Nemesis: Book Five by David Beers

wasn't running away either. He stood with his hands at his sides, staring at her with an intensity that she hadn't seen any human match yet.
    Bryan…, she thought as his face became to clear her. Bryan … why are you here?
    "Morena," Briten said again from her feet.
    She looked down at him, her aura tightening its grip, not wanting to let him go, not even a single drop of blood.
    "Save him…." His eyes glanced toward the father before coming back to her.
    And what would she do? Tell him no?
    Her aura snaked across the ground, a few inches above the white strands. She watched as some stretched up, trying to touch their mother as the green passed over them. The aura reached the old man, wrapping around him the same as it did Briten, reaching inside of his wounds, trying to heal the damage done. He was further gone than Briten, his body having taken so much more abuse over the years.
    Briten said nothing else, but closed his eyes.
    He would live, she could feel it. The body would survive, and thank The Makers. How he got here, what they were doing with him, none of that mattered. He would live and he was here. Now he wanted these two. The boy he inhabited, Michael—it had to have something to do with him.
    Bryan hadn't moved, neither forward nor backward.
    Morena smiled, unable to keep herself from doing it. What would Bryan have said in this situation? Jesus Christ? Exasperation, that's what she felt, because what was she to do with these two? Bring them under her reign? Briten wanted them to live for some reason, but she didn't understand why.
    "Come on," she said, her aura stretching out to him but not quite touching—maybe a foot away.
    Bryan remained where he stood.
    "Where else are you going to go, Bryan? If I want to kill you, getting in that car won't keep it from happening. You see that, right?"

    * * *
    " Y ou see that right ?"
    Bryan saw everything that just happened. He saw Morena standing there now, the green stuff that seemed to make up nearly her whole existence wrapping around Michael and Wren. She wasn't hurting them, and to be completely honest, Bryan thought she was helping.
    He kept still, though.
    He wanted to go to them, but he had to be sure. That's why he didn't run out there, why he didn't join Wren to save Michael. Bryan knew nothing could save Michael, nothing besides her , and she hadn't been here when Wren started running. The only part of death that scared Bryan was that he wouldn't ever get back to Thera. That couldn't be allowed. He wouldn't die here, not for Michael and not for Wren.
    And he didn't feel shame about it, either.
    He had his promise to keep, and everything else fell second to that. Thera died trying to protect him and when he died, he would lie down next to her.
    Yet, the only way to Thera was forward. The alien's green substance floated lazily in front of his face, like a flower swaying in the wind.
    He had to go forward. He could still protect Michael, as long as it wasn't completely futile. And, maybe the fucking bitch would bring him back to Thera if she decided to kill him.
    "My friend," he said, shouting a bit so that his voice carried to her. "Thera, the one you killed." His voice hitched at the word. He paused, trying to regain his composure. "I want you to take me there if you kill me. You understand? Back to the woods and back to that hole we hid in. Just leave me there."
    She smiled back at him, and he imagined an anteater might look similar if the ants asked it to bury them when it finished. He didn't like the smile, but he didn't feel the same fear. The fear that shattered the mirror inside him, the fear that kept him inside that hole while Thera ventured out to commit murder. Gone. Not even a remnant left.
    "Sure, Bryan. Whatever you'd like," she said, the smile wide.
    He made his choice when he left that forest. He made the choice to head back there, no matter what happened, so this little argument in his head amounted to another grain of salt being dropped into