Chapter 5

Zin walked in to the bar and was surprised to see Jess talking to a uniformed police officer. Mel was standing nearby talking to a Detective in a suit. When she saw him, she muttered something to the Detective before moving to join Zin.

"Julius, hi. I didn't expect to see you today."

"Well, I needed to talk to you. Is Jess okay? Did something happen?"

Mel nodded faintly. "One of her friends ODed on some new drug."

Zin frowned. "Surely Jess isn't into drugs?"

"Oh, no." Mel shook her head. "Jess knows better. Tried to talk her friend out of it, I guess. Didn't work."

"Will her friend be okay?"

"The doctors say so, but it'll take time. Apparently this stuff has killed a few people already. But it's brand new…" She shrugged. "Vic says the cops have never seen anything like it. You put it in your eyes, I guess."

"Your eyes?" Zin repeated, frowning.

She nodded. "That's what Jess says. Some kind of green eye-drops."

His frown deepened. "Horrible. How is Jess holding up?"

"She's upset," Mel told him, shrugging.

"I can imagine."

Both looked up as Jess approached. "Mel, I'm going to go down to the station, give them a description…"

"Okay, Jess." Mel nodded and gave her a faint smile.

"Don't worry, Jess," Zin added. "I'm sure everything will be fine."

"Thanks, Doctor--"

"Julius," he corrected her gently. "You hang in there, Jessica."

She nodded faintly. "Yeah, Julius. I will. Thanks."

Zin gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze as the uniformed officer ushered her off. The Detective was regarding him thoughtfully.

"Detective," Zin greeted him.

"So, you're Julius?" Vic asked quietly. He had been hoping that Jess had exaggerated how charming, attractive, and rich Mel's new guy was. Obviously she had not, though.

Zin nodded politely. "Yes, and you are?"

"Vic Bruno, robbery/homicide."

"I see." Zin extended his hand. "A pleasure."

"Yeah." Vic gave his hand a brief squeeze and walked off, not looking at Mel or Zin.

"We used to date," Mel explained quietly when Vic had left.

"Ah. I understand." Zin gave her a gentle smile.

"You wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes, but not here. Will you come to my office?"

She frowned faintly. "Is something wrong?"

"No, no. Not at all." He gave her a reassuring smile. "But we must talk. I've… discovered something that you should know."

"Why can't you tell me here?"

"I just can't. But I guarantee that you will want to hear what I have to tell you."

"Why?" she whispered, startled by his tense tone. "What's going on, Julius?"

"Something big. Will you come with me to my office?"

She hesitated for a few moments before nodding. "Let me grab my purse."

He nodded and pulled out his phone as he went to retrieve it. Dialing quickly, he said, "I'm en route back to my office. I need to talk to Doctor Lana immediately. Have her there by the time I arrive."

"It will be done, sir."

"Good." He clicked off the phone and tucked it into his pocket as Mel returned with her purse. "Shall we, then?"

"Yeah. But what's going on?" she persisted, following him out to his car.

He held the door for her. "Something best discussed in private."

Mel spent the car-ride in uncomfortable silence, wondering what was going on and why Zin so badly wanted to talk to her about it. And why he refused to talk about it until they reached his office. Part of her remembered the way he had grabbed her throat and worried for her safety. The rest remembered how wonderful his subsequent touches had felt and had trouble believing that he would ever harm her.

Lana joined them in the foyer of the large office building and wordlessly fell into step behind Zin, her expression unreadable as always. Zin was politely acknowledged by everyone they passed, though very few spared Lana or Mel a second glance. An elevator ride spent in silence, and they emerged into a large reception area.


"Doctors," the receptionist greeted them, rising.

Zin nodded an absent acknowledgement to him. "See Miss Porter into my office and get her a drink. I'll be in shortly, Melanie."

"Um, okay, Julius." Mel nodded and followed the man.

Zin turned to face Lana. "I am not a happy man right now, dear."

"Whatever it is, I didn't do it," she told him, her tone teasing.

Zin grabbed Lana by the throat, pushing her into a wall and squeezing hard enough that bruises began forming immediately.

"Kaden is distributing Fek-Maln to humans!" he snarled. "Get him up here," he added in a normal tone of voice.

"Yes, Doctor Zin." Lana reached up and slowly removed his hand from her throat. "Just as soon as I change into a turtle-neck," she added with a faint smile, gingerly rubbing her newly acquired set of bruises. She loved it when he got forceful and was of the opinion that he was wasted on the mongrel currently waiting in his office. "Wouldn't want people to see these and get the wrong idea about us." She smiled.

Zin sighed and shook his head. "Go," he muttered, waving her off. "And get that dammed Cirronian up here!" he shouted after her retreating form.

Shaking his head, he took a deep breath, composing himself. Squaring his shoulders, he went to talk to Mel, smile firmly in place. He had decided that telling her about aliens was probably not the best way to proceed. He did not want to scare her, after all. There was no need for her to know about them; she could learn how to utilize her abilities anyway. And be of great service to them. Of all of the Migar species, a Cirronian. No wonder she had seemed so familiar to him initially…

"Ah, Melanie!" Zin greeted her cheerfully as he entered the office. There was a decanter on the desk and an empty glass. Mel held its partner in her hand. "Sorry for the delay, but some other business came up that simply had to be dealt with immediately."

"I understand. Running a business this size must demand a lot of time."

He shrugged and sat down behind his desk. "Less when you have reliable lieutenants. Now, to the business at hand."

"What is the 'business at hand'?" Mel asked, curious.

"You are the business at hand," Zin informed her seriously. "Melanie, the first time I met you, I was intrigued. You must realize that?"

"Well, I mean, yeah. Obviously you were interested or you never would have asked me out." Mel nodded slowly, wondering what his point was.

"There was something about you. I couldn't place it at the time. You gave blood this morning…"

Mel frowned. "How did you know that?"

"Lana has people working at the Red Cross. They took an extra vial of blood, said it was for a routine screening."

Mel paused to consider, her frown deepening. "Julius?"

"We ran some genetic tests on them to confirm something I had begun to suspect of you."

She rose, angry. "Okay, that is just a huge invasion of my privacy and probably as illegal as hell, Julius!"

"Yes. On both counts. But that does not change the fact that you, Melanie Porter, are a very special woman. Sit," he directed gently, pointing to the chair she had just vacated. "You need to understand something."

Mel sat down, but she was not happy with him, and her expression broadcast that loud and clear.

"There are several hundred individuals on this planet who possess a number of unique abilities. You have the potential to become one of them with training."

"I beg your pardon?" Mel asked blankly.

"Genetic… variance in these individuals leads to abilities that are not considered possible in humans. Telepathy, telekinesis, the ability to hide in plain sight. The ability to heal with a touch."

"Uh… right." Mel stared at him. Charming, intelligent, rich… She was ready to add 'stark-raving mad' to the litany.

"Is that scotch or brandy?" Zin asked, gesturing idly to the decanter.

"Brandy." Mel frowned at the abrupt shift in the conversation.

"Shame." He shrugged. "Ah, well. Suppose it'll have to do." Another idle gesture and the decanter tipped itself to fill the empty glass. The glass slid across the desk to Zin as the decanter righted itself. Zin let the glass come into his hand and took a long sip before smiling benignly at the woman gaping at him. "Still dubious?" he asked lightly, his eyes twinkling.

Mel's mouth moved wordlessly for several minutes before she gave up and just shook her head. It was unbelievable, but she had seen it. Zin sipped his drink in silence, allowing her to adjust to what she had just witnessed. The next move was hers.

"You're telling me that I can learn to do that?" Mel whispered finally. "Like you just did?"

He shook his head. "No. Your potential lies in another direction. Healing, the manipulation of matter and energy, things of this nature."

"And I can actually… learn how to do those things?"

He nodded. "I can even arrange a demonstration. I've a man of similar talents in my employ. He's at your disposal if you wish to learn what he can teach you."

Mel let out a short breath, nodding. "Julius, I don't know how to thank you…"

He smiled widely. "You will find a way, Melanie, I'm quite sure…"

***

Vic looked up from Jess' discussion with the sketch-artist as someone else joined them in the room. Giving the girl's shoulder a gentle squeeze, he approached the newcomer.

"Daggon?" he whispered, taking the man's arm and steering him from the room. "What are you doing here?"

"Is… police station. Where else to learn of crime? They are here, Vic. They will commit crime. You can help me learn of this."

Vic closed his eyes and counted to ten. "Buddy, I can't--"

"Who is female?" he asked, pointing. "You know her."

"Through a mutual friend, yeah."

"She is upset."

"Yeah."

"Why?"

Vic rolled his eyes, wondering if Daggon was always this full of questions. He was like a three year old. "Her friend is in the hospital. Took some weird drug, not like anything we've seen before."

"What is?" Daggon asked. "Drug?"

"Drug, a mind-altering chemical. In this case, it's these green eye-drops."

"Eye-drops?" He pointed to his eye, just to be sure.

"Yeah. Why?"

"May not be human. May be Fek-Maln. Where did she get this?"

Vic considered for all of five seconds. There were enough drugs on the streets without throwing an alien one into the mix. "I'll draw you a map."

"Thank you." Daggon smiled and patiently waited as Vic sketched out a map. Neither of them paid any attention to the janitor working nearby.

***

"Which makes it very important that we not tell anyone about these abilities of ours," Zin was explaining to Mel. "People wouldn't understand, they'd be scared, Melanie. You can't tell anyone about this, okay? It would put us in a lot of danger."

Mel nodded. "Of course, Julius. You're right…"

"Zin!" Lana gasped, bursting into the office.

"What?" Zin demanded. "Lana, I am in the middle of something very important here. Kaden can wait!"

Mel looked up at the girl, frowning at the livid bruises on her throat. "Christ, sweetie! What happened?" she asked, rising and going to Lana. "Who did this to you?"

Lana shook her head. "Not important," she assured Mel. "Zin, we need to talk." At the look on his face, she added, "It can't wait!"

Zin rose and walked to his clearly distressed protégé. "What has happened?" he asked gently, touching his fingers to her cheek. He looked up at Mel. "Wait here. I'll be back as soon as I can," he told her, taking Lana's arm and steering her from the room. "Lana, what has happened?" he asked gently.

"Daggon is on Earth," she whispered, rubbing the back of her neck. "He seems to have allied himself with a human police-officer."

Zin closed his eyes and let out a frustrated growl.

"He's on his way to Club 805's last location," Lana added. "He knows that Kaden is giving Fek-Maln to humans."

"Saves us having to kill him for it," Zin observed.

"Not funny, sir. Shall I warn him?"

"See how he reacts to our directive to stop distributing to humans. If he seems willing to cooperate, then warn him, by all means."

"There's a human at the police station, giving a description of Kaden."

"I know. It's Jess Brown."

"Miss Porter's friend?" Lana sighed and looked up at him. "How shall I proceed?"

"Both women are under my protection. Kaden made this bed. Let him lie in it."

Lana stared up at him. So much for professional detachment. "If you're sure, Doctor Zin…"

"I am. And have those bruises healed. They do not compliment your complexion."

"Yes, Doctor Zin." Lana turned on her heel only to be restrained by the older Vardian. "Yes, Doctor Zin?"

"Better still, have Reta brought up here now. I want Melanie to see him heal you."

Lana nodded and pulled out her cell-phone, dialing and quickly barking an order to that effect into the phone before hanging up again.

"How is she taking it, sir?" she asked.

"Quite well, all told." He smiled. "I would have to say that we've managed to secure her gratitude. Her loyalty should follow in fairly short order."