Page 8 of Alien's Challenge
“Be quiet, Rand. Do not make me stun you,” Faris said, half-hoping the male would continue to talk. Stunning Rand into unconsciousness had its appeal.
“You think you can steal from me? You?” Rand spat, missing Faris’ boots but making his contempt clear. “I will hunt you down and reclaim what is mine! I will tear the frills from your neck…oh wait, that’s already been done.”
Faris yawned, then hit Rand with the stunner. The male twitched satisfyingly, flopping around on the floor before finally passing out.
Perrigaul nudged him with the toe of his boot. “I think you used too low a setting. That should not have taken so long.”
“Oh? That’s a real shame.”
Alice
“He can file a complaint with my boss,” the big one said.
The smaller one laughed. Well, he made this clicking noise that could have been a laugh. The big one didn’t seem alarmed, so probably a laugh.
“I didn’t mean to do that,” she said, stepping away from Randevere’s unconscious body. Her finger slipped. Honestly. She only grabbed the gun because Randevere didn’t seem to think she was smart enough to take it from him, so fuck him. But shooting him? Not the plan.
Pistol-whipping him had been pretty satisfying, though.
Alice raised a hand to cover her mouth and hide her smile. That hadn’t been like her, but she’d never been abducted by aliens, sold, and then used as a meat shield, so maybe that was like a stressed-out her. Except stressed-out Alice went camping to avoid mean comments on the internet, not bash people’s noses in with guns.
Nothing made sense.
Big watched her, the quills on top of his head flexing up and down.
“I’m not a violent person. I’m a librarian,” she said.
He tilted his head and looked almost sympathetic, as if he understood her existential crisis. He was big, red, and covered in scales. She mentioned that already. His face was grayer, like the scales had faded with age. They looked rough and worn. Feathery quills at the top of his head were a deeper red with white scattered in.
Small, standing next to him, was a vivid scarlet by comparison, all shiny like he oiled his scales.
Big was…hot? Rough, absolutely, but it worked for him. Two legs, two arms, a tail—but who was counting? Humanoid or human-ish enough. He wore a long woolen coat, open to reveal a tight-fitting shirt and trousers. The trousers bulged in the right places too. He had a silver fox vibe going on, which was so weird because he was a massive red lizardman.
Maybe it was gratitude at being rescued from Randevere, or maybe it was the lingering effects of whatever her abductors drugged her up with, but Alice wondered what he looked like under his clothes.
“What is wrong with me? You’re an alien, and you can’t even understand a word I’m saying.” She pushed her hair out of her face. Adrenaline and fear had kept her going since she woke up, but she’d crash soon. “I want a shower, a brush, food, and I want to go home.”
Alice didn’t care if that sounded whiny. She pistol-whipped an alien asshole, and she was going through something. Let her whine.
Okay, snap decision. Big and Small seemed to dislike Randevere as much as her, which made them all right in her books. The enemy of my enemy and all that.
“I don’t know who you are, but I’m coming with you,” she said.
Big blinked at her.
She sucked in a breath. His eyelids didn’t move, but a gray membrane moved across his eye from side to side. Oh, and his pupils were vertical slits, but that wasn’t so strange. He was the same type of lizardy-looking alien as Randevere with red scales, flexible quills at the top of his head, and a tail.
Lizard people. Sure, why not? Since waking up in the warehouse, she’d seen lots of aliens. She just never really looked at their eyes before.
And she thought that was hot?
Alice glanced at him again, just to be sure.
Yup, still hot.
“Can she understand us?” the small one asked.
“Yes,” she replied.
