Page 24 of Marked
“Clothes. Protect your human flesh,” he growled.
I didn’t even think about disobeying him. I pulled on my jeans, socks, and t-shirt, ignoring my bra for the sake of time and the crazy panic in my belly. Hastily, I pushed my feet into my favorite pair of boots. I tried to ignore that the process of getting dressed was still extraordinarily painful. He tossed me my knife and the most hideous monster imaginable came diving straight through the window on some sort of fucking flying motorcycle.
It looked like a creature from the deepest, darkest parts of the ocean. Standing at least seven feet tall, whatever it was had three very round and very bulbous eyes that reminded me of something that might be an octopus if it wasn’t walking on land. Inky black pupils that resembled those of a fish stared back at me as though I was its next meal. Thick yellow irises made those three eyes appear sickeningly jaundiced.
Sure, the three eyes thing was kind of weird. But the color of its skin was even stranger. I would have called it white, but it seemed paler than that. Maybe the color of the clouds or fabric that was bleached to shit, but it was so white that it was almost translucent. Disgustingly so. In the light of the streetlamp outside, I could see each and every purple vein from well across the room. Some of them were so dark that they bordered on black. I gagged a little bit as I watched one pump hard in the middle of its oversized triangular-shaped forehead.
My nurse friends would like this guy. I didn’t though, and by the sound of it, neither did Alaric. He was snarling with anger. I could practically feel him seething with it.
Another monster creature catapulted himself into the room. And then another and another until there were six of them and only two of us.
“Fucking Ghengrills,” Alaric growled.
“The fuck is a Ghengrill? You mean these oversized condoms?” I retorted as I lifted my knife in front of my chest defensively.
The first monster beastie narrowed his beady eyes in my direction, and he suddenly reminded me of a squid. My stomach roiled at the sight.
I’d never liked seafood, especially with tentacles. This thing had at least what appeared to be two arms and two legs, but who knew if they might transform into something else. My eyes dropped. Maybe their dicks were tentacles. I frowned with disgust. They were so scrawny and skinny, they didn’t look they could fight. If they weren’t so much taller than me and like something out of a horror movie, I would have said that I could take them.
“Aliens that want to take you from me,” Alaric said simply, ignoring my sarcasm.
Huh. Extraterrestrials. Seriously?
I’d question it if these terrible creatures weren’t standing there right in front of me.
I mean, I guess it made sense. I turned my head and glanced toward Alaric, remembering the not-quite-human things I’d noticed about him: his remarkable strength, his incredible healing capabilities, and his superhuman stamina in the bedroom. The way his cum burned my skin… Maybe he was a monster of some kind too. Or even an alien himself. Fuck.
The invading aliens made a clicking noise, and I returned my attention to them.
“Aliens? You mean they’re real?” I countered, but he didn’t have any time to answer and neither did I. The six creatures lungedtoward us, and Alaric roared as he tore at them. He was strong, but there were six of them. He swung his fist and caught one right in the middle of its three beady eyes.
One came at me and I ducked low, swinging my body outward before stepping backwards and taking a healthy swipe at its pale, scrawny neck. Its skin shredded like paper and blood as black as the night seeped down onto its shoulder. It roared at me and its mouth opened in a massive circle, revealing row after row of sharp, jagged little teeth that reminded me of a shark.
The alien came at me and Alaric grabbed me, flinging me toward the window. I stumbled and caught myself on the remnants of the wooden frame before his voice roared out from behind me.
“Run! Get as far as you can. I’ll find you wherever you go,” Alaric demanded, his voice leaving no room for argument. I fought back anyway, me being me.
“I’m not leaving you now that I’ve found you,” I retorted, and he snarled, this time directly at me, and I cowered from the force of it.
“Go!” he shouted.
His eyes met mine, hard and dangerous, and I knew without a doubt that he would whip my backside until it was red and sore and I was long past sobbing if I didn’t listen to him. Not wanting to earn that kind of punishment, I bolted out the window. The balcony squealed angrily in protest of my sudden weight, and I would have yelped in fear if I wasn’t so focused on getting away from the very strange alien creatures that had apparently come to take me away. The metal structure was obviously quite old and very clearly not up to code because it swung angrily as I dashed across it to the ladder that led down. I squeezed my knifeclosed and tucked it into the back pocket of my jeans before I forced myself to start moving.
I jumped down hard on the ladder, and the whole thing ratcheted wildly to the side. I swallowed my cry of terror and practically tore down toward the ground, one rung at a time, as fast as I could go. Making it to the second floor, nearly crying with relief, I maneuvered over to climb the next ladder down to the ground, but it groaned loudly the moment I put my foot onto it.
The rusted rung beneath my feet broke, and I jolted down. My fingers tightened around the edges of the ladder and my breath whooshed out of me when my heels caught on the rung below it. My heart pounded in my chest, and fear rolled over me like a tidal wave as the prospect of falling to my death hit me. I didn’t stop to calm myself though, but just kept going.
I hurried down the rest of the ladder and jumped off at the earliest safe opportunity. Once on solid ground, I took off. I hated heights, but I knew these streets well, so now I was in my comfort zone, feet on the ground. I’d been in and out of these dirty alleys all my life.
My boots pounded against the ground, hard and fast, as I wove in and out of the shadows. On the off chance that I was being followed, I took several shortcuts between buildings and even dashed right through a few that I knew had easy exits, in the back and out the front. It was late and the streets were mainly dead, but I still ran into more than my fair share of people out wandering in the night.
Many were drunk, many more were homeless, and a few were rushing to and from work at this weird hour. This was New York City, and as they say, it truly never slept.
I must have run for well over a mile. The further I ran, the safer I began to feel. It didn’t take much longer for me to reach Central Park, and when I finally ran through the tall metal gates, I allowed myself to slow down to a calmer pace. My breathing was ragged, and my abs were beginning to cramp, so I took a moment to lean against a park bench.
Several minutes passed, and the sound of my blood rushing through my ears eventually stopped.
How the fuck were aliens real? What was this shit, and how was I just finding out about it now? Alaric had said they’d come for me, but who the hell were they, and how did they know how to find me? Why did they want me?
