Taoree: Taoree Trilogy #1 Read online

  Taoree

  Book 1 of the Taoree Trilogy

  Michele Notaro

  Copyright © 2017 by Michele Notaro

  All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places or events are purely the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, actual events, establishments, businesses or locales is purely coincidental.

  The amazing book cover was done by:

  Soxsational Cover Art

  http://www.soxsationalcoverart.com/index.html

  Taoree is Book One in the Taoree Trilogy and is meant to be read as part of a series. This book ends on a cliffhanger, but there is a promise of a happy ending at the end of the trilogy.

  This is a gay romance that contains adult language, adult situations, and sexual explicit material between two men. It is rather gruesome, so if you don’t like violence, death, blood, and the like, don’t read it.

  It is intended for ADULTS ONLY.

  Prologue

  More Than Two Years Ago

  On the second day of just waiting and watching the spaceships hover, I was dying to talk to Calloway and Nolan. I finally remembered the walkie-talkies we used to have as kids, so I searched my bedroom closet for mine. I found it in a box in the back of my closet and I raced over to my bedroom window, threw open the curtains and started banging on it like a crazy person. My parents wouldn’t let us open any of the windows, so I just kept banging on it, hoping.

  “What the hell are you doing, Jeremy?” my little brother’s voice came from the doorway. He was only two years younger than me and most of the time I just wanted to punch him.

  “Leave me alone, Wes,” I said heatedly over my shoulder without looking at him.

  “You are such an asshole,” Wesley said before slamming my door.

  I ignored him as he stomped away angrily and just kept knocking on the window. Then finally, finally, Calloway Lyons pulled his bedroom curtains open and peered out his window at me. Good lord, that took longer than I expected. I waved to my best friend in the house next door and when he waved back, looking at me with apprehension, like I was crazy—I am, but still—I held up the walkie-talkie to show him. I saw him squint his blue-green eyes at me before a huge smile formed on his face. He held up a finger to tell me to wait a minute.

  My little sister came in my room while I waited. “What were you doing, Jeremy?”

  I turned to look at Mina, who I’d always had a soft spot for. She was eight years younger than me and I’d felt a powerful urge to protect her since the day she was born. She was also adorable with long blond hair and big brown eyes that I swore could make the devil himself smile. She was wearing a purple nightgown with princesses all over it that made me grin; it was her favorite.

  “I was getting Cal’s attention because I found my old walkie-talkie,” I answered her with a smile.

  “Okay,” she said simply. “Do you want to make some chocolate milk and popcorn with me? I want to watch a movie.”

  “How about I watch it with you after dinner?” I suggested.

  “Okay,” she beamed, then skipped out of my room, closing the door behind her.

  I went back to waiting for Cal. It took at least five minutes, but when he reappeared at his window he had his walkie-talkie in his hand. I turned mine on and waited. It was still set to the channel we had always used when we were little—you know, before we were old enough to have our own cell phones. Though service was nonexistent now that there were spaceships floating all over the world.

  “Hey, J. Can you hear me?” Cal’s voice came over the walkie-talkie and I couldn’t help but punch the air in excitement.

  I pushed the button and said into my new favorite contraption, “Hey, man. How’s it going over there?”

  “Boring as hell, but hey, did you see the freaking spaceship behind my house?” he said back with a smile in his voice. When I looked across to his window, I could see the smile on his face, too.

  “Dude, that thing is freaky. And the humming is driving me crazy,” I told him. Behind our houses were some trees, we called them the woods, but really, there were probably only fifty trees back there. Behind that was an old factory that hadn’t been running for at least my entire lifetime. Right then, though, there was a spaceship as big as a football stadium right over the top of the woods, and if I had to guess where the front of the ship was, I would say it was pointed directly at Cal’s house.

  “Yeah, I feel like my skin is itchin’ to come off.”

  “I feel ya. It’s like you can’t shake it off,” I agreed. I saw him nod through the window. “So, can you get Nolan to find his walkie-talkie?”

  It took a minute for him to answer, but I could see him the whole time, so I knew he was just thinking about it. Eventually, he said, “I’ll have to get Colt out of his room, since his window is across from Nolan’s.” Colton was Calloway’s older brother and had a bedroom across the hall.

  Calloway’s house was between my and Nolan’s houses in the cul-de-sac. If I went to the front of my house, I could see the front of Nolan’s. It would be too far away for me to get his attention, and I knew for a fact that Nolan’s parents would never let him open a window or anything.

  “Okay, you go do that, then check in after,” I agreed.

  “Over and out,” Cal said before slipping away from his window.

  Twenty minutes later, my other best friend’s voice came over the walkie-talkie, “Hey, do I have the right channel?”

  “Yep, I’m here,” Cal’s voice answered, “You still here, J?”

  “Yeah. How’s it going over at the Trullis’ house, Nol?” I asked.

  “Same old, same old,” he answered. “There’s nothing to do here, so naturally I have to keep studying. I’m dying.” I knew he was going to say that, but it still made me feel a little bad for him. Nolan didn’t have any siblings, unlike Cal and I who each had a brother and a sister, and his parents weren’t exactly involved in his life. They demanded perfect grades from Nol, ensured that he kept his room spotless, and that was about as far as it went. They didn’t give a crap about what Nol wanted at all.

  “That sucks, dude,” I said.

  “Wish you guys could come over here,” Cal mused.

  “I would kill to get outta here,” Nolan stated, “I’ve never been so bored in my life and the buzzing is driving me crazy.”

  I thought for a few minutes while my friends continued talking about the freaking alien spaceship behind us, but Cal’s voice finally brought my attention back, “J? Jeremy, you still there?”

  “Huh?” I said, but realized I didn’t push the walkie-talkie button. I pushed it, “Sorry, I was just thinkin’.”

  “Uh oh,” Cal said, “nothing good ever comes from J thinking.”

  “Ha ha ha,” I said with the button pressed down, “I think you guys are gonna like this plan.”

  “Doubtful,” Cal said, but I could hear his smile again even though I couldn’t see him at the moment.

  I ignored his comment and told them my plan. Then we talked until our parents made us go eat dinner. After dinner, I watched some Disney movie with Mina before I went back up to my bedroom. I waited until midnight, then I checked to make sure my parents were asleep and I snuck downstairs to the back door. I opened the door as quietly as possible and slipped outside into the dark.

  I made my way down the deck, across the yard and over the fence between my and Cal’s yards. Then I went over to the other side of Cal’s house where I saw Nolan climbing over the
fence from his house.

  I ran over to help him, “Hey, Nol.”

  He jumped. “Holy shit, J. Don’t sneak up on me, asshole.”

  I laughed quietly and mumbled, “Sorry.” Then we silently walked over to the side porch where the lattice was on the siding. “Here goes nothing,” I breathed out before attempting the climb.

  The lattice wasn’t very strong, but luckily Nolan and I were not very big guys. I made my way up before stepping onto the porch’s roof. I sat down and looked over the side to give Nolan a thumbs-up. He nodded and followed me. Once he was safely up, we walked to the other side of the small porch roof where the main house’s roof was a little lower so we could reach it.

  “Hey dorks, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” I jumped; the voice sounded loud in the quiet of the night.

  I looked around before finding Cal’s older brother Colton standing in his bedroom with the window open, looking like he wanted to kill us, and wearing his blue hat that forever covered his curly blond hair. Colt was only a year older than us, so seventeen, but he already looked like a man, and admittedly, he was a sexy man—not that I’d ever tell him that. Where I was skinny and lanky, he was lean and muscular. I looked like a middle schooler and he looked like a college student who worked out every day. He wasn’t so bulky that he looked ridiculous, but he was muscular enough to look badass, and right now he looked like he wanted to kick mine. I was debating just making a run for it, but then movement behind Colt caught my attention.

  Cal was standing behind his brother in Colt’s room, looking upset and fidgety. When he saw me, his blue-green eyes lit up like fireworks and I knew I couldn’t just leave him to deal with Colt by himself.

  I looked into another pair of blue-green eyes—an angry pair—and took a deep breath. “We’re going up to the roof to get a better look.” Nolan was shifting nervously next to me.

  “Why would you want to get closer to that thing?” Colt asked me.

  I shrugged. “Just want to check it out. It’s hard to get a good look from the windows.”

  “Well, you idiots should go home before Mom and Dad wake up,” he suggested.

  “Come on, Colt, we’re not gonna do anything stupid. We just wanna look.”

  “That is stupid, Jeremy,” he replied with a look that told me he really did think I was an idiot.

  “The thing’s not doing anything, so what’s the big deal?”

  Colt snapped, “What if it does something to you guys up there? It’s not safe. I’m not letting you go.”

  I stared at him with narrowed eyes before a thought occurred to me. “You can’t stop us, Colt, but you can come with us if you want.”

  Now he narrowed his eyes at me. “Why would I want to do that?”

  I shrugged. “Don’t know, but we’re going up. Come up if you want.” I pulled Nolan along with me and put one foot on the house roof and grabbed ahold of the edge with both hands, ready to hoist myself up.

  “Fine,” Colt’s voice drifted over to me, “I’ll come so I can protect you losers if something goes wrong.”

  I smiled, but didn’t respond. I had a feeling that Colt actually liked us, but he was too old and cool to admit it. That past summer he seemed to be around a lot when Nolan and I were hanging out with Cal, so I thought he might just be jealous of our friendship or something. Whatever. It worked.

  The four of us climbed onto the roof and up to the peak so we could sit down and face the backyard. Once we got up there, Cal sat between Nol and me, and Colt sat on my other side, pressed right up against me. My body felt flushed on every part that was connected to him; shoulder, upper arm, thigh, knee. I thought he might scoot over since we were so close, but he just stayed there and I swore it felt like he was pressing his leg into me at times.

  We sat up there almost all night, and of course, nothing happened. The damn thing just hovered. But I did feel a strange draw to it. Like something was waiting for me inside. Something in my chest wanted to get even closer, get inside and find whatever it was I was drawn to. The sensation was strange and sometimes I had to rub my chest to counteract it. I almost asked the guys if they felt the same way, but I didn’t want to bring it up since it was on the weirder side of weird and no one else seemed to have to rub their chests.

  We talked quietly all night and I couldn’t help but glance at Colt. He wasn’t talking to us, he was just sitting up there looking sad and lonely. Part of me wanted to ask if he was okay, but I was too much of a chicken and I knew that everyone was feeling stressed out with what was going on. So I just ignored him, but I told him he could come with us again the next night when we all snuck back out. All he did was nod before going into his room. Whatever—I tried to be nice.

  We talked on our walkie-talkies during the day and snuck out every night for five more nights before anything changed. Colt came with us every night, but didn’t say anything at all. He would sit next to me, pushed up against my side even though there was plenty of room to spread out, and he just watched and, I assumed, listened to our conversations. I didn’t think he said more than two words the rest of the week.

  Once a peace treaty was met between our two species, a Taoree camp was built behind the woods. There were Taoree camps built all over the world, in small towns, big cities, in the mountains, deserts, and farmlands—they were fucking everywhere.

  Just because the camps were eerie as fuck, it didn’t stop me from checking out the camp behind my house one random night… though I never told a soul what I saw.

  Chapter One

  Today

  “No, dude, I’m walking back to the dorm now,” I said into my cell phone.

  “I thought you were meeting us at Who Cares?” Cal said back.

  I smiled even though he couldn’t see me. “I just got out of class. It went over a little, so I still gotta change before I can come out.”

  I could practically see the eye roll through the phone. “J. You do not need to change.”

  “If you could see me, you wouldn’t say that,” I told him, glancing down at my shirt that was covered in paint. “I just got out of my painting class, Cal.”

  He responded, “It’s just us going tonight, no one to impress.” That’s what he thinks.

  I made a noncommittal sound in my throat.

  Cal sighed, “You’re still going to go change, aren’t you?”

  “Uh, maybe,” I told him as I hurried up the steps to my dorm.

  “Come on, man, you cannot leave me hanging like this,” he complained. I didn’t respond and I heard him sigh again before saying, “Just hurry the fuck up, asshole.” The phone clicked before I had a chance to respond.

  I hung up with a smile, unlocked my dorm room and threw my book bag, phone, keys, and wallet on my bed before searching through the closet. I pulled out a few shirts before settling on my favorite band tee, then I pulled on dark skinny jeans and Converses. I looked in the mirror at my reflection, my brown eyes reflecting back at me, and I decided to brush out my light brown hair. I’d been keeping it longer recently, so I had to style it more than I used to. It was below my ears in length, but I kept it swooshed over to the side. I got a few compliments on it the last time I went home, so I figured it must be working. I was happy with the way I looked now, no longer the skinny, lanky kid I once was, but a lean guy with some muscle and over six feet tall. I grabbed my favorite leather jacket, since it was getting chilly in November, and I stuffed my keys, phone, and wallet in the pockets. Then I looked in the mirror and with a nod to myself, I headed back out the door.

  Since I was a freshman, I wasn’t allowed to bring my car on campus, but luckily the bar was only a twenty-minute walk away. It was dark out and I had to walk around a Taoree camp to get there, but I was pretty used to it, so it wasn’t a big deal. The Taoree camp wasn’t as big as the one behind my family’s house anyway. As I passed it, I saw three Taoree, in all their six-and-a-half feet tall glory and long-ass braided black hair standing outside the fence.

  The a
lien creatures were so human-like, they could pass for one at a quick glance. They were all so similar-looking that there was no way I could tell them apart. All of them were pale—pasty-like—and thin, but through their uniforms you could see muscles. They always had on clothes that I could only describe as a jumpsuit. Dark grey with a bunch of straps running all along their torsos, arms, and legs.

  When you got a close up of their faces, their eyes were pitch-black. And I mean the blackest of blacks. That was probably the creepiest thing about them—no whites of the eyes at all—just black. Then there was the fact that their hair was pitch-black—just as black as their eyes—and each had one long braid down the center of their heads with little bead-like things tied throughout it. Their hair length was the only thing different from each other. Weird. They also had pointy ears which reminded me of elves. Like the type of tall, thin, pointy-eared fantasy elves, not the little Christmas ones. Strange, but the ears somehow fit their angular faces.

  They walked with what looked like a calm but commanding confidence. They never looked worried at all, in their body movements or their facial expressions. It was like their faces were glued in a stoic expression and they were unable to unglue it. Also creepy.

  My cell rang and when I saw it was home I answered, “Hello?” I glanced at the three aliens as I walked past them, but they didn’t seem to notice me. I couldn’t understand their words, but they were arguing, if their harsh tones and body language were any indication.

  “Hey, Jeremy,” my little sister Mina said.

  “Hey, Mina, how are you doing, Bugabear?” I’d started calling her that when she was a baby.

  “I’m doing great. I got picked to play a solo in the winter concert,” she squealed. She was learning to play the violin.

  “Wow, that’s awesome, Bug. Congratulations,” I said excitedly.