Starcrossed (First Contact #1)

Chapter One

Candy

For some reason, Candy expected her first house party in space to be… different, like maybe they’d play zero gravity beer pong or something. But Xyxy’s friends seemed more than happy to remain with their feet firmly on the ground. And weirdly enough, no one was playing beer pong.

Xyxy’s apartment was even bigger than the house Candy used to live in with her parents and sister back home in Brooklyn.

Flashing lights cycled through every color of the rainbow, flickering from every corner of the apartment, and Candy couldn’t walk more than a few feet without running into one of the many side tables that were set up as do-it-yourself bars.

Candy’s ears pulsed with the bass-heavy music that reverberated off the walls.

Maybe a drink would be a good way to start this whole thing.

She was no stranger to parties, but being at a party in a new galaxy where the only person she knew was nowhere to be found required liquid courage.

She didn’t recognize half the bottles of liquor lining the table closest to her, and she wasn’t feeling particularly brave.

The bottle closest to her was full of a sickly green liquid that everything in her human evolution warned her to avoid like the plague.

“What’s your costume?” came a melodic voice from beside her.

The owner of the voice was a tall, bioluminescent alien with three unblinking eyes like opals, each one fixed on her.

Tendrils of tentacle-like appendages framed her bug-like features almost like hair; some more bulbous and shiny, others dotted with suckers.

Her slender body was encased in a floor-length, shimmering gown a similar blue hue to her skin.

Xyxy hadn’t exactly warned Candy that she was throwing a costume party the day she arrived in the galaxy, so she’d just thrown something together–her long-sleeved black off-the-shoulder top was in her regular rotation anyway, and paired with hip-hugging flared jeans completed her iconic ‘Regina George gets hit by a bus’ costume.

But what she hadn’t considered was how she was going to explain that to a bunch of aliens who had never heard of Mean Girls. “Uh, it’s from an Earth movie,” she said, trying not to stare too hard. But she was beautiful, much more beautiful than any human she’d ever seen.

Aliens had slowly trickled their way into Earth’s society, but her species was one that Candy had never seen on Earth.

“You look cute,” she said, a slow smile tugging at her lips. “I’m guessing you’re Xyxy’s human friend? Candy?”

Figures everyone already knew about Candy and Xyxy hadn’t even shown her face to introduce her around yet. “Yep, that’s me.” It was only then that Candy noticed the thick, glistening tail flicking languidly behind her.

“I’m Yule. I’m not sure if Xyxy mentioned this to you, but I live here too.”

Xyxy had most definitely not mentioned that. Candy must have made a face, because Yule laughed. “Yeah, that sounds about right. Don’t worry, I probably won’t be around much. I’ve been back and forth to my planet a lot for work—I just forgot to conveniently not be here for this.”

Candy snorted. “I should kick her ass for throwing a party my first night here. All I wanna do is get in bed.”

“You wouldn’t kick my ass. You love me.” A pair of slender, cornflower blue arms wrapped around Candy’s shoulders from behind. Tendrils of darker blue vined up the length of them from her fingertips.

Right now, she wasn’t so sure about how much she loved Xyxy. But she was happy to see her. They’d had plenty of vid calls over comm since Xyxy returned to Kratos after college a few years ago, but she’d missed actually seeing her in person.

“Doesn’t mean I won’t kick your ass,” Candy said, and Xyxy released her to stand by her side.

The best thing about this party was that she was surrounded by hot women, and her best friend was no exception to that.

She was dusted head to toe with glitter, sporting a pink halter top and matching mini skirt.

Her tall, chunky-heeled white boots came up to the middle of her calf.

The sharp eyeliner she wore added severity to her heart-shaped face, and her silky black hair was pulled back into its usual high ponytail.

She wore an earpiece that connected to a tiny, probably useless microphone that rested a few inches from her sparkly purple lips.

“Gods, look at you! You’re here!” Xyxy placed her hands on either side of Candy’s face. “I missed your ass so much.”

Xyxy was Candy’s only friend in Kratos and half the reason she decided to come out here in the first place.

The decision had been an impulsive one–definitely not spurred on by a particularly messy breakup–but the chance to live with her best friend was one she couldn’t really pass up.

And Xyxy had been all too happy to offer her a room in her apartment.

She had a job interview lined up for tomorrow, and then her life here would really begin.

Candy didn’t know if she would regret this or not yet, but for now she was… happy. She was having fun.

“I was just getting to know my new roommate,” Candy said, sending Xyxy a pointed stare.

Xyxy’s lips formed an ‘o,’ like she’d completely forgotten that was an important piece of information she probably should have shared with Candy. “Riiiight. Yes. Because I definitely mentioned that to you before you got here.”

“You did not.” Candy pinched Xyxy’s side. But she couldn’t even bring herself to be properly annoyed. She was just happy to be with her.

“Alright, alright, I’m being a shitty host.” Xyxy looped her arm around Candy’s, the most prominent edges of her nerves sloughing off at the familiar contact. “Come on, let me introduce you to some people.”

“It was nice to meet you, Candy,” Yule said. Candy managed a quick wave before Xyxy tugged her away and further into the apartment, where the bulk of the partygoers were gathered.

There were probably around thirty of Xyxy’s friends scattered between the main living area and the dining area.

Most of them were nursing drinks, chatting in small groups or dancing.

Xyxy’s friends were pretty unabashed in their grinding on each other.

She wasn’t terribly surprised, but it only added to how out of her depth she felt.

Suddenly the alien liquor didn’t sound so bad.

A glass shattered somewhere in the crowd, and Xyxy’s pointed ears perked up like a homing beacon. “Okay, who’s breaking shit?” Without so much as a glance back at Candy, she stormed into the crowd. Candy pitied whoever was about to be on the receiving end of that.

And now Candy was alone. Again. Would Xyxy notice if she slunk back to her room and hid for the rest of the night?

A younger Candy might have embraced the chaos and partied until the sun came up, but fatigue pounded at her temples.

Today had been chaotic enough. Road trips with her Uncle Lochlan were fun on the best of days, but her anxiety about the move made Lochlan’s reckless driving all the more terrifying.

She approached one of the tables loaded with liquor and took a cup, mulling over her choices as if she had any idea what she was choosing between. She settled on the darkest liquor among them, pouring a hearty glug into the glass.

Would alien liquor even get her drunk? Surely, they had different effects on different species, right? She decided to take her chances, tipping her head back and swallowing the shot.

Which was a really fucking dumb decision.

As she swallowed, flames licked her throat, and she managed to keep her composure until a voice said, “Damn, going straight into the Daocury fire whiskey, huh?” Her embarrassment, paired with the unrelenting heat, choked her. The whiskey burned into her sinuses, making her eyes water.

A solid hand came up to pat her back, and she spluttered through the last of the liquid that traveled its way back up her throat. “Fire whiskey?” she croaked. Of all things to pick, she picked something called fire whiskey?

The stranger laughed a smooth, smoky laugh.

“Yeah, fire whiskey. I’m guessing that wasn’t on purpose.

” Candy blinked back the tears prickling at her eyes, her view of the stranger coming into focus.

They were tall, at least half a foot taller than Candy, with two reptilian heads that somehow managed to look friendly despite how dragon-like they were.

Most of their body was concealed by the heavy cloak that settled around their shoulders.

They took Candy’s glass and poured a different liquid into it; this one was concerningly thick, which didn’t give her much hope. “Here. This’ll help.”

The fire raging in Candy’s throat didn’t let her argue. She sucked the liquid down and sure enough, it immediately extinguished the fire in her throat. “Holy shit,” she breathed, clearing her throat. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” Their scaled lips on both heads curled into friendly smiles. “I’m Altear, by the way. And you’re Candy, right?”

Apparently, every alien on Kratos knew who Candy was. “Wow, I’m pretty famous around here, huh?”

“Well, Xyxy hasn’t stopped talking about you for the past week.”

A swell of affection blossomed in Candy’s chest, and she did a quick scan of the room for her aforementioned friend. Sure enough, she was ripping into who Candy assumed had broken the glass.

“Well, I hope I can live up to the hype.” Candy turned back to the mini bar, which suddenly seemed even more intimidating. “What’s your costume?”

Altear spread their arms to their sides and their cloak parted, revealing a deep indigo tunic that laced in the front, fitted dark trousers and a cross-strap harness lined with glass bottles filled with sparkling liquid. “You’ve never seen Race to the Throne? You know, Thuk-Dur?”

Candy did not know. “I’m not from here, remember?” That would be a good excuse instead of what was actually going through her mind—she was all too familiar with Race to the Throne, and she couldn’t be less interested in the gratuitous violence and complete lack of romance.

They gasped with both heads, turning to the bottles lined up next to them and pouring themself a healthy shot of the fire whiskey.

Something about this dragon-like alien drinking something called fire whiskey was amusing to her.

“Okay, that’s fair, but Gods, it’s so good.

You would absolutely love it, I can tell.

” They were definitely wrong about that, but Candy didn’t have the heart to tell them.

They poured something into Candy’s glass—a clear liquor that made Candy even more nervous. “Here, I think you’ll like this. This is called cevolt. It’s distilled from umdras, which is a grain that grows in Medras’s oceans. It’s kind of sweet but also kind of just tastes like the ocean.”

They weren’t doing the greatest job of selling it, but she took it, tapping her glass against theirs with a clink.

“What was that?” Altear asked.

“A cheers,” Candy said. Right. That was definitely just an Earth thing. “We do it on Earth before we drink. It’s like… a thing we do with friends.”

“Aww, we’re friends?” Altear grinned both sets of sharp teeth at her before taking their shot. They were right—the cevolt was sweet and salty. It reminded her of kettle corn, which wasn’t so bad until she considered how weird drinking kettle corn would be.

“After you saved me from the fire whiskey, being your friend is the least I could do.” Her head was already a little fuzzy from the back-to-back shots, but it was just enough to take the edge off her nerves. Now, she could have fun.

Or so she thought.

Next thing she knew, Altear launched into a full-blown retelling of the storyline of Race to the Throne. “Thuk-Dur is the underdog. He’s a servant, but he has Drortall blood. He’s a royal and he doesn’t know it. Sorry, that’s a spoiler—are you gonna watch it?”

“Maybe you can convince me?” Candy wasn’t particularly in the mood to listen to the entire plot of Race to the Throne, but she liked Altear. They tethered her, made her feel a little less like she was floating adrift in the middle of space.

“Okay, okay, I’ll just give you the notes without spoilers. So Thuk-Dur is trying to escape his life as a servant, and he makes a deal with a d’hova, which is kind of like a witch, and—”

Candy struggled to keep up; the names all blurred together, and she had a hard time keeping track of who slept with who, who ruled what country.

But Altear’s entire face lit up as they spoke, which anchored a part of her subconscious to the real world.

She nodded along, clinging to the juiciest details, and wishing that she’d had one less drink.