Alien Betrayed

by Marie Dry

  She flinched, but quickly lifted her chin at him. “Why did I feel really big teeth?” She asked him and glared at him.

  “Because I have really big teeth.”

  “I don’t want to feel them on my skin.” She looked around as if she just woke from one of her human dreams and held the sheet over her breasts. “Maybe we shouldn’t do this.”

  He pulled the sheet away and cupped one breast, gently massaging it, teasing the tip with his thumb. She always enjoyed when he did that. Larz leaned down and kissed his human. Kissed the lush lips the way he wanted to every time he saw them spew venom or falsely sweet words. He sucked on her bottom lip, and it tasted better than the tenderest Eduki meat. When his tongue touched hers she exploded, sucked him inside her mouth, threw her arms around him, and moved her hips against his, her actions almost desperate.

  He needed to give her pleasure soon because he would disgrace himself if he couldn’t be inside her body. When he settled between her legs, she planted her feet wide apart on the bed and welcomed him. Like before her body resisted for a moment and then it welcomed him, clasped him tight, as if it would never let him go. He enjoyed how tight and warm she was, how her body milked his. He kissed her ear and her neck and his back protested when he bend down to take her nipple into his mouth. He moved inside her, taking care to be gentle, not to settle too much of his weight on her fragile human frame. He’d barely suckled her nipple and thrusted inside her only a few times when she cried out and clutched him.

  Her arms around his neck aggravated his wounds, and the pain and pleasure pushed him over the edge as well.

  When at last she stopped shuddering in his arms and he could speak, he pushed her hair out of her face. “I am a Zyrgin with honor. I can pleasure you many times.”

  She smiled, a funny sleepy smile. “Okay.”

  He started moving again and her eyes widened. “Oh, wow, you meant that literally.”

  Instead of answering, he showed her, worshiping her body with his mouth and his hands until he’d pleasured her many times. He was considering tasting her again--he hadn’t had nearly enough--when she grabbed his shoulders and pushed. “Didn’t you say you had to go on duty?”

  He’d have to taste her when he came off duty. Pleasuring her had restored his spirit, made the wounds on his back unimportant. When he took her body, he was a warrior again.

  “I need a club under the bed, just in case I need to stop you the hard way,” she mumbled.

  He stiffened. Did that mean she’d heard someone mention the club before? If that was true then she was lying about her amnesia. He couldn’t afford to trust her but, when he looked into her eyes, he saw innocence and not venom like before she claimed to have amnesia. He pulled her hands away from him and covered her. Humans became cold easily.

  Her eyes narrowed on him when he got up. A Marcie look.

  He went to shower and change and, when he entered the bedroom, she stood beside the bed, clad only in her shirt. Her toe tapping on the floor, she frowned at him. “That’s it? You make love to me until I can barely walk and then get up and walk away? No kiss, no compliment, nothing?”

  He had to focus on not touching his aching ears. “I have duties to perform.”

  “Do you feel anything for me at all?” Her eyes glistened, but he knew she merely pretended. Marcie would never allow anyone to see her cry.

  “You are my woman.” He left her to go to the kitchen but he could hear her following him.

  She followed him into the kitchen, clutching the front of her shirt. “What does that mean? Are we just living together? Or is it more than that? I don’t know where I am. Am I merely your prisoner?”

  He went to the kitchen and ordered some water from the simulator. “I am weary of your game.”

  He took the glass from the machine, downed it, and ordered another. His back was on fire and his jacket aggravated the wounds. His body was still adjusting to the third change and, after the whipping and challenge, was severely dehydrated.

  She clenched her hands into fists and rocked on the floor. “It’s not a game. Why would I pretend to have amnesia? Do you know how awful it is not to know yourself? Not to know anything and to see a stranger in the mirror?”

  He slammed down the glass and it splintered. “I am not convinced you lost your memory.” He stepped back to allow the autobot to clean up the mess.

  She flinched. He went to her, took her hands in his, and pressed his forehead against hers. She would live. He would fight for her every third month. Stay alive for four hours each time.

  “It would be better if your memory stayed lost.” He still didn’t believe that story, but if she stuck to it and didn’t try to kill anyone else, she might be accepted eventually.

  “And what am I supposed to do while I wait for my memory to return?”

  “Natalie and Julia enjoy watching Space Ranger on the TC.”

  The TC was short for Touch Cell Communication. It was the only technology that the humans had left to communicate with, and it was barely functioning. Invented a century ago, the humans had thought the device that served for communication, entertainment, and as an emergency device, the height of technology.

  Natalie and Julia enjoyed watching programs and he’d rather take another whipping from The Zyrgin than sit through another Space Ranger episode.

  She clenched and unclenched her hands while she stared at the autobot with a frown on her face. Then she turned to him and he thought the anguish in her eyes might be real.

  “I can’t stand the damn Space Ranger and the movies are mostly silly.”

  ***

  Maeve shivered while she watched the strange little machine absorb the shards of glass and clean the floor. The last time she’d watched a movie was a week before her father handed her over to Parnell. She’d enjoyed the action adventure movie--

  She groaned and clutched her head. “I’m going crazy being cooped up in here.”

  She was losing her mind. She had to get out, breathe fresh air. She ran to the front door and slapped her palms on the silver metal. “Open,” she screamed, banging her fists until they ached.

  “What are you doing, woman?”

  She kept hitting the metal wall and scratched it until her nails hurt. She sank down on the floor her hands flat on the door. “Open, please, please open,” she whispered. “I have to get out.”

  The door opened and she fell forward. Larz caught her and calmly stepped outside with her. “What is wrong with you, human?”

  “I can’t breathe. Please, let me breathe.” She couldn’t stand these hallucinations anymore. Being cooped up between those silver walls, not knowing how she came to be there. Who she was.

  “Your lies or acting distraught will not gain you freedom.”

  “I’m not lying. I’m going crazy. Please, I need to breathe.” She didn’t want to tell him about her delusions. About the visions of killing an old woman. Of being trained as some kind of assassin. She clutched her neck and gasped.

  He shook her. Holding onto her, he stepped back into the doorway. “You will cease this useless display at once.”

  She looked up at the sky and the world tilted around her. She wheezed. “Air,” she gasped. If she had to go back into that silver prison, she’d smother to death.

  With her ears ringing and the world spinning behind her, she clutched at Larz, the only constant thing in her life. If she didn’t, she’d lose herself. She laughed, a shrill crazy sound. She’d already lost herself. She didn’t even know her own name, where she came from, or even why she was here with this alien being.

  He stared down at her for a long time. Something was different about him, but she was too panicked to work out what. He lifted her chin, stared at her with pitch black, stone-cold eyes. “We will walk outside. If you try to run, I will catch you. You do not want that to happen, human.”

  She wanted to answer him, taunt him--no, assure him she wouldn’t run. “Please, just get me in the fresh air.” One part of her wanted to
snarl and beat the crap out of him and another wanted desperately to appease him.

  He hesitated for a moment, as if catching his breath. She lay quiet in his arms while they passed two more silver domed buildings until they came to an open area with only trees and plants growing wild. Something made a chirping sound, almost like some TCs made when a message came in, and she jumped in his arms. He didn’t reach for a communication device. It came again.

  “What’s that noise?” she asked and looked around. Half expecting to see more aliens or a space ship de-cloaking.

  “It is birds chirping,” he said and put her down on her feet.

  “Birds?”

  “Yes, they are feathered animals that fly and are scarce on Earth, but not all of them are extinct yet. We have reintroduced some extinct species here.”

  “I know what birds are.” She peered up at him. “How can you reintroduce extinct species? Don’t you need DNA to clone them?”

  He stared intently into her eyes and then motioned to the view in front of them. “Can you breathe now?”

  “Yes, thank you. Can we walk a bit?”

  He nodded. He put his arm around her shoulder and, at first, she walked with her arms clutched around her waist. Then, unable to help herself, she flung her arms tight around him. He hesitated a moment and then continued walking. Sometimes, she thought he might be in pain. He would never admit it but, every now and then, he would stand absolutely still, or hesitate like he did just now. Everyone acted as if she was some kind of monster. She didn’t feel brave enough to be a monster. Instead, she clung to the only being who made her feel safe. He was so much taller than her that her shoulder fit into his waist. He had no excess fat, nothing soft on him and still his muscled arm around her shoulder comforted her.

  They stood on a cliff and, below them, a beautiful green valley stretched for miles. She had this strange memory of seeing recordings of many valleys like this one. All of them barren and eroded.

  “It’s beautiful. Please tell me how you made the birds.”

  He stepped away from her. “Our methods cannot be understood by humans.”

  She sighed and looked at the view, the impressive sky that dominated the landscape. Green stretched for miles in front of them. She had a vague memory of hearing about the vegetation dying in Montana because of a lack of water. Because the glaciers melted a century ago and now the winter snow was erratic.

  Something moved beyond the green belt--like brown and gray ants scurrying.

  “What’s that?”

  “Humans, amassing to battle us.”

  “How do they know about you?”

  Maeve knew none of the satellites worked anymore. There was no monitoring equipment that still worked that could detect them. How she knew that was anybody’s guess.

  “There are many different habitable planets in our galaxy. A group of people we call explorers visit every known universe to map it. Do you remember a purple alien on the news?”

  “No.”

  “They call themselves travelers. A traveler was caught by a government official who calls himself Agent Parnell.” He watched her as if he expected some kind of reaction.

  It made sense. If there were green aliens around, why not purple ones? How many creatures from other galaxies had walked on Earth? “So they think they’re camping out and will get to kill a purple alien?”

  “Yes.”

  “How did they know you were here? You’re hidden in the cave and the dwellings cannot be seen from below.”

  “Parnell suspected we were in this area and sent the remaining raiders to camp outside No Name town.”

  “Why would he think you are in this area?”

  “We put a force field around the town and the mountain.”

  “Sort of a big clue,” she said.

  They sat like that for a long time. He seemed tense to her, like a cocked gun that didn’t need a trigger to go off. If she didn’t know how tough they were, she might’ve suspected he was in pain.

  “Did I really attack a guard?”

  “Yes.”

  “I couldn’t possibly have hurt him. You’re all double my size.”

  “No but you kept screaming that you would kill him and then go for The Zyrgin’s breeder.”

  “Big mistake, huh?” She tried to joke, but couldn’t quite bring it off.

  They sat in silence for a while. “What’s going to happen to me?”

  “You will stay with me.”

  “Would I have stayed with you before I lost my memory?”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and then lowered them to his sides, his movements not as smooth as usual. “You are a spy, sent to infiltrate us. Your plan was to steal our technology and kill as many of us as you could. You planned to steal what you could and escape.”

  The just didn’t sound like her. “Are you sure? Maybe you’re mistaking me for someone else.”

  Could that be it? Could that be why her name sounded strange? Why the things he described didn’t feel like her. Maybe she was just another prisoner in that camp and she happened to look like the spy. She sagged back against him. That didn’t explain why she looked wrong whenever she saw herself in the mirror. By now, she should’ve been used to this face and body but it was as if, deep inside her consciousness, she retained knowledge of another body. Another face.

  He took her hand in his, as if he wanted to comfort her. “We did not make a mistake.”

  “I know I’m not the person you describe. You’ll see that eventually.” Except she dreamed of being recruited very young by a man who trained her, had that flashback of killing an old woman.

  “You will be confined to my dwelling for your own safety.”

  That sense of the walls closing in on her enveloped her again. She saw herself kept inside that silver jail, being fed until she was plump and stupid. If she had a weapon at that moment, she might’ve pointed it at her own head.

  “I’d rather you kill me now than trap me inside that awful silver monstrosity for the rest of my life.”

  He stood. “All the other breeders appreciate their dwellings. You will learn to do the same.” He stood and pulled her up. “We have to go back.”

  With a tired sigh she followed him. “Can I cook?”

  “I do not know.”

  The idleness was driving her crazy. “I meant, can I go into the kitchen and use whatever provisions I can find and make us some food.”

  “I’ll show you how the replicator works before I go on duty.”

  “Thanks. You warriors sure work a lot.”

  He tensed next to her and stared at something to their right. She followed his gaze and her heart sank.

  His mother and two other women walked toward them. Two of the women were blonde, one of them looked very fragile. The two could’ve been sisters except the fragile-looking one was smaller, finer boned. She was dressed in baggy pants and a large shirt. She stopped when she saw Maeve--she could not think of herself as Marcie--her face turning paper white. For a long time they stared at each other. It was as if the whole mountain held its breath. Maeve wanted to run, knew she was about to be confronted with a view of herself worse than the one she saw in the mirror. It was as if the woman made a decision, tensed her shoulders, and walked up to her and Larz.

  Larz put his hand around her waist. The gesture claiming her, letting everyone know she belonged to him, had his protection.

  Maeve couldn’t remember how she would’ve reacted before, but now she was grateful for his support.

  “We were all scared, but why did you egg them on? Tell them to hurt me? Always put their attention on me?”

  The fragile-looking woman, who’d just devastated Maeve, turned her back and walked away before Maeve could answer.

  The woman with the brown hair, Natalie, who was Larz’s mother, put her arm around her and led her away.

  The other blonde woman glared at Maeve with her hands on her hips. “You really are a piece of work. How do you sleep at night?”
>
  Maeve was beginning to wonder if she really wanted her memory back. “I’m sorry for whatever I did. I don’t remember anything.” Did she sound as pathetic to them as she did to her own ears?

  “Yeah, right.”

  “Julia, let it go. She has to live with herself. Help me with Sarah,” Larz’s mother said.

  With a last glare at Maeve, Julia turned and left with the others.

  CHAPTER 6

  Slowly Maeve became aware of the big sky, taking up so much of the vista in front of her, of birds and other strange noises, of the chills running up and down her body, as if tiny knives pierced her skin.

  “We must return.”

  She walked in a daze, barely aware of entering the domed dwelling. That woman’s face would haunt her for the rest of her life. The sheer agony in her eyes. And deep inside her mind, Maeve could feel something evil smile.

  “What did I do?”

  What could she have done that was so terrible all of them looked at her as if she was evil incarnate? The woman, Sarah, said she’d told the raiders to hurt her. Could she have done anything that vicious?

  He crossed his arms over his chest. He’d been different ever since he came back. Tense and almost snarling. “Are you sure you want to know?”

  He obviously wanted to tell her, needed to rub her face in the truth. Ever since he came back to the dwelling, there’d been some added tension coming from him.

  “No.” She squared her shoulders. “But I think I have to know. You found me in one of the camps?” Inside her skull, someone screamed, loud and terrified, trapped and desperate to be free. She preferred that to the evil that stirred every now and then.

  “Yes.”

  “With the blonde woman?” The one who had looked at her with empty devastated eyes, who spoke with such sorrow in her voice, that Maeve’s skin had broken out in goose bumps. What if she was an agent, like in her dreams, and did all those things? How could she live with that? “If I was in the camps, I was a victim too. What could I have done that was so terrible?” Please let her have done it with a gun held to her head.