Chapter 20
Cass wouldn’t say she’d played a lot of video games beyond the apps on her phone, though she supposed those counted. Other than that, she’d never really gotten into the hobby. As a child, she’d been too busy building lemonade stands, running yard sales, and training the neighbor’s dog—since she hadn’t been able to have one of her own. Her father had bought her one of those digital pet games, but she’d quickly grown bored with it. She’d started her first real business in high school, which took up all of her free time, and by college, she spent eighty hours a week working and going to school, leaving no time for leisure activities like video games.
Nahash offered puzzle games, but the fighting game he’d mentioned intrigued her the most. The fact that he’d said he’d usually played that kind of game piqued her curiosity.
He set everything up with a few manipulations of the control panel, then showed her how to press the lighted key panels to move her avatar.
The game prompted her to select an avatar from a dizzying array of different alien species. Nahash swore to her they actually all existed and belonged to the Cosmic Syndicate, which explained the title—Cosmic Syndicate Battle Arena—that her embedded translator allowed her to understand, even though she couldn’t read the alien symbols on the screen.
After searching through the options fruitlessly looking for a human, Cass settled on another Iriduan to match Nahash’s. When he realized she intended to fight with the same avatar, he suggested she selected a different one to give her an advantage, since she’d never played the game before.
“You aren’t just going to let me win?” she asked in a teasing voice.
His brows lifted. “Why would I do that?”
She grinned, pleased that the patronizing thought hadn’t even occurred to him. “Because I’m a girl, and you want to get into my pants.”
He blinked a few times, then his expression shifted into a sly half-smile. “Does that work for humans?”
She shook her head, pointing a thumb at herself. “Not this one. I find it irritating, to be honest. If you’re good enough to trounce me at this game, go ahead and do so. I’ll try to keep up.”
He settled his hands on his side of the control panel, shifting his focus to the game screen that had replaced the window light-tunnel with a three-dimensional image of a battle arena where the series of squares showing an avatar from each of the main syndicate species appeared above the arena on the window screen.
“I’ll always defeat you in this game unless you choose the correct avatar.” He pointed to one of the avatars on her side of the arena. “Choose that one. It’s best for beginners because it’s over-powered.”
She looked at the one he’d pointed out, then laughed because the alien appeared so small in comparison to the other avatars. “That’s a Roswell gray.” Her grin faded as realization struck her. “Oh, my god! You mean those guys are real?”
He seemed surprised by her words, then alarmed as she leaned back in her chair, feeling suddenly lightheaded. “Didn’t I tell you about the Lusians?”
They’d talked about so many species in the syndicate that he probably had, and she just hadn’t made the connection between his words and the little gray men who supposedly frequently visited Earth.
“They’re on my planet, aren’t they? They go there to abduct people!”
Nahash took her suddenly cold hands in his warm ones, rubbing his fingers over her skin to chase away the numbness that crept into them. “There’re those in this galaxy who would intend far more harm to your people than the Lusians or the Ultimans—or my people. Don’t view them—or us—as invaders. If anything, we’re protecting your world.”
His touch set her mind onto other paths, so she pulled her hands free, leaning back in her chair because she knew it was dangerous to encourage him too much. She didn’t want him getting to the point of engorgement again. Although his hunger and need for her had been hot as hell, and she wouldn’t mind experiencing it again, she didn’t feel ready for that yet.
She wasn’t sure she could handle the strangeness of his body, but what scared her even more was the fact that he needed her. She feared that if she allowed herself to love him—and she felt certain sex with him would lead to deeper emotions—she’d end up losing him. They weren’t in a position to even consider a long-term relationship, and physical intimacy complicated everything—especially when it involved overcoming the hurdle of accepting and growing accustomed to the differences between them.
She shifted her mind back to the subject at hand, noting that he’d gone silent and had returned his attention to the control panel after what he must have taken as her rejection of his touch. “Your people are really protecting Earth?”
He nodded, shooting a brief glance her way before turning back to his study of the game avatars, as if he were reconsidering his own choice. “My people aren’t altruistic. Earth is a resource to them. They’ll protect it to keep others from claiming it.”
The knowledge that her homeworld was vulnerable to alien invaders truly scared her. “If Iriduans want those resources so badly, why not just take them by force themselves?”
He didn’t look away from his side of the screen. “Because they can’t—at this point. They can’t mobilize a fleet of warships through the jumpstation closest to Earth without attracting attention they can’t afford, and your world is populous enough to make conquering it difficult without a large invasive force.”
“You guys have technology that would blow us out of the water, right?” She voiced her fears aloud in the hopes that he’d dissuade them.
“We do have weapons and defenses that would put your primitive weapons to shame, but the Lusians and Ultimans also have an interest in your world. They wouldn’t allow it to be so easily conquered. Instead, the Iriduans have formed an uneasy alliance with the other species protecting the world.”
She turned back to her game-screen, staring up at the “Lusian” that looked creepily back at her with its huge, ovoid black eyes. “So, we actually have these guys to thank that we haven’t been invaded and conquered?”
He selected another avatar for himself, pointing to it. “And these guys.”
She looked over and saw Bigfoot, only instead of a shaggy, matted coat, the towering simian-faced alien had sleek fur with braids woven throughout the silken coat. Glowing beads forming a pattern all over his body had been tied into the braided fur.
“Oh, that’s Bigfoot. I get it. He doesn’t look as beastly as I thought he would.”
Nahash shook his head. “You humans really have a problem seeing others as more than animals, don’t you?”
She’d hoped he’d forgotten her earlier insensitive remark. She’d never mean to insult him, still struggling with the concept of alien life. Now, she felt almost immune to surprise at the sight of all the different lifeforms that comprised a wider galactic civilization, making human civilization look small, far too homogenous, and primitive by comparison.
“I don’t think I’ll make that assumption again.”
He nodded. “It won’t matter. Once we return to Earth, you won’t encounter any other non-humans.”
She studied him, noting his long, gleaming tail coiled around his chair. “Our government will capture you, Nahash. You can’t live there.” Admitting the truth aloud twisted her gut. She didn’t know what to do about the impossibility of their situation.
He shrugged, his expression unconcerned. “I’m very good at hiding. I’m not the least bit concerned about human technology detecting me. As for the other aliens on your planet, they won’t know to look for me, and I can sense their tech and deal with it if it becomes a problem.”
His confidence gave her a burst of her own. Maybe it wasn’t impossible to take him back home and keep him with her. Her mind raced with ideas, plans, and strategies for how to live with him on Earth—concealing him from human governments and perhaps even alien observers. She’d need to sell the condo and find property out in the wilderness, somewhere he could slither around outdoors without fear of being spotted by satellites. She could always telecommute for her job if necessary. She’d have to travel sometimes, of course, but as long as she didn’t stay away too long—
“So, you’re going to select the Lusian, yes?” His voice brought her back to the present, instead of the future she’d started daydreaming about, one that involved an upscale ranch house surrounded by rolling hills and cradled by mountains on all sides.
She could almost picture Nahash there, coiled up in the designer-decorated living room around the sofa, watching streaming videos with her after a long day of—
“I selected it for you. Now, let me show you the controls for its attacks. Like I said, the Lusian is overpowered against any other species. You can rip an opponent’s skull open with your avatar’s mind if you time it right.”
She shook herself out of her daydream to pay attention to the game. “Gross, Nahash. I just want to knock your guy on his butt, not tear his head open.”
He grinned at her disgusted tone. “Oh, knocking me down shouldn’t be a problem with your character. You just have to time things so you can keep me down, because my avatar has an energy shield that even the Lusian will struggle to defeat, since it disrupts brain waves. You’ll have to find a way to bring that shield down before you can tear open my avatar’s skull.”
Cass tried to put the idea of her and Nahash making a life on Earth out of her mind at the moment, while she paid attention to his instructions, then started the game with him. Though he easily defeated her the first ten rounds, she finally got the hang of her character, managing to hold Nahash’s avatar off more than once, though he kept winning the overall match, his hand-eye coordination far too fast for her to beat him, despite her overpowered character.
As their matches stretched longer and longer, they steadily approached the recharge station. The first of several that would help them find a star map to take her home. Home, with Nahash.