The Alien in My Kitchen

by Jan Irving

  I caught the sound of footsteps now in the hallway behind us.

  “Hurry!” EZ and I ran to the door concealed behind a poster of The X Files. I wrenched it open.

  “A hidden staircase,” EZ huffed. “You know all the odd nooks and crannies on campus.”

  Behind us the door into the club room rattled.

  EZ and I ran full out up the hidden stairs, reaching the rusty fire door at the top. I tried my key but it was stubborn, so I tried it again and again, jiggling the door as quietly as possible while sweat broke out on my back.

  “We’re trapped!” EZ was staring down into the darkness below. “Did you hear something?”

  I tried the lock again, closing my eyes and trying to visualise the negative space, the places where metal grated against metal.

  After an age, the door swung open and we were on the roof of the SUB building with a killer view of campus, the surrounding woods and the ocean beyond.

  “Oh…” EZ wrapped her arms around herself. “Cold and misty up here.”

  “There’s an entrance back into the main mall there.” I pointed towards a door about a hundred yards away. We crunched gravel underfoot as we ran for it. “Keep moving.”

  The door slammed open behind us.

  “Mitchell!” EZ screamed.

  Mason stood behind us, eyes fixed on me.

  “EZ, run!”

  But I should have remembered how she always thought she knew what was best for me.

  Mason raised his hand, palm up, fingers glowing.

  “No!” EZ’s body flew, coming between me and a red-orange blast of energy from Mason’s hand. She grabbed her side, falling to her knees.

  “EZ, oh, God!” I grabbed her. She was limp in my arms. She wasn’t breathing. She wasn’t goddamned breathing.

  Pebbles crunched. I looked up into Mason’s serene eyes. “You son of a bitch!”

  “You must not be allowed to exist,” he said. “You are inferior. A mistake. I will erase you.”

  He raised his hand again.

  I scooped up gravel and shot it at his face.

  He cried out in pain, holding one eye.

  I launched myself at him. Mason played rugby. I was outclassed, but my body, my rage didn’t seem to know. I hit him, pounding my fist into his gut over and over again. “You hurt her! You fucking hurt her!”

  Mason smiled, holding me off easily. His cool expression was unmoved by my passion. “Inferior.”

  “Fuck. You.”

  “You should never have been allowed to live beyond the cradle,” Mason said. “My people debated while you grew up, began your experiments. Unacceptable.”

  “Yeah, having to talk about things in a democracy is a drag.” I didn’t know if Jaden’s people followed a system like ours but I needed his attention on me, not EZ.

  “You know nothing of us. Even that traitor would not lower himself to share with you.”

  “Ha.”

  Mason frowned, looking back over his shoulder and I had my one shot. I caught the startled look in his eyes as I shoved him off the fucking roof.

  Chapter Eleven

  I watched Mason fall, his mouth a long, empty shape, elongated horribly to reveal sharpened teeth. In slow motion his body somersaulted over and over, the fall taking forever, as if he was dropping into an endless vortex and not off the SUB building roof.

  Even as I watched, helpless, staring into his bulging eyes, they lit, going an uncanny green. Energy shot out from his fingertips and struck my chest, ate into my skin, melting it like pink lace, dissolving bone until acid touched my beating heart—

  “Mitchell!”

  Jaden’s arms locked around me. I buried my face against his neck, sucking in breath. “You’re home, you’re safe,” he said, as he had many, many times over the past five nights. I clung to him, listening to the steady drum of his heart as the sweat dried on my back. “He wasn’t there when I looked over the roof, Jaden. He wasn’t fucking there! Just…gone.”

  “I know. But you hurt him. I could see that in the residue of energy.”

  After I’d shoved Mason from the roof, Jaden had exploded out of the door EZ and I had used during our escape, speeding to my side, his body a blur it had moved so fast.

  “A few crushed shrubs but no sign of him.”

  “He will need time to recover,” Jaden repeated.

  “I almost killed a fellow student. I didn’t think about that. I just shoved him off the roof.”

  “There is likely not to be much of Mason left,” Jaden said wearily. “Only the most stubborn personality would survive.”

  I pulled back, wiping my damp palms on my thighs. “What do you mean?”

  Jaden shrugged. “Our opponent has been inside him for months, Mitchell. Months. It is unlikely there is anything left of Mason.”

  I swallowed. “Another reason you chose someone who was dying.”

  Jaden nodded. “Jaden’s essence was already gone. I have some of his memories, but it’s like an empty house with a few pieces of furniture.”

  “Right.” I sat up, pulling my knees to my chest. “I just wish I’d killed that son of a bitch.”

  “You damaged him.”

  “I couldn’t stop him from hurting EZ. I couldn’t.”

  “Mitchell…”

  “I need to see her.” I flung the covers off, knowing without seeing a mirror that I looked like hell. I had barely eaten and slept only in snatches. My time was consumed by the long vigil I lived in my lab.

  Jaden followed me up the stairs. I knew he would.

  I pushed open the door of my laboratory and squinted at the bright luminescence of the sphere lying on the largest table in the room.

  “She looks like Sleeping Beauty. EZ would…” I cleared my throat as I walked closer to the capsule where my best friend slept, her hair tangled around her pale face, swirling mists covering her naked body. “EZ would love that idea. She’d love it even more if we could find a straight prince to kiss her awake. Is she…healing?”

  Jaden shook his head. “She would have died outright if she’d not had a part of me in her. I don’t know, Mitchell. She sleeps.”

  I rubbed my gritty eyes. “Yeah. Okay. It’s just getting hard to tell her mom she went on a yoga holiday to Costa Rica, you know? Where she isn’t allowed to use her phone.”

  I looked dully at the pile of brochures I’d collected in order to brief EZ on her cover story if—when she woke up.

  “Mitchell.” Jaden’s voice was hoarse. “I do not like watching you hurt.”

  “It’s what you do when you’re human. Still want to be one of us?”

  Jaden didn’t say anything, his gaze watchful. Hell, he was handling this so much better than I was, constantly nagging me to eat, standing over me every time I attempted sleep, taking me to class when I absolutely had to go and always, always guarding me.

  And I couldn’t even reach out and touch him. I didn’t care if Jaden watched television or sat next to me while I slept. I stared through him.

  I pushed my shaking hands through my greasy hair. Jeez, when was the last time I’d taken a shower or shaved? I could smell myself and I was ripe.

  As if he’d read my thoughts, Jaden reached out and tugged me gently to him. “She sleeps and we can do no more for her.”

  I leaned against him, feeling shaky. My body wanted to cry but I was too worn out.

  “Come on,” Jaden said. He coaxed me into the bathroom and gently stripped off my clothes as I stood there, holding the towel rack so I didn’t fall over.

  I heard him switch on the spray and then adjust it. It took him a moment since my old bathroom had a cranky water heater. Then he carefully led me to the tub and under the spray.

  He got in with me, fully clothed.

  “Hey!”

  He looked down at his soaking sweatshirt and jeans and shrugged. “I am warm. I am with you.”

  I melted. It was that innocence again.

  “I’m sorry.” I put my arms around him and c
olour touched his cheekbones that wasn’t brought on by the heat of the shower. His eyelids fell.

  It was my effect on him. Just being close to me turned him on, made him tremble under my hands. I ran them over his shoulders, down his arms until our fingers meshed. He leaned his forehead against mine and we stood there, shaky legged under the shower.

  He cleared his throat. “You need to be cared for.”

  “So do you.”

  “I am a tough alien.”

  I laughed. “Yeah.”

  “A real son of a bitchin’ alien.”

  “You’ve been watching Charlie Bronson movies again,” I said.

  “I need attitude to be a successful human.”

  “Sure.” I kissed him and he gasped as I stroked my tongue over his. He was excited, almost ready to burst. “Soap. You should wash my back,” I instructed, deliberately turning away from him. I wanted him so much…but I couldn’t let go.

  I braced myself against the wet tile. I was shaking like a single leaf left on a tree.

  Hesitantly, he picked up a bar of ivory and ran it down my spine to my backbone. I shuddered under the caress, my cock stiff and aching from the light touches. Grimly, I endured it, as I’d endured his closeness, his yearning.

  All week he’d even been offering himself to me in his innocent way. I wasn’t much more experienced than he was, but even I couldn’t miss it.

  “Mitchell…” His breath was hot against my neck and his hand shook as he continued to wash me.

  I squeezed my eyes shut. “I’m sorry. You deserve so much better than me.”

  “I won’t let you lose her,” he promised. “When I no longer need to be strong, I will give her back her vitality.”

  I snapped around to look at him. “What will that do to you?” He didn’t answer. “EZ wouldn’t want her life back at the cost of yours.”

  “I was too slow in coming to your aid.”

  “I was the one who fucked up!”

  He flinched.

  Panting, I turned away.

  “You are clean. Go to your room and rest and I’ll bring you sustenance.”

  I snatched a towel and wrapped it around me. I felt his eyes on me, felt his aching, lonely need.

  I hated myself for hurting him but I left him and went back to the bedroom, lying down and staring up at the ceiling. Time stretched out into the heavy beat of my heart. There was a spider web on the right corner of my ceiling, a crack near the window.

  Jaden’s tentative knock made me jump.

  He carried a Styrofoam carton that smelt warm and spicy and delicious. I sat up, my gaze riveted on the food. “Chickpea curry.” He’d gone to my favourite Indian place.

  “Eat, Mitchell.” He offered it to me like tribute to a moody god.

  I snatched it from him, opening it and taking the recycle-friendly wooden fork. Then I saw he was also staring at the food. “You haven’t eaten much either.”

  “I have eaten nothing.”

  “Nothing?”

  He stared at me and I saw the dark rings under his eyes, how wasted and thin he looked.

  “Sit down on the bed.” When he didn’t move I snapped my fingers. “Sit!”

  “Mitchell, the meal is for you.”

  “Fuck that, we’ll share.”

  He sat down carefully as if afraid I’d get angry at him and send him away. Shame burned me. Jesus, how much of a fuck had I been? He was so vulnerable. I handed him the extra fork and we both dug in. He made a wildly enthusiastic sound I hadn’t heard since we’d had sex. “Mitchell, this!”

  “Yeah, it’s something.” I had to smile at the way he made a pig of himself. When he noticed, he gave me a guilty look, but I shook my head. “Fuel up.” I pushed the remaining food to him. One thing about skipping meals for days on end, my stomach had shrunk so I was easily satisfied.

  Jaden fell on the rest like the starving alien-human hybrid he was. He kept making those sexy moaning sounds and licking his lips until I was worked up again. Damn, I wanted to play human sushi plate one night and see where that took us.

  His eyes were heavy-lidded with satisfaction when he was finished. He looked at me and made a soft, crooning sound, as if he were willing a sparrow from a branch. I curled up against him, safe, putting a leg over his, holding him possessively.

  “Sleep,” he said, his voice deep and soothing.

  “If you stay, Jaden, are you going to give poetry slams in that voice?” I asked him drowsily. “Because you’d have a very appreciative audience even if your prose sucks.”

  Jaden tensed. “You wish for me to…stay?”

  “Does it matter?”

  His voice was so soft I almost didn’t hear him. “Yes.”

  “I want you to stay, yeah.” I squeezed my eyes shut. I didn’t need to tell him I meant forever.

  “But Mitchell…”

  “Yeah?”

  “I don’t think I can write poetry.”

  I laughed. “That’s okay. Neither can I. We’ll find something else for you to do…if you want.”

  “We must deal with our opponent first.” Jaden’s voice was dark and primal. I felt an answering hunger for vengeance in my own heart.

  “And get EZ back.”

  “Yes.” His narrowed gaze promised me that. No matter what. “Sleep and you will think of a way. You are very clever, Mitchell. Let yourself only rest…”

  Cuddled against his chest, I ran a hand over the flat planes, seeing the words inked into his skin. I wanted to kiss each letter. “Yeah, I guess…” I mumbled. “I just don’t want that dream again.”

  “I will give you another,” Jaden said.

  “Wha—”

  The last thing I saw was his hand moving over my face.

  This dream wasn’t like the one that had returned over and over again all week. For one thing, there was music. I frowned, trying to figure out if it was a scale in A minor or C. Then I was walking on campus. It was a beautiful spring night when the stars above were a glittering carpet I couldn’t help but pause and stare at, wondering… As I did, mist swelled up from the ground, surrounding me in a warm haze.

  I wasn’t frightened, but felt a sense of familiarity…and anticipation.

  I knew it was my unusual lover and one of the games we liked to play.

  The drum beats picked up tempo, a voluptuous rhythm that made me aware of my own sexuality. For years I’d stuffed my desires inside myself like a genie down a bottle.

  I saw him standing on the path ahead of me. Even though it wasn’t deserted, none of the other students who moved like shadows past us saw him and his bizarre attire. He was dressed in a shiny silver turtle neck and matching pants. He was holding a black ray gun. He was also smirking.

  “Come with me, Earthling,” he ordered in a husky voice that was Jaden trying to sound diabolical. It was about as threatening as a golden retriever’s growl.

  I stifled a laugh as he took my arm, leading me onto the grass where an equally gaudy silver flying saucer waited. I noticed the rotating coloured lights in the windows. It looked more like a disco saucer than a flying one.

  “I’m going to use you for my experiments,” he said and patted my ass as the saucer’s door obediently slid open and I stepped inside at an imperious wave of his gun.

  Once the door slid shut behind us, I wanted to jump him. I loved the over-the-top costume and the wicked sparkle in his eyes. I loved…him.

  Jaden, however, kept up the impassive front, gesturing with an arrogant nod that I was to enter a circular room that held a clichéd metal table and instruments. I lay down on it without argument, my blood beating heavy in my cock as he shackled my ankles and wrists and then coolly snipped off my clothing.

  Lying naked under his critical gaze I couldn’t help arching my body wantonly, begging for his touch.

  He caught my aching cock in one silver gloved hand and squeezed firmly. “Stop.”

  Breathing heavily, I nodded. I was his to do with what he wanted.

  Satisf
ied, he put aside his ray gun and removed his heavy gloves, replacing them with plastic ones he snapped on. I moaned when he tapped his fingers against my thigh, opening my legs wider at his silent prompt.

  He held my gaze as he grasped my balls, squeezing them and manipulating them as I panted. He gave them an exasperated glance and pressed a button so a small drawer rose from the table. After a moment of sorting through it, he chose a silver bottle, pouring the contents over my balls and around my erection.

  I felt a slight burn and a curl of steam rose. Holy shit! The liquid had dissolved away my pubic hair, so now I was silky smooth. Jaden stroked my newly bared skin with approval.

  He began to examine me, the skin between my toes, my inner elbow, behind my ears, all punctuated with harsh pinches to my nipples. He didn’t touch my straining prick, which was oozing pre-cum shamelessly.

  He removed a long needle device and, as I tensed, he slathered it with clear gel before inserting it into my anus. Once inside, the thing expanded and made a whirring sound. It drilled deeper inside me as he watched expressionlessly until it forced itself past the rings of muscle.

  “Oh!” I couldn’t help but gasp as it began to work on me, stimulating me so I could do nothing but lie there helpless, my body shuddering from the intensity of my arousal.

  Jaden slapped my cock disdainfully. “Behave.”

  “Please…”

  He ignored my plea and reached for a heavy silver clip, snapping it around my prick. Immediately it encased my organ, keeping me from release.

  “Jaden!”

  He raised his brows at me. “I have work.”

  “Doesn’t it excite you at all to see me like this?” I asked.

  “You are a very primitive life form. Easily moved.”

  “I want to suck you,” I demanded. “Don’t you want to see how primitive I can be?”

  He regarded me for a few minutes while my body strained. I felt as if the very air moving against me could make me come, but he had all the control. I would come only when he permitted it.

  “You are that eager, that in need?”

  “Yes…” I whispered, knowing that I was tempting him despite his cold mask. “Haven’t you ever wanted to take a pet?”

  “You are offering to become my pet?” Steel glinted in his eyes.