by Enid Titan
“Oh. My. God.”
“Like it?”
“Babes, I’m going to look like a piece of trash next to you!”
“Don’t be ridiculous. We will both be fabulous and have an amazing night out.”
“Yeah. I hope so.”
“Chin up! You get started and I’ll make us pre-drinks.”
Rory started with some gin and orange juice in the kitchen. She brought out a drink for Candice, who just changed into her costume. Moana. The costume made sense. Candice had almond-colored skin and thick curls just like the princess. With her curves, the costume looked fantastic and Rory squealed in excitement as she told Candice how amazing she looked. Candice spun around and took a few gulps of her juice before settling.
“Thank goodness you live in this posh neighborhood or we’d have to take the tube looking like nutters.”
“It’s Halloween! Everyone’s going to look like this.”
“You know the real Halloween is tomorrow, right?”
“So? Tonight is the party night which is just as well,” Rory retorted.
After another drink, Candice loosened up even more. Rory linked arms with her and they walked to the nightclub. They’d been coming to this place for years but it had been a long time since Rory and Candice had been a part of Halloween festivities there. They paid their cover charge and entered the spooky, haunted house themed club.
“Bang-up job with decorations this year,” Candice said.
Fake cobwebs hung from the ceiling along with spooky skeletons and something that looked like a Guy Fawkes effigy in the corner. The party was just getting started so there was no crowd at the bar but plenty of people on the dance floor. Rory and Candice leaned up against the bar for only ten seconds when the bartender hurried over to the two beautiful ladies.
“What are you two ladies dressed up as?”
“Moana.”
“Maleficent.”
“Right. What are we having then?”
“Tequila.”
“For you, Moana?”
“I’ll have a pint.”
“Coming right up,” the bartender replied with a wink.
Drinks in hand, the two leaned up against the bar scanning the crowd.
“So, we’re both single. I say it’s time to catch someone and take them home.”
“Rory are you serious?”
“Of course I’m serious. Come on, shake your hips and let some lucky lad take you back to his place.”
Candice rolled her eyes.
“It doesn’t work like that for me. Not all of us are stick thin blondes.”
Rory rolled her eyes, “Candice. I saw the bartender making eyes at you. Flirt with him and when you’re ready, you join me on the dancefloor.”
“Cheers.”
They clinked glasses and Rory milled through the crowd, desperate to put an end to her horrible week by hopping into bed with some man with muscles from head to toe who knew how to use his cock. As Rory pushed her way to the center of the crowd to get a better view, she noticed Saj coming into the nightclub with Dave. Her platform boots allowed Rory to see over the crowd and she could see them heading straight towards Candice who sat in engaging conversation with the bartender.
Shit. They’d recognize Candice and before long, they’d approach Rory and her attempt to escape work drama would be a total failure. Rory quickly found someone to dance with. From her vantage point, few men were tall enough to make good partners. Rory’s eyes darted madly around the crowd until they rested on… him.
He was the perfect guy for what she needed with a costume that seemed to complement her own. The man was dressed as a devil and from the looks of it, he’d spent a fortune on his costume. Covered head to toe in red makeup, he was well over six feet tall and his muscles bulged from his tight brown leather tunic which was tucked into brown leather pants. His face was shrouded by a mess of shaggy hair and thick horns twisted up from his scalp and rolled backwards like a ram’s. He even had a convincing tail with a forked tip that swung back and forth. As Rory approached him, she noticed that he wasn’t dancing, just scanning the crowd as if he was searching for someone.
Rory rapped on the big lug’s shoulder. Woah. Muscles. He turned around and Rory could see his costume was even more elaborate than she imagined. His eyes were pitch black and when they fixed on her, a chill ran down Rory’s spine.
“Cool costume, mate,” Rory said.
“Yesssss,” his voice came out as a low growl.
“What do you think of mine?” Rory asked, posing and popping her hips.
“It’ssssss very nice,” he growled.
“Want to dance?”
“Dance?” He fumbled over the word.
“C’mon, don’t be shy. You’re hot!”
Rory danced, grinding her body on his and turning around. At first, he was awkward but then he started getting into it. Once the song ended, Rory pulled away and turned around.
“Wow. Buy me a drink?”
“Yesssss,” he replied.
“What’s your name? I’m Rory.”
“Ramsssssses.”
“Ramses? What an unusual name.”
“Not where I come from.”
“Where’s that? Bristol?”
He didn’t laugh at her joke. Rory grabbed his hand and gasped, pulling away.
“Wow, that costume is intense. How did you make these scales?”
Ramses grinned and for a moment, Rory thought his sharp fangs were… real.
“They’re special,” he replied. Rory wondered what color his eyes were beneath the costume.
“Cool. Oi, bartender, can we have a drink?”
Rory looked down the length of the bar searching for Candice. She wasn’t sitting there anymore. That’s funny… Rory turned around and saw Candice in the middle of the dance floor, snogging Saj! She gasped. The bartender slid the drinks across. Ramses stared at her, his black eyes as smooth and clear as onyx. This one is too perfect, he thought to himself.
She turned around her face red.
“Sorry. I’m a bit emotional ‘cause my best friend is snogging my boss who fired me today and…”
Rory trailed off and burst into tears. Ramses downed his shot and stared befuddled at the woman standing before him with salty water pouring down her face.
“What… are… you doing?” He asked, cocking his head to the side.
Rory scowled, her nose bright red all on its own, a beacon heralding the bad temper she was about to unleash on this idiotic man with his stupid devil costume.
“What does it look like? I said I’m sorry anyway. I’m allowed to be upset if my best friend wants to snog my stupid boss!”
“Okay. But what is that… water?”
“Gosh, you’re so stupid! But…”
Rory cast a sidelong glance at Candice. Saj has his hands right on her arse. She turned back to Ramses.
“Oh to hell with it,” Rory whispered.
She flung her arms around Ramses and started to kiss him. His lips were softer than any she’d ever felt. His hands gripped her firmly as she kissed him. His hands ran the length of her latex bodysuit and squeezing her at the slimmest point of her hips. As he kissed her, he grazed his teeth along her lips. Rory pressed her tongue in his mouth and then she tasted blood.
Rory pulled away and pressed her hand to her lips.
“I’ve been cut…”
Blood seeped from a thin sharp cut on her lips, covering her finger.
“I’m sorry…”
She stared up at Ramses and a sudden chill surged down her spine. Her gut yearned for her to run away and leave him at the bar with her unfinished shot. A more powerful force overwhelmed her. Rory reached out and grabbed Ramses rough hand.
“Come with me. I’ve got to tell Candice I’m leaving.”
Ramses nostrils burned. That kiss had been better than he expected. How had she known to do that? To slice her lip across his sharpest teeth? Ramses tilted his head to the side and followed the stra
nge woman as she weaved through the crowd.
Her friend was more plump, brown-skinned with thick curly hair. She pressed up against another man with a more olive skin tone.
Rory tapped Candice on her shoulder. She squealed and pulled out of her kiss. Saj wiped his lips.
“ngHey Rory. How are you?”
Rory glared at him and flipped him the bird.
“Rory!” Candice exclaimed. She was already drunk and Rory could smell the liquor on Saj’s breath.
“I’m headed out of here.”
* * *
“Alone? Stay. Hang out with me and Saj! He says Dave’s coming too.”
“No Thanks. I’ve got… a friend.”
Candice eyed Ramses and shuddered at the guy’s terrifying costume. Didn’t some people get the memo that Halloween was supposed to be about fun, not scaring the living crap out of people at the nightclub?
“Are you sure? Do you know him?”
“Yeah. His name’s Ramses and I have a feeling he’s going to be great in the sack.”
Saj nibbled on Candice’s ear and she giggled, clearly distracted by Saj sucking on her face.
“Okay… You have fun…”
Candice descended into giggles again. Red in the face, Rory turned around and grabbed Ramses’ arm.
“C’mon, do you have a place nearby?”
“Yes. Nearby.”
“Take me home. I want to get utterly fucked up.”
She dragged Ramses out of the night club. This had been easy. Ramses shook off her grasp outside. Rory turned around to get a good look at him in the street light.
“Want to make sure you’re not banged up before we shag.”
* * *
Ramses smiled, his fangs curling over his lips.
“Where’d you get these fake fangs? They’re awfully realistic. Are you an actor?”
* * *
“No. Not an actor… Come…I’ll take you home…”
Ramses took her hand and gripped tightly. Rory’s legs shuddered as she realized he’d been waiting to take control, watching her patiently and waiting for his chance. Well, this was it. No more thinking about work, or Saj, or Dave, she’d put all this behind her the best way she knew how…
Ramses followed her around the block. Amazing how traveling one street over could make such a difference, he thought. This street was much quieter than the one with the nightclub. Ramses could hear the rats scurrying under the sidewalk but aside from that, it was quiet. Rory was talking again, slurring her words from all those weak drinks. They turned down another street.
“You don’t know Your Song? Elton John? What are you from Scotland or something?”
She was teasing. Ramses had stopped paying attention. This street was just quiet enough and there was no one coming. No one who could hear them.
“Is your place around here or something? It’s dead…”
“It’s nearby.”
Ramses touched a key around his neck that glowed red hot. The Bighorn Mark IV whistled as the cloak dropped. Rory stared ahead at the thing that had just materialized before her eyes out of nowhere.
“Ramses, did you see that?”
She looked back sharply. Ramses was calm as if this large metal thing that appeared out of thin air was the most natural object in the world.
“Yes,” he replied, “I told you my place was close.”
“I must be really pissed,” Rory half-whispered.
The truth was, she barely felt tipsy. Her faculties were there, but then there was something else, a nervous giddiness that made her sing Elton John, that made her dance in the streets with a stranger, that made her press her fingertips to the cut on her lip and crave the fangs that had sliced her open.
“You should go inside.”
“H-how…”
Rory approached the perfect sphere. It was black, chrome, as shiny as an onyx stone.
“Touch it,” Ramses encouraged.
Rory stepped close to it unflinchingly, not bothering to question Ramses command, or perhaps scared to confront what would happen when she did.
“Aren’t you even a little bit scared?” She asked.
“No. I am not afraid. Are you?”
A chill ran down Rory’s spine, a little warning for her to run. Run. Run. She froze instead and turned to look Ramses in the eye. His black marble eyes glimmered beneath the street lights. He wasn’t doing anything special, not anything scary either.
“Go on,” he said, “unless you’re scared.”
Rory never shied away from a contest. She had never been one to wither away from competing with a man and this devil who couldn’t keep his hands off her hips and his gaze off her bum was exactly the type of alpha she enjoyed beating at their own game. Rory ran toward the sphere and touched the outside of it.
“AHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Her hand seemed to melt into the side of the sphere. Her organs twisted up as if her body was being squeezed through a needle hole. She moved so fast she couldn’t think. Rory’s eyes snapped open. She hadn’t realized they were closed.
“Where am I?” She whispered before falling backward into Ramses’ arms.
2
Black Sphere
“Took you long enough,” Daneb hissed, sliding his hooves over the black chrome floor and rising to his feet.
“It’s a busy night. I had to find the right one.”
“A bit small, don’t you think?”
“She’s perfect. And eager.”
“Until she wakes up,” Daneb snickered.
“I’ll take her to her room.”
“Suit yourself. Think we should sell her to X-25?”
“No. I hate doing business with that bastard. Plus, I want her all to myself.”
The woman lay limp in Ramses’ arms, totally weightless. He’d read Baneb’s ship’s log after the Syndicate discovered Baneb’s abandoned vessel. That dinky, low-class ship might have impressed outside of their star system but it was completely outdated. Ramses’ cousin, despite his embarrassing inability to hold onto his money, managed to travel all over the galaxy as a trader with limited success in trading, but massive success and finding new and interesting species.
Homo Sapiens. That was the classification this female belonged to. She was compatible too. Daneb and Ramses studied their dead cousin’s logs together and they’d studied the biometric data from the new species Baneb discovered -- the first Arietan to venture to a planet so blue it made Ramses recoil when he first glimpsed it from space.
How could creatures live there on a planet so different from home, without the strong smell of sulfur and the intense volcanic heat, and without the rumbling beneath their hooves? Ramses sniffed and noticed that the sapien had no distinct smell, maybe sweat, and something sweet, but nothing phosphoric and familiar.
Ramses stalked off the bridge and brought Rory to her room. Most Arietan ships weren’t as distinguished as the Bighorn Mark IV. The spherical cloak could blend into any environment and the interior was state of the art with comforts that most Arietans looked down on. Most Arietans weren’t as rich as Ramses, Daneb and their third. Like most Arietan males, they traveled in a triad. Their third, Sobek, took his rest as he waited for Ramses to return.
From Baneb’s records, they learned what they could about the sapien before creating her quarters. Ramses picked red coloring on the walls himself, and the floors were black chrome. He even kept the room at a chilly 30 degrees Celsius to accommodate her unusual sapien biology. He set her on the bed with four posters and a sheer black curtain hung across it.
“Rory,” he whispered, imitating her strange accent, “When you wake up, we’ll talk.”
If it weren’t for the Bighorn, they’d be screwed. The language translators on this thing had the range of a whole planet, so understanding the human hadn’t been a problem. Without the power of the ship, Baneb described sapien language as shrill screechings, like a grubrat’s chatter. Baneb’s comparisons to vermin had luckily been punctuated by his fas
cination with sapien females.
He’d written:
Sapien females appear to make up around 50% of the population of their planet in contrast to Arietan females who only occur 1/1000 births. While Arietan females defend large harems of males, leading to an increase in violence and deaths amongst Arietan males, sapien females mate monogamously. As such, sapien females make great hosts for an Arietan child.
Arietan genetics mean we are compatible with a greater number of species than any other humanoids. Due to our dominant DNA, most “half” Arietan children are 87.89% Arietan or greater once subjected to DNA tests. Sapien females possess recessive genes, nearly eliminated as a fetus grows according to genetic projection models (see endnotes).
Ramses pored over his cousin’s journals and writings for an hour or so, casting an eye on the overhead cameras in the female’s room. Maybe he’d gone about this the wrong way, but from the moment he’d met her, and the moment his fangs cut her lips, Rory had tasted her. The metallic taste of her blood reminded him of home and reminded him of what he’d been missing.
Like most females, outside his species, she’d come around. The other two on his ship wouldn’t understand of course. As the female tossed and turned, Ramses sensed she’d soon awaken. Arietan teleportation methods could be difficult for other species, even other mammals.
Ramses changed out of his disguise, the human apparel he’d donned to cover the parts of his body that were definitively and obviously… alien. From everything he understood about the primitive mammalian culture, they were hostile to outsiders, even more so than typical Arietans. At least the anarchy in the Aries system lent itself to pockets of peace and stability as different clans governed the way they saw fit.
Sobek signaled to Ramses.
“Com’ Ramses. We need you on the bridge in an hour. That’ll put us on the other side of the solar wormhole, and in the AI-border.”
“Perfect. I’ll handle X-25 myself when we get there.”