“I can’t do that,” she said, shaking.
“Don’t harm her,” Vin said. “I like her. She’s interesting.”
“Very well.” Sev relaxed his stance. “Step aside, woman.”
Angela’s hands fumbled as she pulled open a drawer on her desk and reached in. “I can’t let you do this.”
“Open it,” Sev ordered.
Gary lifted his hands, and they began to glow with an eerie green light.
“What the,” Angela shook as she held up a square-tipped gun, “hell are you?”
They ignored her question.
“I need you to step away from my prisoner,” Angela stated. She tried to sound tough, but Vin heard the tremor in her words. Even so, he was impressed she remained functional. When he wanted to, Sev intimidated most people no matter the alien race.
“What are you?” she demanded.
The skin suit melted from Gary’s hands as he touched the bars, revealing the tough yellow flesh underneath. The bars also began to glow, extending out from his fingers. The sound of a metal latch unhooked, and the door opened. Gary stepped aside. The skin suit hung from his wrists like tattered sleeves.
Vin instantly went toward Angela. “I am sorry to have to leave you. I did enjoy my time with you and hope to do it again very soon.”
Angela’s hands jerked when he came to close. Two prongs flew from the end of her gun into Vin’s chest. He felt the tingle of electricity move through his body, tickling him. Waves moved the air around her hands as he saw the pattern her gun made on the environment around it like the rippling of water. The prongs began to itch, and he wrapped his hand around the cords to pull them out. The bracelets she’d given him restricted his movements, and he let his skin heat up so he could pull the metal apart. His wrists were no longer joined, but he kept the individual bracelets on.
Angela gasped. “How…? What…? How…?”
“Vin, come,” Sev ordered. “We are being moved to a new hotel. This stunt of yours has caused an uproar.”
“I can’t move to a new room right now,” Vin said. The need was growing inside of him again, and he wanted to stop the tremors before they became a full-blown need. “I had ice cream buckets sent to our current suite and I want to enjoy them first.”
“Look at me.” Sev frowned and grabbed Vin’s face in his hands to force him to do just that. “Your temperature is low, and you smell differently.” He moved Vin’s head to one side and then the other in examination. “You are acting erratically. You are lucky the Galaxy Brides ship watches—”
“Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides,” Bob corrected. “They don’t like it when you shorten the name. Something about customer clarity.”
“That’s only for employees,” Gary instructed.
“But you said…” Bob protested.
“Now is not the time,” Gary lifted his skinless hand. “What would you like us to do with this woman? Should we take her back to the ship as your bride?”
“Leave her,” Sev ordered.
“I like her,” Vin said. “She’s pretty and smells like flowers. I want her to make pretty babies if she doesn’t have too much radiation.”
Angela made a weak noise.
“What is wrong with you?” Sev demanded.
“I’ve seen this. He has overindulged in a local drug,” Gary stated. “We warned you against the local street vendors.”
“What did you ingest?” Bob demanded. “Cocaine? Marijuana? Crack? Speed? Angel dust? LSD? Peyote? I quite like the peyote myself.” He glanced at Gary and cleared his throat. “I mean the word, of course, not the drug. Molly? Clarity? X? E? G? K? Zing? Bliss? Meow Meow? Iv—”
“Ice cream,” Vin interrupted, not understanding anything else the little man said. “Can we get some?”
“Ice cream?” Gary frowned. “That is a new one.”
“I thought you said the food on this planet was safe.” Sev released his brother and turned on Gary and Bob.
“Ice cream the food?” Bob repeated as if clarifying what they were dealing with.
“If you recall from the contract you signed, there are some risks involved when visiting a new planet,” Gary inserted.
“I’m going to kill Kal,” Sev swore. “And I’m coming after all of you if my brother ends up in the wax prison with the other frozen people.”
“Hey there, beautiful.” Vin waved his fingers at Angela.
She made a small squeaky noise.
“Want to come to my suite with us?” Vin offered. “I find you attractive and—”
“Now is not the time,” Sev broke in.
“N-no.” Angela shook her head. Her gaze kept wandering toward Gary’s skinless hands.
“We will have this ice cream situation analyzed and will administer an antidote,” Gary said. “For now, you should restrain him on a bed, so he does not ingest anything else. Definitely, don’t let him have any more food. The Reticulans have studied this entire region, and we will have reports on the biological make up of this ice cream.”
“I want a transport off this planet,” Sev stated. “This is unacceptable. I’m done here.”
“We should go,” Bob ordered as he looked at the device on his wrist. “A lady enters the hallway.”
Vin glanced at the monitor to see Mags carrying a cup of coffee and an ice cream cone.
“Ice cream!” He started for the door.
Sev grunted. Vin barely saw the fist coming for his face as he ran into it. Blackness flooded his vision.
Chapter Five
Angela watched as Officer Harris lifted a piece of Gary’s skin off the floor by the cell bars. The evidence of all she witnessed was right there in front of her, and she still couldn’t believe it.
“It looks like some kind of silicon,” Harris observed, dropping it back where he found it. “So let’s review. You lost the ice cream bandit.”
Angela grimaced. “I didn’t lose him. People came and took him.”
People.
People came.
Freaking aliens came, melted off their skin, broke through bars without scratching them, and took my extraterrestrial prisoner with them.
“Any idea who?” Harris prompted.
Angela shook her head in denial. “People.”
“People,” he repeated skeptically. “Fine. This is how we’re going to spin it. Due to the high level of activity tonight in the casinos and on the strip, I ordered you to release Flame with a warning since our resources were stretched thin. He offered to pay for the ice cream, and we’ll attribute the rest to a drunken stunt.”
“I’m sorry, Harris. I know that I messed up.” Angela wasn’t sure what else she should say. She definitely couldn’t tell the truth. She would lose her job faster than anything. And she needed this job. Her mother was depending on her getting a promotion.
“Yes. You did.” Harris’ expression showed little by way of sympathy.
Angela averted her eyes, unable to take the disappointment she saw in him. The truth was he should not have left her alone. Not on her first night as a trainee. His covering for her was as much for himself as it was for her.
“I'm going to let you off with a warning as well. This is your one slip up. Next time I won’t be so lenient.” Harris eyed the cell door with disgust before motioning to the silicone skin on the ground. “Get this cleaned up before you leave.”
“What about Mags?”
“Does she know anything?”
Angela shook her head in denial. “I didn’t say much. I just said that his brother came to pick him up.”
“Good. We will leave it at that.” Harris made a move to leave. He paused at the door. “I’m sorry, Angela. Based on tonight’s performance I’m not sure you have what it takes to join our ranks. I’m hoping that you prove me wrong over the next several weeks.”
“I will,” she promised. “This will never happen again.”
“It better not. The force isn’t for everyone.” Harris left.
Failure made her ir
ritable and touchy. Her frustration at having botched her first night as a trainee was tinged with anger. Harris had thrown her into the deep end and left her alone to deal with it. Could she really blame him, though? She’d said she could handle it.
The measured control over her emotions left Angela the second she was alone. Her hands began to shake as she made her way across to the cell. She stared at the skin on the floor. Failure was only one of the many sensations crashing in on her and was soon replaced by fear.
Aliens. What did she do with the knowledge of aliens? She couldn’t tell anyone, or they would think she was crazy. She needed this job. She needed not to be crazy. Aliens.
Vinglarkenbauer. Vin. Flame. Alien.
A significant part of her wanted to run away. Run out of the building. Run away from responsibility. Run from the city she had grown up in. But she couldn’t leave her mother. And her mother couldn’t come with her. Angela was trapped in Las Vegas.
She put on a pair of gloves. It took everything she had to reach down and quickly throw the skin into the garbage can. It squished between her fingers. She sprayed disinfectant on the floor and on the bars where the aliens had touched. She had no way of knowing if it would do any good.
When she finally clocked out and left the office, she was still trembling. She made her way warily down the hallway and into the teeming shopping center. She surveyed the crowd with a renewed appreciation and fear. How many aliens were out there? She would never have asked the question before tonight.
A group of young men passed by. One of them accidentally elbowed her.
Angela stiffened in alarm and lifted her arms in defense. “Watch where you’re going.” She couldn’t help herself.
“Ooh, so scared of you, mall cop,” a smart ass mocked, before two of his friends pulled him back into line.
“Asshole,” Angela muttered under her breath as she spotted another group of men. A few of them were as tall as Vin, and she quickly sidestepped out of their path so they could pass. She made a beeline through the shopping complex’s displays so she could study them. Their skin seemed normal enough, no weird stretching or melting. Three of them wore sunglasses, but the rest of their eyes weren’t metallic.
Vin had looked human. She’d assumed he was human. Why wouldn’t she think that? And she’d been wrong. She saw how his metallic eyes changed and he melted the metal handcuffs holding him together. He could’ve escaped at any time. Instead, he sat in the cell talking to her as if he was a human talking to another human. That is until he said he was an alien.
I’m going crazy. I’m going crazy. Tonight did not happen. I’m overworked, and I’m stressed. I did not see alien hands. I did not see Vin melt off his handcuffs.
It was hard to tell if this was a case of extreme craziness. And if Vin was highly intelligent, then she couldn’t be blamed for doubting herself. Hell, mental asylums were full of his kind.
Angela looked at everyone she passed but did not meet their eyes. It was the usual Vegas crowd—drunk tourists, a few parents with their children, bridesmaids, groomsmen, a family wearing the same bright orange reunion T-shirts as they made their way from shop to shop. Several of them played some kind of scavenger hunt game on their phones, which was very popular this year. Everything looked normal.
Angela tried to appear as if nothing was wrong as she made her way out of the building. The walk to the car felt like it took a very long time. She just wanted to get home. She wanted to see her mother. She wanted out of Vegas.
The entire journey home one word kept cycling her brain over and over. Aliens. Aliens. Aliens.
Chapter Six
Vin stared up at the ceiling as he lay tied to the bed. His brother had left him to suffer without his precious ice cream. Though the more time that past and the less sugar that remained in his system, he began to realize he might be slightly obsessed with the delicious creamy treat. The headache was the worst part. Then the shaking. And then the deep cravings. He wanted that taste in his mouth, to feel his internal temperature drop to euphoria, and the rush of his blood as the sugar absorbed into his system.
However, as the headache eased, and the shaking became a tiny tremor, another obsession filled his mind. How could he think of ice cream when there was Angela?
Angela and ice cream.
Vin closed his eyes and smiled.
“Stop that,” Sev ordered. “You’re looking obsessively disturbed again.”
Vin opened one eye to look at the doorway. “Untie me.”
“Not a chance,” Sev answered. “You’re on lockdown. Gary said they are bringing you an injection and it could take a couple of days to process through your system.”
“You hit me.” Vin looked more fully at his brother, seeing red marks on his face and neck. “But it looks like someone hit you back.” He stiffened and pulled against his restraints, trying to break free.
“Don’t bother. Those are crafted out of alien metal. You’re not heating your way out of them.”
“What did you do to Angela? Is she unharmed? What happened after you struck me? Who hit you?” Vin’s heart beat erratically. When Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides uploaded information into their brains about Earth culture, one of the warnings was how delicate Earthlings were. The implication had been that the women bruised easily, and rough sex had been warned against, but the same would hold true for brawling. One hit from Sev could’ve snapped her spine.
“I did nothing to your zookeeper. She is fine. We left her unharmed. You had caused enough trouble, and I didn't want to bring any more of the authorities down on our heads.” Sev grimaced. “Unfortunately your cousin did not get the memo.”
“What is the memo?”
“Some kind of Earth document. Like a mini news chip they pass around. I heard a local say it,” Sev explained.
“And Kal didn’t get it?” Vin was confused. “Where is Kal?”
Sev tried to look stern, but a telltale excitement lit up his eyes. There had been a fight.
“What did I miss? What did you two do?”
“Oh, my brother, you missed the fun. While you were busy cramming your face full of alien food and hanging out in a prison cell, we took on an entire casino of assailants and an Earth savant. Kal fell in love. She was kidnapped. And we rescued her. People were running. Fists were flying. Guns were shooting. Kal sent several of the men flying.” Sev threw several pretend punches to narrate his actions. “We narrowly escaped with our lives, but in the end, we saved the girl. We’re heroes.”
“You’re making up stories,” Vin said skeptically. “Kal fell in love?”
The rest was believable.
Sev’s expression sobered. “He thinks he is going to stay here on Earth with her. There’s no way I’m letting that happen. Kal may be a screw up, but he is our screw up. We will not leave this planet unless all of us are on the transport back home.”
“Kal found love?” Vin thought of Angela and wondered what it would feel like to have a woman’s love. He’d had a woman’s body many times, but her love?
“Yes. Kal found love. Is there something wrong with your brain?” Sev frowned. “It is that woman from the restaurant he spent the last week searching for. He seems to think that Galaxy Brides can’t make us return if we don’t want to. I don’t care what Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides has to say. He is coming back with us. He is our family, and he is coming home.”
Vin wasn’t as firm in his stance as Sev was. Yes, he liked the comfort of the underground settlement, the familiarity of the rock walls and knowing his neighbors. There was comfort in the idea that when something happened, the settlement would come to his aid. He was not so sure Earth humans would help their neighbors if they were in trouble. The truth was he didn’t know Earth humans well at all. Most of what he knew was what he had seen on the rogue transmission waves floating around space.
At the same time, though, he could see the appeal of a planet like Earth with its fresh air and sunlight that didn’t blister off the skin. Livin
g and working underground in the mines was a hard existence. It wasn’t one he shied away from as a Killian. He came from generations of ashers, but he also didn’t wish to die young. His plan was to find another way to live within Frxsolis.
“Are you listening to me?” Sev demanded.
Vin nodded even though he hadn’t been. “Sure. Kal comes with us, or you’ll start an intergalactic event the Federation can’t ignore.”
Sev arched an eyebrow. “I said that I told Galaxy Brides I wanted them to bring us a transport and shuttle us off this damn planet. We should never have come here—not to a place that doesn’t know aliens exist. It is a failed experiment conducted by a substandard corporation with little experience. You saw the two clowns they sent with me to rescue you. Gary and Bob? Are you kidding me? Yes, they have skills, but the size of their heads hardly attributes to blending in. They claim they want to say hidden, and yet Gary melted his skin suit off.”
“What did they say about the girl following you around?” Vin asked with a smirk.
Sev frowned. “That joke has lost any hope of being funny. You and Kal both need to stop telling it. There is no woman following me around, and I refuse to let you cast me into paranoia over it.”
“I’m feeling better,” Vin said. “Can you untie me now?”
“No,” Sev dismissed. “I can’t risk you running off, so get comfortable. Between the fight in the casino, the assailants coming after Kal and his woman, and your arrest because you overindulged in ice cream of all things, we are on lockdown. Next move is the transport taking us out of Vegas.”
“If we are on lockdown where is Kal?”
“He’s in the other room with the woman he…” Sev tilted his head and listened. “Blasted space holes, where the eternal furnace did they go? I’ll be back. At least I know you’re not going anywhere.”
Vin watched his brother storm out of the room to look for their cousin. He grinned and thought of the Earth slang he’d heard a couple of young men say before jumping into the giant pond by the dancing fountain, Challenge accepted.
Flame: Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides (Intergalactic Dating Agency) Page 4