Page 1 of Vylit: Glowing for Her (Consumed by the Alien Heat #1)
MAYA
I had one rule: don’t abduct me before coffee. Honestly, don’t do anything before coffee.
The ocean clearly hadn’t read the memo.
The violet tide rippled with an unnatural rhythm that set off every scientific alarm bell in my brain.
I crouched at the water's edge, collection vial poised between my fingers as dawn painted the Florida Keys in hues of amber and rose.
Something about the water's movement seemed wrong—deliberately wrong—like it knew I was watching.
My curiosity overrode my better judgment, as usual.
I dipped the vial beneath the surface, and the water curled around it like a sentient thing, caressing the glass with purpose.
Fuck me, this was going to make one hell of a paper if I could isolate whatever caused this bioluminescent anomaly.
"Come to mama," I muttered, filling a third vial and carefully capping it.
The gentle lapping of waves shifted to a strange sucking sound. I glanced up from my labeling to see the violet glow intensifying, swirling counterclockwise in a pattern that defied normal tidal movement. My heart skipped. This wasn't standard phosphorescent algae behavior. Not even close.
I scrambled backward on the slick rocks, but fascination rooted me in place. The water formed a perfect spiral, mathematically impossible in nature without external force. The scientist in me wanted measurements, samples, data. But the human in me screamed to run.
The scientist won. Always did. Besides, I could always blame the lack of coffee.
I leaned forward, extending my sample pole toward the center of the swirl. The whirlpool surged upward, grabbing the pole with liquid fingers that solidified around the metal. I yanked back, muscles straining, but the force pulled harder. My boots slid across the wet rock.
"Shit, shit, shit!"
My grip faltered. The pole wrenched free, disappearing into the violent purple vortex. The whirlpool paused, as if considering its next move. Then it lunged.
Water shot upward, wrapping around my ankles like living rope. I crashed onto my back, skull cracking against stone as I clawed for purchase. My fingers scraped raw against barnacles, finding no hold. The vortex dragged me forward with unstoppable force.
I screamed, the sound ripped away as water closed over my head. My lungs burned instantly. Pressure squeezed my skull, my chest, my limbs. Colors swirled—not just purple now but blues, greens, and shades I couldn't name. Reality fractured around me.
The water thinned, then vanished. I fell through emptiness, spinning madly, unable to orient myself in space that seemed to fold in on itself. No up. No down. Just falling forever through impossible dimensions.
Until I wasn't.
Strong arms caught me, cradling my body against a chest that radiated heat and pulsed with light. I gasped, choking on air that felt wrong in my lungs… too thick, too sweet. My vision swam into focus on a face that couldn't possibly be real.
He glowed. Not metaphorically… actually fucking glowed from within. Patterns of purple-white light shifted beneath translucent skin, brightening and dimming like a living mood ring. Eyes like twin supernovas stared down at me with an intensity that made my skin prickle.
My brain struggled to process his size… at least seven feet of rippling, luminescent muscle. Not human. Definitely not human. His arms cradled me like I weighed nothing, fingers webbed with delicate membranes that shimmered when they moved.
Panic surged through my body. I thrashed against his hold, my scientific curiosity briefly overridden by pure survival instinct.
"Put me down!" I meant to sound commanding but my voice came out strangled and thin.
The giant's brow furrowed. He pressed something against my throat—a small, slick patch that adhered instantly to my skin. It pulsed once, twice, then settled with a strange tingling sensation.
"Hello!" it chirped. "I am translator sticker. Please do not lick me. I am not candy."
"I wasn’t planning on it." My voice came out dry. Though, if I was honest, I was tempted to lick my alien rescuer. Clearly, my sanity had drowned back in the Keys.
"Logged. Human will not lick now, and will continue to not lick later."
He winced at the volume, his glowing bands flickering in apology. "It learns. English… new in my mouth."
"You’re doing fine." I tried to sound casual, but the way he looked at me made my chest tight. "But you can put me down now."
His mouth moved, forming words I couldn't understand. Then the patch at my throat vibrated, and suddenly I could comprehend his deep, rumbling voice as it translated.
"Setting you to low tide would be dangerous. The gravity fluctuations could crush your fragile density."
My mouth fell open. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
The giant's luminescence flared brighter, patterns rippling across his chest and face in complex swirls.
His expression shifted to one of alarm. He glanced down at the water beneath us…
a lagoon of some sort, though like no lagoon I'd ever seen.
The liquid glowed with the same unnatural purple as the tide that had swallowed me, but here it moved in perfect geometric patterns, forming and reforming as if communicating.
"The translator must be malfunctioning." He tilted his head, studying me like I was a particularly interesting specimen. Welcome to the fucking club, pal. "You asked me to 'set you to low tide.' This is impossible with your structure."
Understanding dawned. "No, I said put me down. DOWN. On the ground. Or whatever passes for ground in this... wherever we are."
His glow pulsed rapidly, and his massive arms shifted. For a terrifying moment, I thought he was going to drop me into the strange lagoon below. Instead, his grip faltered just enough that I slid several inches before he caught me again, pulling me tight against his chest.
My lungs seized. The air burned suddenly, searing through my airways like fire. I clutched at my throat, gasping for oxygen that wouldn't come. The atmosphere here, whatever it was, wasn't compatible with human physiology.
The giant's expression transformed to horror. His fingers moved with surprising dexterity for their size, producing a small, slick object that reminded me of a jellyfish crossed with a surgical mask.
"Forgive me, small ebb. I forgot your species requires specific atmospheric ratios."
Before I could protest… not that I could since I was busy suffocating, he pressed the gelatinous mask against my face.
It sealed around my mouth with a sensation like being kissed by cool silk.
Then he pressed his lips to the outside of the mask.
The substance pulsed once, then began to feed oxygen into my lungs.
Oxygen tinged with something else. Something that tasted like ocean depths… and him. His essence, somehow transferred through this living apparatus. The intimacy of it shocked me more than the alien technology itself.
My breathing stabilized. Our faces hovered inches apart as he watched me adjust to the mask with anxious intensity. His eyes caught the light, pupils expanding and contracting with each pulse of his bioluminescence.
"Better?" His translated voice rumbled through the patch at my throat.
I nodded, unable to speak past the mask and the lingering sensation of having just somehow indirectly kissed this enormous glowing stranger.
"Excellent. Remain moist, small ebb. Your adjustment period requires careful monitoring."
A laugh burst from me despite everything… a high, slightly hysterical sound. The translation patch was clearly struggling with nuance.
"Remain moist? Seriously?"
His luminescence responded to my laughter, flaring brighter in time with my voice like a living visualizer. The patterns across his skin reorganized into more complex formations, pulsing in what seemed like pleasure.
"You find my concern humorous?" No anger in his tone—just genuine curiosity.
"The translation is... not great." I shifted in his arms, becoming increasingly aware of the heat radiating from his body. Not uncomfortable, but definitely noticeable. "Look, can you please set me down now? And maybe explain where I am and who—what—you are?"
He hesitated, then carefully lowered me until my feet touched a surface that felt like polished stone. His hands remained at my waist, steadying me as I wobbled.
"You are in the Gathering Lagoon of the Sixth Quadrant.
I am Vylit of Mavtros, Last Warrior of the Luminous Deep.
" His chest expanded with obvious pride, light patterns forming what looked like ceremonial designs.
"And you are Maya Poe, marine biologist of Earth, my genetic complement and destined mate. "
I jerked backward out of his hold, nearly falling on my ass. "I'm your what now?"
"Mate." Vylit said it like the most natural thing in the world. "The Intergalactic DNA Registry identified your genetic structure as complementary to mine. We are biologically compatible for reproduction and spiritual union."
My mind raced through the implications. Alien abduction? Interdimensional travel? Some kind of elaborate hallucination caused by neurotoxins in that violet algae? None of those possibilities explained why he thought I'd signed up for alien dating services.
"There must be some mistake. I never registered for any... intergalactic matchmaking."
Vylit's glow dimmed slightly. "Your Earth governments have exchange agreements with the Registry. Random sampling occurs during routine medical procedures."
That blood test during my last physical. Those extra vials they'd taken "for research purposes." Son of a bitch. Sometimes I really hated working for the government.