by Jan Irving
“I will eat again and restore myself,” he said.
“Maybe there’s another solution.” I rubbed my upper lip, considering. “When we, uh, exchange matrix patterns, I feel energised. Does it work both ways?”
Jaden’s eyes widened. “Yes. But—”
I stroked his chest. “You’re no good to me worn out. Let’s try an experiment.” I wished I had time to rig something up to measure our exchange, but we were most likely to run our quarry down if we headed to campus in time for morning classes.
“An experiment,” he repeated. He took my hand almost hesitantly and placed it under his T-shirt so it was resting on his bare chest.
My breathing picked up as I stared into his eyes. I was aware of his heart thudding.
“Nothing’s happening,” I finally said.
He swallowed. “I have not recovered. It is hard to bring up an energy flare.”
“Maybe it just needs a spark.” Forgetting all about EZ, who I figured was watching us avidly, I leant forward and brushed my lips against his.
Fire ignited as my tongue touched his. I experienced it on a physical level, that delicious feel of his hard body wrapping possessively around mine, his silky hair in my fist, his heart thundering under my burning palm. I felt it on an energy level, sensed the glow of light through my closed eyelids, felt him come inside me in a way that was more intimate than sex.
At first it was like hot fingers exploring me, my thoughts and emotions, but then Jaden’s essence caged me and he dived into the darker parts, where Riley had touched me. Jaden tackled those memories with the psychic equivalent of scrubbing bubbles.
“Stop!” I ordered him mentally. We were so close I knew he could read my thoughts.
“He will not have you. Not any part of you.”
Jealousy. My alien boyfriend was jealous as hell. I felt the flames of it sear me as he shot light into the memories of Riley touching me, then betraying me. Jaden had no conception of how trivial my fling with Riley was. To him, I had to be his, all his, my body, my emotions.
“Don’t. He doesn’t matter anymore,” I whispered to him. I could feel Jaden’s torment. He was living my past pain as if it were his own.
“He hurt you. I feel it.”
Jaden knew how I’d felt on top of the world as Riley kissed me, put his mouth on my cock, made me feel like a lover for the first time in my life. How stupidly naïve I’d been to attend that party with him afterward, thinking he was proud to be with me.
I deliberately yanked Jaden away from those dark splotches of pain that were paling even now under the bleach treatment he was giving my matrix. Instead, I relived our first kiss, the way Jaden’s eyes had looked in sunlight, with bits of amber lighting the brown, the way I’d trusted him enough with that terrible vulnerability, letting him inside my body.
“ Mitchell…” He drowned himself in me, lighting sparks all through my body and soul so my fingers and toes tingled. His kiss was ravenous, hungry for my taste. He reached down and cupped me, and potency rolled through me. I was hard as iron under his touch, aching, marked by more than just his flesh.
He moaned and I was suddenly underneath him, his body crushing mine, his lips taking me savagely. I twisted his hair to bring him closer, wanting to meld our bodies as closely as our souls.
A gasp broke the moment.
EZ.
Still here and watching us.
I closed my eyes. I would not die of sexual denial.
Jaden squeezed me gently and I nearly came. Damn. He was shameless, but then he
didn’t have the kind of inhibitions I was saddled with.
Lucky Jaden.
I cleared my throat. “EZ,” I rasped. “I guess I can’t bribe you to leave the room.” “I’m sorry, Mitch but… We have a mission, remember?”
Shit. I forced myself to clear my throat, to shove Jaden’s hand aside. He gave me a hurt
look. “You got the zap you needed?” I asked him.
“Zap?” His dark brows furrowed, then his expression cleared. “Yes.”
I peeled myself away from him, walking over to the nearest table and gripping it until
my body calmed a little. I was definitely energised. I didn’t want to analyse the emotional hangover from being so close to Jaden. It actually hurt not to be a part of him. EZ wasn’t looking at me with the taunting smile I’d expected. She actually looked a little embarrassed. “Sorry. But this is too important to—” “No problem.” I cleared my throat again because my voice was still dark and husky with arousal. “Thanks.”
“Sure.”
“You will not take more energy from me?” Jaden asked.
I shook my head. “We’ll split up and see if we can find Mason or Mallory. I’ll just have to use my old-fashioned human senses to figure out if one of them is acting strange.”
“I can stick with Mitchell, Jaden,” EZ offered. “I feel…fantastic.”
“Very well. I will try to trace the energy signature I scented last night,” Jaden said. “It might be another path to finding our enemy.” He stood and a look of pain flickered over his face.
“What?” I demanded, immediately concerned.
“I am…frustrated. It is painful.” He glared at me.
“Join the club,” I said.
“Guys, can we focus? Not that the merging wasn’t…” She licked her lips. “It was beautiful, the glowing light surrounding you, the way you kissed.”
This was extremely sentimental coming from my EZ. I avoided her eyes. “Okay, Jaden, you should—”
He was already gone. I ran a hand through my hair. “Well, that was an abrupt exit.”
“I think we need to train him to say goodbye,” EZ said.
“Mmmm.”
We took a little longer, getting rid of the coffee paraphernalia and me grabbing a heavy coat. “Let’s go hunting, my girl,” I said.
But EZ stopped me after I’d locked my door. “Mitch, you’re in love with Jaden, aren’t you?”
Chapter Ten
“What did you say?” “I think I was clear enough.” EZ glared at me. “You are so in love with Jaden. What are you going to do about it?”
I gulped in a deep breath but unfortunately I didn’t safely beam to an alternative universe where EZ wasn’t grilling me about my romantic life. “What can I do?” I hedged.
“Ah-ha! A tacit admission of love. So guy-like.”
“I am a guy.”
“Exactly. And you’re in love with Jaden.”
“Can we please focus on the mission?” I was willing to beg. This topic was like a sharp stick poking into my gut.
“How are you going to keep him with us—keep Jaden, I mean,” EZ continued, with all the ruthlessness of a very good friend. Damn, she always thought she knew what was best for me. Trouble was, she usually did.
“I’m supposed to keep him?” I doled out an extra helping of sarcasm but it didn’t seem to faze her.
“Well, yeah. He can be the model for all your future romance covers.”
“Yeah, he—” I blinked. “Hey, you tried to trick me!”
“Duh. Don’t tell me you can’t picture your cute alien boyfriend living with you.”
I could, but I didn’t see how it would work out. “We’re literally from two different worlds.”
“So are men and women.”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t start on that men are from Mars crap.”
“It should be easier for you to understand and live with a man because you have a dick,” she said. “And all that crazy-making testosterone.”
“A match made in heaven.”
“Mitchell.” She grabbed my arm. “He came through time and space for you. Are you going to let him turn into a big vapour cloud when this is all over and walk out of your life?”
“I don’t think vapour clouds walk.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“I’m crazy about him.” My voice cracked. I looked away immediately. “Stop. We are not having this conversation.�
�
“Fine. I gave you something to think about. Use all those super smarts and come up with a way you can keep your star-crossed honey.”
I stared up at a black nightmare of twisted metal, at the jagged spikes of a broken windshield that spilled glass like diamonds on the black velvet pedestal.
“It’s eerie,” EZ said in a hushed voice as we walked through the exhibit featuring crashed cars and bikes in the fine arts wing on campus. “This motorcycle fortunately was not involved in a fatal accident like some of the others. I never took our girl Mallory for being such a morbid budding artist.”
“Guess dating Riley has this effect on her.”
“Yeah, twisting her like all of these wrecks.” EZ grimaced but then frowned. “You know what these also bring to mind? Jaden. Makes me think of him and his motorcycle crash. I know he had no family, the real Jaden, I mean. He was a foster kid and a loner. All he ever seemed to have was that bike of his.”
“He didn’t have anyone,” I agreed.
“No, but now he has us.”
“EZ!” Mallory smiled her cheerleader smile, white teeth gleaming. Looking at her I remembered how stupid I’d felt, thinking Riley would take me over her. “Oh and…ah, your friend.”
“You know very well this is Mitchell, Mal,” EZ said. Her tone was all ‘don’t bullshit me, you know he slept with your boyfriend’.
Mallory gave me a vicious look. Apparently I was more of a threat than I’d thought. I should probably be flattered. “I know who he is. Riley’s pathetic little experiment.”
I laughed. “Well, I am a scientist.”
“What do you want? He’s over that phase, if you think you’ll hop in bed with the two of us.”
“What?” I laughed again. “No… I guess you could say I’m over my Riley phase.”
She didn’t look like she believed me.
EZ rolled her eyes. “Mitch has more pride than to sleep with you in order to get close to Riley.”
“For the record, I couldn’t sleep with Mallory. I could sleep with you, EZ, if I had to, but Mallory isn’t a nice person.” I took my glasses off and cleaned them on my T-shirt.
EZ sighed. “Can I pick a great best friend? He’d even sacrifice himself to sleep with me.”
I laughed but obviously Mallory didn’t see the humour.
“What do you two want?” Mallory growled. She was trembling. Abruptly, I felt sorry for her. She was building her dream life with Riley out of mud bricks. First good rain would bring it down.
“We want to know if you’ve noticed anyone in your crowd acting strange lately,” EZ said. She had as much subtlety as the business end of a bat.
“You mean other than you two?”
“It’s important, Mallory,” EZ pressed.
“Well, Jaden’s certainly lost his mind. Word is he hit his gorgeous head in his motorcycle crash, because why else would he be dating Mitchell?”
“Please,” I muttered, not impressed by her show of cattiness.
“It was a pretty bad accident,” Mallory said, looking a little deflated that I wasn’t hurt. “That’s his former bike. I got it from the junk yard.” She nodded towards the black Harley EZ and I had been staring at when she’d joined us. My belly twisted, imagining Jaden’s blood spattered on it.
But Jaden was alive. He had walked away from that accident and blasted through my front door and into my life.
A miracle.
My throat had that irritating burn again. I swallowed around it. “Look, I didn’t know you and Riley were still hooked up on Halloween. It may not matter to you, but no matter how beautiful he is, I wouldn’t have gone out with him if I’d known he had someone.” Mallory blinked. “You are a naïve child.”
“Yeah, I was.”
She chewed her lip, considering me, then blew out a breath. “All right, I believe you and… Yeah, one of Riley’s friends has been behaving…differently. You could say he’s why I’m hiding out here today.” Colour washed through her pale cheeks.
“Is it Mason?” EZ demanded.
“Yes,” Mallory said, sounding surprised that we’d guessed. Her gaze fell for the first time. “Now leave me the hell alone, both of you.”
I took EZ’s arm before she could say more. We were silent walking through the gauntlet of all those shattered cars and bikes, shattered dreams.
Mallory’s artistic world was as depressing as her real one.
“It was a bit off the wall, prodding me about a threesome,” I said. “I thought it was a joke.”
“She’s desperate.” EZ and I stepped into the elevator that would take us back to the main level. “And I bet she’s had a threesome before for old Riley’s benefit.”
“Maybe…with Mason?”
EZ blinked. “Oh, shit. You think Mr X was curious about what it was like to couple with humans?”
“If Mason is our man, he used Riley and Mallory as an experiment while he was waiting to pop me.”
EZ shuddered. “It wouldn’t have been anything like you and Jaden.”
“No. Jaden would never use someone like that, even if he is curious.”
“He’s in love with you too, you know,” EZ said.
“EZ, he doesn’t even know what love is.” I stuffed my hands in my pockets. “I’m not sure I do.”
“Oh yeah he does. Because we just saw its opposite with Mallory and, like you said, Jaden would never do that, use you as a cold experiment in human-alien relations.”
No, there was nothing cold when Jaden touched me. He always acted like he couldn’t keep his hands off me and God knows I felt the same.
“What next, we hunt down Mason?”
“I think we should head to the cafe in the SUB building and try to meet up with Jaden, get his take on what Mallory told us,” she said, referring to the most popular coffee shop on campus. “Everyone goes through there at least once a day so we might spot him. The one thing I think we should avoid right now is contact with Mason until we have some serious backup.”
I nodded. “Our opponent is ruthless.”
“Yes. I know Mr X firebombed a classroom, but I didn’t get how ruthless until we talked to Mallory.” She made a face. “Maybe it’s a girl thing, but the idea of being so coldly used for sex…”
“It’s not a girl thing. I’m a scientist and I find it repugnant.”
“You’re an ethical scientist,” EZ said. “You have a genuine desire to make people’s lives better with your inventions.”
I coloured but fortunately she didn’t continue. We found a table near the smoky glass windows overlooking the concrete courtyard, where we could see students pass by on the way to class. “Maybe Jaden’s love of coffee will make him show up soon,” EZ said. “I have a theory about the coffee love—it probably lights up his energy matrix.”
“That’s interesting.” I was itching to do some experiments with Jaden, to see what could enhance his powers. Too bad we were being hunted so I didn’t have time. “But whatever happens, remember our opponent is after me, EZ,” I told her. “Not you.”
Her gaze drilled into mine. “I am not going to desert you so that…that thing can just kill you.”
“He nearly killed you before.” I took her hand and squeezed it firmly. “It would have killed me.”
“Mitchell—”
“No, EZ. I’m scared and I want to put my head in the sand and just…hide. But knowing you could be hurt if I don’t handle this, take him out somehow—”
“You don’t get to be a hero, pal,” she said. “We’re a team, you, me and Jaden.”
I wanted to take her name from that list but I knew she wouldn’t let me.
Friendship was hell on a guy sometimes.
“Don’t get sexist and protective.”
“I’ll cop to protective.” A flash of red hair caught my eye, since the grey day outdoors made Mason’s hair stand out. “Shit, Mason’s coming.”
EZ tensed beside me.
I studied the engineering student, seeing that, un
like the other people rushing for class, he wasn’t wearing a knapsack heavy with books or carrying a phone or tablet and messaging someone. Instead, his eyes shifted right to left and his walk seemed almost military stiff. His face was expressionless.
“He’s creepy. How could Riley have wanted to sleep with him?”
“Riley will sleep with anything with a dick.” Not exactly flattering to me, but true.
Mason’s gaze suddenly riveted to us as we watched him from our window side table. He shouldn’t have been able to see us through the opaque glass but I saw his eyes widen, the colour seeming to intensify and glow.
“EZ…”
“I feel him,” she whispered. “Like Jaden, but not. Cold. Like a machine.”
Mason was suddenly running towards us.
“He’s made us. Up!” I yanked EZ from her chair, upending our lattes and causing the couple next to us to swear. I didn’t stop to fumble through an apology but kept hold of EZ and ran.
EZ didn’t argue. I heard her panting beside me as we made it to the entrance into the SUB mall. Behind us came the sound of shattering glass. Mason had jumped right through the window to follow us.
“Playtime is over,” I huffed. I scanned the crowded hallway and ran towards a door near the entrance, EZ clinging to my hand.
“He’s coming, Mitch!”
“I know.” I hit the side door and we ran up two flights of stairs.
“Where are we going?” EZ asked.
“Science fiction club meets here every Thursday,” I told her, taking out my keys. “I have access to our meeting room.”
Behind us, we heard the door to the stairs slam open.
“Oh, Goddess, it’s just like a horror movie,” EZ said.
“Shhh!”
The steps behind us were even and unhurried, as if Mason knew finding us was a foregone conclusion.
We sprinted as quietly as possible to the door of the science fiction club. I fumbled with the key and then unlocked it, trying to ignore the footsteps getting closer.
I left the light off, dragging EZ deeper into the room with its second-hand furniture and lurid posters of robots carrying away human women. “I never thought I’d be grateful you’re such a nerd,” she breathed. “But I don’t think we’ve lost him.”
