“Oh, there they are.” Patricia exclaimed, seeing the van pull up outside the window. As it turned out, Patricia had a ‘tasting room’ adjacent to her office that was specially designed just for tasting wine, champagne, appetizers, and cake. She even laid out fine cutlery.
“Please, come this way ladies.” She said, and led us to the tasting room as though she were leading us to the Ritz Carlton.
I wanted to laugh. The guy from the bakery, who had brought the various cake samples, was wearing one of those large chef hats that you only find on stereotypical chefs at, say, the Cordon Bleu in Paris. It looked goofy but was a clear indication that he was the real deal.
“Now, from right to left, we have Lemon—“ The chef indicated with his hand. “Vanilla, Strawberry, Banana Creme, Red Velvet and….Chocolate.” The last one, of course, sparked my attention the most.
“Now, we know that Christian has always been a fan of lemon,” Patricia said, looking at her clipboard. “So we need to definitely take that into account.”
“Doesn’t lemon give you headaches, Candice?” Iris chimed in.
“Oh, just sometimes. It’s not a big deal.” Wait a minute. Why am I not speaking up? Because this wedding was important to Christian and I wanted him to be pleased, I thought to myself.
And, he was paying for it. So, there was that.
“Are they bad headaches?” Patricia asked. “If they’re manageable then maybe you could just bring a couple of Advil.” She casually reasoned.
“Are you kidding, she’s not going to purposefully give herself a headache at her own wedding just so her husband can have lemon cake,” Iris said with annoyance. By the way, the two women were looking at each other, I could tell that they were already not fond of one another.
“Okay, everyone calm down. I’m not going to give myself a headache at my own wedding. Maybe I just won’t eat cake.” I said, trying to calm them down.
“At your own wedding?” Both of them said that at the same time as though I was the most insane woman on the face of the planet.
“What flavor do you want, Candice?” Patricia asked finally.
“Well, that’s easy. Chocolate.” I said, reaching down and putting my finger in the frosting and into my mouth. It was probably rude of me, but I couldn’t help it.
“Too bad, Christian is not fond of that,” Patricia said looking at her clipboard again. Iris just rolled her eyes.
“Isn’t that funny? It was Luke’s favorite.” I said and then I froze. What did I just say?
Iris looked stricken. Patricia looked slowly up from her clipboard.
“Who is Luke?” She asked with a knit brow. Now both women were looking at me, and I was feeling beyond on-the-spot.
“Oh, just an old friend,” I replied bashfully.
The problem wasn’t just that I said his name on this occasion, it was that I had done it a couple of times since talking to Leona. Yesterday, I was at the dinner, and Winston asked where I was going after work, and I told him that Luke was taking me to a restaurant for dinner. Then at dinner, I even looked up at my fiancé and almost called him Luke. I managed to get as far as uttering “Lu—“, then rolled my tongue back into my mouth.
“I say that you get a layered cake of chocolate and lemon. It will be like a symbol of your two lives blending together.” Patricia said, knocking me out of my stupor.
“Great. Great idea.” I said.
“I can live with that,” Iris said.
Later that night, lying in bed, I told Christian about how our cake was a symbol of our union. We were both reading.
“Just make sure none of the chocolate layers gets on my layer.” He said with a smile.
“But it’s supposed to be about us blending!” I joked, setting down my book.
“Well, we blend perfectly fine. But mixing lemon and chocolate is like mixing oil and water.” He said.
I wanted to tell him that that was preposterous, but I held my tongue. And I threw my book at him.
“Ouch!” He said, taking off his glasses and putting them on the side table. “You’re going to get it.” He said, and took me in his arms.
Christian and I had a pretty good love life. I couldn’t really complain in that department. We just didn’t make love frequently due to his job schedule and mine.
We began kissing, and then Christian went right to positioning himself over me.
On this night, there was very little foreplay. We just got into business, but there was something that was happening that I had not yet experienced.
I imagined that it was Luke.
But it was not like I was closing my eyes and concentrating. It was just happening, effortlessly. He was here with me. It felt so real, and my heart was instantly filled with elation.
I moaned. Deep feelings of internal warmth and satisfaction were starting to make me buzz with energy. I did something that I had never done before with Christian. I climbed on top of him and positioned myself above him. But when I looked down, it was not Christian that I saw. It was Luke. I couldn’t believe what was happening.
I was swaying with the most delicious pleasure. It was a pleasure so intense that I forgot it even existed.
“I love you so much,” I said aloud.
“I love you too, beautiful human woman.” He saud.
It must be Luke. Only Luke would say that. This is happening. How is this possible?
He sat up with me still in his lap, the way Luke always did, and he took my face in his hands.
“Please never stop.” He said. “This is the place where you belong.” He held me so tightly, and I felt his enormous chest and arms. He made me feel so small and so protected.
“I missed this so much,” I said.
“What?” He replied.
I opened my eyes and I saw Christian. Shit. This isn’t good.
“It's been days,” I responded with a smile.
“You know that I get busy.” He responded, defending himself.
“It’s okay,” I responded.
An idea came to me. A very potentially dangerous idea. But I decided to take a chance.
I continued to imagine that this was Luke here with me. Those were Luke’s arms around me, and this was him inside of me and filling me with so much pleasure and rapture. The results of the self-deception were indescribable.
I was on the edge of falling apart, my body tingled and writhed so rhythmically.
Finally, there was that familiar sensation that Luke always gave me. It was like my heart and body and mind exploded all at the same time, and I was caught in wave after wave of pleasure.
It’ was so intense. Beyond euphoric.
And then my little test started to work. My skin, my hands, everything that I saw was fading. I was being pulled through the Gate.
What am I going to find on the other side?
•••••••••••••••
CHAPTER 4
•••••••••••••••
Luke
I had been struck. We were so close, and I couldn’t give up now. I had killed 34 Krill aliens on this day, but there was only one now that was worth killing. Grim was nowhere in sight, but he had got to be around here somewhere. It was hard to see on the battlefield because a thick haze had settled over it. The haze was made out of little particles of laser light that were deadly to ingest in mass quantities, so I was wearing my protective mask.
I was attacked from the back, and I quickly yielded my laser sword and cut the alien in two. He squealed in that disgusting, Krill way and I had showered yet again with his slimy blue entrails. I was absolutely covered with blue slime at this point, and I needed to keep wiping it from my mask so that I would be able to see.
“You had it coming!” I grunted. At this point, I was on fire, and if it weren’t for the blood pouring from my side I would have be able to kill more, but I was beginning to feel a little faint. I ignored this annoying human sensation and continued to kill like the hybrid-human that
I was.
“Arias, you’re wounded. It’s time to use the firearms.” One Corin soldier beside me said. Through the haze, I couldn’t make out who the soldier iswas but I didn’t want to heed his advice. Although the quantum firearms that the Argyles invented should have be the only weapons that could penetrate the nano-armor, on this day, I was so filled with fury and passion that even my laser sword was able to penetrate and kill. I couldn’t explain this phenomenon, but it felt more honorable to kill the aliens by my sword - I could even have done it with my bare hands if I had to.
“Why don’t you rest in the tent, Arias? You’ve done enough for one day.” I heard another voice say.
“Not on your life. Today is the day, and when we win this war I’m not going to be lying in some tent!” I yelled.
I saw my own blood pooling below me, now. The vivid red color was mixing with the blue Krill blood, and it created a ghostly purple. Would that be the color of the blood of a human-Krill hybrid? That’s the kind of creature that Grim wanted to create…..with Candice.
Candice.
The thought of her filled me with a surge of strength, and I felt as though I could continue fighting even with every last drop of blood gone from my body.
“Have you spotted Grim anywhere?” I asked, wiping the entrails from my sword.
“I believe he was spotted by someone on the top of that hill.” The soldier said.
I looked to where he was pointing and saw a hill nearby where there were figures standing. I couldn’t make out if they were Krill or Corin, but if there was a chance that one of them was Grim, then that was where I needed to go.
“Come with me,” I commanded, and proceeded to move towards the hill. Just then my foot got stuck in the carcass of a dead Krill lying on the ground. I could feel the still warm body engulfing my foot and stumbled to the ground. “Damnit,” I said. This was annoying.
“Incoming!” A Corin soldier cried.
I was not able to see the blast coming our way but within a moment I could feel the repercussions. The thunderous explosion felt like fire on my skin, and I remained low on the ground. I called out to my fellow soldiers around me.
“Hey there! Are you alright?” I yelled. There was no response to my screams, and I instantly sensed that my fellow soldiers had perished. The only thing that saved me was my being close the ground. Accidentally stepping into the muddy abdomen of an alien ended up being the best thing that had happened to me on this day.
“AR-I-ASSSSSS!” I heard an alien wickedly cry from the hillside. His voice reverberated throughout the valley. It was hauntingly furious and venomous, and I knew instantly that it was the voice of Grim. He was the one who sent this blast our way.
That alien son-of-a-bitch couldn’t win this war like an honorable soldier, so he used his cowardly chemical weapons.
I was so filled with rage now that I couldn’t even see straight. Between that and the chemicals from the explosion my eyes were watering and burning. I began to crawl towards the hillside. Eyes or no eyes, that alien, would die today.
Crawling and sliding, I could feel that my wound was getting worse. The blood was really pouring from me now. I ripped off my armor because I felt that it was digging into my wound and instantly felt relief. I felt the coolness of the air on my bare chest and took a deep breath. I examined my chest and shoulders to make sure that there were no other wounds that I was unaware of, and I proceeded.
I heard something strange off in the distance. It wasn’t coming from the hill but from the opposite direction. It was a sound that was oddly familiar and for a moment I wondered if I was hallucinating.
Is that a woman’s cry?
Candice
I had not been pulled through the Gate for so many years, and so the sensation of it came as a total shock - and also a reminder. It was pain and pleasure mixed together. Stars and galaxies whirling by and vacuous, piercing sounds.
Once pulled through I was completely disoriented and weak. I had no idea where I was, and the air seemed to be filled with thick smoke. I couldn’t breath and began to cough. The ground beneath me was slimy and warm, and there were sounds of explosions and gunfire.
I was on the battlefield. Oh. My. God.
This can’t be. Why would I land on the battlefield after being pulled through the Gate? Is this Grim’s idea? He is the keeper of the Gate, after all.
So the battle was still raging. Luke did not forsake me.
But I couldn’t think right now about these things. I had to find shelter because I sensed that my life was in incredible danger.
And I had no clothing on.
This last fact was only one in a list of problems that I faced at this moment. Since I could barely see further than two feet in front of me, I was not terribly worried about the clothing part, but I knew that my skin needed protection. I felt around with my hands and found a piece of fabric that was attached to what seemed to be a dead alien body. With all my strength I began to pull it, but it was incredibly hard to get loose.
“Ahhh!” I screamed as I pulled with all my might. Finally, the fabric came loose, and I wrapped it around my body like a Grecian cloak.
There’s one problem solved.
Now I crawled over bodies, and the smell and feel of it was utterly disgusting. All this death was a hard thing to stomach, but I had to worry about my own life right now, and it could only be saved by getting off this battlefield.
“Ah!” I screamed again as I felt a deep pierce in my hand. It had landed on top of a sharp object that I thought was a sword, and it was hard to tell with no visibility, but I thought that it ran me right through. I held the wound in my hand and felt the warm blood beginning to pour out of it.
I finally stood, realizing that there was too much strewn upon the ground that was dangerous. Crawling wasn’t a good idea. Then in a cruel stroke of irony, there was a huge blast, and I was knocked again off of my feet and back into the sludge on the ground.
I wailed yet again. The knocks to my body were now becoming too much to bear, and I was beginning to wonder if this might be the day that I would die. Not on my beloved Earth, but on Hecate. Alone and afraid. I wrapped my arms around myself and began to fade. I took a hard hit to the head from the blast, and the haze was thicker now. This must be my fate - to die on the battlefield of the man that I always loved, but was never allowed to spend a life with.
I feared that I was hallucinating now as the colors in the haze mixed with the lights flickering behind my eyes.
But an important realization came from the rational part of my mind that was trying viciously to keep me alive, I may had a concussion, and if I didn’t get up and move, then I would most certainly die.
I can’t go to sleep, I can’t go to sleep, I can’t go to sleep.
Slowly, painfully, I got to my hands and knees. I needed to walk, and I would do everything in my power to get myself to do so. I fought through the overwhelming need to lie back down and let the darkness envelop me.
Once on my feet, it was like the world was spinning, but I focused my eyes and moved forward. The fog from the blast was now beginning to clear ever so slightly and off in the distance I could see a hill with figures standing upon it. I would walk towards that hill and see if there was someone there that could help me, or at least, not kill me.
Each step was filled with pain and I clutched my head with my bloodied hand.
I looked from side to side to see if there were any soldiers nearby, but it was almost as though everyone in this valley - as I perceived it to be one from the look of the hillside in the distance – had perished.
Then, mysteriously, goosebumps popped up through my skin. It was like a volt of electricity was sent up my spine and my head started tingling. Why is this feeling coming over me?
Off in the distance, perhaps 100 paces away, the haze cleared thanks to a benevolent gust of wind. There was a figure standing there. He looked almost human, but I could only tell this from his height. The sky behind him was electr
ic in swirls of pink and purple and blue. These colors outlined his thick, sturdy form, but the figure himself was still dark and indistinguishable.
There ws a sword in his hand. I could see this now.
He had been stripped of his armor. I saw blood on his side.
He was staring at me. He was frozen - nearly as frozen as I was.
My blood was pulsing in my veins, but my body was quite still. I coudn’t step towards the figure because my legs would not work.
Why will my legs not let me move?
My mind finally caught up with what my body already knew; what it understood from the moment the haze had cleared.
Alien Romance Box Set: Alien Cube: The Sci-FI Alien Invasion Romance (Books 1-5) Page 51