He watched me closely. More closely than I was comfortable with. “You were handling this pretty shitty at first, but you’re coming to terms with it faster. Good.”
He had no idea how close I was to laughing hysterically. “Oh, I’m not coming to terms with shit. I want to throw up, and part of me doesn’t believe you, but it’s almost so outrageous I have to,” I admitted. “Because of the stomach stuff, I mean. The ESP. And comments my grandfather said that I don’t think he thought twice about but made more sense than my great-grandmother being a witch.” I pressed my lips together. “I always did think you three had to be from another planet. I never really thought you were government experiments.”
He snickered. “We’re not.”
“This is a lot to process.”
He rubbed his chin and gave me an expression that wasalmostsympathetic. Maybe he wasn’t used to rocking people’s worlds on a regular basis. Maybe itwasrare that you were told that somewhere down the line some ancestor was… maybe… more than likely… not from… Earth.
I had a special tool to help me open tight cans, for fuck’s sake.
But hadn’t I dreamed about this my whole life? Being special? Didn’t everybody? Sure, all I had were stomachaches, but….
I blew out a breath that hurt and stared at the small coffee table right in front of his knees, still in shock.
Lifting my gaze, I eyed the almost normal-looking man sitting at my hip. He still hadn’t grown a third eye. There weren’t gills along his ribs, even though that might have been cool. Other than being too beautiful, his skin too smooth, he was… just like everyone else. At least on the outside.
Was it possible? That a great-grandparent had been like him? Was that really why my grandpa had been so secretive about his family?
I let out a shaky breath before wiping at my face, exhaustion suddenly hitting me. Recovering from being sick, not eating or drinking well, and getting an emotional bomb dropped on my ass would do that. At least I was pretty sure. “I need to lie down here for a minute, maybe have a quiet meltdown. Maybe cry a little. Will you let me know when whoever is coming gets here?” I asked him weakly.
His eyebrows rose, and he looked amused? “As long as you’re quiet.”
I gave him a dirty look.
His amusement didn’t go anywhere. “They’ll be here soon.”
Training my gaze on the ceiling, I hugged the pillow a little closer to my chest. “How do you know that?”
“Because I’m listening,” he answered.
Right. Because he was an alien. Or at least part of one? Enough of one to be so special?
Oh boy, this was going to take me a while to process and accept. Not that it changed my life or anything. If it was true, it didn’t do shit. All it did was explain a couple things.
I’d been trying not to think about how scary the future was going to be. I had no idea if I still had a job. Where was I going to sleep? How was I going to be able to eat? How much had the cartel found out about me?
I needed a cell phone.
My laptop.
And now this?
Keep it together, Gracie.
He’d said he’d help me. That he would keep an eye on me. To what extent would he be in my life?
I had no fucking clue, and my spiritual balls must have dried up since I wasn’t willing to ask.
We were moving on, and the world was still going to be a scary place regardless of who I was with and who my great-grandparents and great-great grandparents were. That didn’t change anything.
The point was, I couldn’t totally entrust my safety to another person, no matter how strong or special they were. I couldn’t forget that. He hadn’t told me exactly why his grandmother was looking for other Atraxians, and he’d sure been weird about that. Maybe she wanted to harvest my organs, who the hell knew.
I needed to keep my ears peeled and my senses on high alert in the meantime. There was no better time to start than now. I had a lot to think about.
Maybe I would need that little cry after all.
I’d think about it.
