Savage Alien

by Stella Sky

  I swallowed hard at the sight of him and suddenly couldn’t believe I was thrusting myself into his path.

  “I’m sorry!” I screamed, running toward him and firing a warning shot into the air. “That’s my machine,” I said, pointing to Lele. “Please, let me take her, and we’ll both get out of your way. Please.”

  The alien was tall: much taller than me. He had broad shoulders and a body almost entirely covered by armor and medals. The way he led with his chest told me he was proud of whatever those medals represented: that I should be impressed somehow.

  I thought he might cock his head or turn to speak, but he didn’t He merely looked me up and down and then thrust himself toward me with snarling teeth.

  He pinned me to the ground, and I quickly shot into his arm, causing him to lurch back in surprise. He traced his hand over his shoulder and looked at the blood that covered his fingers with shock.

  “Relax!” I screamed and managed to squirm away from his grasp.

  This was a bad, bad, shitty idea.

  I doubled back and ran, not bothered any longer to look back and see where he might be. The snow began to fall, and I hoped that it might serve as a distraction for him, or at least a blinder.

  I bolted toward Lele but felt his spire wrap around me, slithering up my leg and pulling me to the ground with a hard, muddy fall.

  “I’m getting a little sick of you,” he said, and the sound of his voice startled me more than the attack did.

  He pulled me toward him and crouched down to meet my face.

  The man had four hooped nose rings that clasped horizontally across his wide nose bridge. Beyond his skin and long face, everything else seemed like other Homo sapiens. His eyes were pale blue and an exaggerated almond shape that still seemed human somehow, even as his ears folded flat onto his skull, waiting to perk up at the slightest noise.

  “I’m not so fond of you, either,” I literally spat.

  Driven by instincts alone, I began punching him in the nose, feeling the hard weight of his nose rings against my knuckles and raging out a scream as I hit him.

  “Good job, miss,” Lele said with her muted tone.

  Her voice was crisp and cut through the wintery air clear enough to make the creature stop and laugh.

  Actually laugh.

  Obviously, he didn’t think I was doing as good a job as Lele did, but it was enough to disarm him.

  Lele looked at me then, and with her adorable tone, she said, “Might I suggest you take advantage of this opportunity to move in your womanly wiles?”

  I breathed inward and looked up at the creature. He met my eyes with confusion, and I winced, leaning up and kissing him.

  I set my hands on either side of his masculine face and surprisingly, he let me. His lips were soft and smooth: large and kissable.

  And as simply as that, the creature seemed immediately calmed.

  The Vithohn exhaled a long, hot breath and turtled his neck from me. “What was that?” he asked sharply, needling his brows.

  “It’s called…” I stammered nervously and then offered him a sheepish grin. “A kiss.”

  The man looked at me, and a nervous energy exploded between us as he leaned back down and took my lips in his once more, testing me out: tasting me. His mouth danced against mine softly until his tongue teased and flicked my teeth.

  I felt a pulse in my middle that made me thrust upward toward his body, pushing myself deeper into the kiss.

  He pulled away again, looking down to examine me and I let out a flirtatious laugh.

  “A fan of that, are we?” I said wryly.

  He cocked his head to the side and loosened his grip on me, though not letting me go.

  “Why did you disarm me?” he demanded; the softness I just gleaned from him suddenly gone. “What did you do?”

  He shook me then, and I felt the strength of him; I felt his anger return. He pushed me down and stood from me, pacing furiously. He held his head in his hands and looked between Lele and myself with a confused, angry stare.

  “I just wanted to…” I blanched.

  Want to… what?

  Was I supposed to tell him that I heard I could control the Vithohn, or at the very least quell them by offering up my body?

  No way in hell.

  “I was afraid,” I finally summarized.

  “I see,” he said dismissively, whipping around once more to look me up and down. “And you felt that would help keep you from my people?” he scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Where did you come from?” he demanded, stomping his foot in my direction as the snowflakes fluttered between us in a hurry.

  I pulled my coat closer to me and shivered against the wind, wincing back as the creature shouted, “Who are you working with?”

  It was then I was assured that his people were still mostly oblivious to the pockets of human militia that they had failed to wipe out. That fact made me want to bust out with a big grin, but I didn’t.

  Before I had the chance to respond, he grabbed me, gripping his large hand around my wrist and pulling me forward.

  “You’re coming back with me,” he seethed.

  “Please,” I begged, pulling away from him. “I was with a small group of people, but they’ve all died from…” I looked around quickly and then pointed skyward to the snow. “The elements. It’s just me and Lele here; please, let us go, and we’ll never bother you again.”

  “Le…” Seeming to forget about Lele, the creature whipped around to regard her and then surmised, “Ah.”

  “I don’t want to die,” I said with a whimper, still pulling away from him. “Please.”

  “You humans seem to be cropping up in the strangest places,” he said, towering over me and squinting down at me suspiciously. “You’ll be coming back to our barracks. That’s my orders.”

  “That’s what brought you out here?” I scoffed.

  We stood there, blistering in the mounting snowstorm and I could see his lips going blue.

  He seemed to consider my question and, still with his hand fastened around my wrist, he said, “What are you insinuating?”

  “It just seems odd that you’re out here,” I needled. “You’re without any sort of crew; like I was invading on something… personal?”

  “No,” he snapped, a little too quickly.

  “Please,” I offered again. “Give me one night before you give me to your people. I’m begging you.”

  “Why? So you can sneak off and alert your people as to where they can find us?”

  “First of all, it’s no secret where to find you. Second, I would be doing more harm than good by going back to my people even if they were still alive, because you’d probably just follow me.”

  Lele blinked rapidly at my rant and took a single step toward us, oblivious to the winter’s elements.

  “Aggression has an eighty-percent failure rate with the beast,” she said swiftly.

  The Vithohn looked at me with widened eyes, infuriated now. “The beast?”

  “The Vithohn, the Vithohn!” I insisted. “She's smart, but it takes her a while to scan your genetic makeup. She's an older model.”

  A lie, of course.

  Lele never got it wrong.

  “My apologies,” the girl said evenly.

  The creature breathed hard through his nose and let go of me with a hard toss of my wrist. “Beast,” he scoffed.

  I swallowed and tried not to smirk. “Sorry about that.”

  “Lifeform identified as a Vithohn,” Lele spouted off; her eyes turned to information mode. “Lele will now persist in calling the green beast by his accurate DNA.” Then she looked at me and offered me a private wink.

  Was she purposely trying to piss him off? I stared at the beautiful girl, and my eyes went wide, causing me to burst into a belly laugh.

  “You think that’s funny?” the man seethed.

  “Well, it isn’t dull!” I shouted and continued to laugh.

  The creature looked infuriated, yet the more I
laughed, the more he began to break his strong veneer. Finally, he let out an indignant, unwilling chuckle as he watched me.

  “Alright,” he said, finally settling me down. “You’ll come to the barracks with me. Alone.”

  “And you’ll give me the night to… to plead for my release?”

  He squinted his eyes at me and finally confirmed, “Sure.”

  “Thank you,” I said with a relieved sigh.

  “It’s Tessoul,” he said and then offered a sharp glare at Lele. “My name.”

  “Name has been imprinted,” Lele confirmed, squirreling up next to him. “Shall I make a note of your listed attributes in my database?”

  Tessoul pinched the wide bridge of his nose and fumed, “What?”

  Before he could protest, Lele began spouting off, “Aggressive Vithohn of the Udrenahine planet. Natural bred warrior, marked by broad shoulders and ability to create self-shield and known to read heat signatures. Overtook planet Earth twenty-one years, two hundred and ninety-nine days ago. Responds to Tessoul.”

  Tessoul looked over at me, fully annoyed, and seemed to resign himself to our company as he breathed, “She forgot devilishly handsome.”

  I was taken aback by his sudden humor and matched him tone for tone.

  “She’s lazy like that,” I shrugged.

  “Come on,” he said, pulling me forward.

  “Sidney,” I said. “Sidney Cunningham.”

  Chapter Six

  Tessoul

  I walked the redheaded female to our barracks in secrecy. It wasn’t hard to hide her, as the Vithohn slept hard, and those who didn’t preferred to prowl the other wings of the space station once night fell.

  The girl, Sidney, had long tousled hair and a heart-shaped face: inviting and impish. Childlike, somehow.

  A sickness swelled in my stomach, wondering what she’d done to me back in the mountains: why she’d made contact. Was this what happened to Araxis, as well? Bewitched by calculated actions?

  “So,” I breathed out, finally speaking after our long walk back to the barracks.

  Sidney had left her mechanical servant behind, which I wasn’t sure whether I should protest or not. I’d had a firm hold of her arm for a long while on our journey back, but after some time, I’d let her go and half expected her to run. She didn’t.

  Instead, she stayed close by me and offered me bewildered stares every so often. If she was afraid, she didn’t act like it.

  “So,” she repeated, and I’d nearly forgotten that I’d started speaking to her. “I’m putting my faith in you now, and I hope you’re willing to do the same.”

  “You still haven’t given me a compelling reason to do so,” I snipped.

  Besides that kiss.

  She set her jaw at that, her eyes roving about the space station with wonder and coming to a chilling pale blue as we approached the door to my barracks. Standard room: bed and table, loose lock on the door that none of us ever bothered with.

  “What if I said no one had to die?” she asked in a scratchy tone that sounded like she needed water.

  My eyes perked at this, and I wanted to laugh. Did she think I cared about killing humans?

  “None of the hostages, none of my people, none of yours…” she breathed, taking a seat in the oversized chair that sat cornered in my room without my offering. She crossed her legs and smoothed her hands down the arms of the chair. “That everything between our races can be solved without one drop of blood?”

  She watched me, ticking up a perfectly arched brow and then cocked her head to me as she realized the offer wasn’t exactly my style. A half smile formed and her mouth went ajar, revealing white teeth and a crooked fang. She looked amused by me.

  “I know,” she scoffed, throwing her head back and snapping her fingers together. “Where’s the fun in that, right?”

  “I suppose you have my attention,” I offered finally.

  I leaned against the wall directly across from her, using my spire to balance myself.

  “What am I getting in return for a bloodless engagement, besides a bore?” I asked.

  She swallowed hard at that and said, “Half an hour. That’s what you’re here for anyway, isn’t it? You’re some kind of negotiator?”

  I paused and smirked. “We both know I’m not a negotiator.”

  “Of course,” she said quickly, drumming her fingers on the armchair’s quilted sides.

  “On with it,” I demanded, growing tired.

  “I want to show you something,” she said unsurely: her eyes finally meeting mine. “On the bed.”

  I exhaled and glanced over to the bed before shaking my head slowly in decline. “Alright,” she huffed and pounced up from her chair. She walked up to me and went to touch my face, but I grabbed her hand gruffly in mine.

  “I have it on good authority that you… respond to human touch,” she said brazenly.

  I pushed myself off the wall and towered over her, staring down at her small frame with dwindling patience. I could feel the aggression building up in me again: a fire that reignited somewhere from the mountains to my room.

  “You need to give me one reason not to rip you apart,” I seethed.

  “Well, I’m trying to do that as we speak,” she snapped back, whipping her hand out from my grasp and sending herself back two steps. “When I kissed you, didn’t you feel something?”

  We had a standoff then, watching one another coolly until I finally mumbled, “It felt unpleasant.”

  “That’s funny,” she gave a small laugh, “I thought that was some of my best work.”

  “With your friend watching it was a little strange,” I argued petulantly.

  She blinked and smiled just enough for her fang to make itself visible on her bottom lip.

  “How about now?” she said lowly, walking back up to me and kissing me.

  Her tongue went searching the recesses of my mouth and all at once I felt warm and animal, but now in the strong way I did before. Now it felt like… an indescribable want.

  I moved my lips against hers, meeting her tongue and exploring it with my own before pulling away and staring wildly at her.

  “Admit it,” she said triumphantly.

  I set my jaw, disturbed by the overwhelming sense of calm that washed over me. “You humans bewitch us,” I finally said. “I’ve seen it.”

  “We don’t bewitch you,” she mocked, sounding offended. “We calm you down.”

  Before I had the chance to respond, the small creature before me began undressing, removing one article of clothing after another so that a nervous energy boiled in the pit of my stomach.

  She threw a heavy jacket to the chair behind her and then a sweater and a t-shirt followed until she was standing in her armored pants and boots with her breasts bared.

  They were small mounds that pointed at the tip, cold from the sale air of the barracks. She swallowed, nervous for the first time, and then reached up until her fingers were pinching her nipples unsurely as she looked up at me.

  I traced my tongue across my teeth and let out a long breath.

  Sidney walked up to me, taking a hand from her breast and reaching over to my pants, splaying her hands against the hard length that had appeared when she began to strip.

  “When you…” she began in a whisper, raising herself to her tip-toes and nearing my face. “When you mate with us, something changes you.”

  “And why would I want that?” I said tersely, never moving her hand.

  “You don’t,” she smiled; a glazed look in her eyes. “And neither do I, but we can’t keep trying to kill each other here.”

  “I’ve actually felt very comfortable with that arrangement. Though, there certainly have been more of you than I ever thought were left.”

  She began moving her hand up and down my length, varying her pressure and watching my eyes for any sign of approval.

  “I want to help you,” she said.

  I was instantly annoyed.

  “You want to he
lp me?” I repeated, laughing in disgust.

  “I want to…” Her eyes flicked back and forth, searching for the right word, “show you, how much better our lives, both of our lives could be if we just… well…” She shrugged. “Don’t you want me?”

  I exhaled unsurely and lowered a brow, leaning down to her and watching her small body move. There was something intensely alluring about her: something sexual and wild. I wasn’t sure what was turning me on more: her hand on me, the sight of her breasts, or the bravery it took to try and ambush me in the mountains.

  Sidney grabbed my hand, and I let her lead it to her left breast. Despite the goosebumps that trickled across her skin, she felt amazingly warm under my palm.

  “What do you feel now?” she asked.

  I blinked. “It’s lumpy.”

  She rolled her eyes and pushed my hand harder against her. “It’s smooth and fantastic,” she instructed. “Try again.”

  “It’s smooth and fantastic,” I repeated sarcastically. But it was.

  “You’re not even trying,” she argued and dropped her hand from my pants.

  It was then I realized I wasn’t trying at all… but I was trying to talk to her. A human, of all things. I was, in my own way, trying to be playful with her. The fact that she wasn’t dead in the forest at my hand was already an improvement over what I would have done to her had I met her yesterday.

  “It feels… different,” I offered lamely, squeezing the mound in my hand and tracing my finger down the center of her chest.

  “Your species is raised on aggression,” she said.

  “We’re a warrior race. That is our right.”

  The skin around the corners of her eyes tightened, and she scolded, “Yet you waste so much time and energy on it that it's almost silly. Think of all you could accomplish if you could stop and think for a change.”

  I shook my head. “I find this whole conversation highly offensive.”

  “Yet, you’re not ripping my head off, are you? In fact,” she grinned, “I think you actually like being here with me.”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I said, offering a reluctant smile. “What’s the thinking here, girl? You want me to be like my Voth? A slave to the humans?”