by Kayla Wolf
“Wait a second,” she breathed, rolling to the side of the bed and leaning over it to dig around underneath it. There was a box in here somewhere – the secret box she always had to hide when her parents came to visit – ah, there it was. A nondescript gray box, containing a few Secret Items – and a stash of condoms. Not exactly a staple of her weekly grocery shop, but she was fairly certain they were within their expiry date. She returned to Alexander, who had settled on the bed on his back and was looking like some kind of goddamn Greek god. She shook her head.
“What?”
“Just look at you.”
A pleased smile crossed his face at that, making him even more impossibly gorgeous, and Lisa took the opportunity to climb on top of him again, her hands – almost of their own volition – taking every possible opportunity to caress and stroke that absurdly well-muscled body. She pressed her lips to his throat, one hand slipping a little further down to unbuckle his belt – he groaned, pressed his hips up towards her hand, and she smiled, unwrapping the condom as discreetly as she could. Not the sexiest part of the whole thing, but she'd had a bit of practice making it as smooth as possible. Responding to her, he had tugged his pants down, and she slipped the condom over him, grinning at the way he groaned at her touch.
“What – what are you doing?” he breathed.
“What do you think?” She lay back on the bed beside him, and without any further encouragement he rolled over to press her body down to the bed, buried his face in her throat – and then in a rush he was inside her, and she threw her head back, biting back on the urge to moan, all too aware of how thin the walls were and not particularly interested in getting smug, knowing looks from her neighbors in the morning – but God, he felt incredible —
She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him closer. He groaned, picked up the already-frenetic pace, kissed her throat hard enough to leave marks on her skin. To his credit, it was several minutes before his body started tensing up and his breath started to catch in that tell-tale way that suggested he was only barely holding himself back – and Lisa wasn't far off herself, especially after the specialized attention he'd given her. Breathless, she moved with him, felt her orgasm building up inside her like a bomb about to go off – and they came almost simultaneously, his body tensing around her and her fingernails digging hard into his back.
With an exhausted sigh, he extracted himself and half-sank, half-collapsed onto the bed beside her. Laughing a little deliriously, she curled into the warm embrace of his arm, pressed a kiss to the side of his sweaty face and basked in the afterglow. Not bad at all for a first time, she thought drowsily – it wasn't often that she came in that position, especially with someone who didn't know her body very well yet. Skill or luck?
Still smiling, she drifted off into a shallow doze, the reassuring warmth of Alexander's arm around her shoulders.
Chapter 9 – Alexander
Well. This was unexpected.
Alexander lay awake in the dark with Lisa nestled in the crook of his arm and thoughts racing through his mind. There was an incredibly pleasant glow suffusing every muscle in his body, and he wanted nothing more than to drift off to sleep like this. It had been a long, long time since he remembered anything like this – there had been women, of course, women like him, but not for an incredibly long time, and rarely in this form. What on earth had she put on him, he wondered drowsily, his brow furrowing – some kind of special, intimate clothing? He ought to have done more research before he came here, that was becoming clear. The more he watched the television in Lisa's apartment – and he'd done a lot of that this week – the more he realized how much had changed since he'd last visited. There were entire sentences of language he had absolutely no way of understanding – much of it to do with computers, which appeared to be significant these days, but a lot more of it to do with colloquialisms he'd never heard of. Lisa would know, he reflected, glancing sideways at her sleeping face on his shoulder – she was beautiful, he thought, unexpectedly. A thought he'd had in passing, but not so – acutely.
Guilt followed that realization as surely as night followed day. Not only had he misled her completely about who he was and what he was doing here, now he'd taken advantage of her sexually. But had he? She had seemed very enthusiastic about the whole situation – but he had had ample opportunity to stop her, and he had not taken it. They couldn't have a relationship, not while she knew nothing about him. But perhaps she didn't want a relationship? As far as he could gather from the television shows he had watched, it was reasonably common for young women and men to have simple sexual dalliances. But by the same token, the shows had made it fairly clear that feelings were an inevitable outcome of these dalliances.
He liked Lisa. She was brave, and kind, and had taken him in at great risk to herself, extended him a great deal of trust that he had done almost nothing to earn. She may well have saved his life in that alley – who knew what would have happened if those other shifters had returned with their leader to finish what they had started? And how had he repaid her kindness? By entering into an entanglement that could not possibly end well for her. After all, he was here to find a human woman who was to be his mate, his lifelong partner. It had been prophesied. As kind and brave and intelligent as Lisa was, she could not stand in the way of a prophecy as ancient and powerful as that.
Gently, he shifted his weight, and she rolled over obligingly in her sleep to cushion her head on the pillow on the bed. Alexander reached down to the end of the bed, where the blanket had been hurled by their rather energetic interactions – gently, he placed it across her shoulders, smiling to himself as she drowsily took it and pulled it closer around her. Yes, she was beautiful and spirited, and fun. He had been lucky to find her, here in this strange and horribly busy city. But it would be unfair of him to spend any more time with her – not when he had such an important quest to complete. She had given him shelter and comfort when he most needed it. Now, fully healed, he needed to leave her to resume her regular human life. He gathered his clothes, sidled into the bathroom that adjoined her bedroom, removed the curious plastic item she had put on him and after a moment of confusion put it in the bin, then returned to the bedroom.
Alexander bent to press a kiss to Lisa's cheek – she smiled a little but didn't stir from her slumber. Good. It would be better if she didn't awaken. He hesitated in the bedroom doorway, unsure of whether he should leave her some kind of explanation. A note, perhaps, explaining that he was grateful for all her help, but he had important business to attend to and needed to leave. But the more he thought about it, the harder it was to think of what to write. Perhaps he should just – leave. The sooner he finished his task, the better. And the sooner he'd stop thinking about her, he thought, a little sadly. A considerable part of him wanted nothing more than to go back into that room and take her into his arms again. But that was a weak part of him, something to be overcome. This human woman was a distraction from his quest. His family depended on him for their very survival, and he wanted to play house with some human? What kind of a king would do that?
Alexander straightened his back. He knew what he had to do.
The apartment had a small balcony – Lisa had joked that she didn't trust it to support her weight, let alone his. It was true that the structure didn't seem especially safe, but it was a lot safer than trying to transform inside the house. Alexander stepped outside cautiously onto the balcony, fully clothed but still a little chilled by the brisk night air. Well, that wouldn't be a problem for much longer. He had gotten a lot more comfortable in his human form over the past few days, but he was still very much looking forward to being free of it for a few hours at least. He would transform, find somewhere safe to set up as a home base, and then continue his search of the city. That had been his mistake – not establishing a safe haven before he began his search. Spending time in Lisa's little apartment had shown him the error of his ways there.
(Perhaps he would even procure a television.
Netflix was useful human research, he felt. Helena would agree if she were here. He cringed a little at the idea of telling her about all the mistakes he'd made so far – perhaps he'd gloss over the worst of them in the retelling. The way his sister looked at him when he confessed to mistakes she considered foolish... well, it was certainly motivating, that was for sure.)
Alexander took a deep breath, quieting his thoughts. He fixed his eye on the horizon and took another deep breath into lungs that would soon expand. It would be tricky to manage the transformation such that he was airborne before the balcony gave way beneath him, but he'd gotten out of tighter spots before with no trouble. As he concentrated, he felt his skin begin to tingle and the cold of the night suddenly dulled as scales rippled up from his fingertips along his arms. He felt his shoulders itching and the bones crunching as they rearranged themselves – grateful as always that pain wasn't a part of this process, he shut his eyes as the scales covered his arms, spread across his chest and back down his body to encase his legs. He could feel his hands extending, the fingers replaced with curved talons, the bend in his knees reversing, the itch in his shoulders beginning to grow unbearable – he could feel his body wanting to expand, to reach its full size, his neck beginning to lengthen beneath the scales, and —
A scream split through the night, and he jerked his half-transformed head around to see Lisa standing in the doorway with the bedsheets draped around her shoulders, her eyes wide with absolute horror.
Chapter 10 – Lisa
She felt a bit stupid for screaming, on reflection. It was New York, it was late at night, and it was Friday. What the hell kind of good would screaming do? All she'd done was rile herself up, and get the attention of the monstrosity on her balcony. She realized, as it spun around that she'd been looking at the back side of it – the front side was, if anything, worse. Vaguely humanoid, covered in strange fingernail-like plates, with a hideously elongated neck, knees that bent the wrong way – and it was impossible to get a handle on what it actually looked like because she realized as she stared at it that its body was shifting. Changing shape – morphing – like some kind of ... well, like nothing she wanted anything to do with, that was for sure.
Was this a dream? Was she having some kind of hideous dream? She certainly still felt drowsy, though the adrenalin of the discovery was cutting through that pretty well. But no – everything was too acutely realistic for it to be a dream. And she rarely spent dreams thinking about whether or not she was dreaming – if this was a dream, she'd already be fighting the monstrosity on her balcony, or being eaten alive by it, or trying to present a speech that she hadn't written yet, or realizing that she was halfway to school and not wearing any clothes...
Well, she certainly wasn't wearing any clothes. She tugged the sheets a little closer around her and glanced wildly around the apartment for a weapon. Where on earth was Alexander? In the bathroom, maybe? Strong as he was, he could probably take this thing down – it wasn't much bigger than him. It was the least he could do, honestly, to repay her for the week of hospitality – banish this hideous thing from her balcony.
It was still staring at her, and she forced herself to look at its face. At least it hadn't attacked her yet. The face was covered with those odd scales, too – they reflected the light in a way that was deeply unsettling to her. Its face could have been human, but for the hideous way it bulged out at the nose, distorting the angle of the mouth and pulling it open ... and the eyes were lizard-like, bulging and hideous. Were those serrated teeth in its mouth? Jesus Christ, what was this thing? Could it be real? Had one of her girlfriends slipped an acid tab into one of her cocktails?
The scales were shifting, and Lisa turned away, nauseated by the creature's appearance – but she couldn't help looking back at it. Were the scales – falling off it? They seemed to be covering less of its body – and was it smaller? It was about Alexander's height now, and (a sickening crunch split the air and made her gag) its knees suddenly reversed direction. The scales were definitely retreating – she could see the thing's skin seemingly absorbing the scales, replacing that dull metallic luster with what looked like...
Lisa looked up from the creature's stomach to its face, hardly daring to believe the conclusion her mind had jumped to. And looking back at her, with an expression of deep concern —
“No.”
“Lisa, please —” Alexander took a step towards her, reaching out one hand – she flinched away from it like she'd been shot, because for just a moment as he reached out, his fingers were too long, wickedly sharp and curved, and she stared in horror as they reformed into regular fingers, the hands that had only an hour ago been all over her naked body. She took an involuntary step back in disgust. “Listen.”
“Listen? What the hell – what – what was that? What did you do to yourself?”
“There are things I have not told you,” he said, and she couldn't believe how normal he looked. How completely he'd resumed the form she knew him in – the same face, the same dark tousled hair, the same statuesque physique. Those same glowing golden eyes that seemed to light up from within. Now that she wasn't looking at the monstrosity, she couldn't believe she'd really seen it. It was just Alexander. Stark naked, but completely human, Alexander.
“What did you do to me?” she demanded now through gritted teeth. “What kind of bullshit hallucinogen did you spike me with? What does that? Acid? Salvia?” She'd once had a client who was deeply of the belief that drugs were a window into an altered form of consciousness – he'd been a difficult one to help. She wished she'd paid more attention to his detailed rants about the differences between all the hallucinogenic drugs that were out there. Maybe then she'd know if there was something that could be given by skin-to-skin contact, or through airwaves, or something. Or had Alexander spiked her in her sleep? She felt suddenly horrified at herself for trusting this complete stranger not only to live in her house, but to sleep in her bed – to sleep with her —
“Lisa, listen. I did not do anything. I have not drugged you. I am – you will not understand. I am not like you. I am —”
“No shit you're not like me,” she gasped, furious. “You're a monster.”
He recoiled at that – his whole body seemed to shrink away from her, and somehow he looked smaller, shorter than his frame. There was a look of real hurt on his face as she stared him down. Typical man, she thought furiously – had the audacity to act all hurt and shocked at the idea that his actions had consequences.
“Lisa – listen. I ... I should not have left you. I am sorry.”
“Left?” She stared at him. “You were trying to leave? You can't climb down from this balcony, idiot. The fire escape's been broken for months.”
“I was going to fly.”
Lisa took a deep breath. “You were going to fly.”
“Yes. I am sorry.”
“So you took a dose of whatever you gave me,” she muttered, angry. “No way, buddy. Come inside.”
He hesitated on the balcony, and she felt a pang of real concern – for all that she felt furious and betrayed, she didn't want to watch this man jump naked off a fourteenth-story balcony because he was so drugged up that he thought he could fly. She beckoned him, angrily, and he followed her, shoulders hunched. Strange – she didn't feel drugged. Even the effects of the cocktails had more or less worn off. And the hallucinations had stopped completely. She looked around her apartment, searching for something unusual in her vision. It had just been that lizard-like monster on the balcony. Strange.
“If you're not going to tell me what you gave me, I'm going to have to call the police,” she said levelly, her phone in her hand.
“Nothing,” he said earnestly, his gold eyes serious in the low light of the apartment. “You must believe me. I have not been entirely honest with you, I will admit that, but I have not – drugged you. I would never.”
“Then explain the hideous shit I saw on the balcony,” Lisa demanded.
Alexander sighed. He
held up a hand, maintaining eye contact with her – and she recoiled in horror as his fingernails seemed to multiply and spread down his fingers and across the back of his hand, like some kind of strange glove. Just like the scales that had covered the monstrosity – even the same strange, gleaming metallic shade. Fascination warring with revulsion, she took a tentative step towards him – he extended the hand to her, and she touched it cautiously. The scales felt like her nails did when she'd had acrylics done – firm but slightly pliable, glossy and smooth. She ran her fingertip across a few of them. They were slightly warm to the touch, like skin.
If this was a hallucination, it was an eerily realistic one.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” she whispered under her breath.
“Lisa. I am —”
There was a sudden knocking at the door – hard and thunderous enough to make both of them jump. Alexander made a little gesture with his hand, and the scales disappeared, replaced again by regular flesh, so quickly that she wondered again if she'd dreamed it.
“Who the hell,” Lisa muttered irritably, grabbing a hoodie and a pair of trackpants from her room and dragging them on as quickly as she could, leaving the sheets in a pile on the ground. The knocking sounded again, louder this time. “Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!”
“Be careful,” Alexander said in a low voice. “I think —”
“Yes?”
Lisa stared at the woman who was at the door. Gray eyes, leather jacket, a mane of fiery red hair – she didn't look like the kind of woman Lisa spent a lot of time with. She looked dangerous, in fact. This wasn't helped by the way that her lip seemed to be raised in a snarl – or by the two identical men standing behind her with hoods drawn low over their eyes. But there was a look of shocked recognition in the eyes of one of the men, and as he stepped forward, she realized with a thrill of unease that she recognized him.
