Page 51 of Her Alien Neighbor

“I disagree,” Kyan adds. “Why would we kill her in the house? Her blood would get everywhere. All over our nice furniture. Out here, we could slice her throat and not worry so much about the mess.”

“Huh,” Mylo replies, tilting his head to the side as he considers this. “That is a good point. Then we could bury her body in the dirt. It would probably take years for her remains to be discovered.”

I swallow the lump in my throat that’s starting to form. Is it too late to turn back? How do I escape these freaky aliens without getting caught?

Axil whips around and growls at his brothers. “You. Are not. Helping. Stop scaring her, or I will rip your throats out.”

Kyan laughs, unbothered by Axil’s threats. “And that would not scare her?”

We reach a small clearing in the middle of the woods with three black tarps strung up on the surrounding trees. Hanging at least fifty feet up, the massive tarps could cover the outside of a three-story building. The edges of the tarps come together, forming a large triangular shape. There appears to be nothing behind the tarps.

“What’s this?” I ask.

Mylo nudges Axil with his elbow as he walks past him toward the tarps. “Watch your girl. I shall provide the show and tell here.”

Axil steps back until he reaches my side, and looks down at me with sad, remorseful eyes. I feel the back of his hand brush against my knuckles, a request to take my hand. I pull my hand away, instinctively. All I wanted was to give him an apology blow job, to maybe admit that I felt something for him too, something I didn’t know what to do with. Now I have no idea what’s going on. His lips flatten into a thin line, and I feel like a jerk, but I still don’t understand why they’re here and what they’re planning, so for now, I need to protect myself. Particularly, my heart.

Mylo pushes the tarp aside so he can enter the covered space. A moment later, the air changes, the hair on my arms standing on end as the temperature rises.

I keep my eyes on his feet, the only part of him that I can see behind the tarp. Then a flash, and his feet are no longer the feet of a human, but the enormous dark blue paws of a beast with curled claws scraping the dirt beneath. He ducks his head beneath the rope holding up the tarps and emerges.

A long, steady gasp falls from my lips as I take him in, this massive, winged blue creature with even bigger black horns, a long tail with spikes running down the center, and a head the size of a jeep, with so many sharp fangs I feel faint just looking at them.

“We can transform into what you calldragons, Vanessa,” Kyan says low into my ear. “Though the correct term for our kind isdraxilio.”

I step back, putting as much distance as I can between me and Mylo, barking out a laugh at the thought of calling thisthingby name when it looks like it’s about to eat me alive. I turn to run, but Axil catches me by the waist, keeping me right where I am.

“Please,” Axil begs, his arms still wrapped around me. “Will you let me explain? Please, Vanessa. Let me try.”

Mylo shifts back before my eyes, going from dragon, ordraxilio, rather, to the goofy guy who wears glasses and sweater vests, in a cloud of what looks like dust. “How?” I ask, pointing at his clothes, wondering how he was able to keep his clothes intact, despite shifting into a much larger body and back down to this. “H-how?”

He can’t read my mind, so my stammering causes him to tilt his head, waiting for me to finish my question.

“Come,” Axil interrupts. “Let us go back to the house and we will answer any questions you have.”

I walk back with them, not paying attention to my surroundings, or even noticing how cold it’s gotten. I’m in a daze, and I still don’t have the full story. I can’t believe this. Aliens are real! And I have four living next door to me!

“Did Aunt Franny know?” I ask the moment we return to the living room. It’s not the most pressing question I have, and I suppose, ultimately, the answer doesn’t matter. I can’t bring myself to put any other question before it, though.

“No,” Axil replies, clasping his hands together. “She knew we were different, but she never asked specifics and we never told her exactly how we differ from the average human male.”

That sounds like her. She’s extremely judgmental of most people, but not when they may be part of a marginalized group. She hated most of the people around here because they revealed themselves to be bigots or just plain cruel.

“How are you able to speak English?” I ask.

Mylo scratches his chin, stopping to trace the adorable dimple in the center. “We learned as many human languages as we could before we left Sufoi. We can also read in your language.”

Kyan hands me a glass of water and I chug it down. Between sips, I ask, “What happens to your clothes when you shift?”

Mylo smiles. “It is a contraption that is surgically implanted in our arms, right here,” he says, pointing to the inside of his left bicep. “We get it before our first shift. It removes our clothes as we shift into our draxilio form and puts them back on our bodies as we shift back into this form.”

“But,” I shake my head, “that doesn’t make sense.” My brain can’t seem to grasp how such a thing is even possible.

“We Sufoians are quite proud of our technological advancements,” Kyan replies, somewhat smugly. “There are many things we are able to do on our home planet that humans could never even fathom.”

I roll my eyes. As if bragging about how much better their planet is than ours is the focus of this conversation. “And yet, here you are. Slumming it on Earth,” I add, not trying to conceal the ice in my tone. “Why is that? What exactly is your plan? Are you trying to overthrow our government and take over our land?” My mind drifts through several events throughout American history. “Because it…wouldn’t be the first time that happened, actually.”

“No, we have no interest in that,” Kyan says. “Your government is, uh,” his gaze lifts to the ceiling, “how shall I say it?”

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