Playing Cards With Aliens

by Erin Raegan

  I didn’t bother replying. He was leaving. I was used to this from him. Seeing him at all was so strange, it had thrown me off-kilter.

  “I’m afraid for you,” he said around a sigh.

  “I have no idea why.”

  “I realized last night there’s nothing I could possibly say to you to get you to come with me,” he said stiffly. “Too much time has passed. It was foolish of me, but I couldn’t sleep at night if I didn’t at least try.”

  And there it was. Guilt. Always guilt driving our every interaction.

  “You might see something on the news in a few days,” he blurted.

  I blinked at him, an uncomfortable feeling growing.

  His face flushed. “I can’t say any more. I’ve already broken protocol.” He refused to look at me, already looking at the car waiting for him. He tossed me Sal’s keys and I fumbled to catch them. He stepped away, then turned back. “I hope it’s nothing. I pray we’re overreacting, but if we’re not and things get bad, I want you to remember this moment, Theodora. You could have come with me. I would have done my best to protect you.”

  I watched him, bewildered. Was there going to be a terrorist attack or something? Maybe Sal had been right about Noah all along. Maybe he was some government agent.

  Even if what he said wasn’t some weird—something, it didn’t matter. Because even if the world was going to end tomorrow, I wouldn’t leave. Not without Bets and Sal. Jeremy, Holden, and Abby. And now Killian. I wouldn’t even leave Leo and Oren.

  Hell, half the town I would have a hard time turning away from.

  It was why I had such a hard time moving out or leaving this town to explore like I so badly wanted to. Killian was the first person in my life who had ever made me even remotely consider taking that leap. This place was my home. These people were the most important people in my life.

  But though Noah’s words were dark and ominous, the skeptic in me and likely ninety percent of the human population chuckled at my niggling worry. It was probably nothing. Noah was just being Noah. Manipulative and secretive. I didn’t know that man at all. His words held little weight for me.

  I turned away, shaking my head at the entire conversation, when Jeremy’s truck rumbled down the road. Oren slowed and looked out the open window. The loud engine caught Noah’s attention.

  Days from now, years from now, even decades from now, I would look back on this one moment in my life.

  This one unbelievable turn in fate.

  One unfortunate second. Terrible—the worst—timing.

  One second for Noah to catch sight of that rusting blue truck was the catalyst that crumbled my entire world.

  I saw the spark of recognition in Noah’s eyes. The way his entire body froze, turning to stone. It confused me, but Oren drove right on by him and pulled into the driveway, and I didn’t give it another thought other than my brother being weird.

  I turned my back on the moment and put it from my mind, tucking it away. Not knowing just two days later, I would pull it back out and examine it with fresh new eyes.

  Eyes that would be pried open in the most disturbing way possible.

  Playing Cards with Aliens

  Theo

  The night dragged on. Killian tense and exchanging strange looks with Oren and Leo.

  For the rest of us, after Noah left, the mood in the house visibly lifted. On Sunday, both the tea shop and the salvage yard would be closed. Aunt Bets would be up early for church, but the rest of us could sleep in. So after the meal was devoured, Holden cracked open a new pack of cards, and we taught the three new men in our lives how to play every drunken card game we could think of.

  Not once did we ask ourselves why they didn’t know any.

  Or why Leo studied the numbers on the cards as if he’d never seen a written number in his life. Aunt Bets just took over counting for him, teaching him each number as though it was totally normal for a grown man not to know how to identify the number two. Or any other number for that matter.

  We didn’t even pause to gasp when Oren said he didn’t know any words to any of the Beatles’ songs, that he’d never even heard of them.

  After several drinks, Killian drunkenly confessed that the alcohol on his spaceship was far richer in taste, and we all laughed as if he was joking.

  It had slipped from him, I would later realize. Alcohol loosening his tongue and his many secrets.

  But after that one slip and our lack of reaction, he must have made the deliberately conscious decision to keep slipping.

  I would later look back and realize that for the first time in all those days I’d known him, he gave his mind a break. He embraced the freedom it allowed him to have around us. Our minds already too muddled from his interference to completely grasp the gravity of his admissions.

  He stopped filtering our every thought and breathed a sigh of relief, delighted that he could converse with us without already knowing the thoughts running through our minds.

  We didn’t blink as Killian drank more and regaled us with his tales as a pirate lord, cruising the universe for thousands of years.

  We roared our laughter as he demonstrated his ability to project what he wanted us to see. Leo changed outfits in the blink of an eye. Oren brooded moodily in the corner as Kil dressed him in a bright pink tutu and a fedora.

  On and on Killian tested us.

  Slowly the alcohol drained from his system as he tested our mental capabilities to handle the news he’d been agonizing over telling us. Of telling me.

  Somehow, he’d altered our minds over the last few weeks, hiding the truth from us every time we questioned him or the others.

  The alcohol wore down those carefully crafted boundaries, and the truth exploded all over the dining room like a smoke bomb.

  Killian was an alien. A lord of aliens actually. His spaceship had been in some kind of altercation and he’d had no choice but to drift into our solar system while they conducted repairs.

  All of this went in one ear and out the other for me. As he spoke, I knew it to be truth, but Killian had already done so much heavy groundwork to my memories that even as I processed them, I suppressed the truth in them involuntarily.

  It would take him almost an hour to realize our reactions weren’t genuine. That we couldn’t see the truth in them in our inebriated state. Our minds were just not strong enough to filter out what was fiction and reality.

  The guilt would nearly cripple him.

  Around midnight, Sal called it a night with Aunt Bets, and they stumbled to bed. Jeremy and Holden finally got their night at the house as they passed out on the couches.

  Leo seemed the most sober as he went downstairs. Oren followed at a more sedate pace, weaving on his feet. He mumbled something to Killian in a language I couldn’t understand and slammed the door shut behind him.

  I sighed and looked at Killian with cartoon hearts dancing in my eyes. He was looking down into his glass, swirling the whisky pensively. A forlorn look on his face.

  I got on all fours and crawled to him. He saw me coming and smirked, but it was weak and sad.

  I frowned, pouting my lower lip and poking at his mouth. “Why are you so sad?”

  He pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. “I fear what I’ve done to your mind may be irreversible.”

  “You mean your alien powers messed up my brain?” I slurred a little and sat back on my heels, swallowing a hiccup.

  “I could not have anticipated how difficult it would be to control a human mind for any length of time. It did not occur to me that there may be side effects. I find I am regretting much of what I’ve done since coming here.”

  “It’s okay,” I told him happily, throwing my arms around his shoulders. “I’m not mad at you.”

  Killian huffed a laugh and pulled me to my feet, then carried me bridal style down the hall. The ceiling spun and my stomach pitched wildly.

  “You won’t feel the same when the sun rises, I’m afraid,” he drawled.

  I g
iggled as he dropped me onto my bed, my body bouncing slightly. “I doubt I’ll remember any of this in the morning, your lordship.”

  Killian leaned over me, driving his fists into the bed on either side of my head. “I know. You are already forgetting.”

  I blinked into his bright eyes, my smile goofy and enamored. “What do you really look like?”

  Killian flashed me a smile. “I think you’ve had enough excitement for one night, sweets.”

  I scoffed. “Nuh-uh, show me. I want to see.”

  “Now I know I’ve truly damaged your mind for you to be asking this of me without a spark of the fear you showed the pumpkin man.”

  I giggled, asking again. He shook his head and tried to back away, but I grabbed him, pulling him down on top of me. He didn’t put up much of a fight. “You said yourself I won’t remember, just show me.”

  He raised one dark brow at me. “And if the day comes when you do remember? What will you think of me then, that I chose to show you when I knew you would forget?”

  “You make too much sense right now. At least you’ll know if I like your alien body before you have to show me when I’m sober.” I waggled my brows dramatically.

  That intrigued him. Interest sparkled in his eyes.

  “Come on,” I coaxed. “I promise not to scream.”

  He snorted. “You can promise no such thing.”

  “Describe your alien self to me first then. So I won’t be surprised.”

  He looked at my headboard as if asking for patience.

  “Are you green all over?” I asked around a laugh.

  He shook his head, watching my smile with one of his own.

  “Not a little green man then?”

  His brow wrinkled.

  “Hmm.” I thought hard. “Are you like an insect?” I shivered and made a face. “Please say no.”

  Killian barked a laugh. “No.”

  “Slimy and goopy?”

  He shook his head, smothering his laughter into my neck.

  “Come on then, show me the goods,” I taunted, wiggling my fingers down his sides.

  He sat up, straddling me. Running his finger down my nose while he studied me. “To do this, I have to open your mind. You might be angry if you start to remember every time I’ve suppressed your memories.”

  I swallowed, a little less foggy. Not enough to run screaming from the room though. “You’ll have to free me eventually, right?”

  Killian looked away.

  I groaned. “How can we be anything to each other if you’re always manipulating my memories and the way I see you? How can I ever trust you?”

  He looked back down at me. His mouth turned down and he was silent for a long minute. My eyelids drooped drowsily as he brooded.

  “Better hurry up,” I said around a wide yawn. “Once I wake up, your chance’ll be gone and I’ll likely be giving you the silent treatment.”

  “That sounds ominous,” he murmured, laughter back in his voice.

  I nodded. “It is. I’m pretty stubborn. I can hold out for days.”

  “I better soak up my time with you now then,” he whispered.

  “Please do,” I whined, pulling him back down to me.

  I wanted him over me, hugging me. Shielding me from all the dark thoughts I knew were rattling behind a cage he’d built in my mind. Once he set them free, I was afraid I would never look at him the same again.

  Not without copious amounts of alcohol.

  “Close your eyes,” he whispered.

  “They already are,” I said, exhaustion coating my voice.

  His fingertips tapped my eyes lids and I realized they were still open.

  He grabbed my hands and slid them under his shirt to his back. I clutched his warm back, holding on to the lean muscle there. Slowly, the breath leaked out of him and down my chest, sending a shiver up from my toes.

  “Keep them closed,” he murmured, his voice changing. It grew huskier, darker, with a little more accent than he normally had.

  Something pointed scraped along my temples and down the sides of my face. I shivered, arching closer to him.

  It took me long sluggish seconds to realize they were fingernails. But not Killian’s normal nails. These were sharp. Too sharp. But they didn’t hurt me. They felt exciting and dangerously wicked as they plucked at my tank top, snapping the strap on my shoulder.

  “My, what big claws you have,” I murmured in a breathy voice.

  He missed the reference and kissed my neck. Sharp teeth—sharper than normal—nipped at my clavicle.

  “And teeth,” I whispered, wiggling and pulling him closer. “Big, big teeth.”

  He chuckled darkly and wrapped his hands around my thighs, spreading them and dropping his hips between mine.

  “Are your eyes big too?” I asked him dreamily.

  “Brighter,” he crooned, kissing down my jaw.

  “Are you a werewolf?” I guessed. My own big, bad wolf.

  “No, sweets, I’m something much, much more vicious than a beast,” he purred.

  “I want to see you now,” I said. His skin felt the same, warm and smooth, but somehow thicker. He’d even managed to hide the texture of his alien skin from me.

  That should horrify me. But I wanted to lick him all over.

  Killian choked on a laugh.

  “I said that out loud?” I asked, keeping my eyes closed like a good girl.

  “No, love, you’re screaming your thoughts right now,” he said through his chuckles.

  “Oh right, mind reading. Can you teach me how to do that?” The thought enticed me so much, my eyes opened to look at him.

  Killian was gone. Poof. Completely gone.

  In his stead was a dark, hungry predator. He had midnight skin, smooth and shiny. Like he’d been rolling around in a vat of baby oil. His eyes were brighter. They glowed in the dim room as they cautiously roamed my face. The gold of them expanding and watching me with avid fascination.

  My finger rose on its own, slowly tracing his full dark lips. They parted, and warm breath drifted across my fingertips. My fingers paused on a sharp incisor and I blinked, wariness bleeding through my foggy mind.

  I looked past his mouth to those different yet still familiar eyes again. His hair was the same dark shade, just as smooth and silky as before, but everything else about him was different. He was Killian, but he wasn’t. His cheekbones were sharper, his jaw more defined. It was clenched tight now as he held as still as a statue.

  “How can you look so pretty and scary at the same time?” I asked, my voice catching.

  “The same way you look so tempting and treacherous. You have my heart in your hands, Theo. You are both its protector and its greatest threat.”

  “I don’t ever want to hurt your heart. But I think the next time I see you like this I might accidentally,” I told him miserably.

  He nodded sadly. “You’ll have no choice.”

  I blinked away heavy tears. “But you had a choice. You could have protected mine.”

  I was going to remember this. Maybe not tomorrow, but one day. And when I did, nothing he said would fix what he’d done.

  And I knew Killian like I knew myself. What he did to us was killing him.

  “It is,” he agreed with my thoughts. “If I could go back, I never would have touched your mind.” He ran his clawed thumb down my temple. “It’s precious to me now.”

  “I don’t want to be mad at you.”

  I almost asked him not to let me remember. It was a stupid, careless thought—not only for myself, but for my friends and family.

  It was also careless to Killian.

  I could see how badly he needed me to remember everything. To know everything. He’d just been afraid to show me.

  Killian sighed and pulled me to his chest, lying beside me on the bed. “I’m afraid that’s unavoidable.”

  “Promise me something?”

  “Anything,” he replied quickly, as solemn as a vow.

  “When you l
et me remember, I’m going to be mad,” I said quietly. “I’ll say mean things, but I’ll regret them. Just promise me you won’t leave me.”

  Killian was silent, combing my loose hair with his claws. I curled into his chest and held on tightly, a dark feeling growing inside me. As though I’d already lost him.

  I drifted off to the smell of him. The feel of him. Comfort and safety.

  He never did make me that promise.

  Out of Time

  Kil

  It was time.

  Both to leave this planet and reveal my truth to my Theo.

  The deepest most safeguarded parts of me prayed I would be taking her with me.

  There was no time to waste.

  They knew we were here.

  Revelations

  Theo

  “Have you seen the guys?” I asked Uncle Sal late the next morning.

  He looked rough. He and Bets rarely ever drank, but when they did, they did it hard, and it showed on his drawn face now. I barely remembered anything from the night before.

  Sal shook his head slowly, cradling it. “Left before I woke up.”

  I sighed and passed him several pain pills. How Bets had made it to church after last night, I would never know. She’d left a note on the counter that said she would be back around lunch time.

  After puking my guts up for a solid hour, I’d gone looking for Killian and the others, but the basement was empty. Jeremy’s truck was gone even though he and Holden were still passed out on the couch.

  I wished I could remember last night. I was worried something had happened during our drunken games. The guys could have gone out and gotten stuck somewhere without a ride, but then why would they take the truck?

  I puttered around the house for a few hours, taking care of Sal and the boys as they moaned and groaned. By the time Aunt Bets came back, I couldn’t stand to wait another minute. Something urgent was driving me to get in my car and go look for them. Some kind of sixth sense.

  I went to the salvage yard. I had no other ideas. Killian was the only one who ever went into town, and even then, he rarely went by himself. They must have went wherever they were moving the scraps they were collecting to, but they had never said where it was.