Free United: An Alienated Novel by Melissa Landers Page A

his staff. Aelyx felt a blow to the chest, and the next thing he knew, he slammed against the concrete.
    He heard shouts from the crowd, fans crying his name. Someone yelled, “Oh, my god! That guy’s trying to kill Aelyx!” and in the span of two heartbeats, the crowd broke through the barricades and attacked Jaxen. They leaped up and grabbed his hovercraft, tipping it to and fro. Jaxen tried to strike back, but each time he raised his staff, he was forced to flail his arms for balance.
    Aelyx didn’t waste another moment watching. He pushed up from the ground and grabbed Cara’s hand. The two of them raced for Troy, and after helping him to his feet, they half limped, half ran around the corner and didn’t stop until they reached the shuttle.
    Once they were safely inside, floating high above the chaos and cloaked by an invisible shield, Aelyx sat back against the pilot’s seat and tried to steady his shaking hands. The relief of cheating death twice in the span of ten minutes caused him to laugh—a bizarre response, as he found nothing humorous about the situation. Quite the contrary, it disturbed and confused him to learn Zane had armed Jaxen. How had such a partnership formed, especially considering Jaxen had once intended to use humans in a war against the Aribol?
    Only one thing was certain. Aelyx would never again complain about unwanted attention from the L’annabes. They were his heroes.

Chapter Six
    I n the movies, government safe houses were depicted as grubby apartments with sagging furniture and bad lighting that made everyone look jaundiced. For some reason, the feds were always playing poker in these films, or maybe reading the newspaper, while mafia informants paced the floor, twitching at every sound. Cara knew she wouldn’t find any of Colonel Rutter’s men playing cards—not unless they craved a boot up the tailpipe—but she hadn’t expected the safe house to seem so … homey.
    Nestled on a heavily wooded lot outside the city, the two-story log cabin looked more like an off-season ski lodge than a government hidey-hole. The house was shaded by a canopy of tree branches, and even offered a wide wraparound porch, perfect for watching the sunset and sipping lemonade. Maybe the armored Humvee parked on the driveway didn’t scream nature , but if Cara closed her eyes and ignored the chattering soldiers on patrol, she could hear cicadas and birdsongs high in the trees, and detect notes of pine on the breeze, mingled with hints of musk from the bay.
    “This is better than summer camp,” she told Aelyx as they crossed the front lawn. “I should let the military hide me more often.”
    He huffed a dry laugh and kicked aside a pinecone. “Be careful what you wish for. The last safe house was a motel room the size of a closet. Six people, one toilet, twelve hours of tedious small talk.”
    Maybe the movies were more accurate than she’d thought.
    Inside the cabin, her parents and a few others were standing in the living room, huddled in front of a flat screen television mounted on the wall. The TV’s sound was muted, but Cara recognized the newsreel at first glance. In slow motion, the footage showed Jaxen wobbling on his hovercraft until he finally stabilized well enough to knock the crowd back with his staff. The caption along the bottom of the screen read R OGUE A LIEN W REAKS H AVOC IN M ANHATTAN!
    Cara watched Jaxen zoom off into the distance. “I guess that answers my question. He got away.”
    Her dad glanced over his shoulder at her, then turned off the screen. He went quiet for a moment, a surefire sign he was upset. “It’s playing everywhere.”
    Cara gave her parents an extra peppy grin so they wouldn’t worry. “I’ll bet. It’s not every day an alien hybrid gets his ass handed to him by a mob of angry fangirls.”
    Her casual act didn’t fool them. Mom latched onto Dad’s side and pressed her cheek to his chest while he stroked her hair and rubbed her lower back to comfort