Page 4 of Eclipse Bound (Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides #7)
Chapter Three
Rowan stood frozen in the parking lot of the yoga center, watching the distance where the supposed alien spacecraft landed.
She’d seen it all in her time working at the retreat.
Drones. Strange artifacts found in the desert.
Cave drawings. Animal carcasses that were meant to be alien autopsies.
People who spray painted themselves green and meeped, “Meep. Meep. Meep.”
But this? This was…
Someone grabbed her arm. "Did you get it on video?"
Rowan frowned, turning to a woman in bright pink spandex. All around her, sound came rushing back to pull her from her shocked state. When she found that Rowan held a walkie-talkie instead of a camera, the woman moved on to the next closest person.
Rowan walked through the parking lot. Several cars had cracked windshields.
"Was that real? That can’t be real.” A woman clutched the man next to her.
“The special effects were incredible,” someone said in the gathering crowd.
“I’m here! Take me back with you!” a man screamed, running in the direction the ship flew.
“Come on, Rowan,” Stephanie, a receptionist, grabbed Rowan by the arm and pulled her toward a jeep. “Let’s go find it. You drive!”
"We can't just go over there," Rowan protested, but guests were already hiking into the desert toward the crash site, phones held high. Even Mrs. Henderson, who needed help getting into child's pose, was speed-walking across the parking lot.
A small explosion echoed from the direction of Pete's crystal shop. The crowd cheered. Someone started dancing for social media on their cell phone camera, with smoke in the background.
Rowan lifted her walkie-talkie. "Security? Anyone? We have a situation."
Static crackled back at her. Great. The incident must have interfered with communications.
This was not in her job description. When she took the position at the Duskrock Yoga and Spa Meditation Center, the listing had mentioned " occasional unusual occurrences " and " diverse clientele ," but she was fairly certain that hadn't included actual UFO crashes. Then again, considering some of the wellness seminars they hosted, maybe that’s precisely what they had meant.
"Hey," she yelled after the crowd. "Be careful!"
They were going to be overrun later with cactus thorns, sunburns, and sprained ankles.
“Ro,” Stephanie insisted. “Come on. You drive. I film.”
“Security, this is Rowan. If you can hear me, you’re needed in the parking lot.
There was a flyover incident, and we have several guests making a run into the desert headed toward Pete’s.
Stephanie and I are on our way there now to round them up and facilitate rides back.
” Rowan hooked the walkie-talkie on her pants and lifted her hand just in time to catch Stephanie’s keys.
The last thing the retreat needed was a bunch of sun-stroked tourists running around the desert.
As a local, she knew the shortest route to Pete’s and it didn’t include a desert hike. Stephanie hung out a window, recording with her phone as Rowan cut across a dirt road that looked more like a suggestion than a place to drive.
Wind whipped her hair through the open window.
It smelled of burning metal and something weirdly sweet, like caramelized sugar.
Dark smoke guided her like a beacon as she pulled up close to Pete’s crystal shop.
They got out and ran to the front of the gathering tourists.
Through gaps in the crowd, she could see Pete beaming with excitement as his business burned.
"I told you they were real,” Pete yelled. “They were drawn to the power of the crystals!"
"Pete, your roof is on fire," Rowan pointed out. Firetruck sirens sounded in the distance.
"I know!” He gave a little jump and lowered his voice. “Isn't it magnificent? A real live UFO on my shop. I knew they would come.”
Pete had a reason to be excited. In this area, this incident would likely quadruple his sales. But in all honesty, he probably didn’t care about the money. Like many around here, Pete was a true believer looking to the stars to confirm his faith.
"Everyone, back up!" A security guard finally showed up, waving his arms. "Clear the area. Make room!"
Rowan helped coordinate the crowd, grateful someone with actual authority had arrived.
However, authority might have been overselling it.
The security guard was just Ted from the shopping strip’s night shift, wearing a wrinkled uniform and strutting around like he was the star of his own reality show.
If Rowan had to guess, she would have laid money he’d been napping in his car when the incident happened.
A strange feeling came over her as movement caught her eye. Three men pushed along the edge of the crowd. They stood out because they were heading away from the fire.
The men wore baggy work overalls, but something about them seemed off. The tallest one moved with an unnaturally fluid grace. Another practically glowed. Or maybe he wore some kind of glitter lotion. The third kept his head down and moved along the shadows, like he didn’t want to be seen.
The odd coloring on their skin didn’t surprise her. Not here. Not when every fifth person in town dressed like life was an outer space cosplay.
It was in the way they moved. Fluid. Graceful. Almost… blurry? She couldn’t look away.
"Excuse me, where did you guys come from? Were you by the building? Did you see what happened?" Rowan called out, wanting to slow them down.
The tall one turned, and for a moment, she forgot what she was doing.
Something in his expression caused her to stumble.
His eyes were dark and caught the light in a way that made them look like stars swam in his vision.
He started to come toward her. Her heart beat so hard she felt it in her throat.
Before Rowan could process what was happening, Stephanie grabbed her arm and jerked her back to the chaos.
"Ro, look at this footage I got.” Stephanie thrust the phone at her.
“No, I…” She muttered, pushing her hand against Stephanie’s screen. When Rowan turned back, the three men had vanished into the crowd of UFO enthusiasts.
Rowan spent the next three hours helping to coordinate the commotion.
The strange men did not return. She guided retreat guests turned impromptu hikers to cars that would bring them back to the resort, handed out water bottles to overheated tourists, and repeatedly assured everyone that no, she did not have inside information about the alien landing despite working at the retreat.
"It was probably just an experimental aircraft. Pranks happen around here all the time," she kept saying, though she wasn't entirely convinced herself. What she had seen streaking across the sky hadn't looked like any plane or helicopter she recognized.
Then again, in the age of the internet, hoaxes were abundant. Someone probably built a giant drone and recorded the whole thing for likes on social media.
By the time the fire department had Pete's roof under control and the police had cordoned off the area, Rowan's shift had technically come to an end.
But as she rode in the back of a pickup to get her car, she still couldn't shake the image of those three strange men walking away from the shop out of her mind.
It wasn’t that they were strangers. This was a tourist town, and strangers were everywhere.
It wasn’t that their clothes were a little off. Weekends often looked like a comic con. Heck, the guy driving the pickup wore a plastic alien mask and sparkly purple spandex, with a beauty pageant sash that read, “Abduct me.”
It was his eyes, and the feeling she got in the pit of her stomach when she looked at him.
"Rowan, hey!” Stephanie jogged across the nearly-emptying parking lot, phone permanently clutched in her hand. "Did you see my video got picked up by Channel 12? I've gone viral! Over three thousand new followers."
"Great," Rowan said, fishing her keys from her pocket. She was exhausted and just wanted to go home, make tea, and pretend she had a normal life.
"Look," Stephanie held her phone up to Rowan's face. "I caught them on video. I didn’t see it when it happened, but when I was uploading clips there they were!"
Rowan squinted at the screen. The footage was shaky, but she could see four outlines emerging from behind Pete's shop.
There, amid the chaos and smoke, were the three men she'd noticed earlier, along with a shorter person, maybe even a child.
The child appeared to be giving directions to the other three before disappearing back toward the disaster.
"They came from the crash site," Stephanie whispered dramatically. "I got 'em."
"They're probably just tourists shopping for crystals," Rowan tried to reason. "Everyone was running around. You can’t even see their faces."
“No, look.” Stephanie zoomed in on the footage. The one on the left is glowing, and the one on the right blends with the shadows when he should have been lit by sunlight.
"It's just lens flare," Rowan said, though she wasn't convinced. "And out of focus."
"Whatever you say, skeptical Sally." Stephanie tucked her phone away. "But I'm telling you, those are not regular dudes. And get this, I've got friends at the Crimson Rock Inn saying three guys matching their description just checked in, paid in cash, and didn't have any luggage."
Rowan rolled her eyes. "So they travel light. Or they left their luggage in the car."
These were not great universal mysteries.
"Or they just crash-landed from another planet," Stephanie countered with a grin. "Anyway, I'm heading to the Crash Zone after I freshen up. Half of Duskrock's going to be there tonight talking about this. You should come."
The Crash Zone was a local bar that catered to UFO enthusiasts and tourists looking for authentic alien encounters. It was tacky, overpriced, and usually full of people wearing tinfoil hats. Literally. Tin foil Tuesday was a thing.