Sidney
It didn’t take us long to get from the trailer park to the mountainside; a week at most. Baxley told me he’d spotted the same Vithohn scouting the nearby fields and valleys by this location for some time now. Said the thing kept coming back, though he couldn’t say for what reason.
My commodore told me that the creature didn’t gather food or meet with anyone; he just stared off. I couldn’t fathom why, but I had an unsavory feeling we might be walking into a trap.
We being myself and Lele.
Baxley called her a robot, believing she was entirely machine-built. I knew he was right, but referred to her as a cyborg anyhow, preferring to think she was my friend and not a blind follower.
She was modeled after a beautiful Native American woman, with intricately long braids, tan skin, and a stunning profile. Her forehead dipped in far at the eyes and then protruded into the most graceful nose I had ever seen, like a ski slope.
“You ready to be brave?” I asked as we crouched behind a valley of tall boulders, watching and waiting for the beast to appear.
“I was not programmed with real fear,” she said with a snarky tone and then looked over at me. “Though if you like, I could bite my lip with perceived worry.”
I could never tell if Lele was being sarcastic in nature or if she truly said things with a lack of feeling due to being robotic. I liked to think it was the former, and for that reason, Lele and I got along swimmingly.
“Even better then,” I said.
Like mine, Lele’s body was heavily armored with plating and wires, though she was patronizingly small in frame. She was petite and perfect by design.
Her chin was small, too small for her face, and her lips large and pointed. They made me jealous.
I always considered myself plain; or worse than that, a redhead. Fair skin, freckles—someone who stands out. I used to hate that as a kid, but now I ran with it. Standing out meant I’d never be forgotten, and I liked that feeling a lot.
“There he is,” I pointed and immediately regretted volunteering for this job.
Lele looked out at the creature and blinked, the blue shimmer of her eyeshadow catching the moonlight.
“I’m ready,” I whispered, cocking my gun, drawing in a big breath as I stood.
To my surprise, Lele grabbed my arm and pulled me back ever so slightly.
“Please be careful, miss,” she said lowly and worked herself into a frown before wandering out into the grasslands.
The alien noticed her immediately, his big eyes darting in her direction.
He was definitely a Vithohn. I could tell by the limp spire that sprouted from the back of his head and lay dead down his backside.
Lele opened fire on the beast, doing her best to look lost and robotic and succeeding.
The Vithohn whipped at her with his tentacle and went rabid almost immediately; his eyes glazed over with fury as he pinned her to the ground and began scratching at her thick armor, beating against her.
His long face held a scaled texture across his extended forehead and down his nose. Beyond that, his skin was smooth all around with a glowing green hue. The color was especially vibrant around his scales and running down the tentacle that came down the back of his head.
I swallowed hard at the sight of him and suddenly couldn’t believe I was thrusting myself into his path.
“I’m sorry!” I screamed, running toward him and firing a warning shot into the air. “That’s my machine,” I said, pointing to Lele. “Please, let me take her, and we’ll both get out of your way. Please.”
The alien was tall: much taller than me. He had broad shoulders and a body almost entirely covered by armor and medals. The way he led with his chest told me he was proud of whatever those medals represented: that I should be impressed somehow.
I thought he might cock his head or turn to speak, but he didn’t He merely looked me up and down and then thrust himself toward me with snarling teeth.
He pinned me to the ground, and I quickly shot into his arm, causing him to lurch back in surprise. He traced his hand over his shoulder and looked at the blood that covered his fingers with shock.
“Relax!” I screamed and managed to squirm away from his grasp.
This was a bad, bad, shitty idea.
I doubled back and ran, not bothered any longer to look back and see where he might be. The snow began to fall, and I hoped that it might serve as a distraction for him, or at least a blinder.
I bolted toward Lele but felt his spire wrap around me, slithering up my leg and pulling me to the ground with a hard, muddy fall.
“I’m getting a little sick of you,” he said, and the sound of his voice startled me more than the attack did.
He pulled me toward him and crouched down to meet my face.
The man had four hooped nose rings that clasped horizontally across his wide nose bridge. Beyond his skin and long face, everything else seemed like other Homo sapiens. His eyes were pale blue and an exaggerated almond shape that still seemed human somehow, even as his ears folded flat onto his skull, waiting to perk up at the slightest noise.
“I’m not so fond of you, either,” I literally spat.
Driven by instincts alone, I began punching him in the nose, feeling the hard weight of his nose rings against my knuckles and raging out a scream as I hit him.
“Good job, miss,” Lele said with her muted tone.
Her voice was crisp and cut through the wintery air clear enough to make the creature stop and laugh.
Actually laugh.
Obviously, he didn’t think I was doing as good a job as Lele did, but it was enough to disarm him.
Lele looked at me then, and with her adorable tone, she said, “Might I suggest you take advantage of this opportunity to move in your womanly wiles?”
I breathed inward and looked up at the creature. He met my eyes with confusion, and I winced, leaning up and kissing him.
I set my hands on either side of his masculine face and surprisingly, he let me. His lips were soft and smooth: large and kissable.
And as simply as that, the creature seemed immediately calmed.
The Vithohn exhaled a long, hot breath and turtled his neck from me. “What was that?” he asked sharply, needling his brows.
“It’s called…” I stammered nervously and then offered him a sheepish grin. “A kiss.”
The man looked at me, and a nervous energy exploded between us as he leaned back down and took my lips in his once more, testing me out: tasting me. His mouth danced against mine softly until his tongue teased and flicked my teeth.
I felt a pulse in my middle that made me thrust upward toward his body, pushing myself deeper into the kiss.
He pulled away again, looking down to examine me and I let out a flirtatious laugh.
“A fan of that, are we?” I said wryly.
He cocked his head to the side and loosened his grip on me, though not letting me go.
“Why did you disarm me?” he demanded; the softness I just gleaned from him suddenly gone. “What did you do?”
He shook me then, and I felt the strength of him; I felt his anger return. He pushed me down and stood from me, pacing furiously. He held his head in his hands and looked between Lele and myself with a confused, angry stare.
“I just wanted to…” I blanched.
Want to… what?
Was I supposed to tell him that I heard I could control the Vithohn, or at the very least quell them by offering up my body?
No way in hell.
“I was afraid,” I finally summarized.
“I see,” he said dismissively, whipping around once more to look me up and down. “And you felt that would help keep you from my people?” he scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Where did you come from?” he demanded, stomping his foot in my direction as the snowflakes fluttered between us in a hurry.
I pulled my coat closer to me and shivered against the wind, wincing back as the creature shouted, “Who are you working with?”
It was then I was assured that his people were still mostly oblivious to the pockets of human militia that they had failed to wipe out. That fact made me want to bust out with a big grin, but I didn’t.
Before I had the chance to respond, he grabbed me, gripping his large hand around my wrist and pulling me forward.
“You’re coming back with me,” he seethed.
“Please,” I begged, pulling away from him. “I was with a small group of people, but they’ve all died from…” I looked around quickly and then pointed skyward to the snow. “The elements. It’s just me and Lele here; please, let us go, and we’ll never bother you again.”
“Le…” Seeming to forget about Lele, the creature whipped around to regard her and then surmised, “Ah.”
“I don’t want to die,” I said with a whimper, still pulling away from him. “Please.”
“You humans seem to be cropping up in the strangest places,” he said, towering over me and squinting down at me suspiciously. “You’ll be coming back to our barracks. That’s my orders.”
“That’s what brought you out here?” I scoffed.
We stood there, blistering in the mounting snowstorm and I could see his lips going blue.
He seemed to consider my question and, still with his hand fastened around my wrist, he said, “What are you insinuating?”
“It just seems odd that you’re out here,” I needled. “You’re without any sort of crew; like I was invading on something… personal?”
“No,” he snapped, a little too quickly.
“Please,” I offered again. “Give me one night before you give me to your people. I’m begging you.”
“Why? So you can sneak off and alert your people as to where they can find us?”
“First of all, it’s no secret where to find you. Second, I would be doing more harm than good by going back to my people even if they were still alive, because you’d probably just follow me.”
Lele blinked rapidly at my rant and took a single step toward us, oblivious to the winter’s elements.
“Aggression has an eighty-percent failure rate with the beast,” she said swiftly.
The Vithohn looked at me with widened eyes, infuriated now. “The beast?”
“The Vithohn, the Vithohn!” I insisted. “She's smart, but it takes her a while to scan your genetic makeup. She's an older model.”
A lie, of course.
Lele never got it wrong.
“My apologies,” the girl said evenly.
The creature breathed hard through his nose and let go of me with a hard toss of my wrist. “Beast,” he scoffed.
I swallowed and tried not to smirk. “Sorry about that.”
“Lifeform identified as a Vithohn,” Lele spouted off; her eyes turned to information mode. “Lele will now persist in calling the green beast by his accurate DNA.” Then she looked at me and offered me a private wink.
Was she purposely trying to piss him off? I stared at the beautiful girl, and my eyes went wide, causing me to burst into a belly laugh.
“You think that’s funny?” the man seethed.
“Well, it isn’t dull!” I shouted and continued to laugh.
The creature looked infuriated, yet the more I laughed, the more he began to break his strong veneer. Finally, he let out an indignant, unwilling chuckle as he watched me.
“Alright,” he said, finally settling me down. “You’ll come to the barracks with me. Alone.”
“And you’ll give me the night to… to plead for my release?”
He squinted his eyes at me and finally confirmed, “Sure.”
“Thank you,” I said with a relieved sigh.
“It’s Tessoul,” he said and then offered a sharp glare at Lele. “My name.”
“Name has been imprinted,” Lele confirmed, squirreling up next to him. “Shall I make a note of your listed attributes in my database?”
Tessoul pinched the wide bridge of his nose and fumed, “What?”
Before he could protest, Lele began spouting off, “Aggressive Vithohn of the Udrenahine planet. Natural bred warrior, marked by broad shoulders and ability to create self-shield and known to read heat signatures. Overtook planet Earth twenty-one years, two hundred and ninety-nine days ago. Responds to Tessoul.”
Tessoul looked over at me, fully annoyed, and seemed to resign himself to our company as he breathed, “She forgot devilishly handsome.”
I was taken aback by his sudden humor and matched him tone for tone.
“She’s lazy like that,” I shrugged.
“Come on,” he said, pulling me forward.
“Sidney,” I said. “Sidney Cunningham.”