Alien Affair

by Gloria Martin

  Conrad closed the door and bolted it behind him, sliding an extra bolt in the bottom of the door for added security. Sterling was in the kitchen, sitting in a chair while Lizette cleaned the area around his wound, and heated a metal poker in the fire.

  “Are you alright?” said Conrad to Sterling.

  “It’s not bad, I just need to get the arrow out and cauterize the wound. Lizette can’t get it out.”

  Conrad walked up to him, head tilted as if he was considering the situation. Without warning, he yanked the arrow from Sterling’s arm in one motion, dropping it and reaching for the metal fireplace poker and dipping the glowing red tip in the wound. Sterling bellowed in pain, but held still while the heated metal did its work. Conrad pulled it out, satisfied that the wound wasn’t going to bleed anymore.

  “Dress it quickly. The vampires will be here tonight, and we must be ready.”

  He grabbed Lizette, planting a kiss on her lips before releasing her and walking out the door.

  “Lock it behind me and don’t open it to anyone until I return.”

  She nodded, hurrying behind him to latch the heavy door before running to Sterling to dress his wound.

  ***

  Conrad’s breath crystallized in the air in front of him. He made no move to hide his position, standing in the open with the moonlight lighting him up from behind. The forest was eerily silent; not even the tiniest creature stirred in the woods, indicating that there was something out there, waiting for them.

  Conrad was counting on it.

  He heard movement in on the trail ahead, and he stood, crouched on all fours, ready to spring forward and attack. A lone vampire stepped out into the open, long blond hair unmistakable, even in the silvery light of the full moon.

  Conrad growled low in his throat, but Dallin didn’t move.

  “I believe you have something that’s mine. I want her back and I won’t leave until I have her. Is one woman really worth the lives of everyone in the village?”

  Conrad’s lip curled as he continued growling, his massive teeth glinting in the moonlight.

  “I can see you can’t be reasoned with,” said the vampire. Pity. I wasn’t ready to overthrow the Lycan clan just yet, but tonight will have to do.”

  Two more vampires appeared behind him, and several more walked out of the woods, through the mist. Conrad growled low again, but held his ground. Dallin took a step forward, then held up his hand.

  He sniffed the air around him, and walked towards a low, dense grouping of bushes. He reached in, grabbing Owen by his shirt and holding him up in the air.

  “Ah, my murderous friend. It looks like you weren’t a good investment after all.” With that, he sunk his teeth into Owen, laughing as the man’s blood rushed into his mouth. As the life force drained out of Owen, Dallin stopped, quickly slicing his own wrist with a sharp finger nail and feeding the blood down Owen’s throat as he hung limp in the air.

  Dallin dropped him to the ground. He landed with a thud in the soft brush, completely motionless.

  “He’ll be ready momentarily. Until then, shall we fight?”

  Dallin raced towards Conrad, sailing into the air to close the distance between them. Conrad lunged at him, catching him in mid-air. The two went down, tumbling in the dirt as they went. The vampires advanced on Conrad, but paused when they heard the commotion in front of them.

  Out of shadows stepped scores of Lycans already shifted, ready to join the fight. Beside them stood several humans, armed with crossbows and sharpened stakes. They stood at the ready as the Lycan ran into the forest, growling wildly as they went.

  Conrad and Dallin continued to wrestle on the ground, each trying to sink his teeth into the other. The battle raged around them, but they were focused on each other.

  “I will have her, and I’ll breed her until her body can’t handle anymore. And then I’ll turn her.”

  Conrad snarled, swiping the air with his paw and connecting with Dallin’s jaw.

  “When she’s turned, I’ll send her back here to kill the entire village, one fool at a time.”

  Dallin pushed Conrad off of him, flinging the wolf into the air. He landed on his feet, advancing towards Dallin with murder in his eyes.

  Owen stirred in the bushes, and Conrad was tempted to go after him while he was still down. But Dallin was counting on it, and Conrad couldn’t afford to turn his back on him.

  He lunged at Dallin and took him down, straddling him, shoulders pinned by two massive paws. Dallin laughed in his face.

  “You’ll never defeat me. Your father died trying, and I walked away. I’ll walk away again, as I have for 200 years. You’ll grow old and I’ll stay the same. You can’t protect her forever.”

  Dallin smiled, the poisonously sweet expression sickening on his ageless face. Around them, vampires screamed and disintegrated into piles of ash and dust.

  Wooden stakes flew through the air, finding their targets and taking down vampires as they fought. There were more than fifty; many more than the original group that Dallin had fled with fifty years before.

  Owen moved in the bush, this time finding his footing and standing. He swayed slightly, then took a tentative step. He looked confused, regarding his bloodless skin on his arms with a look of horror on his face when reality dawned on him.

  He looked at Dallin, and the werewolf pinning him to the ground. He snarled, running towards the pair, eyes locked on Conrad.

  Conrad was faced with a choice; to turn and fight Owen, leaving his back to Dallin, or to hope the fledgling vampire was too weak to fight him before he dispatched with Dallin.

  He didn’t have to make his decision. From behind him, he heard a crossbow let fly, and a stake pierced Owen’s heart from behind. He looked down at the point protruding from his chest, his face registering shock a moment before he dissolved in mid-air. His life as a vampire was over almost before it got started, and Conrad doubted that anyone would mourn his loss.

  Distracted for a brief second, Dallin took the opportunity to shove Conrad off him again, standing in the same motion and moving towards him.

  As Conrad fell, Dallin’s eyes landed on the stunning redhead several yards behind him. She stood barefoot in the grass, her wild hair radiating around her face, dark-green dress highlighting her beautiful eyes.

  Dallin hesitated, staring into what to him was the face of his lost love after almost 200 years.

  “Esther?”

  The crossbow came up, and Dallin didn’t have a chance to react. The stake shot at him, piercing his heart as he held her gaze. He kept his eyes locked on her beautiful face as his body turned to ashes around the stake, radiating out from the point of impact.

  He held a hand towards her an instant before his body fell apart, ashes scattering in the wind.

  Lizette smiled at Conrad and he nodded. She turned her attention to another vampire and reloaded, just as one came out of nowhere and tackled her to the ground.

  Conrad roared in anger, closing the distance between them in a few leaps and ripping the vampire’s head clean off in one swipe of his massive paw.

  Lizette lay on the ground, head beside a sharp rock, blood oozing from the wound and soaking into the sand beneath her.

  ***

  Sterling and Conrad paced outside the room while the village doctor worked on Lizette. The rock had sliced a nasty gash in her head, and she’d lost a lot of blood.

  A few vampires had escaped, but they counted over eighty killed. The Vampire King was dead and his army decimated. With the sunrise had come the dawning of a new day, and the promise of a life of freedom for the villagers.

  Already, a band of Lycan and human warriors were headed towards the vampire lair, bent on destroying the remainder of them while they slept. They were completely vulnerable then, unable to anticipate the attack until it was too late. They estimated that there were at least twenty left, so the Lycan sentries had rounded up twice as many men and sentries to descend on the lair and take out the rest of the va
mpires once and for all.

  It appeared that Dallin had spent the last fifty years slowly rebuilding his army in violation of the treaty. Conrad didn’t expect the next king to follow the treaty any better than the Dallin, so he would be exterminated in his sleep before he had a chance to do anything.

  The door to the room opened and the doctor stepped out, wiping his bloody hands on his apron and walking towards Sterling and Conrad.

  “It looks like Lizette’s going to make it, but it will be hard to tell for a few more hours. She’s a tough one, fighting me even though she’s unconscious. You’ll need to keep the wound clean and she’ll need to rest.”

  “Did she get bit?”

  “Grazed. It shouldn’t be anything to worry about. The wound has almost healed and there’s no sign of infection. We’ve had people survive a vampire attack before. As long as she didn’t ingest his blood there’s nothing to worry about.”

  “No. I saw the entire thing. There was no time for that. I was on him and killed him immediately.”

  “Good enough. Call me if you need me, but she’s awake and ready for visitors. Don’t let her sit up or talk to long.”

  The doctor saw himself out, chuckling at the men as they both descended upon her room.

  Lizette smiled weakly from the bed. She tried to sit up, but they both stopped her.

  “You have to rest. I was so worried that you wouldn’t be—” Sterling’s voice caught, and Conrad looked at him, surprised by his outpouring of emotion.

  “The doctor said you have to rest, but you’ll be fine as long as you don’t push yourself too hard.”

  Lizette nodded softly, drifting off to sleep before she could say anything more.

  *

  Five weeks later, Lizette sat in the sunlight in the grass in front of the cabin watching Sterling chop the last of the firewood while Conrad worked on getting the tiny cabin ready for winter. The first snow would be coming any day.

  The group sent to the vampire lair had been successful, killing every vampire hidden within the castle walls. The final count had been twenty-two. The villagers had rejoiced, finally able to live without fear from vampire attack.

  Lizette had also found her place here. For the first time in her eighteen years, she finally felt as if she belonged. The fact that she happened to belong to two men, werewolves at that, wasn’t lost on her. The last month and a half of her life had been the happiest, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

  Conrad climbed down the tree beside the cabin, pulling the remaining roofing material down with him as he went. He’d patched up every hole he could find, doubling up where the roof looked weak. He also extended the roof to cover the additional outer wall that he and Sterling had built, packing the space between the new wall and the existing wall with straw and mud to help hold the heat in. In the past, the two had relied on their thick coats to get them through the worst of the winter, shifting to wolves when the weather was the harshest. With Lizette to care for, they no longer had that luxury.

  Sterling stacked the last of the split wood and wiped the sweat from his brow.

  Lizette watched them both, heat stirring inside her as she took in the sight of them. Both men worked shirtless, despite the chill in the air. They were taking advantage of what promised to be the hottest day before the snow came. And they were driving Lizette mad with need.

  Sterling caught her looking at them, raising a questioning eyebrow at her. Conrad looked at his friend, following his gaze. He was surprised to see Lizette, cheeks flushed with arousal, standing and beckoning to them with her index finger before walking into the house.

  Sterling and Conrad looked at each other, and Conrad shrugged.

  “If the lady wants.”

  They joined her in the bedroom, both nearly naked by the time they got halfway down the hall. They discarded clothes as they went.

  Lizette was ready for them when they entered, dress pooled on the floor beside the bed.

  Sterling looked at the faint scar on the side of her head, which was nearly healed.

  “Are you sure about this? The doctor said to take it easy.”

  “I’ve been taking it easy for five weeks. I can’t wait any longer. Either join me, or I’ll work it out myself.”

  Conrad through back his head and laughed. He looked at Sterling and smiled.

  “You heard the woman.”

  With that, they slipped into bed with their woman, rocking her world and claiming her heart.

  THE END

  Bonus Story 3 of 40

  Biker Routine

  I never liked motorcycles. I didn’t like motorcycles the same way I didn’t like tattoos or leather jackets or drugs. To me, they were trashy, things that people in another, more dangerous world indulged in. Not me.

  I even stayed away from drinking if I could help it. It was not just the thought of losing control I didn’t like. It was also the taste of alcohol. The bitter, burning sting it caused as it flowed down my throat was not in any way relaxing or cathartic.

  Needless to say, I was not the kind of girl you would take to dance clubs. I was not the kind of girl you could feel up and maybe take home to have sex with. But, if anyone thought I was a sweet, compliant bookworm who would be content as a housewife in the kitchen, they’d have been wrong about that.

  I was a nurse, and definitely not the sexy kind. More the busy kind. My brown, natural hair was always pulled back in a tight, functional bun. As I worked around the ill and dying all day, there was no need to wear makeup. Hospital food and lack of time to exercise did nothing for my figure. I wasn’t exactly a blob, but I wasn’t a size zero by any means, either.

  And I wasn’t content to stay a nurse. I was studying hard at med school at night to become a general practitioner and open my own practice. But studying took up even more time than nursing already did. So, in the little free time I had, I sleep.

  There was no time for going out, no time for socialization and definitely no time to mess around with guys. None of that. So I definitely didn’t have a boyfriend.

  Anyway, one night in October, I was sitting at the coffee table in my little townhouse. I had just gotten off an eight-hour shift one hour before. I’d hoped to get two hours of studying for the medical exam in before bed. But when I started, I found that my eyes were blurry. I couldn’t focus.

  It was ten o’clock and I’d only gotten halfway through. I was about to give up and go to bed when I heard a knock at the door.

  I froze. I wasn’t expecting anyone. Indeed, I hardly ever had visitors to my place. Mostly because I was hardly ever here.

  I thought of pretending I wasn’t here. There were no windows beside the front door, after all. The door was locked. Anyone could easily assume that I was either in bed or away from home.

  Then, I heard the knocking again. This time it lasted longer and sounded more desperate. My mood switched quickly from annoyance to fear.

  I knew the statistics. Women were most likely to be assaulted at home and, when that home was close to a college campus (as mine was) the risk increased tenfold.

  The knocking changed to a pounding on the door and I ran to my purse. I was deciding whether I should grab my phone to call 911 first or grab hold of my mace in case the insane knocker broke the door down.

  “Kayla! Kayla, please! Open the door!”

  I knew that voice though I hadn’t heard it in almost a year.

  All the same, I ran quickly to the door and peeked through the spyhole.

  “Heath?!” I exclaimed, opening the door and looking my stepbrother over. He looked as though he’d just been to hell and come back.

  His shoulder-length black hair, which he usually took great pride in, now looked matted. His narrow, thin face was sweaty and his swirling gray eyes, normally brimming with an arrogant sort of pride, now looked fearful, almost terrified.

  My eyes were drawn to his right arm. Just above the colorful sleeve tattoo, he was clutching his large bicep and grimacing in pain. I could se
e a hint of blood under his hand and between his fingers.

  “You’ve got to help me, Kayla, please!” he said. “They’re coming, there’s no one else.”

  “Get in,” I said, quickly grabbing him by his free arm and dragging him into the house.

  I closed the door forcefully behind me as I rushed him to the couch and, shoving my books off of it, moved him to lie down.

  “They...they didn’t follow me. I don’t think they followed me...not sure,” he was muttering incoherently as I laid him down. I was beginning to feel more afraid than I had been when I thought I was about to be assaulted by a pervert.

  I’d never seen Heath look so vulnerable. Heath was always confident. Often to the point of arrogance and stupidity.

  I remembered the day we first met. Two months before our parents’ wedding, he introduced himself. I remember staring at him and thinking about how incredibly handsome he was. But, that was before he spoke.

  “Look, I know you probably want to kiss me. But, we’re going to be family pretty soon. So, it’s not really allowed,” he’d said, before winking at me.

  I was only fourteen but, I knew enough not to be charmed by the sixteen-year-old. No matter how handsome I thought he was. I gave him a snarky reply which he blew off.

  And that’s been our relationship since. Him hitting on me ill-advisedly. Me turning him down.

  But now, this Heath, this vulnerable terrified man, more of a boy really; I didn’t know him at all.

  Once he was lying down, I pried his hand away from the arm he was clutching.

  When I did, I saw copious amounts of blood flowing from what was, very obviously a bullet wound.

  “Heath,” I said staring at it a moment in shock, “what...what the hell happened?”