by Cynthia Sax
To do that, you need to obtain evidence, and obtain it quickly, before he returns. Danielle opened drawers filled with pristine clothing. Every flannel shirt and pair of perfectly worn jeans had been folded into a flat, tight rectangle. She didn’t find any socks or underwear.
Danielle moved to the massive bed. She ran her hands under the mattress and felt nothing. There wasn’t anything under the bed either, not a single dust bunny on the gleaming, scratch-free floor.
She searched through an immaculate closet filled with more flannel shirts and more jeans. Danielle knocked on undecorated walls and stomped on floorboards, the noise hollow and empty.
Frank must have drugged me with hallucinogens. She scanned the room. Where did he stash them?
Danielle lifted her gaze to the ceiling. What is that? She positioned a chair under the black box and climbed up to have a look. Oh hell no. Her stomach dropped. It was a camera with its lens facing the bed, the bed she’d been naked in, the bed he’d…
Danielle pressed her lips together and blinked back tears. Obtain evidence, Officer. She frantically felt around the camera. There were no wires or any other indication of where the recording device might be.
She leaned forward to peer behind the camera, teetering on the edge of the chair. To steady herself, she pushed against a ceiling tile. It didn’t move. What the? She slid the tile to the side and a bag fell with a thud to the floor. Jackpot. Danielle hopped down and opened the black canvas bag.
Gotcha. Displayed before her was enough high-tech weaponry to put Frank away for a very long time. She picked up the same gun she’d used last night. She didn’t recognize any of the other makes or models.
Space guns, her gut whispered.
No. Not space guns. Danielle touched her mother’s dog tags. Military prototypes. She palmed her small gun and replaced the bag of weapons in the ceiling to be “discovered” later by the arresting officers.
Danielle inched the bedroom door open and surveyed the area. The house was empty and silent, the open, sterile space as free of clutter and personal effects as the bedroom. Sunlight shone through the windows, unfiltered by curtains or blinds. She sniffed and wrinkled her nose, the air smelling of a harsh disinfectant. There was no sign of Frank or anyone else.
She raised her gun and cautiously crept through the living room, stepping lightly to not make any sound. A black leather couch and microthin big-screen TV dominated the area and she slowed, gazing wistfully at the complex electronics.
Not a chance of retrieval, Officer Danielle. Get your recorded ass moving. She forced herself to move forward, knowing every officer in her precinct would watch last night’s assault. Damn Frank to hell.
She slipped outside into a vacant yard. Frank’s rusted pickup truck was missing. Deep track marks leading from the parking spot to the gravel driveway indicated he’d left in a hurry.
Danielle surveyed the scene, her cop instincts tingling. A spotless black garden hose was coiled without a single kink around a wall-mounted steel rack. Cords of wood were stacked in flawlessly aligned rows. The square of grass around the newly painted mobile home was lush and green and perfect.
Everything was perfect, too perfect, as though her surroundings were manufactured or…alien.
Let it go, Officer Danielle. There are no aliens. Warrior Krol was a delicious drug-induced hallucination. Danielle scowled as she hiked down the long winding driveway. The tall, majestic fir trees edging the route bent in the wind, their needles rustling, the air crackled around her and dark clouds hung over her head, the weather as ominous as her thoughts.
She walked and walked and walked, heedless of the building storm, reviewing what little she remembered, saddened and sickened that the best sex of her life hadn’t been real. She should have known. They’d fucked all night long and Frank had been unnaturally insatiable, recovering quickly from each orgasm.
Too quickly for a human.
Aliens don’t exist. Frank’s a human with a human recovery time, and that means…
No. She bent over, her stomach heaving, bile burning the back of her throat. How many so-called aliens had taken her? How many?
“I’ll kill you, Frank.” Danielle straightened and tightened her grip on the gun as her anger spiraled upward. “Jail is too good for you.” She strode faster, grinding the gravel road under the heels of her police boots.
Damn. He’s good. She stared at her abandoned police cruiser. The windshield was honeycombed with cracks, and the white hood was dented beyond repair. She crouched by the front wheel. Tracks ran perpendicular to the vehicle as though it had been pushed to the side of the road. How—
She raised her head, hearing the drone of an approaching vehicle. She squinted, peering into the distance. A rusted blue pickup truck rolled into sight. Frank.
Danielle took a position by the side of road, placing her police cruiser between him and her. She raised her gun as his handsome human face came into shooting range. “Don’t kill him, Officer Danielle.” She caressed the trigger with her thumb. “Believe in the system you serve. Let the courts do their job.”
Breaks squealed as the truck slid to a stop. Gravel sprayed the side of her cruiser, peppering the paint with pit marks, and Danielle’s anger escalated.
Frank exited the cab and jogged around the rusted hood, carrying a bouquet of red roses and a beautifully wrapped ivory-and-gold box. “My Danielle.” He beamed as though he’d done nothing wrong, as though he hadn’t drugged her and shared her sexually with a gang of his friends.
Believe in the system. She aimed her gun between his black-and-green swirling eyes. “Don’t move, or I’ll shoot.”
Frank froze and his smile faded. A dog barked, but the only animal she cared about stood in front of her.
He had black-and-green swirling eyes.
There are no aliens.
“How many, Frank?” Danielle demanded. She used both of her hands to steady her shaking gun. “How many men fucked me last night?”
“No males will fuck you!” His face contorted with a rage so acute she almost believed him, except she couldn’t. Her skin was covered with evidence of his lies. “You are mine, my Danielle.” He brandished the flowers like a club, the rose petals scattering on the road. “I am your Krol.”
“Your name is Frank, you dickwad.” His betrayal cut her to the bone and she wielded her anger as a shield against the pain. “And you’re going to jail for a very long time.”
“Ahhh…” His expression cleared. “You do not identify me due to my holographic image.”
“You have the right to remain silent.” She drowned out his crazy talk.
“I will change.” He pinched his earlobe. The air shimmered and his image distorted.
“Everything you say or do—” Her words stuttered to a stop as Frank, the man, turned into Krol, her alien lover from last night.
“You…you…you…” Danielle waved her gun at him. He juggled the flowers and box and stripped away his flannel shirt and snug blue jeans, revealing a warrior’s skintight leather outfit.
“You’re an alien. No.” She shook her head, trying to clear out her insane thoughts. “Aliens don’t exist. This vision is an aftereffect of the date rape drug.”
He frowned, his ridges rattling. “Drug?” He swept his hands over the guns and daggers strapped close to his muscular body as though reassuring himself they were there. “What—”
“This isn’t happening again.” Danielle’s gaze dropped to the big vibrating ridge in his black leather pants. “I’m not fucking you or any of your alien friends.”
“No other males!” he bellowed, and a dog howled. “I will terminate any male who touches you.” Krol crushed the box in one clenched fist and waved the flowers with the other.
“Right.” Danielle twisted her lips, clinging desperately to her anger. “Because you want to fuck me yourself, over and over, with no recovery time.”
“No fucking.” His eyes swirled dark with emotion. “We are courting, not fucking.�
� His gaze dropped to the hem of her borrowed shirt. “Not fucking,” he repeated.
“Courting?” She waved her gun toward the roses. “So you’re saying those are for me?” She snorted. Who brings their victims flowers?
Krol looked at the roses as though surprised to find them in his hand. “Yes.” He shoved them at her and smacked the crushed box on top of the bouquet. “I have researched human courting rituals.”
Human courting rituals. Danielle gazed down at the battered blooms. “You’re serious?” She breathed deeply, inhaling their sweet aroma. “You got me roses?”
“The woody perennials are beautiful and deadly.” He showed her the scratches on his green-and-black hands and grinned, displaying his sharp teeth. “They are like you, my Danielle.”
“Oh.” She looked at the red petals, flustered by the compliment and confused by the deliberate hoax. Could he truly be an alien? “And these?” Tucking her flowers and gun under her arm, she removed the lid. “Chocolates.” They were flattened into a gooey mess, caramel, creams and other fillings oozing from the centers.
“The assorted confectioneries can be utilized as a source of sustenance after we fuck.” He leaned forward, his leather-and-gunpowder scent more appetizing than the chocolate. “Once we have completed our courting,” he hastily added, straightening.
“Our courting.” She tested the word. “Because you’re an alien warrior.”
“I am the best warrior.” Krol beamed. “My need for you is great. I must court faster.” He pivoted on his heels and returned to the truck. The door creaked as he opened it. He reached inside.
The barking increased. A deep, threatening growl raised the tiny hairs on the back of Danielle’s neck. The barking stopped. What has he done to the dog? She pushed up onto her toes. I can’t see anything.
“Krol?” She dropped the roses and chocolates and pointed her gun toward the truck.
An adorable black pit bull puppy rounded the hood of the truck and scampered toward her, slipping and sliding on the gravel, his ears flapping and his tail wagging.
“Oh, you are a cutie.” Danielle dropped her gun into her shirt pocket, bent down and scooped up the puppy. He twisted and squirmed in her hands, his little body vibrating with excitement as she held onto him, enthralled by his seemingly limitless energy. He nipped her on the chin and she laughed, holding him farther from her face. “He’s a vicious little thing, isn’t he?”
“He is the fiercest canine warrior,” Krol declared proudly, standing straighter. “I witnessed as he severed the sound-detecting organ of his rival.”
“Did you chew a doggie’s ear off? Did you?” She tapped the puppy’s cold nose and he snapped at her fingers.
Krol barked, startling Danielle, and the puppy immediately quieted, licking her chin as though to make amends. Danielle stared at her alien lover. “Can you speak dog?”
Krol’s forehead ridges condensed. “The canine’s language is far less complex than yours.” He laid his big hand gently on top of the puppy’s small head. “He notices the absence of his dam.”
Danielle touched her dog tags. “He’ll always miss his mother.”
“That logic is damaged, my Danielle,” Krol dismissed coldly, and she stiffened. “Both my dam and my sire were terminated after my third solar cycle.” His fingers twitched. “I do not notice their absence.”
“Both of them died?” She glanced up at him.
He didn’t meet her gaze, his profile grim. “They were fierce warriors. They saved all of Sila before their termination.”
Leaving a three-year-old without parents to love him.
Danielle leaned into the warmth of his body. Krol placed his free arm around her waist, holding her to him. They stood in silence, three parentless beings, human, alien and canine.
“You have a camera in your bedroom.” She broke the unbearable quiet.
“They watch.” Krol looked upward.
She followed his line of sight and saw nothing except dark, menacing clouds. “You’re making space porn?” Danielle raised her eyebrows. “You’re a freak, Krol, and I should shoot your heavily armored green-and-black ass for not asking my permission first.”
“I am your Krol.” He glowered at her, his eyes swirling with colorful emotion.
“My Krol.”
His gaze swept from the flowers to the chocolates to the puppy cuddled between them. “Our courting is complete.” He released his hold on them and speedily undressed, pulling down his leather outfit, his daggers and weapons clattering to the ground. “We can fuck now.” He stood before her naked, stroking his erect cock with one big hand.
Last night in the moonlight, he had been magnificent. Today, he was fierce and savage, as much of a force of nature as the storm building around them. Danielle set the puppy down on the gravel road. “You want to fuck here? Now?”
“Our courting is complete,” Krol repeated.
She glanced to her left and to her right. The semi-private road was empty of any other vehicles, tall fir trees growing densely where the gravel met the soil. The dark clouds blocked out the sun, giving the illusion of privacy. She longed for the reassurance of his arms around her and the thrust of his cock driving away any of her lingering doubts.
“Okay. Let’s do it.” Danielle placed her hands on the police cruiser’s dented hood and bent over. The moist, cool air caressed her bare ass. “Take me hard and fast, big boy.”
With one vicious yank, Krol ripped the shirt off her back. She gasped, stimulated by his brutal enthusiasm. He was an animal, her animal. She lowered her chest and brushed her naked breasts over the cold, hard steel of her vehicle. Her nipples tightened, aching for his rough touch.
“I am your Krol.” He cuffed her ass and another gasp escaped her lips. “Your Krol.” His palm landed lower, his fingertips grazing her wet pussy. “I am not big boy.” She tilted her burning ass into his slaps, the smacking of skin against skin shockingly loud. “I am not bastard.” He heated her flesh with blow after blow. “I am not asshole.” She bit into her bottom lip, swallowing her sounds of distress. “I am your Krol.”
“You are my Krol.” Thunder rolled in the distance, followed by a flash of lightning. “Punish me with your cock, my Krol.” A trickle of pussy juice dripped down her leg.
He kicked her feet farther apart and rested his gun-roughened hands on her hips, holding her in place. “You will not move.” He teased her pussy lips with his broad cock head and she swayed back, trying to push him inside her. “Be still, druzka.” He shook her and her breasts bounced. “Or I will fuck your ass.”
Danielle clenched her ass, the thought of his big, vibrating cock rammed up her puckered hole pushing her dangerously close to orgasm. “Not without lube.”
He pressed his thumb into her butthole, probing and exploring. “Yes.” With his thumb remaining up her ass, he drove his cock into her pussy. She cried out, rocking against the car, her body impossibly full, her ass cheeks on fire.
“I will fuck your ass.” He wiggled his fingers. “I feel my spicka inside you.” He felt along the thin membrane separating his thick thumb and his vibrating cock.
“My Krol.” Danielle pleaded for movement, tormented by his stillness.
Krol withdrew his thumb and fucked her in earnest, securing her hips with his big hands. He grunted, bending his knees, thrusting into her, taking her like they were savage beasts.
She gripped the hood of the police cruiser, her knuckles white with the strain of not coming. He felt so good, so right. Every thrust of Krol’s huge cock brought twinges of stimulating pain. Each brush of his hips against her battered ass made her skin burn.
The puppy barked to the rhythm of their coupling. Lightning flashed across the dark sky. Thunder rolled. She moaned, adding her noises to the symphony of sound.
Krol pulled on her hair, the sharp sting forcing Danielle to raise her head. She stared into swirling green eyes, set in a ridged face similar to her lover’s, except the stranger was two shades of green with no
black markings.
“Alien…watching,” she panted as Krol drove his cock into her, ravaging her at a relentless pace.
“Warrior Krol Nowak. The time interval for your mission has elapsed,” the alien informed him in a cold and haughty voice.
“I. Am. Fucking,” Krol growled, ramming into her pussy faster and harder, unperturbed by their audience.
“I will wait.” The green alien leaned back against Krol’s truck, crossed his wiry arms and watched them fuck, his countenance conveying cool interest.
“Oh God.” Danielle held onto the hood, her thighs pinned to the police cruiser. Her breasts jiggled over the hard metal surface. “You’re letting him watch.” The stranger’s cock pressed against the fly of his green admiral’s outfit and she licked her lips, stimulated beyond any thoughts of modesty.
“They watch,” Krol murmured into her ear, his deep rumble sending shivers of sensation over her skin. “No male will touch you.” He cupped her right breast in his big right hand and squeezed. “You are my female.”
He adjusted his angle of entry, his cock rubbing against her clit with each thrust. She whimpered, her need reaching the level of pain. “Yes, my Krol.” The green alien’s gaze lowered to her hips. “Fuck me. Fuck me harder.” She begged shamelessly for more, for him to use her body. Krol slid his hand over her stomach. She was so close, so—
He slapped her hairless mons, striking her clit with his index finger, and the pain broke her, splintering her mind into millions of tiny fragments. She screamed as she flung her body backward, impaling herself on his vibrating cock.
Krol tilted his head to the raging skies and roared his satisfaction, his dominance exciting Danielle. She clenched down on his shaft, forcing his release, and he pumped load after load of hot, soothing cum into her aching pussy.
As his thrusts slowed and Krol softened, he eased his bruising grip on her hips. The other alien remained hard, his face twisted with sexual frustration. Danielle’s cheeks heated with pride.
Krol pulled away, his cock slipping from her body, and she missed their connection immediately. “We have courted. We have fucked. It is now the time interval to return to my planet.”
