“Marla?” Vanessa said. “Do I have your attention?”
“Hardly,” Laird said. “She’s a bit distraught.”
“So I see,” Vanessa said eying him. “So you are the renegade Hroth, aren’t you?”
“Not sure as I like being called a renegade,” Laird said.
“Then what would you prefer to be called?”
“Laird.”
Vanessa’s watery laugh tickled the room.
“Laird,” the woman said. “The man from the stars.”
“Not sure I like being called a man either.”
“Whatever,” Vanessa said with a shrug. “Fascinating as you may be, my business is with your Mistress.”
“What do you want?” Marla said.
Vanessa shook her head. She handed the pistol to her man who trained it on Laird. She stood over Marla, legs spread and stretching her skirt, hands on her hips.
“As I have tried to make clear,” she said. “I want him. Now before you go off on one of your tirades, I will again assure you that I do not want to keep him. I need his services for a limited time, two weeks, perhaps three. But the window on that time is closing and I want an answer before I leave.”
“Then leave now,” Marla said. “Because the answer is no.”
“In recompense for his services,” Vanessa said ignoring her, “I offer seventy-five thousand dollars American.”
“You could offer a million.”
“The money will be delivered in cash,” the woman went on. “And as an additional incentive I also offer my protection.”
“What?”
“I think,” Laird said, “that it is a veiled threat.”
“Wise star-man,” Vanessa said. “Your alien understands that as the three of you, all starry-eyed and in love, rushed to hide from the world you made some promises that you never kept. You have made enemies.”
“You don’t understand,” Marla said clenching her eyes.
“I know enough. In particular I know a certain Vietnamese general.”
Marla felt her blood turn to cold slush.
“Now I have your attention,” Vanessa said with a smile. “Seventy-five thousand dollars and my guaranteed protection.”
“And if we don’t accept?” Laird asked.
“I will shoot you both dead,” Vanessa said. “Then I will take the werewolf.”
“You bitch.”
“But I would rather have him come willingly with me and at your behest. It would be so much easier all around.”
Vanessa gazed down at Jason. Marla saw the glint in her eyes.
“Magnificent,” Vanessa said. “Such form.Such grace. And there is a delicate tracing of silver over its eyes. I have never seen that. What does it mean?”
“I don’t know,” Marla lied.
“I think that you do. But it is of no matter. So Marla Alyona Navarro, what say you?
“There is a third option,” Laird said.
“If you think for a moment.”
But that moment was all that Laird needed. He braced to spring. The driver fired. The barrel erupted with the flash and the air filled with the acrid smell. And then there was the dull sound of metal thudding inert. The air before Laird rippled as the bullet crushed before him, and then fell.
Laird sprang. The pistol flashed again, and again the bullet rammed the force field only to fall to the floor. The pistol flashed a third time, but this time Laird had knocked the thing from the man’s hand and the shot sprayed wild. Laird grabbed the man by his head and flung the body to the floor. The head came off in Laird’s hand.
“Der’ mo,” Vanessa said.
But even as she spoke Jason came alive. He sprang from Marla’s arms and leapt at the woman. In an instant, Vanessa was sprawled on her back. Jason’s animal limbs pinned her. His maw opened over her face, his lips flared and his teeth were bare. He reared to rip her throat, Vanessa shut her eyes and turned her head.
“Jason!” Marla cried. “Jason stop!”
“If he kills me,” Vanessa said, her eyes still clenched. “You will be found.”
“You were ready to kill us!”
“You are of no count,” Vanessa said. “Your pathetic lives do not matter. The sheriff would find a grisly scene and the people would be appropriately horrified. Then they would say that they knew all along that there was something strange about the three people in that farmhouse. And that would be all.”
“And you’re special.”
“I am. Kill me and you will be hunted by far worse than a disgruntled General from Southeast Asia.”
Jason snarled. He raised a forearm and held his paw over the woman’s face. Vanessa cringed. Jason traced her face in the air. Marla knew that he wanted to destroy her, but she was confused by his strange move.
“Can he understand me?” Vanessa asked.
“I can’t be sure,” Marla said. “Right now his brain isn’t that sophisticated. But that’s of no matter to the business at hand.”
“What do you want?”
“I want you to get the hell out of here,” Marla said. “I want you to get in your fancy car and go back to Maine and forget about us and find yourself another werewolf and just leave us alone.”
“Done,” Vanessa said.
Jason growled. His paw moved to the woman’s blazer and he hooked his claws. Vanessa squealed and cringed.
“What is he doing?”
“He wants your word,” Laird said.
“On the lives of my children!” Vanessa cried. “I swear!”
“Jason?”
The wolf reluctantly drew back. Marla skittled away.
“And take your flipping android with you,” Marla said.
*****
“We should have listened to him,” Marla said softly.
She held Jason lovingly on the floor of the parlor.
The wolf had stayed alert and active as Laird carried the body of the android to the car and saw Vanessa off. Then he paced the porch, and then he paced the walk and then he paced the driveway. His fur was raised the whole time. It was almost two hours before Jason crept back into the house and curled up on the braided rug in front of the hearth. It was almost as long before he closed his eyes and let sleep take him.
As awful as his mutation from man to wolf was, the long, slow journey back to humanity was worse. The thing in him that responded to anger was rapid, and when Jason was in a rage his wolf was as ravenous as the image implied. But when his anger quelled and his human side reclaimed the man, the change was long and agonizing.
Marla watched each follicle as the smooth hairs receded. She felt every twitch of the wolf’s muscles reform and regenerate. She held him and stroked the silver on his brow, the curve of his ears and the nape of his neck. The animal seemed relaxed, but it twitched and spasmed as the human regained the soul. Marla held his naked form and stroked him, cooing softly and reassuring the man that he had something to return to.
Laird sat close in his lotus position. Marla knew that the poor thing was so uncertain. He understood the pain. He understood the agonizing need for patience, and he understood Marla’s tender ministrations. But she knew that he didn’t understand humans or werewolves or any of the crazy, insane things that he had been thrust into. And so he did the only thing that he knew, sitting close and so wanting to be a part. Marla took his hand.
“We should have run when he said to,” she said softly
“If we had,” Laird said, “I think that this would have been simply postponed. The woman was remarkably single minded. She had a determination that bordered on manic.”
“She’s a Witch,” Jason said.
“Darling,” Marla cried. “You’re back!”
She smothered him in her hugs and kisses. Laird clapped for joy and kissed Jason’s sweaty brow. Jason shut his eyes and lay a while, just breathing.
“Darling Jason, “Marla said soothingly. “What do you need? What can we do for you? I can fix some hot tea if you like?
Jason slid
open his eyes and gave her a strange look. Laird chuckled and fetched a bottle of brandy. Jason pulled straight from the bottle.
“What the hell happened?” he asked after his second slug.
“You don’t remember?”
“I remember getting pissed at that woman,” he said. “Then I remember biting into something rubbery, and then my head exploded, and then . . . it’s all fragmented.”
“She antagonized you,” Marla began.
And so she and Laird recounted the tale. Jason sipped, nodded and remembered. And when the two had finished, Jason lay back, nestling into Marla’s lap. She thought that the look in his eyes was odd.
“So,” she said after a while, “you say that she’s a witch?”
But Jason didn’t respond. He stared up at her. His eyes drooped some and a small smile crept across his face. Marla was confused. Jason stretched his shoulders and rolled his head, his gaze still on her eyes. Laird took the bottle from him. Jason arched his back some, spreading his legs, and that was when Marla saw.
“You’re kidding,” she said.
Jason’s smile grew to a lascivious grin. He was half hard and Marla felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle. Jason reached up and cupped her breast. Marla was shocked, but not so shocked that she didn’t feel the beginnings of her own arousal. Jason’s nostrils flared and he inhaled sharply. He squeezed her so that it almost hurt – almost.
Marla gasped and cringed, pulling away. She knew the game. Perhaps the wolf brain hadn’t fully subsided. Perhaps there was some savage vestige remaining in her lover, or maybe he was just using that as an excuse. It didn’t matter. She felt a flush in her loins and everything just happened.
She squealed and skittered away backwards only to run into Laird. The dark alien grabbed her arms and Jason crawled toward her, so wolf-like and graceful, his eyes gleaming with an evil light. Marla wailed and fought Laird, flailing her arms like a girl. Laird just laughed and pulled her back onto the floor so that she lay prone, her arms stretched wide. She kicked her legs but Jason was there. He grabbed her by the knees and spread her wide. He tore open the skirt of her dress and she wailed and thrashed. Jason’s head went straight between her legs.
He tore open her panties with his teeth and a moment later Marla tensed and gasped as his tongue invaded. Her futile struggles were a poor mask for her own growing passion. Jason’s tongue was like wild eel slithering and sliding and lapping and thrusting. And even as that muscle drove her wild he used his nose to mash her button. His iron grip held her flailing legs wide as the flood began to well inside of her.
Still holding her arms, Laird plunged down on her breasts. The delicate gauze ripped easily and he feasted on her nipple, his forked tongue working wonders. Then he drew up and pressed his crotch to her face. Marla shrieked like a school girl as he began to evolve and grow. In a moment he had himself out and she took the thing all in her mouth.
Then she wailed in angst when Jason suddenly pulled away from her, leaving her trembling and wanting. But in that moment Laird slid away from her tit, his thing still deep in her mouth. And then Jason mounted her. She screamed in delight as he drove into her and began to do her savagely.
Marla lay rapt in a different sort of bliss as her lovers ravaged her. This was not the gentle loving that was so often their way. This was a wild, urgent, raw and driving sex for the sake of sex, and Marla threw herself into that scene and did her whorish best.
*****
Marla took a pull from the brandy bottle. She never would have done such a crude thing, but then since she fell in with those two she found that she could do a lot of things that she never would have. She looked at her assailants and chuckled. The two tried to look sheepish, but their twin idiot grins gave them away. She lay with her head on Jason’s lap, Laird nestled between her legs toying with her breast.
“Well,” she sighed. “That was different.”
Both her lovers were silent, but she felt Laird stifle his giggle.
“And just look what you done to my dress. You both owe me one.”
“Gladly,” Jason said with a contented sigh. “You are – you’re wonderful.”
“No,” Marla said planting a soft kiss on his lips. “You are.”
“No, you.”
“No, you.”
“Um,” Laird began.
“I’m sorry sweetheart,” Marla said kissing his head. “You’re wonderful too.”
“Yes,” he replied. “I am. We’re all wonderful. Well and good. But before we all get too comfortable and complacent in our rapture, there is that other matter.”
“The witch,” Jason finished. “You know you can be a real wet blanket sometimes.”
“A what?”
“Never mind.”
“What’s a witch?” Laird asked.
“Witches are not nice people,” Jason began to explain. “They started a long time ago, when the powers of the Earth and the Heavens were more, I don’t know . . . more approachable; more tangible. They used their womanly ways to seduce those powers.”
“You mean sex?” Marla asked.
“Yeah.”
“How does one go about seducing a power?”
“You gotta see it to believe it,” Jason sighed. “So anyway they get all caught up in the spiritual plane and they are able to see things and do things, and the more they see and learn the more they want to see and learn. It’s serious addictive behavior. And like any addict it gets to the point that they live for that fix. But also like any addict the price gets higher and higher, and so they have to pay more and more until it gets to the point where they are driven to find that ultimate high.”
“Total power?”
“Immortality,” Jason said.
“So,” Marla reasoned. “She wants you because you’re like some price she has to pay?”
“You didn’t listen to her,” Laird said. “She wanted to use Jason for something, and she was willing to pay a legitimate fee.”
“But,” Marla mulled. “She said that the only thing werewolves were good for was sex or protection. Does she want to mate with you?”
“No,” Jason said. “She wants to use me to breed.”
“Say what?”
“She probably has a bunch of slave girls,” Jason went on. “Remember that she talked about the timing being important?”
“So she would want you when they were all ovulating,” Marla said.
“Give the lady a cigar.”
“I’d rather --,” Marla said. “Never mind. Bad joke. But why would she want a lot of baby werewolves?”
“My guess is,” Jason said, “that she wants to raise an army. She’s threatened by something and she’s in it for the long haul.”
“Just one question,” Laird said. “Will she keep her word?”
“She has to,” Jason answered. “She swore on her children.
They were nervous and cautious in the days after. But the days turned to weeks, and the weeks turned to months and there was no hint of the witch. Janet came every week with her cache of garbage and there were no more pretty little letters. The three began to think that Vanessa was actually as good as her word. They started to feel something like secure, but Jason insisted that whenever they needed to go into town that they go as a group. He didn’t like the idea of any of them being alone beyond the safety of their little home. Laird immediately agreed. Marls did so reluctantly.
They settled on weekly jaunts for groceries and such, and always made it a holiday, treating themselves to lunch or ice-cream. And so it was that on one crisp autumn day, sitting in the diner and munching on hot-dogs, Janet walked in. Marla insisted that she join them and the two chatted happily. Janet was all agog about a new boutique that had opened.
“You have got to see it,” Janet said. “They have this whole line of . . . um.”
She glanced at laird and Jason, blushed slightly and giggled.
“Purple?” Marla said. Janet eagerly nodded. “Then show me. Let’s go.”
<
br /> “Um,” Jason began.
“Oh pooh on you,” Marla said. “If you think that I want to spend this lovely afternoon looking at nuts and bolts you are nuts yourself. Janet and I will be fine. I’ll meet you at the hardware store in an hour or so.”
She knew that Jason wanted to protest, but before he could she kissed both her boys on the cheek, and the two girls slipped away.
The shop was a tiny store-front called Lillian’s. Marla loved that the door had a little bell that tinkled as they entered. Lillian was a big woman, all smiles and bubbles and ever so delighted to greet a new customer. She led them to the new arrivals, and the two girls gushed over the delicate frillies. Marla loved silk, and these things were among the finest fabrics she had ever felt. She was running her fingers across a bit of flimsy lace when a hand clamped over her mouth and a burly arm wrapped around her waist. Before she could respond or react she looked up wide-eyed straight at Janet. Her friend looked a little sad as she took the syringe from her purse.
*****
When she woke Marla’s head throbbed. She was so terribly confused. She lay where she was and tried to remember . . . there was that shop, she remembered the tinkling bell. There was that person, the shop owner, the big busted woman who yammered on and on about her lovely lingerie. Then there was a hand over her mouth and then there was – there was Janet, and Janet had a needle. And then it struck her, the thing that Laird had thought so odd about the letter; the stamp had not been canceled.
Marla tried to sit up, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t move her arms or legs. Thick leather cuffs wrapped her wrists and ankles, stretching her wide. Something wrapped around her belly pinning her to the cold slab. She couldn’t see. She was blindfolded. And she was naked.
She tested her bonds. She yanked and pulled and she chains. Panic started to possess her and she screamed and screamed and screamed.
“Please,” a timid voice begged her. “Please stop that. Please!”
“What’s going on?” Marla wailed.
“I don’t know,” the girl said with a whine. “I just know that if you keep screaming like that she’ll come down, and if she comes down she’ll be angry, and if she gets angry we all get a whipping! So please, please stop screaming.”
Alien Romance: Interview with an Alien (Football Paranormal Invasion Abduction Alpha Sci-fi Romance) (Fantasy First New Adult Contact Science Fiction Mystery Sports Alien Short Stories) Page 21