Chapter 2

The giant lizard alien gave me a big grin that showed off two rows of pointy teeth before he leaned over and literally ripped the door off its hinges. The guy in the outer room hollered, and without hesitation, the alien threw the door ahead of him as he walked in. Would've been nice to have a countdown, but okay fine. Here we go! I rushed into the other room behind the alien, Glock raised, and expecting resistance.

"Get your hands up!"

The guy screamed and raised his hands, but he also fell backward off his chair. He pulled the trigger on the .9 millimeter in his hand as he fell, the bullet cleanly taking out the light above us. I blinked in the sudden darkness, thrown by the ineptitude of this dude. How had he ever managed to capture one of the alien soldiers?

Suddenly, the alien literally lifted me off my feet with an arm around my waist. I oofed as he squeezed, and he ran for the next door. He put his shoulder into it, and we burst outside. The streetlights made it a lot easier to see, and I was glad to note that the van the others had driven away in still wasn't back.

"You can put me—" I looked back and up at the alien to see his forked tongue poking out of his mouth and wiggling around like a snake's would. "—down."

He set me on my feet and kind of hovered like he thought I might fall over. Because of my prosthesis? I straightened up to my full six-two height—was he a foot and a half taller than me? Jesus—and turned around to start trotting away. "Come on," I said. "My place is this way."

It wasn't a bad neighborhood, but it had some abandoned places, like the old manufacturing plant. The building used to be part of a rubber company back in the heyday of Akron's past, but now it was just crumbling. There was probably a lot more shit that went down inside its walls than humans abducting aliens—ha! There was some irony for you—but once we got deeper into the residential area, it'd be a lot easier to hide.

I could hear my new friend keeping pace with me and had to wonder why he hadn't freed himself. He'd been hurt, but it seemed minor. He'd removed that door like it was nothing and now he was moving through the streets on his own power just fine. Why sit there? I hadn't been taken captive during either of my tours of duty, but if I had, I couldn't imagine too many scenarios where I'd just hang like that.

I glanced back at him before I scaled a chain-link fence and he didn't even look winded. He'd had a fringe-like fan of orange skin standing up around his head like a warning but that was down now and blended back into the blue of the rest of him. Like the danger was over? Nice to know.

I twisted around at the top of the fence and dropped down. A second later, the fence rattled, and then he was standing beside me. Yeah, he was fine. He could've gotten out whenever he'd wanted to.

"Why didn't you just leave?" I blurted before I could stop myself.

He shrugged one meaty shoulder. "It has been some time since I had a break."

A laugh bubbled out of me. He'd been using his abduction to take a little vacay? For fuck's sake.

Shaking my head, I started jogging again, this time weaving us through yards and around simple two-story houses. The area was slowly changing for the better as younger families moved in. Thankfully, it was well past midnight now, so these working-class folks would be in their beds. A good thing, too, since I wasn't so sure I trusted any of them anymore.

When I'd first heard that my barber's daughter's boyfriend's cousin was talking about getting rid of the aliens, I'd laughed it off. All of us in the shop that day had. Because why make them leave? Sure, their arrival had been worthy of tinfoil hats and all, but now they were doing a hell of a lot of good for us. I'd been to that distribution center on the other side of the manufacturing plant myself just a few days back and gotten a chronic cough taken care of. Walking pneumonia they'd called it. While my VA doc had told me to keep taking useless over-the-counter meds and refused to order a chest x-ray, the aliens had scanned me and right away cured me with one swig of blue liquid that had tasted like fruit punch. I'd heard stories of people getting cured for a lot more—like Alzheimer's and cancer—so again, why the hell would anyone want the aliens to leave?

Their nanobots couldn't regrow my leg, but breathing normal for the first time in months was damn fine as a consolation prize. I hadn't really thought they could regrow limbs, but I might've hoped a bit.

I crossed the street toward my house, slowing down. Didn't sound like anyone was running after us, no cars or that van roaring in our direction either. I'd left the basement door unlocked, figuring the least number of windows would be helpful when trying to conceal a seven-foot blue lizard alien. I was still a little hazy about how to get him back to his people, but maybe he'd know more doing about that.

He followed me down the short flight of stairs and through the— Well, he had to turn sideways and duck, but he got through the door and into the finished half of my basement. I'd thought the space was big until he stood in it. If he looked up, he'd boop the ceiling with his nose.

"Okay," I said and took my Glock out of my waistband. "So we should be safe here. What do you need most?" I put the weapon in its lockbox but left it open just in case. "Want to wash that wound? Could wash all of you, actually. There's a shower in the other half of the room."

He was looking around, taking in the hand-me-down furniture in all its seventies color scheme glory. His blue skin really popped in front of the orange couch with his clawed toes disappearing into the avocado-green shag carpeting.

"I just need a damp cloth to wipe away the blood. I've healed already." He passed big fingertips over the purple-ish patch of bare skin on his upper arm. "The scales will take longer to return."

No wonder the lizards were the soldiers. Rapid healing? Envy made me take a deep breath and turn away. If only, right? I could still be a Marine instead of a civilian with no fucking clue what I was anymore.

I went and got a washcloth from on top of the laundry I still hadn't managed to get upstairs, wetted it, and rubbed some hand soap into it.

"This room is well-appointed," he said when I came back and handed over the cloth. He'd sprawled out on the couch, looking like he was seconds from renewing that break he'd been taking.

I glanced at the bulge between his legs before making myself look away. "Uh, okay. Thanks."

In truth, it was my parents' house, unchanged in the fifty years they'd lived there and mine now because they were gone. Both of their cancers were curable thanks to the aliens, but their arrival had happened three years too late. I couldn't be sure my father would've taken a shot of nanobots, though Mom would've. Actually, it was possible she would've slipped his into his coffee some morning and let his oncologist tell him he was cured. They'd been like that.

The alien handed the slightly bloodied and nicely folded washcloth back to me. I pitched it into the tub beside the washer in the other room and cleared my throat before attempting to be a good host again.

"How about food? Hungry? Thirsty?" I wasn't sure how long he'd been held.

He smiled, orange eyes squinting. "I would appreciate both."

Why was I thinking he was kinda cute? I glanced down again to where the round, flat head of his turquoise blue cock had peeked out earlier. There was a slit in that scale-covered pouch bulging down there and it had looked juicy inside, like his cock might come out lubed. I cleared my throat and looked away as a blush heated my face.

"Um, what sort of foods do you like?"

He was still smiling. "I enjoy apples and cheese and would prefer water to drink."

"Okay." Would've thought he'd be more of a carnivore with those teeth, but whatever. "I can do that."

I turned to go upstairs, but then he said, "My name is Rampon."

Fuck me, I had better manners than this. "Rampon, I'm Quincy Boone."

"Quincy Boone."

"Right."

Rampon looked pleased, lacing his big fingers on his stomach and leaning back until his head met the wall behind the couch. He took a deep breath and sighed like everything was cool in his world. Weird dude. I went upstairs and found apples, a block of cheddar, and some water bottles.

Coming back down the stairs, I said, "I figure we can hang out here, rest and recover or whatever, and then in the morning, I'll go see about finding some way to reach your people." I set everything on the table in front of him.

"A good plan." He picked up an apple and chucked the whole thing into his mouth. The crunch was insane and his jaw muscles bulged as he chewed that fist-sized apple like it was a corn chip. He did the same with the other apple.

"Okay. Cool." I couldn't help waiting to see what he'd do with the block of cheese.

But instead of eating anything else, he reached between his thick thighs and adjusted himself. Of course, my eyes were right there to stare at that like I wasn't a grown man who could control himself. Dude was a guest in my house, naked not by choice, and I didn't need to be staring at his junk like a slut. I resisted adjusting myself, too.

"You keep staring at my cock."

My face heated instantly. "Yeah, uh, sorry about?—"

"Would you like me to mate you?"

"Ex-excuse me?"

I couldn't possibly have heard him right, but a flash of turquoise caught my attention. His dick was peeking out. Well, not peeking so much as sliding out like a cobra ready to dance. I gulped and couldn't stop looking, caught in its one-eyed stare.