“Ideally, I'd try to find both of them. But that could be difficult, depending on where the girl ran to,” Ilian attempted what reassurance he could, despite his overall disdain for the plan at all.

“And exactly what methods will they be using to find her?” Adan asked sharply.

Ilian let out a quiet sigh, “We can see heat signatures, within a certain range. Without the mental camouflage I use to hide this place and all of us, that is,” he admitted.

“Within what range?” Adan pressed.

“About five hundred feet, approximately,” Ilian replied, casting those apparently incredible eyes of his downwards.

Aura: “b careful, they can see heat!”

Micah: “i assumed as much, but thx babe”

“I suppose I should look for her first, since he'll be easier to find, if I take a phone,” Ilian stated somberly.

“But he's the one--” Aura caught herself mid-sentence as she glanced at Adan. “You've got the heat thing to find her, I can find him with the GPS,” she offered with a bravery that shocked her as much as her companions.

“Aura! That's ridiculous!” Adan exclaimed.

“I'd have to agree with Adan on this part, Aura,” Ilian added.

“This whole thing is ridiculous! But we can't just leave him-- them, out there to die when they're that close, and depending on us. Imagine if it was us out there,” she added for weight.

“But why do you have to go?” Adan pleaded, the fear in his voice touching her deeply, considering the very real doubts she had been having about their future together ever since Cleo reappeared in his life once again.

She just gave his arm a pointed look, “Are you really eager to get shot again, when you can still barely move, Adan?” she attempted a smile, but failed.

“But...” he whispered as he moved toward her, wrapping his uninjured arm around her and pulling her close.

“If you're really determined to do this, Aura, we don't have a lot of time here,” Ilian interrupted regretfully.

“But, the air... and if you're not with Ilian, he can't keep hiding you. And...” Adan continued to plead his case to Aura, which just caused them to both begin tearing up.

“We're all they've got, Adan. They wouldn't be out there at all if we hadn't given them that hope,” she sniffled, and squeezed him close as those tears did finally escape his dark eyes.

Aura gave him the softest, sweetest kiss. Then, despite his tears ripping at her heart, she made herself turn away, looking back at Ilian with a determined nod, despite how badly she was also shaking.

* * *

It was almost an hour later when Aura closed in on the GPS signal blinking on her phone. Her lungs were burning despite the mask, her legs aching, and her heart racing. She wasn't sure if the latter was due to her lack of exercise, the poison slowly seeping into her lungs, or the fear of being discovered by the patrol that had scared Micah and Cleo into going into hiding earlier that night. She imagined it was probably a combination of all of those factors.

She looked down at the phone once more, then up at the ramshackle old cabin hidden away in the woods before her. She tried to take a deep breath, despite the mask, and the still prevalent blue toxins in the air surrounding her, and immediately regretted it. She had to painfully bite back the urge to cough for fear of the sound giving away her location. Which she assumed was a rather trivial fear when dealing with aliens with infrared vision or whatever the fuck it even was.

God, is that how Ilian saw she and Adan when he looked at them? Did he have to 'activate' the ability, or was it always on? Even during... She shook her head to chase away that thought. She then braced herself and peered into the darkness of the cabin through the nearest dirty window she could find.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Meanwhile, on the opposite bank of the wide creek that ran past the cabin Aura had made her way to, Ilian's vision moved to the lake that that creek had led into. Or more precisely, a small boathouse at the edge of it.

Fortunately, there did already seem to be less patches of the blue mushrooms in this area of the forest now, but still enough to be deadly for any human who spent too long outside. Looking around the woods surrounding the lake, and the boathouse, he noted that the only heat signature large enough to be something other than an animal, was coming from inside that boathouse.

Ilian wasn't sure if it was a blessing or a curse that he felt only a slight burn in his own lungs, due to the black toxins slowly seeping into the air after his endeavors a week earlier. Glancing once more toward the boathouse and then the treeline, he decided he should take every opportunity he could, and he reached into the pack he had brought with him.

He took out another small vial of black seeds and immediately moved to dump them into the water at the point where the creek fed into the lake. As he did, he felt his eyes and lungs burning even hotter, but he was still able to breathe throughout his task, though with great effort. So he didn't let himself be swayed from pouring the entire vial into the water and scattering plenty of the seeds upon the fertile banks surrounding it as well.

He performed his task quickly though, as there was still his original reason for being outside again at all that night. As he finished emptying the vial, he shoved it back into the pack and began moving quietly and carefully toward the nearby boathouse.

Once Ilian made his way to the small structure, he took one more look around the woods. He then pushed upon the door and could feel that it was barricaded from within. Although that wouldn't really be much protection from toxins or his former comrades, the effort was commendable.

With another slightly pained breath due to the spreading black toxins nearby, he easily pushed the door and the stack of lightweight canoes barring it out of the way.

In response to his breach of the small building, his sharp hearing caught a muffled whimper from behind another stack of canoes. He sighed softly as his eyes moved in that direction, where he could easily make out her red outline hiding there through that enhanced vision of his. If it wasn't for the fact that he was now on the side of the humans, the ease with which he had hunted his target down would have been truly terrifying.

“Hello?” he warily called out through the darkness of the boathouse.

“Shit! You're not one of them!” the muffled exclamation greeted him as a pretty young masked girl came out of her hiding spot, overjoyed with relief as she rushed toward the sound of his voice.

Once she got close enough to see him more clearly in the darkness, she stopped short. Her breath caught as her dark eyes moved over him appreciatively.

“Cleo?” he stated quietly at her approach.

“Glad people still recognize me, but who the hell are you?” she said a little breathily as she moved around him, her eyes taking in his tall, muscular form, long black locks, tanned skin and deep brown eyes that reminded her so much of what she found attractive in a man. She had noticeable trouble pulling her eyes from him at all, despite the entire situation.

“A friend of Adan's and Aura's,” was the only answer he gave her. “Put this on,” he told her as he pulled a gas mask from his pack and handed it to her.

“Not exactly flattering,” she stated as she took the item with disdain clear in her eyes above the much less efficient cloth mask she was wearing already.

“Neither is drowning in the blood that'll slowly fill your lungs without it,” he told her plainly.

“Sheesh. Morbid much?” she returned, grudgingly pulling the gas mask on at last. It seemed her self preservation just slightly outweighed her vanity, still.

“We should go,” Ilian told her shortly.

“You don't have to tell me twice,” Cleo eagerly latched onto his arm, despite the inefficiency of traveling quickly while linked together in that way. “But are those things still out there?” she asked as more of an afterthought, continuing to look up in admiration at where he stood about five inches taller than her petite frame.

“They won't see us,” was the only brief answer he supplied her with again.

“O...K, trusting you hon,” she said with a sweet smile as she held his arm tighter, not acknowledging his slight sound of annoyance as she did.

Cleo and Ilian had only been moving for about five minutes when that voice of hers broke the silence once again, “Hey, wait, how come you're not wearing a mask and you're fine? I feel like I'm snorting razor blades out here, even with this hideous thing on.”

“Long story,” was the only answer he offered. There was no way he wanted to even try to give any of that explanation right now.

“Believe me, I don't mind the strong, silent type, but we got time, right?” she replied with a teasing giggle.

He finally turned his dark eyes toward her, “Just because they won't see us, doesn't mean they won't hear us,” he told her pointedly.

“Oh! OK, gotcha!” she smiled sweetly up at him, dramatically moving her hand to her smiling lips.

Ilian could only shake his head and sigh heavily as he continued to lead her through the darkness.