Alien Romance: Interview with an Alien (Football Paranormal Invasion Abduction Alpha Sci-fi Romance) (Fantasy First New Adult Contact Science Fiction Mystery Sports Alien Short Stories) (53 page)

Slowly, taking my hand, my maker walked slowly to the red velvet armchair, never taking his eyes from mine as I hazily followed him. He sat down and pulled me into his lap. Placing a slender finger underneath my chin, he guided my face to his before consuming me in a passionate kiss. He nipped at my throat playfully, and I gasped at the sensation. Then I tore my lips from his and drove my fangs deep into his bare slender neck.

It started instantly, the low thrum of his heart against mine as I drew the blood to the surface lapping at the sweet, thick nectar that flooded my mouth like a red fountain. The images came to me.

A flash took me back to the time when we had been mortal, and I could see him upon his bed with me beneath him as he thrust into me as we made love. Another flash took me to Paris on the night of my change and for the first time, I saw properly how confused and crazed my lover had been that night.

I saw myself as a young mortal girl sitting by a dresser writing in a journal that I so loved, my free hand caressing the swell of my belly as I wrote. I was smiling. Another image after that showed me lying upon the Rue Chavern's floor screaming wildly, lashing and thrashing as I was turning, my chiffon nightgown stained red from between my legs as our child bled out of me as I died.

His heart was weakening, and I knew that if I held on any longer that I would kill him but he did not protest. It was then that I felt his gentle hand on my head, then guiding me as I retracted my fangs to look into Everard's eyes. For a long moment, he looked into my eyes before leaning up and placing a gentle kiss upon my lips, licking the blood away. “You belong to me, my love,” Everard whispered into my ear. “You always have.”

THE END

Another bonus story is on the next page.

Bonus Story 16 of 24

He had to remember to wear a jacket. Canada was cold, at least according to humans. Nothing would make him stand out more than walking around in a t-shirt in the chilly Canadian weather. He always got in trouble for that in Germany. The coaches at the refuge center were always reminding him to blend in more. Refuge centers existed as a cross between a halfway house and a resource repository for vampires. They were especially valuable to stray vampires, which is what he was: a stray. He didn’t even have a coven to live with. Vampire loners were unusual, but not unheard of. Eclesia, his center in Germany, had everything: blood bags, cover stories, human clothes, and scripts to help new vampires interact with humans undetected. It was a shock to Colton at how much culture and society changed in a century. That’s how long it had been since he tried to blend in, 100 years. It was exhausting, maintaining the façade of being a human, so he had escaped to the mountains, feeding on animal blood and the rare humans that crossed his path, and he had never looked back.  He had only entered the town to go to the centers. Now, he had no choice but to leave, because Colton was in a lot of trouble.

Colton had created enemies for himself before. Loner vampires had a bad reputation for being cocky, ungrateful, and to overall think they were better than other vampires. Isolde, a leader in a German coven, thought this of Colton, especially when he publically said ‘no’ to Isolde’s invitation to join his coven. Everyone coveted Isolde’s coven because they were the fastest, the strongest, and the richest coven in the modern world. Humans that knew of vampires were throwing themselves at Isolde’s feet, begging to be changed, but Isolde only acquired the best.

“Join us, lone wolf!” Isolde had said to a crowd of vampires at Berlin after seeing Colton’s power.

Everyone had expected him to say, “Yes, take me!” but Colton had spit on the ground and left.

Isolde was hosting his centennial Hundred Year Games when the insult happened. The games were nothing like anything Colton had ever seen; it was like the human Olympics, but even more grand. Teufelberg Hill was carved out into a stadium, with large torches made of human bones emblazoned on the earth in an ever-burning, enormous ring of fire, and tall stone towers were erected like Grecian pillars. All the humans were shooed away, fearing the fake storms created by vampires who had the powers to control the weather. Isolde had a knack for finding these rare creatures and hoarding them like trophies in a case. The humans who were unlucky enough to be anywhere near them were targets in the games. Colton lost count of the human casualties that day after 178.

He couldn’t join a coven like that. He only came to the game because of the free blood bags. He was famished, and the refuge center was giving out free blood bags at their booth to participants. He smelled it from miles away. He had joined the amateur games because he had nothing else to do, and was starving.

“What’s your talent, boy?” said a gruff, disinterested German vampire at the sign-up booth.

“I—I, um,” Colton thought for a moment, looking at his hands.

“Well, kid? I don’t have all day. Pick a column.”

Colton scanned a wide piece of parchment, but his gift wasn’t an option. He saw strength, flight, agility, coercionist, weather manipulators, but nothing that he could do.

“Fire,” Colton said, barely above a whisper.

He tried not to ever use it, but he needed another reason to hang around and feed.

“Fire?” the vampire scoffed, his eyes widening.

“Yes. From my hands,” Colton said, running his hands through his blond hair.

The crowd around him was murmuring.

“You messing with me?”

“What? No. Is that not a good talent or something?”

The man laughed, whistling loudly to get the attention of some other vampires working the games. Three people with matching black suits walked over.

“Alright, kid. Show us first, and then I sign you up. There has not been an igniter breed in damn near a thousand years, and even that I think is bullshit. And I don’t know if you heard, but fire sort of kills people like us. I’ll drink pigs blood if you can set this piece of paper on fire.”

His fat, pale fingers were tented over the sign-up sheet.

“You might want to move your hands,” Colton said, pursing his lips.

“I’ll take my chances.” The German vampire bared black and yellow teeth over his pale, chapped lips.

A crowd was circling around them. Colton felt heat build in his stomach, spreading through his arms. He was trying to move it slowly so he wouldn’t hurt anyone. Colton swallowed, rubbing his fingertips together. Bright red flames were hovering at his fingertips, and then a singular ball of flames hovered over his palm, growing larger and larger. Colton saw the ball of fire reflected in the eyes of the vampires around him as his body grew hotter.

“Like I said, I would move your fingers,” Colton said, igniting the entire table in flames.

The German vampire shrieked and pushed himself back from the table, toppling off of his chair and landing on the ground with a thud as the table smoldered in front of him.

“That’s cute,” said Isolde, clapping and walking over to the table with his gang.

“I don’t want any trouble,” Colton said, extinguishing the fire with a wave of his hand.

“Trouble? You say it like it’s a bad thing, lone wolf!” Isolde said, making a grand motion with his pale, thin arms. All of him was pale, lanky and grey. His clothes were black like his greasy hair.

“A duel then. It is the only way! Fight or join me, lone wolf!” Isolde said, bowing grandly.

The circle was tightening around him. Colton panicked. He clapped his hands together, like he was going to fight, but he spat at the ground, jumped as high as he could, and set every booth on fire. In the midst of the chaos, he ran as fast as he could. Every vampire he knew was scared of fire. It was his only chance to run, and he covered his ears to block out the sounds of vampires shrieking in pain.

*****

That all seemed like such a long time ago. It was just last night. Now he was on a plane to Canada. He had never been on a plane before, and the idea of being in the air in a giant, human machine made him nervous, even if a crash wouldn’t kill him.

“Peanuts?” asked a stewardess.

“Huh?” Colton asked, looking up at her.

“Food?” she said with a smile.

Colton shook his head.

Colton breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled out his packet from the relief shelter, thinking on the words of Manishka, his contact at the shelter.

“This is your new life. Be careful,” Maniskha had said as she handed him the packet last night. In the chaos of the battle, she had helped him hide, but Isolde was closing in on him; Isolde did not take well to the rejection.

     “Where the hell am I going to go?” Colton asked.

     “Canada.”

     “Where is that?”

     “It’s in the packet. Use the Lunar Oil. Rub it on your nostrils everyday. It blocks out the smell.”

     “What smell?”

“Of the blood, of course. You have been living amongst vampires too long. You have never been anywhere humans are the majority since you were human. By the summer Isolde will have given up his chase. If you can last until then, you’ll live.”

“What am I supposed to do until then? Just blend in?”

“Yes, kind of. I’ve signed you up for human education. It’s called college. It’s all things you’ve learned before from our books. Just from a human perspective.”

“What the hell am I supposed to do there? Be bored until Isolde doesn’t want to kill me anymore?”

“Use your abilities, but don’t draw to much attention to yourself. I will arrange something. Now leave. The plane will take off without you. I’ll send blood. Good luck.”

The words of his contact rang in his head as a warning, a reminder he was being shoved from him home for not honoring a stupid tradition.

Colton slammed the packet closed, grinding his teeth.

“Shit!” Colton said as the tires slammed against the earth.

“Get a grip, kid,” said a thick-mustached man next to him.

Colton pinched his eyes closed. His ears felt like he had popcorn in them. He couldn’t take it anymore. As soon as the gate opened, he felt every cell in his body vibrate, and he zoomed out of the plane so fast the world slowed down. The world that zoomed past him was so strange, so slow, and there was nothing in the packet that prepared him for the grey, tree-less province of Ontario. It was winter, and there were more humans than he had ever seen—or smelled -- in his entire life.

*****

“Welcome to the University of Ontario. I understand you’re from Germany?” said a peppy, blonde girl with a clipboard.

“I’m going to be playing football—
soccer
,” Colton said, hoping he was pronouncing it correctly. He was Swedish as a human, but now he was from Germany.

“Oh, yay! Our team needs so much help. What position?”

“Huh?”

“Position? Like are you a forward, a goalie. My brother plays so I’ll tell him I saw you.”

“I’m gonna float around,” Colton said, shoving his hands in the pocket of his white hoodie.

“So, are you are a mid-fielder then?” came a voice behind Colton.

He whipped around to see a bright-eyed, dark-skinned girl. She had her curly hair piled up on the top of her head in a messy bun and was wearing some sort of red uniform shirt; she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She had a perfect hourglass shape, bright brown eyes and perfect full lips. Colton stared at her, feeling like he couldn’t remember English. He couldn’t remember any of the ten languages he spoke. 

“Cat got your tongue?” she said, her lips twisting in a teasing smile.

“I don’t have a cat,” was the only thing Colton could say.

She giggled, tucking her clipboard under her arm and extending her hand. He took it, and shook. He remembered this gesture from the packet.

“I’m Tanya. I’m one of the student athletic trainers, and I tutor some of the guys on the team. I just asked because I was just assigned the soccer team. What’s your name?”

“Colton. Hello, nice to meet you.”

“Same. Oh, Colton! Right. You’re the German transfer. The guys need all the help they could get this season. Do you know your way around?”

“No, I could use some help, actually.”

“Okay, I can get one of the redshirts to show you around.”

She looked down at her clipboard, biting her lip in concentration.

“Or, you could show me?” Colton said, feeling bolder.

Her bright, brown eyes darted up at him. She looked away like she was considering it.

“It’s probably better for a teammate to do it. That way you can get to know them. Season starts any day now, and you’re late. I guess I’ll see you on the field then.”

She offered a weak smile, waved and walked over to what Colton assumed were other players. He couldn’t help watch her walk away. She must have sensed his eyes on her, because she glanced back at him over her shoulders.

“Hey Tanya!” he yelled.

“Yeah?”

“What do you teach?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Like the tutoring?”

“History. It’s my major. I gotta go.”

She smiled and he waved at her. He didn’t care about soccer. He just needed to stall for time. If he had to be away from his beloved mountains in this dirty city, he at least wanted something beautiful to look at—or look down at. She would look beautiful under him.

“Hey, Colton?” said the peppy blonde from before.

He had almost forgotten about her.

“Yes.” He was more clipped than he meant to be.

“I can show you around, maybe?” she said, rocking on her heels.

She was pretty too. Not as pretty as Tanya, but still there was something behind her spectacles.

“Sure.”

“Cool! I’m Emily by the way. I can give you my number. We could text or something.”

Colton had no idea what this meant. He just nodded. She smiled, and pulled out something flat and rectangular. When she tapped it, it glowed white, and her fingers manically started tapping the part that glowed.

“So, what’s your number?”

“My what?”

“Cell phone? Oh, you probably don’t have a Canadian number yet, right? Sorry, I’m an idiot. Here, we’ll go old school.”

She ripped a scrap of paper off her clip board, scribbled down ten numbers, and handed it to him.

“Call me, okay?” Emily smiled, and walked away.

Colton nodded, not knowing what she meant, and looked back where he last saw Tanya. She was already watching him, and her face fell. Something about the paper seemed to make her face go solemn. Colton looked at the paper, and back up at Tanya, but she turned her head, and looked back at her clipboard.

*****

So this was a soccer practice. Colton stared off onto the field, a wide rectangle painted green by the overgrown grass. At the far left and right ends were enormous white nets and near the middle, just outside the parameters of the field, was a sort of arena-style seating.

“Alright, boys, I’m Coach Jenkins. Just Coach is fine,” said a tall overweight, white man with spindly blonde hair, and a thick, greying mustache.

He was carrying a net-like bag filled with soccer balls. Coach looked up at Colton and his teammates at then back at a clipboard that was hidden under his arms. He made notes and mumbled something to himself.

“Foreign kids raise your hands,” Coach said, looking up squinting from his clipboard.

Colton looked around and an English player, named Ryan who lived across the hall from him, and a Ugandan player named Nico, who was his roommate, raised their hands. Colton glanced around and noticed that all of the players were looking at him too.

“Ah, shit. You do speak English right, kid?” asked Coach, mopping his sweaty forehead. He was wearing a red ball cap, and he adjusted it like it was a nervous habit.

              “Me? Yes,” Colton said.

“Then why is your hand down? I ain’t gone send you back I just have to make sure you stay on top of your paperwork to stay in school. It’s my job as coach so you don’t get lost in this country. Canada ain’t as safe as it looks in the brochure,” Coach said, taking more notes on his clipboard.

Thoughts of Isolde came unbidden to his mind. Colton hoped he could smell Isolde or his vampire goons before Colton saw him coming to avoid a sneak attack. Older vampires had a distinct sweet smell that they emitted when there was not a drop of humanity left in them. The problem was with the oils Colton had to keep around his nose to avoid the smell of humans; the oil was like a blanket smothering his sense of smell; he could barely smell anything. Living in Canada this week had made him feel like he had completely lost one of his senses, which made him feel vulnerable.

“So you all should be settled in nicely by now. I need 10 laps, and then drills. Nico and Ryan, you are our new goalies, welcome. Nico you’re string one and Ryan you’re a very close string two. Don’t blow it. And don’t ever let me seeing you standing still in that net. You need to be moving, alert! Eyes always on that ball even when we are about to score on them. Alright, start runnin’. I ain’t got all day,” Coach said, emptying the net of soccer balls on the field. Nico, Ryan, and Colton stood together as the other teammates started running around the perimeter. Nico and Ryan did quick stretches, and took off, leaving Colton behind.

“Come on then,” said Ryan, waving Colton forward,

Colton took a deep breath, not to prepare himself to run, but to brace himself to not run too quickly. He had been reviewing the information packet over the week, trying to relearn what it was like to be like a human, and he had learned that even the fastest human was only capable of about twenty-five miles per hour. A vampire was as fast as the speed of sound, which was three hundred and thirty miles per hour. It was hurting his muscles more
not
to run than to run.

Colton grit his teeth by the ninth lap, feeling like he would cramp up from staying so still. Nico and Ryan were dripping sweat and panting loudly. Colton imitated their ragged breathing, hoping he was convincing, when someone caught his attention - a woman standing next to Coach with a clipboard of her own. She was coming into focus as they drew closer for the final lap. It was Tanya, her eyes peeking up at him as she scribbled something down. It seemed she had gotten even prettier in the week it had been since he had seen her last.

“Easy Romeo, you’re running into me,” said Nico shoving him with a laugh.

“Oh, sorry man,” Colton said, looking over his shoulder at Tanya. She was bad to writing on her clipboard, and talking to Coach.

“Don’t even think about it,” Ryan said, gasping for breath.

“Why?” Colton said, pretending to out of breath.

“She—doesn’t—date—players,” Nico answered for him, slowing his pace.

“Why? How do you know?” asked Colton.

“Players talk, mate. Everyone knows that. Plus—her dad—teaches here. He’s as mean as they—come. The—head of—the—history department. It’s why it’s her major. At least—that’s what I heard anyway. Half of the—guys on the team want to fuck her, maybe more,” Ryan said, slowing to a stop a few feet away from the end point.

Colton felt his brow furrow, and he stopped too. Nico skidded to a stop and collapsed on the grass, clutching his side. He and Ryan were exhausted, but Colton felt nothing, nothing but disappointment about Tanya. She was turning to leave, and she glanced in his direction as she walked towards the locker rooms. Colton had an idea.

Coach was talking to some of the senior forwards, and did not seem to notice him slip away.

“Hey, Tanya!” he said, running behind her.

“Hey, um, shouldn’t you be practicing?” Tanya said, tucking one of her wild black curls behind her ear.

“Colton, I’m Colton, and, um, this will only take a second.”

“I remember your name. What’s up?”

“I need your help.”

Tanya’s lips thinned, and she let out a deep breath.

“Look, I can help you if you genuinely need help. Do you get what I’m saying?’

Colton felt his shoulders slump. He must not have been the first guy to try this on her so far.

“Okay, then what if I just ask you?”

“Ask me what?”

“To go out with me.”

Tanya’s eyes widened, like he had genuinely stumped her.

“I—um.”

“Yes?”

“Look, I don’t even know you. I mean I’m flattered but—”

“Yes is the only answer I’m accepting. I apologize but I am not hearing any counter offers,” he said, standing defiantly with his arms crossed. A wicked smile danced across his lips as he saw her considering his offer. She was biting her lip to stop herself from smiling. It was not working.

“Look, Tanya, you don’t like the tutoring trap, so I’m trying to be straight forward and cut to the chase. If we go out tonight—”

“Tonight!”

“Is tomorrow better for you then? Are you free Saturday?”

“Yes, I guess I’m free tomorrow. Hey wait a minute. I never said yes.”

Colton planted his feet firmer, smiling down at her. He was at least a head taller than her.

“Okay,” she said.

Colton let out a sigh of relief.

“Good tomorrow then.”

“What’s the plan?”

“Plan?”

“Yes,” she said, laughing, “you don’t even have my number. Is this your first date or something?”

He paused, thinking. He had never dated a woman as a vampire. They did things differently, and he was a loner.

“Wait, is this your first date?” Tanya asked in disbelief.

“I, um, I had a sheltered life. Just soccer, and school.”

Colton hoped she believed that. She tilted her head to the side in thought.

“Do you have a phone?”

He shook his head.

              “Let me plan it.”

              “But you’re the girl.”

              “And you have never been on a date. Forgive me if I want us to have a good time. There is a festival this weekend. It’s the Maple Syrup Festival. Don’t judge us. It’s super Canadian and amazing. Everything Maple Syrup, even bacon. It’s so good! They have rides, and tons of food. I used to go all of the time as a kid.”

              Colton had to admit it sounded fun, even if he would not be able to taste anything.

              “I feel like I really bombed this whole asking you out thing.”

              She laughed, and so did he.

              “You’re foreign so I will give you a pass. Meet me here. It’s the fair grounds,” she said scribbling an address on a piece of paper, “Just make sure if we have another date you blow my mind.”

              She winked at him and walked away. Colton held the paper tight and smiled so hard his cheeks were hurting.

              “Hey! What the hell are you doing, Germany? Get back on the field and five more laps!” Coach yelled, his face as bright as a tomato.

              Colton waved an apology, but something over the Coach’s head, way down field caught his eye. There was a dark figure standing on top of the net. It was vibrating its body so that it could not be seen by the human eye. Colton had done this trick many times to avoid being seen by humans when he stole blood from hospitals. It was Isolde. He stood with his arms crossed, his thick black hair and famous black trench coats flapping in the wind. Before Colton could say anything, Isolde jumped down and, at Mach speed, stormed towards him.