“I feel…a bit weird. But okay. What’s happened to Mimi?”
“It’s like one of those things on TV where someone’s possessed by an evil spirit. It was in you, and now it’s in Mimi. But I don’t know what it is…or anything.”
John’s attention turned from Mimi’s demented grin.
“Are you all right, Mother?”
“My boy. So clever. So good.”
“Hmm, well, that remains to be seen. I’ve brought Rixxar One into your house. Not so clever, really. Still, as long as he behaves himself…”
“I understand the etiquette of Draxxar hospitality,” Mimi said.
For a moment, neither Liam nor Anna knew who had spoken; the low, harsh tone was so unlike Mimi’s bright, confident cadence.
“You, Liam,” John said, “or whatever your name is. Take my mother upstairs.”
Anna tried to follow Liam and Luana to the basement door, but John stopped her with a light hand on her forearm.
The longed-for familiarity of his touch stopped her in her tracks. If she didn’t know it was too soon, she would have sworn that the baby fluttered inside her.
“Anna. Are you all right?”
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly.
“Your head? Down here?” He patted her stomach, which lurched with unwanted desire.
“Fine. I think.”
“Stay here with us for a while. I want to keep an eye on you.”
He turned to a monitor, hunching over it while Mimi and Anna watched over his shoulder.
“What’s that?” Anna asked, seeing tiny flashing lights retreating through a map of the galaxy.
“My brethren,” Mimi answered. “Returning to their world. But they will be back. As soon as the ozone layer tears again, I will send them the sign, and we will leave this place. That’s Valent and me, I mean. Not you.”
“Who’s Valent?”
But Mimi ignored the question, returning her avid gaze to the screen.
“I have a lot to tell you, Anna,” John began, reaching back to take her hand.
“Tell her nothing,” Mimi snapped.
“I can’t tell her nothing. She is the mother of my child. I think she needs to know. Especially if she is going to be bringing the child up without me. There are instructions I will need to give. A half-Draxxar child will not be like a human.”
“I suppose.” Mimi sniffed. “All right. But she must tell nobody else.”
“Anybody else wouldn’t believe her. And that Liam character has zero credibility already.”
“I feel I’ve made a mistake,” muttered Mimi. “I should have stayed in her. I don’t trust you.”
John laughed, a long and bitter laugh.
“Good to know that the lessons of history haven’t passed you by, Rixxar One. Now, let’s all go upstairs. The humans will need feeding.”
By the shores of the lake at Hampstead Heath, John and Anna walked hand in hand while Liam and Mimi watched jealously from a picnic rug further up the slope.