Page 9 of Craving Stardust

He moaned and thrashed on the bed but soon settled once more.

Distress gnawed away at my confidence, but there wasn’t anything else I could do for him than this.

“Stay with me, Lordek.” My voice trembled with emotion I couldn’t define. I felt a huge amount of sympathy. That was it. Curiosity was natural. And wonder. There couldn’t be anything else. “I don't know what brought you here, but I’m going to do all I can to help you.”

As I finished covering his wounds, I wondered what fate had in store for us. Would the government dismiss his crash as a computer glitch or falling meteor, or would they know a ship had crashed and do all they could to find it?

Only time would tell.

Unease prickled across my skin as I sat by his side, watching him as he settled once more and slept. If I kept him in view, he’d get better, right?

The darkness outside pressed against the windows. Had it really only been a few hours since I left for the party?

Fear chewed away at my belief that I was doing the right thing.

Then someone knocked on the front door.

My lungs froze. It was the government. They’d stomp inside and drag him from my home. They’d arrest me. Cuff me. Take me to a lab and run all sorts of test on me, though I didn’t care about what they did to me.

I only worried about Lordek.

I slipped off the chair and tiptoed to the front door. I’d left the light on, and my breath whooshed from me when I spied two people in costumes standing on the front steps.

“Party, party,” they cried out.

That’s right. Tessa’s party. I’d completely forgotten. “You’ve got the wrong place.”

“Oh, shit, really?” The woman dressed as an alien smacked Frankenstein, though not too hard. “You insisted this was the right place.”

“I thought it was. Number one-eleven, isn’t it?” he asked me.

“One-hundred-and-eight-two,” I said, pointing to the left. “Keep going down the road and when you hit a sharp turn, it’s not far after that. She was going to put balloons on her mailbox. You can’t miss them.”

“Alright, thanks,” the alien said.

Her green skin didn’t match Lordek’s, but it was pretty close. Lordek, however, didn’t have antennae on his head.

“You both look amazing,” I said.

“Thanks. The costumes are left over from Halloween.”

They returned to their vehicle idling in the driveway and climbed inside, the driver backing back out into the road.

I waved, pretending nothing odd had happened here tonight, realizing how surreal this was. A fake alien had come to my home looking for a party and a real one lay in my bed. Who would’ve thought something like this might happen?

As the car continued down the road, I shut off the outside light and locked the door.

When I turned, someone loomed over me, a weapon raised.

I shrieked, but sagged against the door when I realized it was Lordek. He held one of my kitchen knives, and the feral look in his eyes would make even a Marine take cover.

“What are you—” I jerked forward, catching him as he started to fall.

“Protecting,” he slurred. “Protecting you.”

They were little kids, but I appreciated his determination to come to my defense.

“We need to get you back to bed.” I pried the knife from his fingers and tossed it onto the couch. “Can you walk? I need your help to get you there.” There was no way I could carry him.

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