Page 13 of Border Control

“I'd say no, but who knows, actually. I mean, if aliens are real, why not psychics, right?”

He nods. “I see the logic, Oh-Law-rah.”

He's very literal. So am I. “What’s Gara doing with my friend? If he’s hurt her, I’ll skin him alive.”

“He would never hurt a female, but I swear to you, if he has or you judge him lacking, I’ll skin him for you.” His voice rings in the shed with the promise, his jaw tight.

I take a step back. He’s sincere. He’s not happy about it, but he’ll carry out the sentence. “Let’s get Arabella to safety first, okay?”

He presses his fist to the center of his sweat-streaked chest. “At once, Oh-Law-rah.”

We step outside into the driving rain. “What a washout,” I mutter, wrestling with my soggy umbrella.

Dom comes to stand in front of me, arms up to block as much of the deluge as he can. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s the thought that counts. And man, that does something for me. A big strong guy seeing what I need before I do? Hello.

Except he does actually manage to block out the downpour. I stare up at his huge hands. “How are you doing that?”

“Doing what, Oh-Law-rah?”

“It’s Laura. Just Laura.”

“Law….rah.” A man’s tongue has never rolled the syllables of my name around his mouth like that. His breath is a puff of warmth against my cheek, and I’m reminded his literally steaming hot half naked body is practically pressing against me as he shields my head from the British weather.

I can't deny I like it. A lot.

“Anyway, you're blocking the shower with your fists,” I explain, but a few feet away it's raining harder than ever, comingdown in sheets. As if someone pulled a waterfall curtain around our little area, giving us privacy.

I point upward. “Is that something you're doing?” Because I hope it is.

“No, Law-rah.” He stares at the dry circle around us, jaw ticking, then looks up.

“Then what's going on?—”

Blinding bright white light bathes the yard, and he grabs me.

FOUR

DOM

As soon asthe scorching searchlight hits, I pull Law-rah to my chest and scale up my back and sides. The air lies silent but the pattern of the rain gives it away: something hovers directly above us.

Law-rah gasps and I wrap my arms tighter around her. I’ll protect her with my life.

‘Defend!’ I send to Nevare and Arik. ‘Formation zeta!’

Arik and I mentally guide Nevare’s consciousness toward the light above us, as if we’re aiming a projectile.‘Scan and prepare to immobilize,’I order, and then brace as images flash into my mind, each one hitting as hard as a betrillium crusher in Nevare’s excitement.

‘Earth growing soil starhound barn farmhouse home!’he crows.

“Argh,” I gasp. I might have a metal plate in my head, but psychic energies don’t care about the physical and spear straight through. I squeeze my eyes shut and grit my teeth against the onslaught.

“Breathe,” Law-rah whispers to me, her voice throbbing. This close, my meager powers sense the edges of her emotions asflickering auras. Surrounding her is a scared spiky blue, and she’s fighting to stay a calm yellow-green to tell me to: “Breathe, Dom.”

I take in a deep lungful of air, inhaling the moist heat of her outbreath. The way she looked at me inside the machine shed… she wasn’t scornful, mocking or dismissive. Nor was she frightened. She looked… concerned.

The intensity was something I’d never experienced before, and certainly never from a female.

I report, “Nevare’s found two, no, four sentient lifeforms above us. In a spaceship.”