Earth's assistance."

  Trisha was shocked at the sudden change in Ull's attitude. He'd gone from pissed off and non-supportive to praising and fully supporting the couple. All with the same intensity. Was he bipolar? Or was something else going on? Wait, what had he said about Abby?

  "Wait. Abby was going to Join with you then changed her mind?"

  "No," Ull told her gruffly. "Although it was a possibility had the original Joining Ceremony gone as planned."

  "You were one of the Warriors on the floor," she whispered, not knowing why that upset her so. Lisa had included everything that had happened during that Assembly, but she hadn't named the warriors.

  "Yes," Ull told her shortly.

  "So, it's not that he has Abby, and you don't. It's that he has a female and you don't. You're jealous."

  Ull opened his mouth then snapped it shut again, not wanting to speak an untruth. He hadn't considered it could be that before. After all, he was first male of a Lord. Was he that petty, that selfish, so like one of their females? Goddess, he prayed not.

  Seeing he wasn't going to answer her, Trisha turned her attention to Veron. "I want to meet the abductees."

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  After meeting the abductees, Trisha realized she'd heard about both groups. The most recent was the incident at a lodge deep in the Alaskan wilderness. It had made international news. A group of high-level executives from a global petroleum company had been on a team-building retreat when it had happened. All the women, including those from the lodge staff, had gone missing. Several men died, and rumors had run rampant. They ran the spectrum from a pack of bears attacking, to environmental terrorists, and even to aliens.

  The consensus leaned toward environmental terrorists who wanted to publicize their cause and ransom the women to fund it. Except no group had come forward, and no ransom ever demanded. The women had just disappeared.

  Now Trisha knew that what had been considered the off-the-wall theories were the right ones. The lodge had been attacked by aliens, the Ganglians. That had been nearly three months ago, and while not harmed, the women were traumatized and scared.

  The same couldn't be said for the second group. This group contained only men who, though recovered, had a horrific tale to tell. Kidnapped while out in the woods playing weekend warrior, they'd been enslaved, beaten, and starved. One of them had died, and the two women who decided to remain with the Kaliszians were part of their group.

  Her mouth had dropped open when she realized this was the group that had gone missing over eighteen months ago. The National Guard had been called out to help search for the group and found nothing but one cell phone. It was believed, in the end, that they had all gone into one of the caves riddling the area and hadn't been able to find their way out.

  Well, they had been in a cave. It was just on an alien planet.

  Both groups were grateful to the Kaliszians for rescuing them and couldn't say enough good things about them. She'd also met the Kaliszian representative, Minister Jakob Ruskin, who had been watching over them. He seemed to be an older man, but she wasn't sure how to judge the age of an alien and didn't seem that different than a Tornian to her. Except he only had hair down the center of his head, braided with beads, and his eyes glowed. He seemed knowledgeable, and the men vouched for him, saying Minister Ruskin was in charge of the planet they stayed on and treated them well.

  They had very little to say about the Tornians, or just weren't comfortable saying it in front of Ull and Veron. She didn't miss the way their eyes would look to them then away. They would only say they had been treated well on the trip from Pontus to Earth, but none of them had met a Tornian before the Tornians had arrived on Pontus to take them to Earth.

  Both groups wanted to know how much longer it would be before being reunited with their families. She was the one that would be making that happen, or so they were told.

  Thank you very much, Lisa. Now she just needed to figure out how to do it.

  Chapter Three

  “Trisha?” The deep voice echoed throughout the house.

  "In the kitchen," Trisha called back, trying to keep the nerves out of her voice. This man helped raise her, was her tío. He had always loved and supported her and would forgive her for the deception she used to get him here.

  She'd called a family meeting. It was something her mamá had started, and it meant there was no excuse. Everyone had to be there, President or not. They hadn't been called often, only for significant events, like…

  When her mamá had gotten tenure.

  When Trisha had gotten early acceptance into Yale.

  And when her tío had decided to run for President.

  Those were happy times, but a family meeting was also called when her mamá found out she had cancer, ovarian and uterine. Patricia Garcia-Burke had faced it the way she'd faced all the hardships life had thrown at her. With grace, strength, and being more concerned about how it would affect her loved ones than herself.

  She’d called the last family meeting to tell them she had decided to end her treatments. She’d completed all the treatments her doctor had recommended. It was during those treatments that Trisha had met Lisa and her girls. When the cancer had returned, Patricia agreed to be part of an experimental drug program. She’d had no expectations of being cured but hoped whatever discovered in the trial, would one day help someone else. Those treatments had been brutal, and by the time it was over, her mamá weighed less than one hundred pounds. That was when she called the meeting announcing she wanted to enjoy whatever time she had left at home with her family.

  It had been a heartbreaking yet beautiful time, those last few weeks with her mamá. They'd talked when her mamá had the strength, and Trisha learned things she'd never known. About her mamá, her father, and herself. It had made Trisha realize just how precious life and your loved ones were.

  "What's wrong?" Aaron Garcia demanded as he strode into the room, finding his niece already sitting at the table.

  Trisha let her gaze travel over her tío. She’d always thought he was the most handsome man she’d ever met. His tawny skin tone, expressive brown eyes, and brilliant white smile always put everyone at ease. He was slow to anger even in the most stressful of situations, and he patiently listened to all sides, then weighed his options to find the best solution. But when he did get angry, you'd better duck and cover. He was passionate about what he believed in and loyal to his core. It's what made him a good President and an even better man. Everything she wanted in a man she.

  So why did she find herself comparing him to the ill-tempered Ull?

  “Trisha?” The concern in her tío’s voice pulled her attention back to him.

  “Sorry," she told him, "just lost in thought.”

  “What’s wrong?" he asked. "Are you hurt? Ill?”

  Guilt ate at her. She'd refused to say what was going on over the phone, knowing he wouldn't believe what she was telling him, un
less he saw Ull for himself. Still, she was a terrible liar.

  “No, this isn’t about me, but there are some people that need your help.”

  "Trishy," Aaron ran a shaky hand through his hair. He'd been terrified on the way over. Terrified, she was going to tell him she was sick. That she was dying as his sister had. He wasn't sure he could go through that again, to helplessly watch another woman he loved suffer and not be able to do a damn thing about it. He was the god damn President of the United States, and what good did it do him if he couldn't help those he loved?

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you like that. But I needed to talk to you face-to-face and outside of the White House. This was the only way I could think of to get you alone and not be disturbed.”

  Aaron knew she was right because he’d left specific instructions that they weren’t to be interrupted unless the country was under attack.

  "Okay," he said, sitting down. Reaching over, he gripped Trisha’s hand, silently giving her his support. "So, what did you need to talk to me about?"

  “Lisa and her girls.”

  "Trishy…" He knew how much the disappearance of her friend and children bothered her, and how she blamed herself. Peter Miller was a deranged man, and there was no telling what could have happened to his niece if she had stayed in that house. "It wasn't your fault. You've done everything you could to try and find them."

  “And I have," she quietly told him.

  "Have what?" he asked, leaning forward to catch her words.

  “Found them." Her gaze remained steady as she held his.

  “What?!” He didn't try to hide his shock.

  "Lisa contacted me." Trisha gave him a shaky smile. "She and the girls are safe and happy."

  “She did? When? Where is she?” He couldn’t believe it. When the family had first gone missing, he’d used every resource at his disposal to try and find them and had come up with nothing.

  "That's what I needed to talk to you about in person and alone. You see…" she trailed off, knowing this was going to sound crazy.

  “Trisha Joy!” His fist slammed down on the table. “Tell me what the hell is going on!”

  Before she could answer, the door leading to the garage burst open, and Ull stormed into the kitchen, his sword drawn.

  "No!" Trisha jumped to her feet, putting herself between Ull and her tío, who had risen as she faced Ull. "Ull, stop!"

  "He was threatening you," Ull growled.

  "No, he wasn't," she denied. "He was just being… adamant about knowing why I wanted him here." Looking over her shoulder, she saw her tío's eyes had gone wide, and his mouth was hanging open. "Now, put that sword away before you hurt someone."

  Ull lowered his sword, but he didn't sheath it. Knowing that was the best she was going to get for the moment, she spun around to face her tío, placing her hands on his chest.

  "Tío Aaron," she began.

  "Who the hell is that, and what did he do to you?" he asked, looking at her in dismay.

  "Do to me?" She wondered what he was talking about then realized she was speaking Tornian. Taking a deep breath, she consciously made herself speak English. "Can you understand me now?"

  Her tío gave her a jerky nod.

  "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to find out this way." She turned to give Ull an exasperated look. "This is Ull, and he was supposed to wait until I told him to come in, but he thought you were going to hurt me." She switched back to Tornian. "My tío would never hurt me."

  "What are you saying?" Aaron demanded. "Speaking?"

  "I told him you would never hurt me, and I'm speaking Tornian," she said, looking back to her tío. "It's Ull's native language. He can't yet speak or understand Earth's languages."

  “Earth languages?” Aaron questioned.

  She took a deep breath. “Ull isn’t from Earth, Tío. He’s from a planet called Tornian.”

  “A planet called Tornian,” Aaron stressed the two words.

  "Yes. I know it's hard to believe, but Ull's an alien," she decided just to put it all out there. "He's come to Earth because his people need our help, and we need theirs."

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Trisha watched as her tío carefully set the tablet back down on the table they were all sitting around. She'd replayed the recording Lisa had sent her and was now waiting for his reaction.

  "You actually put that thing on?" His voice was gravelly with concern as his eyes locked onto hers.

  "Yes," she told him quietly.

  "Why in the name of God would you do that?!" he demanded.

  "Because Lisa asked me to," she told him. "She's my friend, and she needed my help. How could I refuse after what I did?"

  "Trisha…"

  "I know what you're going to say, and maybe it was foolish of me, but I know Lisa better than you do. She helped me so much when Mamá was sick, even though she was struggling too with Mark. I know she would never have reached out to me this way, never would have asked me to do this, if it wasn't incredibly important. And, Tío Aaron, it is."

  “It didn’t harm you?” Aaron asked quietly, his eyes searching hers, trying to see for himself that this was still his niece.

  "No." Reaching out, she squeezed his hand. "It felt a little strange, but it didn't hurt, and I feel fine."

  “A doctor still needs to check you out to make sure.”

  "If that's what it takes to reassure you, then I will." Although she knew she'd put it off for as long as she could. "But none of the others experienced any side effects, so I'm sure I won't either."

  “Others?" He frowned at her. "What others?”

  Trisha leaned back in her chair, running a frustrated hand through her hair. This was taking way too long. She loved her tío. Loved that he was cautious and caring, that he always made sure he had all the information before making a decision. But right now, it was irritating.

  "There were others taken besides Lisa and her girls, Tío. Not by the Tornians, but by a species called Ganglians." She looked to Ull, who had been surprisingly silent while she and her tío conversed. "You brought the educator?" she asked in Tornian.

  Instead of answering, he reached into his vest and pulled out the box with its broken seal and handed it to her.

  Taking it, she turned back to her tío. "I need you to trust me, Tío Aaron. There is so much you need to know and understand, and if you let Ull put this on you, you will. You'll be able to communicate with him. Ull's the one the Tornians sent to negotiate with Earth."

  "You trust him?" Aaron asked, eyeing the rose-colored male suspiciously.

  Trisha let her gaze travel over Ull as she carefully chose her next words.

  "I don't really know him," she began, "And don't agree with some of the things he's said and done in the short time I have. But he's the one the Tornian Emperor sent, and Lisa stressed that they are an honorable species. And we could trust them."

  "What did he do to you?" Aaron demanded.

  "Let's just say Ull is used to being in charge and having his orders followed without question." She gave her tío a teasing smile. "We both know how good I am at doing that."

  Aaron started to chuckle. He knew his niece, and if there was one thing she didn't tolerate, it was arrogant men who thought they ruled the world just because they were men. "I'm sure you explained it to him."

  "Most definitely, which is why the two of you need to communicate directly, and you can't do that unless you use the educator."

  "Why can't it be programmed, so he understands English?" Aaron asked.

  "I'm sure it can be, but first someone who knows English has to understand Tornian technology so it can be uploaded properly. Right now, there isn't anyone like that. So, until there is, we have to learn their language."

  Aaron stood running his hands roughly over his face as he thought about what she was asking of him. If he'd been just her tío, he would have done this, trusting her without hesitation. He wasn't; he was the President of the United States of America. His life wasn'
t his own, and his decisions affected millions of people.

  "I know what you're thinking, Tío Aaron, and if you're not willing to take this risk, they can approach someone else. They just won't be as considerate as they have been with us. There's too much at stake for everyone."

  "What are you saying?" he demanded. "What will they do?"

  "Honestly?" She gave him a concerned look.

  "Always," he said.

  "I think they'll kidnap another world leader, force the educator on them, then go from there. Sometimes it's easier to beg for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission. You've said that on more than one occasion, and it seems to be a universal thing."

  "Shit, if they take the wrong one…" he began to pace, a sure sign he was agitated.

  "One that doesn't have the world's best interests at heart…" she continued for him. "Only their own…"

  "It could be disastrous," he finished.

  "Which is why Lisa thought of you," she told him quietly, rising to stand in front of him, halting his pacing and putting a hand over his heart. "You are the most honorable man I know, Tío. You truly want to help people, not because it benefits you but because you care what happens to them. This is going to affect and change the entire world. If not done in the right way…"

  "It will destroy it." He knew Trisha was right. When this news got out, their world would be changed forever. He could either be a part of making sure it was changed for the better or sit back and hope for the best. He had never been very good at the latter. "I need to contact my detail and let them know I'm going to be here longer than planned."

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Even as a young child, Aaron Garcia had always known he was meant to be more than just the first-born son of Juan and Marie Garcia. More than just the older brother to his six younger siblings. He'd worked hard, studied harder, and made sure he stayed out of trouble to set a good example for his younger brothers and sisters. He'd also always looked up to and respected his parents. He'd seen how they'd struggled and the sacrifices they'd made so their children could have a better life than they had.