Ethazol: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Warriors of Orba Book 5) Read online

My phone rang again and I flipped it open as I rolled my eyes. I was getting tired of Draygus constantly wanting to know where I was.

  "Dray, calm down, I just arrived. I'm at the shopping mall."

  "You remember how to get to the old apartment?"

  I cast my mind back.

  "Yeah, I think so."

  "Good, because the whole crew's here and we're waiting for you."

  "Already? You're all there?"

  "Yeah, now hurry your ass up!"

  As I stepped out of the elevator onto the third floor, the memories came flooding back. I remembered the first time we'd gathered around the television and how none of us understood any of the appliances in the kitchen. I laughed to myself as I remembered the time Benzen tried to cook an egg in the toaster and it short circuited the entire floor. Alison's dad had been so mad when he had to come out and fix it.

  "Ethazol!"

  Down the hall, the apartment door was open and Victorinth stood waiting, her arms waiting to suck me into a cuddle.

  "Little Victo!"

  I ran up and scooped her up in my arms and spun her around. She squealed and hugged me tightly.

  "You've changed so much!" I said as I looked at her.

  She was no longer the little girl I'd left behind but was well on her way to becoming a woman.

  "Where's your brother?" I asked.

  "Right here, buddy!"

  Jarick appeared behind her and threw up a hand. I high fived him as I walked inside.

  "Benzen!"

  He was sat at the kitchen table with Alison by his side

  "I love what you did with the place."

  After our departure, he and Alison had obviously spruced the apartment up to make it more of a romantic home. There was art on the walls and scented candles on every surface. Flowers sat in the middle of the table and a batch of freshly baked cookies lay on the kitchen counter in a little, handwoven basket.

  "Hi, Ethazol," Alison jumped up and gave me a polite peck on the cheek and offered me a cookie.

  It was so great to see everyone and especially good to see Alison and Benzen together. He looked so content beside her and he'd grown bigger too and talked with more confidence. She had obviously been a good influence on him.

  "Where's Draygus?" I asked.

  There was silence at the sound of his name. Victorinth nodded in the direction of the back bedroom and I looked over to see him standing in the doorway with his arms crossed.

  "You took your time," he said.

  Striding over, he took my hand in his and gave it a firm shake. This was not the same Draygus I had said goodbye to. There was an added harshness to his face, the sense that he had experienced things that still tormented him. His eyes were steely and cold and his hands rough and calloused.

  He wore a leather biker jacket and his hair was smooth and slicked back over his head. A thin scar snaked its way down the side of his temple.

  "What happened to you?" I asked.

  He regarded me coolly.

  "Who cares about me, what happened to you?"

  He pointed at my ripped jeans and ragged sneakers.

  "I've been busy," was all I could say.

  "We all have," Jarick interrupted. "But we're together now."

  He gestured toward the kitchen table and we all grabbed a chair. Alison, meanwhile, pulled on her coat and made for the door.

  "I have some errands to run. You guys have fun," and she wiggled her fingers as she left.

  Draygus waited for the door to slam shut before he said: "Kid, you really lucked out with her."

  "I know," Benzen agreed. "She's terrific."

  "How about you, Dray?" I asked. “You got a girl?"

  He nodded and for the first time, his eyes shone.

  "Yeah, I got a girl back home. Her name’s Anya. A real-life princess.”

  "And you Jarick?"

  He grinned like a cheeky schoolboy.

  "Yeah, a real nice lady. And you Ethazol?"

  I thought about last night with Demi and felt my cheeks become heated and pink.

  "Kinda seeing someone," he said. "But anyway... I'm sure Draygus didn't gather us together to discuss our love lives."

  He gave me a knowing look and reached for his lighter.

  "Indeed, I did not."

  Blowing smoke out across the table, he leaned back cockily and tilted his head up to the ceiling. Victorinth scrunched up her nose and picked up his packet of cigarettes.

  "We learned about what these do," she said, annoyed. "They kill you!"

  Draygus swiveled his eyes in his sockets and said, "There's a chance we'll all die by Palzu's hand anyway. Who cares what these do," and he snatched the packet back from her hand.

  The rest of the table was quiet. A nervous energy lingered in the room. We were all together again but in the moment the occasion wasn't a happy one. We all knew we were about to be told ground-breaking news and we knew it would be dangerous.

  "Aren't you going to tell us what you brought us here for?" Jarick asked and gave Draygus a playful shove in the arm.

  Draygus regarded him as though he was an annoying little brother and pushed him back, harder. Crushing his cigarette butt into a dirty coffee cup, he breathed out the last of the smoke in his lungs and leaned forward on his elbows with a haunted look in his eyes.

  "Okay, listen up guys. Chances are we've all experienced things on Earth that have been, how do I put it? Learning experiences..."

  We all nodded.

  "So, it's time to put our experience to the test. The devastation Palzu has created here on Earth in his quest to find us is immeasurable and he could have easily killed us all were we not so prepared and ready to fight. It's time we took him out for good."

  "Take him out?" Victorinth gasped with horrified, wide eyes.

  "How are we going to do that?" I asked, eager to hear his plan.

  "We bring him to us," Draygus said as though it was obvious.

  We all stared at each other.

  "I don't like the sound of that," I said.

  "You don't have to," Draygus retorted. "You just have to do it."

  Silence.

  We all shared nervous glances then turned back to Draygus who was looking at the reflection of his scar in the reflection of a switchblade.

  "Since when did you start carrying weapons, Dray?"

  "Since I needed to," came his furtive response.

  Benzen shifted nervously in his seat and cast his eyes over to the door as though he was desperate for Alison's return.

  "So, how are we going to bring Palzu to us?" he asked, his voice quivering.

  Draygus turned to him and smiled.

  "Well since you're the first to ask, I think you should do the honors."

  Benzen's face paled.

  "Benzen... oh, little Benzen."

  Draygus was acting like a mad man. He clapped a heavy hand down on Benzen's shoulder and smiled. I noticed one of the teeth at the side of his mouth was now gold.

  "Little Benzen, you are going to send a signal out to Orba."

  "A signal?" he gulped.

  "A signal... to a girl."

  "What girl?" Jarick interrupted.

  Draygus, annoyed, glared at him.

  "It doesn't matter who the girl is. There is no fucking girl."

  We all shrunk back in our seats.

  "What's important is that the signal is broadcast without encryption along the public pathways."

  "But that means it'll be intercepted by Palzu's secret police," I said.

  Draygus flashed us a maniacal grin.

  "Exactly..."

  We all stared at him, hoping he wasn't being serious. Eventually, I leaned across the table and grabbed him by the arms.

  "Are you out of your mind? Who knows who or what Palzu will bring with him?"

  "I don't give a damn who he brings," Draygus shook me off. "As long as he brings himself. We'll kill them all if we have to."

  A sniff caught my attention and I turned to see Vict
orinth sobbing into her shirt sleeve.

  "It's insane," I said. "It's too risky."

  Draygus crossed his arms and scratched at his stubble.

  "So, what are we supposed to do? Wait here to die? He'll find us all eventually."

  "He has a point," said Benzen.

  "What? Don't take his side!" I objected.

  Benzen raised his hands and gave me a weak smile.

  "Right now, his is the only side we have.”

  Chapter 6

  Demi

  I sat on the end of the bed with my copy of L.A. Confidential in my hands. As I opened it up, some of the pages fell loose as the glue from the spine came away. I read a few lines and remembered the way Ethan said them in his strange though attractive accent.

  There was a sadness lurking in my gut like hidden depths of murky water. I still didn't understand why he was leaving town and the reason he gave me for visiting his family didn't seem right somehow. Intuition told me there was something else going on, but what?

  Placing the book back in its place on the shelf, I reached out from the edge of the bed for the pack of cookies. It was late at night and I had no justification for eating junk at this hour, but I needed cheering up and nothing lifted my spirits more than rocky road cookies. Well, that and Ethan.

  I couldn't shake the memory of last night. The way he held me, the way he kissed between my legs. God, I could live forever in that memory. And the way he entered me... I grew damp between my legs as I remembered how many times I came. We'd lost count in the end and I'd fallen asleep a hot, sweaty, wet mess and woken up this morning feeling as though I'd run a marathon.

  Where did he learn to make love like that? And what about his... There was no denying that he had a blue penis and I wondered if it was some sort of medical condition, like his blood pooled in a particular way when he was aroused. I'd searched for an explanation online but found nothing.

  Lying back on my bed, a trail of cookie crumbs on my chin, I looked up at the ceiling and wondered where he was tonight. Was he ever going to return to that hellhole of a hotel? And what was he doing living there anyway? He didn't seem to have an explanation for anything and the only conclusion I could come to was that he was hiding something. He obviously had a convoluted past life but what had he done and who or what was he running away from?

  Ideas flickered in my mind. Maybe he was a criminal on the run, a fugitive who was a wanted serial killer. Or maybe he was some sort of double agent for the FBI. Or maybe he had a secret family...

  For all, I knew he could be with his wife and children tonight in his real home. The idea snapped a pang of jealousy in my chest and I threw the cookies on the floor. I'd only known him a couple days but I was falling for him hard already and I'd given my body to him in a way I'd never done before. If he'd betrayed my trust, I wouldn't know what to do with myself. Who knew if it was something I could even recover from.

  Then another thought crossed my mind. What if he wasn't going anywhere at all? What if he was trying to dump me without hurting my feelings?

  I sat up, distraught and brushed the crumbs off my pajama top. Could I really have been that bad in bed that he had to leave me so soon? Tears started to prickle at the backs of my eyes but I stopped them from falling.

  "You're a big girl, Demi. Don't cry."

  Standing up, I flipped open my laptop and tried to busy myself. It didn't seem I would be sleeping tonight. Opening a game of solitaire, I clicked on the cards and watched them fall into their boxes. It was mind-numbingly boring but it kept my mind occupied. But I still couldn't stop thinking about Ethan.

  He was consuming every waking minute of my day, every area of my mind. I rubbed at the bridge of my nose as a headache began to spread.

  All I wanted to do was speak to him and know that he was coming back to me. Giving up on solitaire, I reached for my phone and tapped his name. My heart beat harder the longer his phone went unanswered. What is he doing? I thought. Is he with someone else?

  When it reached voicemail, I hung up and let my phone bounce onto the bed. I was hoping he would have at least texted me as he left town but I'd not heard from him at all. Then it dawned on me. He didn't even tell me what city he was going to. All I knew was that it was 'out of town'.

  My stomach lurched the more I thought about how evasive he was, how mysterious he acted when asked about his private life. I realized I knew nothing about him at all! What if he wasn't even called Ethan?

  Gripped by a sudden panic, I slammed my laptop shut and hurried out my room. Pulling on my coat over my pajamas as I rushed down the stairs, I grabbed my keys and rushed out to the car.

  The Ligotti Hotel was only a short drive from here and the place was a nocturnal hub of activity. Surely someone somewhere would know something about him. I twisted my key in the ignition and cursed myself for acting like a crazy woman. What the hell was I doing driving across town in the middle of the night to a craphole, junkie filled hotel? Still, I had to know and lying sleepless in my bed wasn't going to bring me the answers I craved.

  "Nutcase," I said to myself as I pulled out the driveway. "You're acting like a real nutcase."

  The red neon sign flickered across a rain-filled pothole. In front of it, a girl about my age stood on the sidewalk smoking an incredibly long cigarette. I didn't need to wonder who she was waiting for, her red stockings told me. As I looked closer, I saw that she was wearing two different styles of shoes but both were black heels. She swayed slightly in the wind like a frail, drunk tree and muttered something to herself.

  I edged past her as I climbed out the car, trying to not make a sound in case I disturbed her. As I stepped into the foyer, I suddenly realized how stupid it was for me to come here alone.

  "Spare some change!" a voice bellowed in my ear.

  Spinning round, I saw a toothless grin peer out from a pile of matted gray hair. An upturned cap was thrust at me, clutched between arthritic, nicotine stained fingers.

  "No! I mean, sorry!"

  I hurried away and approached the front desk. There was no one behind it, but through the back, I could make out the sound of a blaring television coming from the office. Slamming my hand onto the bell on the counter, I leaned over.

  "Hello?"

  The television still blared.

  I hit the bell again.

  "I said hello!"

  A moment later, shuffling came out the office followed by a long, wheezy cough. A corpulent man at least six and a half feet tall emerged with a grimace on his face. As he slammed his hands on the desk, I noticed he had two rather unmentionable names tattooed across his knuckles.

  "You looking for a room, honey?"

  His voice was mocking me with its smoke riddled harshness. He eyed up my clothes and scrutinized my face. I looked out of place and we both knew I wasn't there for a room.

  "I'm here to ask you some questions."

  "What are you? A cop?"

  He bristled as though I'd ruffled his feathers.

  Shit, this is not getting off to a good start.

  "No. Actually, my boyfriend lives here and I was just wondering what you could tell me about him."

  I was aware of how truly strange that sounded and I cringed at the way he was looking at me.

  "You want me to tell you about your boyfriend?" he laughed.

  It wasn't a happy laugh. It was a derisive one that made me feel like a naughty, stupid child.

  "If you wouldn't mind..." I squeaked.

  He narrowed his eyes and looked over my shoulder at the man with the outstretched cap.

  “Gerald! What have I told you about begging in here? Come on, get outta here!”

  The man shuffled out into the cold and I turned back to the Goliath in front of me.

  “So… sweetheart, what do you wanna know?”

  I swallowed down my nerves and said, “Just whatever you know.”

  He drummed his fingers along the counter.

  “Look, I don’t know what this is but you better n
ot be playing games with me.”

  His cheeks were reddening and he glanced over his shoulder.

  “And you’re making me miss my reruns,” he continued. “So, what are you really here for?”

  I sighed and felt my headache intensify.

  “Listen. Let me just be honest with you. I met a guy and he lives here. I really like him. Like a whole lot and today he ups and leaves town and I’m worried he’s not going to come back.”

  I sounded hideous and desperate but I could only tell the truth.

  The man’s expression changed and he gave me a half-hearted smile.

  “You’re not pregnant, are you?” he asked.

  And I thought back to last night and remembered that we didn’t use protection.

  Oh, my God! I could be!

  “I don’t think so,” I said.

  “It’s just because all sorts of guys come through here. Sometimes they get a poor girl pregnant and suddenly, they’ve got some other place to be.”

  “I don’t think I’m pregnant,” I said, more to myself than to him.

  “So, what’s his name anyway?”

  “Ethan,” I replied.

  “Ethan what?”

  I shrugged.

  “He hasn’t told me.”

  “Wow,” he chortled. “You really don’t know anything, do ya? What does he look like?”

  “Tall, tanned. He’s gorgeous too and speaks with an accent. Wears ripped jeans, hoodies and white sneakers with a red stripe.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know the guy,” he waved a hand dismissively. “The girls who work here all think he’s some kinda dream boat.”

  Another knot of jealousy tightened in me. Who was I to think he’d stick around for someone like me? Everyone knew how handsome he was. He’d probably moved onto someone else already.

  "So... Do you know anything about him?" I pressed. "Has he told you anything about himself?"

  He gave me a pitiful look and slumped his wide shoulders.

  "I have the book he signs in with when he pays his weekly room fee," he pointed an elbow toward a haphazard stack of books, on top of which lay a wrinkled open notebook.

  "Can I see it?"

  He shrugged and slid it across the counter.

  "What do I care? Knock yourself out."