He made a grab at me on the last word and I swiped out at him, catching his palm with the sharp point of the screwdriver.
“Ow! You little bitch!” he snarled, dropping the sheaf of papers he’d been holding to clutch his wounded palm. “That’s going to earn you an even bigger punishment!”
“Just try it,” I said, my voice tense and low. “I’m not the scared little wifey I was when I left you, Gerald. I’ve changed a lot and I’m no longer willing to put up with your abusive bullshit.”
“Come here!” He reached for me again and I swiped out with the screwdriver, missing this time. Then I pulled away, backing out of his angry reach.
“Stay away,” I said.
We could do this all day, a cold part of my brain informed me. Him reaching for me, me swiping out and pulling back, slowly circling around the garage. Eventually I would get back around to either the door that led into the kitchen, or the garage door opener. And then I was going to make a run for it.
“Come back and take your punishment, Goddamn you!” Gerald insisted in an ugly voice.
“No!” I snapped. “I’m not going with you and you’re never touching me again!”
My heart was pounding but it wasn’t only with fear—a rage I’d had locked away inside me for years was coming to the surface. How dare he act like I was his property? A pet he could lock away and beat whenever he felt like it? At that moment I felt like I could stab the screwdriver straight into his evil black heart and not loose a single night’s sleep about it.
Along with the rage came another emotion—a strange, fierce protectiveness. A willingness to kill in order to save the one I loved.
Wait…what? Who was I feeling protective of? Where was this feeling coming from? It almost felt like it was coming from outside me. Without knowing it, I let the screwdriver sag as my focus wandered.
The momentary distraction was all Gerald needed. He lunged forward and before I knew it, he had one thick arm locked around my throat.
“You’re mine,” he hissed in my ear. “Mine and I’m never letting you go, Leah!”
“Get off me! Leave me alone!” I scrabbled uselessly at his arm but he was too strong. I tried to stab downward with the screwdriver but the angle was wrong and it skated harmlessly along his jeans.
Fear and panic flooded me. Gerald had me and this time he wouldn’t stop. Either he would kill me here, or he would force me to come back with him to Virginia and kill me there. It might be a slower death, being locked in the house, unable to get out or call for help, completely at his mercy. But it would mean death, just the same. Because someday he would lose his temper and go too far. Someday he would—
“That’s not gonna happen, darlin’. Not gonna let that happen to you, I swear!”
Where was that voice coming from? I hadn’t heard it with my ears—it was almost as though it was inside my head. But that couldn’t be right, could it?
“If there was just some fuckin’ light in there…” the low, familiar voice growled in frustration.
That was it—I must be going crazy. It was either panic or oxygen deprivation causing an auditory hallucination because I could have sworn I heard Grav’s voice in my head. Which was impossible.
But suddenly, as though activated by the words in my head, the garage door began to rattle up.
Oh thank God! I thought. Mom must be home!
I wanted to shout out to her to call the police but the chokehold Gerald had on my neck was so tight I could barely breathe, let alone scream. The garage door raised up to the level of Pinky’s rusted rear bumper and a gleam of sunlight reflected off the one, shiny spot on the whole car—the place where the part of my sister’s You Just Got Passed by a Girl! bumper sticker had peeled off.
Then, to my horror, the door paused and then started to rumble down again. Oh no! Mom, come back! I thought as the beam of light started to fade. Please, I—
Before I could finish my thought, Grav was standing there. Huge and blue—completely naked and utterly furious. Head lowered, horns leveled, and white-on-black eyes glowing with a menacing red spark in their centers, he took a single step towards us.
“Get your hands off her now.” His voice was a growl so low it was almost a rumble. I felt it come up through the soles of my feet, as though someone had turned on a big bass speaker and let it play in the garage.
“What the Hell?” Gerald’s voice was slightly breathless and completely incredulous. He fumbled at the wall, this time managing to get the light switch instead of the garage door opener. But Grav in the light was just as terrifying as Grav in the dark.
“You heard me, fucker—get off my female NOW!”
The last word was a roar so loud I felt my eardrums bulge. The garage door came all the way down, closing all three of us in the small space. It didn’t raise again and I wondered distractedly what had happened. Had Mom started to come home and then remembered an errand she had to do? It was possible—she was always forgetting something…
“Who…who are you?” Gerald’s quavering voice pulled me out of my nonsensical thoughts. “What are you?”
“I’m the male who’s gonna rip your fuckin’ arms out of their sockets if you don’t get your hands off my female right now,” Grav rumbled.
“Okay…all right.” Gerald threw up his hands and stepped away from me. I ran to Grav at once.
“You all right, darlin’?” he asked me, his eyes never leaving Gerald’s terrified face.
“I think so.” I rubbed my throat where Gerald had grabbed me. “How did you find me?”
“Through the AMI, of course. But it was too dark in here to get much more than a blurred view. The transporter needs light and a reflective surface to work and there wasn’t much of either until just a minute ago.” He shifted. “I wanted to come through a different part of the house but the damn Commercians were fine-tuning their receptors and I couldn’t, so I just had to wait until there was more light. It was driving me fuckin’ crazy.”
“I bet,” I said dryly and coughed. “I wasn’t feeling too happy myself.”
“Happy?” he barked a laugh that didn’t sound in the least bit amused. “Forget happy. I was feeling so possessive and protective of you it was all I could do not to let the berserker come out. But I knew if I did that, I would rip this abusive asshole apart and I don’t want to do that.”
Suddenly, I remembered the wave of possessive protectiveness I had felt just before Gerald had grabbed me. And the words I had heard in my head. But what Grav had just said distracted me.
“You don’t?” I asked in surprise. “I mean, you don’t want to rip him apart?”
“Of course he doesn’t!” Gerald sounded shaky and somewhat relieved. “We can settle this like adults, without resorting to physical violence. Right?” He was backing towards the door as he spoke but Grav could move incredibly fast for such a big guy. He had my ex by the scruff of his neck before Gerald could even turn the doorknob.
“Oh no, we’ll be resorting to violence, all right,” he growled in Gerald’s ear. “I’m not gonna rip you apart right away because I want this to be slow.”
“Please…” Gerald whimpered and I was almost tempted to feel sorry for him. Then I remembered the way he had beaten me. Maybe it was time for him to get a taste of his own medicine.
“But before we get started,” Grav continued. “You’re going to pick up every last one of these papers and sign them, the way Leah wanted you to.”
“Wh-why do you care if I sign the divorce papers?” Gerald asked, his voice still wavering.
“Because. I don’t want there to be any doubt that she’s broken all her ties with you, you asshole.” Grav shook him and though my ex was a big guy, he wasn’t nearly as big as the huge, blue Braxian. It looked like a Great Dane shaking a terrier.
“But…but…” Gerald moaned.
“Then I’m going to break every bone in your body for daring to touch her with anything but love and respec
t,” Grav growled, shoving him to the ground. “Now get going!”
My ex whimpered and moaned but he scrambled around on the concrete garage floor gathering the spilled divorce paperwork. It probably took him longer than necessary because he was so upset but finally I had the entire document in a neat sheaf in my hands.
“Let’s go into the kitchen to sign these,” I said. “But first…” I cleared my throat and nodded down at Grav. “You’d better get some clothes on. In case my Mom comes back.”
“Oh yeah.” He frowned, having apparently forgotten he was naked. “You got anything that’ll fit me, darlin’?”
“I’m afraid not,” I said apologetically. “My mom gave all my dad’s clothes away to Goodwill when he died and there’s nothing else around here that’s even remotely your size.”
“I think I might see something.” Grav was eyeing the shivering Gerald who was still staring at him in wide-eyed disbelief. “Your clothes—give them to me.”
“Wha…what?” Gerald managed to get out.
“You heard me. They’re gonna be too small but you’re closer to my size than Leah is. Give them now.”
Gerald was forced to strip and hand over his clothing.
Grav took one look at his tighty-whities and tossed them into the corner saying, “I don’t think so.”
The jeans were a different story. Luckily, Gerald always favored relax-cut, so though they were extremely tight, Grav was able to squeeze into them. They fit—barely—although they were too short in the legs and he complained that they “squeezed his goodies.”
Gerald had also been wearing a loose gray t-shirt, which was skin-tight over Grav’s muscular chest. He let Gerald keep his shoes and socks because there was no way they would fit.
Soon we were sitting around my mom’s kitchen table. Well, Grav and I were sitting. Gerald was standing there shivering and trembling, naked except for his tube socks and Nikes. He kept looking at Grav in the warm light of the Florida sun, flooding through my mom’s breakfast nook windows and shaking his head.
“What are you?” he asked again in a trembling voice as I fished for a pen in the catch-all mug my mom kept in the center of the table beside the salt and pepper shakers.
“He’s an alien,” I said, answering for Grav. “There are actually lots of them out there—Earth just doesn’t have the right equipment to find them yet.”
“He’s as big as the guy who kidnapped you back in Virginia,” Gerald said, crossing his legs to try and hide his equipment. “Is he—”
“Yeah, I’m the same guy,” Grav growled as I handed Gerald the pen. “I was in disguise but this time I didn’t have time to get one. I had to stop you from hurting Leah again.” The red spark at the back of his eyes had never completely faded and when he looked at Gerald, I could see it getting bigger and bigger, starting to eat the white.
“I wasn’t going to hurt her—I was going to take her home,” Gerald muttered sullenly as I pointed out the neat little tabs that Rylee had left on the papers to show him where to sign.
“She doesn’t live with you anymore,” Grav snapped. “Her home’s with me…well, if she’ll have me.”
My heart seemed to stop in my chest and I looked up at him uncertainly.
“Grav?”
“Darlin’,” he said earnestly, reaching across the table to take my hand. “I’ve been such a fool. “I wanted a bond with you because I know how rough things were for my parents without one. But you were right—we’re not them. I see now that just because we can’t form a bond, doesn’t mean we can’t be happy together.” He looked at me, his whole heart in those strangely lovely white-on-black eyes. “Will you forgive me and join with me?”
“Is that what you came back to say?” I asked, squeezing his hand. “Because I thought…I was afraid you were only coming back to fulfill your oath and protect me.”
“I do want to fulfill it—I want to cherish and protect you every day for the rest of our lives,” Grav told me. “But I came back to tell you I love you and to beg your forgiveness.”
“Oh Grav…” I knew I should be mad at him but I’ve never been good at holding a grudge. I was suddenly flooded with so much happiness it seemed like I might burst trying to contain it all.
I flung myself out of my chair and into his lap. Grabbing him by the horns, I covered his face in kisses while he held me close against his big body.
“I love you,” I told him. “I love you so much!”
“I love you too, darlin’. Thank you for not holding my stupidity against me.” He squeezed me tight and kissed me back.
I thought I had never been happier in my entire life. The only thing missing was my friends and family to share the joy with. I wished that Zoe and Charlotte were here right now so I could tell them how happy I was.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Grav murmured in my ear. “We’ll go straight back to Eloim after we get out of here. You can tell Zoe then.”
“Wait…” I frowned, pulling back from him. “Why did you say that?”
“What? About going to see Zoe?” Grav shrugged. “Because you just said you wished you had your friends here to share your joy.”
“No, I didn’t,” I objected. “I thought it but I never said it out loud.”
“Goddess…” He looked at me strangely. “Try something for me, darlin’. Look at me and concentrate—then think something completely random. Something I would never guess in a million cycles.”
“Okay.” Frowning, I looked at him and concentrated. “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” I thought, using the old sentence I used to practice typing back in keyboarding class when I was in elementary school.
Grav frowned. “What’s a fox?”
“Wait—you heard that?” I stared at him in disbelief. “How?”
“I don’t know. Here—I’ll try with you.” He got a look of concentration on his face and I heard his deep, rumbling tone speaking inside my head. “I’ll love you forever, darlin’,” he sent.
I laughed. “I love you too but I thought you were supposed to send something random that I would never guess.”
Grav shrugged. “Can’t help it. It’s all I can think about right now.”
“So…what does this mean?” I asked. “Because I think I heard your voice and felt your emotions before this—back in the garage when I was so scared.”
“I felt what you were feeling too,” he murmured. “And I think…I think that means we’re bonded.”
“What? But I thought we couldn’t bond!” I exclaimed. “What happened?”
Grav shrugged again. “I honestly don’t know. Maybe it took a little while to activate? Or maybe the bond was activated when I saw there was a physical threat against you and my protective instincts kicked in.” His voice softened. “Or maybe the Goddess of Mercy, well, had mercy on us. She knew how badly I wanted to bond you to me but I couldn’t do that until I admitted that you’re the important one—not the bond.”
“Oh, Grav…” I kissed him again, passion rushing through me. I felt an answering rush of love and desire from him. I’m not sure what might have happened next—we probably would have ended up in the bedroom—if the front door hadn’t opened just at that moment.
“Leah?” my mom called. “I’m home—I had to go back for milk but I…oh my goodness! Gerald is that you? Why are you naked?”
Grav and I had forgotten all about my ex and now I saw that he had been busy while we were exploring our new bond.
Having finished signing the divorce papers, he had apparently crept away from the table and towards the front door. He’d been just about to ease it open and make a run for it when my mother walked in and confronted her former son-in-law in all his naked splendor.
The sight of Gerald in the altogether was distracting, which was probably why my mom noticed him first, instead of the seven-foot-tall blue alien warrior whose lap I was currently occupying.
“He abducted her,” Gerald
babbled, trying to get around my mom, who had her arms full of groceries. “He took her away to outer space because he’s an alien—an alien. And then he made me divorce her but it’s not my fault…Do you hear me? It’s not my fault!” he screamed in my mom’s face.
“Gracious, Gerald!” She took a step back, dropping her groceries.
That was all the opening Gerald needed. He hopped out the door and ran down the street butt naked, babbling about aliens.
“We have to get him back!” Grav exclaimed, jumping up. “I’m not done with that fucker yet!”
“Don’t worry—someone else will deal with him,” I said, peering out the front door. Already I could see Mrs. Kowalski, my mom’s elderly next door neighbor, out on her front porch with her phone in one hand. She would be calling the police no doubt, to report the crazy nudist running through my mom’s quiet retirement neighborhood.
And speaking of my mom, she was bent down picking up her spilled groceries.
“Go to the living room and sit down on the couch,” I sent to Grav through our new mental link. “I want you to meet my mom but you’ll scare her to death if we’re not careful.”
He nodded. “Got it.”
“Oh, and Grav? No cursing!”
He nodded again. “Yes Ma’am. I’ll keep my dirty language strictly to my fuckin’ self.”
That made me laugh and I knelt down to help my mom get the spilled groceries.
“Leah,” she said as she finished stacking cans in one of her favorite reusable bags. “What in the world was that all about? I thought you broke up with Gerald.”
“I did,” I told her. “But, well…I found somebody else. Somebody I think you’re going to like a lot more—once you get to know him. And he’s here now.”
“Well, anyone you care for, I want to get to know,” she said, smiling at me. “Where is he?”
“In the living room,” I told her. “Here, Mom—let me get the groceries so you don’t drop them again.”
“I only dropped them because I was so surprised,” she objected.