The Hybrid Girl (Andromeda Book 1)

Chapter 34

My echoing footsteps over the rubble partially fill the silence that seems to be a permanent state in the place I once called home. Charred remnants of knick-knacks scattered all over the ground, crunch under my boots as I return to the site I have avoided since that fateful night. A cool wind picks up, making my hair dance behind me in the breeze. Tourists wouldn't have a clue there used to be a home stood here because of how little is left. But for me, there are more memories than I could ever name. A tear escapes my eye for the simple life I once had. It seems so long ago, now, even though it was only a few months.

Wiping the tear away, I walk further into the wreckage and my eyes scan the area looking for anything that might have survived. I don't have any hope that things did survive but my eyes survey the ruins regardless. My common sense is proved correct when all I can see is shattered glass pieces and burnt furniture under the collapsed roof. Dusting off one of the huge boulder-sized rocks, I perch on its edge and look out towards the beach. Peacefully closing my eyes listening to the sound of the traffic on the motorway, I try to keep my heart rate steady, knowing danger is on the way.

Surely enough, I see a lone figure marching towards me with six others following closely in its midst. I'm not sure if Attila expects me to flinch or run away or scream, but when he is in close enough proximity to see the bored expression on my face, he appears startled that I'm not reacting to his presence in a more frightened fashion. Quickly wiping the surprised expression from his face, he replaces it with a disgusted look aimed at me.

"Why am I not surprised the chemical's crude signature is coming from here?" he shivers in detest, "and that you are here too."

"So long as you keep trying to use it to hurt innocent people, I'll keep coming to stop you," I lean back casually against the rock.

"And how exactly do you think you're going to stop me?" he chuckles as if I'm so beneath him he can't even see me, "you've been studying navitos all of five minutes and all of a sudden you think you can stop me? An experienced alien that's been doing this longer than you've been alive?"

I let out a mocking laugh, "we've been able to keep it from you this long, and I've barely used anything I've learnt against you. And you're right, you are so much more experienced. This must be so embarrassing for you. Being outsmarted by a group of humans and a newbie hybrid."

"You should quit while you're ahead," he sneers, taking my words incredibly personally, "because your luck is about to run out so fast your head is going to spin, right before I pry the chemical from you and snap your neck."

"I'm quaking in my boots, Attila," I narrow my eyes at him confidently, using extra venom in my words as I say his name.

This takes him off guard. Yeah, I know your name!

"See, what I don't understand is, what you're doing here on this primitive planet," I fold my arms accusingly, "you're supposed to be this all-powerful alien, as you've said so many times. Why in the universe would you come to this galaxy? There is literally only one planet here with life, and so your power is severely depleted here. I don't get why you'd come here."

Something flashes in his eyes and suddenly it's like he's not looking at me anymore, but is looking through me. "I don't know," I swear I hear him mumble but he says it so quietly I'm not sure if I'm just hearing things.

"What?" I echo insensitively.

"I don't know!" he growls furiously, "my memory of home... I can't remember why I was sent here. But when I landed, I wasn't alone, I came with a few of my brothers. Those that I spent my life with. We grew up together. Trained in power together. When we landed none of us had any recollection of why we even came. Attempted every spell we could think of to restore our lost memories but nothing worked. It was like permanent amnesia. Not long after we settled into living honest human life, our secret was discovered by a ruthless group of your pitiful species."