Page 7

Annora

We’ve both inspected the house before. I did it several times that first day, and I imagine he’s done it while I’m sleeping.

We have no sharp knives, the doors are all metal, and the windows were all replaced with inch-thick bulletproof glass.

We both gave up trying. Now, though, we search together.

With our search intensified, we inspect floorboards, try to pull windowsills out to circumvent the thick glass, and Zorn batters himself against the sliding glass door until he grabs his shoulder in pain.

It’s only now that I remember when I was little I heard animals above my head and went running to tell my mom, fearing an alien invasion. It’s funny that I’ve now joined forces with one.

“The attic!” I tell him as I grab his hand and lead him into the bathroom.

After I use the toilet as a stepping stool, Zorn lifts me onto his shoulders like I weigh nothing. I pause for a moment and savor the experience. I’m sitting on him, one leg draped over each shoulder. Shoulders that are so heavily muscled they could be made of iron.

His slightly cool, large hands are gently clasped around my ankles. The back of his smooth head presses against my lady parts while I open the door before he boosts me up from the soles of my feet. I memorize this moment, promising myself I’ll relive it later.

“I see daylight!” I announce with excitement, having trouble admitting even to myself that some of my enthusiasm is from the residual thrill of being so close to Zorn.

There are only about three feet of clearance at the tallest point of the attic, so I crawl to the side of the house and peer out the gable vent to the outside. It’s maybe three feet by two feet and looks firmly attached, but Draalians are strong. Somehow we’re going to escape.

“Can you get up here?” I yell.

“I see it,” his deep voice rumbles behind me. He must have pulled himself through the hole with his upper body strength. He’s now crawling toward me.

“Can you kick this open?”

“Let me try.”

A minute later, we’re both looking out at the prettiest blue sky I’ve ever seen.

Luckily, the vent faces the woods away from my mom’s house.

She won’t see that we’ve opened it. My shoulder brushes his and for a moment I’m less aware of the sky and more aware of the muscular body next to me.

I passed my initial repulsion days ago, moved into interest territory, and am about to round the bend into lust if I’m not careful. I shake myself back to the present.

“You did it, Zorn. Now what?”

“I’ll wait until nightfall, jump down, and follow my mental link to find Zoriss.”

His hip nestles next to mine as he leans out the opening, closes his eyes, and tries to soak up the sun.

His forked tongue slips between his lips as he scents the air.

If someone had asked me a week ago what I’d think of that, I would have shivered in disgust. Right this moment, though, the shiver slicing through me is pure sexual interest.

“You really missed the sun, huh?” I try to sound nonchalant.

“Primitive people on my planet worshipped it. It’s the giver of life.”

“So, this link you have with Zoriss, how far does it reach?”

“Even though I was injured when we were deployed on Pythian, I still felt him miles away, although the link was weak, as it is now. I don’t know how far our range is.”

“So, how are you going to find him if he’s a thousand miles away?”

“I don’t know,” he spears me with a worried look, “I just know I have to try.”

My mind races as I parse through the facts. He’s a stranger in a strange land, knows little of our ways, has no money, no transportation, and is off the books. If the authorities find him, they’ll welcome him into a Newcomer facility, but they won’t help him find his brother.

“You need me,” I inform him levelly. “I’m going with you.”

“I’m a captain in the military. I’ll be fine,” he says, lifting his chin defiantly.

“You’re going to march through cities and the countryside in your inconspicuous crimson coat with no money, basking naked out in the open and wandering aimlessly?” I cock my eyebrow.

“I’ll figure it out.”

“We’ll figure it out together.”

His blue eyes focus on me as if I’m a puzzle he’s trying to put together. I’ll make it easy for him. I explain all the ways I’m going to help him, and how we’ll both be safe.

“Although this isn’t my fault, I feel responsible that you’re here, Zorn. I want to assist you, and I think I can help you navigate Earth’s geography and customs you know nothing about.”

He nods slowly as he considers my motives and his options.

“Thanks. At the first sign of trouble, though, I’m sending you back home. This isn’t your mission, it’s mine.”

The captain advises a good sleep, so we plan our time for departure for just before dawn.

Anticipating freedom, the day feels like it will never end.

After a night of tossing and turning, we get up, grab a quick shower, and swallow a cold breakfast. We pack what we think we’ll need into some pillowcases, and he leaps to the ground like he was a cat instead of a reptile.

“I’ll catch you,” he urges in a loud whisper, his arms open.

“Have you met me? I’m not a small woman.”

Zorn

“You’re perfect,” I say, then instantly regret it. She thinks I’m repulsive. If I compliment her, it will scare her, at least that’s what I understand from the information they downloaded into my brain on the trip here. She’ll take it as a sexual overture from a hideous alien male.

I don’t think I scared her, though. She snorts at my comment and says, “Total bullshit, Draalian. You sure you’re ready?”

“Just jump into my arms.” My open arms beckon to her.

“Don’t drop me and let me die,” she says as she lets herself fall right into my arms. I catch her and hold her to my chest, amazed at her warmth, then aware of how close her face is to mine.

My self-preservation instincts buzz in the back of my mind, scolding me to put her down, but I don’t.

Instead, I tip my head to get a better look at her.

I can smell her better in this position, which only makes me want to open my mouth and use my forked tongue to better imprint her scent. I know intuitively that this will, as she would say, ‘scare the shit’ out of her. So I just sniff her in while I look into her sparkling green eyes.

Although I’m waiting for her to demand I put her down, what I get instead is a look I can only imagine is . . . interest?

Mere days ago, I believed hair on humanoids was a throwback to primitive cave dwellers. Now my hands itch to comb through it. I wonder if it feels as silky as it looks.

“We should get going,” she says, sounding like it’s more of a question than a demand.

She’s right.

“You said you have a vehicle?” I ask as I set her down.

“Yep. I know it’s still in the driveway because I saw it out the front window. This is going to be tricky. And, um, this vehicle isn’t exactly inconspicuous.”

We each grab our pillowcases, and I follow her to the front of the structure. I see a van with a picture of a naked Earth male on the side. She slides into the front, and I mimic her on the opposite side. After she engages the drive, we hover off so quickly I’m pressed into the back of my seat.

“You’re so tight,” a male voice drawls from the back of the van.

I turn, every muscle ready for a fight, but don’t see anyone there. Is there something in Earth’s atmosphere that’s affected my thinking?

“First stop, the underground,” she says as the van careens around a corner, thrusting me against the door.

“Can you talk and drive at the same time?” I ask, lifting my browridge skeptically.

“Sure.”

She makes a sharp turn, this time thrusting me toward her. I breathe in her scent, which is different than it was. Sharper somehow.

From the back of the van, I hear, “I want to taste you.” It’s a different male voice this time, his tone is almost a growl.

Despite Annora’s erratic driving, I unbuckle myself to investigate.

“Buckle up, Zorn. I’m driving like a maniac. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

At least she knows she’s driving like a crazy person. I didn’t want to mention it.

“Do you not hear someone else in this van?” I ask.

“Oh, those are broken bots. Sexbots.”

“Sexbots?”

“It’s not so weird, really. One of the first uses of every new technology is sex.

At least on Earth it is. Still photographs?

Some of the first were shockingly risque.

Moving pictures? Sexy women undressing. In-home video entertainment?

Porn. In fact, when two different types of technologies were battling for the lion’s share of the market, the winner of the battle was the one that the porn industry used.

Online videos? Porn again. With no other way to get heterosexual intercourse?

Sexbots. What you hear in the back are a couple of malfunctioning returns.

The team at the factory should have powered them down.

All this movement is making them respond. ”

As if they’re listening, one of them says, “I just want to make you feel good,” while another says, “With you, baby, I want to last all night.”

I see two human males lying on their sides in the darkness.

I can’t see their faces and will have to give them a closer look when there’s time, although I guess I know what I’ll see—smooth skin, a full head of hair, a nose that can be seen in profile, and ears that can support glasses.

Not someone repulsive like she finds me.

“What’s the underground?” I respond to her last statement as I refasten the safety harness and turn my attention out the front window.

“It’s in the bowels of the city. The government wants everyone to believe our society is neat and clean and free from want and hunger. In reality, there is still an underclass. The underground is where people go to hide as well as buy and sell black market goods and services.”

A jolt of anger slices through me as I say, “Like buying Draalians?”