NYC Vamps: Roman: Vampire Romance

by Sky Winters

  Albion smiled at her and handed the baby over to her. Keandra rocked Albindaro, gazing lovingly down at him. Now that he had taken his humanoid form, she wondered if he would mostly stay in it like Albion did. His dragon form had been a shocking and hard to deliver shape, but he was also quite cute as a dragon and she hoped to see more of it.

  “So, what do you think?” Albion asked her. “Now that Albindaro is with us, do you want to hop onto a starship and go back to Earth? I wouldn’t blame you if you did. This planet is not a good place for a child to be raised…”

  Keandra shook her head. She had given it a lot of thought. “I miss Earth sometimes, and it will always be home to me, but my place is not there. My place is here on Hoth with you and the Resistance. Albindaro will be happy here. He is surrounded by beings who are more like him. And plus, you know how Dehneese would lose it if we even mentioned that we might take him away.”

  Albion did an accurate impression of the yellow alien, gasping and throwing his arms in the air. “Not the baby!”

  They laughed together, and Albindaro giggled along with them as if he somehow had an idea of what they were talking about.

  “Shall we, then?” Albion asked her.

  Keandra smiled. “We shall.” She stood up then, still carefully holding onto their baby. “But we’re not taking him. He’s too small. He deserves to have a blissful childhood. At least, as blissful as possible.”

  Albion stood up and climbed down from the boulder with her, making sure that she did not slip or lose her grip on their baby. “He will have a perfectly idyllic childhood here, surrounded by thousands of doting fans.”

  “They’re all his aunts and uncles,” she joked, grinning down at Albindaro, who was busily chewing on her shirt sleeve.

  They brought the baby back to the compound, and Keandra handed him over to Dehneese. The other woman practically hopped up and down, she was so excited.

  Keandra laughed. “Don’t do that too much if you want to keep that uniform looking nice and clean,” she teased.

  With their baby in good hands, Albion and Keandra left hand in hand. She felt like taking off at a run, and that was much more exiting when he shifted into his dragon body. Then she ran to him and jumped onto his back like she had been preparing all of her life for this moment.

  She had once thought that she did not want to go riding off into the sunset with her Gekkota friend. But now, things had changed. Now, Albion was her husband. They loved each other. And the prospect of sunset was a delicious one.

  THE END

  ALIEN’S MATE

  CHAPTER 1

  “I’ve never been to Mexico before. Have you?” The excitable woman next to Valerie had been chattering for the entire tour, and Valerie zoned out a few times as she tried to keep up with the information spewing from the tour guide’s mouth.

  “No,” she replied abruptly, and hoped the woman would shut up.

  But she kept going. “I’ve always wanted to come here, to visit the Mayan ruins, but I’ve never gotten the chance, and as soon as I won that ticket, I was screaming and…” She stopped then when she saw Valerie move forward, a clear indication that she wasn’t listening at all.

  Valerie side stepped the woman, who seemed a little bit too lonely and in need of company, and caught up with the rest of the group. She slapped at a mosquito then that had decided it was time for lunch, and then fanned before her, in a desperate attempt to scatter the small flying insects that had started to gather into a swarm. She looked back at the woman, who quickly turned her head away in embarrassment over her earlier babbling. Valerie thought of apologizing, but she knew that would lead to more unnecessary and awkward conversations.

  “The Mayan ruins depict a rich history of a talented set of people pre-dating 1500 BC, and often referred to as the Pre-Classic period. They were the pioneers of the first formal writing style, the hieroglyphic script, and they used their knowledge of the stars to document events in history, and as some would believe, even the future. It was rumored that their calendar ended in May 2012, and since their predictions are usually correct, it was thought that life as we knew it would end then. We know differently now, right?” he asked, and some members of the group chuckled.

  “The Chichen Itza was the most important Mayan city, boasting impressive Central American architecture, and was oftentimes considered a magical place. Here, in the Coba, it is hard not to believe that.”

  “I am most impressed by the fact that they had no technology, or charts, and they were able to make those massive pyramids, something modern man is yet to copy,” a bald man interjected. “I would have liked to be there back then.”

  “I can understand how they could do that,” another man, perhaps a professor added. “Consider the early Greeks, like Galileo, who taught us how to read the stars. Back then, it all came back to the stars.”

  “Or maybe they were aliens,” a young man said, and his group of friends with him chuckled.

  “And that is not far from some of the stories we have heard,” the guide said. “It is often rumored that the Mayans were connected to aliens, which gave birth to their genius in architecture, language and art. It is said that they had pathways that connected both worlds, a gateway that the Mayans often navigated.”

  “No way,” the young man said. “That’s awesome.”

  Valerie listened to them, half of the times, as they trudged through the undergrowth in the sparsely lit and cold jungle. The path was relatively wide, an indication that it was travelled on a lot, but at the moment she regretted not wearing better clothes. Mosquitoes, flies and gnats whizzed by her face and ears and occasionally stopped to sip from her. She saw some of the others fanning this way and that too, but she would take this torment over the one that had been served her by her ex-husband. This trip was a way to get away from him, to get away from it all. Her weight hadn’t seemed to matter to him; in fact, he had encouraged her late night eating on occasion. To find out that he had been cheating with a skinnier woman had been like rubbing salt in the wound. But he could have her. She was beautiful enough to get another man on her own; a man that would love her, warts and all.

  So distracted was she by her thoughts that she had wandered away from the group without realizing it. She stopped dead in her tracks then and listened, but all she heard were the sounds of the jungle; the gentle flowing of water over rocks; the fluttering of birds as they abandoned their nests overhead; the chirping of crickets and the croaking of frogs. But she hear none else. She stumbled along until she came to a fork in the trail, and after a moment of hesitation, she headed onto the path that led to the right.

  It brought her to a dense overgrowth, and she called and looked around for anything or anyone familiar. Her feet were beginning to rub against the hard rubber of her boots, and she decided she would just return to the clearing and wait for the group to return. She had seen enough of the Copa anyway. It was getting darker, and she wasn’t sure how far back the trail went, so it was no surprise her adrenaline started pumping as she imagined she might get lost. She walked as fast as she could, and in her hurry, she didn’t see the slippery incline a few feet away. She stepped hard against the embankment, and before she knew it, she slipped and slid about one hundred feet down, the twigs and leaves slapping against her face as she whistled by.

  Her screams went unheard, and when she came to rest again, she stood and looked at the muddy mess against her jeans.

  “Oh man,” she sighed as she tried to rub the stain out, which only served to make it worse. Then she looked around and realized she was as far as she could be from the trail. “How do I get out of here?” she asked silently as she tried to climb the incline, using the hanging vines and exposed roots as leverage. They kept slipping from her grasp, so she decided she would walk parallel to the trail on the lower level.

  She walked for a few hundred yards, and was surprised to realize she was right back at the spot where she had begun. She had made a complete circle, but what was most disc
ombobulating was that on the second time around, the only thing familiar was the incline.

  CHAPTER 2

  “What the…?” Valerie said to herself as she turned about a couple of times. “Wasn’t I just here?” She wiped sweat beads from her brow, an unusual act considering she was in the middle of a cold and wet jungle.

  She started again, but the path that she walked before seemed to have disappeared, and she stepped into a clearing that led to a stream instead. “Where did this come from?” She was growing worried and concerned that she was indeed lost, and that no one would find her. “Hello!” she started screaming at the top of her lungs. She knew better than to go across, or she would really be lost. The tour didn’t feature a stream, even though there were supposed to be lakes in the Copa. Her idea of a simple getaway had exploded into something far more than she had bargained for.

  She turned around and started walking in the direction she had come. Maybe if she went up the incline, she would find the path again before it got too dark. Her heart was thumping and her chest was heaving as she broke into a slight run. She got to the place, and just like before, she started maneuvering her way to the top by clinging to vines and roots. She exerted more effort this time as she kept her attention focused on the sun taking a darker shade and dipping further west.

  She kicked and grabbed, dragging her oversized weight to the top of the incline, and when she got there, she flung herself over the embankment and stretched out on her back. Her breathing came short now, and she stared at the ceiling made of green that towered above her for a considerable time while she waited for her body to slow down. When her breathing resumed normalcy, she flipped over and grabbed onto an overhanging branch for support, and scrambled to her feet. She patted her hands against her jeans and started in the original direction. She came to the fork in the road as before, but there was no reason to expect there would be anyone waiting there, and she wasn’t about to wait for them either.

  She started running down the path, pushing the oversized leaves from her path, and stopping once to look at what seemed like a giant mosquito fly by her face. Panic surged in her now, and she could hear the blood rushing through her veins as she went as fast as her feet could take her. And then she felt the sting as something wrapped around her feet. She fell to the ground. There was something like a cord wrapped around her feet, and it prevented her from moving.

  She quickly worked her fingers over the hard cords, and as soon as she stood and started running again, she heard wails and cries echoing through the trees. Valerie turned around and around, as she tried to discern the source of the cries. Then she started running again, and came to an abrupt halt when she saw the giant animal standing before her. Its head was like a wolf, but it was as big as a bear, and it growled at her as it commanded her to remain. She did not, and instead started moving slowly backwards. Terror seized her, and with the adrenaline still pumping in her veins, she turned around and started running again.

  “Stop!” she heard a voice call from behind, but the blood rushing through her propelled her movements, and Valerie felt incapable of stopping.

  Valerie started screaming now, even as she felt the animal close in on her. She felt another sting, and the next thing she knew she was on the ground. She heard a thump, and when she turned around she saw the strangest looking thing she had ever seen. It towered over her, its long hands reaching out to her. She flinched when it touched her, and scurried back, but he moved too quickly, and was much too strong for her. He pulled her to her feet, and the rest of them circled her.

  “What…where am I?” she finally found the nerve to ask.

  “I am Malek,” he told her. “You are in Tundra. Where did you come from?”

  “I am where?” she asked, even while keeping her eyes trained on the vicious animal that still growled at her.

  “Tundra,” he repeated. “One of the many jungles on our planet Xenon.”

  “Your what? No, I’m on earth,” Valerie retorted, but even as she did, her mind tried to reconcile what she knew and what she saw before her.

  “You are an earthling?” the man asked.

  “Yes…yes!” she cried and turned around again, as if to flee. “I am trying to find my way back to the group that I followed into the Copa. I am in Mexico.”

  “I thought you said you were on earth,” Malek said, now confused.

  “Yes. Mexico is a place on earth. Why am I talking like this is real? Clearly I slipped when I was running and hit my head. This must all be a dream and any second now I’m going to wake up in the back of the bus because someone from the tour found me.”

  Valerie started slapping her face, trying to wake up from the dream that seemed too real. Her eyes grew wild, and when she thought she could get away with it, she turned right and started off in a sprint. When she felt them upon her, she grabbed a piece of loose log on the jungle floor. She waved it about, and panted.

  “Don’t come any closer,” she heaved. She swung the stick from side to side, warding them off, until she felt something come down hard on her shoulder. She crashed onto the ground, and then everything went black.

  CHAPTER 3

  There was something tickling her face, and she turned about to get it off, but each side she turned, the sensation returned. She lifted her hand and slapped at it, and then turned again. This time she felt the sun on her skin, and then a cool breeze blowing against her feet that appeared to be bare. Why were they bare? She had on sneakers just before they had started the tour. That’s right! The tour! She shot upright, and looked around her. There was nothing recognizable in sight besides the spear that was held against her neck. Her eyes followed the stick, and met the man’s on the other end of it.

  She looked around and realized she was in something that looked like a hut, made from wood, vines and some sort of canvas acting as walls. It had a thatched roof and a flap down the front that acted as the only entrance or exit; she only saw it as the latter at present. She smiled haphazardly at the man guarding her, and because she had nothing else to do, she began her survey of him. He was tall, like the other one, and a neck so long it seemed to be detached from his body. But not in an awkward way; it gave him an aura of power and knowledge. He wore khaki pantaloons, and he had the same fabric covering his upper body. His arms protruded from the shoulder, and his bronze skin flexed and glistened in the rays that escaped through the spores in the covering of the hut, and polka dotted the space.

  His face was serious, and he held her there with his eyes and his weapon. “No move,” he told her.

  “Okay,” she told him and held her hands up. “So, what is this place?” she asked. It was obvious she was either no longer in the Mayan ruins of Copa, Mexico, or there were some native people running around in the jungle no one else was aware of.

  “Masawa,” he told her, and offered nothing more.

  “Masawa?” she asked. The name wasn’t familiar to her at all. She was growing more bewildered by the moment, and just when she decided to risk it all and make a mad dash to the door, she heard what sounded like a commotion outside. The man’s face twitched, but it was obvious he was concerned. She waited, giving him the opportunity to leave, and as soon as he did, she sneaked to the slit in the wall. She pulled it back just wide enough to see two men roughing it out in the center of a small gathering of people. The man who had just left was trying to break it up, but he was struggling against the weight of the other two and had his back to the hut just then.

  Valerie thought it a fitting time to try and make her escape. She lay low and pulled the slit further open. She kept her back to the flimsy material flapping in the wind, and with eyes searching for an opening, she slipped to the back. Her heart was racing in her chest, so she stopped for a second to calm herself. She had only just turned to make a run for it when she felt someone grab her from behind. She turned and came face to face with the man she had seen on the animal before.

  “You need to come back,” he said.

  “Okay,
okay,” she said and conceded, for she knew she could neither outrun or fight him. Where would she run to anyway? She was lost in the jungle with a native tribe that thought they were on another planet.

  “Do not try to leave again, or I cannot be held responsible for what happens,” he told her.

  “Why are you keeping me here?” she asked him, and followed him inside the hut once more.

  “You are dangerous,” he told her, and sat on what seemed to be the trunk of a once huge tree.

  “I am dangerous?” she asked, and then laughed. “I’ve been called many things, but dangerous has never been one of them.”

  “You did pull a weapon on one of my men when we saw you in the Tundra,” he told her.

  “Why do you keep calling it that?” she asked. “I was in the Copa, not the Tundra, or whatever you call it. And I would like to go back to the hotel now. They must be out looking for me by now.”

  “Maybe, but they aren’t looking here,” he told her.

  He was wearing the same khaki pantaloons like the other guard, but he had on a green and white tunic at the top instead. Not only was he better looking, and seemed more confident, but he had better command of the English Language too. “So, if we aren’t on earth, like you said, how come you know the language, and better than him too,” she said when she noticed the guard returning.

  “English is not the language of earth,” he told her. “I just happened to learn it better than most of my people.”

  “Your people? So, that means you are the leader?” she asked and the anxiety on her face was evident.

  “Yes,” he said and stood then to face the man who had just returned. “Watch her properly this time,” he told him sternly. “Do not leave this spot for any reason,” and with that he turned and left.

  Valerie was about to go after him, even after hearing the instructions that were given to the man, but her guard planted himself firmly in her path, filling every possible angle of escape. She backed away and sank into her seat, prepared to sit there until they decided it was fit for her to leave. She had wanted an escape from the drama in her life, back in San Francisco, but she had not signed up for an excursion on another planet. She still thought she must be dreaming, but the glare in the eyes of the man who stood guard over her was making it less of a dream and more of a nightmare.