Page 30 of The Alien I Fell in Love with on Walpurgis Night

“This is real, isn’t it?”

I nod.

Horror crosses her face. Then she makes a hand gesture I’ve never seen before, her hand crossing her chest and she begins praying, but not to any goddess I know.

“What are you doing?”

“Praying that I didn’t make a deal with the Devil at Walpurgisnacht. Haven’t you read Faust?”

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about, Wife.” I tear my gaze away from her to look at Ren. Thankfully, he’s paying attention.

Georgiana is unperturbed. “Are you the Devil incarnate?”

“No, but you’re certainly making me feel like it right now.”

“My family always said I was possessed as a child. Is this my punishment for stealing candy from my aunt’s purse?”

“Ren,” I say, ignoring Georgiana. “Could the medicine you gave my wife cause her to become slightly delusional?”

“It shouldn’t have that effect,” he says checking her stats. “Perhaps it’s everything that’s happened in the last few days.” When I look at him blankly, he reminds me, “Your coming to Earth and taking her back to the Empire without any prior notice.” Ren looks at Georgiana. “Would you like me to use influence to calm you?”

“Ye..”

“No,” I say, interrupting. “Madame Georgiana doesn’t like having doctors in her mind.”

Ren looks at me with shock as it’s an odd thing to say, but still waits for Georgiana to answer.

“Yes, I need help. I feel like I can’t breathe. It’s not the allergic reaction, it’s the shock.”

I take Georgiana’s hand. I’m responsible for all of this. “If you want to let Ren ease your pain by looking in your mind, then that’s your decision.” I try to stress that he’ll be able to read her thoughts and know memories. I know that for most civilizations in the galaxy their doctors are not telepathic. I don’t know about Earth, but I can’t imagine she’d want to reveal the truth of our plan. But then again, if she’s finally realized all of this is genuine, maybe she doesn’t care what happens to either of us now. I can’t begin to imagine how she must feel. She must loathe me, and if she doesn’t now, she will soon as the reality of her being out in deep space sets in. But in my defense, I did try and tell her this was real.

“Please, do what you have to do to make me feel better,” she says to Ren, but never breaks eye contact with me.

The minutes drag on while I watch the first mate with Georgiana. Is he going to look into her past? If he does, he’ll know we are lying.

When Georgiana is asleep, Ren looks over at me. I hope I’m hiding my emotions well because I’m afraid of what he’s going to tell me.

“I’m not as skilled at telepathy as a doctor, but I have managed to relax her. She’s very confused about being here. Were her memories of her time in the Empire erased when she returned to Earth?”

“Yes,” I answer automatically. This would make sense for many reasons. “However, there are some uncomfortable memories she’d rather not remember, but they were too interconnected with the rest, so it was deemed necessary to erase them all, with the exception of who I am to her, of course.”

“Decided by whom?”

“An imperial doctor on the Capital Planet.”

“I see.” Ren will not question a female doctor’s word. “She will sleep awhile and I will run these tests. There’s probably a lot of things in the Empire she’s allergic to given her reaction to lunat. These things are rarely singular.”

“Can you cure her?”

“She can be cured on the Capital Planet. It’s better you seek care there. As for now, I want to do a full scan to make sure there’s nothing else onboard that might harm her.”

The first mate walks away to look at a computer and I hold Georgiana’s hand. I look at her sleeping face. She looks peaceful now. I feel guilty for what I’ve done. Am I really going to continue with this? I should make an excuse and put her on the next passing ship back to Earth. But I can’t. I’m selfish. I love her. I feel like I’m breathing for the first time in my life because of her. Her breath is my breath.

And because of that I want to protect her. She said herself she has no one on Earth. Now she has me and it may not be convenient that I’m not human or that she has to live in the Empire, but I will do what is right for her and keep her with me. My mother always said that it felt like she and my father were connected by an invisible string that pulled them together. I feel that with Georgiana.

I run a finger lightly down the side of her face and remember what it felt like to kiss her lips, her breasts, her sex. I become aroused just thinking about what’s to come. Half my problems are over, she finally understands that this is not a game. The next step is, of course, to convince her to actually want to be married to me. Although, it didn’t bode well she asked if I were the Devil again.

Ren brings Georgiana back to consciousness. When she opens her eyes and sees us staring down at her she asks, “So it wasn’t a dream?”

---