Have Teeth, Will Bite

by L D Marr

  Jonah had his suspicions that the doctor’s hasty diagnosis wasn’t correct. The grayish-blue pallor of Madame’s skin reminded him of something. He’d seen many dead bodies before. They usually had a yellowish beige tinge. He’d only seen one other dead body with quite this same blue-gray coloring—the dead body of Brother Thatcher.

  Jonah leaned forward and looked closely at Madame’s neck. The skin was unbroken. Then he looked at her face. Her lips were curled up in a satisfied smile.

  Chapter 31

  Late that same night, Buttons was snuggled up against Miss Gray in her forest burrow. The night was musical with the sound of falling rain, but the cats were warm and dry, nestled beneath the root of the large tree that sheltered them.

  Buttons inhaled Miss Gray’s scent and purred sadly. He could tell that her hormonal cycle was about to change.

  “Will you still welcome me to your den when you’re not in heat in a few days from now?” he asked her.

  “Well, you know how it is,” she answered. “A lady cat only wants male company at certain times of the month. But I’ll want you back next month, handsome. Anyway, there are lots of other female cats in the forest for you to spend time with till then.”

  “I know that,” said Buttons. “But running around from one female to the next just doesn’t appeal to me. I’m not that kind of guy anymore. I could spend the time with my human, but she’s kind of busy lately with a male of her own species.”

  Buttons sniffed.

  “What kind of guy are you then?” Miss Gray asked.

  “I’m a guy that lives forever,” he said. “Remember I told you that last night. I asked you if you want me to change you, so you can live with me forever too. And you won’t have to worry about the coyotes and cougars and bears trying to have you for dinner anymore. They’ll be your dinner. Have you thought about it?”

  “Oh. I thought you were just kidding,” she said. “Aren’t nine lives enough for any cat? Hmm. Maybe. Let me think about it some more.”

  “Sure,” said Buttons.

  He nuzzled her neck and sunk in his teeth for a quick drink. She purred and pressed closer to him.

  If I’m going to transform Miss Gray, I need to do it soon while she’s still in heat. Or else she might be hormonally unapproachable for all eternity. She didn’t give me a definite answer, but she seems OK with it. Should I do it now? She’s such a sweetie that I’m sure she won’t turn into an out-of-control feral beast, right? he asked himself.

  Chapter 32

  Meanwhile, Roz was spooned up next to Jonah in the bed in his boarding house, basking in the afterglow of marital bliss. Their marriage had been a quiet but happy affair performed by the sheriff in the saloon. Cowboy Bob had given her away with a promise for her ears only that he was only loaning her out temporarily. He said he’d resume possession after the mortal lifetimes of Loretta and Jonah ended.

  Not likely! Roz told herself as she caressed Jonah’s muscular chest.

  “Now that we’re married, I’ve been thinking about something,” said Jonah. “All the crimes are solved, so it’s going to be pretty quiet around here. And there haven’t been any shootouts for a long time. Thanks to Cowboy Bob being here, I guess.”

  “Could be,” said Roz.

  “Anyway, work is going to be kind of boring for me. And now that you quit your job at the saloon, you won’t have much to do either. Unless you want to stay in bed all day,” he said with a laugh.

  “I’d like to, but I see what you mean,” said Roz. “I’m used to doing something with my time. I wish I could be a librarian again, but there aren’t many readers in this town.”

  “Well maybe you can be,” said Jonah. “I’m thinking we should go back to New York. There’s enough crime there to keep me busy, and you could get a job in a library.”

  “Yes, I could go back east now that I don’t have to hide from the witch hunter anymore. That’s a fantastic idea!” said Roz. “I’m so happy I married you. You’re the best husband in the entire world!”

  She lifted her head and leaned over him. Then she pressed a hard kiss on his lips. Jonah twisted his body toward hers, pressed up against her, and deepened the kiss.

  I never thought my life could be this wonderful, Roz thought. That even after all that happened, it would end up so perfect, so peaceful, and so joyful.

  For several moments, Roz lost herself in the love that entwined both her heart and body.

  Then suddenly, another sensation dragged her mind out of the fog of passion.

  Not a feeling, but something she felt with her supernatural powers. And what she sensed was evil! The stirring of newborn evil somewhere out in the depths of the forest.

  Roz couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but she felt an awareness of kinship. A heartbeat that pumped vampire blood!

  She pulled her mouth away from Jonah’s.

  “I’d love to go to New York, but maybe we should wait awhile and make sure that everything is settled here first,” she said.

  End of Have Teeth, Will Bite

  Also by LD Mar

  Earth Gate

  A short apocalyptic romance

  An alien rescue from Earth's apocalypse leads to a different kind of love.

  I'd always had problems with relationships. It was no different with my latest boyfriend Joey. I knew he was cheating on me, even though he denied it. Then things got even worse—Earth’s apocalypse happened.

  With the help of some aliens, I got away just in time. I fell for Vohn right away, but I didn't want to get burned again. Especially when I understood so little about the strange people who'd rescued me.

  Get Earth Gate on Amazon: US UK AU CA

  Alien Pets

  (chapter 1)

  Xeno Relations

  by Trisha McNary

  Copyright © 2019 Trisha McNary

  Published by Trisha McNary

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover art by Heather Hamilton-Senter

  Chapter 1

  A few short weeks after she graduated from space school, Antaska stood in front of a clear barrier, waiting and hoping to be selected. She held her small gray and white cat Potat in her arms. Energized with excitement and high-strung nerves, Antaska watched the gigantic green alien Verdantes. Crowds of them walked in the curved corridor outside her “viewing room.”

  The aliens, Antaska’s prospective employers, looked in at her and the other humans in similar “viewing rooms” built by the Verdantes to suit their purposes. The walls on the sides of her viewing room blocked Antaska from seeing the other humans and which aliens were taking an interest in them.

  Now one of the aliens looked at Antaska and paused. The eight-foot-tall giant approached and stopped right in front of her. Antaska looked up to see enormous slanting green eyes staring down at her. Above the eyes, green curly hair covered an enormous cranium. The alien lifted a large six-fingered hand and waved at her. Antaska waved back and smiled.

  Maybe I’ll be selected already! she thought.

  “Grrrr!!” she heard and looked down.

  Potat stiffened in her arms. She hissed and spat at the Verdante in front of them.

  The big eyes of the alien got bigger.

  “Stop that!” Antaska said to Potat. “Shush!”

  But the tiny cat wouldn’t stop.

  “Rrrowwwwwwwww!” Potat let out an endless angry meow.

  The alien shrugged big shoulders and shook his head. He lifted up his hands as if to say, “What can I do?” and walked away.

  Potat stopped meowing and settled back down in Antaska’s arms.

  “What is wrong with you?” Antaska asked the little cat.

  She didn’t expect an answer, of course, and she didn’t get one.

  “Are you crazy? You might have just blown our only chance to go to space! My life’s dream! Don’t you dare do that again.”

  Antaska talked out loud to the cat. It was a habit she’d got into. Sometimes, it almost seemed like Potat understood what she w
as saying.

  This had better be one of those times, thought Antaska.

  She felt a slight movement and looked down to see the Potat cleaning a snow-white paw.

  Antaska looked up. Another alien, this one female, was standing in front of the clear barrier. She wore the same bright blue space suit as the males. But she had a smaller, more delicate feminine body and features. Shiny bright-green hair brushed her shoulders. Large pale green eyes crinkled up as she looked down at Antaska and Potat.

  Maybe Potat will like this one better, Antaska thought.

  Antaska smiled up at the alien and waved. The female alien waved back and then made signals with her hands. She pointed at herself, then at Antaska and little Potat, and then up toward space.

  Antaska nodded and gave her a thumbs up.

  Yes! she thought.

  “Grrrrr!” Potat started growling.

  “Oh no! You bad cat! Not again!” Antaska admonished her.

  But the cat paid no attention.

  “Reyowwwrrrrrooowwwww!” Potat let out her endless howl.

  The Verdante female’s smallish mouth formed an “O” shape. She shook her big head from side to side.

  “No! No! Stop! Stop!” Antaska pleaded with her cat.

  But of course, Potat didn’t listen.

  The alien lowered her chin and closed her eyes for a moment. Antaska read that as disappointment. Then the large green female turned and walked away.

  Antaska’s hopes took a dive. She turned, walked a few feet back, and plopped down on the couch built into the back wall of the small viewing room.

  “Are you trying to stop me from going into space?” Antaska asked Potat as she set her down on the couch.

  Potat, now calm and settled, looked up at her with innocent gold eyes.

  Maybe cats just aren’t adaptable to new things, thought Antaska. Maybe they’re just not that intelligent.

  A tiny paw reached out and slapped her leg kind of hard.

  “That wasn’t nice!” Antaska told her.

  “Am I going to be stuck on Earth with a crazy cat?” she said out loud to no one in particular.

  Potat ignored her and began to take a bath.

  Antaska sighed and leaned against the back of the couch. With dimming hope, she watched the large aliens walking past outside her viewing room.

  A few minutes later, the nutty cat jumped off the couch and walked to the front of the viewing room. Potat sat down there and watched the Verdantes passing by as if she were the one they might pick. Then she looked back and stared hard at Antaska.

  I think she wants me to go over there now, Antaska thought. Or maybe this cat has finally drove me crazy.

  Grumbling about the problems with cats, Antaska got off the couch and walked over to Potat. She picked up the tiny cat and whispered in her ear.

  “OK. You’ve got your way once again. As usual. I hope you’re happy, whatever you’re up too.”

  Potat purred back in her ear.

  Among the other Verdantes, lanky, thin M. Hoyvil took long strides around the circle of rooms containing Earth humans. It was his second or third time circling around. So many of them! How was he supposed to choose? The humans stood near the front of their viewing containers, watching the passing Verdantes with wide, round eyes. Except at a few of the containers.

  Some have been taken already! Hoyvil thought. I’d better pick one before they’re all gone.

  He walked past an empty spot to the next one where a male human was performing martial arts moves. The red-haired male was stockier than the usual design for space travel, with cool genetically designed tattoos along his arms and chest.

  M. Hoyvil stopped in front of the Earth man and watched him. The man smiled and kicked high in the air.

  Hmm. It might be fun to have someone to practice fighting with, thought M. Hoyvil. Of course, it would all have to be pretend. They’re so much smaller and weaker and slower. I could easily kill him by accident if I wasn’t careful. That wouldn’t be good.

  M. Hoyvil stood there watching, trying to decide whether taking this one would be a good idea or not. Out of nowhere, he heard the sound of a small female telepathic voice.

  “Here! Over here!” said the voice repeatedly and insistently.

  Who’s that? he wondered.

  He looked around, but there were no female Verdantes close by. And those walking by weren’t paying any attention to him at all. They might have been interested in the human male, but they wouldn’t approach the container when another Verdante was already there. That rule stopped people from fighting over the same pet.

  No. The strange, tiny voice wasn’t a Verdante, and it seemed to be coming from the direction of the cube next to him. M. Hoyvil looked over. Now a human female stood there. She held a teeny, tiny gray and white cat in her arms.

  Could that Earth female be telepathic? M. Hoyvil wondered. No. That’s not possible.

  M. Hoyvil lost interest in the martial arts man. He walked over to stare at the young woman with the cat. The tiny voice stopped.

  Did I really hear that? he wondered.

  He shook his big green head. The pink-haired Earth female smiled up at him.

  This is the one! M. Hoyvil suddenly knew it for sure without knowing why.

  He made the hand signs asking the human if she would like to go up to space with him.

  She didn’t answer right away. She lifted her cat, stared at it, and talked to it.

  Could that cat be sentient? M. Hoyvil wondered. No. That’s not possible either.

  But the young woman seemed to be asking the cat’s opinion. The cat leaned toward M. Hoyvil behind the clear barrier and reached out her paws toward him. Then the Earth female nodded her head and gave him a thumbs up.

  M. Hoyvil placed his palm on the pad outside her viewing container to select her.

  Get Alien Pets on Amazon: US UK AU CA

  Tenderloin

  (excerpt)

  By LD Marr

  Copyright © 2019 Trisha McNary

  Published by Trisha McNary

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover art by Victoria Cooper

  Excerpt

  Warning: Sensitive readers might be disturbed by this gruesome horror story.

  After work that day, I stood on tired feet on the subway train home. At this hour, the train was always packed. There were no empty seats, so I swayed back and forth and held onto a bar for balance.

  Through the train’s windows, in between long passes through dark tunnels, I watched the lit-up stations flash by.

  The train pulled into the Bowery station—the last Manhattan station under the unflooded part of the city. Everything on Manhattan island south of here was now under water from the rising sea levels of the last hundred years. Scientists said the rest of the island would go under in time, but for now, it was still here.

  The underground train tunnels and all the subways were supposed to be water tight. Our government assured us that the subway walls and tunnels were supported with the latest flood technology. But it didn’t look like any work had been done in this aging station—not lately or ever.

  I tried not to think about that when I rode on the train. And I wasn’t thinking about climate change in the future. My thoughts were on Chloe.

  I knew that I should be feeling happy and excited—my first client to stop using—but I wasn’t. The cold chill that I’d felt earlier had grown to nervous anxiety throughout the day. The more I tried to tell myself it was irrational, the stronger that the feeling of dread became.

  There’s no reason to feel so anxious, I told myself. Maybe it’s not her. Maybe there’s something wrong with me. Am I crazy like people used to say? I wondered. Will I end up in the sanatorium they wanted to send me to after all? Getting a lobotomy or my brain dissected?

  My morbid thoughts were interrupted when a small bunch of riders crowded in front of the door next to me. Brakes squealed, and the subway car slowed and stopped. Instead of moving out of the exiting r
iders’ way, I felt a strange panic and broke out in a sweat.

  I have to get off this train! I thought.

  I crowded in with others next to the door. It opened, and we all got off quickly. Experienced riders who moved fast without any shoving or pushing to exit before the doors closed again.

  The rest of the exiting commuters walked away. But I took only a few steps and then stopped. I looked up and down the length of the rundown station. The smell of urine and disinfectant hit my nostrils with stronger force than I was used to in other subway stations, but I ignored it.

  Now my panic was gone.

  Why the heck did I think I had to get off the train in this junky old station? I wondered. Where did that bizarre feeling come from?

  As I stood there wondering why I was there, I was overwhelmed by curiosity about the station itself.

  I looked down the long length of tracks on both sides of the narrow cement island I was standing on. The station was long enough for at least twelve train cars to open their doors and let out passengers.

  On both far ends of the station, black metal-barred cages enclosed worn cement stairs that led up to the street. An ancient escalator sat unmoving halfway between the stairs.

  Another train pulled in on the other side of the tracks. I turned and watched passengers quickly exit and enter. Doors closed, and the train pulled away. I stared at the ancient wall behind the tracks. Grime and dust-covered marble tiles. Empty patches where tiles had fallen off and not been replaced. Odd mini-sized wooden door shapes were built in all along the wall.

  For no particular reason, I felt the urge to walk to the opposite end of the station. I started walking, and I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the cool dampness of the station air.