“So what are you?” Perhaps fleeing a crazy gunman wasn’t the best time for a meet-and-greet, but on the other hand we might be dead in five minutes. “You’re not human, are you?”
“What makes you say that?”
“Humans tend not to have glowing eyes.”
“Ah.” He grabbed the door pull as I navigated a sharp bend.
“I am Ascellan.”
It meant nothing to me. “Right. So why’s that guy shooting at you? Well, us.”
“He is no longer himself, but has been overtaken by an Algol.” He gazed at me with those unearthly eyes. “They are creatures of pure essence, insubstantial unless they inhabit a physical body. When they do, they take over completely.” His lips twisted with what I read as distaste. “They are parasites.” I glanced in the rear view mirror. Despite my speed, Farmer Guy’s ugly dog was right behind us. I shook my head. “Is that what he wants with you? A body?”
“No. They used us Ascellan for...other things.” He sounded angry. I decided to drop that particular line of questioning. Edging the car’s speed up to sixty, I made another turn, but the dog still bounded only a few yards off my bumper. Dammit, what was it gonna take to lose the thing?
“Is there anything you can do about that?” I hitched a thumb over my shoulder. “I’m not sure I can outdrive it.” He reached down and undid his seat belt. With a wry glance in my direction, he said, “I assume you can keep the car from crashing?” and twisted round to kneel on the seat.
“I’m gonna try,” I muttered. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched him wind the window down. He drew a small, silver device from the pocket of his jeans. Who knew aliens wore Levi’s?
That was most likely a denial of the fact that he had a gun. It didn’t look like one, but he aimed it out the window and fired, so it had to be. Even if what it shot were little blue bolts of light.
His third shot hit the dog and turned into a sort of light web, much how comic book movies portray Taser hits. The dog went down with a howl. I kept my foot down and made a left, then a right and another right. A road sign told me to slow to thirty and I was finally under the comforting glow of streetlights.
My passenger sat straight and refastened his seat belt.
Putting his weapon away, he said, “Thank you for not screaming. It tends to affect my aim.”
Observatory tour guide Megan Shaw has always had stars in her eyes, so when she all but runs down the otherworldly Raul, she barely blinks. It doesn’t hurt that Raul is hot – whether in his human form or his natural one – and that there’s an immediate mutual attraction.But Raul is on the run from his alien overlords and soon Megan finds herself fighting against a foothold situation with nothing more than a couple of cattle prods and Muse for soundtrack.
However Earth is not the only planet at risk and with his species desperate to escape generations of oppression, will Raul’s loyalties shift as easily as his physical appearance?
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