Laaruu—his name sounded like a wolf howling at the moon—made a finger disappear. He left the one by his pinkie and winked at Kimi. “Let’s see if anybody else notices.”
Kimi drew in a deep breath. She might be going crazy. She probably was. Maybe Laaruu wasn’t here at all and the counterperson had already called for the authorities to come fetch the lunatic gabbing to herself in the corner of the shop. But if Laaruu was there, and if by chance he was an alien, she needed some answers.
“Okay, Ziggy Stardust. You’re knocking my socks off. But Raven—she couldn’t be alive. Not after all the blood I saw. I mean, it came from two people, but enough of it was hers.”
“You’re right. She should have been dead after that drunken lunatic shot her in the chest and tore her heart apart. Blew off one of her arms while he was at it.”
Kimi swallowed against the final morsel of scone that tried to rise up in her throat. “Thanks for the visual.”
“Fortunately, Daagiis had been watching her. As it was, he barely got Raven to a Gilothean medical lab in time to save her. But he did, and she lived to tell the tale.”
“Wait. What?” Kimi was losing the thread of a story she shouldn’t have been listening to in the first place. “You’re speaking in tongues. Start from the beginning and talk slow.”
He swallowed the last of his egg sandwich. “Fine. Just understand, I wasn’t there to witness it. I only read the reports.”
“Reports. Great, even aliens have to fill out forms. There is no intelligent life out there then.” Kimi tried to play it off light, to find humor before the situation made her head explode.
“It’s all in Giloth’s Immigration of Alt-Earth files, which are a matter of public record for Consolidated Collective Space. We Paatiin aren’t supposed to be privy to such information, but we prefer to maintain surveillance on our allies, along with our enemies.”
Kimi had a hopeful thought about what might be happening to her. Perhaps she wasn’t going crazy after all. Maybe some asshole had slipped drugs into her drink at Rafters the night before. The idea, which she’d find abhorrent in the normal scheme of things, granted her hope to cling to.
No insanity. No alien. Just a really bad trip. Yeah, that would be nice.
Laaruu sighed. “I see I’m still confusing you. I’ll keep the story basic. Daagiis, a member of my race, came to your world looking for a protector for his lover and – master.” He sneered the last word. “He needed someone he could guarantee had not been co-opted by the pervasive criminal element in our universe. He met and identified Raven as a potential protector.”
Kimi shook her head. “Raven never met an alien. She would have told me about that, no matter how bizarre it sounded.” Just as Kimi would have been quick to tell Raven about this morning of lunacy, even if it meant her bestie having her committed for her own good.
“Daagiis was well disguised as a human, as I am. You ran into him yourself. He went by the name Douglas Bringer.”
Kimi half-rose out of her chair, shock coursing through her body. She forced herself to subside when the other two patrons glanced at her.
She whispered, “Bringer? The guy posing as an auditor from General Accounting?”
Laaruu shrugged. “I didn’t pay attention to the particulars of his cover story.”
“We’ve been searching for his ass ever since Raven disappeared. His rental car was found less than half a mile from her duty truck. He vanished the same day she did.”
“Indeed. He kept close tabs on your friend once he decided she would make an excellent protector. So, to sum up: Raven was on patrol when she came across a drunk driver. She stopped him, and he surprised her with a large-caliber weapon that blew off most of one arm and put a massive hole in her chest. Daagiis disintegrated the drunk and took Raven to our space to be healed and enhanced. With her permission, I’ll have you note. She now lives and works with Daagiis and a Gilothean named Vendeen.”
Kimi stared at him. Raven abducted by aliens? The story was unbelievable, but then nothing had been believable since Laaruu showed up.
She glanced at the extra finger once more. Was it real? Was there the slightest chance she wasn’t crazy or drugged?
“Raven’s alive.” God, how she wished it could be true.
“Quite alive.”
“You’re offering to take me to see her?”
His rich voice sounded as if he suppressed laughter. “I wouldn’t put it that way. There is a better-than-decent chance that we would run across her and her companions in the near future.”
“But you do want me to go to this alternate universe with you, is that right?”
Laaruu smiled. His devilish beauty made Kimi distrust him more than ever. “That’s why I’m here.”
She narrowed her gaze at him. “For what reason? Obviously, not out of the kindness of your heart.”
He regarded her, letting his amusement show. “I wish you to come with me because I was impressed with your Raven. She fascinates me. Daagiis’s report to Consolidated’s Immigration Board said you were similar to her in personality. However, he became attached to Raven, so he chose her over you.”
“Lucky me.” Kimi scowled, realizing something was missing. For example, a valid motive. “Let me get this straight. You came to Earth to meet me in hopes I possess the same fascinating qualities as Raven? Or are you looking for a protector too?”
Laaruu laughed outright. “I am quite capable of protecting myself and mine. It’s my job, in fact. However, it would make my life easier to have a warrior such as you fighting at my side.”
“Stop yanking my chain, Captain Kirk. What are you truly after?”
“Fine. I plan to take you home for no other reason but for the interest and pleasure I think you’ll offer.”
Kimi couldn’t be hearing him right. “You gotta be fucking kidding me. You want me for a girlfriend?”
He shook his head, still chuckling. “We’ll talk more soon. Work on getting yourself in shape. Eat healthy. Stop drinking alcohol. Your friend is alive, and the world has not ended. In fact, Kimi Furio, your world has just become a lot bigger.”
He stood up and walked out. His departure was so abrupt that Kimi failed to accept it was happening until he was at the door.
“Wait. Hey!”
Laaruu didn’t respond, didn’t turn. He walked out and strode past the glass front of the shop without pause, vanishing around the corner of the building.
Kimi raced after him. She got outside and stared at the nearly vacant parking lot. There was no sign of Laaruu. The supposed alien had disappeared.
She banged into the shop. The counterwoman watched her curiously, her black eyebrows lifting as Kimi approached.
Kimi ignored that the woman looked at her as if she were a rattlesnake poised to strike. “You saw that guy, right? Tall, black hair, looks like Satan trying to charm you out of your soul?”
The woman snapped a nod and took a step back. She watched Kimi carefully.
Kimi went out again. Good enough. Maybe she looked crazy, but she wasn’t. Not entirely. Someone else had seen Laaruu. At the moment, after too many revelations, that was all that mattered.
Chapter Three
The next two days were an exercise in frustration. Kimi spent most of her time pacing and waiting to hear from Laaruu again. The small apartment, crowded by the bulky furniture she’d inherited from her parents, became claustrophobic. Despite that she stayed in, with the heavy curtains closed, leaving her apartment in a permanent twilight state.
Somehow, she found Laaruu’s absence more disconcerting than the fact that he had told her the impossible—that Raven was alive—and that he was the impossible—a shapeshifting alien. After all those disclosures, it was bizarre that he’d made no further attempts to talk to her. It was driving her crazy.
Both Maurice and Todd had called to check on her. Maurice in particular had quizzed her about whether or not she’d talked to ‘Larry’. Kimi had lied effortlessly, telling him she
hadn’t heard from the stranger who’d left the note at Rafters. As far as her friends were concerned, the odd encounter had ended there.
Who would believe the truth? Not even friends would lend credence to a story as outlandish as hers. She knew Maurice was already half-convinced she’d lost her marbles. She was turning into a hardcore drunk, further damaging her reputation. Kimi had the idea that if she started raving about aliens and a dead friend living in an alternate universe, she be met with an intervention and a stay at the local psych ward.
Kimi had not ventured out in the two days since meeting with Laaruu. She had the superstitious notion that the instant she jumped on her bike and rode away, the man with the evil good looks would show up at her doorstep. Maybe he’d never return, and Kimi was damned near desperate to see him again, if only to convince herself that she hadn’t gone over the bend.
She’d cut back on the drinking so she wouldn’t greet the alien impaired. Kimi had imbibed just enough to fend off the headaches and shakes that came with outright sobriety. Not only that, but she’d jumped on her elliptical a few times.
Two days. No call. No visit. Nothing.
Ready to lose her shit for real, Kimi stood in front of her liquor cabinet on the third morning, eyeing her choices. She hated feeling as if she needed a drink before noon. She’d have to be on a true downward spiral to have hit that point. Yet she had. The demand for a little calm was overpowering. It gnawed at her brain, at her guts. Did it matter? If he wanted her—if he existed—Laaruu would have shown up by now.
Kimi glanced at the clock on her microwave. The digital numbers mocked her: 10:45. An hour and fifteen minutes before she could have an actual drink to enjoy, not simply to fend off the physical repercussions.
A fucking hour. And fifteen minutes. Seventy-five motherfucking minutes to live with the turbulence of another disappointment. Of a renewed sense of loss.
A tear rolled down her cheek. She whispered to the kitchen, “Who am I kidding? I could give a fuck if it’s before lunchtime. He’s not going to call. Laaruu the alien has returned to the mothership – if he was ever here at all.”
That was the scariest part. She might have hallucinated the whole damned thing. The counterperson’s assertion that Kimi had not sat alone at her table, eating a scone and talking to no one—that might have been a fantasy.
Less than three years ago, her parents had drowned in a boating accident. That had been the first major jolt. Kimi’s gaze strayed to a family portrait hanging on the wall, taken before she’d reached her teens. There she was, the golden girl sitting between her parents, smiling beatifically. Why wouldn’t she smile? Life had been an endless exercise in happiness. Adopted soon after birth, Kimi didn’t have any reason to mourn the biological parents she’d never known. The mother and father who’d brought her home—she of Japanese ancestry, he of Italian—had loved her with all their hearts.
Kimi had just been learning to live without them when her deadly encounter with the meth head had occurred. Killing someone, though in the line of duty and self-defense, left its mark on a decent person’s conscience. Once upon a time, Kimi had been a decent person.
Even that had not knocked her down for the final count. Raven’s bloody disappearance—that had been the last straw. It had been Raven’s shoulder Kimi had cried on when her parents died. It had been Raven’s strength she’d relied on when the nightmares had grown too intense and she needed to talk at three in the morning. Losing her bestie had stolen all but the last thread of survival instinct from Kimi.
Kimi had turned to alcohol to numb the crushing pain and loneliness. It was easier to not feel, to not think, to pretend she no longer cared. She knew it for the crutch it was, the crutch that would ultimately be her destruction. However, it felt like her only remaining friend. Its siren song quieted the demons and doubts. It made breathing not hurt.
Kimi stopped pretending she hadn’t fallen into the deepest pit possible. At seventy-three minutes before noon, she opened a bottle of tequila and toasted her official entrance into alcoholism.
An hour later she was sprawled on the sofa, drunk and laughing at other drunk people on television. The cell phone, sitting on her mother’s lovely marble-top coffee table, rang during a male-enhancement commercial.
Kimi picked up her squalling phone, wincing at the strident summons. She squinted at the number displayed, but her sight had gone too bleary for her to make it out.
“Who the hell are you?” she muttered at the ringing phone. “Oh shit, my show is back on.” She fumbled with the remote to pause the show, thanking the gods of cable providers that technology let her do so.
With her priorities attended to, she answered the patiently ringing phone. “Yeah. Hello.”
“It’s Laaruu, Kimi.”
Of course it was. She laughed at the liquor that provided numbness and entertainment. “Ah, so that’s where you’ve been. In the bottle. I knew you had to be a figment of my imagination.”
“That’s what you think, is it? Open the door. I’m outside.”
“Right. Sure you are.” She snorted and switched off the television. She wobbled to her feet. The room tilted alarmingly. “Okay, hot-but-weird delusion. I’m letting you in.”
She lurched to the apartment’s entrance, which under normal circumstances, should have only been half a dozen steps. Because her legs had lost a sizable portion of navigation, it took twice as many to stumble over. She opened the door.
Laaruu stood there, smiling pleasantly. Kimi waved cheerfully an inch from his face and was amused when he didn’t blink. “You look awfully solid for a hallucination.”
“I’m so solid, you’ll wish I was a figment of your imagination.” His smile remained in place as his hand shot out and grabbed her around the throat.
Chapter Four
Kimi’s booze-besotted brain registered danger, but she was in no condition to respond as Laaruu propelled her backwards. His grip held her upright, and he slammed the door behind him. Then he shoved Kimi up against the wall.
Laaruu wasn’t holding tight enough to choke her, but Kimi gasped. A spark of terror drove off the densest fog of inebriation. The grip on her throat felt too damned tangible. If Laaruu was a product of drunkenness, her mental state had raced beyond a full-blown psychotic fantasy. As in, a straitjacket-worthy nightmare delusion.
Laaruu took a deep breath. His smile looked tight, as if it hid a more powerful emotion. His turquoise eyes bored into her, frigid enough to freeze her very soul. “Did I not tell you to get control over the alcohol? You reek of it.”
Despite the thrill of fear coursing through her veins, Kimi sneered. “I don’t remember putting you in charge of my life.”
Laaruu’s amiable expression was surface dressing. He appeared downright heartless despite the unwavering façade. Her insides twisted, and not in an entirely unpleasant manner. “Since you’ve apparently abdicated rule over yourself, I shall accept the challenge.”
His grip was too loose. Kimi wasn’t being harmed, not even overpowered. Despite Laaruu’s size and strength, Kimi thought she might be able to take him.
She turned up the bluster. “Get your hands off me. I have no problem causing you a whole lotta hurt, asshole.”
Laaruu tsked her as he reached into the pocket of the chambray shirt he wore. “You’re offering me pain? How rude of you since I wish to offer you pleasure.”
He stepped back, releasing her. He pulled an object out of his pocket and held it out. Kimi blinked at the round black object he held. It looked like a button.
Tiny insect legs sprouted from its sides. It jumped from Laaruu’s palm, landing on her bare foot. Kimi yelped and tried to shake it off. “What the hell is that?”
The creature was on the move before she got the sentence out, little legs scrabbling. It raced up her leg, beneath her sweat pants. The fucker was fast and no matter how she slapped at it, it kept crawling up. It slipped into her panties.
Kimi shrieked as it landed on and grasped h
er clit. Her scream was cut cleanly off as intense pleasure filled her. Her knees turned to water. Laaruu grabbed her before she could collapse, and he lowered her to the floor.
Over the roar in her ears, she heard him say, “There. On the floor before me as you should be. That’s much better.”
Desire filled her with stomach-clenching force. She shoved her sweatpants down, not caring about Laaruu standing there, not caring because what was about to happen would be far worse than him staring at her cunt. She had to get that button-bug thing off her before—
Too late. Climax stampeded through her, setting her entire body alight. She came, curled into a ball at Laaruu’s feet as incredible spasms pulsed. Her pussy clenched over and over, and she shuddered with unspeakable bliss.
She was vaguely aware of Laaruu speaking, but his words were incomprehensible. The effect was immediate, however. The button-bug continued to clasp her clit, but the violent arousal ebbed. Her pussy gave half a dozen more surges before quieting.
From far above, Laaruu’s deep voice descended. “You have had your first lesson in belonging to me. As you felt, the rewards of doing as you’re told can be great. The punishments for disobedience, however…they are just as intense. Feel free to invite either. I enjoy doling out both.”
Gasping, Kimi uncurled herself. Not caring that a near-absolute stranger stood over her, she rose to her knees and yanked her panties down. She bent double again, using her shaking fingers to part her pussy lips so she could examine her clit.
The button-bug covered the top of her nubbin, capping it like a ridiculous little black hat. The sight made her nauseous, akin to finding a tick or a leech attached to her. She grasped it between finger and thumb and pulled.
A flare of agony, having nothing to do with the tiny, clinging legs affixing the button-bug, shot through her sensitive skin. She shrieked at the awful bolt and let it go. The worst of it abated, leaving an unpleasant throbbing in its wake.
Laaruu sighed, as if he couldn’t believe she would be so clueless. “As I said, punishment is given as freely as reward. I see you are among those who ignore sensible warnings, insisting on specific explanations.”
Righteous Fury (To Protect and Service Book 2) Page 3
