by Juno Wells
I turned back to Aster, and his face was full of steely determination. “Run,” he said. “Run as fast as you can.”
Chapter Nine
We took off down the street, our feet slamming against the pavement. I didn’t know where we were going – the National Park was far outside of town, and there was no possible way we could run all the way there. And I had no idea how we were going to get out of this, get away from Xa’rath. All I knew was that I trusted Aster. I knew he’d do everything he could to keep me safe.
So I ran. I ran as fast as I could through the dark suburban streets. The humming noise intensified until it felt like it was invading my very soul. And I heard other noises behind me too. Bangs, thuds, the sound of twisting metal. I looked behind me, and saw Xa’rath’s dark, menacing figure gaining on us. And he seemed to be leaving a trail of destruction along his path. A mailbox next to me crumpled and splintered into a million pieces, and I veered quickly to the right. Then a car parked along the street folded in on itself, and I veered back to the left. I thanked my lucky stars that this crushing power of Xa’rath’s seemed to be unwieldy and imprecise. His aim was bad, and it only seemed to work at short range. Thankfully. I tried not to let myself think what would happen to my body if Xa’rath managed to aim his crushing power at it.
We took a quick left onto Magnolia Street, then a quick right on Aspen Lane. We cut through people’s yards, leaping over bushes, running between houses, and finally I spotted it: a swimming pool in someone’s backyard. I knew we would be safe there, that the water would hide us from Xa’rath and shield us from the effects of his powers. I ran toward it, ready to jump in and hold on to Aster for dear life. But apparently, Aster had other plans.
He grabbed my hand laced his fingers through mine. “Remember, don’t let go, Ava. Just stay with me. And never let go.”
I nodded, then Aster raised his other hand in the air. And as he raised his hand, the water in the swimming pool floated up and out. I watched as Aster brought a giant mass of water hovering over our heads. Just like before, it looked like a huge raindrop. Then he lowered the mass of water down slowly. I felt the top of my head get wet, and the next thing I knew I was inside the bubble of water. It distorted my vision, making the world around me look hazy and dreamy. I squeezed Aster’s hand tighter, and took in a deep breath.
We ran through the neighborhood, holding hands, surrounded by a giant droplet of water. It was like a protective cocoon, keeping us safe. I knew that as long as we were inside the water, Xa’rath couldn’t see us. He couldn’t touch us. He couldn’t hurt us.
We ran for a long time. We made it out of my small suburb and made our way into a new neighborhood on the east side. Thank goodness it was the middle of the night, otherwise we would’ve made the local news. Plenty of weird shit went down in the suburbs, but nothing as weird as two people running down the street inside a giant ball of water. Luckily, everyone was asleep. We moved through the streets undetected, cutting through backyards and alleyways.
And with every minute that passed, we moved farther and farther away from Xa’rath. I began to notice, though, that the water that surrounded us was dissipating. We left a wet trail in our wake. And Aster’s hand was beginning to shake violently. I looked at him, his face hazy in the water. He was grimacing, and clenching his jaw. It looked like he was in immense pain. I stopped, and pulled him to me. He wrapped his arms tight around me, and his body shook against mine. We stood there for a minute, holding each other in the darkness, inside the little protective cocoon of water. Then I felt Aster sigh heavily against me, and the water fell around us, soaking the grass at our feet. I took in a fresh breath of air.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I couldn’t hold it anymore. It depletes me. I can only do that for so long. But I think I managed to get us far enough away to buy us some time.” He took the thermos of water out of his backpack and drained it in one giant gulp.
“We need more water, don’t we?” I asked Aster. He nodded.
“Yeah, we need more water. And now we need more dry clothes, too.” Aster furrowed his brow, and I could see he was worrying the inside of his lip. He was thinking, hard. Trying to hatch a new plan. “Xa’rath is using a lot of power right now. It’s making him diminished. We could run around the neighborhood all night, trying to wear him out, but it’s not the safest option. My power is diminishing too. As long as we’re out in the open, we’re vulnerable.”
“And after what just went down back in my neighborhood, every cop in the city is probably on their way to this side of town right now.”
“Good point,” Aster said. “What we really need is a place to lay low for a while. Somewhere with food, with water. And most importantly, with a pool. If you know of a place –”
“The high school,” I whispered. “They have a huge indoor pool there. And plenty of food. It’s the weekend, so it’s completely empty. And it’s only a few blocks away.”
“Show me,” he commanded. “Now.” I felt a little thrill ripple through my body. There was something so sexy about the way Aster got so… bossy. He had a real take charge side to him. Of course, I liked his sweetness, his gentleness. But I also liked his hard edges. I had no idea what kind of life he led on his planet, but if he’d been sent to Earth on some sort of mission, and if Xa’rath was hot on his tail, then I figured Aster must’ve been someone pretty important on his planet. I imagined him making public speeches and leading armies. I imagined him giving commands that others obeyed without question. And I had to admit, the thought was pretty fucking hot.
We took back streets and ducked through suburban yards so as not to be detected by Xa’rath. Eventually, we made our way to the high school. It was dark, completely vacant. The perfect place to hide out and hatch a new plan. By the time we got there, it was after four in the morning. My body ached for my feather pillow and comfortable bed. But my body was also pretty excited about sleeping next to Aster, even if it meant we had to sleep on the floor.
I led him to a back door at the high school, and he was just about to reach out and tear the door off the hinges like he had at my neighbor’s house, when I stopped him.
“Wait, let me. I’m sure there’s a more graceful way to do this.” I took the backpack off Aster’s shoulder and started rummaging around in it. I knew there had to be something in one of those junky pockets. Then, I found it. A tiny screwdriver, the kind you find in an eyeglass repair kit. “This is one of my many talents,” I told Aster. “I can break into almost anywhere with a small piece of metal. It’s one of the things you learn as a PI. Not that I’ve ever, you know, broken into anywhere. That’s against the law.” I gave him a sly wink, then turned my attention to the door lock. I had it open in under 30 seconds.
“So, what’s the first thing on the agenda?” I asked as I strutted down the dark high school hallway. Even though I was a grown woman, I had to admit to myself that it felt pretty cool to be in a high school after hours. I mean, everything about this night had been impossibly cool. I’d found a gorgeous man in my backyard. Scratch that – I’d found a gorgeous alien my backyard. That was way cooler. Then I breathed underwater, which was something no other human had ever done before. And then I breathed underwater while being naked with a gorgeous alien. I’d had a world-shaking orgasm. I’d been stalked and chased by an evil intergalactic warlord. And now here we were, Asterion and I, hiding out in an empty high school like a couple of outlaws. It was out of this world romantic. “You need water, right?” I said, turning to him.
“Water can wait. You’re hurt, Ava.” I looked down, and saw fresh wounds and streaks of blood on my arm. I must have gotten cut when my car imploded and the windshield shattered. I hadn’t even noticed.
“Holy shit. I’m bleeding.” I held up my arm, and a little drop of blood splattered on the floor by my feet. I knew I was hurt, but I wasn’t hurt that bad. And Aster was hurt too. He tried not to show it, but I could tell that the trick he did with the swimming pool water had worn him out. His e
yes were dark. I grabbed the thermos out of the backpack, then made my way to a drinking fountain to fill it up. “You drink water first. You need it. Then we can fix my arm. I’m sure there’s a nurse’s station around here somewhere.” I handed him the thermos full of water, and he gulped it down.
“We don’t need a nurse’s station. I can fix this for you right now.” He pushed the button on the drinking fountain, then waved his other hand over the trickle of water that flowed out. He collected a ball of water, like a little orb, that floated in the air in front of us. Then he took a deep breath and trained his indigo eyes on the water. It started to glow. It started to shine an iridescent blue color. I felt my breath catch in my throat. What was this? Another amazing alien trick?
Before I had time to ask him, he moved the glowing ball of water close to my arm. Then the liquid wrapped around my wounds and hovered there. My arm felt warm and tingly, and I could see the cuts closing and healing. In just a matter of moments, the cuts were completely gone. Aster exhaled and the water fell to the floor.
“How the hell did you do that?” As soon as I said that, I realized it was a stupid question. Aster could do all kinds of crazy things that I didn’t understand. He shrugged, and smiled at me. “So you can heal people? But wait, why did you let me clean that cut on your head with rubbing alcohol and Band-Aids if you could’ve just healed it with this alien water stuff?”
Aster shrugged again. “It was sweet that you wanted to take care of me. And it was a good excuse to get you to sit next to me and touch me.”
“You sly dog,” I teased. “That’s incredibly sweet.”
We made a pit stop in the cafeteria and grabbed some food, then we headed out in search of dry clothes. In the guidance counselor’s office, we found a bin full of used clothing that had been collected as part of a charity donation drive. Somehow Aster managed to find another black t-shirt that fit his ripped body like a glove. The outfit I managed to find in my size was a little less cool: a pair of denim jeggings and a One Direction shirt. I looked down at the smiling faces of those little Brit-pop boy-banders that were emblazoned across my chest and laughed. It wasn’t the sexiest outfit, but it would have to do.
After we changed, we headed for the indoor swimming pool at the back of the building. Aster explained that it was the safest place to be. If we ran into any trouble, we’d have a body of water right there that could hide us, protect us. We sat at the edge of the pool, our shoes off, our pants rolled up, and dangled our legs into the water. We talked while we ate. It wasn’t a feast – the only things we were able to find that weren’t frozen solid in the cafeteria cooler were crackers, hotdog buns, and some bananas. But it was enough. And in some strange way, it was the most romantic meal I’d ever had.
“You know, I went to high school here,” I told him. “This is where I met my best friend, Beth. We had a lot of fun here, back in the day.”
“I’d love to have seen what you were like as a young girl,” Aster replied. “I bet you were adorable.”
“I was kind of a nerd, to tell you the truth. You know – glasses, braces, overweight. I played the flute in the high school band and wrote short stories about private detectives.”
“Sounds pretty adorable to me,” he said.
“So, tell me about your planet. What’s it called again? Alluvia?” Aster nodded and popped a cracker into his mouth. “Do y’all just live in water 24 hours a day? I mean, I know water is important to you…”
“No, we live lives that aren’t so much different from your own. But we do spend a lot of time in the water. We have many oceans on my planet. Beautiful blue oceans.” His voice echoed out in the cavernous space.
“I love the ocean,” I said. “It’s the most beautiful, peaceful place in the world to me. And it’s the one thing that drives me crazy about living in Georgia – I’m so far away from the beach. I’d love to live next to the ocean. To go there every day.”
“On Alluvia, everyone lives next to the ocean. There’s not a day that goes by that we don’t go to the ocean. It’s a part of us.”
I moved my bare foot in the water to slide against his. “That sounds lovely,” I said.
“It is,” he replied. “I think you’d really like it.”
“Maybe I could come visit sometime. I mean, I don’t know how interstellar space travel works… How long does it take to get to Alluvia?”
“In a human-made ship it would take… Way too long. It would be impossible. Earth just doesn’t have the technology yet. But in my ship it only takes a few days to get from Earth to Alluvia. Maybe a week at most.” Aster put his hand on my thigh and gave it a squeeze. “I’d love for you to come visit, Ava. I’d love to show you my home.”
We were silent for a moment, just sitting at the edge of the pool. As I looked into the clear water, I couldn’t help but think about what had happened the last time I was in a pool with Aster. No, not the danger, or the pain. The orgasm. It was so unlike me to throw caution to the wind like that, to lose myself in a moment. But it had felt so right. Still, I felt like I needed him to know that I wasn’t a loose woman. I didn’t want him to think that I just threw myself at every unconscious bleeding man that ended up in my backyard.
“So… About what happened earlier. In the pool,” I murmured.
“You mean breathing underwater?”
“No, not that. I mean… you know. The other thing.”
“Right.” Aster cocked his eyebrow and grinned, and he looked so sexy I almost passed out. “You mean when I made you come?”
“Yes. Uh, yes.” I felt my heart flutter with nervousness. “I just want you to know that I’m not usually that type of girl. I don’t usually get naked with strange men I’ve just met and let them… I mean, not that I regret it. I don’t regret it. And you’re not a strange man. I mean, you are, but I feel like I know you. Which is why I let that happen. And it was amazing. But I just don’t want you to think…”
“I think you’re amazing, Ava.” He pulled me to him, and I felt my heart swell as his strong body pushed against me. “You’re perfect. That’s all I think. I know in your world people have different ideas about what’s appropriate, and what people should do with each other, and when. But in my world, we follow our hearts. When it’s right, we know. In our bones. And we don’t wait. There’s no hesitation, and there’s no shame. It’s beautiful. To be with that person that is right for you – there’s nothing more beautiful. And that’s what I feel for you. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. I know you come from a different world. But to me, you’re perfect. And I want you. I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you, Ava.”
“I want you too, Asterion. It feels crazy, but it’s true.” I nuzzled into him, feeling the warmth of his body against mine. “We have so many stupid rules here on Earth. The way people think women should act, the way people think women should be… It’s ridiculous. My whole life, I’ve been worried about what people think of me. They think I’m a prude, or I’m a slut. I’m a tomboy. Or I’m oversensitive. My job is inappropriate, because people think it’s a man’s job. I never just get to be me – who I want to be. I know I’m rambling, but –”
“No, I understand what you’re saying. I’ve studied Earth culture for a long time. And it’s strange. It’s judgmental. It’s not like that on Alluvia. You’re an amazing woman, Ava, and you should be whoever you want to be. And you should do whatever you want to do.”
“You’re damn right.” I splashed my foot in the water for emphasis. “I should. Why should I ever feel guilty about things that make me happy? I shouldn’t have to bend for the world; the world should bend for me. I can do whatever the fuck I want to do.”
“That’s what I’m talking about.” Aster tipped back his head and laughed. It was so good to hear that laugh. It sounded like the best thing I’d ever heard in my life. “So, Ava. What do you want to do?”
“Honestly? What do I want to do?” I looked at Aster, and there was only one answer. “I want to make love
to you. I mean, I’m sorry to be blunt – wait, no I’m not. I’m not sorry. It’s what I want. This night has been amazing, and you’re amazing. And I want you. I’m on birth control,” I shrugged. “And after everything that’s happened today, I think it’s essential that we have sex as soon as possible.”
“I think you’re right,” Aster said. “To be honest, it’s been hard to think about anything else.”
“Then take off your clothes,” I said. “Now.” Suddenly I was the bossy one. And it felt good.
Chapter Ten
We moved into a small office adjacent from the pool, which had a desk, a small couch, and a glass case full of swimming trophies. I sat on the couch and watched as Aster stood in front of me and peeled off his clothes. I’d seen him naked earlier, in my neighbor’s pool, but I’d been too overwhelmed to truly appreciate the sight of him. Now, I took a moment to just stare.