Finding Darkness

Chapter 10 Dream

Tamar stood there as if rooted in place. Had she heard what she thought she heard? "Not while I'm here." That's what he'd said only a few seconds ago. He'd said it so off the cuff, as if he had no idea what that simple statement would mean to her. The question in Tamar's mind was how long would he be here? Everyone else in her life had either wanted her to do something for them, or to do something to her. It was that simple. So, no matter how nice he seemed right then, it was going to take more than nice words and a couple of assists for her to come even close to trusting him. Her heart had been smashed far too many times for her to take a chance again.

So she fell in step with him, not knowing what to do. She didn't want to be far from him, being that he was about the only thing keeping her alive, as much as she hated to admit it. At the same time, Tamar didn't want to get too close to him, so she decided to stay where she was, and see where this led.

"Why did you use me as bait?" Tamar asked when she caught up with Malachi.

"I knew something was following us, but I couldn't pin it down. Whatever it was, was using some pretty advanced cloaking tech, and knew how to use it to peak efficiency. I didn't want whatever it was to know I knew it was there, so I needed you to think I'd left. I knew that it would attack if it thought you were alone."

"I was alone. You left me standing there thinking you wouldn't come back. I thought you never would." Malachi spun on his heels. His hands grabbed Tamar's shoulders holding her in place.

"You will never be alone. I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere. I'm sorry if I scared you, but it was necessary. It won't happen again without warning, okay?"

"That's fine..." Tamar's voice broke. "I'm a big girl... I can take care of mysel..." She swallowed hard to keep her voice steady, then broke away from him with a snarled.

"I really hate you sometimes, you know that?" She was so close to breaking down in front of him. Did he even know what the words he'd just spoke meant to her?

"You have a strange way of showing hatred. You know that, right?"

He knew. How did he know? Tamar stood there staring at him for a few seconds, shook her head, then as he turned back to the north, she followed him.

It was three days later that Malachi brought them both to a stop at the top of a slight rise. Below them stood a small town. Everything looked normal, except for the fact that there was no sign of habitation whatsoever. Not a vehicle moved, no one could be seen in the streets, and the biggest thing was that there was not a light on anywhere. It was late evening and a fine mist hung over the valley in which the small city lay. So if anyone was still there, they would have some lights on, unless they were smart enough not to want to attract any attention to themselves.

"We'll rest here for a few days."

"Can't we just keep moving? We can't be that far from the closest of those mines, can we?"

"We still have over three hundred miles to go, and you're having trouble putting one foot in front of the other. So I call a rest stop. I'm sure there are some nice rooms somewhere in this town."

Several hours and a little searching later and they were both in the honeymoon suite in one of the cities' several hotels.

"Have you ever seen a bed this big?" Tamar shouted while in mid flight. She landed on her back in the middle of the huge king sized bed that dominated one end of the room.

When Malachi didn't answer, she turned towards him.

"Well have you?" She huffed, hands on hips.

But he wasn't paying any attention to her at the moment. His concentration was outside, where his suits sensors were scouring the surrounding area for any sign of activity, alien or other wise.