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Part 6
“You two know each other?” the guy asks surprised, having come up behind me without me even noticing it.
I just continue to stare.
“Yeah,” Joshua says smiling. Or at least I think he’s smiling. The corners of his lips are sort of twitching, and he’s making these weird breathing sounds while nodding his head.
I’m still staring.
“Biggs okay?” he asks the guy. “Not hurt?”
“I’m fine,” Biggs says. And me? Yup, you guessed it. Staring.
“Good,” Joshua says. Then he turns to me, giving me a worried look. “Liz? Something wrong?” His eyes become big, and he moves his face closer to mine to…sniff me?
I manage to shake myself out of my daze, trying to recover from my shock. “You…you…what are you? A transgenic?” I ask carefully.
Joshua is motionless for a minute, probably going through his options. Realizing that he doesn’t have any he nods slowly, looking nervous and scared, which is weird considering the fact that he is about two heads taller than me and could easily rip me to pieces if he wanted to.
I look him up and down. “Well, if you ask me you don’t look half as dangerous as they’re making you out to be on TV,” I finally say.
He seems to take offence in that for a second, but then he smiles and does the weird twitching thing again along with the even weirder sounds, and this time I’m pretty sure that he’s smiling, or rather laughing.
I turn to Biggs. “So that’s why they were after you,” I state.
He just barely nods, taking on a defensive posture, his arms folded over his chest, daring me to say something, express my disgust, back away.
But hey, I’ve dated an alien. Why should I have anything against transgenics? They’re hybrids too, just a bit more…normal.
Glance over at dog-boy. Okay, so maybe not that normal.
“Well, that explains a lot,” I simply say. Then I turn around, ready to walk away. “It’s been nice seeing you again, Joshua.”
“Liz, wait! Where do you live? Joshua can give you a ride home,” he says, obviously quite eager to do something for me. I’m about to decline, but I’m hungry and cold, not to mention that I have no idea where I am and how to get back to my motel. A ride sounds pretty good.
“Tampa Road,” I tell him.
Joshua frowns. “Tampa Road? Not a good neighborhood. Not safe,” he tells me, and for some crazy reason he suddenly reminds me of my father.
Is there any place in this city that can actually be called a good neighborhood? “Look, I can take care of myself,” I say getting defensive.
But Joshua is stubborn. “Not safe,” he repeats. Then his eyes suddenly light up. “Liz can come and live with Joshua,” he says sounding way too enthusiastic for my taste.
“No thanks,” I say.
He ignores me. “Joshua likes company. Liz safe. Better neighborhood. Joshua has enough space.” He’s nodding and smiling and looking so eager…I’m having a hard time turning him down.
“Annie lives just down the street,” he continues. “Annie likes Liz. Would like to see Liz again, to thank Liz. Liz and Annie can be friends.” He has this hopeful look in his eyes, making him look like a little boy…or puppy.
I’m about to say something when a light appears at the end of the street and a motorbike rolls towards us. It stops in front of us, the motor is turned off, and a guy gets off. He takes off his helmet.
Alec?
“Hey man, you okay?” he asks Biggs while they do this weird greeting thing guys always do with their hands. Another mystery the universe has to offer that I will never understand.
Then his gaze falls on me. “Liz? What are you doing here?” He’s obviously surprised, but there’s also a small smile on his lips, making me frown. What is he smiling at?
Before I can say anything Joshua speaks up. “Liz coming to stay with Joshua,” he tells Alec grinning.
“Hey,” I protest. “I didn’t say yes.”
Joshua’s grin disappears. “Tampa Road not safe, Liz,” he tells me again.
“You live on Tampa road?” Alec asks, now also frowning. “That’s not exactly the best neighborhood.”
“So I’ve heard,” I mutter, getting only slightly annoyed. It is sort of nice having someone looking out for you again, especially when you’re in a strange city where you know absolutely nobody.
But even though that’s starting to get to me, being alone, I’m still not willing to get all attached to these people. Getting attached only leads to getting hurt, and I’ve had enough of that lately, thank you very much.
“Look Joshua,” I say firmly. “I really appreciate your offer, but I can’t come and live with you.” And then I just turn around and walk away. I barely made it out of the little side street when there’s suddenly a motorcycle beside me.
“Go away,” I tell him.
“Let me give you a ride.”
“No thanks,” I tell him.
“I have the feeling you need one,” he continues, not fazed by my rudeness.
I stop walking and turn to face him, suddenly pissed. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I ask. “That I can’t look after myself because I’m a girl? That this big, dangerous city isn’t the kind of place linnocent little me should be? Well newsflash Alec, I can take care of myself!”
He’s quiet for a moment. “No, that’s not what I was trying to say,” he says calmly. “But you’re going in the wrong direction. Tampa road is that way,” he says pointing behind him.
“Oh.” I don’t say anything else. Just “oh”. No way in hell am I going to apologize…even though I know I probably should.
I expect some sort of comment from Alec, but he just holds out a helmet to me, not even smirking, even though I can tell that that costs him.
I sigh, reach for the helmet, put it on. Then I hesitate. Do I really want to sit down on that bike behind Alec, my body pressed against his during the whole ride?
Um, no.
I wait another second.
Oh, whatever. Slip into the seat behind him, but make sure that I’m as far away from him as possible.
“You know, I don’t bite,” he says, and I can tell from his voice that he’s smiling again, or rather smirking.
I snort and stay where I am. Somehow I find that hard to believe.
A minute later a traffic light switches to red, making him jump on the brake – even though he didn’t really have to – and me slide forward so that I’m exactly where I don’t want to be – pressed against his hard, muscular...oh, suck it up, I tell myself. This isn’t going to kill you.
After five minutes I begin to relax. This is actually sorta nice. I lean my head against his back, enjoying the lights of the city flying past us, the wind in my hair. As far as you can have wind in your hair while wearing a helmet, that is.
When we finally come to a halt I’m almost disappointed that the ride is over, even though I have the slight suspicion that Alec didn’t exactly take the shortest route. I notice that my arms are wrapped around his waist and quickly pull them away as if burned.
I practically jump of the bike, rip the helmet off my head and hand it to him, or rather shove it at him.
And he? He just smirks. Damn cocky bastard. “Good night, Liz,” he says, rolling the words around on his tongue, making it sound all soft and husky. Please. Like girls are stupid enough to fall for that. At least I’m not.
Not anymore.
I turn around to start walking towards my motel when I notice police cars and an ambulance parked in front of it, not to mention the crowd of people that has gathered.
Alec obviously saw it too since he’s suddenly standing beside me, his hand resting lightly on my arm to keep me from going any further.
The second he touches my wrist my thoughts rush back to that day at school when Max grabbed my arm in a similar fashion, also to keep me from going somewhere.
Only that this is completely different.
Max’s grip was strong, painful actually, making sure that I knew that my staying or going wasn’t my decision.
But Alec…he’s barely even touching my wrist, his hold protective, shielding, almost caring. He’s not trying to keep me from doing what I want, only trying to warn me that it might not be a good idea.
“What’s going on?” I ask, completely forgetting my earlier irritation with him. What was I upset about again?
“I don’t know,” he replies before stopping a passer-by and asking him.
“Found a guy murdered in that dump of a motel,” the guy says offhandedly. “Apparently was stabbed about a dozen times in the chest. Now they’re looking for all the people who are staying there, probably have a few questions for them.”
“Thanks,” Alec says and the guy goes on.
“Great, just fucking great,” I mutter. A murder investigation. The last thing I need right now.
“You sure know how to pick yourself a nice, homey place to stay,” Alec says, but I’m not going to be baited by such an obvious dig.
“What can I say, I fell in love with the décor,” I reply dryly.
Alec looks surprised, then he smirks. Guess I won this round. “Where’s your room?” he finally asks.
“Ground floor, last door on the left,” I reply. “Why?”
“So there’s a window out back?” he asks.
“Yeah. Why?” I repeat, getting irritated again. When exactly did I start getting so short-tempered?
“I’ll go in through the window and get your stuff out,” he tells me. “Wait here for me.”
“Hold on,” I say. “You’re not going to get the window open.” And why am I so sure of this? Right, it’s sealed shut. Alien powers do come in handy every once in a while.
Alec gives me a smile, sort of like he’s humoring me. “Trust me, that’s not gonna be a problem for me.” And before I can say anything else he’s disappeared into the shadows.
I roll my eyes. He’ll never get in.
Ten minutes later he comes back, looking almost distraught. Must have been quite a blow to his ego.
“Didn’t get in,” I state. I don’t ask, I state.
He nods grudgingly and I can tell that he’d rather chew his right arm off than admit it.
I’m about to throw his earlier cockiness back into his face when I remember that he didn’t make any stupid comments after I was a bitch to him about him trying to tell me that I was heading in the wrong direction. And so instead I just say that I’m coming with him.
We go to the back of the building and I walk up to what I figure is my window. “Look if anybody’s coming,” I tell Alec, and when he turns around I quickly lay my hand on the window frame and unseal it.
By the time he turns back to me I’m already sliding the window open.
“How the…” he begins trailing off. “You know what, I’m not even going to ask.”
“Help me inside,” I hiss.
He comes up behind me and lifts me up with ease. I slip inside the room, quickly throw the few belongings that I bothered to unpack into my bag and shove it out the window. Then I go back to unseal the door, not wanting to leave behind any otherworldly traces, before letting Alec help me back out and hurrying back to his bike.
“Come on,” he says getting back onto his bike.
I don’t move.
How the hell does he think that’s going to work with me and my bag?
He obviously doesn’t see that as a problem, he merely lifts the shoulder strap over his head so that it crosses his chest and hands me my helmet. I reluctantly put it on and get back on the bike behind Alec.
“Where are we going?” I have to shout to make myself heard over the noise of the bike.
“To Joshua’s!” he yells back.
I’m about to protest, but going through my options I realize that I don’t have any. Suck it up, Parker, I mumble to myself. To Joshua’s it is.
Chapter: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43
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