How to Date an Alien (14 page)

One minute I remembered laughing, sitting on
the back of the bike with my arms around Ace as we zipped through
the valleys and mountains that encompassed Circe. Then, I
remembered falling. I didn't know how I started to fall or why, but
I remembered the look on Ace’s face as he watched my body suspend
in midair. I could see his eyes widen and his mouth launch a voice
that sounded like a dying animal. I remembered the silvery laughter
and how it engulfed me before everything went blacker than my
nightmares.

I saw her standing over me. She cocked her
head and stared down at me. This time it wasn’t a nightmare. It
felt too real to be a nightmare and I didn't have a cold chill.

“What do you want?" I asked.

She didn’t answer, just stared at me, a
tight-lipped smile crossing over her white face.

“What do you want from me?" I screamed.

“You’ll see,” she whispered in a voice that
was the same silvery tone as her laugher.

Her body wavered like a mirage. My face was
overcome by a wave of heat that slowly brought me out of the
darkness and into the light.

“Alex, can you hear me?" His voice sounded so
far away and a faint clicking fell around me. “Alex?”

I blinked; I was alive after all. Ace’s voice
sounded closer and closer as the clicking sound got louder and
louder. I opened my eyes to see that Ace was hovering over me and
that clicking sound was actually coming from his own mouth. He ran
his hands over my body, letting the heat explode onto my skin while
he continued on with clicking his tongue.

I moaned, trying to lift my head, but Ace
caught it in his hands, and helped me to slowly prop myself up. I
looked out to see that we were sitting on a small cliff overlooking
a range of mountains. The sun was just starting to peak over the
mountaintops, leaving the brown dust of the desert gleaming in a
low orange light. “How long was I out?”

“Long enough to scare the crap out of me." He
smiled and pulled me closer, leaning my back against his stomach as
he rested his chin on the top of my head.

“I’m sorry," I whispered.

He kissed the top of my head. “It’s not your
fault. I shouldn’t have been so crazy around those turns. Something
really bad could have happened to you and it would have been my
fault.”

I looked up at him, drinking in the lines of
his face. “Why did you bother saving me?”

He arched an eyebrow and looked down at me.
“Why wouldn’t I save you?”

I sat up, facing him. “I know about the whole
humans-and-aliens-don't-mix thing." I focused in on him. “Why save
me and continue to save me when you knew that it could cause all of
this mess?" I waved my arm in small circles above my head.

He sighed. “Because the whole idea of aliens
versus humans is stupid.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Do tell?”

He pulled me closer. He traced the lines of
my jaw with his fingertips making an electrical current flow
through my face. “Because I’ve been on this planet for decades.
I've watched as humans dated each other and aliens found their soul
mates. But I found no one. I didn't have anything in common with my
own species or human girls."

He ran his hands through my hair and stared
out over the desert. “I was so afraid that just by talking to a
human girl I would cause some sort of war. I couldn’t bear it.
Sometimes I would even get blamed for human deaths just because I
was around at the time and I was alien. That is how I got my label
as dangerous, because I'm a warrior and because I never bothered to
save anyone. But that all changed when I saw Magpie attack
you.”

The sound of her name sent a nightmarish
shiver up my spine. It vanished as soon as I felt Ace's touch
lingering on my chin, pulling my face up toward his.

“Death wasn’t surrounding you. It wasn’t your
time to go and I wasn’t going to let her take the life from you. So
I stopped her." His lips grazed mine briefly before he continued.
“That’s when I knew that the whole not-dating-humans thing was
stupid. There wasn’t some dark figure looming around us at all
times and Earth seemed to stay in order, so I let myself fall for
you.”

I shuddered as I thought of the darkness that
surrounded my nightmares and started to wonder if maybe he was
wrong, and the nightmares were only the beginning of it. He held me
close, probably figuring that my shuddering was only because of the
coldness of his body against mine. His hands trailed to my back,
letting the warmth fill my body before he kissed me and let his
lips linger down to my neck.

“I’m not going to let anything bad happen to
you,” he whispered. I closed my eyes and silently prayed he was
right and the darkness wouldn't come.

Ace drove back to Circe like he was actually
his real age instead of the eighteen-year-old body he’d been
encased in forever. He took the turns slowly, and I didn’t think
the speedometer moved above twenty the entire time.

“You know, you can go a little faster,” I
yelled.

“I’m not going to let you get hurt again,” he
yelled back.

I rolled my eyes and pulled myself closer to
him, watching the sunrise over the mountaintops. Dawn was
approaching and even though I could have stayed on the cliff
forever enveloped in Ace’s arms, we both knew that we had to get
back.

I didn’t know when I would see him again. He
said that his plan was to talk to the governing board and try to
persuade them to let us see each other because we planned on
keeping in contact when I was outside of Circe anyway. He was also
hoping that he would be granted clearance to leave the grounds of
Circe. I wondered how hard he would have to beg for that one and if
it would even work.

He slowed down to an idle as we approached my
bedroom window. None of the lights were on around the mountain-like
building, so it seemed like everyone was still asleep. He pulled in
so that we were right underneath the window, getting the bike as
close as he could without hitting the building. He turned toward
me, putting both hands on my sides.

I looked down at his hands, arching a brow.
“What are you doing?”

He grinned, lifting me off the back and
seating me in the windowsill.

I covered my mouth to stifle a giggle. “Oh
Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou, Romeo?”

He let his hands stay at my side and leaned
in, the grin spreading wider on his face while he nuzzled his nose
against mine.

“Parting is such sweet sorrow,” he whispered
into my lips.

“That I shall say tonight until it be
morrow,” I whispered before letting my lips pursue their
course.

I could have sat in that windowsill kissing
him until my lips were raw, but he pulled away. “Okay, I should
really get going before someone notices that I took this bike
without permission.”

“They already have," Riley's high pitched
voice rang from inside the room.

I gasped as I swung my legs into the room,
coming face to face with dad standing next to Riley, who had a
smirk on her face, and five armed Circe guards staring back at us.
Dad waving the ankle cuff in his hand was not a good sign.

Everything moved in slow motion.

I turned, yelling back to Ace to run, but
before he could move the armed guards had pulled both of us into
the room. It took only one tall guard to pull me through, but it
took the other four to pull Ace in as he struggled against them. He
head butted two of the guards and the other two trembled underneath
as he tried to release himself from their grasp.

"I'm sorry. Riley got to your dad before I
could stop her!" Jen yelled.

I screamed and tried to kick the guard off
me, but the only thing I was successful in doing was knocking my
glasses off and having them fly onto the floor. This made things
worse since all I could see was the outline of Ace’s body as one of
the guards sent an electro shock through his chest, leaving him to
fall limp. They dragged him out of the room and the last guard held
me back.

I screamed and screamed until my voice became
hoarse and it hurt to continue. Jen was at my side, petting my head
and whispering that it would be okay. I shook her hands away and
continued to try and fight off the guard until my arms and legs
became too heavy to fight anymore and he let me go.

“Are you done, now?” A blurred blue figured
stood over me. I knew from his deep voice that it was dad. He
handed me my glasses, and Jen helped situate them on my face. The
frames were broken and sat crooked on my face, the lenses were
caked in dust from the desert sand. I looked around the room,
seeing that Riley had left with the guards. Good thing or else I
didn't know what I would have done to her with my remaining
strength.

“There was no reason for you to take him like
that." My voice came out in a hoarse whisper.

“Alex.” He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his
nose. “He just stole a government vehicle, broke into your room,
and then destroyed government property by removing your ankle cuff.
Oh, and did I mention breaking your regulated clearance?”

“Well, if you would have just let us see each
other, this would have never happened,” I huffed, and the guard
finally let go of me.

“Alex, you don’t know what you’re getting
yourself into. That Caltian is dangerous." Dad raised his voice
another decibel, trying to be assertive without yelling.

“His name is Ace!" I screeched. “And he’s
never hurt me!”

Dad let his eyes trace down my body.
“Really?" He crossed his arms over his chest, looking down. “So
what’s with the marks on your head and legs then?”

I looked at the dark red welts that had
formed on my legs from the fall. “Those weren’t his fault!" I
proclaimed, trying to fight the tears. “It was an accident.”

“Uh huh." He nodded. “And I’m sure it was an
accident when he killed those girls in France as well.”

“He didn’t kill them!" I strained, trying to
scream. “He wouldn’t kill anyone unless he had to.”

“That’s for the board to decide." He nodded
in the guard's direction and marched toward the door. “I will see
you at lunch this afternoon. It’s almost eight so you’d better get
ready for work. Malcolm is waiting." He smiled like nothing had
happened and walked out of the room.

I screamed the loudest I could, which did
nothing but leave my throat hurting even more. I fell to the floor
with tears running down my face. Jen crouched down beside me, her
hands trailing down my arms while I rocked back and forth.

“It will be okay. The board will get this all
figured out,” she whispered.

“And what if they don’t?" I sniffled, my
voice coming out like a croaking frog.

“I don’t know." She bit down on her lip. “But
there is nothing that you sitting on the floor crying is going to
help.”

I sat up, wiping the tears from my face.
“You’re right. There’s nothing I can do here.” It took all the
strength I had to force myself into the shower and get ready for
work. I had no desire to sit in the hangar and hand Malcolm
wrenches, but because he was a third-year intern, I figured he
might have the knowledge I needed.

“Whoa, what happened to you?" Malcolm took in
the sight of me, his eyes widening when he saw my taped-together
glasses and the bruise, which had started to turn a dark purple,
covering the entire left side of my face. And that was just the
damage that he could see.

“I’m surprised you didn’t hear." I leaned up
against the small blue ship he was working on. “Ace took a hover
bike out and we got caught. They took him away this morning and I
have no idea where he is.”

He shook his head, blowing out a mouthful of
air. “I have never seen a girl get in this much trouble here until
you came around.”

“What’s an alien base without some sort of
excitement?" I laughed, but it was weak. My voice was still
strained from all the screaming and I felt like my heart was
breaking underneath my skin. It was bad enough that I hadn’t seen
Ace in a week, but what would I do if I never saw him again and the
last memory would be of his unconscious body being carried out of
my room?

“Well, I heard they are having some sort of
an emergency board meeting this afternoon, so I’m guessing it’s
probably something about that." He shrugged, tightening a bolt that
jutted out from the ship.

“What do you think will happen?" I
pressed.

He shook his head, not looking up from the
bolt. “I don’t know. Last time something like this happened was a
few years ago and I had only heard about it third hand.”

“Well, what did you hear, then?" I slid
closer, focusing in on him the best I could with my broken
glasses.

He let out a deep breath, putting down the
wrench before he looked at me. “Look Alex, all I know is that the
last time an alien stepped out of line and broke as many rules as
Ace did, he ended up not being at Circe anymore. They either exiled
him back to his planet, or something else.”

“What’s that something else?”

“There are two possibilities." He held up his
fingers, counting off them. “One is the prison cell block they keep
in the basement. The other, involves them going to a different
prison that isn’t on this planet or there is—" He made a slicing
motion across neck with the last finger, making a cutting sound
with his lips.

“Oh my gosh!" I covered my mouth. “Do you
think they’ll execute Ace?”

He shrugged. “It’s a possibility, but if you
want to find out they’re probably holding him in the cell
block.”

My eyes widened as I slid my hands down to my
side, rolling them into tight fists. “Are you telling me to go down
to the cell block?”

“I’m not telling you what you can and can’t
do, and I know you’re too bullheaded to listen to me if I told you
not to." He flashed a smile before going back to work on the
ship.