11
BRANDI
My two alien escorts were above me when I opened my eyes.
They sat next to me, calm and quiet. I held their entire focus as I blinked and took a deep breath.
"What do you remember?" Kerix asked.
A goofy grin spread across my face, and I could feel the heat of my cheeks blushing. Tyrix broke into a smile too.
"I mean, before that," Kerix said.
"The Wolvae. Being attacked." I shook my head. "That's it."
They shared a look.
"Our situation is not ideal," Kerix said slowly. "We have lost our ship to the Wolvae. It is imperative that we take it back, to keep the technology out of Wolvae hands."
"Okay," I said. "How do we do that?"
Tyrix rose, blond hair swaying around his face. "I will scout the site. We need to examine how they have laid out their defenses, if any. This will also allow us time to regenerate our energy before the attack itself."
Kerix put a hand on his arm. "Be safe, brother."
"Always."
And then Tyrix was striding out of the cave, and disappearing into the forest beyond.
Cave. I looked around and realized that's where we were, inside a shallow cave illuminated by two unnatural balls of light near the rocky ceiling. And as I sat up the blanket over me slipped down, uncovering my breasts. I grabbed it and held it tightly to my neck.
"Wait," I said. "Blankets and pillows? Where the hell did you get these?"
"I shifted them into existence," Kerix said. I waited for him to elaborate, but he just stared at me with those gorgeous caramel eyes. If I stared too long...
I waved it off. Focus, Brandi. "So, let's back up a step. Shifting. What does that actually mean?"
"We Karak can manipulate the atoms of our bodies, reorganizing them into any form we wish." He paused. "Well. Not any form. Any form that we have scanned previously, or have downloaded from prior research."
"And your normal Karak form is... those beams of light?"
"Our primary form is a condensed mass of stationary photons, yes."
Jesus. I felt like I needed a degree in physics to understand this. "Show me."
I'd seen them do it already, both when they first arrived and when the Wolvae attacked, but my brain was still trying to understand it all at the time. Now, I actually watched him do it while having a general understanding, with no other distractions, and the transformation was incredible. All the atoms of his body just... fell apart, like blowing on a dandelion. And then the color was washed out by the brightness of each speck, photons of light that formed the thick bar of light I'd seen before. It hovered in front of me, giving off far more illumination than the glowing orbs on the ceiling.
"Wow," I whispered.
I am glad you are able to accept such a thing without going mad, he said into my brain.
"Honestly, the jury's still out on that," I muttered. "And you talking straight into my head isn't helping."
His body fell apart again as he shifted back into his human form, all hard lines of muscle and popping veins and then finally clothes over top.
"Sorry. I shall remain in this form as much as possible for your comfort."
"That does help," I said. "So... could you shift into a Wolvae if you wanted to?"
"Of course." Kerix hesitated. "But I would not wish to do so. They are beasts driven by fury and malice. Many Karak can withstand such primal urges, especially the great fighters in the Sunken Pit on Karak, but I suspect I would fail."
"Yeah, those guys were insane." I remembered the jaws of that enormous beast flying toward me, large enough to practically swallow me whole, and I shivered underneath my blankets. "Hey, can you, uhh..."
Kerix grabbed my clothes and handed them to me. Ignoring the embarrassment of a guy handling my bra and panties, I got dressed underneath the blanket.
"You said those guys were insane," Kerix said while I got dressed. "They are actually female."
I yanked my shirt over my head, then let the blanket fall away. "Oh?"
"Yes. Female Wolvae are more brutal and violent than their male counterparts, though only by a small degree."
"Bitches be crazy," I muttered.
"However, the primary difference is that the male Wolvae can shapeshift in a manner similar to us Karak. It is significantly more difficult for them, and expends a great amount of energy, but it is an ability they possess."
"Huh." My stomach rumbled loudly. "So if you can shift anything into existence, how about you rustle us up some food? I'm always famished after fighting crazy alien wolves."
He smiled. "I think I can do that." He didn't do anything that I could see: no muttering spells or waving his hands like an orchestra conductor. But a white bowl shimmered into existence on the ground next to us, and the contents were like a thick soup. The aroma hit my nose like a battering ram, and I grabbed it and lifted a tentative spoonful.
"Is this..." I took a small sip, then nodded. "This is beef stroganoff."
"Correct."
I stirred it with the spoon, pulling up thick bits of roast and egg noodles underneath. "That's awfully fancy for an alien who's only been on earth a few hours."
"It is the only recipe uploaded tot he database of knowledge we received," he explained.
I spooned two helpings into my mouth, ignoring the scalding heat on my tongue. I was hungrier than I'd ever been in my life.
Kerix created another bowl, and tested a spoonful himself. "I am an excellent chef," I he said around a mouthful.
We ate in silence for several minutes.
Now that I was feeling a little more normal, I began to feel other parts of my body. My ribs ached like I'd gotten into a boxing match, but it was faint. Almost a memory more than an immediate pain.
"So," I began, blushing anew. "Why did you guys... do what you did?"
Kerix's eyes widened slightly, and then he blushed too. It was a small thing, an unconscious human reaction, but it made me feel less embarrassed about the whole thing. That I wasn't alone in all of this.
"You were gravely wounded," he said. "Broken ribs. A head fracture. Internal bleeding. We began by healing you."
I put the empty bowl down and touched my head. I could sense the ghost of an injury there, just above my temple. But when I rubbed along the skin underneath my hair I felt nothing out of the ordinary.
"You can heal broken bones?" I marveled.
"Yes."
Huh. I guess that wasn't too crazy, compared to their ability to shift into any form they wanted.
I made my face a blank mask. "And then you two decided to take advantage of me in my vulnerable state."
Kerix's dark eyebrows shooting toward his hairline like rockets was enough to make me almost burst into laughter. "We thought..." he began, but I put a hand on his leg.
"I was making a joke. Humans joke a lot. Especially in traumatic events. It's a defense mechanism."
"Defense mechanism," Kerix repeated. "We were guided by your pleasure. We could feel it coming off you, the way you needed to be touched."
"You did exactly what I wanted," I said with an embarrassed smile.
Well, that wasn't technically true. I'd wanted to do more with them, but what had happened was wonderful by itself. Before I could go down that line of thinking too much, I cleared my throat and touched the pockets of my running shorts.
"My phone must have fallen out during all the chaos," I muttered. "I know Tyrix is scouting right now, but can you take me back to my base? Like, shift-transport us straight there? It will probably blow their minds, but I should be able to scramble together a fighting force to take back your ship from the Wolvae."
Kerix narrowed his eyes. "It doesn't work that way."
"But last night, in my house, the other Karak suddenly appeared," I insisted. "He and the woman. POOF, right into my living room."
"We can move our bodies a short distance," he explained. "Along with other matter, if we wish. But we cannot move any farther than we can see with our Karak consciousness. About a hundred feet, depending on the terrain and the situation."
I chewed that over. "We're 20 or so miles from my base. Probably only a few miles to the nearest road, where we can flag someone down."
"The nearest human consciousness is six miles to the north-west," Kerix said. "Tyrix and I have determined that we cannot wait that long; the Wolvae may have full control of our ship within hours. Once he returns from scouting, we must attempt to attack it at once."
"Well then," I said, taking his hand and squeezing it. "I guess we'll just have to capture it ourselves."