Chapter Nine

CHAPTER NINE

ERICH

I knew damn well what a stellar collision was.

But clearly, Luca doesn’t think I do…

Gossiping was a competitive sport in the extended Suarez clan, and while I wasn’t included in the infamous Rabble Group Chat, I had overheard both Theo and Ziggy referring to their significant others not as inventus, but as stellar collisions.

The two not-supes who are clearly aliens.

By using those particular words to describe the connection between us, Luca had all but confirmed my growing suspicions about what he was.

Which makes his continued secrecy… an odd choice.

I’d already told him I was aware Theo and Ziggy were aliens and that Simon was Theo’s son. I also knew Ziggy was Simon’s brother, so it didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that these creatures existed in the Suarez family tree and to assume more of the same were walking among us.

Possibly sitting in my family’s alpine cabin …

Definitely sitting in my family’s alpine cabin.

Luca was watching me with an endearing mixture of wariness and hope, which implied he was behaving himself by staying out of my head. However, he’d agreed to practice clear communication, and this was a conversation that needed to happen.

Why won’t he just tell me what he is?

It was tempting to steer us to safer waters, but even with how evasive he was being, he’d also just declared me as the alien version of a soulmate. The last thing I wanted was for uncertainty to cause him to retreat—especially after being so brave.

I just need to fully coax him out of his shell.

“Stellar collision,” I murmured, rolling the words on my tongue and noticing how right they felt. “That sounds dangerously romantic, Luca…”

I spoke the last bit in a teasing tone—with much of the teasing aimed at myself. This was a dangerous situation, not least of all because it was like nothing I’d ever experienced. While I wasn’t afraid of commitment—of the wildly foreign concept of love— I was, to use Luca’s words, “a bit out of practice.”

All the more reason to do this right.

Luca shrugged, smiling shyly and blushing adorably, as if he wasn’t one of the most terrifying creatures on Earth.

From what I understand, at least.

Clearly, he was a mind reader and a telepath—which explained where the twins got their powers—and his starry appendages, which had appeared sharp when he first revealed them, further confirmed his similarity to Theo and Ziggy.

Celestial beings made of star stuff .

While I hadn’t witnessed either of those men in their true forms, I’d overheard enough talk between Gabriel and Micah of “tendril touchy time” to know these tendrils were one of their defining features.

Along with teleportation.

“Star hopping,” they called it…

My gaze drifted toward the window to find the snow already inching over the lowest panes, and I was suddenly hit with a truly diabolical idea.

Worthy of the villainous family I pledged loyalty to.

“Krass!” I exclaimed, turning down the “noise” Luca had asked me to play, needing his full attention for this plan to work. “I’d been half-joking when I said we might get snowed-in, but that’s exactly what’s happening.”

Luca froze in the eerie way all supes could but didn’t speak, so I continued, worrying my lower lip for effect, and praying he stayed out of my head for the moment. “The groceries you picked up in the village will tide us over for a few days, but I’m scheduled for Saturday night at Benediktion.” I sighed heavily, if not dramatically. “I’m just hoping I can make it back by then…”

The truth was, the world would not end if I missed my weekly set at Benediktion, nor would my job be in jeopardy. Part of my deal with the owner was that I could cancel at a moment’s notice—which I rarely did, but it was a necessary evil when one was at the beck and call of a bossy supervillain clan leader.

I’m talking about Simon, of course.

It was all I could do to not break character, but the obvious battle written all over on Luca’s face made the effort worthwhile .

C’mon, little hase.

Stop being so afraid…

“I…” my handsome houseguest finally spoke, and I looked at him as innocently as possible. “I promise, I will make sure you’re back in Berlin by Saturday night.”

Such a silly bunny.

“Luca.” I stood and walked to where he was seated, placing my hands on his shoulders as he sat up to meet me. “I appreciate that, but I don’t expect you to control the weather… Unless that is one of your powers?”

Is it?

“It’s not,” he grumbled disgruntledly, as if mind reading and teleportation were parlor tricks. “But I’ll still get you there.”

I hummed and ran my fingers through his hair, purposefully messing it up again. “Because you take care of me,” I murmured. When he gazed up at me and nodded solemnly, I added, “Because I’m your stellar collision.”

He relaxed, his anxious expression turning dreamy. “Yes.”

“You’re so good to me,” I crooned, loving him like this—pliant and submissive. “You take such good care of me.” I leaned down and kissed him softly, further lulling this dangerous predator into complacency. “But you never answered my question earlier… Were you born in Switzerland?”

His eyes widened—a deer in the headlights—but I simply stared down at him expectantly, making it clear this conversation was non-negotiable.

If we’re doing this, then we are doing this.

“No,” he sighed, his shoulders drooping in defeat.

Sweet little hase… haven’t you figured this out yet ?

When it was clear he intended to leave it at that, I hooked a finger under his chin and gently forced him to look at me. “Most people would then share where they were born, Luca.”

He looked pained. “I know, I just… can’t answer that.”

His anguish was palpable, tinged a sickly green. “Can’t or won’t?” I offered.

“Can’t,” he choked out. “I don’t know where exactly I was born… and it was so long ago…”

Realizing he truly was becoming upset, I dropped to my knees and cupped his face in my hands. “Luca—look at me.” When he did, I smiled warmly. “It’s okay if you don’t know the answer, but now I have to ask… How old are you?”

He swallowed thickly. “I’m hesitant to tell you that because I don’t want to fri?—”

“Enough,” I scolded, kindly but firmly, deciding to put the poor creature out of his misery. “Listen. I know you’re the same species as Theo and Ziggy. I know you’re an alien , and that this”—I removed a hand from his face to gesture at him—“is not what you actually look like. I know and I’m okay with it because I. Am. Not. Afraid.”

Trust me.

Please.

He stared at me in shocked silence for a good thirty seconds before nodding slowly. “Very well. I stopped keeping track a while ago, but I would estimate my age to be somewhere between 50 and 60… thousand years old.”

Fifty to sixty…

I was thankful I’d chosen to kneel, since I would have most likely ended up on the floor anyway after a revelation like that .

“Fifty to sixty THOUSAND?!” I hissed before releasing a strangled laugh. “Well, let me be the first to tell you that you look fabulous for your age.”

Luckily, that seemed to break the tension as Luca smiled gratefully. “Thank you. I switched to this skinsuit around the time Pasquale Ricci founded the United Super Nations.” When I simply nodded in encouragement, he shrugged again, sheepishly this time. “It seemed like something interesting was on the horizon for the supe population, so I decided to infiltrate their kind and get involved.”

Wait…

“Did this skin… body belong to a supe?” I whispered, wondering if Wolfgang knew that part of the story.

Luca grimaced. “Yes, although he was only a lesser supe—no one of importance in their world.”

I’d heard the term “lesser supe” before, but only enough to understand they possessed much weaker powers compared to their more impressive siblings.

My gaze ran over him with newfound curiosity. “Were you able to access his powers before you…”

Oh.

“Before I killed him from the inside out?” Luca flatly replied, his expression shuttering. “No. The instant I took over his consciousness, any powers he possessed disappeared.”

So he’s a body snatcher.

Cool.

“It's fine, Luca, and no different from you killing another supe in battle as The Kinetic Assassin,” I soothed, determined to prove to him that I was, in fact, okay with this. Mostly. “If you don’t mind, however, I’m going to pretend this lesser supe was a complete arschloch who deserved what was coming to him.”

Luca’s lip twitched as he suppressed a smile. “If it helps, the transfer was over in seconds. I am quite adept at what I do.”

I bet you are.

It was all I could do not to bombard him with fifty to sixty thousand questions, but one extremely important one rose to the surface.

“Does this mean you could… take over my body if you wanted to?” I asked, my heart rate increasing as my dick decided it liked the idea a little too much.

Apparently, I have no sense of self-preservation.

Luca’s gaze darkened as he released a sound too close to a purr to be anything else. “I could, and while I would never take over completely, the idea of being inside you is something I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. It has reached the point of obsession, if I’m being honest…”

You and me both.

I slid my palms up his thighs, noticing yet again how his thermals perfectly framed his hardening cock. “Well then, Councilman… Since you’ve been such a good boy for me, we’d better get you what you need, hmm?”

With a growl that probably should have scared me, Luca wrapped his arm around my waist and star hopped us to my bedroom.