Chapter 4 #2
The panther elf alien man reached out with one large hand. He hesitated an inch away from my face, but I didn't move. He closed the distance, his hand covering the side of my face as his thumb gently stroked away one of the tears rolling down my cheek.
Then he sang something softly at me.
That part of my heart that had curled up into a tight little ball, that part of me that I thought had died three years ago - that part of me cracked just a little bit.
That part of me peeked its head up and thought about unfurling.
I leaned my cheek into his hand and stared up at him. His gentle touch radiated a warmth I had never experienced before.
"Hi there," I said, letting him see the big, beautiful smile that a talented orthodontist had helped me acquire.
He pulled his hand back, his ears flicking momentarily backward as he took a step away from me. He turned his head, never taking his eyes off me as he sang something out loudly.
His sudden distance made me realized how exposed I felt.
I looked around me, searching for something to cover up with. I was sitting on a white cloth that felt similar to the texture of a towel, so I grabbed it, wrapping it up around my chest so it hung down just past my knees.
A noise from across the room caused me to look up.
I glanced past him to where another member of his species walked through a sliding door that sunk into a pocket in the wall, popping back out after she passed through it.
I was guessing that she was a she. I just didn’t want to use the word it, and she was dramatically different than him in build.
Her bone structure was different, and she was quite a bit smaller and more delicate.
She still towered over me at around six feet tall.
She didn't have breasts, her entire chest was flat, but her hips were a bit wider, and it was clear her center of gravity was lower than his was.
She sang something at the sexy male in front of me, and he turned so his back was to me and replied, their songs overlapping each other slightly as if they were singing in harmony a tune that they both knew.
"Hey guys." I waved my hand to try to get their attention and then tapped on my chest. "My name is Lorelei."
I tapped on my chest again and repeated my name.
The smaller one ignored me.
Mr. Tall, Dark, and Sexy anime cat boy didn’t turn around to see me as he was still in the middle of wiggling his tail out to the side, slightly fluffed.
My eyes traveled up the curve of his muscular backside.
The muscles were well defined, like he spent his life climbing and leaping as an everyday activity.
The drool worthy muscle bound cat man was gesturing to the machine that was hooked up to me. The cat woman walked over to it and tapped on the screen, turning it further away for me so I couldn't see anything that was going on.
"You guys could at least try to communicate," I said, moving so that my feet dangled off the side of the table.
I was a few feet up higher than I would like, but I needed to get down.
I put both my hands to one side of me and hopped off the table, using the table to steady me as my legs wobbled on the landing and almost collapsed under me.
A rush of euphoria washed through me.
It was not natural.
I knew what unnatural bliss felt like.
"Oh, that's some good stuff," I said as I glanced over to the tubes connected to me.
One was going straight into a vein. "But I don't want it."
I wanted the pain.
I wanted to know how badly I was hurt.
I reached for the tube going into my vein and yanked it out.
The smaller cat elf let out a hiss and reached for me.
I batted her hand away and turned to run away for her.
Instead, I ran straight into tall, dark, and handsome.
His arms wrapped around me, and he lifted me up off the ground, pressing me against his chest as he both restrained me and cradled me gently in his grasp.
I wrapped my hands around his biceps, my fingertips brushing at the soft black fur on his triceps as my elbows tucked into the sides of my ribs. My feet dangled in the air by his shins as the full length of me molded against him, trapped there by the soft steel grip of his arms.
I felt something soft curl around my ankles.
His tail?
My face was pressed against his hard chest.
He smelled like home.
I took a deep breath, as a memory washed over me, carried by the waves of scent.
When I was little, before my dad passed, we lived in a house in an old suburban neighborhood outside the city where the lots were around half an acre each.
Ancient oak trees stood in our back yard with trunks so big I couldn't get my arms around them.
Their branches swung down to the ground close enough I could climb them and lie there until my dad called me in for dinner.
After dinner, we would lie in the grass near the tree, looking up at the stars as he pointed out the constellations. I could smell the grass, the fresh breath from the oak trees, the faintest hint of jasmine from the cluster of flowers that bordered the lawn.
I blinked my way back to the present.
There was another undertone to the midnight furred alien male's scent that was familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.
I needed a minute to snap out of this scent induced haze.
I turned my head so I wasn't just face-planted in his chest. I pushed against his arms, and he lowered me onto my wobbly legs, still holding on to me but giving me enough room to turn in his grasp.
He sang something at the woman, and she responded. They went back and forth for another moment before she backed away from him, her ears flicking backward as the hair on her arms and shoulders rose up.
She turned and fled the room..
As soon as the door closed behind her, he put his hands on my hips and effortlessly lifted me up to set me back on the table.
I didn't protest.
Sitting down seemed like a good idea.
Plus my legs were really wobbly.
He crossed the room and picked up a large, narrow box long enough to hold several basketballs side-by-side in a line. He came back and set it down on the table next to me. He put his hands on top of it, looked at me intently, and sang something.
"I don't know what's in that," I said, "but you gotta learn my name if you are going to give me presents."
He opened the lid of the box, and it swung up on hinges. A cool mist rolled over the edge. I could feel the chill. It was a cooler of some sort.
I wiggled closer and peered over the edge.
It took me a minute to process what I was looking at.
There were five round things that had the same texture and coloring as the reptaliens’ skin. I reached in and grabbed one, lifting it up.
A face stared back at me.
It was a face I recognized.
"Why do you have a fake model of the heads of the aliens who…" I trailed off as my brain slowly clicked into the next gear of understanding.
I turned my head to look at the bottom of the neck.
Jagged flesh and a severed spinal column were right there in vivid detail.
I carefully set the very real, not fake at all, severed head back in the cooler.
My feelings were still and quiet inside of me.
I turned to face the alien male, who still hadn't introduced himself but clearly thought it was appropriate to bring me the severed heads of the aliens that abducted me.
I reached out to take one of his hands in mine.
I moved slowly, watching him carefully. I wasn't sure what would be negative or positive body language for him, but I was sure I would figure that out, given enough observation.
"Thank you," I said simply.
Later, once I figured out how to communicate with him, I would have to tell him that this was by far the best gift anyone had ever given me. It was thoughtful, considerate, personalized, and satiated my very real need for vengeance.
It was mildly terrifying, and yet I felt only excitement, rather than fear.
It was downright romantic.
I put one of my hands on my chest, right over where I had knotted the towel.
"Lorelei," I said.
"Lorelei," he sang back, running the notes in the pentatonic scale.
He tapped his chest with his free hand.
"Zale," he sang, the notes of his name descending.
"Zale," I repeated back to him, forgoing the singing.
Singing was not a skill I flourished at.
His ears flicked back slightly, and he pulled his hand free from mine. Then he closed the lid, picked up the container, and left the room.
I let out the breath I had been holding.
I was safe.
I knew I could take it a different way. It would be easy to shift it in my mind and be afraid of him because of the casual way he presented me with the evidence of a brutal series of murders.
But I had already lost my fragile innocence when my heart had grew hard three years ago.
I didn't know exactly what kind of world I was in now, but the world I had grown up too fast in was the kind where abusers like those reptaliens got to keep hurting women over and over again.
The only time I saw people like that taken down was when a group of victims got together and went through the horrible effort to take them down in court.
Having a man go out and just solve the problem for me, to just take out the trash without me even having to ask him to…
"How do I marry that man?" I asked the empty room.