Page 12 of Expose Me

Once the door was safely locked behind us, a chair wedged under the handle for good measure, I took a few moments to breathe.

Zey headed straight for the bathroom, and I heard the shower turn on. I was surprised this place still had running water.

I stared out the window at the city on the other side of the river, getting my shit together, until the shower turned off.

Zey came out nude and looking like the petite blonde I’d first found in the alley. I dragged a hand down my face.

“You can’t keep changing forms constantly. It’s freaking me out, and I have enough bullshit to deal with. Because of you!” I was a little worked up. Could you blame me?

“Alright.” She nodded, and her skin started to do that rippling thing. Waves of deepest black flowed over her skin, and she changed before my eyes. Her hair shortened. Her shoulders widened and rounded out and she grew ... and grew and grew until I was looking up at her. Him. She’d shifted into a man again.

I frowned and took in the features—the blue eyes, the muscular physique.

“Is this better?” he asked in a very familiar voice.

“Oh my fucking god,” I breathed as I realized whose form he’d chosen to take. A carbon copy of Chris Hemsworth—a popular actor from a very long time ago—stood before me. Naked.

I lowered my gaze. It couldn’t be helped. My eyes just went there of their own accord, andoh my fucking god, I was staring at Chris Hemsworth’s dick.

“No!” I shook myself out of it and forced myself to stare at the table on the other end of the room. “This is not better!”

“Why?” He seemed genuinely concerned. “This is the form you find most appealing, isn’t it? Your physiological response indicates as much. I thought this would put you most at ease.”

Stupid shapeshifting alien man. I slapped a palm to my forehead and sat heavily on the bed.

“You can’t walk around with a famous person’s face. You’ll draw too much attention. We’re supposed to be hiding, remember?” I sighed.

Chris Hemsworth cocked his head to the side. “Famous ...” he muttered, then nodded, looking sad.

We didn’t have time to unpack that.

“Can you change into your original form, please?” I said, patting the bed next to me. He shifted as he took the two steps needed to get to me, and by the time he sat down, I was looking at unfathomable blackness and that optical illusion of a face.

The urge to reach out and touch that pitch-black skin was strong. Was it even skin? Did they have skin? The more answers I got, the more questions popped up in my mind. I wanted to know all I could about Zey and where he was from. I wanted to look, touch ... but I resisted.

“How does this shifting thing work exactly?” I asked. “And how did you even know to turn into Chris Hemsworth in the first place? The man has been dead for decades, so I know we didn’t pass him on the street. And come to think of it, why can you speak English? There’s no way you speak the same language in ... uh, where are you from?”

“My world is called Vuulectus,” he answered in my mind. “And no, we do not speak English there. I learned it last night.”

“You learned an entire language in a few hours?” I raised my eyebrows.

“Yes. We call it ... intuitive learning is the best translation. I heard it being spoken, and my mind filled in the rest. Intuitive learning is also how I chose the form of Chris Hemsworth. I have been observing you and your conscious and unconscious reactions to various stimuli. I deducted that his particular form would be most appealing to you.”

“Like deductive reasoning on steroids,” I muttered. Sounded like it would be a handy thing to have. “Wish my brain could do that.”

“It cannot. You do not have the necessary biological and supernatural components.”

“Yeah, thank you, Captain Obvious.”

Zey cocked that faceless, glowing head to the side, but I kept speaking before he could ask me who Captain Obvious was.

“You can shift into pretty much anything right? You just use real people as a kind of template? So theoretically, you could pick different features and combine them to make your own version of a human?”

“Correct. I can alter my shape to perfectly resemble any sentient being, but I cannot mimic their power.”

“That’s what I think you should do. Shift into a unique human—someone that doesn’t look entirely like anyone else.”

“Fine.” Was I detecting sass in the voice being projected into my head? “Which features would you like me to have?”

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