by Stella Casey
A few hours later, we pulled into the driveway of the little cabin I had rented. Fortunately, the little old man who owned the cabins had remembered me and my mother, and he had let me rent one of them even though it was the off season. And he only charged me a hundred bucks.
Lii’thoou and Zoe were both fast asleep as I parked in the little driveway. I hopped out, closing the door softly so as not to disturb them. Then I went into the cabin and opened all the windows to air it out.
I put sheets on the bed from the linen closet the man had told me about. I brought in our things, and ran a bath for Zoe. Then I looked around.
Everything was ready.
I went and got Zoe out of her seat; she opened her eyes and gave me a sleepy smile. Lii’thoou woke up while I was taking Zoe out.
He shuffled into the cabin, clearly very tired and still a bit drugged up. I never should have let Callie give him those painkillers. At least he could hobble on his own, though.
Pulling off his shirt, he climbed onto the bed, leaving on the sweatpants that had a slit cut in one leg to make room for my makeshift splint.
I gave Zoe a quick bath, and then tucked her into the bed in the middle. I gazed at the two of them sleeping there together and for a second I allowed myself to imagine the three of us being a family. But I stopped that train of thought immediately, because it was headed right off the rails.
There was no way the three of us could be a family, because that wasn’t really Lii’thoou. He was really a six-armed, blue alien. And he would someday fly off in a spaceship, leaving us behind here on Earth.
I had to remember that. The two of us had no possible future together, no matter how much I was starting to care for him.
I was so exhausted that I couldn’t even think of sleeping. I took a shower and then flopped down on the couch. Turning on the TV, I opened a bottle of juice that was in the bag of food Callie had given us.
The news was on. I watched for a while — and then I saw a picture of myself come up.
I sat up straight, staring at the screen. “What the hell?” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.
The piece was short, and basically said that I was a wanted tiger smuggler, and that there was a reward for any information about me. I prayed that the man who had rented me the cabin hadn’t watched the news, and that he had gone to bed like he said he was going to.
I pointed the remote at the TV and shut it off.
This was bad.
This was very bad.
Now everyone who saw me would have motivation to turn me in. Plenty of motivation. Five thousand dollars worth of motivation.
I wouldn’t be able to show my face anywhere. Or maybe I would have to get a disguise. Or…
But my tired mind gave up at this point. I had nothing more in me. I climbed onto the bed and curled myself around my baby.
We were safe for now. We had a place we could stay, and some supplies.
That would have to do. We would figure everything out in the morning.
Provided that no one found us before then.
16
Alyssa
I woke up around midnight and went to the little bathroom in the cabin. It was so small I could barely turn around in there. Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep right away, I went to the living room and gazed out the window at the moon and the stars, and wondered which one Lii’thoou came from.
Then I sat on the couch, not knowing what to do with myself. I felt bereft. As if I had lost, well, as if I had lost everything. Which I had.
There was a sound in the bedroom and Lii’thoou emerged, shutting the door softly behind him. He limped to the bathroom and went in.
When he came out again, he noticed me sitting on the couch. He sat down beside me. The moonlight barely lit our faces.
“Hey,” he said, the voice of his human form rough from sleep.
“Hey.” I glanced down at his leg. “You’re walking pretty well, for a guy who had his leg broken earlier today.”
“Yeah, like I said, we heal quickly. I think we can take the splint off.”
I nodded. “Give me your leg.”
He twisted to put his leg on my lap, and I began unwrapping the tensor bandages. When they had been removed, I took away the splints and set the whole pile of stuff on the coffee table in front of us.
He flexed the foot, and the shin looked fine. He was clearly in some pain, but just as clearly was pretty well healed.
And just like that, I felt like crying. Everything was so strange and … for lack of a better word … alien. There was nothing familiar, and I was homesick already. And that feeling was only going to get worse, because I could never go home.
“You okay?” Lii’thoou said, a concerned expression on his face.
I nodded a couple times, then shook my head. “No. I’m not.” My eyes filled with tears. “I’ve had to leave my entire life behind. The only thing I’m taking with me is my daughter and my memories.”
A tear rolled down my cheek before I could stop it. “I’m just sad.”
He scooted over, wrapped an arm around me, and pulled my legs across his lap. I wished he was in his true form, and could put all three arms around me. It felt infinitely safer and more comforting, somehow. But he couldn’t, because he was injured … from saving me.
“I’m so sorry I brought all this on you, Lyssa. I never should have spoken to you that night you hit me.”
“Don’t say that,” I said, putting my hand on his cheek and gazing earnestly into his eyes. “I’m not sorry for any of it. Even all of today’s madness.”
I sighed and looked up again at the moon. “I’ve been living in a memory, Lii’thoou.”
And at that moment, I understood that it was true. I had been living in a dream of the past, and missing everything the present had to offer.
“You woke me up from it,” I said, gazing into his eyes. “And I’m glad of it.”
Suddenly I felt a surge of desire, and I knew that his pheromones were powerful even when he wasn’t in his real body — this one felt real enough, though, and he was getting hard.
“I know that it’s difficult for you to hold your form when you want to let go, but…” I got up and straddled him, kneeling on either side of his legs, and pressing myself against his hardness.
“It’s not difficult. I just prefer my true form,” he said. “But since I can’t shift right now, I guess we’ll have to make do.”
He shifted his hips a little, and a tiny gasp escaped me. I put my hands to my shirt and began to undo my buttons one at a time.
Lii’thoou, in human form, watched me, and I felt myself getting wet for him. I wondered if he was the same size in this form as in his true body.
I guessed I was going to find out.
I reached the bottom button and opened my shirt, revealing the black bra I was wearing. I shucked the shirt off and tossed it on the arm chair. Then I reached behind my back and undid the bra, letting my breasts swing free — heavy and sensitive.
He drew in a breath and leaned in for a taste. His mouth was at the exact correct height, and he pulled one ripe, taut nipple into his mouth, sucking hard.
I moaned. Oh, it had been too long. The other night we had spent together hadn’t been nearly enough to satisfy the hunger that Lii’thoou roused in me. I didn’t know if I would ever get enough of him. Speaking of which, I needed more skin.
I grabbed at the hem of his shirt, and he released my breast long enough for me to pull his T-shirt over his head. I had loved him in his true form, but I had to admit that Lii as a human male was damn attractive too.
My hands were all over his chest, his perfect biceps, and his rock-hard abs. He was working away at my other breast now, driving me crazy with desire.
“Lii,” I said. “I need you inside me right now.”
I scrambled off of him, yanking at the button on my jeans while he slipped off his track pants and boxers. Oh shit. He seemed to be the same size no matter the form. M
aybe that was something that didn’t really change much.
He grabbed my waist and pulled me towards him. I straddled him again, his hardness pressing against my belly. I kissed him deep. When we finally came up for air, he groaned my name.
I lifted myself, unable to stand it anymore. I needed to be as close as we could get. I wanted him inside me, filling me.
Spreading my legs, I used my hand and guided him to my opening. His eyes fluttered closed as I let myself slide down an inch.
God, he was big, and he was stretching me again. I gasped at the sensations.
Then I let myself drop a little further, impaling myself on him inch by mind-blowing inch. When we were hip to hip and he was seated deep inside me, I stayed still for a moment, loving the feel of him. Then he sucked a nipple into his hot mouth, and I began to move.
Slowly, I rode him, taking him all the way out and then all the way back in. Loving the feel of him filling me over and over. I had never had sex like this before.
I had to admit that my husband had never inspired such passion. I pushed the thought of Harris out of my mind, and focused on the pleasure rising inside me.
Taking the speed up, Lii grabbed my hips, lifting me and driving me back down, faster and harder until I climaxed in silence, the need to be quiet seeming to make the orgasm that much more earth shattering.
I grabbed his shoulders tightly to anchor myself as the climax rocked me. A second later, Lii’thoou drove up into me, pressing his hips hard against mine and groaning. I felt his seed filling me, and was glad that we didn’t need birth control or anything between us.
I collapsed with my head on his shoulder, breathing hard. “Lyssa, Lyssa, Lyssa,” he said, repeating my name over and over as he kissed my cheeks and forehead.
I couldn’t respond; I was too weak from the intense orgasm that had rocked me. But I felt how good we were together.
If only this precarious thing had a chance to grow. And as I sat there on his lap, with him still inside me, I felt a sadness come over me.
It was going to hurt so bad when he disappeared, too. I didn’t know how I was going to get over it.
In fact, I wasn’t sure if I would.
Not this time.
Lii’thoou
I wrapped my arms around Alyssa, pulling her close to me. We were curled up on the couch. My heart was full, and I knew it was stupid, but I had to tell her.
“Lyss,” I said, and then pressed a kiss into her hair. She made a relaxed sleepy sound, not opening her eyes.
“Will you come with me?”
“Yeah,” she said, clearly not understanding what I was asking.
“No, I mean if I leave the planet. Would you and Zoe come with me?”
Her eyes popped open, suddenly and completely alert. “What?” she said, snapping the T sound off sharply.
“I want you two with me. I might have to leave, and I want you. I don’t know what’s happening between us but I … need you. And Zoe. We could be a family.”
At the last minute, I chickened out about telling her that I loved her. She stared at me as if she didn’t recognize me.
“Please? I want you to see the galaxy.”
Alyssa sat up so quickly her breasts bounced, distracting me for a moment. Until I realized how angry she was. Then she had my entire attention.
Why was she angry?
“Are you crazy?” she said in a scream whisper. “I’ve just lost my entire life, and now you want me to leave behind even my planet? Everything I’ve ever known?”
“No, Alyssa. I didn’t mean…”
“And what if something happens to you?”
“Nothing’s going to happen to me,” I said, feeling that the situation was unexpectedly spiraling out of control and I couldn’t stop it.
“That’s what my father thought. And my husband. And something sure happened to them.”
“But, Alyssa…” I was suddenly short of breath as it suddenly occurred to me that she didn’t want me. She didn’t want to be with me.
If she did, she would not be putting up completely ridiculous arguments for why she couldn’t go with me. It seemed I had completely misjudged her feelings.
I was such a fool.
But she wasn’t done yet. “No, Lii. You don’t understand. If we went with you and something happened to you, then what? Zoe and I would be stuck in a world we don’t understand, aren’t familiar with. And we would have no one to help us.”
She stood up, as if she couldn’t endure being close to me anymore, wrapping her arms across her chest as if to protect herself. Her next words were what really made my heart crack, though.
“Thanks, but no thanks,” she said, her voice full of a bitterness I didn’t understand. “I’d rather take my chances on Earth, alone, than lose you somewhere out in space and then be helpless to take care of my daughter.”
“Alyssa, please…” I said, getting up and taking a step towards her. She backed away, shaking her head.
“I’m bad luck, Lii. You don’t want to be with me.” Her eyes were furious, her voice harsh.
“All the men I love die. So I think you should run. You should get off this little backward planet and never look back.
“Just go. It’ll be better for everyone. You’re right. You never should have started this.”
“Lyss,” I said, pain stabbing me in the chest.
But she turned away in silence, grabbing her clothes and going into the bathroom.
I got dressed and then, still in shock, I took the quilt from the couch and threw it on the porch swing for later. Might as well keep watch out here. I knew I wouldn’t be sleeping anymore tonight.
As I entered the woods to take a short walk, I noticed that I was hardly even limping anymore, because my leg was nearly healed — not that it mattered. Not that anything mattered, now that I knew Alyssa didn’t want me.
I walked into the shadows, glad of the darkness that concealed my tears.
17
Lii’thoou
I used every curse word from every language I knew, and even said a few swears from some languages that I only knew the curse words from. I had gone for a little walk to clear my head, and in the moonlight, I had seen a fucking spaceship landing.
With the Galactic Police Force logo on the side.
It was Voran’zi. It had to be. She was here.
Because I had missed my check-in.
Because I had fucking missed my check-in.
They must have been just outside this solar system, to have gotten here so quickly when I didn’t call before midnight. This was highly likely, because there was a penal colony in the Alpha Centauri star system that Voran’zi visited regularly. And it was only four light years away — a hop, skip, and a jump in terms of faster-than-light-speed travel.
As soon as a parolee misses their check-in, they are immediately located and detained — usually, to be returned to prison. There’s no good excuse for missing your check-in. And the Galactic Police Force are hard-nosed about it.
When I didn’t contact them before midnight, the tracking system would have switched on automatically, and located me using the tracker implanted behind my ear. It would have notified my parole officer immediately.
And when Voran’zi saw where I was, she’d likely come straight here to arrest me, since simply being here on a primitive planet now made me a criminal again.
I felt like smacking my head against a tree. How the hell had I messed things up so badly?
All I’d had to do was get to my spaceship and check in. I could have told Alyssa to drive there.
But no. I had to go and be a baby, and take some painkillers for my broken leg. And those human painkillers fucked with my head so much that I didn’t remember to do the most important thing in my life.
The only thing I had to do in my life. The very thing that was going to guarantee my freedom.
How could this have happened? How could I have screwed everything up so thoroughly? She would drag me back before th
e tribunal, and they would sentence me to more years of prison.
Fuck no.
I wasn’t going to let them take me.
Something inside me completely rebelled at the thought. I couldn’t handle any more prison. Not when I was so close to being free.
I would go to my spaceship.
And I would run. That star cluster I had heard about on TV — Camargo 438. That’s where I would go.
I frowned. But the tracker … they could follow me and find me anywhere with that thing.
I smashed my right fist into my left palm, feeling that it wasn’t enough to just smash one fist into one palm. This human body was so limiting.
I felt wild. This situation was impossible. I couldn’t get out of it. And then a thought occurred to me.
Unless I didn’t have the tracker.
If I didn’t have the tracker, then they couldn’t follow me. They would have to use old-fashioned means of finding me, which would take forever. And by that time, I would be far away in the Camargo 438 cluster, out of the Galactic Police Force’s jurisdiction, and hidden from them forever if I wanted.
I swallowed hard. That meant I needed to take out the tracker. I would have to remove it.
No. Alyssa would have to remove it.
She wouldn’t want to, after our fight. But I knew she would.
I walked back up to the cabin. She was still up, reading by the light of a small lamp. Not saying a word to her, I went into the kitchen and found a sharp little knife, feeling her eyes on me.
“I need a favor,” I said, going into the bathroom and grabbing a towel and a facecloth. But there was no rubbing alcohol.
I went back to the kitchen and looked under the sink. Nope. I peered into the cupboard over the fridge. Jackpot.
I pulled down the bottle of tequila. This should do. She watched my movements, clearly still unhappy with me.
“Just a little biopsy. Pretend you’re at work.”
Her eyes narrowed and she took in the objects I was placing on the coffee table. “I’m not doing a biopsy on you with that stuff,” she said.
“You would if I was a tiger,” I argued.
She gave me a look of disbelief. “You’ll get an infection.”
“There’s alcohol,” I said, shaking the bottle. “To sterilize.”
