Chapter One

New York City in the Spring…

“Yo!”

Shellie put her bags down and frowned at her boyfriend. Yo? “Yo? How about a nice, hi, honey. How was your day?”

“That’s what ‘yo’ means.” Rath went to search through the bags. “Ya get any of that cream shit I like?”

“Gosh? Would I forget that?” Shellie rolled her eyes. Handing him his favorite treats, she started to put away the groceries.

“What?” Rath frowned. This relationship crap was a dick limper. She seemed angry at him at the strangest of times.

“What?” Shellie looked around her apartment. Everything was in chaos, tossed about, and unclean. “You said you would pick up today.”

“I did.” Rath looked around. It looked pretty good to him.

“Uh huh.” Shellie looked upset. The place was a nightmare. In the almost six weeks that he moved in with her the place had taken a turn for the worst. “This is clean to you?”

“What? Looks great.” Shellie sighed. Yeah, great. “Shell, wazzup? Why ya givin’ me the gas face?”

“I’m not.” Shellie turned and looked at him. Sighing, she smiled anyway despite herself. He was so damn cute, and clueless. “Really, I’m not giving you a dirty look. But, I told you. My parents are coming for dinner tomorrow. The place isn’t up to snuff, and I can’t talk you out of the piercings and leather.”

“I ain’t no pony boy.”

Shellie ran her hand up his front. “I know. I’m not trying to remake you. Really, I’m not, but my dad’s a lawyer, and my mother a doctor. They won’t understand you, and they move in a different world.”

“Ya move in a different style, too. Ya understand me.”

Shellie nodded and picked up a garbage can. Moving around the room, she started picking up trash, empty bottles, sandwich wrappers, and assorted other garbage. “I understand you fine. I don’t want my parents to think less of you. I want them to give you a fair chance, and first impressions are hard to come back from. You know?” Shellie stopped and looked at him. “We on the same page, Boo?”

Rath frowned, but hooked an arm around her neck and drew her close. “Yeah. I’m hearing. I’ll…try, okay? I could bail, if ya want.”

Shellie put her arms around his neck. “They were coming to meet you. That was the purpose.”

Rath frowned. This was new ground. A relationship. Lonnie was just fucking. A sort of fucked up destiny that was for crap. Hardly what he would call a relationship. Shellie was different. She seemed to want him around. She was nice to him. Her place was nice, clean and comfortable. He still went out. He still messed around. Occasionally, he saw Lonnie. But, at night, he came home to Shellie. She was soft. Accommodating. Sexy. She never complained about anything he wanted. Perhaps she was sexually addicted to him. He didn’t care as long as it kept him fed and dry. Definitely a step up from the sewer and Lonnie.

“I’m here.” Rath said. What more was there to do?

He was there. He was trying. Shellie wasn’t in any way convinced that he was faithful to just her. While she was gone to school everyday he was out doing things, seeing people, and what else she was uncertain. One thing for certain, it wasn’t working. Or at least not conventionally.

Shellie smiled. Moving her hand up his face, she stroked his cheek. “Yeah, you are here. I need to clean, but I can fix us something to eat first. You hungry?”

Rath laughed and flashed his charming smile at her. “I could eat. I think I’ll start with ya.”

Shellie laughed as he tackled her to the ground, his heavy weight pushing on her. Breathless, she felt her clothes melt away as his mouth and hands seemed everywhere at once. Rath. He wasn’t what she considered a nice boyfriend. Shocking how much she liked not so nice, not so conventional, and very dirty. There was an edge where kinky, sexy and daring, pain and violence blended into a shade of gray. Rath seemed to push all the boundaries. He was capable of being mean and crass, and at times sweet and gentle.

“Rath.”

“Lets take a shower.” Shellie smiled at that. Best improvement, Rath liked showering with a little incentive. Rath pulled her nude body after him, and almost in a blink he was out of his clothing and in the shower.

"You sure you want company?" Shellie asked trying to keep her voice steady and light, knowing it wasn't working. Rath’s arm reached out and pulled her into the shower roughly.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I’ve got this swelling..." he trailed off, grinning as Shellie yelped at the sting of the hot water hitting her skin.

"Swelling? But…" Shellie broke off when Rath indicated a fully erect cock. "Gotcha," she breathed, as Rath pulled her closer rubbing suggestively against her.

Hot water ran over them, cool in comparison to the temperature of their skin as their lips met. She would’ve kept kissing him, but he had other ideas. He was jacking his own flesh, and grabbing her slender hand, he wrapped her hot fingers around his rapidly swelling cock, throwing all other thoughts aside. His other hand forced her to her knees in front of him under the pounding of the hot water.

“Rath…”

He didn’t wait for her. She talked too much anyway. Forcing her mouth open, he shoved himself inside, and went to work, forcing her to suck him off. He didn’t want to waste too much time. He had plans. Plans involving her.

"Oh, god," Rath groaned as the hot mouth slid down him, drawing him in. She wasn’t such a bad bitch. She gave a good amount of head. Not as good as Lonnie, but then Lonnie was a lifetime experienced cumsucker. Shellie was up on Lonnie in that he never worried about becoming diseased from her, or murdered by the bitch biting off his dick.

He moaned in time to the sucking, thrusting his hips gently. Shellie's fingers caressed his ass, kneading, squeezing, and rubbing. God, she knew how he liked it. One finger slid down his crack, rubbing over his hole. He moaned and pressed back against the finger, then pushed forward into the waiting mouth. Oh, god, he'd died and gone to heaven. The finger thrust into him, a gentle rhythm in time with the sucking mouth covering his dick. Shellie pulled away slightly to lick at his shaft, nipping lightly at the base with her lips before moving lower to suck first one ball, then the other into her mouth. Rath growled as she sucked his balls, sure that he was going to die from the delicious torture. The finger in his ass began moving faster, soon a second was added. Shellie rubbed across his prostate and Rath howled as the pleasure knifed through him. That hot mouth engulfed his aching cock once again, and he gave a scream that bounced off the tile as his orgasm thundered through him.

"Jesus," he muttered, when he could talk again. "Yah’re one fucking hot, slut."

"You're classy as ever," Shellie licked her lips, her jaw a little sore from the pressure he used on her. The she leaned over to switch the water off. The temperature had turned cold long before either had noticed, but now it was a little chilly.

Rath felt his blood surging again as he watched her wantonly push her ass toward him and he gave a low growl as he pulled Shellie into a rough embrace, his own tongue parting lips that opened willingly for him.

He could taste himself in her mouth. It was so incredible, that something like that could get him so hot again...he shuddered as the pleasure flooded through him.

"Want yah, baby," he muttered against Shellie's mouth. Sweet talk always got him into her ass or cunt without much effort. His hand grabbed her generous seat and pulled her up hard into his rapidly refilling groin as his fingers probed her tight hole, as his lips slid down to graze a cheekbone, continuing lower toward throat and neck. "Need to ream yar ass...hafta have yah..." His lips found an earlobe and he suckled briefly before scoring it gently with his teeth. He moved his mouth up to rim the outer edge of the ear, then headed back down. "Turn the water back on."

Shellie did as he requested, and he came up close behind her, pushing her hard into the cold tile. His one hand went down to bury itself into her cunt, already wet and needy as his other hand went around her mouth keeping her from screaming too loud as he pushed himself into her ass. Hard. Long, deep strokes with powerful grunts. His one hand working her over as her one hand came out to brace herself against the tile, and the other reached up above their heads to hold on tight to the edge of the glass door. She bit his hand, as he finished off in her, and released her to let her slide to the shower floor.

“Yah okay, Shell?”

Shellie groaned and reached up and pulled him down on the floor with her. Rath laughed.

~~~

“We didn’t have to come.” Shellie looked at the noisy party. Staring down at her clothing, she grimaced. She was in need of major therapy! She let Rath pick her clothing. He put her in a micro-mini that rode low on her hips, and barely covered her ass, and she was bare underneath. Her shirt was worse. It was a haltered nylon mesh shirt meant to be worn with a black bra, but she was bare breasted. It stopped short of her naval. The tattoo on her arm matching one of Rath’s was barely healed, and she was wearing six inch spikes. She should’ve known better than making a bet with Rath. Any fool knew that he cheated.

“Yor friends. Yor party. Wazzup?”

“I’m dressed like a street walker, not a graduating senior, and soon to be entering law school.” Insanity! It must run in her family. She was involved with a man…boy over three years younger than her, unemployed, uneducated with a taste for rough sex and domination.

“Stop bitchin’. Lets partah.”

“Rath, you don’t even drink. These parties are all about drinking.”

Rath crowded her. “Chill, Shell. Lets tease the straights. Be good, and I’ll do you later.” He slapped her ass hard. Shellie licked her lips. She was sick. Real sick. Rath leaned in biting her neck hard. “I’ll give ya a real good spankin’.”

Shellie looked around nervously, gulping. Her hand roamed down his tight leathered front. “Caning?”

“Mmmm.” Rath smiled evilly in her eyes. Shellie smiled back. Maybe it was her upper middle class conservative upbringing, but she actually liked a little pain, and sometimes, a lot. Rath was always willing to accommodate. She hadn’t even known she liked it rough until she met him, and over the last six weeks he took her places that she would’ve never dared dream of going.

Rath wasn’t the perfect boyfriend. Far from it. He was a dog. He was rude. He was uneducated. He was most of the time unclean. She pretty much suspected that he would sling his dick around in any hole that offered him access, but she was the only one he came home to, so she took him as he was. He was basically…perfect.

“So she brought you again.” Rath turned to find that Shellie had went off to find them drinks. A classmate of Shell’s….Jane? GI Jane. A friend? Rath didn’t like her. She was a crank faced biggie with her mouth skewed towards carpet munching. He suspected she was weeding for his pussy. “What the hell does she see in a retard, pierced reject like you.”

Dark room. Back wall. Rath’s eyes narrowed. “Yah really want to know, fat-ass bizatch?” Rath moved in on her threateningly. “I’m more than a little som'em som'em.” Rath pushed her hard against the wall, his hand going up her skirt. Her puffy clam hadn’t been touched in this lifetime. Rath smiled nastily. He could take care of that.

“Stop it!” She tried to push him off. Rath laughed and kissed her. Worked every time. The lesbo rat patrol was squirming in his arms trying to climb up his body. Working his way into her undies, he swore at their nastiness. Large ugly white ones. With a wave, they were gone. “Stop!” Rath shrugged and pulled away, but fugly Jane the Plain, pulled him back again. Always a gentleman, he gave her a quick taste. Didn’t take long. He pushed his dick in, and was there for a few breathers, and then was gone. Didn’t even take the edge off. Now his pants were too tight. Where the hell was Shell?

Rath sliced through the crowds making faces at the amount of yuppie larva hanging off him. He never bothered to look back at the pile of Jane he left in his wake.

“Hey!” Shellie. Rath noticed why she took so long. She was surrounded by college bovah flies, swarming around her, checking out her rack through the nylon mesh. Coming up behind her, Rath moved his hands up her front under the tight top and covered her tits while sucking on her neck. Whispering hotly in her ear, he quickly led her away sneering at the losers they left behind. Yeah they could view the goods, but she belonged to him.

“Hey,” Shellie looped her arms around his neck, as he danced them backwards through the crowd. “Where’ve yah been, Boo?”

“Fucking ugly Jane. Not really. Just dickin’ her up her lesbian snatch.” Shellie’s eyebrow went up.

Shellie stepped back from him, her hands on her hips. “You better be lying, Rath.”

Rath pulled her back. “I don’t lie to yah, Shell. She came on tah me, wanna tah knows what I got to keep yah spreadin’ yor legs. I gave her a little taste.” Rath kissed the side of her neck. “Diddin’ even shoot spunk.”

Shellie pushed him off her again. “Why do I put up with you?!”

Rath pulled her back harshly. “Cause yah luv me. I spank yor hot ass, then fuck you up it until yah scream. Yor hot cunt begs for me. ‘Cause I save all my cum for yah. Only yah.” Rath grabbed her arms and pulled them around her back. “Yah know, I’m a one ho man.”

“Tell me that later when Jane starts hanging around our place wanting a repeat.”

Rath suddenly looked uncomfortable. Pulling at his tight black tee, he looked around. “Naw! No way!” His eyes darted around. “No?”

Shellie’s eyes narrowed, and then she sighed. He really was clueless. His idea of faithful was a far end spectrum from hers, but he was learning. He was trying. He had a hard time separating love from sex, and most of the time sex was just something to do. Love meant she put up with his shit, and for him, that he came home to her.

“Rath…”

“Don’t be mad. I’ll do anything ya want.” Rath grabbed her ass hard and grinded her into his loins. “I’ll play nice for yor parents. I’ll even take out the piercings. Talk…normal.” Whatever the hell normal was, but the concession seemed to make her happy.

“I don’t want to change you.” Shellie said softly wiping a little moisture from her eyes. “I just prefer you not to shove your dick into other women…..men, or whatever while you’re with me.”

Rath frowned. “That’s all?” Hell, no problem. It wasn’t like he was getting off anyway. Just frustrated, then he had to find Shellie to take off the edge. For a second, he wondered if all relationships were that difficult to understand. His thoughts turned to his dupe, Michael. If he could figure it out, then so could Rath.

“It’s a good start.” Rath shrugged. Sure. Why the hell not? If it became a problem, then he would tell her.

“Lets dance.” Rath moved her closer to him, backing her up off the dance floor. Shellie laughed. Rath’s idea of dancing usually meant a horizontal mambo resulting in his dick embedded somewhere.

Rath tightened his hands on Shellie's ass and pulled her hard against his body. There was a wall behind them. They were near the back of the open area on the far side of the dance floor. He opened his eyes to sight it, never removing his mouth from Shellie's, and half-carried, half-dragged her, pinning her against it with his weight. He released Shellie's mouth, dragging his tongue across her soft cheek and then down, licking a trail from the swollen lips to the nipples he could see through the mesh shirt.

Rath heard a groan above him as he latched onto one through the shirt and tugged gently with his teeth. He worried at it for a moment, sucking and biting, enticing gasps of pain and pleasure from his partner. When it was swollen and throbbing with heat he switched to the other nipple, tonguing carefully, tasting the metallic bite of gold against the sweeter taste of Shellie. She had her nipple pierced since he met her. Hands cradled his head, clutching on to him, holding him close to the tempting flesh. She responded well to him. He turned his head and nipped at those hands, swirling his tongue suggestively over the thumb. Brown met blue as he did so, both sets of eyes dark and hot.

Shellie's eyes widened and darkened further when Rath continued downward, sliding to his knees before her. Rath rubbed his cheek against the long silky length of her thigh and the junction area concealed behind hot leather, felt it pulse against his skin. His own cock, swollen and achingly hard in his jeans, throbbed in response. He nuzzled for a moment longer, smelling the unmistakable scent of semen. Though she showered before they came out, she still smelled of him. Rath groaned as he breathed in the heat and arousal of Shellie. His tongue darted out and ran up the tender length of her thigh. He could see the bruises he had left on her, and he heard Shellie's low moan of lust. He loved how she forgot to care where they were. Since that first time he met her at the bar.

Rath surged to his feet and grabbed two handfuls of silky blonde hair, yanking Shellie's head back, tilting it up. He took her mouth in a voracious, sucking kiss, drawing Shellie's tongue as far into his own mouth as he could. He felt Shellie's knee thrust between his legs, bringing them closer still, hungry hands scrabbling at his waist to release the top button. He shifted so he could rub his aching dick hard against her smaller body, moving against the hand that was reaching to pet him.

Shellie tore her mouth away, gasping. "Rath! Oh, god, Rath..."

"What, baby?" he panted, trying to draw air into lungs that seemed to have forgotten how to work.

"It's so good...so good..."

"Yeah," he growled before delving back into the dark sweetness of Shellie's mouth. He plunged his tongue in and out, fucking the soft hot mouth rapidly, hands wandering at will. Shellie's hands were busy kneading and squeezing his ass, rubbing against the seam that was tormenting his cleft, and he pushed his ass back against those hands, seeking their touch.

He was ready to take her right there, right then.

Reluctantly Rath dragged his mouth away from her, observing the swollen lips, heaving chest, and hearing the pounding heartbeat. Her nipples were erect and pressing against the nylon mesh. He leaned in to nuzzle at Shellie's ear, rimming the outer edge before whispering, "I hafta have ya, Shellie. I wanna bury my cock inside yah and fuck yah 'til yah scream."

A raspy voice moaned, "God, yes."

"Upstairs?"

A hesitant nod. "Are you sure? Rath, this is…."

"I won't make it home, Shellie. I need yah, now. No one’s gonna care, anyone up there's doing the same thing." Rath drew Shellie's hand down to his raging hard-on. "I want yah, my fuckin’ beautiful bitch. Gotta have yah."

"Yes...." Shellie breathed. "Let's go."

They skirted the outer edge of the dance floor to the staircase that led to the 'observation' area above that overlooked the downstairs. Aroused as they were the trip up the stairs was awkward and painful, but they both knew what they getting when they got there. Shellie followed Rath and twice trailed her fingers up and down the seam of Rath's jeans where it defined the curve of his ass. Rath threw a look over his shoulder the second time, eyes smoldering with barely banked heat and growled, "Tease."

The wanton look on Shellie's face only fueled the fire now raging out of control.

A few people were leaning against the railing watching the partiers below. The University fraternity house was a hotbed of wild mating, drugs and drinking. A quick check from Rath and he quickly harassed others in the darkened room to beat it.

Room wasn't even quite right…not totally. It wasn’t a large enough area, but rather an upper landing circling the lower floor with strategic sofas placed along the way. The members of the house sponsoring the party had placed low lights and candles in the darkened upstairs area. They could’ve found an empty bedroom or kicked out others using one, but Rath liked the open area. The public display.

Rath steered them toward a couch that was easily seen from all views and much of downstairs, turning as he touched the couch, pulling Shellie back into his arms. Their lips met and fused, tongues tangling in hunger, desperate for the taste of each other.

Rath tugged on Shellie's arms and she raised them to encircle Rath's neck, exposing a large patch of bare midriff as her shirt rose up. He slid his hands up under it, stroking the smooth skin and firm muscle, feeling the ripples and twitches his touch generated. Shellie's hands got busy working on the buttons of Rath's leather pants, rubbing the straining cock that was outlined against the worn leather. Rath groaned against Shellie's mouth as those incredible fingers delved in and freed his cock, warm skin on his heated flesh, cool air rushing against him. A thumb smoothed over the tip, probing at the tiny fissure, spreading the pre-cum that had already leaked out.

"Yeah, touch me like that....just like that, Shellie..."

"Like me touching you?" Shellie whispered against Rath's chest, nuzzling into hard nipples pushing against the tight black tee.

"God, yes...ohhh..." The fingers stroked, caressed, cajoled, drawing breathy gasps and moans from Rath. He felt Shellie smile against his chest. "Keep touching...don't stop, bitch...don't stop...oh, shit..." He loved how she seemed to forget everything about where they were.

"Let it go, Rath..." Shellie pushed Rath's pants down his legs, reaching to cup the balls hanging there, rolling them in her hand, squeezing.

"No..." Rath pushed himself back from Shellie and shoved her onto the couch. "I want to drink you….feel you come apart under me. Then I want to fuck you until you can't see straight."

"Oh," came a faint voice below him.

Rath dropped to his knees in front of Shellie and pushed her tiny leather skirt up over her hips, fingers bruising her thighs more in his haste to spread her legs and expose Shellie's cunt to his hungry eyes. The leather skirt was bunched around Shellie's waist, and Rath leaned in to take his first taste of Shellie, licking gently across the swollen clit, reveling in Shellie's gasp. Flavors and scents exploded across his taste buds, as he applied himself to do what he did best, with his best asset…his tongue.

Hot. His fucking whore tasted of heat and honey. Heat, salt, sweat and a slightly bitter flavor of him from before….his sperm; a delicious combination; the total package of Shellie. He tongued her, plunging a finger into her tight cunt along the folds until her clit budded and swelled. He pulled back, enough to give her a little maneuvering room, then he sucked the engorged bud of Shellie's clit into his mouth, running his tongue all across the top of it, gnawing it with ravaging bites.

"Ohmigod....Rath...Mmmm..." Hands clutched at his head, fingers scrambling for purchase.

He ignored everything but his driving need for this and plunged a little further into the hot, engorged mound. The reaction was electric: Shellie groaned low in her throat and shoved upward against him, forcing the rest of herself into Rath's mouth. She was talking viciously to him, moaning and demanding he devour her hot cunt. Rath grunted and swallowed, taking it all in.

He sucked Shellie voraciously, like a starving man, needing to taste her. Liquid was flowing copiously from Shellie's pussy and Rath drank eagerly, taking every drop. He could feel the striations in the soft folds under his tongue; felt and heard the thundering pulse racing through the thin blood vessels engorging the sensitive tissue, tasted the salt of the skin itself. Her body rolled beneath his lips as he slid them frantically up and down, eating her fully. Shellie moaned above him, hands caressing at his head. Holding him hard against her withering body.

Rath moved his embedded fingers out of her dripping snatch to reach below to the opening of her ass. Such an ass man. He never neglected that part of her.

"Rath...?" Shellie's voice sounded shaky, breathless.

"Hang on, baby..." Rath reached for Shellie, shifting her so her legs lay over his shoulders. He buried his face in the fold between Shellie's thighs, inhaling the scent deeply before turning to place a kiss on the inside of the leg. A line of kisses was drawn from Shellie's thigh to her dripping sex, then down to her ass. Rath shifted her again, sliding his hands under Shellie's hips, cradling her ass. He spread her even more apart with his thumbs and licked from bottom of her cunt to the top of the folds, pausing to swirl his tongue over the puckered clit that beckoned there.

"Please, Rath...fuck me, don't tease..." The hands were clutching at his head again. He drew back slightly, listening to be sure they were still relatively alone, then returned to his task. He swirled his tongue round and round and into the hole, pressing the tip against her swollen clit, sucking on it harshly. One hand reached up to close around Shellie's pert breasts, squeezing them briskly in time to the tiny thrusts he made with his tongue. Shellie moaned incoherently, arching into his mouth, pressing against his tongue.

"Rathhhhhhh...I'm gonna...I'm co--...Oh. My. Goooo--mmphh!!" Shellie's body arched upward, straining and spasming as she flooded Rath’s mouth with her orgasm. Her cry was cut off abruptly as she leaned over him and bit heavily into his skin of his shoulder and back.

Rath caught the warm fluid dripping from her in his hand, lubing a finger with it. He pressed the digit against Shellie's ass already somewhat loosened and lubricated, and pushed forward. Her body relaxed around him and the finger eased into the tight passage. He thrust easily with the one and withdrew to add another. He’d already used her once that evening that way, and she was still opened.

"Mmm--oh, yeah...oh, Rath..." Shellie moved against the fingers, pressing downward.

"Yah like that, don't you? Like my fingers up yor ass, my slut?" Rath growled the words low, leaning in to nip at Shellie's thighs as he continued to fuck the fingers in and out.

"Oh yeah...give 'em to me...I love it...Oh..." Shellie's breathless chant was cut off when Rath withdrew both fingers suddenly, shifting so that Shellie's legs fell from his shoulders.

He stood in front of her, erection straining forward, blindly seeking. "Take my pants off," he whispered hoarsely. Shellie reached up and ran a finger across the trembling, weeping cock then pushed the tight leather over Rath's hips. He sat down on the couch next to her. "Straddle my legs," he commanded in a rough voice.

Shellie scrambled to her knees uncaring who was watching them or how exposed her body was to others, all she could see was Rath. One leg swung over Rath's, then she was straddling him, the core of her tingling and hurting….missing his attention, responding to the hardness staining against her sex.

"Oh, god!" The cry had a surprised ring to it. She almost came again without him even entering her. Lust. It was overwhelming her. With him, she could rarely remember her name, or anything.

Rath smiled as he buried his face in Shellie's neck. His fingers were slowly working the rest of Shellie's slickness into the tight passage, twisting and spreading, loosening the ring of muscle there. He wanted to bury himself in her thirsty cunt, then fuck her ass.

"Am I making yah hot again, Shellie? Do yah want me? Want me to fuck yor tight puss and little ass until yah come screaming?"

"Jesus, yes! Oh, god, yes, I want you to fuck me...stick your dick up me and give it to me! Use me!"

The words were exchanged in heated whispers, breathed against hot skin. Shellie fucked herself on Rath's fingers in her ass, as she moved the hard length of him along the folds of her hungry cunt, her own fingers playing with his hard, tight nipples. A particularly vicious twist and Rath groaned, his cock twitching.

"Nuff! I wanna cum inside yah….not on yah. C'mere." Rath leaned back against the couch and took himself into his hand, with one hand’s fingers still in her ass, and the other guiding his cock up and down the wet folds of her cunt. He spread the liquid onto his cock, mixing it with the pre-cum that was already coating the head. He shoved his fingers hard into Shellie's ass using them to hold her firmly to him, as he spread the folds of her sex wide helping her to shift forward, raising slightly.

"Ohhhh....fuck, Boo..." Shellie breathed out as she impaled herself slowly on Rath's engorged cock.

"Christ, Shellie..." Rath swallowed heavily as he was engulfed by the hottest, tightest passage he'd ever been in. So different from Lonnie. So small. So tight. So much feeling everywhere. He could feel himself throbbing inside of Shellie, felt the smaller body throbbing around him. It was incredible….the rush of blood through the thin walls of skin caressed and massaged him, Shellie's pulse felt like staccato beats pounding along his sensitive cock, the heat of her body seemed to sear him, branding him. "Yah're mine. All mine," he whispered hoarsely as he inclined his head to claim Shellie's mouth with his. Arms came up around his neck as his lover settled her weight more comfortably, rocking to take the rest of his penis in. Letting him pick up the pace, raging in her tight channel, scraping the tender flesh inside, moaning as he made her ache.

"Yours...yes. All yours, Rath. Anyway you want me. Anyway." Rath groaned in her mouth. So generous. So loving. Her hands. They moved over him, not just in lust, but in love. Flashes. Images. Tastes. Light. They moved through his body. He couldn’t get far enough inside her, or stay long enough. If he could strip off her skin and merge into her body, it still wouldn’t be enough.

They rocked together gently for a long moment, lips and tongues searching, tasting, reassuring. Then the hunger that had engulfed both of them began to rise again and movements became more urgent, more frantic.

Shellie tore her mouth from Rath's, panting, rocking her body backward. Rath shifted so that he had a better anchored position, and cupped Shellie's ass more firmly in his hands, spreading the cheeks. Pulling out of her tight cunt, he shifted her and pushed himself up into her, positioning himself at her tighter opening. His lover steadied herself with hands on his shoulders and began moving over him, sliding up and down the heated shaft piercing her flesh as he penetrated her ass again. He couldn’t settle for just one orifice. He needed all of her. Every fucking inch. It sang to a violence in his blood. A violence she seemed to understand, to tame, and to need to feel as well.

Rath groaned when Shellie flexed her sphincter muscles, thrusting up into that moist, welcoming heat. He leaned forward and bit Shellie gently on the neck, sucking on the pulse point. She moaned low in her throat and Rath did it again, biting a little harder this time. Shellie's answer was to flex her muscles again. It was hard. It was pain. It was delicious.

"Baby, yah're killing me...my fucking slut, you feel so good...tight, hot...I'm fucking yah, Shellie...I'm inside yah, fucking yor ass."

"I know...god, I know...I can feel you throbbing inside me...oh, baby...OH! Oh, yeah...again, Rath...again...ohhhhh...yeah....yeah, right there...ohhhHH!" She loved how sore he left her. Hours after he left her body, she could feel him all along the bruises, cuts and bites, and the strained tissue inside. Sometimes she stood nude in front of a mirror reading the marks on her body like a roadmap of where Rath had been.

Rath pulled out of that tight channel, quickly moving his hand over himself to clean himself. He shifted her again, pushing back into her hot cunt. Rath angled his penetration and pushed the tip of his cock against Shellie's sensitive clit. The shivers and shudders that racked her softer body were echoed through his own body when Shellie tightened around him.

Their movements became faster, harder. Rath slammed up into Shellie. Shellie rocked down hard on Rath. It became a battle of sorts, players changing sides, working for the same team. Rath sought Shellie's mouth in a ravenous kiss, thrusting his tongue into her mouth like he was thrusting with his cock. Shellie reached between them to stroke her breasts hard, twisting her nipples and pulling on the piercing in her nipple; Rath brushed her hand away. Pushing her nylon mesh shirt up over her breasts, he bent down and took a nipple in his mouth working it hotly, and then the other. Pulling the golden ring into his mouth, he hooked it on the piercing in his tongue and tugged it viciously. Shellie’s nails bit into his skin, scratching bloody streaks as Rath’s fingers found her ass again and he shoved them inside, pumping faster and faster to match the frantic pace their bodies were following. He watched Shellie's face, the changing, restless expressions and whispered encouragingly, "That's it, Shell baby...cum for me...I wanna see yah cum...there…..there yah go..."

Shellie convulsed, her body stiffening and contracting as she flooded Rath’s groin with her orgasm reaching forward to bite a bloodied trail on Rath's chest. Rath thrust hard into the willing body, holding his thrust as Shellie's body tightened around him, muscles clenching, milking his orgasm. He shuddered for long moments, shaking from the intensity as Shellie flexed and contracted around him, over and over. The orgasm hit them both hard, and they seemed trapped in a place, a lull where there was no sound except their own bodies screaming, and the gasping rush of breath.

Then it was done, and they sat there, Rath still buried deep within Shellie, both panting and shaking from the intensity of the sensations and the emotions.

Rath rested with his head back against the couch, Shellie lying against his chest. Warm, moist air moved across ultra sensitive skin and he arched slightly into it. He brought a hand up to tangle into those incredible silky golden strands, reflecting for a moment that they were indeed as soft as they looked. People were watching them in shock, but in their drunken state, who gave a fuck? It wasn’t like any of them would ever come near to achieving what he and Shell did. Hell. Alien orgasm, to hell. He never reached this deep with Lonnie. Not even close.

"Shellie?" No response. "Shell?"

"Yeah." The utter contentedness in her voice surprised him and he forgot for a minute what he wanted to ask. "What, Rath?"

"Yah okay?"

"If I were any more okay I'd be dead." The voice was muffled against his chest. Rath gripped a handful of hair and pulled the head back gently, staring at her.

"Yah sure?"

"I'm fine. Better than fine. Fucking sore all over." Shellie grimaced at the pull of muscles tightening and then relaxing again.

Rath relaxed, releasing his hold on the silky strands. "Yeah, me too." His dick actually hurt. He might have sprung it in her body. Smiling like an overfed cat, the punk in him congratulated himself on a brilliant fucking piece of ass.

They sat there, stroking each other softly, for several minutes. Then Shellie sighed and raised herself off Rath's chest. "We should get dressed, Rath. This really is a public place."

Rath smiled at his lover…at Shellie. He never had a lover before. Not really. "Yeah, it is, isn't it?" If anyone had told him an hour ago that he'd go to the frat house party, a place he detested, then proceed to have incredible, hard-core sex with his lover, he'd thought them whacked, since he could’ve stayed home and used her body over and over in the comfort of their bed. Yet there he was, phased not one little bit, sitting half naked and totally satiated on a couch in the observation lounge, an equally naked and satiated Shellie on his lap. Reality really was stranger than fiction.

"Shellie?" He promised to give her want she wanted later. Suddenly later wasn’t soon enough. He could picture her bent over his lap, her naked ass upturned and exposed as he spanked her tender flesh with a piece of cane. Closing his eyes and groaning, he wondered how he got so lucky to find a bitch that liked to be spanked.

"Yeah?"

Rath hesitated. He knew what he wanted to say, just not how to say it. "Let's go home."

"Right."

Chapter Two

Sins of the father…

Rath woke first. It was late, but Shellie only had one class today. An early afternoon one, right after lunch. The day was bright, and a gentle breeze entered the room as the curtains swayed. It was sometimes hard to imagine that they were in New York City. It felt like spring. The air was sweet. At least from the floor that the apartment was on. Rath smirked to himself. At street level there would be the smell of thawing dog shit, exhaust, and garbage once frozen in the now melting snow banks. New York City. There was no place like home.

Shellie was sleeping on her stomach sprawled across the bed next to him, bare. The sheet had slipped low. Rath’s eyes moved over the cuts on her back, ass, and the back of her thighs. He beat her deeply. It was strange. He never understood why she felt the need to feel pain, but it was something that she seemed to want. He liked it too, but she seemed to crave it. Frowning, he noted a few of the whelps were more than minor cuts and abrasives, but actually too deep. His hand had slipped.

Reaching down, he lowered his mouth to the small of her back and kissed the skin. While she slept, he ran his hand over her marks, and lessened their severity. They would completely heal on their own in a couple of days. It wasn’t the first time he had healed her unknown to her. There was a strange nagging sensation in his stomach. Maybe hunger? Maybe a need not to see her truly in pain and hurt because of him. No. That couldn’t be it.

“Mmmm.” Shellie looked up from where her head rested on the pillow. “Too early to wake up, Boo. Go back to sleep.”

“We could do som’em.”

Shellie moved into him, her mouth moving up his neck, kissing and nipping him in tiny bites. His skin was still salty from last night. “Something? I’m sore from more than something last night.” Shellie kissed him, lingering. Rath. Strange how his name tended to be more a sigh at times. He liked to kiss. At first it was more of an assault. Him trying to dominate. Now it was something they did together.

“I’d be kicking to make ya sorer. Yor a total candy.”

Shellie pushed him off and sat up on the side of the bed stretching. Reaching back, her hand moved over him, down his body to grip his morning erection. “I could make you breakfast.”

Rath moved his hand under her golden hair and pulled her back to him. Kissing her enthusiastically, he moved his other hand down to move over her still red ass, smiling slightly at the hiss of pain she gave. “I always like yah for breakfast.”

Bending down, Shellie kissed his stomach. Quickly she tossed a leg over his hip, and settled on his morning erection so quickly he had little time to react except in a groan. Shit. He felt honored to have run into a nymphomaniac, but there was a sneaking suspicion that he sort of helped create her.

Rath made a howling noise as she speeded up, and Shellie laughingly put a hand over his mouth. “Sh! We don’t want the neighbors calling the cops again about a wild animal in the apartments.”

Rath laughed. Upscale rent controlled apartments. They had little else to worry about. Since he moved in they tried to create a co-op petition to have him banned from the premises, but since Shellie’s father owned the building there was little anyone could do since only a handful bought their units.

Later while Shellie was loading the dishwasher, Rath finished up his breakfast. He was haphazardly flipping through channels. “So they will be here at seven-thirty. You sure you can pick up dinner from Guido’s? I ordered extra of that garlic cheese bread you like. They will charge to account, but you have to pick it up by seven!” Shellie looked up from cleaning the kitchen. “Rath?”

He grunted. Shellie smiled. That was Rath-speak for affirmative.

“I cleaned the bathroom. The rest of the place looks pretty good. We actually managed to clean up a bit last night between other things.” Rath laughed at that. They were pretty busy. “Try not to make too much of a mess today. Oh, and it’s supposed to be clear today, so no nude standing outside in the rooftop garden. There are a lot of news cameras flybys. Hate to see you flashing on the news again.”

Rath laughed at that, squinting his eyes he stuck his tongue at Shellie suggestively. Nice how she failed to mention exactly what he was doing the last time they made the news. Perhaps it was her position with legs in the air.

Shellie stopped before she left and stroked his face. “Look, I have to tell you this. I don’t want you to be upset tonight when you meet my parents. I appreciate that you’re going to try, but you should know that they’re going to hate you.” Shellie kissed him before he could protest. “It doesn’t matter how well you clean up. They hated every boyfriend I ever had. Even the ones they picked, and with me starting Law School in the fall, they don’t want anything distracting me. I’m afraid they will consider you a distraction. A big one.”

“And yah? Whatcha think?”

Shellie kissed him. “I think you’re cute, and you should distract me all you want.”

After Shell left for school, Rath went back to bed. Lying in the bedroom, he watched a little TV, but finally caught up on some much needed sleep. He had time. He’d nap, then he’d do his thing.

~~~

Rath was leaning against the wall. Eyes closed, there was no expression on his face. His hands were buried in the blonde hair controlling the mouth. Quickly checking his watch, he pushed the mouth off his cock and quickly zipped it up. Lonnie sat back on her heels in disgust.

“Yo, what gives? I wuzant done.”

“Done ‘nuff. I’ze got places to be.” Rath moved away from her, dispassionately checking out his old home.

“The lily white ho.” Lonnie sneered. Rath’s eyes narrowed and he picked Lonnie up roughly pushing her hard into a wall.

“Back off, Lonnie. Yor the only freak around. Cunter.”

“Yah never complained before, cuz.”

Rath shrugged and dropped her. “Yah said ya needed to spat at me, so talk. I’ve got plans and no time.”

“Bet the girly doesn’t know yah’re here doing me, cuz.”

Rath laughed. “Shell knows me. Don’t fool with my shit, Lonnie.” Rath shook his head. He was out of there. Didn’t even know why he bothered. Lonnie was like a repeat herpes infection. Falling into sex with her was too easy, and strangely it meant nothing. When she cut him loose, he hated it. Now, he felt that maybe he should do something to thank her for kicking him to the wayside. “So you talkin’ or I’m walkin’.”

Lonnie caught his arm. “I need som’em. Nicolas and Kivar, will give me a boost to Antar if I gets this little thang.”

“Thang?” Rath’s eyes narrowed. She was using him again. Antar. Rath paused for a moment. His home. Damn. “Watsa this thang?

Lonnie face became blank as she tried to appear not too concerned. “Seems that King Ding-a-ling, Maxie, and his band of rejects came into possession of this black cone. It’s part of the Granilith, and yah can use it tah activate a ship, or som’em like that. Kivar wants it.”

“Do I care what yor Kivar wants?” Rath seemed to be thinking about it. “Um, no.” Antar. It was a dream. Maybe even a nightmare. It consumed his entire life. The want to return, to leave Earth. He finally was feeling better, and now this. Rath had no problem noticing that travel plans were for Lonnie and not him. “Get it yorself. Ask the little fish biter to help yah. I’m out of here.”

“Rath!” Lonnie’s voice was edged in a slight hysteria. She was alone. Somehow she never thought he would stay away so long. Even today, she pushed herself on him sexually in a hope to get back some of her control of him. That hadn’t worked either. She needed him. “Don’t walk away! Don’t!”

“Or what?” Rath laughed. Staring at her, at the place he once called home, it coated his skin like a disease. Years. Years go by and he never knew. He never knew. His dupe told him he deserved more, that he had a right to have more. Six weeks of living in fresh air, and he had changed. Maybe not inside, he was what he was, but he didn’t feel so alone.

Lonnie’s face went mean. “Yah have more to lose now, Rath. That pretty pussy yor banging looks tasty.”

Lonnie didn’t even see it coming. She hit the wall hard, and seemed to be stuck there suspended before she fell. The lights around them exploded as did the glass. Rath never moved. Lonnie for the first time in a long time felt afraid. Rath was always more volatile. Easy to push to murder and violence. She had used it often to get what she wanted, but this was the first time she saw a hint of what really lived in him. What she suspected all her life was only a small piece of it.

Rath came to her, kneeling to look at her like she was garbage. “Do not threaten me with Shellie. Do not make that mistake, Lonnie.”

Lonnie scrambled away from him. “I need yah! We gotta take it from King Dick. They are keeping it in a secure place. Nicolas said the Commander has it! Rath! I need yah!”

Rath shook his head. “Yah got powers. Do it yorself.”

Lonnie watched as he walked out of the underground cavern. Damn him! Damn this Shellie whore! If not for her, Rath would’ve skulked home long ago. Rath knew the Commander. There was a chance.

“Thought you said you could control him.” Nicolas said coming out of the shadows. He had watched the blow job with interest. Either Lonnie was losing her touch, or the punk headed freak was immune.

“Shut up!” Lonnie could feel the icy finger of desperation. “I can. He’ll do it. Yo’ll see.”

“He better, or you’re going to need to think about an occupation. I suggest finding a productive street corner.”

“Shut up! He’ll do it!” Lonnie bit on a nail. He would. If he knew what was important to him, he’d do it.

~~~

Rath swore. Looking at the clock on the wall, he was already late. This wasn’t his fault. The food wasn’t ready. Rath gave the man behind the takeout counter a nasty look, and quickly went into the men’s to take a piss. Staring at himself in the mirror, he reached up and altered his appearance to look a little more like his Dupe, Michael. The more obvious piercings were gone, the hair was longer, but he kept his tattoos.

Shit, it wasn’t going to matter. Shellie said they would hate him anyway. Rath pulled at his collar and frowned at his image. Maybe he felt a little bad about letting Lonnie blow him. He sort of promised Shellie he’d keep his dick out of other women…and men, and whatever. Lonnie sort of fell into the category of ‘whatever’. Less than twenty-four hours he was already shoving his dick down Lonnie’s gullet. Rath frowned. Maybe he should change his clothes too?

“Yacker!” The man called it twice, before he caught Rath’s attention. “Hey, your order is ready!”

“Bout time, bitch! It wuz supposed to be done by seven!”

“You want it or not?” The man frowned at Rath’s slightly altered appearance.

Rath took it in a huff. If he beat pavement, he might beat Shellie’s parents there. It was fucking raining, and almost seven-thirty. Maybe they would be delayed. Shellie should’ve made it home half an hour before. Rath could see her quickly cleaning up anything needing straightening in the apartment, hiding the sex toys….Rath grinned.

Rath was half a block away when he noticed the emergency lights. Pausing. His steps faltered. Lifetime of caution, and he was ready to bolt. Frowning he noticed it was in front of his building.

Shellie?

Running the last few steps, a cop tried to detain him.

“Get off, 5-0! I live here!”

“Let me see some ID…”

Rath pulled away from the uniform rushing up the stairs, ignoring the elevator. Pausing to catch his breath at the top flights, he went through the fire stairwell doors. The door to his apartment was open. It was lousy with cops. Rath ignored them.

Pushing past them, he went into the apartment. “Shellie!”

There were two older people on the sofa, and the woman was crying. They were talking to a police detective. They stopped talking when Rath came in. He looked at them frantically. Then around the apartment. It was a shambles.

Fuck! He even helped clean! Shellie was going to be pissed. This wasn’t his fault. They were burglarized. Rath tried to remember if he locked the damn door on his way out.

“Shellie,” he yelled. “Where is Shellie?” Rushing into the bedroom, he surveyed the mess. Damn. Their bed was practically shredded. It was Shellie’s book bag spilled out on the floor that made his freeze. She had been home. Her laptop was crushed.

“Sir, I need to ask you some questions.” Rath ignored the detective. He searched the rest of the apartment, quickly going out on the rooftop garden. Wandering to the edge of the building he looked down at the streets. “Sir, I’m sorry, but I need to ask you….”

Rath went back inside staring at Shellie’s parents. He didn’t know what to say. The annoying man kept asking him questions as a few filtered through.

“Rath. My name is Rath. I live here with Shellie.” Rath looked around helpless. “I wuz picking up dinner at Guido’s. The bastard was late. I had to wait.” Rath turned around. “I shudda been here. I wodda been here.”

“This man, Mr. Ira Yacker, he says that he never met you. Him and his wife found the door wide open, the mess, and their daughter missing. Do you have a source of ID?” Rath ignored him again. He wandered towards the kitchen and set the bag of food down. “Sir, we’re going to need you to come downtown to answer some questions. In cases like these…..”

Rath wasn’t listening. He was staring at a pile of sugar on the countertop. In the sugar was a symbol. Four squares connected by crossed lines.

Lonnie.

Looking at Shellie’s parents, he shrugged off a restraining hand. “I’ll find her. I’ll bring her back!”

The man holding Rath never knew what hit him. He was once holding him, and the next moment, he was kissing carpet. Rath made it outside. Searching up and down the street in the rain, he found the first access to take him underground past the subway vents.

Rushing into Lonnie’s den, he searched the place destroying everything in his wake.

“Lonnie, yah fucking bitch! I’ll find yah. I will kill yah!” The place was empty. Lonnie gone.

“Shellie!”

Rath stopped, kneeling down and breathing hard. He wouldn’t find Lonnie unless she wanted him to find her. Standing, he left the sewer. As he walked through, there was a silence, followed by a loud squeaking of terrified rats as a loud rushing whoosh sound pushed through the tunnels in a wall of fire burning everything in its path.

The streets of New York City went deathly quiet as main transformers burst into flames as if a force of a magnitude of a F5 tornado hit them. The city went black. Car alarms echoed in the night as sirens followed and the bursting of windows throughout the downtown metro exploded in a barrage of glass. The local geological center recorded an epicenter of downtown New York City with a seismic event registering near 4.6 on the Richter scale.

~~~

Roswell, a month ago….

“Michael! What is wrong with you!” Maria backed up from him, her brow creased in a frown. Worried. He felt wrong. He felt…angry.

“Nothing! There is nothing wrong with me.” Michael grabbed her, holding her easily like a vulnerable fly. Kissing her brutally, Maria struggled to get away from him.

“This isn’t you! It’s not!”

Michael pulled her back. “Yes, it is! I warned you. I told you to stay away, that you wouldn’t like what I was.” Michael kissed her again, his hands removing her clothing fast and without care.

“Stop it! I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re talking crazy. Michael…let me help you. Let me…”

“Help me?” Michael sneered. Pushing her towards the bedroom. “Help me this way.” He kicked the door closed behind him as she backed away from him in the room, her mouth opening to scream as he ripped his shirt off. On his chest was a mark. A crest. It looked like a V shape tattoo, except it glowed.

“Michael, what is that?” He kept advancing on her. “Michael?”

Maria struggled against him when he caught her again. She could feel the arousal of his body. He was hurting her.

“Michael…”

“Do you ever shut up?!” He kissed her brutally. Tossing her on the bed, he watched as her nude body scrambled away from him. Smiling evilly, he slowly unbuckled his belt and his jeans. Nice mouth. He’d give her something better to do with it than bitch at him. He’d let her service her King.

“Stay away from me! Don’t touch me!” Maria gauged the distance from the bed and the closed door. Michael saw her look and he smiled.

“Try it. I dare you.”

“This isn’t you! It’s not you.”

Michael grabbed her harshly ignoring her screams and pleas. “Yes it is! Love him. Love me! We are what we are.”

He watched her sleep. She was sprawled across his bed on her stomach with barely a sheet covering her ass, the rest of her nude. The room was a mess. She had more fight in her than he had imagined possible. Moving his hand up her leg, the bruises on her flesh pleased him. His Queen. His mate. She was covered in marks. His marks.

Smiling, he bent down and kissed the back of her thigh, then biting it hard. Hard enough to leave his teeth marks and bleeding. She made a sound of pain in her throat, but she didn’t wake. Maria. Michael closed his eyes for a moment. His head hurt. Bad. His back hurt from where she had scratched grooves in his flesh. He could still see the blood under her nails. Good. He didn’t want them to be not equal in that. She left her teeth marks in his shoulder and back as well.

She had fought him hard, a part of her pleading to him, trying to find her Michael. But after a while, she stopped pushing him away, and begged him to stay with her. To make love to her harder. Kissing the small of her back, he looked up at the binding around her wrists. She was still tied to the bed. Her body was covered in bites and scratches. And a few deeper wounds. He bruised the inside of her thighs. There was a mixture of blood, sweat, and semen on the sheets. “I love you,” he whispered.

She was his. The sooner she realized it, the better. They had a long journey ahead of them.

“Sleep. I’ll be back for you. As soon as I take care of something weak, and that traitorous Vilandra. Then we’ll leave.” Michael smiled in a grin that resembled nothing Maria would’ve recognized. “I just got a few things to kill.”

He grabbed his jacket and bike helmet. Slamming the door on his way out, he revved up his bike and was off in the night.

It was the slamming of the door that woke her. The pain hit her first, then the increased pain from the light he left on beside the bed. Headache. Bad. Surprisingly it wasn’t broken. Almost everything else in the room was. Maria tried to move, but the pain was too much. It was in her lower back, thighs, and her arms. Looking up at her arms, she pulled on her tied up arms increasing the pain in her wrists.

“Dammit, Michael!” Maria tried to get free. Struggling, she worked tirelessly until one hand was finally free. The binding had cut into her flesh, deeper than a knife. The pins and needles were like ant bites. Maria bit her lip to keep from screaming. Slowly untying the other wrist, she tried to sit up on the edge of the bed. Her head was pounding, and the room swirled in a sickening circle. The black spots moved in front of her eyes, and she collapsed from the bed in a heap barely keeping consciousness as nausea welled in her stomach.

Michael. She had to get to Michael.

Breathing hard, she tried to move, but her legs wouldn’t hold her weight. Maria moaned and laid there on the floor. “Get up! Damn you, get up!”

Slowly pulling herself from the floor, she practically crawled, slowly inching across the room. Her body hurt too much to even crawl on all fours. One wrist was really bad. It was bleeding openly. Too much. Maria refused to look at it. She had no time. No time.

Reaching the phone, Maria laid panting under it, against the wall. Staring up, it looked so far away from the floor. “Move it, DeLuca. Stop being a baby.” Maria couldn’t convince herself to move, but she found the strength to slowly stand.

“Awwwww!” Maria hugged the wall, her breath loud gasping sounds, as she held on to the side of the door leading into the bathroom. Her scream was loud and pealing, echoing through the room, piercing in her own ears. Gulping the air as the nausea hit her again, she tried to get herself under control. The numbers on the phone were in dual vision. The movement was adding to her nausea.

Maria dialed the numbers practically closing her eyes and trusting touch and memory. The ringing was almost too far away, like she was hearing through a tunnel…a very long distance. Oh shit. She was going to pass out. No. No. No.

“Yeah?”

“Max?” Maria’s voice sounded too low. Even to her. Clearing her throat, she tried again. “Max!”

“Maria?” Max’s voice was concerned, impatient and distant. “I can barely hear you! Maria? Where are you? Where the hell is Michael? Maria?” He was so damn annoying! Maria bit back that thought. She had no time and he was wasting it.

“Max….Michael. You’ve got to help Michael!” Maria held onto the receiver harder as she slid down the wall.

“Maria! Where is Michael?” Max was talking to someone in the background. Maria thought it might be Liz.

“Jesse. He went to find Jesse and kill him and Isabel….Vilandra.” Maria’s mouth was too dry. Licking her lips, she would’ve given anything for a drink of water. “Max, he’s not himself. He has something on his chest. It looks like a ‘V’. It’s glowing. It’s not him.” Maria held the phone firmly her voice struggling to be louder. “Don’t hurt him! It’s not him. He’s not himself. Save him, Max. Save him. Please. Don’t hurt him.”

“Maria? Maria?” Max shouted in the phone, but Maria didn’t answer. Looking at Liz, he shook his head. They had to find Michael. Quick.

Maria passed out for a moment. Waking, she was on the floor under the phone. The receiver was making strange noises. Maria left it. She didn’t have the strength to hang it up. Crawling into the bathroom, she barely made it to the toilet before she lost her stomach. Hugging the cold porcelain, sweat prickled on her skin, the last of her color drained, and she fainted in a heap on the floor beside the toilet.

Max stood over Michael where he laid on the sofa in Isabel and Jesse’s trashed home. “I couldn’t heal it all.” They fought. Almost to the death. Fighting. It seemed all they ever did recently.

Michael was strangely quiet. “That’s okay.” He didn’t look at Max. The scar on his chest hurt. It ached and burned. Max had ripped the crest back to himself. The scarring was a reminder.

“Feel up to going home?”

Michael nodded, refusing Max’s help, or anyone else’s. He didn’t want anyone to touch him. Nobody. Standing, he wavered on his feet. Breathing in deeply, he tried to clear his head. It was still pounding.

“Guess I should thank you, all of you for not killing me.” Michael said gruffly. His voice was hoarse. He hurt. All over. He could feel cuts and bruises everywhere, not just the scar from the crest.

The others were quiet. Isabel and Liz shared a look, and then both looked away guiltily. They had voted for killing the out of control alien Michael. It was because of Maria and Max that he survived. Isabel held a cloth to a cut on Jesse’s head and Kyle was silent as well.

“Maria asked me to help you. She said you weren’t yourself. Not to hurt you.” Max said. He wanted to help Michael stand, but he was afraid of Michael’s reaction. Their relationship and friendship had taken many hits over the last years, and this was another big one. He was King again, and Michael was not. Max wasn’t sure how Michael felt about that, but all of Michael’s walls were back up again in full strength.

Then suddenly Michael’s face changed. It turned red, and Max watched as sickness and a paleness bleached the color from his brother.

“Maria,” Michael said in almost a horrified whisper. “Oh God, Maria!”

Michael pushed them out of his way, as he rushed outside to his bike. Max tried to stop him. He wasn’t strong enough to ride his bike, but Michael was gone before they could stop him.

Michael rushed into his apartment. Shocked at the state of the place, he didn’t stop. He went straight to the bedroom, where he had left her. Standing in the doorway, he felt sick. Nausea was moving through his gut and up his throat threatening to choke him. The room was a sight. A mess. It looked like a war zone. Things were broken. The bed was telling its own tale. Michael closed his eyes to the blood, and the sight of one of the restraints he used to tie up her wrists to the bed. It was soaked in blood.

“Maria!” Michael walked out of his bedroom backwards, almost unable to stop staring at the sight. She wasn’t there. She was gone. “Maria!”

Michael rushed to the door, but he stopped at the sight of the receiver of the phone. There was blood on it as well. Blood on the wall. A long strip of blood showing how she had slid down the wall. “Maria,” he whispered.

Looking in the bathroom, he saw her. It was the sheet that had been wrapped around her, the whiteness drew his eyes. She was still out on the floor.

“Maria, oh God, baby!” Michael rushed to her side. Picking her up in his arms, he turned as Max rushed into the room followed by the others. Their sounds of horror were no louder than his own.

“Maria!” Liz’s voice rang shrill over the others.

“She’s alive!” Michael said. “Get out! Get out! Leave us alone!”

Michael kicked the door closed in their faces, and he turned on the water to the bath. Climbing in fully clothed, he ran a tepid water with her in his arms. He held her against him wrapped in a bloody sheet unconscious as he rocked them both. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” Michael kept repeating. He was openly crying. “Oh God, what did I do? What did I do?”

Max stood outside the bathroom with his head on the door, eyes closed. He could hear Michael. He couldn’t ever remember hearing Michael cry before. He never wanted to again.

Chapter Three

This is who we are…

Roswell, two weeks post devastation…..

“Maria…” Liz tried to stop her from leaving.

“Liz, I’m not talking about this again.” Maria shut her locker. A group of jocks walked by, but Maria ignored them. She ignored everyone. Lately, everyone was pissing her off. Her mother. Liz. Max. Isabel. Kyle. Even Michael. Jesse was the only one actually easy to be around. He was quiet, but she felt that he understood when no one else could.

“Maria, I think you should see a counselor, or something. You’re obviously in denial. And…”

Maria wished she hadn’t closed her locker door, so then she could slam it now. No matter what she said, or how often, no one was listening to her. No one. Michael was treating her like a glass figurine. Liz wanted her away from Michael. Her mother was semi-hysterical that she was staying out late, or not coming home at all. Max and Isabel, they were in agreement of one thing. She needed time away from Michael.

No one listened. No one could understand.

“Liz, I love you, but again, butt out!”

Maria was still working off her anger when she slammed into the apartment. Michael winced. Finishing his cereal, he sighed. Getting up, he went to get her a peach Snapple. Not diet. She needed to gain some weight.

“Who this time?” He asked softly, waiting for her to blow.

“Liz.” Michael rolled his eyes. Who else. Why bother asking? Maria went to take the Snapple from him. Stroking his cheek, she quickly kissed him and sat next to him. Taking a drink, she brooded.

“The usual?”

“Yeah.” Maria swallowed some more of her drink. “You think you’d almost killed me, the way they’re acting.”

“You could’ve died,” Michael said quietly. He rarely spoke louder anymore. Not unless he got mad, but lately it was like he was trying desperately to calm that part of him.

“Dehydration isn’t dead, Michael.” Maria said equally softly to him. That night. The Night. The one subject they talked about ad nausea.

“Maria,” Michael paused. He shrugged and took his bowl to the sink.

“Fork it over!”

“What?”

“One dollar! Now!”

Michael rolled his eyes again, but reluctantly dug the dollar out handing it to her. Maria shoved it in her pocket. “Speak.”

“I….maybe they have a point. You could use some time away from me.”

Maria bit the inside of her mouth, frustrated. “You think? That’s what you want and believe too?” Maria watched him walk into the living room and flip through his music. Avoidance. He was a master of it. Her voice firmed. “Is that what you want!”

“No!” Maria smiled slightly as he turned to her, his face red in anger. Better. He was getting better. At first he barely spoke above a whisper to her, and not at all to anyone else.

“Then why aren’t we in our bedroom fucking like bunnies?”

Their bedroom. It became that after that night. He stripped the room. She watched him burn the sheets, bedding, even the mattress. It took some work to stop him from burning the very room. Now everything in that bedroom was new; they bought together. Even the bed. The sheets. Bedding. Pillows. Everything.

“Maria…I’m not ready.”

“Great. Not ready. I am sexually frustrated. I have everyone I love telling me to cut you loose, even you at times. I’ve got offers to find me a rape counselor daily. They are working themselves up into an intervention of some damn tough love scenario! No matter how many times I say it wasn’t rape, does anyone listen to me?”

“Non-consensual sex is rape, Maria! I was there!” Maria watched him stomp off to the bedroom. Good. He was getting angry again. He wasn’t ready because he was afraid.

Maria followed him. “Another dollar!”

“What? I didn’t break the rule. I’m talking!”

“The rule said no hiding or running away. You ran away to avoid talking about it.”

“Shit!” Michael checked his wallet for another dollar. “I’ll owe you.”

“No credit. No checks. Money on the barrel. That was the rule.” Maria leaned against the bedroom door with her arms crossed in front of her. “Pay up, buddy!” Irritated, Michael searched the room for money. He found change. Tossing four quarters on the bed, he picked up the laundry basket and began folding and sorting their clean laundry.

She was living with him. Sort of. Maria was too afraid at first to leave him alone, more afraid of what he would do. Not really a suicide watch, but more a ‘Michael out there on his own’ stupidity watch. After the crest was ripped from him, Michael not only felt alone, but horrified at the devastation he created in their lives, his and Maria’s.

Maria scooped up her coins and laid down on the bed, plumping up a pillow and stealing his as well. She slept with him. Practically every night. Much to the destruction of her relationship with her mother, who sort of understood that Maria was concerned about Michael, but that still couldn’t quell her motherly concerns of her daughter in an eighteen year old boy’s basically bachelor apartment. Especially since Maria confessed to her mother that she and Michael were sexually active.

“That night, Michael.” She watched him flinch, but he continued folding the laundry. “How long did I fight you, beg you to stay away from me? Beg for you, Michael, to regain control?”

Michael shrugged. He didn’t know. Wasn’t watching a clock. “I don’t know. Five minutes. Ten.”

“What happened?” Maria watched him beside the bed. His hands faltered. She knew. He knew. They had been both there. He was holding it longer than her. Crazy. She was the one everyone was trying to protect and fix, and yet, Michael was showing all the classical signs of being traumatized, not her. At least he stopped throwing up. Maybe the nausea was finally abating.

“I…” Michael started to hesitate, but dammit, he didn’t have any more ready cash. “I literally chased you around the room, me half naked, and you very much so.” Michael tried to not smile at that. “You threw shit at me, yelling at me, begging me to come back to you.” Michael actually smiled. “You beamed me with a hockey puck.”

“I did.” Maria returned the smile. She had been terrified. Terrified of him and for him, but mostly for them. They had come so far since he came for her in New York City. What they forged there had been so fragile still, but this….this finally created something neither of them knew could be possible. This one moment of violence in their relationship was making them stronger. They survived this, nothing…nothing would ever come between them again. Ever.

“You were crying. Afraid.”

“I was. More than you’ll ever know.” She almost lost him. “Michael, you could have subdued me any time, couldn’t you? You could have overwhelmed me with your alien powers.”

“Yes.” It would’ve been so easy to reach out, push her against the wall, like he had Jesse, hold her in place, and do her. Do anything he wanted with her. Cake.

“You didn’t.” Maria stated simply.

“No.” Michael frowned. Talking. He was sick of talking about it, but he promised her. Until they were both finished with that night, it was the one subject they were forbidden to back away from, pretend it didn’t happen. Any prevarication or avoidance was costly in money.

“Why?”

Michael licked his lips. Why? Good question. He asked himself that very question over and over. Thankful that he hadn’t used his powers against her, but confused as to why his alien self had refrained. It was confusing, even to him. He wasn’t sure he could explain what he felt. “I don’t know. I think that there is something in me that loves that spunk in you, that spirit you have never to give in to me. You…you’re a fighter. I didn’t want to break that. I wanted to tame it, but not break it. I wanted you to admit that you belonged to me. Me…in any form.”

Maria sat up on her knees. She took the laundry from his hands, tossing it in the basket, and then pushing the basket off their bed. Taking his hands, she made him join her on the bed.

“Why did I stop fighting you?”

“I don’t know. God help me, Maria. I don’t know.” Michael could feel the need to cry, to yell, or just throw up. He hurt her. Used her. Put something ugly between them. All this time. All those times, he walked away from her, terrified that his alien side would hurt her, and suddenly it was a slap in the face to realize he had been right. More terrifying, he couldn’t tell if Michael the King was that violent completely from the alien side, or whether nurture of child abuser Hank was adding to his nature. He didn’t know.

“Tell me. Tell me what happened when I stopped fighting. Think, Michael. You know. You were there.”

“I…you were tossing things at me. I grabbed you and brutally kissed you, my fingers were bruising your flesh, and I could taste blood in my mouth from where I bit your lip.”

“And?”

Michael frowned. And? “I said I love you.”

Maria smiled. Yes.

Evil Michael,…the Antarian King, pulled away from the kiss, and he looked at her in the eye and said, ‘I love you’, so plain and simple. No guise. Love him. Love me! We are what we are. A defining moment. She had been afraid. Without really realizing it or acknowledging it, she had been afraid of Michael since that time Billy came and he lost control of his powers. All that time, and suddenly she finally realized what it meant that he was an alien. Before that, she had only seen Michael. Michael. Nothing else.

In New York City, she missed him so much that it didn’t matter. Michael was Michael and she loved him, but from that time both of them harbored a fear of what was hidden in him. He, afraid he would always be a killer like Nasedo, and Maria afraid that she was losing him to his alien side, if not to the evil, at least to the horror it created in Michael realizing what he was capable of. Then came King Michael. He was everything they both had feared and more.

He was still Michael. Evil King Michael would never say anything he didn’t mean. He didn’t have to; he was King. Through all the anger and hatred, the disdain for humans, he loved her. He refused to use his powers on her to bring her to her knees in front of him, to rape her. He laughed as she threw things at him, even after she beamed him with a hockey puck. Standing in a destroyed room covered in broken glass, he said he loved her, and he meant it.

Whatever was in Michael, what lived deep in him, it was one with him and regardless of what and where he went, he had every intention of taking her with him, thick or thin, and despite the fact she was human. She was his mate. He couldn’t make it any more clearer if he tried. Regardless of what he was, he was the one thing she would never have to fear, because he could get angry and rage at her, but he would never lay a hand on her in evil intent or anger.

“What happened next, Michael?” They talked about this. Over and over, and he seemed to never get it, or refused to cut himself a break. Punishment. He was wanting some type of punishment.

Michael scratched his eyebrow. “You kissed me.” Maria’s brow went up to that. She kissed him? Big baby. She molested him. One moment she was staring at him, the next minute, she jumped him. Literally. She jumped into his arms, hers tight around his neck, her mouth devouring his. Want. He wanted her. Regardless of who he was, what he was…he wanted her. It meant more than when he stayed on Earth for her, because he never really talked about it. That was the first time she really knew.

“I did more than kiss you.”

Michael actually smiled at that. They had hit the floor hard. Rolled around on it desperately both trying to get the top. Something in him, something…evil, kinky….whatever loved her hands on his flesh, loved her out of control, violent, and the way her eyes had darkened and almost sparkled. Primitive. It felt primitive.

“I hurt you. I was too rough, and…” There had been blood.

“How did I bleed, Michael?”

The floor. They had rolled over the floor, made it to the bed, fell off the bed a few times, rolled on the floor some more. Rolling around, mating in a fury over crushed glass wasn’t the smartest thing they had ever done. Neither was unprotected sex. They had always been careful to use a condom despite her being on the pill since with his physiology, they just didn’t know how effective the pill was. That night. No.

Michael frowned. She kept doing it. She kept absolving him of blame, and yet, she knew he wasn’t himself. She had been more afraid that he would get away from her, leave. Hurt himself, or someone else, and once he did there would be no coming back from that. It would be like killing Pierce, but worse. The person he killed would have been someone he considered a friend. She tried everything she could to hold him with her in that bedroom. Six hours…maybe longer. Exhaustion. Cut and bruised.

“Michael, how did I lose the most blood?”

Michael picked up her one wrist and stared at it tragically. He was wretched. The scar was there. It looked like she had tried to commit suicide. To get free of the restraint, to get to him before something happened, she almost cut her own wrist off. The binding had cut deep into her wrist. She had bled all over the bed, all over the apartment, and she had passed out from the loss of blood in the bathroom. In the bath, he healed her. Healed most of the damage, but he couldn’t remove the scar, and Maria refused to allow Max to do it. Somehow she knew that if she let Max heal her it would be the last straw in breaking Michael. Max the healer, Michael the destroyer. She lived with it. Michael kissed her hand.

Michael closed his eyes and kissed her wrist. If he had taken any longer to get to her, she could’ve died. Bled to death on his bathroom floor. She had already been dehydrated and concussed.

“I gave you a concussion.”

Maria shrugged. Technically, she gave it to herself. Her head had hit the wall hard, real hard a few times when they were engaged in sex up against the wall. She had woken dizzy and disoriented, nauseated. Her body covered in cuts from rolling around in glass, covered in bruises from his hands and mouth, bite marks from his teeth. His body was equally covered the same. He ignored that. He had left his mark on her, and she had done the same to him.

“You did more than that! I couldn’t walk for a week,” Maria said smugly. Why couldn’t anyone figure it out but her? She tried and tried to explain, but there was only so much she was willing to reveal of their sex life. They had always been adventurous, kinky, and slightly on the edge. That night, they had pushed the envelope. Way beyond the edge.

“I shouldn’t have left you restrained. I know the rules. Never unattended. Never. I wasn’t….myself.”

Maria smiled. He was lying next to her, resting his head on her stomach. She gently feathered her fingers through his hair. It was long and unkempt. He was unkempt. Her mother came to talk to him, scream at him, maybe emasculate him for sleeping with her daughter, terrified of what the scar on her daughter’s wrist meant. One look at him, Amy was quiet. He looked wretched. Ill. After that, she didn’t say anything to Maria about her refusing to leave him alone, afraid of what he would do.

He couldn’t get past that he had left her bound. She would’ve cut off her wrist trying to free herself. The violent rough sex he could almost forgive himself, since she had been a participant. The first five to ten minutes, when she had been non-consensual still pulled on him. He could taste her fear. Her desperation. Her plea to find him. It was a nightmare he lived over and over in his head.

“Why was I tied up, Michael?”

He sighed. “I didn’t want you to leave. I was coming back, and I wanted to make sure you were still here.”

Maria smiled slightly. “That isn’t what I meant. How did I end up tied up in the first place?”

Michael looked at her confused. “It was my turn,” he said simply.

It was true. She started the bondage. Not him. She had tied him to the bed, determined to hold him there, prisoner until she could get the others, and perhaps find a way to fix him. Michael, evil Michael had liked being tied up. His eyes had shone in anticipation, he had a devilish dare in his eyes, and he smiled nothing short of wicked. He let her tie him up, because it was part of sex. She took advantage of that, meaning to restrain him, hold him, to keep him with her safe from the others.

Maria had miscalculated. How was she to know how thrilling it would be to have something as powerful as King Michael under her hands? How could she know what wild fire in the blood felt like? He had a cut on his chest. She had cut him with his own pocket knife, tasted his blood, leaned over him with it on her lips, and then merged their bodies. What started as a plan fast lost all control. It was a rave in her blood, like a fever, with her heart racing out of control, matching the wild beat of his.

He tied her up, because it was his turn to do so. She had fallen asleep, exhausted. Slightly concussed from banging her head against a wall, and loss of blood from all the cuts on her body from the glass. He had woken before her, before she could distract him again, and he left her tied up.

“Rape, Michael is only rape if the victim is unwilling. I was not a victim! I knew exactly what I was doing, and I wasn’t coerced or in anyway forced. I didn’t give in to you because I had no other option.” Maria forced him to look at her. “I love you. I love you regardless of who you are, what you are. Maybe it should matter. I don’t know. I just know that you make my knees shake, you take my breath away, and imagining losing you hurts too much. It’s why I married you….willingly joined with you.”

Michael sat up. Moving up the bed a little, he made her sit up with him. Staring at the scar on her wrist, and the one he still wore on his chest. Marked. They were marked. “That was what it was.” A joining ceremony. Something alien. Something his human side could barely understand, but his alien side seemed to need.

Maria framed his face, kissing him gently, and then not so gently. Biting his lip hard until it bled, she sat back a little waiting for his reaction. His eyes dilated, darkened to a deeper brown, and a part of him seemed to glint through the haze of self-hatred. Michael. He moaned and fell back on the bed taking her with him.

“Two weeks, Michael! Two whole weeks! I am so sexually frustrated I could murder you.” Michael chuckled a little at that. For two weeks he felt impotent. He slept with her, but he didn’t touch her. Not that way. “What makes you afraid, Michael? That you are capable of violence with someone you love? Or that you liked it?

“Maria,” Michael closed his eyes. She already knew the answer. He was impotent in the face of what he desired. Violence. It was part of his nature, barely contained by civility. Humanity was a skin barely covering what raged beneath.

“I know that I loved it. All of it. I dream about it. Want it.” Maria ran her hands over his face. “Like a damn aphrodisiac. It’s all I think about, having you in me, raging. I need it!” Two frickin’ weeks? What? She was supposed to join a damn convent?

“Maria…” He closed his eyes. He hadn’t dared to hope. Fear of asking had held him silent. What if she hated it. Hated him. Thought him a deviant. Or worse. Disgusting.

“Love me,” she whispered against his mouth.

“God, yes.”

It would be okay. They were okay. They faced Michael’s worse fear. They battled the worse he could ever be, his evil alien side. What they were, and what they would become together was forged in fire. Like the hardest of steel, they were two metals tempered in fire, melded together, and pounded into an unbreakable hard edge. Stepping into the unknown, they both learned something valuable. They had nothing to fear from him, from what was part of him. He would never hurt her. He would never leave her. Michael gained something he never expected to have. He gained the knowledge that he could be loved unconditionally. He learned that he could believe.

~~~

Roswell, presently…..

“Where are they?”

“Desert. I shook them over three miles back. Double back. Where do they think you are?”

“Library working on a paper.” Maria said. “Lock the damn doors! Put something heavy in front of them.”

“No time. They could be here any moment.”

Maria groaned in irritation. Grabbing Michael hard, she dragged him into the bedroom shedding her clothing in a quick wiggle and shimmer. “Baby, you’re going to have to work fast then! If they interrupt one more time……”

“I’ll kill them.” Michael comfortable that she wouldn’t take that seriously as a real threat.

Michael moved her hard up against the wall, his mouth already on her neck as his shirt went. Maria was frantically unbuttoning his pants. “Sweatpants! Can’t you wear sweatpants?”

“I don’t wear underwear, what else do you want?”

Maria went still, staring at him with an eyebrow rising, Michael laughed and hefted her over his shoulder smacking her ass at her laughter. Their friends were still a problem. It was like open season on babysitting Michael and Maria, and protecting Maria from Michael. At first it was heart touching and appreciated. Now it was obnoxious. Liz rearranged all their work shifts so they were never on together, and always opposite. Max was like a mole in Michael’s apartment.

They tried. Really tried to tell everyone that they were okay. It was okay, but no one listened. Big surprise. They hadn’t listened in three years, it would be breaking a mold for them to start now.

All the watchful nosy Parkers had Michael and Maria scurrying to find time together. Private time. Normally it wouldn’t have been all about sex, but right now….it was. They had so little time together, they rarely had time to sit down and talk. So instead, they found themselves tangling in the sheets, hiding in the backseat of Max’s car. Hitting the Eraser room and break room at the Crashdown. Maria’s house when her mom wasn’t around. Frustration was killing their tolerance. Now they had graduated into techniques of misinformation and misdirection to find time together.

“Thanks for the movie last night?” Maria said sliding her mouth down his body.

Michael moaned. “We went to a movie last night?”

“That dark place we found,” Maria reminded him.

Michael grunted. “What did we see?” Maria shrugged. No clue. It was dark. They were alone. Michael was noisy. She giggled, then her laughter turned to a long drawn out moan as he entered her, pushing her hard against the wall. They rarely made it to the bed any more. Or at least not on the first try.

Or the second.

Usually the third.

Maria was kissing him, perched on his hips….mounting him, slowly moving at a pace that was excruciating. Michael’s eyes were dark, and his hands moved to her hips trying to speed her pace. Moving down over him, Maria reached for the back of the bed above his head to hold tight as she increased her movements, closing her eyes to the sound he made in his throat.

Maria was breathing hard, resting over him, making soft sounds in her throat as his hand moved over the naked skin of her back, their legs entangled with the sheet barely covering their sweat drenched bodies. Michael was whispering her ear, making her laugh softly as he quietly built up a scenario of the others racing around Roswell.

“Yo, peeps! Miss me?”

Michael and Maria froze at the voice. Turning, they looked at the usually closed window separating their bedroom from the living room. Michael had nailed it shut long ago. It was wide open and Rath was leaning in it drinking a Peach Snapple.

Smiling big, he squinted and stuck his tongue at them, laughing. “Great sex! Mind if I join in?”

Michael quickly grabbed the sheet and covered Maria up from Rath’s lecherous eyes. He was making suggestive come hither looks at her.

“How long have you been there?”

Rath shrugged. “The wall.” Rath said. “No, yah just finished the wall, make it the bureau, and then the floor. Definitely just after the wall.”

“You watched?” Michael’s eyes narrowed.

Rath shrugged. “It wuz getting’ good. Didn’t wanna miss anything.” Rath took another drink from the Snapple giving Michael a power sign.

Maria moaned and dived under the sheet, hiding from Rath’s voyeuristic eyes. She nipped Michael on his chest, and groaned in his skin. “You and your family!”

Chapter Four

Pandemonium…

Roswell…

“What are you doing here?”

Rath shrugged and smiled when Maria joined them sitting at the bar while Michael cooked. Rath made a loud howling noise at her and goofy eyes. Maria laughed softly under her breath.

Michael scowled at him. “Stop that! Maria, move away from him. He hasn’t had his shots.”

Rath laughed. “Don’t be that way, G.”

Michael made a noise in his throat. “Maria, toast or fresh?”

“Toast. Dry. Want me to help?”

“I got it, just keep your distance from him.”

Rath looked over at what Michael was doing. “Yah shaking me one too, G?”

“No.”

Maria looked at Rath grimacing. He was so…amused by everything. Damn peeping Tom. “Michael,” she said softly. Michael’s eyes narrowed but he nodded his head. Maybe feeding it might make him spill his guts sooner and leave.

“Fine!” Michael quickly made Rath a sandwich too, not bothering to see if he wanted his bread toasted or not. Michael checked out the clock. Damn. The others will be around soon. They were eating into his quality time with Maria. Michael slammed a plate in front of Rath, who was already eating, talking with his mouth full as he grabbed sandwich stuff and was munching on it. Michael came around, and moved Maria over. He took the seat between her and Rath.

Maria ran her hand comfortingly up his leg, kissing him for making her food. He did that a lot. Since that night, he made sure they stopped and rested, drank juice or something, and usually ate. They weren’t really at a stopping point, but Rath sort of was a killjoy.

Rath happily chewed through his sandwich. Not bad! He was starving. “So,” Rath said looking over at them, talking with his mouth full. “Yah got that alien sex thang going.”

Michael started to make a move on him, but Maria’s hand tightened on his leg.

“Perhaps you tell us why you’re here, Rath,” Maria suggested quietly.

“Visitin’, ya know? Figures yah seen my crib, so what the hell. Roswell seems kinda….um,” Rath scratched his brow reminiscent of Michael “Townie. Nice?”

“Uh huh.” Michael was noncommittal. He continued eating his sandwich noticing as Maria slipped half of hers on his plate. He calmly put it back on her plate. Rath watched them move the half sandwich back and forth.

“I’ll take it.”

“No,” said Michael firmly putting it on Maria’s plate. She sighed and picked it up to finish eating. He was worse than a watchdog. His campaign to get her lost weight back was…sweet.

“Can I have anotha?”

“No.”

Rath scratched his brow again. “Pickle?”

“No.”

“Chips or som’em?”

“No.”

“Notha Snapple?”

“No.”

“A quick three way?”

Michael stood up at that. Maria quickly pulled him back. “Michael, why don’t you go finish cleaning up in the bedroom? I am sure the babysitter’s club will be here soon, and that window needs to be fixed.” Michael wasn’t budging. No way he was leaving her alone with him.

“Michael, really…go. You’re right here. What could happen?”

Rath smirked as Michael glared at him, but he went into the bedroom to clean up the place and nail the window closed again. Not that nails were a deterrent for aliens, obviously.

Maria looked at Rath closely. “You know, I don’t know why you came, and I guess you’ll 411 us when you’re ready. I just want to tell you a few things.” Maria moved closer, even though she knew that Michael would hate that. “Here’s the thing. It has been a little tense around here recently. Very tense.” Maria glanced over to see where Michael was, making sure he was out of hearing range. “Michael is barely pulling through from this last bout of ‘this is my life as an alien,’ so here is the straight up for you. Don’t push him! You understand?”

“I could take him, sista.”

Maria seriously doubted it. “I wouldn’t suggest you try.” Maria moved closer. “He has a scar of Antar…from the crest on his chest.”

“The crest?” Rath looked shocked.

“Max died. Michael became King.”

Rath stood up and paced the room a little. Zan died. He didn’t inherit anything. Closing his eyes, he held on to his anger of being a Dupe, and not a Royal. Proof. It was proof that Michael was the real Commander. Second-in-command. Number two. The heir apparent should the regent die without ward. There had been a chance.

“Rath?” Maria frowned. Michael came back into the room.

Rath looked over at Michael. He walked over to Michael, and moved his shirt to the side. The outline of the crest remained under the scar.

“So it’s true.” Rath stared at Michael dispassionately. “How much power did yah retain?”

Michael glanced at Maria, she quickly shook her head. “Nothing. It reverted back to Max when he took the crest back.”

“Back?” Rath paced the room in a flash of anger. “Yah gave it back?” What? Was he stupid? Maybe he was damaged in re-engineering?

Michael was quiet. He had little choice in the matter. Maria looked at him with great sympathy, but neither would comment.

“Why are you here, Rath. I won’t ask again.”

Rath looked at the two, his face was blank, giving nothing away. Suddenly he smiled with a twinkle in his eyes. “Missed yah?” Michael’s unyielding attitude bugged. “Damn, still a tight ass. Thought the bit….Maria, woulda cured yah of that.” Rath noticed his audience wasn’t charmed. Whatever had happened recently, it seemed to have bled away their better natures. “Fine, I need some help.” Michael’s eyebrow went up at that. Help? Maria wasn’t so stoic.

“Help? What kind of help?”

Rath ignored Michael, and concentrated on Maria. She was more likely to be sympathetic. “I lost my bitch….um, girlfriend. Shellie. I need help getting her back.”

That broke the silence. “You’ve got a girlfriend?” Michael said in disbelief.

“Michael,” Maria admonished lightly. She was a little astounded too. “Shellie? I thought you were with…” Maria paused. “Um, Lonnie, Isabel’s dupe.”

“Naw, she is one whacking bitch. She is red districting, a cunter ho with a jimmy full of flies.”

“Pardon me?” Maria looked at Michael helplessly.

“Lonnie is preparing herself for a life of dick sucking.” Rath said, seeing Maria still frowning. “Prostitution.”

“Oh.” Maria frowned. “Have you ever considered just speaking plain English? I know you can, if it’s to your benefit.” Rath smiled at that. He was good at keeping her from discovering he wasn’t Michael.

Michael was tired. It was late, and soon the goon squad would be back once they discovered Maria wasn’t at the library. “So your girlfriend left you, and you want us to help you get her back?” Michael frowned. “Why should we help you do anything?”

“Coz yah owe me!”

Michael’s face clouded in anger. “Don’t owe you a damn thing! You tried to fuck Maria under false pretenses, pretending to be me. You were repaid for anything I owed you when I didn’t kill your punk ass.”

“Michael…” Maria put a calming hand on his stomach. It was good to see him animated, more Michael like, but the two men were face to face, surprisingly identical despite a few differences, and the room felt….volatile. “Let him explain. Please? He came a long way, so this has to be important.”

Michael stood unyielding, but suddenly nodded reluctantly. Rath did come a long way, and though Michael had no doubt that he was more than able to cause trouble, he doubted Rath was in Roswell for fun and games. Even the last time he had an agenda.

“Fine.” Michael looked at Rath. More alien than him. It turned his stomach. After having a taste of power, and being the potential of what he once was, Rath, his dupe was a hotbed of possible trouble, and that was trouble with a capital T. “You better tell it quick. The others will be here soon, and…”

“No!” Rath looked around. “I waited for just the two of yah. It took forevah for yah to shake your watchdogs. Yah owe me, both of yah for helping yah back togetha. The rest…they got no reason to…”

“Not want you dead?” Michael suggested.

Rath’s eyes narrowed. “That wuz business. The business of surviving.”

“Perhaps they would see having you dead as the business of their continued survival?” Michael allowed more of his anger to slip. “Believe me, they have no problem condemning you to death! They would cut a person they knew forever loose, so I’m sure someone that tried to murder Max before would be easy to want dead. None of them are in anyway attached to our alien side.”

Michael didn’t look at Maria. She accepted his alien side as a part of the whole, but if given a choice, she preferred the human side. He couldn’t say exactly what he preferred. It was confused. He couldn’t divorce the two from each other.

“Maybe this wuz a mistake?” Rath went to leave. He didn’t look back, but he played his last card. “Sorry. Yah told me that I had a right to want more. I tried. I had that. I really did. I wanna get it back. Shellie is that. Yah wuz the only ones I knew that might understand and help me.” Rath reached for the door, allowing his shoulders to sink in dejection.

Michael swore. Maria remained quiet. His decision. His dupe. “Wait.” Rath lifted his bowed head to smile at the door. Righteous. He quickly removed the look and appeared to be reluctantly turning. Giving both Michael and Maria a somber look, he waited.

“If he doesn’t want to the others to know he’s here, he’ll need to leave now, Michael.”

Michael frowned. Maria was right. They were out of time. “Meet us. Tomorrow. Maria and I will ditch school after lunch. We’ll meet you outside town at the turnoff to 285 South. There is a gas station there.”

Rath nodded, and quietly left. Thanking them would’ve been pushing it. He would search Michael’s apartment tomorrow, after they went to school. If he could find what he needed before that, he would ditch Roswell and head back to the City. Otherwise, he was going to need the Commander, or at the very least, Maria to get what he wanted…what he needed.

~~~

Maria frowned at the tension along Michael’s neck. He was rubbing his forehead. Sitting down, she waited for him to speak or explode. Neither. He remained quiet.

“Headache?” Michael nodded. He was getting them more and more frequently. Ever since he had been King. Maria made a comforting sound in her throat and gestured for him to come to her.

Michael dropped to his knees in front of her, and put his head in her waist, resting his head in her lap, as his hands came up to hold her waist. Maria’s fingers moved over his neck and head in familiar territory, applying pressure against the knotted tissue along his shoulders and neck.

“You’re worried.”

Michael nodded. He moaned as her fingers worked on his stiff neck. “I know him. I’ve got reason to know him. He can’t know how much. Trusting him at face would be a mistake.” He said as he talked into her lap.

“The others?”

Michael shook his head. “They wouldn’t understand him. I believe him when he said he wants to get this girl back, what I don’t believe is that he wants our help.”

Maria moved her fingers through his hair, massaging his scalp. “What does he want then?”

“To use us. We’ve got something he needs. We have to have. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be here.”

Maria frowned. “This is a secret, Michael. I’m uncomfortable keeping secrets from the others. That has never done anything but cause problems. Look at Isabel and Jesse.”

Michael had to agree. Since Jesse found out about Isabel, their marriage was slowly disintegrating. Michael tightened his hands on Maria’s waist. He was in part to blame for that as well. He and Max refused to let Isabel tell Jesse before the wedding. Her problems were in part created by Michael and Max’s mandate. The one thing Maria hadn’t said was how keeping his changes from the others cost them when it was too far gone. Max might have been able to retrieve his crest from Michael earlier, long before Michael had warped into evil King Michael, the butcher of Antar. Still, it was a question of degrees, and it was doubtful that either of them would disagree with the outcome.

“Maria, I know we agreed on no more secrets, but this is one time I think we have to do it alone.” Michael looked up at Maria. “If I’m right, Rath is hiding something. He is dangerous. He is capable of so much more than you can imagine, especially if he feels threatened. They couldn’t understand that. Max and them might push Rath into a corner, and like a caged animal, he will strike out.”

Maria’s fingers moved over his cheekbones. “Is that why you didn’t tell him about your powers?” She had felt a natural disquiet about exposing Michael’s nature to anyone, especially to Rath.

Michael put his aching head back in her lap, nodding. Secrets. They had too many of them. Their friends couldn’t understand their relationship now. How could they? Not without Michael and Maria confessing exactly what happened, and neither was willing to expose themselves that much to anyone, not even friends and family.

Michael had retained Max’s powers. All of them. The scar on Maria’s wrist remained because it was meant to be there. Marked. Branded for all time. It was a symbol of her devotion to him, and him alone. A physical proof of how far she would go to save him. Protect him. He couldn’t heal it, something stopped him from completing the healing, and Max perhaps could’ve done it, but it would’ve been like undoing something important between them. Maria made the choice. She wore the scar. The scar on Michael’s chest was the same. It was symbolic of a change. A metamorphosis. It was a scar as brilliant as an eternal flame, and if so easily extinguished, it wouldn’t have been eternal, and much that way, their scars remained.

Max’s powers were one thing. They were awesome, but nothing compared to what Michael gained in the transformation. His own native powers finally completely unlocked. The headaches. It was the final part of the new neuronal pathways melding in his brain, strengthening. Rath, his native alien self was powerful beyond belief. Even Max’s powers didn’t compare, because they were still young, locked. Max hadn’t reached his potential as of yet, and Michael didn’t even know if Max ever would, or Isabel. Not unless they were forced into a transformation. That would require them becoming their past selves, Zan and Vilandra. Allowing their native alien sides to merge with their human side fully.

Rath, his dupe was strong. Michael was stronger. He was the real Royal, and perhaps it was best not to reveal that. Not to Rath. And not to the others. Michael and Maria had remained quiet about exactly what Michael had gained from being King. If Michael, out of control was enough for them to sentence him to death, they might not be comfortable with the full breath of what Michael was. What he became and was capable of.

Michael. He liked it. He loved the control and power of being King. Perhaps that was the greatest part of his shame. He didn’t give it back. It was ripped away. He could’ve killed Max, but something held him back. A thin stream of humanity kept him from murdering his brother, and in that moment he was weakened enough for Max to take back his birthright. Given the option, he would’ve never returned the power. He would’ve killed everything in his path, taken his mate, and began a campaign to rule the Earth as an alien conqueror.

Michael couldn’t deny it. That desire and thirst still raged inside him. As always in his life, he settled for what was given, and accepted what was denied him. Looking at Maria, he couldn’t get far enough inside her. She was the one thing not taken. Not denied. Maria was the one thing given freely. The one thing that he would not trade.

“Maria, if every I laid a hand on you in violence…”

Maria quickly kissed him. “Enough! We are past that. We know…. absolutely know that you would never do so. Never. Not even if you were Rath of the past. What more is there to fear?”

“Losing you.” Michael said burying his head in her lap again. Maria closed her eyes and bent down to kiss the back of his head.

“Not going to happen. Not ever.”

That was how the others found them. Michael kneeling at Maria’s feet, his head in her lap, and Maria bent over kissing the back of his head, her hands moving over him tenderly.

~~~

“Hi?” Liz’s voice was reluctant, uncertain how Maria would react.

“Hi, Liz. Sit down.” Liz smiled and took a seat across from Maria at the table in the school’s quad area. “What’s up? You’ve got on your Liz Parker serious face.”

Liz smiled and straightened her back. “I won’t ask what that looks like.” Liz fidgeted a little. “Maria, I love you….”

“Love you too, Liz.” Maria said simply.

Liz sighed. Maria wasn’t going to make this easy. “I know that you are angry at us.” Maria calmly listened. She was angry. She would get over it in time, or perhaps not.

“Not really angry, Liz. Not in the way you mean. I want you all to back off and let Michael and I work out our relationship. That’s all.”

Liz stared off across the quad. “I know you do.” Liz bit her lip. “There was so much blood everywhere, Maria. And you….” Liz shut her eyes.

Maria had been barely wrapped in a sheet. Michael was holding her in his arms tight to his body, her one arm had been hanging down draining blood on the floor with her unconscious. Liz remembered walking into the bedroom, seeing that bloodied binding still partially attached to the bed, and evidence of a fight with broken glass and other things all around the room.

Michael had shut them out keeping Maria with him. They all worried how to get her away from him, get her to the hospital. Michael was in the bathroom and the sounds. Liz had sat on the sofa crying with her hands over her ears. She couldn’t listen. Over an hour later, Maria walked out of the bathroom miraculously healed. Only scar remaining was the one on her wrist. Max reached for it, but Maria put her arm behind her refusing to let him look at it.

Michael left the bathroom behind her also only in a towel, and the room went silent when his arm reached out and pulled her back against his body tight. His naked chest told a different story. His back. His arms. Maria had left a lot of marks on Michael. It was hard not to imagine they were done while she tried to stop him from raping her. The room was icy.

Maria had taken his hand, and quietly led him through them. He flinched when they came too close. The bedroom door hadn’t even closed when Michael lost it. The bedroom. It had been a terrible night. A long one. Confusing. Wretched.

“Maria, I know you love Michael, and you said he hadn’t hurt you. Not intentionally. But he wasn’t Michael. He was something else. Murderous. Tell me that whatever took him over isn’t inside him waiting to emerge again. Max’s removing of the crest only pushed that evil…” Liz retracted that quickly at Maria’s look. “…that person back down, but what, or even who knows what could make it emerge again.”

“He’s not evil Max-Clayton, Liz.” Maria said quietly.

Liz quickly looked away, but not before Maria noticed her look. She was red. Blushed. Embarrassed. Liz pretended to be alright with what happened in Vermont. She had thought Max dead, and then there he had been intent on murdering her. It was by fate alone that both she and Max had returned to Roswell unscathed. Almost. Some things took longer to heal. Given that, Maria couldn’t understand why no one wanted to give Michael time to deal with what happened to him.

He was as much of a victim. Or at the very least, unwilling. He didn’t campaign for the crest. It had been endowed to him. No one could have foreseen it.

“He’s not even evil Max-Nasedo.” Maria frowned. Liz had more reason than most to be distrustful of aliens. She was blinded to her own self-interest. She forgave Max everything, but Michael nothing. “He didn’t wig out on me and suddenly starting fucking Isabel to fulfill a destiny either.” Maria noticed how Liz flinched. Max didn’t even have an excuse of being possessed by his former self, Zan, the King when he impregnated Tess.

Maria closed her eyes. When did she ever need to strike out at someone she loved in such a manner? She was starting to react defensively, and it had to stop.

“I’m sorry, Liz. Really. That was unkind, uncalled for, and…not even really me.” Maria grabbed Liz’s hand. “He didn’t rape me, Liz.” Maria licked her lips and then bit it a little. “It wasn’t that way.” Maria’s head was hurting. Placing a hand to her head, she frowned at the headache. “In truth? I did more damage to him.” Maria refused to go into detail, but a month later, the bite mark in Michael’s inner thigh was still black and bruised. His back still had healing gouges from her nails.

Michael liked the violence. He liked the pain. They had to come to an agreement to exactly how far they would go. Everyone was trying to save her from a violent Michael, and yet, she couldn’t explain to them that of the two, she was the dominant one in the relationship, and Michael was the submissive. He seemed to need it that way. Punishment? Atonement? Or perhaps safety to feel no need to hold himself in control? Maria didn’t know. Was it Rath? Or was it a legacy of child abuse?

It took some work, but she finally realized that it was important to him to willingly give to her his control and power over him. His entire life, he felt a victim to some unknown alien destiny, to human authorities, to Hank’s abuse, and to Max’s tyrannical rule. Submitting to her, allowing her to reign in his power was an act of free will. His free will to reach out for what he wanted and desired, and not settle for what he could get.

Rath, the King had all the power he needed, and he taught Michael something. Being Rath, it taught him that he was strong. That his power was his own, and he could comfortably yield, or demand as he deemed. For the first time in his life, Michael Guerin was at no one’s mercy.

“You were afraid, Maria. I heard you when you called. He terrified you.” Liz shook her head at Maria. “Admit it.”

“True. He did. At first, I was more afraid than I have ever been in my life. He was a stranger, but then he wasn’t. I can’t explain, but there is a way that only Michael looks at me when he tells me he loves me. It is solemn. It is honest. It is open, and I swear to you, Liz,” said Maria as she placed her hand over her heart. “When he said he loved me, it was Michael. The only Michael I’ve ever known intimately. It was him. He didn’t coerce me, or threaten, or ever just take by force. He said he loved me, and I could see in him. All the way inside, like looking through a clear window pane. That is my Michael. And he? He, I can’t ever fear, because I know that he has been the one all these years that tried to protect me.”

Liz seemed to mull over what Maria was saying, and suddenly she turned red. “You’re telling me that all that was sex!” The room. The mess. It was the result of them having sex? Liz couldn’t wrap her mind around it.

Maria rolled her eyes, and then looking at Liz, they both started laughing. “No! The broken stuff was me trying to keep bizarre, whacko Michael away….well, most of it. You remember that really ugly lamp that Michael found at the fair over a year ago?” Liz nodded. “He had it on his chest of drawers. I actually broke that intentionally. It was so damn ugly. It the best opportunity I would ever have to get rid of it.”

Liz laughed. Somehow, that sounded exactly like Maria. Her Maria. Since that day, Maria had been different. Closed off to everyone, everyone except Michael. It was hard not to imagine that she hadn’t been raped with how isolated the two kept themselves.

“Oh! And the chair in his room.”

“Chair?”

Maria nodded tossing another grape in her mouth. “That was broken during sex!” Maria watched Liz turn yet another shade of red.

Putting her hands over her ears, Liz begged Maria to stop. “Ugh! No more! I beg you! No more.”

“You asked.”

“I retract my request!”

“I’ve got more details!”

“Maria!” Liz grabbed Maria’s hands, her face begging for a reprieve. “Please, I’m begging you. Keep the details of mating with Michael Guerin to yourself, unless I specifically, and I do mean…..specifically request information about alien sex.”

“Your loss, Chica. I was just getting started.”

Michael watched them laughing from across the quad. It was good to see, but next to him a sign on the wall rattled and then exploded into shards of wood. He was getting too used to having her to himself. Jealousy never felt like this. This wasn’t out of control. He could hold it in check if he wished. This was more territorial.

Michael looked at his watch. He was meeting her in the Eraser room in half an hour so they could take off to find Rath. Now what did that punked out freak want?

~~~

“Hey,” he said in her ear coming up behind her.

“Michael!” Maria turned around putting her arms around his neck despite being in public and the people staring at them. Michael licked his bottom lip as his eyes dropped to her mouth. Staring at it intensely, Maria tightened her arms around him and lifted on her toes to kiss him.

He took the advantage. Maria groaned in his mouth, and slowly pulled away before he could get more involved. His hand was already reaching for the zipper on the side of her skimpy dress. “God, your legs make me want to beg.”

Maria took his hand. “Follow me! I’ll let you beg all you want.”

Michael laughed and smiled, until he saw people along the way. He scowled at them, his eyes narrowing. Maria looked around before opening the Eraser room door and letting Michael enter first.

Rath stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Michael waiting in the room, and Maria slammed the door behind her as she came inside.

Rath looked at Michael and then turned to look at Maria. “Yah knew?! How did yah know it wuz me?”

Chapter Five

The setup…

“Maria?” Michael said, his eyebrow raising at the sight of Rath looking like him. Rath quickly morphed back into himself.

“I’m fine.” Maria tilted her head at Rath. “I guess Rath decided to find us.”

“Great. Two of us in the same space.” Michael was sitting on the edge of a table in the room flipping a pen around. “Thought you didn’t want anyone to know you were here.”

Rath smirked. Change of plans. He searched Michael’s apartment. No black cone. How the hell did the Betty know that he wasn’t Michael? This made his backup plan harder. Smiling at Maria, he tried to ooze boyish charm.

“Uh huh,” said Maria. She shook her head and went to stand beside Michael. With her back to Rath, she rested a hand on Michael’s shoulder and talked low in his ear while staring over his shoulder. Rath frowned. Michael appeared to be staring at the floor, but it was obvious he was listening to her, and agreeing.

Michael looked at Rath and shook his head. “You want something from us. Perhaps you stop all this planning and tell us. Cut to the chase. Maria and I both have school and work, so we have limited time to fool around.”

“Lonnie took Shellie.”

Lonnie. Michael remembered her well. Lonnie made him appreciate Isabel more. “And this involves us how?”

Rath noticed Michael’s one hand was resting on Maria’s waist. They touch. All the time. Since he first got there, he noticed it in passing, but yesterday, Maria’s hand stayed on his thigh. “I’m not gonna get her alone, am I?”

“No.”

Rath’s face darkened moving the façade of charm away. “The two of you ain’t cooperating. I shudda hit the dickless King and his piece. That wudda been easier.”

“Try being straight up. You want our help, then ask. If you’re going to try to manipulate us into something, then take a hike.”

Maria looked at her watch. If they weren’t going to play Rath’s game, and didn’t have to find him, then she was going to class. “What he is saying Rath, is stop trying to find a way of kidnapping me so you have a bargaining chip to get what you want. First, he’s not letting you that close to me. Second, you couldn’t find a place to hide me that he couldn’t find. And finally, stop it!”

Rath tried to get his attention away from her legs and ass. She interrupted his thoughts. “Huh?”

“Stop undressing me!” Frickin’ pervert.

“How…” Rath scowled. How did she know? Damn. It was just a little mental play to keep his shit tight.

Maria rolled her eyes. “Hello, dated this guy for three years. I know when my clothes are being ripped off mentally.” Maria kissed Michael quickly. “You going to take care of this?”

“Yeah, go. I’ll pick you up after your last class.” Maria kissed him again slowly with lots of tongue ignoring Rath. Leaning into him, she whispered, “What a waste of good Eraser room time.” Michael laughed at that. She was good. Reading his mind now.

Rath was quiet as Maria left them. Seeing Maria with Michael, he suddenly remembered what this was all about. Shellie. He wanted his special piece back. Rath scratched his brow as it furled.

“You look confused.” Michael said.

“What? Naw. I wuz…it’s just that seeing yah with her reminds me of Shell, and ….” Rath frowned again. He couldn’t say what it was. His stomach hurt. He actually felt sick. Maybe it was his breakfast he ate at Michael’s. He thought some of that shit he garbaged down looked a little green.

“Lonely. It’s called feeling lonely.” Michael watched Rath in interest. He was different from him, but in so many ways the same. After his stint as King, he suddenly could see all the places that he and Rath shared. There were too many, too numerous.

“Let’s split before someone sees us. We better go separate. Meet me at my place.” Michael said nodding to Rath, and he was out the door. Something about hanging out in the Eraser room with Rath just icked him.

Rath watched the door shut, and he lifted a brow. Uh oh. The apartment. He sort of made a little mess there. Important thing was that Maria had the same taste in undies that Shellie did. Rath took himself off working on his mental prowess.

Shellie and Maria in matching thongs nothing else, taking care of his every need, and calling him King. Oh yeah. Hmm. MmmmMmmm. Rath quickly edited his latest fantasy to include a eunuch Michael standing guard in a skimpy leather thong and harness, oiled down skin, and a mean look on his face. Cool. Maybe he could have a water canon to spray the belligerent Michael with occasionally. Rath was so happy with his thoughts he grabbed a girl coming out of the band room, roughed her up against the wall, kissed the snot out of her after slapping her ample ass. So what if he still looked like Michael. He made a nice loud howling sound on his way out of the school. Who’s the man? Hehe.

~~~

“Michael!”

Shit. Well twiddle fucking dumb! Another day in Roswell. Michael reluctantly waited for Max.

“Maxwell.” Michael's noncommittal response was hard to ignore.

Max paused. Michael looked irritated. Max laughed at himself. Who was he kidding? Michael always looked irritated, with maybe the exception of Maria, and even with her at times. Max wasn’t sure what to say. He was still sleeping at Michael’s, but lately it had been uncomfortable with Maria living there, and both her and Michael wanting him to give them space.

It wasn’t just about sex either. At first Max was sure it was. He wanted to get Maria free of Michael, but the more the rest of them tried to separate the couple, the firmer they held together. Max watched them the other night watching TV. Maria had been reading through a magazine asking Michael questions on a quiz while he watched a game. It was strange to see them so normal, unconcerned when everyone else was acting different.

“Can we talk?”

“Do I have a choice?” Michael rolled his eyes at his own defensive tone. “Not right now. I was on my way home to pick up something. I need to get going so I can get back and pick up Maria after her last class.”

Max frowned. That was it. They rarely let the other out of their sight. Touchstone. They were each other’s touchstone. “Michael, I don’t know this is healthy. I think you need to take some space from Maria, and maybe she needs a little space from you.”

Michael seemed to be thinking about it. “Is this something Maria told you? That she needs space from me? I sure as hell know I didn’t tell you that.”

“No. I just think…”

“Then don’t! You are meddling in something you can’t understand.” Michael bit his mouth inside to control his raging anger. “I can’t apologize enough for that night. It’s over. You need to walk on, Maxwell. It happened to me and Maria. We are good. We’re better than good.” God, so much better than good. He didn’t know…he couldn’t have known.

“I know she said that it wasn’t what it looked like, but…”

“No buts here, Max. Ask me! Whatever you think you know….well it is wrong unless you ask me or Maria. We know. Only we do. So ask me.”

This wasn’t going well. “Did you rape, Maria?” The question stuck in his throat. Max didn’t want to know. Not really. Helpless. The thought left him helpless.

“Yes. In my mind. Yes. I wasn’t who I should have been. Who Maria was expecting. I was different, so in that way, yes. But, physically. Literally. Practically?” Michael should’ve known. It would never go away. Never end. Not unless they talked and explained. Their word wasn’t enough. “No. I didn’t rape her. I didn’t use her. I…” Michael shook his head. Words. There were no words for what he felt that night. Power. Possession. Ownership. Territorial. Strong….so many things flooding inward at once. Then Maria, there was Maria.

He saw her. How he always saw her. His universe. His world. His salvation. Something he never expected, most of the time hadn’t wanted, until he was honest with himself, then he admitted there was nothing he wanted more. From the first moment, it was her, only her, and it didn’t matter where he went, who he became….she was there. Inside him. Like a deep ache. A longing. A comfort. A source of warmth and wonder. She was everything.

I love you. He said it. It just came out without thought. One moment he was chuckling at her, how feisty she was, and what a good arm she had as she picked up things in his room and lopped them at his head forcing him to dodge as glass hit walls and shattered. Her mouth never stopping. Half the time she was trying to get the Michael she knew to talk to her, take back control. The other half, she had a running commentary on the insanity of involvement with the Czechoslovakian class. With power and rage running through his veins, he actually laughed in amusement. Happy. That moment he realized that no matter how insane and crazy their worlds became, or she was, it didn’t matter. She made him happy.

Did she ever shut up? The answer was no. Only when she slept. Sex usually came with a running commentary of words and sounds. Maria DeLuca was one vocal woman. His.

Nothing could’ve shocked him more when she dropped what was in her hands, and kissed him. More than kissed him, she pushed him on the floor. Mated with him on a bed of glass, literally fucked his brains out. Everywhere. Anywhere. He knew what she was doing when she tied him up. It was in her eyes. He could see her working out a problem. How to contain him. How to keep him from causing trouble, and keep him from being hurt. Smiling, he let her contain him. It was a pleasure to watch her tongue come out as she concentrated on binding him to the bed, to keep the bind tight enough to hold, but not too tight to cut off circulation.

Michael smiled. He remembered the moment she sat back and observed her handy work. Him. Bound. Powerful. Under her control. Maria’s eyes changed. They darkened. The usual brilliant green took on a darker sage, and her hands went up over his chest. They were both bleeding. He could feel small slivers of glass in his skin, and he was sure Maria had more than a few as well. Bruises from wild intense sex, the glass, falling from the bed, a broken chair, and up against the wall.

“You’re bleeding.” Michael raised an eyebrow. They didn’t hurt. Smarted. A little edge. Felt good.

“I like blood.” Michael’s eyes darkened as well as the golden brown became more intense. “So you’ve got me, what are you going to do now?”

Maria’s breath hitched. “Anything I want.” Lowering her mouth to his chest, her mouth kissed a small bleeding cut. He felt it. Completely through his body. To his toes. Her mouth sucking on his bleeding flesh. Through narrowed lids, he watched her. “Taste you.”

“Drink more,” he said, his voice deeper and husky.

Maria sat up. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Despite the binding of his hands, he lifted his torso and self up to her. “In a joining there is always pain. Always blood. Always viscous body fluids. In pain we’re born. In pain we’re joined. In pain we’re forged.” Michael kissed her, falling back when the amount of effort to hold his body upward was spent. “Do you feel the power, my Queen? My love. My Maria? Are we to join for an eternity?”

Maria licked her lips, nervously. Too afraid to say no to something she wanted, but more afraid of saying yes. “What are you offering me?”

Michael’s mouth drew at the side, a smile pulling. “Me. All of me. I’m giving you my power.”

“Giving? Your power? Forever?”

“Shared.” He couldn’t let her walk away from the gift. “Ask yourself what you want? I’m giving you my heart, my soul, my will to have myself under your hands. Joined.” Maria moaned and leaned over him.

“I can’t. You’re not yourself.”

Michael put his head back closing his eyes and sighing. She was afraid of abusing his condition, his altered state. Smiling evilly, a devil inside, but Michael none the less. “You’re confused. Did you think I’m not Michael? Maria!” Forcing her to look at him, Michael went serious. “Kiss me. Kiss me and tell me what you feel.”

Maria bit her mouth painfully. It hurt. So much. Him. Under her hands. A promise of eternity, fidelity, and love. All the things she wanted from Michael, so many she already had, or thought she had, but with him it was always hard. Michael wasn’t forthcoming with words. He never was. Now he was offering her more. Any idiot could see it. He was offering her more than an idea of being soul mates or lovers, he was offering more than just love. Merging. A joining.

“I can’t! I want to, but….” Maria’s nails bit into Michael’s skin, he winced and moaned in pleasure at the same. She couldn’t do what she wasn’t sure her Michael would want. Would he want to be joined to her? He barely liked being human at times. She nagged. He avoided. They were like a comedy of errors.

“Maria.” Her name was a low throaty moan. “Maria, baby, kiss me. You’ll see. Kiss me!” Their faces were only separated by a few little inches. Michael was able to feel Maria's soft breath on his face. “Kiss me. I want it. Need it.”

Michael lifted up until their lips completely met as he slid his tongue between Maria’s lips, immediately invaded by a myriad of sensations. She didn’t pull away. Instead, she followed him down back to the bed. Laughing softly in triumph, he plunged deeply into the kiss, his tongue ravishing her mouth as if there were no tomorrow.

Maria replied with her soul, playing with his tongue, allowing him to lead as he let her inside. Michael. It was Michael. Like the first time. It was always felt like the very first time. He was Michael, her Michael, and more. How she saw and felt him was the same, but now there was a cleanness to the image. Sharp edges. Pristine.

“Take my power. Cut me and taste it,” he tempted her. Michael’s eyes darted to the bedside, to his pocket knife lying there. “Maria.” She had to do it. He was bound. A smile played around his mouth as a dare entered his eyes. Do it. Do me.

Maria took the knife, and in almost a slow motion, her eyes followed the line of the blade as it sliced into his flesh, crossing over already bleeding cuts, a long line of blood beading up along the margins. Tossing the knife away, uncaring where it landed, her mouth moved over his torn flesh, the blood pooling on her lips. Leaning over him, her mouth a mere breath from his as the blood dripped from her lips to his, and she moaned at his reaction.

“Yes!” Michael laughed. The serge.

Their mouths merged as did their bodies. Both of them moving in the sheets at a wild and intense beat. Her hands went to his bound wrists, holding him hard under her control as they stared at each other, their bodies mated, joined, and merging. Maria’s eyes closed as the rush ran through her, and her skin became luminescent, glowing in power. Maria suddenly sat back on him. Her mouth open in shock as her breasts moved up and down from the wild panting of her breath. Her eyes were dilated. Reaching down, her hands pushed firmly on his stomach holding herself upright. She was dizzy. Disoriented.

“You want more?”

Maria’s hands curled into his flesh, as her eyes constricted and took in the sight of his bloodied body beneath her. The rushing of his power was running hot in her body. “Yes! I want more!” Maria reached over and untied his hands needing his hands on her. He sat up and pulled her even tighter into his body.

“Hold on to me. Don’t let go! This is going to hurt a little.” Michael kissed her deeply, holding her firmly to his body as they moved together, then he opened the gate and let his power run between them unhindered. Maria’s scream was lost in his own.

Four hours of dark time. It took that long for their burned out senses to finally come back, and during that time they had mated uncontrolled. Their bodies hurt and they were bruised in places they never knew existed. Maria laughed, then groaned when Michael moved her under him on the bed. He rested his pounding head on her breasts and sighed at the feel of her hand moving over his neck. They were both dripping in sweat. Exhausted. The bed was wet from the semen and blood.

“Michael…”

“Are you okay?” Maria nodded. Michael groaned, his eyes looked up at the ties still hanging from the bed. He reached over and took one, his eyes twinkling in mischief. Maria looked at the binding she had tied him up with earlier. “My turn?”

“Oh baby, you’re so good when you’re bad,” Maria said laughing.

~~~

“Michael!”

Max’s voice was irritated. Michael pulled himself from his thoughts and frowned. He didn’t have time to waste with Max right now trying to explain to him something that couldn’t be explained unless it was experienced.

“It wasn’t rape, okay?” Michael grimaced. He was finally accepting that too, but damn it was violent. Maybe intense was a better word for it. They had played with a little bondage before, but that was child’s play compared to where they were today. Blood. It ran strong between them. He dumped his power in her, moved through her until she tasted like him. Merged. “It was…” Michael shook his head. He couldn’t say. He couldn’t. It was no one else’s fucking business. Theirs. Only theirs.

“Michael, maybe if you could back off a little. Talk her into going home for a few days. Remember she actually has a home with a mother.”

Michael stopped. “Is that what it’s going to take? Me sending her away?” Michael couldn’t believe it. Again. Max was pushing him to let Maria go. “If I send her home, you’ll back off on this? Then rape is okay as long as we obey?”

“It’s not obeying, Michael. And it’s not rape. Both of you said it wasn’t.”

“Okay. Fine. It wasn’t.” Michael’s eyes narrowed in anger. He could feel it rising in his gut. “So if it wasn’t rape, then why the hell do we need to back off from each other? Why? Is it because Maria and I are more intimate and closer than you and Liz? What? Isn’t that allowed?”

“It’s not that! I’m thinking…we, Isabel and I were thinking that you can’t know how all this is affecting Maria, physically and mentally, and perhaps…”

Michael interrupted Max. “You know. You’re right! I need some time alone. I think it’s time to back away. But I’m not talking about Maria, Max. I’m talking about you! I want you out of my apartment. Today. Go get your own crib or sleep at Isabel’s. I don’t care. Maybe sleep at Liz’s. I’ve taken a lot of interference, but I’m sick of it.”

Michael didn’t wait for Max’s response. He was late, and his headache was worse, and now he had to go deal with yet another headache.

~~~

“What took yah so long, G?”

Michael stopped in his doorway. Fuck! Holy shit. The place was a wreck. “What the hell happened here?”

“What?” Rath looked around innocently. “I made a snack.”

“The place is trashed!”

“Maybe yah wuz robbed, man. Call 5-0. I’ll wait over here.”

Michael grabbed a trash can and shoved it at Rath. “I don’t know what your beef is or what is going on….yet. I stress the word, yet! But, you trash my place, you pick up after yourself. I am sick of people using my home like a damn bus station.”

Rath looked at the trash can in his hand. “What’s this for?”

“Clean! You know how to clean?”

Shit. Rath shrugged. Everyone wanted him to clean. What? Did he look like a frickin’ maid?

Michael ignored him and looked at the clock. Damn. He was going to be late. She was going to be pissed. He needed to call her despite her being in class. Michael quickly dialed.

It took a few persistent rings before she responded.

“Class! I’m in class, buddy! I’m in so much trouble for walking out.”

“Sorry. A pierced tattooed freak tossed my place.”

Maria was quiet. “What is he looking for? Did he say.”

Michael snorted. “Best I can get out of him is how uptight I am, and him smiling like a damn idiot. Half the time I can’t understand a damn thing he says.” Michael looked over at Rath who was mumbling to himself. He found a pair of Maria’s underwear in the sofa. Whistling, Michael watched Rath pocket them. Shaking his head, he went over and snatched them from Rath’s pocket, pushing them into his own. “Clean! Don’t touch!”

“What? What’s going on?”

“Nothing you want to know. Believe me.” Michael rubbed his forehead. “I don’t want to leave circus show here alone, can you find your way home?”

“You betcha. I’ve got a special errand I need to run anyway.” Maria leaned against the wall she was standing next to. “So, whatcha gonna do while I am slaving in school? Get rid of the punk on steroids, strip and I’ll meet you under the sheets.”

“Uh uh. Max is coming over to get his shit out of my place, and I need to stash the loon boy. Just come and run interference, and I’ll pay you back in hide.”

“My man!” Maria blew him a kiss over the phone, laughing at what she imagined would be a disgusted look on Michael’s face. “Bye! See yah!”

~~~

Michael stood with his shoulder against the closet holding it closed.

“I think we should talk about this.”

Michael shrugged. “What? Your mooching off me? You don’t contribute to rent, utilities or food. I have lost my privacy, and now you want to tell me how to run my intimate life. What’s to talk about, Maxwell? Go ruin Isabel’s life for a while…., Oh! Wait,” Michael paused for effect. “Forgot, you already did that!”

“Michael…”

Michael shut his eyes. He needed a nap. The door moved under his shoulder, and he added pressure to it. “Look, Max. I’m not angry or pissed or anything. I am tired. I need some space. You were right about that. I’m not King. You are. I didn’t think that your being King meant I had to give over my whole damn life to you. You’re out on your own. You’ve got a job. Find a place. I did it over two years ago. I’m sure you can do the same, being how you have such better grades than me, a better reputation and outstanding family.”

“This is you getting even.”

Maria came into the room carrying a few bags of groceries. “What’s going on?”

“Max was just leaving. Isabel is having a hard time, and he thought it was time for him to spend some quality time with her and Jesse.”

“Oh, that should be fun.” Maria looked between Max and Michael. Shrugging, she went to put away the groceries. Not her business. Or at least not yet. She would work on Michael later to make amends with Max. Max waved at her on his way out.

“Can’t I at least have my jacket?” Max asked motioning towards the closet.

“It’s a balmy night. I’ll bring it to you later,” said Michael holding the door closed as a hidden Rath pushed on it again. Smiling, Michael gestured for Max to scram.

“Oh,” said Maria. “There was so much wrong with that, Spaceboy, I’m not even going to go into detail. I know we needed him gone, but couldn’t you have found a better way to do it? A nicer way?”

“No,” said Michael emphatically. “Max doesn’t take hints. Not even big ones armed with nuclear bombs. Subtle is lost on him. It’s better, and somehow, much more rewarding this way.”

“How do you sleep at night?” Maria asked as Michael stopped leaning on the door. The door came open, and Michael put a hand on it and slammed it shut.

“Generally on my stomach with you on top of me. I like it that way.”

Maria smiled at that, slightly gesturing to the closet door. “You going to let the Beaver out of there, Ward.”

“Gosh, don’t know, June. Seems the Beav has been a bad boy lately. Trashing my home and all. Stealing your underwear,” Michael added smiling at the look of outrage on Maria’s face, so he decided to add a little fire. “Smelling them.”

“Oh! Ward, I think it’s time you start considering punishment for the Beav.”

Michael laughed when Rath’s voice wandered out from the closet. “Hey, Yo! Peeps! Yah gonna let me out or what? Or shudda I just pee in here.”

“God! Let him out!”

Michael stopped holding the door and walked away with Maria. They went to put away groceries when Rath fell through the door. Picking himself up quickly he looked at his two hosts. Smiling, he bee-lined for the groceries.

“Righteous! Food. Damn, the grub been a wanting, G. Good to see the Betty has good sense to hit the Save-a-Lot.”

Maria pulled the bag away from Rath. “I thought you had to pee?”

“Oh, naw. I was just fronting. Gonna give me a peek?” He gestured to the bag. Maria pushed it over to him.

“I think you’ve pretty much peeked enough,” said Michael frowning at a box Maria took from a special bag. “What you got, Maria?”

Maria took a deep breath and held up the box. First Alert pregnancy test.

Chapter Six

Walls closing in…

“Maria?” Michael said. Oh shit! She couldn’t be serious.

Rath saw the box and whistled. “Damn! Yah toasting a bun?” Rath hit Michael on the shoulder. “Congrats, G. Yor a statistic!”

Michael shrugged off Rath. “Maria? You sure?”

“No. I mean, I’m late. So….”

“How late are we talking here?”

Maria looked over at Rath and made a meaningful stare with Michael. “A month ago, so about two weeks…..late, my lord.”

Shit. The King strikes again. Michael didn’t move. Great. He couldn’t wait for the running commentary on this from Max and the others.

“Shit, G. You look sick!” Rath said laughing.

“Shut up!” Both Michael and Maria said at the same time.

Maria handed the box to Michael. “Read it and tell me what I have to do.”

“You don’t know,” said Michael.

“Pee on the stick,” said Rath.

Michael and Maria ignored him. “What? Do I look like a girl that takes pregnancy tests as a routine? Of course I don’t know what to do!” Maria breathed out hard. “I’m barely surviving the day sane since I counted up my calendar. I’m showing considerable restraint not throwing the box at your head. So work with me here! I am having a damn aneurysm!”

“Throw it at my head? Why? It takes two to make babies, Maria.”

Maria huffed, searching through her bag for more cypress oil. Cedar was a wash, and she hadn’t breathed correctly since she last saw Michael and did her mental calculations. Her head was pounding. “I know that! But, it doesn’t matter. If I’m pregnant, I’m claiming insanity due to hormones and you get the blame. Rational? You expect me to be rational?”

She had a point. Michael quickly opened the box and removed the materials and information sheet. “Okay, okay, just stay calm! Take the test, and we’ll go from there. It might be a false alarm.” Michael frowned at the directions.

“I think a blood vessel just busted in my head. I can’t feel the right side of my tongue. I’m going to stick it out. Tell me if it deviates to the left or right.” Aw. Maria in a full melt down was always a walk on the dramatic side. Michael threw up his hands in wonder how she could flip from side to side. First, so calm and rational, making plans, to a total wreck, and finally just off the wall loon. Amazing.

“Pee on the stick,” said Rath calmly eating his way through a bag of chips.

“Would you shut up!” Michael told Rath. “You’re not making this any easier. Can’t you see you’re upsetting Maria.” Michael read the directions. Looking at Maria, he shrugged. “Okay, um…..pee on the stick.”

“Told yah.”

Both Maria and Michael looked at Rath who was still eating and smirking at them. “How did you know that?” Maria asked.

Rath snorted. “Hell, like I hadn’t pissed on a few sticks in my life.”

Michael made a face at Rath. “What is wrong with you?”

Maria rolled her eyes. “You got a psychologist and a few years to answer that? Hello, Rath. You’re a male. You can’t get pregnant.”

Rath was sick of these two bozos. “Alien! Can yah tell me I won’t get pregnant?” Michael and Maria had to give him that point. “All those bitches panting for me, I don’t wanna wake up one day knocked up and no idea who done it.”

“Charming,” said Maria. “How about using a condom to protect yourself?”

“Hate latex gloves. Never use them. They pull on my pubes.”

“Ick! Michael! Make him stop!” Michael stared at Rath in a horrified fascination. Unreal. The very idea of Rath procreating all over New York City, leaving tiny alien Raths everywhere was too much for his brain. He must have caught Maria’s brain aneurysm. Or, his brain short circuited. Maria noticed she wasn’t going to be rescued by Michael this time, so she took care of it herself. “Do you have any understanding of the concept of ‘too much information’?”

“Huh?”

Rolling her eyes at Rath, Maria grabbed the test. “Just pee on the stick?”

“Just pee on the stick,” both Rath and Michael said. Michael pushed Rath out of the way. “Go play with yourself in a corner or something!” Following Maria concerned. “Maybe I should….”

“I can do it,” Maria said turning slightly red at the look Rath was giving her.

Rath’s voice piped up, “Yo, I’z got yor back!” Maria made a sound of exasperation and slammed the door in both Michael and Rath’s face.

Michael frowned and looked at Rath. “Now see what ya, did!”

“Me? Huh? Yor the one that knocked her up!”

Michael gave Rath a glare and went to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of cold water. Walking back to the bathroom door, he just got there when Maria looked out and said, “I can’t pee! I’m too nervous. Michael, could you get me….” He handed her the bottle of water. Maria smiled slightly, until her eyes met Michael’s and they shared a look. Michael gestured for her to go do it, and Maria barely nodded, shutting the door.

Maria wasn’t that long. Only a few moments. Interminable moments, that ticked by at the slowest of rates. Technically, two minutes. Maria handed the test to Michael.

“How long does it say it takes before we can read it?”

Michael quickly flipped through the instructions. “Five minutes.”

“I need comfort of fattening proportions.” Maria said retrieving a half a gallon of ice cream she had just put away when she came home. Tossing herself down in the center of the sofa, she quickly flipped on the TV and went surfing. Suddenly on either side of her was Michael and Rath, both armed with their own spoons.

“Is it time yet?” Asked Maria. Michael shook his head, and she ate more ice cream.

“Is it time yet?” Asked Rath, distracting Maria from the ice cream so he could get his spoon in. Michael gave him a glare and he dug into the ice cream.

“Is it time…”

Michael interrupted quickly. “It’s time.” The three of them sat there, no one moving.

Maria couldn’t take much more. “Michael?”

“Just a second!” Michael left his spoon in the ice cream as he quickly read the instructions again. Looking at the test, he showed it to Maria and shook his head. Negative. Maria sighed a long dispelling breath of relief. Leaning her head against Michael, whose hand came up to soothingly move over her shiny golden hair.

Rath took the opportunity to rescue the ice cream. Eating and talking with his mouth full as he switched the channels, finding a Gilligan’s Island marathon on TV Land, he sat back laughing. “So if I’z gonna be an uncle, cudda yah name the kid Rath?”

“Negative,” Michael said. Yeah, he’d rather have his balls cut off than name any child of his Rath.

“Thank God!” Maria said in Michael’s body where she rested against him, under his arm.

Rath stopped watching TV and eating long enough to look at Maria confused. “Watsup? Don’t yah want his kid?”

Maria looked at Rath seriously. “Of course, in about eight or ten years! I’m eighteen! I’m too young to start having kids. Michael can’t even match his socks!”

“Can too! When was the last time I wore unmatched socks?”

Maria looked at Michael. God he was so beautiful. “You stopped wearing socks. That doesn’t count.”

Rath snickered.

“Shut up!” Michael said. They all sat back watching the TV show for a few moments. At the next commercial, Michael looked at Rath. “As pleasant as this little horse and pony trick you’ve got going, maybe you could just tell us what the hell is going on, what you want from us, so we can find your…..girlfriend, and get you the hell out of Roswell?”

Rath shrugged. He searched the entire damn place. His only other option was the one they call Isabel’s place. All the likely places were clear.

“The black cone thang yah found. Lonnie is holding Shell until I got it.”

Michael stood up, and paced the room. “What black cone thing?”

Rath made a sound of disgust. “Don’t front me on this! Nicolas knows yah got it! He offered Lonnie a one way trip to Antar for it.”

Maria looked at Rath. She believed him. Michael was unyielding. There was no way he was giving up an alien artifact to someone like Rath, and not especially if Nicolas or Kivar wanted it.

“So was that the plan?” Michael asked. “You were going to hold Maria until I gave it up.”

“Som’em like that. I thought of the King’s bitch, but hell, he didn’t even flinch when I kissed her.” Rath shrugged. “I needed a hostage that might get results.”

Maria was flattered. Sort of. “Why not Isabel?” Well as flattered as a woman could be to be targeted as a victim.

Rath snorted. “Anotha Vilandra wanna be? Nuthin, but trouble.” Rath scratched his brow. “Though….I wunder if she fucks like Lonnie?”

Maria rolled her eyes. No one could be that clueless and crude. Rath was making Michael of their first year look like a prince. “Spaceboy, you should keep this one around. He really makes you look priceless.”

“I’d rather drop him off a cliff.”

“Yah flexing on me, G?” Rath’s eyes narrowed, becoming hot and dangerous. His façade of easy humor was quickly replaced with a look Maria was becoming familiar with. The Rath look….Rath of Antar.

“He’s not ‘flexing’ or whatever the hell that means on you!” Maria was sick of this drawn out stand off. Neither man was strong in trusting other people. This little dance they were doing could take weeks, meanwhile, there was a girl named Shellie out there in the hands of a murderous alien bitch, Lonnie.

“I’m tired. My day has been an emotional rollercoaster that started about two hours ago. I’m taking a nap.” Maria left the two of them arguing. Rath wasn’t giving out any information, and that worried. It meant he was planning in his head a possible new scenario. He knew Michael and the others had the black cone. Michael was steadfast denying it, and Maria had another headache.

~~~

“Hey.” Michael shut the door to the bedroom. Scooting up behind her on the bed, his arms went around her, and he rested in the nook of her neck. “It’s getting late. You aren’t hungry?”

“No. I called Liz and had my shift covered. I told her I had a bad headache, which was actually true.”

Michael turned her. Searching her face, he could see a little strain line around the eyes. His head was aching too. “This pregnancy scare had you upset.”

“A little.”

“You should’ve called me immediately.”

“It was after you called. I was doodling in class watching the clock when I flipped to my daily planner.” Maria sat up. “The date scared me, Michael. I think I’m losing time or something, or maybe it is moving so fast that I can’t keep track. I counted back to see how many days had passed, and ran into when my period should have started.”

Michael pulled her closer resting his head to hers. “I don’t know what is worse, being blindsided with the possibility, or actually wanting it to be true.”

Maria started at that. “True? You wanted me pregnant?”

Michael shrugged. Hard to really say. No. Yes. Maybe. Too confusing. “I think…I liked the feeling that if you were, no one could take you away.”

Maria rubbed her mouth against his softly. “That’s not going to happen. You know that. You have to know that by now.”

“I do.” Michael smiled slightly at that. She was the only person he ever said that to, in this life or the last. He was certain of that.

“You do?”

Michael liked the way her eyes smiled when she was amused. “Absolutely do.”

Maria moved into his skin. Closing her eyes, she sighed as her headache abated a little. Having him close helped. “What is Rath doing?”

“I have no clue. I left him eating us out of house and home, watching TV, and probably right now he is jerking off.”

Maria sat up at that. “Tell me that you’re kidding.”

Michael laughed. “Maybe. With him, I think it’s hard to tell. One thing for sure, he is working out another plan.”

Maria nodded. “I think you’re right. He doesn’t trust enough to just tell us. He reminds me of a young alien boy I met once, long ago, who didn’t know how to do anything but frown, and anyone not like him was the enemy.”

Michael made a face at that. “You think he’s like me?”

“Yes. I do.” Maria propped herself up on an arm. “He has so much of you in him. The human, and a hell of a lot of the alien. If you thought you were confused about how to move in human society, date, and have a relationship with humans, imagine his problems.”

“I don’t want to imagine anything about Rath. I want him gone. He’s just more of the same. More of the same bullshit that has troubled our lives forever. It almost lost me you once, and I can’t keep doing this, Maria.”

Maria moved her hand over his skin watching the movement of a glowing light move with her hand. “You are what you are. We could argue this forever. And in the end, we’d be right back where we started. He’s not going away, not until we find his girl. Or he gets what he wants. And I was lying here, thinking. She’s a human, Michael. She’s alone, and she’s being used as a pawn in an alien war.” Maria moved his hair off his face. “Over three days ago, you risked everything to help Connie and her father. You and Max entered a government installation. Risked your lives around the very people that would love to have their hands on you, and you rescued her father. Why?”

Michael shrugged. “I don’t know.” Michael noticed her look of disbelief. Scratching his brow, he frowned. “Okay, so maybe I needed to feel good about myself, that I wasn’t completely tainted with alien evilness. That I could do good.”

“They were humans trapped in a situation. An alien one. Innocents. Michael, Shellie is an innocent too.”

Michael rolled over on his back fully and put his arm over his eyes. “Great, guess we’ll have to help freak show.”

“Good,” said Rath from the doorway, eating a plate of microwave pizza rolls. “So where is the black cone?” Shoving more food in his mouth, Rath asked, “So what’s for dinner? I’m starving.”

~~~

“We’re not giving up the black cone. Sorry. Can’t do it.” Michael sat back from his sixth slice of pizza. Maria gave up long ago. She was lying down on the sofa with her head in his lap. Rath was still eating.

“How can you eat so much?” Maria asked.

Rath shrugged. “I eat when I’m nervous or hyped.”

Maria got up and stretched, ignoring the way Rath watched her. “I’m tired. I’m going to bed. Are we set on tomorrow?” Rath and Michael both nodded their agreement. “Okay, then I guess I need some sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day. Can you get this taken care of tonight?” Maria asked Michael.

“Yeah. I’ll take him.”

“Wait,” said Rath. “Curious. Where’s the thang?”

Michael went over to a shelf with a lava lamp on it. He ran his hand over the object and it became the black cone. Rath laughed. Shit. Anything in the room could’ve been it.

Michael kissed Maria’s forehead and pushed her towards the bedroom. “It shouldn’t take long.”

“Be…”

“Careful. I know.”

Rath watched the interchange. “She doesn’t trust me.”

“No. Neither do I.” Michael grabbed his coat. “Let’s go.”

“They’ll be watching.” Rath said.

“We’ll lose them.”

~~~

They were together. The room was dark, lit only with candles. Rath watched from the door, holding back from letting them know of his presence. The light of the candle moved over the naked skin of her back, pale and luminescent.

Rath’s eyes narrowed and lowered as Michael’s hand moved downward. He could see Michael’s face. He was caught in some other sensation beyond his normal senses, caught up in a wild animalistic mating with the pheromones heavy in the air. Caught in the act of loving Maria, he seemed unaware of the rest of the world. Out of the control. They were moving together in a mating that seemed choreographed and almost artistic. Maria was joined to him, sitting on his lap with her legs wrapped around him.

The sheet was wrapped around their center, but the sheen of sweat on their skin showed the increase of their ardor. Maria was tiny. Small and delicate, with her thin arm wrapped around Michael’s neck as she leaned into him. Her other hand was down the front of their joined bodies rubbing Michael’s cock as it plunged in and out of her, as she moved over him, pulling him into her harder and harder.

They kissed.

Rath frowned. It was a dance. Their kissing was more than the meeting of mouths, but a movement of bodies moving an intricate dance of mating and love. Strange how clear that felt. He never understood that breadth of feeling before.

Rath’s heart stopped when Michael looked up at him. His eyes…they were darker than night in the center with the golden brown a bright color of the iris. His mouth pulled at the side. His voice was deep and thick with passion. “There is nothing to compare to having something wild and powerful under you." His voice had turned husky.

Michael gave him a long speculative look which slowly melted into unveiled desire as he looked down at Maria, his mouth going to her neck. Rath could feel her moan through his body, through a racing of his heart.

Rath shoved the door open and approached the bed and lunged forward. He pulled Maria’s head back by her hair and claimed her mouth in a kiss until they had to separate for air. Michael chuckled at the sight of Rath out of control, confused, and the way his eyes seemed heavy. Michael turned Maria in his arms, removing her body from him to face Rath so they could kiss easier. They writhed against each other until Rath tried to move and overbalanced. He fell backwards. Rath landed on his back on the floor. Michael and Maria looked over the bed down at Rath, both laughing.

“You staying down there all night? We’re losing our momentum waiting.” Michael asked. Rath giggled almost hysterically, as Michael groaned from added pressure from Maria’s hand on his cock as she reached back behind her, opening her legs, so sit on him.

"This is so stupid. Why don't we stay on the floor?" With those words, Rath motioned for them to join him.

Maria laughed, she slowly removed herself from Michael’s embrace, lowering herself to the floor, her hand going to Rath’s chest pushing him flat to the floor. Rath watched the movement of the candlelight over her skin. Michael followed her down, he sat up on his knees behind her, his mouth going to the delicate skin of her back, his hands moving around to take her small breasts in his hands. Maria closed her eyes and moaned as she lowered herself to embrace Rath fiercely and plundered his mouth. Rath's hands were drawing a restless pattern on Maria's naked back feeling the movement of Michael’s mouth along her skin. Michael was amused, as he pushed himself into her again, fucking her from behind, and Maria was withering on Rath. She pulled Rath's T-shirt up and over his head just short of off. She shoved her hands in his jeans from behind as far as she could manage to begin kneading the muscular ass. For a split second, Rath wanted to move his body in hers along side Michael’s to feel them both united in her.

Rath surrendered to his desire immediately as Maria's hand came around searching for his hard cock. When she had found her prize, Michael growled in Maria’s ear and pulled her tighter into his groin, pumping harder and harder into her body. Rath’s body was taking the brunt of their mating, as they moved harder into him. Rath had never imagined that this cold façade that Michael seemed to wear melted away under Maria’s touch, that he would be so passionate and wild, like a strong beast. What a powerful spirit. He longed to drink of their essence, achieve what they seemed to breed.

Rath moved out from under them, and sat up on his knees.

"Too many clothes!" He breathed and pulled his shirt the rest of the way over his head.

"Good!" Maria whispered at the sight of the hairless chest covered in tattoos and piercings.

Rath stood up and shucked down his pants leaning over Maria who was practically drooling. 'Oh gods, this man was a perfect match to Michael.' Maria leaned back in Michael who was still fucking her hard and looked mesmerized at the man. Two Michaels. Nirvana. Michael laughed softly. He had dreamed of this look on Maria's face, but now he was here and this beautiful woman, who wanted him in every form he possessed.

"What are you waiting for?" He teased her. Anything she wanted. He’d give her anything.

Rath stroked lightly over one of Maria's nipples and leaned forward to whisper in her ear. He repeated Michael’s question in the same voice. “What are yah waiting for?”

"I want to taste you!"

Rath only nodded, his eyes bright. His groin was on fire. Maria nuzzled at his crotch, sucking the skin at the side of his thigh, drawing it hard into her mouth, and then releasing it to a nip that was painful and arousing. Maria’s head bent a moment as Michael increased the thrust into her, his eyes watching her mouth on Rath. “Michael,” She said in a husky voice.

Michael’s hands tightened on her hips, as he changed his angle and thrusts. “Suck him down, baby.” Maria nodded, and she mouthed Rath’s cock with her lips and tongue, and then took him into her mouth, all the way inside adding suction and pressure.

"Oh shit!" Rath clenched his teeth till they hurt.

He forgot to breathe and suddenly choked when Maria released him for a moment. He breathed deeply, then Maria dived in again and swallowed his cock again.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Rath was on the brink of pain. She really could suck the chrome off a trailer hitch.

When Maria scraped her teeth along his dick, Rath came with a howl. Maria swallowed everything of the powerful release of Rath. She moaned louder as Michael, aroused by watching her blow Rath, increased his pumping, his fingers digging into her body, holding her moving body still as he fucked her harder, pushed her to a breaking edge. Maria and Michael ignored their new sated lover. Rath had gone limp and was breathing heavily.

Maria screamed as she came, loud and hard. Michael wasn’t finished. He refused to let her collapse as he continued to move into her, enjoying the tightness of her body, the way her muscled insides clenched against his invasion. He could feel the give of tender tissue to his large pumping member. Maria’s hands on the floor held herself up as her head was bent between her hands as she moaned and grunted to the increasing fervors of Michael’s thrusts.

Rath frowned. Michael was like a pistoning fucking machine. Rath lifted Maria’s head, by pulling her hair back, lifting her sweat covered face. Shellie. It wasn’t Maria. It was Shell.

Rath looked at the energizer fucking bunny, Michael, pounding into Shellie from behind, and he stared into his own eyes. Rath’s mouth opened to the laughing smile of himself fucking his girlfriend.

Rath suddenly woke to the impact of himself falling from the sofa in Michael’s apartment. Confused. He laid in the dark as his heart was beating out of his chest. His entire body was aroused by his erotic dream. Shellie.

Moaning, he reached up for his pillow and the blanket, not bothering to get off the floor. After the pounding of his own heart stopped echoing in his ears, he could hear them. Michael and Maria behind the closed door.

Part of him was tempted to replay the first part of his dream, just to see if it would come true. He knew it wouldn’t. The Commander was a greedy territorial bastard. Rath passed on the opportunity to watch the show again. He really only wanted to see one woman right now. Shellie.

Chapter Seven

Dual vision…

Michael stopped chewing long enough to watch her pacing. She appeared to be picking up things, but actually Maria was moving objects from one place to another.

“Avoidance?” He asked.

Maria shook her head and then sighed. “More of raging against inevitability.”

Michael paused. Oh, this couldn’t be good. He didn’t ask. He waited. She would rant and rave, or tell him in her own way. Time. It was always best when dealing with Maria to let her find her own time.

“Time.” She said. Michael frowned. Shit. She could read his mind now? “The whole thing yesterday, Michael. It scared me how much time had passed, so quickly without me realizing it.” They had been living unexamined lives, working hard to keep together when everyone seemed determined to rip them apart. “My mom.” Maria said.

Michael closed his eyes sighing. He knew it would come to this. Nothing in his fucking life could ever be easy.

“What do you want to do?”

“I’m going to stop at the store on my way to school.” Maria said biting her lip. “I really never meant to leave it this long.”

Michael nodded. She was right. They had left it a long time. Too long. Amy DeLuca wasn’t going to like it, and she deserved to know the truth. They owed her that at least.

“I’ll come with you.”

Maria’s mouth opened in surprise, and then shut. “You don’t have to, not if you don’t want. I can do this.”

Nice. She was trying to give him a break, but it wasn’t going to go down that way. He couldn’t let it. He made a vow, one he planned to honor. “I don’t want to, but I’m going to do it anyway.”

Maria frowned, but breathed a little better. She wasn’t going to have to face this alone. Kissing him, she rubbed her head against him. “Thanks.” Michael nodded. Lifting her head, he kissed her forehead. Maria talked into his chest. “Do me a favor, and wear some kind of protection. I do want children with you some day.”

~~~

Michael’s head snapped back forcefully as the follow through of Amy’s swing jarred his teeth. The slap left a resounding echo in the shop. Maria was paralyzed in shock. She often warned about physical violence in regards to her mother, but she really never expected it to happen.

“Mom! Oh God!” Maria pulled Michael away from her mother in horror. Her hands going to his face, to search his face for damage. “How could you?”

Amy DeLuca was still breathing hard, her entire body shaking. Pent up frustration. Anger. Fear. Pain. Sadness. She lost her daughter. That was hard to take.

“Maria,” said Michael softly, putting her behind him. Bending down to her, he whispered soft encouragements in her ear to calm her. He had worse hits in his life. The slap hadn’t hurt as much as it hurt to realize he broke an unspoken faith he and Amy DeLuca had since a year before, since Alex’s death. “It’s alright.”

Maria pulled her arm free. “It’s not alright!”

Michael put himself between Maria and her mother, facing Maria he framed her face. “It’s okay. Really.” They deserved it. Amy couldn’t hit her daughter, so Michael took the brunt.

“When?” Amy asked with a husky voice closed with tears.

Michael looked over his shoulder, his usual emotionless expression suddenly completely sympathetic. “A little under two weeks ago. It’ll be two weeks this weekend.”

“God!” Amy rubbed a shaking hand over her eyes. She regretted hitting him. Closing her eyes as a headache threatened. “Are you pregnant? Tell me you’re not pregnant.”

Maria wiped a tear from her face. “I’m not pregnant. I promise.” Michael didn’t know what to do or where to stand. The two women, mother and daughter stared at each other.

“Then why? Why?”

Maria couldn’t explain it. Not really. Not without telling her mother everything, and that was something Michael had to decide to do, not her. “I love him. I don’t want to leave him, and after he was better…”

“I expected you to come home.” Amy cleared her throat. “Guess you’ll never come back now. Not unless he breaks your heart.” Michael tightened his hand on Maria’s arm. Her mother sounded sure that it would happen eventually. He would leave Maria.

“It’s not going to happen, Ms. DeLuca.”

“Forever. When you’re young you always think it’s forever.” Amy shook her head in wonder. How did she fail so miserably? They were so young. “Every young couple says that. There is this sense of timelessness. Everyone is sure they are each other’s soulmate, tossing that title around like it protects you from harm. From reality.” Amy laughed bitterly. “It doesn’t! Not the first time he looks at another woman, sleeps around or gets the other woman pregnant. It doesn’t when he forgets you are the only one he loves, and everything else is more important. It doesn’t protect you when he jumps into something fast and races away out of your life leaving you a young deserted mother with no money, no education, no future, and a small child depending on you.”

“Mom, that’s not going to happen to us. I….” Tears chased down her cheek. She hated hurting her mother. Hated it more than anything.

“No one ever thinks it will happen to them.” Amy looked at her daughter and started crying again. “I wanted better for you. A future. I tried so hard to make sure you didn’t grow up to be me. To be disappointed.”

Maria was still crying. She squeezed Michael’s hand, and went to her mother. “I know I disappointed you. This was the hardest two weeks of my life. Needing to tell you. Afraid that you’d act this way.” Maria closed her eyes. “I love you. I respect you and always wanted to be just like you. I never saw this happening to me, but it did. How can I tell you why I’m sure, so certain that this will last? I can’t. I have to use time to prove it. Time. It’s all I have.” Maria looked at the floor. “Is choosing Michael going to cost me you, Mom? Can’t I hope to have you both?”

Amy hugged Maria. “I didn’t even get to see you walk down the aisle! My only child, and I missed it. I missed the biggest day of your life.” Amy could hardly choke past the anger in her throat, the anger that made her slap Michael Guerin. He took her daughter to Reno and married her, without Amy knowing. Her daughter was married.

Maria looked at Michael, her guilt evident on her face. It had been spontaneous. After they started sleeping together again, and Michael seemed over the worse of it. He showed up to pick her up on his bike after work. She smiled when he handed her a helmet. That usually meant he wanted to take a ride. A long ride. Away from Roswell.

They drove. Neither of them really thinking of where they were going. It was late Friday night. They drove through the night. It felt good. It felt free. When they got to Reno it was almost like a silent agreement when they found themselves standing in a chapel getting married. No one knew. No one. There had been no premeditation or malicious intent associated. It seemed necessary, as necessary as that night when they merged. The alien side and the human side were finally united.

The guilt was the lie. She lied to her mother, not by the act, but rather the omission. Michael frowned. He had a part in this.

Holding Maria close, he held her against him, his hand on her cheek. Amy watched them, and she was startled when Michael made direct eye contact. “What can we do to make you feel better about this? How can we make amends?” He asked.

Amy never thought of it like that. She had planned to be angry for a while, and then perhaps find a way to let it go. After all, Maria was her child. Her daughter. She couldn’t lose her daughter.

The punishment. It could be glorious. A huge wedding ceremony. Michael forced to be fitted for a tuxedo. Maria moving back into the house with her until the ceremony that would take place in eight to ten months. No sex. An engagement. Amy allowed all the possible torture she could devise to race through her mind. Oh, it was lovely. Very lovely.

But unrealistic.

“I want my daughter married in the church.”

Maria smiled. “It was a wedding Chapel, Mom.”

Amy made a noise in her throat. “I mean our church, Maria. Not some mocked up Elvis Chapel or sleazy joint. A real church.”

Michael groaned, but he quickly swallowed it when Amy shot daggers at him. “What are we talking about here?” There was a line of sweat moving down his back. Fear. So that was what fear tasted like.

“Next weekend. Our Chapel on Saturday afternoon. Just us, the priest, and your friends if you want.” Amy smiled. She could torture them, but it really wasn’t in her nature. What they had done couldn’t be undone, and perhaps it was part of being a parent. Learning to step back and allow your children to make their own mistakes. How else could they learn? “I’ll make the arrangements. Flowers. Clothing. Priest. Everything. It won’t be elaborate, but I want to do it anyway. I’ve a bank account that I started when Maria was only three set aside for her wedding day.”

“Mom!” Maria’s eyes filled with tears. If her mother wanted her to feel bad so she could feel better, then her mother succeeded. She felt like crap. Cheating her mother out of that special day was never her intent.

Amy kissed her daughter’s cheek and pressed a hand to Michael’s cheek, the one she had slapped. “Don’t worry. It’ll be beautiful. I promise. Simple, elegant. Understated and private.”

What else could they do, but agree?

~~~

“She took it better than I thought.” Michael said eating his sandwich. Maria shrugged. A slap was better? She didn’t want to know what worse was. Moving her meat off her sandwich, she passed it to Michael as he passed her his tomatoes.

“We need to get this Rath thing taken care of, Michael. We can’t let my Mom down. Not after we promised.”

“Agreed. You all set on the time table?”

Maria smiled. “I synchronized my watch.” Maria discreetly looked around. The others hadn’t joined them yet. It was pizza day. They rarely brought their lunches when there was hot pizza, so Maria looked over to where they were standing in the lunch line. “You think Rath is right? That Lonnie is here with Shellie?”

Michael shrugged. It made sense. Lonnie went where she knew the black cone was. She wouldn’t trust Rath enough, so it was sound thinking to believe that she would come to Roswell to keep a close eye on him.

“He seems to think she has been watching him.”

Maria stopped eating her cheese and tomato sandwich. Michael pushed the alfalfa sprouts at her. Maria absentmindedly added them to her sandwich. “How? Does he feel her?”

Michael shrugged. That was too personal of a question in his view to ask Rath. “I don’t think so. I think he feels Shellie nearby.”

“Really!” That was interesting. Very interesting. Maria snuck a glance at him. “I’m really sorry for this morning.”

Michael chewed his sandwich slowly. “Don’t be. Any man ever runs off and marries my daughter, I’d kill him. Your mother showed considerable restraint, considering.”

Maria’s eyes went solemn, and she reached over ignoring everyone around them. Kissing him, she moved into his body, felt him. He was sometimes surprisingly the most understanding of men. He always found a way to surprise her.

“People are staring,” said Kyle as he sat down with his pizza and books. They ignored him too. “Your reputation Michael is skyrocketing. After kissing Muriel Puce yesterday, everyone is dubbing you the kissing bandit. Now publicly macking on Maria adds to your mystique.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Michael said confused.

Maria’s eyes narrowed. “Muriel Puce? Band camp, Muriel?”

“Yeah. She’s telling everyone how she left the band room yesterday and Michael without provocation grabbed her, kissed her, and even spanked her…um, well ample endowment.”

“No way!” Maria looked at Michael, and he helplessly shook his head no, shrugging his confusion.

“Said you howled like a wolf at the moon, and stuck your tongue at her, too.” Michael rolled his eyes, and moaned. Maria tried to bite back a smile. Rath.

The rest joined them, and Michael moved away from Maria. “I’ve got to go. We’ll finish this later.” He was away before anyone could stop him. Poor thing. Roswell’s very own kissing bandit.

~~~

She watched him. What the hell was he up to? He made contact, but then surprisingly he seemed to move in with his dupe, the one called Michael. Lonnie clicked a thoughtful nail against her teeth.

It was some time before Michael returned. Watching, she saw them fighting. Exchanging heated words, and a few things went flying. Frowning, Lonnie wished she could get closer without being seen. Michael rushed out the apartment, and yelled at Rath. He was loud. He was angry.

“I don’t give a fuck! Get out of my home. Get out of my damn life! I don’t have what you want, if I did, you’d be the last person I’d help!”

Lonnie lifted a brow as the one called Michael drove off on his bike. Pity. They might have to hurt someone to get what was needed. Lonnie laughed to herself. Tough job, but someone had to do it.

The apartment seemed to explode in a flurry of activity and finally Rath came out of the apartment. He looked equally angry. More than that. He looked pissed and mean. He walked away with a purpose to his stride, so Lonnie followed.

Roswell High School. West Roswell High. Lonnie followed at a distance, frowning as Rath seemed to skulk in the shadows.

~~~

Maria moved down the hallway, searching her bag for gum. Damn. Something had to make her stay awake. She couldn’t ingest anymore caffeine, and her next class was history. She was in trouble. Major trouble of falling asleep and humiliating herself.

As it turned out, Maria didn’t have to worry about staying awake. A figure moved up behind her in the deserted hallway, and a hand came over her mouth. Struggling for a few moments, her screams muffled, she suddenly didn’t see anything as darkness fell.

Rath quickly picked her up, carrying her to a car he stole. She was light, and would wake in a few moments. He wanted to be gone before that. Before anyone missed her. Careful to collect her bag, he left nothing behind as a clue.

Lonnie watched Rath kidnap that Maria girl, the Commander’s girlfriend. Smart. Leverage to get what was needed. Lonnie laughed. Calling Nicolas, she reported to him the events, and Nicolas who was following a pissed off Michael was suddenly more interested in seeing Michael’s reaction as he received a call on a cell phone. According to Nicolas, when the call came, Michael got very upset. Nicolas was following him out of Roswell.

Lonnie hung up and followed Rath and the kidnapped Maria. Her prisoner was on ice, not going anywhere. She had time.

By the time Rath made the nookie motel on 285 South, Maria was recovering consciousness. Lonnie watched as the girl was giving Rath an obvious bad time in the car. She wasn’t surprised to see him manhandle her into the motel room slamming the door. Lonnie sat back and watched through the partially opened curtains as Rath and his victim seemed to have an altercation, and more. Rath would win the day, of that Lonnie had no doubt. He wasn’t the brightest match in the box, but he was charming and deadly when he wanted to be. No woman could resist his bad boy attitude and deadly boyish charm. Add in that he actually knew what he was doing, and Lonnie gave Maria bad odds.

~~~

“What the hell was that?” Maria demanded. Rath shrugged. “You could’ve mentioned that I was going to be knocked out.”

“It worked.”

“I was planning to give a real good show of a girl being abducted! Struggling. Screaming. But, no! No. I hate losing consciousness. What did you do?”

“Nothing!” Damn, he heard all this in the car. He didn’t hurt her. He just capitalized on the tiredness she had been fighting, and gave her brain a suggestion to take a little nap. “I didn’t want to draw attention!” How could she think her doing her dramatic act was going to work to their advantage. They were performing for an audience of one.

“Whatever!” Maria paced the room, keeping her gestures wild and dramatic, gesturing to him. “Think she’s watching?”

“Yeah,” said Rath. He stood to the side and spied a car across the way with a figure inside. “Yeah, there she is.”

Maria bit her lip. “What should we do? Should I toss stuff at you?”

He shook his head. “No. That might attract management.” Rath seemed to be thinking of what to do. He looked over at Maria, and smiled a charming smile. Maria’s eyes narrowed at the obvious wolfish glance checking out her assets.

“Oh, I don’t think so! We’ve got an audience.”

“Exactly. What do you think she expects to happen?”

“I…that’s no reason to promote voyeurism.” Maria was faltering.

She knew he was watching her mouth now, mesmerized. Unsure how to advance on this, she reached for a pen that was in his shirt pocket. Maybe she should make a list of why this wasn’t such a great plan? The coolness of the room’s air conditioning and obvious sleaziness was forgotten as she touched the pen with her tongue, tasted it. Salty from being in his fingers, from having rested all day in his pocket, against the steamy heat of his skin.

His pupils dilated, his fingers clenched as he tore his gaze from the sight of her tongue, circling the tip of his pen. Deep breathing, again and again, the last one was shaky and rough. Striving for control. Stick with the plan. Don’t get distracted.

But obviously Maria didn’t want him to be in control. She tapped the tip of the pen, wet with saliva, against her sternum. Dipping it quickly down the cleavage of the skimpy top of her light sundress and back out.

She didn’t know what kind of animal she wanted him to be, but she knew what she was. A predator. Something sleek and sly. A serene streamlined face hiding what she was inside. She was used to hiding behind a façade, and Michael had been one of the few people she let in. Smiling to herself, she lifted an eyebrow. Quick and daring and on fire. That’s what she felt.

“What should we do to pass time.”

Damn. He was trying to be good. Really he was, but he should’ve known better. “Let me change…” Damn, he had so many suggestions for how to pass time.

“Uh uh.” Maria gestured to the partially open window and their watcher. “Leave it on!”

He looked at her sharply, intrigued by this new aspect. He realized she was watching for his reaction, almost holding her breath to see what happened. Teasing him. She was teasing him. Watching his reaction. Waiting with tense, dangerous daring.

His chest expanded with a deep, ragged breath. Enticing rapid movement of muscle. His pupils dilated even further, until his iris was only a coffee colored line edging black depths. Who was he to deny his nature, and damn, there seemed something in her that responded to that very temperament.

He wanted her. He wanted to respond to the deliberate flirtation in her eyes. She could feel it steaming off him, like the body heat rising from the desert. Bad, this was bad. The taste of power under her control was intoxicating. Maybe she was becoming a junkie? An extreme sex junkie?

Keeping the live show in the middle of the room, she made sure their watcher had an eye full, or at least for now. Sometimes it wasn’t the act as much as the suggestion that was really telling.

His gaze met hers, surprised and direct. Asking ‘what are you doing?’ at the same time it dared her to continue. An invisible gauntlet was tossed down. Would she retreat?

And she caught the look in his eyes, the dare. He was teetering on the line between propriety and passion. She touched him, his face and the warm, satiny skin of his temple. Fingering the silky strands of his hair through her fingers, she stepped in on him. So close. Too close. He was going to hell for this, and he was taking her with him. He could tip her head for a kiss or dip his head to bury his face in her breasts, exposed by her low top and cleavage. Whichever one he chose he’d win.

He tipped her head back, following the gentle persuasion of her fingers tugging on his hair. His eyes widened even further, surprised and pleased. She was going to play. Now how far? His lips parted. His tongue snaked out to touch the sexy fullness of her upper lip.

An invitation too sweet to pass up. She kissed him, teasing his mouth as deliberately as she teased his gaze. Touching the corners of his mouth, she teased his tongue into coming to her. He tasted of something so indefinably him. He tasted of something she must have, needed.

His breathed against her mouth as a tattered exhale raged through his lungs.

She backed away from him, and he pursued. Uh uh. She started it. For whatever reason hardly mattered now. He was engaged. Animal grace. Animal power. Mesmerized by her smile, by an undeniable desire. He walked her backwards toward the bed, without touching her. There was a spark in her eyes. Perhaps fear. Perhaps something else. Anticipation.

Sitting on the bed, he didn’t care if Lonnie could any longer see. Fuck Lonnie. He lured Maria. Reeled her in by grasping the thin material of her sun dress. He pulled her between his knees. Slipping his fingers inside the holes between buttons that closed her dress up the front, he moved his fingers over the soft skin of her belly. Buttons came open allowing his fingers to move along a greater expanse of skin.

He didn’t ask her if she wanted this. He didn’t care. At this moment? He didn’t care. Unbuttoning the dress, he held her gaze unwavering, keeping her mesmerized under the controlling intensity of his dark gaze. The dress moved off her body, leaving her naked except for a small pair of panties. He took care of them with a wave of his hands, as they spanned the width of her body, moving slowly, like fluttering wings barely brushing her skin. Up to her waist, her ribs, and her chest. Thumbs brushed the hollow at the base of her throat. Touched her lips.

Maria’s eyes half closed, too tired to keep open under the passion, as she touched her tongue to his fingertips. Rough, salty skin.

His breath caught. He wanted this. Wanted her. The one little sound of his breath struggling in his lungs was all the urging she needed as he gathered her to him, strong arms across her naked back, tilting her face to his. He offered his mouth up.

She tasted him again. His lips and his teeth and his questing tongue. Desire growing until it was a hum to match the boiling of blood in her veins. A throbbing pulse like a bass drum. She pushed him back, shoulders gripped in her small hands. A moment of pause, a recognition that she was out of control, lost in some need. She trailed her fingers across the tiny peaks of his nipples, visible through the thin cotton of his shirt.

She gripped the waistband of his jeans, slowly unbuttoning the fly. He helped her, rolling from hip to hip, as he allowed her to slide the tight jeans off. Final roll, he came to rest on his back, breathing harshly, his cock stretched hard and long up his belly.

"I’ve wanted to fuck you all day." He said.

Savoring the words, she tasted the flash of heat in her veins as if it tasted of him, salt and strength. Raw, rough words that were not a part of her everyday vocabulary, but seemed right, uttered from her mouth as she expressed shock of how much she felt. Sounds, those were proper in the heat, with him erect and trembling and so strong. So willing to lie there quiescent under her hands. So incredibly arousing wearing only sweaty skin, the tattoos and piercings and a tight black tee-shirt.

She moistened her lips, mouth suddenly dry. Not at all like the swollen, slickened flesh between her legs... "I’ve been stalking you all day. Following your scent." He said, making her whimper. She was falling hard. She needed help.

He whispered, "Yes." Too controlled, too casual, as if he was agreeing to anything. Yes. He felt her. All of her. The rush of it in her veins, the need. The King. Mated. A taste of the alien. It called like a beacon. Then he said, "I felt you."

And she knew, suddenly, that he was the hunter. He knew more than she could, being the prey. He understood instinctually things she could only feel. Sitting quietly in the shadows, hooded and camouflaged and waiting. He would always win. Sinuously weaving his spell, charming her into coming to him. Into stepping into his trap. A trap baited with honey and muscle and sweat-slicked skin.

She climbed up over him, dragging the hard points of her nipples across his skin. Dragging her tongue across his skin. Tasting him. His skin, his musk. Marking him with the wet tip of her tongue. Her nails left a bite in his skin, small semi-oval indents.

He shivered as she kissed the soft flesh where his thigh joins his body. As she slid her tongue just up under the edge of his ribs pushing his t-shirt upward. Back down the flat plateau of his stomach. Skirting his cock. Touching it, as if by accident, then she moved away.

He held his breath, waited. Waited. Strained. And then no longer able to maintain the mask of acquiescence, of waiting, he reached for her. The hunter trapped his prey. "Suck me," he commanded, threading his fingers through her hair.

His hand on the back of her head, he guided her mouth to his cock. His hand using heavy force to direct her. She obeyed the pressure, feathered pleased laughter across his cock as she tasted him. The thick crown and the straining shaft and his heavy balls. She pressed her face into him. Inhaled him deep into her lungs. The mysterious masculine scent of him and the thatch of soft, crisp hair. Her head seemed to reel at the learning of his scent, so that she would know him in the dark. In a roomful of men.

She lapped at the wetness leaking from him. Tonguing him. Learning his taste. Answered with her own aching wetness, lush hot and throbbing, she moved against him like the wanton she was. A moaned exhale filled the room, but she wasn’t sure if it was his or hers.

"Don’t stop," he ordered. So he took back the control. That was okay. She loved the power, but she was always willing to share. Love was about sharing.

But this rough-voiced command she ignored, releasing him from her mouth, she crawled up his body once again. Pushing his shirt ahead of her fingers, she exposed corrugated ribs, the startling flare of his chest out to wide shoulders. Mesmerized by the marks of his body, her tongue followed the one that held her attention on his chest.

He arched, shifted to help her push the shirt away, as he tossed the shirt from the bed. Accepting the invasion of her tongue into his mouth, as she fed him the taste of himself. Maria moved away, and he couldn’t contain a sigh of disappointment.

The hair under his arms was darker than the light brown of his hair, and softer, like down. He shivered under the dance of her fingertips, ticklish. His nipples were a pink-brown, all wrong for his golden tan that had taken the paleness from winter skin, and she liked the imperfection. She stroked them causing him to shiver again. Letting her do it all was hard. He wanted to take the control, push her, but a part of him was intrigued by the thoroughness of her regard. It had always been about sex lately, and he liked this sense that this was more. Reverence. She touched with reverence. That made his heart beat a loud fast staccato beat in his chest, threatening to burst free of his sternum. She drew her hands down his body, reversing her journey. The trip was slow, sweet agony, punctuated with hard catches of his breath. He lifted his hips in tense anticipation, waiting for her to touch his gorged cock again. Almost like a chant in his head, he tried to make her see how much her touch on him intoxicated.

She grasped him. Silk and marble and fire. He was still wet from her mouth. His thickness filled her hand, as her thumb rubbed over the leaking head, gathering moisture, she watched him, almost in interest as she snaked her tongue out to lick the taste of him from her thumb, and suck it into her mouth. Damn, he had to close his eyes or lose it. Coming all over her and him wasn’t in his plan. He wanted in her, her mouth or anywhere.

He hissed as the sexual need drained his patience. That impatience rippled through her blood, drugging her. She tipped his cock up, away from his stomach, as she tilted her hips to take him. All of him. The thick head of his cock pushed the muscles inside her aside, drilling out a space for itself in her belly. She sighed softly, sighed out her pleasure as his growled out "yes," worked its way through her. It bubbled up out of her veins and into her lungs. The sound was loud as it escaped into the room to be breathed in again. Her muscles quivered around him, deliciously stretched.

His hands came up, to grasp her hips, to pull her down, seating her hard into his groin. He held her in place, thrusting upward, using the slack give of the mattress as a springboard to launch himself into her. Deeper and deeper.

Maria made incredible sounds, encouraging him as she sheathed him. There was nothing. Nothing but the moment, the increasing momentum as the steady climb to orgasm increased with his ever movement. Her flesh quivered and tightened as he slid home. A pumping action that she helped, as she rode his flesh hard wanting him harder and deeper in her.

Pleasure became more persistent with each thrust, more a demand rather than a request. A light of something almost sinister lit in his eyes as he watched her. He increased the sheer brutal pounding not holding back until she was moaning, clenching her fingers on his ribs with each pulse. Climbing, climbing…sure that each piercing stab would be the one that would send her over the edge. Laughing in the back of his throat, he liked the way that her more giving nature was lost in this time, how she became completely selfish in her need to find completeness. She was close, so close. He could tell. It wasn’t just the almost spastic movement of her stomach muscles, but the beaded tightness of her nipples.

"Come for me. I’m ready." His hands tightened on her. His words bit into her. A warning and an order. A promise. Rhythm speeding, going ragged. There was a need to flip them at this critical moment, to push her to the bottom, and pull her legs over his shoulders so he could increase the angle, pound into her as she pulled apart, and long after she was riding the orgasm, that extra push that made pleasure border on pain. But he didn’t. This was her party, and he wanted the pleasure of his position that afforded him a close up view of her coming for him. Only him. He was that greedy. The pleasure of watching what he could do to her.

"Yes," she whispered fiercely. Captivated by his face. His eyes had gone almost black with pleasure as the pupils dilated to obscure the brown. Muscles bunched under her fingers as his back arched, straining to push deeper into her.

"Oh. Oh, god!" The grip, release, and grip of his fingers on her waist punctuated each sound. And then everything tightened down. His fingers and his muscles and his newly expressive face. "Oh, god…" Everything. Freeze. Except his cock. It jerked, lifted up to meet her, grind into her, against something primitive and tender inside her.

She pressed down to meet him, straining. Needing just a little more pressure. Just a little more movement. There. Almost there… "Please…"

"Now," he gasped. "Oh, god, that’s good..." His voice, his gruff, torn with pleasure voice, was the push she needed. Just enough to send her over the edge.

Her orgasm washed over them. Like waves. Like rain. Like wind, rushing through treetops and exposing the silvery undersides of the leaves. Rippling up, out. Strong. Her insides clenched down on him as he continued to pound in her, wanting to push her a little beyond the initial release. That clenching of internal muscles did him. He screamed as the orgasm took of the top of his head. The pleasure was rushing beyond her body’s ability to sustain it. It made her moan, tip her head back. She looked at the ceiling, unable to look at him another moment. Sensory overload. Too much, too beautiful. God, she loved alien sex. Only sex she knew. Maria never had any intention to experiment with straight human sex. If it wasn’t broke, there was no need to fix it.

He arched higher to meet her, urging the sensations higher. He was through. His breath was raspy and labored as he pushed through the orgasm to hit another level of high. His hands left her hips. His fingers quickly entwined with hers now, holding her weight, helping her to stay upright, and he laughed, pleased at the confused look on her face. She didn’t know how they got there. Only that her hands were opening and closing on his beautiful fingers in time to the pulsing of her orgasm. Only that he was holding her, gripping her as if he was going to go on forever. Thrusting up into her, he gasped with pleasure as she screamed, her body vibrating with sensation. And peaked again. And again. Sudden sharp little jabs of sensation. Her mouth tasted of metal as she bit the inside of her lip, as pain and pleasure merged into an edge. He was going to kill her with orgasms.

He stilled, bringing her down with him. They relaxed into the mattress. At last, he released his grip on her fingers, allowing her to drop forward. Welcoming her boneless roll into his arms.

His chest rose and fell beneath her cheek, his labored breathing stirred her hair. His chest was damp and tasted of salt. Smells of him, it moved with her all day, surrounded her when he grabbed her from behind, holding against his body. She had to give him back the intoxicating scent of himself, and the taste she had of him. Moving on him, her body sweaty and soft on him, as her mouth lapped at him.

He sighed softly, groaned as she rocked. Soft now, but still thick and lodged inside her. He shivered as her tongue traced his jaw. The place that she associated with him, because it was the yardstick by which she measured his moods. It clenched when he was annoyed, rippled when he was angry, and smoothed out when he was relaxed. It held people away when he was upset, with a forbidding jut that she had never seen anyone brave enough to withstand. And now, with his hands stroking lazily on her bare back, pressing lightly on her ass to rock her down on him, his jaw dipped. Turning slightly to nuzzle along her skin and hair. Inviting the gentle touch of her tongue. The nuzzling, a thank you.

He turned his head still lower, searching for her mouth. Found her blindly. Kissed her gently and whispered the word again. “Good?”

Maria stretched along him, feeling him still in her. This was bad. Very bad. Later. She would feel bad about this later, but not right now. "Good."

He moved to draw her further up onto the bed, but before he could, the door to the motel slammed open and there stood an angry Michael staring at them entangled in the sheets, in the bed. His face turning a deeper shade of red.

“Fuck! I can’t believe this! I leave yah alone and yah roll in the sheets!” The figure of Michael at the door quickly morphed into his real form of Rath. His eyes narrowed as he looked at himself in bed with Maria. Now that was just wrong! “I can’t believe yah, G! Using my face to toss the babe!” God, he hated them both! Here he was working and they were playing.

Michael, still looking like Rath, leaned back in the bed putting his arms up behind his head while Maria buried her head in his body laughing softly. He smirked at Rath. Fair play. He used Michael’s face in New York City to try to get in bed with Maria, it seemed poetic to actually do the same to Rath. Punked out bastard kissing Muriel Puce in his face!

Michael looked down at Maria with his Rath face and made a Rath smile at her which made her laugh.

“Dammit, G! Take it off.” Rath hated them. He really hated them. They were supposed to be working not fucking. They needed to get their priorities straight. “If yah are through balling, can we get back to work?”

Chapter Eight

The sting…

Maria rolled her eyes as Michael morphed himself back into his own form sitting up in the bed to reach over the side for his jeans. Who would’ve thought Rath would be a killjoy. Taking the sheet with her, Maria wrapped herself up in it chuckling at Michael’s reaction of having himself left nude on the bed as she headed for the shower. She didn’t want to be in there for the next part.

The fight.

Michael and Rath facing off in a fight for their observer could only be a little too real, too violent, and….Maria laughed at herself, too arousing. Strange how much she loved watching Michael use his powers. Now that he had some real control, they didn’t scare her as much as they used to, but that might depend on what he used them for.

Michael waited until the bathroom door shut. Buttoning up his jeans, he looked at Rath, and laughed. Strange. So much of his life he rarely found anything to laugh at, and suddenly he found so much about the world amusing. Maybe he forgot he was supposed to find it all so important.

“How you want to do this?”

“Big. I just walked in on yah fucking my bitch. She’ll expect a huge confrontation.” Rath scratched his eyebrow. “I’z don’t see hows come I couldn’t go with Maria, and yah be yah.”

Michael shrugged into his shirt. “Forget it, bottle job, she wouldn’t have slept with you, and if you think I was going to let you kidnap Maria, then you are substandard mental.”

“Yah are so fucking greedy, yah know that, G?”

Michael made a face. “Your point?”

Rath smiled. “Yah flexin’ on me, G?”

Michael laughed. “Let’s get it on!”

“Wait! What if I wuz gonna give the black cone thing to Lonnie?”

“It’s not a black cone. It’s my damn lava lamp. I just altered it to look like the cone.”

Rath scratched his eyebrow again. His eyes narrowing. “So where is the cone?”

“Safe.” Michael looked around for his shoes. Michael looked at Rath when he was suddenly quiet. “You didn’t think I’d trust you with it?”

Rath looked angry, but his face cleared and he smiled. “Smarter than the average bear?”

“Yeah, lets rock and roll, Booboo.”

Rath stopped Michael. “For the record…” Rath’s eyes were deadly serious, and emotionless. “I’d not deal with Lonnie. She’d not get the cone from me, not even if a first class ticket to Antar was handed to me. She took what was mine. The bitch is going down.”

“Then lets get it going. You got the plan?” Rath nodded. “Maria’s phone?” Rath held it up. Michael smiled. “Think you can lose her?”

“Cake. Let’s do sum damage.”

Michael smiled. His favorite part.

Maria was stepping out the shower when the entire room seemed to explode. The walls seemed to groan and she could feel the room move. Beneath the door there was light. Lots of light, as loud noises and explosions sounded from the other room. Maria screamed when she heard glass in the other room burst from its panes and the mirrors. The mirror in the bathroom went as well.

Scrambling into her clothes, Maria looked around. Her shoes! Dammit! She left her shoes in the other room. Those two better not destroy them. It was the slamming of the front door that had Maria looking out of the bathroom door. Michael was already there.

“C’mon. We’ve got to go!”

“My shoes!” Michael swore and looked around the trashed room. Spotting her shoes under the bed he grabbed them and impatiently waited while Maria put them on.

“Maria!”

“Hold your damn horses.” Maria stood up. “There! No how do we get outside?”

“Bathroom window.”

“Uh uh.”

“Maria…”

“Did you even look at the bathroom window?” Maria moved out of the way and pointed to a small window high off the floor. Michael swore aloud, and ran his hands through his hair. Okay, minor glitch. “How about the front door?”

“She’ll see us.” Michael looked at his watch. Damn. They were almost out of time. Rath was supposed to go vandalize the candy machine, pace a little to make sure Lonnie saw him holding the cone before taking the stolen car and leading her on a wild chase, one that they would follow as well. “We’ll have to go out the window.”

Michael held up his hand and blew the thick clouded glass. Taking his jacket, he reached up and knocked off any shards.

“Michael, I don’t know. This…”

“C’mon. Foot up.” He offered Maria two hands for a boost.

“Why me first?”

Michael stopped his jaw firming up and flexing. Ummm. His irritated look. “Okay, you give me a leg up.”

Maria’s mouth opened. “No way! You weigh a ton!” Putting her hand on his shoulder, she put her foot in his hands, her other hand on the window sill helping to pull herself up.

“Maria, pull yourself up!”

“I am!” Maria mumbled under her breath about how much she hated physical exertion. Her foot slipped out of his hand and hit a very soft part of his anatomy making him umph, loud and hard. Pushing his hands on her ass, he tried to give her more of a boost.

“God, get your ass up there!” Michael swore.

Maria looked over her shoulder at him. “Did you say my ass was fat?”

“Maria, I worship your ass, but I’ll worship it more on the other side of the window.” He exerted more force and she toppled through the window. He winced when he heard her hit the ground, her groan, and then curse. Pulling himself up into the high window he looked outside on the ground. “Um, you okay, honey?”

A dirt clot hit him in the face. Pulling himself through the window, he just barely missed falling on Maria. Kissing her quickly, he grabbed her hand, and led her around the motel towards where he had parked the Jetta earlier. They got inside, and started the motor. Leaving the lights off, they drove around the motel until they spotted Lonnie. Rath was still in the laundry room causing problems. Michael rolled his eyes. He should’ve put a time limit on how long Rath could cause problems. They waited until finally Rath came out, looked both ways, and then jumped into the stolen car Michael had used to abduct Maria. He took off in the night.

Lonnie and Nicolas had joined forces again. They pursued Rath and the black cone. The Jetta discreetly followed them. After a few miles, Maria called Rath. She handed the phone to Michael.

“We got her covered. Think you can lose her now?”

Rath had the music up so loud in the other car, Michael cringed. “Yo, yah bet, peeps. Watch this!” Michael hung up and handed Maria the phone again.

“What the…” Maria screeched as she grabbed for something to hold onto as Michael took a curve too fast. “Michael!”

Michael was too busy swearing. Rath had increased his speed, as did Lonnie and Nicolas. Since Michael and Maria were driving dark, using Lonnie’s headlights to light the way, they were forced to increase their speed to keep up, otherwise they would have to turn on their headlights.

“Maria, just hold on to something!” Maria complied. “Not that! Something else!” Michael squirmed in his seat trying to rearrange himself. Her nails had dug into his inner thigh, and he was not so comfortable as his body responded in an excited sexual manner.

Maria wasn’t paying attention. “Michael!!”

He turned his attention to the road and almost had to slam on the brakes to avoid crashing into Lonnie. The crazy bitch stopped dead in the middle of the road. She lost Rath. Michael quickly pulled to the side of the road and waited to see what she did. Maria waited chewing on a nail.

“Michael…”

“Sh.”

Maria gave up. He wasn’t going to be very communicative when he was busy concentrating on driving and avoiding having Lonnie see them. It took a few moments, or at least what felt like a few moments before Lonnie took off again. They quickly followed. It was a good hour before she stopped what was obviously an attempt to find where Rath had gone.

Finally, she turned and headed in a direction leading them towards Fraser’s Woods. Following became difficult as the woods were dark enough to make seeing, even using Lonnie’s headlights, almost impossible as the reflected light was eaten up by the dense trees. After two turns into smaller roads, both barely single car dirt roads, Michael stopped when he saw her speed decrease even more, and she was stopping. There was a cabin. Dark. In the center of Fraser Woods. Looked like an old hunter’s retreat.

Michael took the phone from Maria and called Rath.

“Where are you?”

“Roswell. I wuz gonna go to the Crashdown place and get some grub.”

Michael frowned. “Who’s face are you wearing?”

Rath chuckled, and Michael’s eyes narrowed. That meant his. Rath was going to get him into trouble. “Wouldn’t you rather rescue your girlfriend?”

“Fuckin’ A! It worked?” Michael rolled his eyes. Obviously Rath had no confidence in the ‘plan’. It was one of Maria’s…..um, his better ones.

“Of course it worked! We’re at Lonnie, the whore of Antar’s secret secret lair. Fifty large that your missing insanity plea is inside.”

“Read me streets, G! I’m on the way.”

Michael quickly gave Rath the directions from Roswell to their location in Fraser’s Woods. “Careful on the last turn. You’ll need to go dark since it is pitch out here, and any headlights would be seen. Don’t! I repeat, DO NOT run your damn car into the parked Jetta. I’ve already got in-law troubles.”

“I’m green, G. Trust me. See yah in a few.”

Michael snorted. Trust him? Fat chance. Little green men from Antar didn’t have a black column sheet. It was all red. Usually blood.

“Michael, can you see what this sticky stuff is? I got it on my dress. I sincerely hope it’s not sap. The last sap I ran into cost me a sweater, and my mom’s good humor.”

Michael looked down at Maria. Except for the paleness of her face and hands, she was pretty much a blur in the darkness. “Naw. Not sap. Probably something buggy.”

“Buggy?” Maria’s voice took on an edge of hysteria. Looking around her, squinting her eyes as she tried to see in the darkness, Maria frantically tried to see what must be armies of creepy crawlies all marching towards her in full battle armor. “Bugs? There are bugs?”

Michael took her hand and pulled her with him. “It’s the forest, Maria. Of course there are bugs. C’mon.”

He took off, and Maria wasn’t fast enough to grab him before his back seemed to meld into the darkness.

“Michael!” Maria’s frantic whisper rising in hysteria. He left her. Left her in the middle of the frickin’ woods with mysterious bugs ready to cocoon her into the next meal of countless generations. They would find her decimated body, sucked dry of all vital and essential fluids. She would be a moisturizing nightmare. Some County Patrolman would find her mummified remains, and her mom would swear that it couldn’t be her, since she, Maria, was a noteworthy user of oily materials and body moisturizers.

Maria screamed as something grabbed her, but the scream was choked away by Michael’s hand over her mouth.

“You coming? Or you taking a nature break?”

Maria practically hugged the stuffing out of him. Hooking a hand into the back of his jeans’ waistband, she let him lead her in the dark. “I’d rather explode my bladder than take a pee in the woods in the middle of the night.”

“Good to know. Shhh. They’ll hear us.”

“What over the loud drone of crickets in mating season? Ya think?”

“Shhhh!”

They closed in to the cabin, keeping low and in the shadows, which wasn’t hard since everywhere was shadows. Michael finally stopped when they were just out of the range of the light from the cabin. Lantern light. The place was rustic. It probably had no electricity.

“Oh great! The Una-bomber’s weekend retreat!” Maria moved in up close and personal to her husband for protection from the winged nightlight. “Baby, you take me to the best places!”

Michael laughed softly at that. “Great, huh? And you thought marriage would be boring.”

Maria giggled. “Living in sin has a lot to recommend it. I have so much to confess to the Father. It’s always fun to see how many times I can get him to drop his bible in confessional.”

Michael frowned and looked over to Maria. “You confess about me?”

Framing his face, she kissed him softly breathing on his lips. “You, are between me and my God, personally.”

A voice came out of the darkness next to them making Maria gasp in surprise. “Mackin’ on each other again! I shudda known not to leave yah two horn dogs alone.” Rath said. Maria reached over and smacked him on the arm for frightening. “Guess I’ll be grateful that yah ain’t rolling in the leaves like mating fuck hounds.” Michael chuckled amused. It was unsettling, but the longer he was exposed to Rath, the more amused he became.

Maria shook her head. “Amazing! He’s so damn charming and classy! It must be a family trait.”

“We’re nothing alike,” said Michael sourly. Rath for once had to agree. He nodded enthusiastically. He’d hate to be confused with Michael. The boy had a damn stick up his ass.

Maria looked at the identical firmness of their jaws, the way they both absentmindedly scratched their brow, frowned, and then made a face of irritation. Uh huh. Nothing alike at all.

Rath snorted. “So what’s the plan?” Michael quickly outlined a way to move in on the cabin, but Rath quickly disagreed. “No way. Lonnie won’t believe it. I say, I go in first. Straight. Front door. Angry like, yah see. Give me back my bitch, or I’ll fry your fat ass.”

“That’s a possibility,” Maria said. “Very elegant. To the point. Why?”

Rath shrugged. “Lonnie knows me. Subtle, I’m not.”

Michael mulled it over. “He’s got a point. Fine. Rath, you go in the front. Engage them in a way unique to you, and I’ll come up the rear.”

Maria patted Michael on the back. “Good plan! We’ll go in the back, rescue the girl, and…”

“Nothing. You,” Michael said pointing to Maria, “Are going back to the Jetta, and waiting.”

Maria’s mouth opened, closed, and then opened again. “We always go in together! It’s our dynamic duo trademark!”

“Uh uh! Too many aliens in the mix. You could be collateral damage. You wait in the car.”

“I can’t find the car in the dark.” Maria said huffily. “I’m going with you, end of story! For better or worse, Spaceboy!”

“Maria, I’m not kidding here. This could get deadly. I want you out of harms way.” Michael shook his head. “For once, can’t you do as I ask?”

“No.” Maria said plainly. “No I can’t. You’ll get into trouble without me.” Michael made a face at that, and shot Rath a look for snickering.

“Maria…”

Maria stood up brushing off her clothes. “Good. Then it’s agreed. I’ll go with you. I couldn’t find the car in the dark even if you pissed an incandescent trail straight to it.” Rath laughed at that. It was dark in the woods. He needed to piss, but he doubted he could even find his dick in this darkness.

“Maria….”

Rath swore. “This keeps up, I’m going to go water a tree!”

“Hold your fucking water. Maria…”

“I’m going. I’ll stay outside the cabin door, until you give me an all clear.” Maria stared at Michael. “Can you imagine how much trouble I could get into if I’m left out here alone?”

Michael sighed. Damn. She was a trouble magnet. Great. He married an emotional blackmailer. He needed his head examined. “Okay, fine! You come. Outside the door, Maria! No argument.”

“Fine. No argument.” Michael rolled his eyes at that. Fat chance of her keeping that promise.

Rath snickered. His dupe was whipped. “I’m outy. Catch you in a flip. Give me five.”

“Done.” Michael said, as he and Maria watched Rath take the fake black cone towards the cabin.

~~~

“You lost him!” Nicolas whined.

“Shut up!” Lonnie looked up the dark road. He was there. And now he wasn’t. Damn Rath was a pain in the ass. She should have killed him a long time ago. “He can’t be far. We’ll go a little farther, and then double back. He’s probably off pissing on the side of the road oblivious, and I passed him unaware.”

Nicolas shook his head. This was a stupid plan. He should’ve never involved the rejects. Past dealing with Lonnie, he thought he could trust her to do everything possible to get to Antar and Kivar. Guess he underestimated the pierced freak. Rath was being more of a challenge than he thought. It was totally unexpected how he made contact with his dupe, the Commander. Nicolas would’ve bet that Rath would’ve gone in blasting, killing, and maiming. Not sitting down and eating pizza.

They traveled for another half hour or more, before Nicolas’s patience ran out. “Forget this! I’ll find a way to make a deal with the mohawked punk.”

“Yor deal was with me! I can deliver. I’ve got his girl. He’ll come for her.”

Nicolas snorted. “You can’t know that! He spent half his life fucking you, and he had no problem walking away without a second glance. What makes you think this girl is so much more important? She isn’t even an alien. Just human.”

Lonnie swore, turning the car towards the place she was staying and had the girl stashed. “It’s not value for Rath. It’s property. Territory. He won’t allow anyone to take what he thinks is his.”

Nicolas smiled at that. Laughing, he noticed her look of interest at his amusement. “Sorry. I was just thinking that your statement shows how little you meant to him. You were out there putting out for whoever you wanted, and he didn’t blink an eye. He never cared when someone,” Nicolas said, meaning himself. “Encroached on his territory of you.”

“Yah ain’t got no clue what we’z had. No clue. It wuz more.”

“Uh huh. Like the Commander and his version of you? They never even kissed from all accounts, and they aren’t gagging for it either. Last account, Vilandra married a human, and the Commander didn’t blink an eye.” Nicolas laughed. “Now your geek with the tattoos replaced you immediately. If you’re right, he comes for her, then I guess we know who he values more, huh?”

“Shut up!” Lonnie took the next turn. “Shut the fuck up!”

When they got to the cabin she slammed out of the car, not caring if Nicolas followed. Fucking Rath. He was being unpredictable. She hated that. Her world was ordered around the knowledge that she called the shots in their relationship. That she was the one in control and power. Feeling him slip away, the last of them, it was a bitter taste in her mouth.

Lonnie went to check on her hostage. Shellie was gagged and tied up on a bed. She blinked owlishly when Lonnie slammed into the room, cringing. There were a few bruises on her body, and her tied wrists were chafed from where she struggled against the binds. She was beyond hunger, but water…a drink was all she could think about. The thirst quickly dissolved as fear of Lonnie replaced her need for water. Her mouth was dry.

“Yah think yor som’em to him?” Lonnie screamed at her. Shellie balled up as best she could, trying to be smaller somehow. “Yor nothin’! Nothin’!”

Lonnie waved her hand and made a chair slam against the wall breaking into a pile of wood. Her eyes never leaving Shellie as they became small, beady, and very snake-like as the cold depths held the coldest of rage, and not a spark of fire of living.

“Yah know what he did tonight?” Lonnie smiled maliciously. “He fucked the Commander’s slut. That’s right. Yor here, a hostage, and what’s he doing? He’s out there…fucking another girl. Oh but not just any girl!” Lonnie laughed mean, her voice a high pitched screech. “The Commander’s piece. Blonde fluff. Long legs. Skinny. Green eyes.” Lonnie lifted a brow. “He had a thang for her. Before he met yah. Strange. Yah could be her. This Maria girl. Yah look like her, except yor eyes are blue. From behind, I almost coudna find a difference.” Lonnie leaned closer. “When he fucks yah, he’s really wanting…pretending to fuck Maria, or me. I dumped his punk ass hard. But yah? Yor just a stand-in fuck!”

Shellie winced at that. When she first was with Rath, he always screamed the name Maria when he came. That was weeks ago. One day he stopped. He stared screaming her name. Shellie’s eyes filled with tears. At least he never screamed this bitch’s name.

“Yah know what he wuz doing the day I took yah?” Shellie shook her head no, and closed her eyes. She hated this woman. She was the ugliest person Shellie had ever seen. Lonnie laughed, needing to hurt something. Bad. “He wuz being blown by me. I had his dick in my mouth, suckin’ him off. Yah didn’t think yah wodda be enough for him? Yah, a human?” Lonnie spat out.

Lonnie picked Shellie up in a rage and shook her like a rag doll. “Yor nothin’! He uses yah like a playthang! Human pussy. After dinner mints. Yah ain’t nothin’ but som’em for him to get off in. Yah think he’ll come fur yah?”

Before Lonnie could really hurt Shellie, the front door in the other room slammed open as a force hit it hard. Rath’s voice rang out in the cabin, loud and clear.

“Honey! I’m home. Lucy, yah been very bad!”

Chapter Nine

Enrage…

Lonnie dropped Shellie back onto the bed and rushed into the room to see Rath and Nicolas facing each other. Rath held a black cone in his hand.

“Where is she?”

“Rath.” Lonnie said. She frowned at him. He wasn’t his usual uncaring self. The native sarcastic amusement was gone.

“Where is she?” Rath’s voice increased in volume and the wall shook. Lonnie watched Nicolas blink, and then gulp. He looked confused by the extent of Rath’s….um, wrath.

“The cone…” said Nicolas before his small body hit the wall with a resounding thump. Lonnie looked at what happened in interest. Rath was powerful. This was something new. He tossed Nicolas without a look or a wave of his hand.

Lonnie’s eyebrow went up. “Yah found some power, cuz.”

Rath looked at Lonnie dispassionately. “I won’t ask again.”

“She’s here. Though, I doubt she wants to see yah.”

Rath moved towards Lonnie with purpose. “What did yah do to her?” Rath’s hand coming up threateningly. “Pray, Lonnie. Pray to any God yah can. If you harmed her…”

“Oh, back off! I know yah. Yah can pick up pussy anywhere. I nevah thought this wudda worked. Since when have yah evah cared about anyone not yah?”

Rath’s eyes narrowed and his hand reached out.

“She’s okay! A little banged up. She resisted a little, but Snow White is still breathing.” Lonnie moved back a little, slightly relieved that Nicolas was standing up again. The two of them might be able to contain Rath. “Yah think she will want to know yah now? After she heard about yah and me? Yah and the Commander’s bitch?”

“Hey!” Came a voice through the window. “Watch who you’re calling bitch, you used up saggy breasted sow!”

Michael’s voice rose in irritation outside the door. “Maria!”

“She started it!”

Michael came through the back door, his hand going out to push Maria back outside. He pointed his finger at her, gesturing her to stay put.

Nicolas turned to look at Michael. “So Commander, we meet again.”

“The troll. I thought Tess disintegrated all you flaky skinned body snatchers.”

Nicolas laughed. “Why would she do that? She had a deal with us. Her and the Shapeshifter. Made you trust her though, didn’t it? Made it easy to make the King trust in her enough to bring her to the Summit. To impregnate her. Amazing how a little mindwarp, and an overblown destiny to children who have no purpose can skew the way.”

“What about Destiny?” Michael’s interest sparked. He hated that word. It ruined every life it touched.

Nicolas laughed. “You didn’t believe that whole destiny crap? It was supposed to make you want to come back to Antar. Save the hearth, home, and mommy and daddy. Just the four of you. No human entanglements. Home to Antar so you could be removed permanently.” Nicolas laughed mockingly, his daggers for Lonnie. “How were we to know that you would find the human version of Vilandra so unappealing that neither of you or your dupe would remain tied to her? You both were more willing to stray from destiny. How else were we going to retrieve and dispose of you before the others found you if you were off somewhere else, with other people? Creating ties to this world?”

“Others?” Michael said quietly, moving into the cabin a little more. The concept that there were others that created him intrigued Michael. Rath frowned. What was with this shit? He was here for Shellie, and to kill Lonnie. What did he care about politics and Antar. He was just a dupe. They wouldn’t want him anyway.

Maria entered the room, watching Michael with worried eyes. His dreams. His dream that they would come for him. His parents. His people. That there were others. Maria’s breath caught in her throat. Fear. Fear of losing him. Fear that he would be disappointed again. Fear that this would start a quest that would take him from her. All of them hit her at the same time, but she bit it back. It didn’t matter. He wouldn’t do it without her. Not this time, and if he felt compelled to leave, that would be something else they would work through. Dreams. They were important. They had to be. It was what made them work so hard everyday.

“So you’re interested, Commander. Interested in your home world?” Nicolas laughed. “Yes, there were others. Those who saw retrieving you from death as a good thing. By human standards, I don’t think you would like them much, but compared to those you met, they are perhaps a bit more palpable.”

Lonnie stared at Nicolas and Michael in frustration. This was her party. Her plan. They were excluding her as unimportant. “What the fuck does this have tah do with the black cone?” Antar. It was so close to her grasp. She was so close to getting off this penal colony of a world.

“The others. Tell me.” Michael said, his voice slightly hoarse.

“Your parents. A group of Royalists. Their hope was to keep your genetics active. Since you died before passing them along. There was no way to re-engineer you without some human DNA mixed in, and humans were the more compatible. Lucky you.” Nicolas shrugged. “They mixed two batches. One was a failure.” Nicolas looked at Rath and Lonnie. “Too much alien. Too much of what made you die in the first place. Too violent, a genetic shifting towards psychotic behavior, and even for our worlds this strain was not desired. The second batch had a stabilizing human component. We’ll call it the disgusting human heart or conscience. What a waste.”

“They meant to retrieve us?” Michael said. Nicolas was talking about his parents. Whether they were the same as Max and Isabel’s, he didn’t ask. They never cared to know anyway. He had hoped that he hadn’t been a mistake. A forgotten project. “Why didn’t they come?”

Nicolas laughed, his smile increasing. “They re-engineered you, sent you to Earth, the only place you could safely incubate, but there was the accident. The crash. And of course, there was Kivar’s order to murder and annihilate all of them. As many Royals as there remained or that could be found. There was always a fear we missed some and those would try to bring you back. Your parents fought a valiant death.”

Maria heard Michael’s quick intake of breath, felt the stillness of his body. “How would you know that?”

Nicolas’s eyes darkened into a pinpoint of a void. “I killed them personally. Just as I killed you.”

Maria closed her eyes. She didn’t need to watch. She could feel it. The power. It was something she had come accustomed to lately. It raged with him as the hot fires of anger and enragement burnt out of control. Michael’s eyes were narrowed, only half open, but the power of his body moved outward in a force wave. It hit Nicolas, shocking him as it hit.

“It’s impossible! You’re no longer him! You can’t have that amount of power…..” Nicolas had no time to be astounded or outraged. As his body stood there, upright. One moment living, the next moment nothing but a shell, that puffed into a flood of dust.

“No!” Screamed Lonnie, as she watched her only chance to return home explode before her eyes. “No!”

Rath grabbed her as she fell to her knees. “Yes! Where is Shell?” Rath shook her hard. “Where is she?”

“The black cone…I want, I need it. Give it to me, and take yor whore.” Lonnie said defiantly.

Rath threw her from him. Holding the black cone, he smiled. “Is this what yah want, Lonnie? What yah need?” Rath smiled mean and hard. “It is the one thing yah’ll nevah have!” Rath threw the black cone to the ground violently. Michael tried to stop him, but he was too late. The black glass crashed and shattered into thousands of shards of glass, and Rath waved his hand over them and they melted into liquid oozing between the floor boards. Michael swore. Dammit, he liked his lava lamp.

“No! Yah bastard!”

Rath grabbed her up with one hand, his other raising. His eyes those of a stone cold killer. He and Lonnie stared each other down. His anger blazing harder and hotter than the hardest ice.

“Rath,” Michael said softly as Maria held on to his arm. “Don’t.”

“Tell me why I shouldn’t.”

Maria left Michael and put her hand on his raised one. “Because, you have a soul. Don’t let her be another stain on it.”

Rath looked at Maria. Her clear green eyes, earnest and gently pleading. He looked over at Michael and saw something different. Acceptance. Michael would accept any choice he made, because he understood what fueled him, what raged inside. Maria understood, but she was more interested in that demon finding a peace.

Looking at Lonnie, he repeated himself. “Where is Shell?”

“In the back bedroom,” Lonnie hissed. “Kill me! Kill me, because living here is a hell to me.”

Rath raised his hand again, ignoring the gasp from Maria. His hand shook. He wanted to….so bad. He could taste it in his mouth. Tossing Lonnie aside, he literally kicked her away. “You’re not worth it.” Rath towered over her. “Leave. I suggest LA. New York City ain’t big enough for the two of us. Find yor own seaboard.”

They watched as Lonnie scurried away. Lost. She lost it all. Zan. Ava. Rath. Kivar. With the black cone and Nicolas gone, Antar. Everything.

“Lonnie,” Rath called after her. “Sodda I evah see yah again, I’ll not hesitate.” Once the door closed behind her, Rath stalked to the bedroom leaving Michael and Maria behind.

Maria moved next to Michael who seemed rooted to the spot. He stared at where once Nicolas had stood. “You okay?”

Michael started to nod, but stopped. “I…I don’t think so.”

Maria took his arm. “What?”

Michael shook his head, and avoided looking at her. That hurt, but Maria took it in stride. She had a lot of practice dealing with things that hurt Michael inside.

“Do you need me to give you space?”

“No. I need you to stay close.” Michael took her hand in his. “I need to buy you a ring.” He looked at the simple silver band. It had been one of his. He had altered it to fit her finger in a pinch. “I could alter a stone or coal to a diamond, but that doesn’t mean much. I want to give you something you love. Something I worked hard to earn. I want it to mean…everything.”

Maria forced him to look at her. She could see it behind his eyes. There were shadows. Dark ones. They always seemed that way with them. Kissing him softly, she nipped his mouth, sucking his lip into her mouth, worrying it between her teeth. “Tell me later.” Kissing him deeply, she laughed. “The ring? I’d love a ring from you. Something you made or picked out special. Whatever it is, I’ll love it.”

Michael closed his eyes and rubbed his head up against hers. “You’re the only thing that makes sense to me right now.”

Maria smiled slightly, but a frown stayed on her face. “Rath?”

Michael glanced over at the dark hall leading to the bedroom. “I don’t know. He bothers me. Sometimes, he is like this echo of me. I see all the stupid things I did in my life, in him. Other times…” Michael licked his lips and looked at the door. “Maria, I’m more powerful than him. Much more. But in sheer will, lacking of moral restraint, I think he could beat me every time. I don’t know. I killed Nicolas with no remorse, and he showed mercy to Lonnie. What does that mean?”

Maria rubbed her hands up his arms. “I don’t know it means anything, Michael. He has more alien in him, but how much is more? Twice as much, or just a few grams? He looks like you. Talks like you. Walks like you. There is a lot of Charles Dupree in him as well. Maybe it is a part of himself he never felt comfortable letting out, or taking control. Maybe he can’t. One thing I know is that he is not you, not exactly.” Maria smiled. “I could fool around with Michael wearing a Rath wrapper, not because it gets me all hot to play games, and not because I want him too. I can do it because no matter what face you wear, when I touch you, I feel only you, and I could find you in the dark, in a room of a thousand men.”

Michael smiled at that. “Really?” His eyes narrowed in thought. “How long would it take?”

Maria giggled quickly moving out his reach. “Oh, depends on how long it took to taste them all.” She quickly danced away. He followed.

It was good to see the solemn look on his face gone after the Nicolas incident. He’d tell her later, or when he could. It wasn’t always that easy being him. Michael never was easy. He had to let things work in his brain, all the twists and avenues.

~~~

She flinched when he came in the room. Her eyes didn’t seem to recognize him at first, and when he put a hand out to touch her she cringed further into a ball.

“Shell?” He said her name softly, almost as if he was afraid she would become skittish and move away.

Shellie looked up at Rath. Seeing him, she blinked more than once. So many times she dreamt that he would come for her. Find her. Other times, she knew he wouldn’t. Lonnie told her things. Things about Rath. Things about them. Things she hadn’t wanted to know.

“It’s okay.” Rath removed the gag from her mouth. She said something, but it was so low he couldn’t understand. Leaning in he listened closely.

“Water.”

“Water?” Rath quickly got up and went into the bathroom. There was no glass. Nothing to put water in for her. Finding a small bathroom fixture meant to hold toothbrushes, he tore it from the wall and ran his hand over it altering it into a tumbler. Filling it with water, he rushed back to her side.

Seeing her hands still bound, he cursed his stupidity. He should’ve untied her before he went for water. Putting the glass beside the bed, he quickly removed her binding from her hands. Grimacing at the wounds, he ran his hand over them healing them. She watched. Her eyes widening.

Licking her lips, she whispered, “Water.” Her voice was hoarse from disuse. Her throat was too dry to speak. She was tired. Too tired. Lonnie hadn’t bothered to feed her, and only allowed her to limitedly use the facilities. Human comfort wasn’t high on Lonnie’s list of priorities.

Rath lifted her up in his arms and helped her drink. “Slow. Drink slow at first.” Rath moved her hair from her face. She smelt of sweat, and her hair hung limp. She looked exhausted, and she could barely drink. Her teeth chattered against the glass. Her eyes kept darting to the door, as if she was afraid that Lonnie would return.

“It’s okay. She’s gone. She won’t be back. I promise. She’ll nevah hurt yah again.”

Shellie nodded, but Rath frowned. Her body was still shaking, and the way she looked at the door, it was obvious that she didn’t quite believe him. She said something again. He had to lean down and listen.

“I want to go home.”

Rath hugged her to his body. His hand stroking her hair. “I’ll take you.”

~~~

Michael and Maria both looked at the door when Rath came through it. He was carrying a small figure. Michael frowned. He had no concept of what this Shellie person looked like. In his mind, she was someone that was questionable mentally for being involved with Rath.

Seeing her was a shock.

She looked like Maria. Small. Blonde. Young. Older than them, but not by much. She looked their age. She was holding on to Rath’s neck tight, her arms wound around his neck as if she was afraid he would leave her behind. Her face was buried in his body, as if the light of the room hurt her eyes.

“Is she….” Michael asked noticing her flinch at his voice. Rath. He sounded like Rath.

“Let’s get her out of here.” Maria suggested softly, her eyes soft and worried at the unknown girl.

They all left the cabin, and Michael paused at the cars. “We’ll take the Jetta. Rath, leave the stolen car. The authorities will find it.”

Rath nodded. He put Shellie in the back of the Jetta. He tried to get her arms from around his neck as Maria got in the passenger side. Shellie made a sound of distress, but Rath bent down and talked to her softly.

“Shell, it’s okay. I’m not going anywhere. I got som’em I got to do real quick. You’re safe here. Michael and Maria will watch over yah.”

Rath didn’t notice Shellie wincing at Maria’s name. Her hands fell away from his neck. Michael was paused standing in the door of the driver’s side.

“What are you going to do?”

“Business. I’ll be back.” Rath disappeared in the darkness. Michael started to get into the Jetta when suddenly the night sky exploded. The billowing fire reached high into the sky. Rath had blown the cabin. Michael cursed. How much forest was going to go with it? He needed to call in an emergency report. Looking over, he noticed Maria was already dialing and reporting a fire.

Rath emerged from the darkness and climbed into the backseat of the Jetta with Shellie. Picking her up, he held her close. Michael got into the car. He didn’t make a comment. If it had been Maria, he would’ve done the same. They were quiet on the way back to Roswell except for Rath talking to Shellie in a low voice.

Rath carried her into the apartment, and straight to the bathroom. Shellie would feel better clean, and he needed to assess any damage, and heal it.

Maria searched the kitchen for food. “She needs to eat.”

“I’ll call for pizza,” Michael said taking the phone.

“Michael.” He stopped to look at her. “I don’t think she ate in days. Maybe something not so heavy? Soup, crackers, or an easy sandwich?”

Michael scratched his eyebrow and hung up the phone. “Right.” He frowned. “Do we have anything like that?”

Maria frowned. “Your cheese sauce if we watered it down might make a thin cheese soup, or this luncheon meat…” Maria’s nose scrunched up, “…looks rancid. No, we don’t have anything.”

Michael looked at the closed door. “What do you want to do?”

“Shopping for groceries. You tell Rath. I’ll grab my bag.” Maria went into the bedroom, and quickly changed the sheets on the bed in case they needed to put Shellie in it, and grabbed her bag.

Michael knocked twice. “Rath? Man, need to talk at you.”

“Waddayah want?” Rath didn’t look too happy. He had lost his usual humor. He was wearing only his pants, and they had wet stains on them.

“We need to go out to get food more suitable for Shellie to eat. Maria made up the bed in our room for her…..not you! And if anyone comes, try not to be you.”

“Right. How long?”

“Half hour tops.” Rath nodded at Maria as she came back into the room.

“She’s really thirsty.” Rath said.

“We’ll find something.” Maria frowned. “Maybe we should take her to the hospital or at least to a doctor? She’s probably dehydrated. That can be serious, and the authorities in New York City are looking for her. They would contact her parents.”

Rath looked at Michael and shook his head. “I healed her wrists.”

“But, there might be more internally…”

Michael put a hand on Maria to forestall her. “She has a silver handprint, Maria. Where he healed her.”

“Oh!” Great. What if she needed more help? Did this alien healing do damn diagnosing too? “Fine. We wait. Try to get food and liquids down her, but if she hasn’t improved by the time that handprint is gone, then she goes to my doctor. Agreed?” Michael and Rath both grunted at the same time, looked at each other, then away. Maria looked at her watch. “We better go, Michael.”

Michael held the door open for Maria. “Remember, do not answer the door, and if you do, don’t be you.”

“Right. Got it, G.”

Maria got into the passenger side of the Jetta scribbling a quick grocery list. “We’re going to have to return to work soon, or run out of money.”

“I’ve got a shift day after tomorrow. Want me to call and pick up another one?”

“Not until we lose our Rath guest.” Maria flipped through her calendar. “Wedding is a week this Saturday, and it’s Wednesday night.” Maria closed her eyes. “School tomorrow, and I can’t remember if I have anything due or a test. I haven’t even looked at my homework. Remind me to do so when we get home. Skipping school, late or no homework, or failing to graduate in a couple of weeks isn’t going to convince my mom about us.”

“It’s not like I’m going to graduate anyway, so I could pick up extra shifts.”

Maria looked over at him. “Michael…” She didn’t know what to say. He tried. He really tried hard to catch up on all his missing work. The past year he had been good, but he had been so far behind after years of not caring, and every time he made it closer to catching up, a new alien crisis would cost him more missing days. He was over the allowed missed days to graduate already.

“It’s okay.”

“You could go half a year next year, and make up the final days and classes.”

Michael shrugged. “I’ll think about it. Maybe I’ll just study and take the GED. I can pass that test with a snap. That way if you want to go to college, I can go too.”

College. They never talked about it. The future. That sort of escaped them too. “Guess we’ve been rushing along, and never stopped to really think about anything. What do you have to do to take the GED?”

Michael looked at Maria. “I’ll ask tomorrow, okay?” Maria nodded biting her lip. Oh, finally, worry was setting in. Michael saw that. “I’ll pick up a study book, or hit the library. Either way. Lets take a year off after you graduate, think about our options, what we really want to do, and make a plan to make it happen. Okay? That will give us time to take SATs or whatever, think about college, tech school, or maybe move and find jobs. Whatever.”

“Move?” Maria turned in the seat. “You want to move?”

Shrugging, Michael pulled into the grocery store. “Don’t really care. Roswell used to be someplace to leave, now it’s sort of home.” Turning off the motor he looked at Maria. “It’s home because you’re here. If we need to go somewhere else, then we go.”

“What about the others?”

“What about them? They probably have college plans, or at least Max and Liz. Sort of a double standard for Max. He wouldn’t let Iz leave Roswell to go to college, but you sure as hell can bet that if Liz goes out of State to college, he will follow.”

“Michael…” Maria sighed. She hated the rift that seemed to grow daily between the two friends that once were closer than brothers.

“Forget it. It doesn’t matter.” Michael shook his head. “Max is never accountable for the double standards he creates. I’m used to it. All the times he accused me of risking our safety, being the hot head, and I look back on all the shit he did, heal Liz in the Crashdown in front of all those witnesses, the Christmas children, and the convenient store robbery. That was just the most obvious. There were more. Name the times I risked our safety….” Michael rolled his eyes. “I broke into Valenti’s office for the key. Oh yeah, I painted a stylized picture of a geodesic dome.”

Maria reached over to touch him. There were little infractions along the way. He knew that, but Max’s were all so much larger, and somehow Max never saw anything wrong with his own actions, just Michael’s. Michael wasn’t forgetting it. He couldn’t. The sense of betrayal he felt seemed to have settled in his gut like a cancer, and perhaps that was why he never felt any draw towards Isabel and destiny. He couldn’t wrap his mind around how she was supposed to be engaged to him, but Kivar was her ‘great’ love, and in a round about way, she got them all killed because of that love. Whatever his once supposed engagement had been, had it all not been all a fabricated mindwarp as Nicolas suggested, it was obvious that it hadn’t been a love match. Michael didn’t do forgiveness well. Not for Max, Isabel, or even Liz. More than anything, he had a hard time forgiving himself. Maria frowned. He had a hard time forgiving her as well for leaving him, but it was strange to realize that she might be the only person in his life he truly forgave.

“It’s because you’re the one thing I can’t live without, don’t want to live without.” Michael said. Maria stared at him in shock. He read her mind.

“Michael?”

Picking up her hand, he kissed the back beside the ring he gave her. “Not forgiving you seemed as big of a double standard that Max seems to live in. You forgave me so many times over the past three years, that it would have been churlish not to extend you the same consideration.”

Maria didn’t know what to say. So she made light of it, but stroked his face lovingly. “Churlish?” She admonished.

“SAT word. I studied. Didn’t bother to take it, but I did study.”

“Really?” Maria’s face showed her surprise. College. She thought he hated school.

“You took it, and if you went to college, I was going to go with you.”

Maria smiled at him with her eyes a little misty. “Thorn in my side?” She asked a little breathlessly. He took her breath away. Not big on vocal declarations of love and devotion, Michael was always more demonstrative by action. His intentions were clear, as clear as they were when he stayed on Earth for her, when as alien King Michael he mated with her, and later, as Michael, he drove them to Reno. He didn’t make large sweeping gestures like name a star after her, sing with a mariachi band, or anything too sloppy and embarrassing. There was a quiet dignity to him. Romantic in his own way. He could be a little silent and stoic, but when the boy tried, he had all the right moves.

“Absolutely.” Michael looked at the store. “Want to shelve the future talk to the future and go buy food.”

“Sure.” Maria kissed him. “He’s scared you know.”

Michael paused before getting out of the Jetta. “Who?”

“Rath. He isn’t talking all his garbage, and he is for once quiet.”

Michael had caught that too. Worry. He was worried. “Don’t fret. We buy some more frozen pizza rolls and he’ll revert to type. I told him not to warm them up with his powers. It ruins the taste.”

~~~

Rath was washing her hair a second time when someone knocked at the door. Ignoring it, he soothed a jumpy Shellie, who startled at the knock. The knocking continued. Angry, Rath stood up and frowned at how Shellie seemed to cringe a little at his anger. Squatting down next to the bath again, he forced her to look at him.

“It’s me. The same me. I promise.” Kissing her forehead, his eyes narrowed as the knocking continued. “Stay here. I’ll get rid of whoever it is. Okay?” She nodded quickly.

Rath shut the bathroom door, and reached for the door. Last minute he realized he still looked like himself. Altering his appearance to Michael, he opened the door in a huff.

“What?!”

Max shuffled on his feet. He was about ready to give up when Michael answered the door. “I thought you weren’t home for a minute.”

Rath didn’t know what to say so he stared at Max, his Michael face unyielding. Max sighed and indicated the apartment.

“Can I come in?”

“Will yah leave?”

Max cleared his throat. “I wanted to talk, okay?”

“Sure. Whatevah.” Rath moved to the side, his interest peaking. Zan. Not Zan. His Zan would’ve never taken quiet disdain. This version was a real pasty treat.

“I know you are upset with us, and what happened before, and I don’t like to think we can’t talk about it.” If he touched him, or tried to hug him, Rath was going to have to take severe action.

Rath rolled his eyes, but tried to infuse some interest in his face. It made him look constipated. Max frowned at Michael’s bizarre looks and the concentrating moving frown on his face.

“What?” Max looked around. “Where is Maria?”

“Yo, none of yor business! Keep up with yor own ho.”

“I was just asking! The two of you are rarely apart recently.” Max’s face went darker. “Don’t call Liz a ho!” Rath’s eyebrow went up as the tips of Max’s ears went a brilliant pink. Damn! He hadn’t ever noticed that his Zan had such a set of Dumbo’s floppies. Shit. He’d alter them if they were his. Increase the size of his fucking dick too, dickless wonder. “She is a wonderful, beautiful person, and…”

Rath made a gesture of jerking off at Max which seemed to make Max angrier. Before Max could resort to a violent outburst, Rath stopped him remembering Shellie in the bath.

“Yeh, yeh, I’m sure she’s a real fine fuck. A virtual hellcat in bed. Tell yah what, G, why don’t yah go and find the bitch and spank her ass, and get down to some real balling. I’m a little busy here. Too busy to let yah go all Dawson on me. Check me later, and I’ll let yah all cry and slobber away. Kay?”

Max’s only response was a slamming door on his way out. Rath shrugged. There. It wasn’t so hard being Michael. Piece-o-cake. Chuckling to himself, Rath entered the bathroom to Shellie’s scream of terror.

~~~

“You know, Maria. I don’t think it’s necessary for you to read all the labeled ingredients of products.” Michael said opening the door.

“It had brominated vegetable oil in it, Michael! Vegetable oil in a carbonated cola doesn’t sound good to me. Why don’t you just drink canola oil straight?”

“I was drinking it for the high fructose corn sugar.” Michael said just to get a response to her, but he had a better one. “Actually, it was the sodium benozate. That keeps me all fresh, and such.”

Maria opened her mouth to respond, but a pacing Rath in the living room spotted them and interrupted their usual post-shopping discussion. “Where the fuck have yah been?” Rath said agitated. “Yah said only half and hour.”

Michael shut the door and put a few bags on the kitchen counter as Maria deposited her bags. “What happened?” Michael’s tone actually said, ‘what did you do now?’

“I don’t know.” Rath rolled his eyes. “Kay, maybe I do. Yor Zan came by.”

“Max?”

Rath shrugged. That wasn’t the important part. “Yeh, yeh, him….goat cheese.”

“What did he want?”

“What?” Shit that wasn’t important! Rath’s irritation increased. “To get all mano-mano on me. Yah cudda warned me he wuz gay.”

“He’s not gay.” Michael said a little indignant.

Rath’s eyebrow went up at that. Whatever. But he could swear the bone was going to hug his shit or something. “Whatevah. I got problems.”

Michael snorted at that. There was a page out of the book of ‘duh’. The problems Rath had were too numerous to list. “What happened?” Shit, why was that the first question he seemed to ask Rath every time he saw him?

“Shellie. She’s crying and I can’t get her to stop.” Rath rubbed his face. “I sort of walked in on her still wearing yor face. She screamed. I switched back immediately, but it made her cry even louder. Nothing I said makes her stop.”

Michael went still. Real still. Deer in a headlight caught, still. Rath did the same. Women. Tears. Crying. Both of them scratched their eyebrows at the same time. Maria rolled her eyes.

“I’ll go!” She waved them off. Mumbling under her breath, she couldn’t help but notice the way they both exhaled in relief. Boobs.

Maria knocked gently on the door. Waiting a moment, she entered slowly looking around the corner at the woman in the bath. Lots of bubbles. Rath must have felt lots of bubbles would help.

“Hi. Can I come in?” Maria asked tentatively, not bothering to wait for an invitation from the crying woman. Closing the door, she sat awkwardly on the toilet seat. “I’m Maria.”

Shellie looked at her with a tear-stained face. Wiping a wet hand across her cheeks she sniffed. “You’re beautiful.”

Maria’s eyebrow went up at that. “Thanks.” She looked the girl over. Shellie wasn’t exactly moldy cheese. “You’re very beautiful too.” Maria felt her throat closing, afraid to ask what happened to Shellie while she was in Lonnie and Nicolas’s clutches.

“Not as beautiful as you.” Shellie looked away. “He’s in love with you. Lonnie told me.”

Maria’s mouth opened wide, then closed. “Lonnie told you?” Maria cleared her throat. “I think some advice is to ignore anything Lonnie may have told you. She’s not noted for her honesty.”

Shellie looked at Maria. “He used to call me by your name when we first met.”

Maria winced. Ouch. “Well, I wouldn’t hold too much to that. If you’re asking if Rath and I ever had a thing, or even a possible thing? The answer is absolutely not! He made a play for me once over six weeks ago. He pretended to be Michael, who’s his….” Maria paused. Well shit. What to say. “Twin. Michael and me, we’re married. Rath wanted to get to Michael, so he sort of pretended to be Michael, and made moves on me. It didn’t work.”

Shellie frowned. Six weeks ago. That was when they first met, and got together. “Then he picked me up as a replacement for you.”

Maria bit her lip, but squared her shoulders. “Possibly. Rath would know better than any of us. Personally, I don’t think it matters why he was attracted to you. He never slept with me, so it’s not like he can compare us. And after six weeks, I doubt our looking similar has anything to do with the reason why he stayed, or why he worked so hard to find you…get you back. The Rath I know wouldn’t walk a step for someone else. He came halfway across the United States for you.”

Shellie thought about it for a few moments. Rath stopped calling her Maria about a week after they got together, and never since. He did come for her. She frowned. “Lonnie said she watched you and Rath….” She couldn’t finish it.

“Oh!” Maria actually blushed at that. “Oh, no! No! That wasn’t Rath. It was Michael pretending to be Rath. Michael wouldn’t never allow Rath to…” Maria stopped. Okay that was too much information. “It wasn’t Rath. Believe me.” Maria shook her head vigorously.

Shellie was still crying. Not as violently as before. A slow trickle as one tear chased another. “He’s an alien.”

Maria licked her lips. “He didn’t tell you?” That rat. Before he got involved he should’ve told her what was what.

“No, he told me,” Shellie said still sniffing. “I thought he meant illegal! I thought he was from Canada!” She wailed.

Oh. Maria’s mouth opened. “Oh!”

Chapter Ten

Clueless…

“Gwaffff.” Michael leaned back on the sofa laughing. He would quiet for a moment, then another peal of laughter seemed to bubble out of him against his will.

“Stop it!” Maria hit Michael on the stomach. Michael tried to straighten his face, but the laughter came spurting out again as he doubled over and actually fell off the sofa.

He looked up at Maria from his position on the floor. All he said was one word which sent him off into another spastic attack.

“Canada.”

“Michael,” said Maria in warning as she looked over at the closed bedroom door. Shellie was sleeping. Rath had taken all he could being cooped up, so he took off on a walk promising not to revert to evil Michael, terrorizing the good citizens of Roswell and further adding to Michael’s bad boy reputation. They didn’t try to stop him. His energy level was high, almost palpable. Lonnie was gone, but she was far from forgotten.

Michael wiped his eyes. Smiling, his mirth was highly contagious, but Maria held her control only allowing a small smile to slip from time to time.

“Laugh it up, Spaceboy. You’ve no idea how much damage he did with Max.”

Michael’s face bleached of his amusement, he gave Maria a glare of malcontent. “Spoil sport!”

Now that made Maria laugh, and Michael retaliate by dragging her on the floor with him. They were rolling on the floor when they were again interrupted.

“Oh, there’s something new,” said Maria in a singsong voice, as she sat up straightening her clothing. “Company!”

Michael kissed her hard before getting to his feet, and dragging Maria up to sit on the sofa again. Answering the door, he frowned. Liz. Michael refrained from rolling his eyes.

Maria elbowed Michael out of the way and invited her inside. “Hey, Liz! What’s up?”

It was late. Way past Liz’s normal out and about time. She wasn’t allowed out after her bout of teenage rebellion and convenience store robbery and the cost of sending her to a boarding school in Vermont to have her come home less two weeks later. So this was unusual.

Maria looked at Michael helplessly. Rath. They forgot. He could be back at any time. Michael nodded and grabbed his jacket.

“I need to go get….that thing,” said Michael making a face at Maria. “I’ll be back soon.” He was out the door before Liz could protest.

“I didn’t mean to make him leave. That wasn’t my intention.” Liz said.

“It’s not you. Really. He needed to do something.” Maria pulled Liz into the apartment. “You want something? Anything? We’ve got Snapple and juice.”

Liz made a dismissing gesture. “You know, that is so weird to me, how you move in with Michael without it being a big deal, and set up house. My parents would blow a gasket.” Liz sat down at the counter next to Maria. “I guess I’m actually envious. You and Michael are together, and I really mean, together.” Maria didn’t know what to say. It was pretty obvious that she and Michael were very much in a sexual relationship. “I guess that I always thought Max and I would be first, since you and Michael hardly could stand each other and only got together because of us.”

“Whoa there, missy! Michael and I didn’t get together because of you and Max.”

Liz rolled her eyes. “I mean…well it was convenient. My best friend. His best friend.” Liz never got to finish.

“You know, I’m sick of this! I am really tired of it all.” Sick of it all. Maria was sick of her relationship being shrugged off as nothing. Maria stood up pacing. “You had to have a reason to come here.” Maria threw up her hands. “Of course you do! Max was here earlier. Tag teaming again? Max takes Michael, and you take me? Is this speech number, what?” Maria shook her head. Unreal. “Thirty billion of why Michael and I aren’t a good thing, how we have no real feelings outside of two hormonal slut junkies getting off with what is convenient?”

“That’s not…..”

“No?” Maria looked at Liz. “Then what? What is so important to get you out and around Roswell at this hour?”

Liz cleared her throat. It was true. She never saw Michael and Maria’s relationship as going any place, or at least not somewhere as significant as hers and Max’s. But, that didn’t mean she didn’t want it to work, for Maria’s sake. Maybe that was why they were all having a hard time communicating with Michael and Maria. The couple was tired of being discounted and ignored. They were tired of people shrugging off their personal feelings as unimportant.

“It’s the 24/7 togetherness thing, Maria. It’s a tad obsessive and extreme. Unhealthy.”

“Unhealthy? Who decides that? You and Max? What? You get a psychology degree in a box of Cracker Jacks? Or the all seeing eye gave you insight?” Maria groaned and went to the kitchen to get something to drink. “What is wrong with Michael and me being together?”

“You closed yourself off lately. The two of you are hardly a few steps apart, and living in each other’s pocket. Dropped shifts at the Crashdown, skipped school, and well…very unlike you, Maria. I’m worried.”

“Okay,” Maria said nodding. “I appreciate that. But, lets talk realistically. You and Max…”

“This isn’t about me and Max.”

Maria laughed sarcastically. “Oh, yes it is. It’s always about you and Max. So our spending too much time together, takes away from you and Max, how?”

‘Maria…”

Maria rolled her eyes. “Maybe because it’s okay if you and Max live in each other’s back pockets, because you have this great soulmate love that weathers everything. A death of a friend, murdered by an alien who was your lover’s lover. Infidelity. Fucking and impregnating a murderous slut. Him almost getting on a ship and leaving without a goodbye roll in the hay? What?”

“It’s not about me and Max, Maria.”

“Of course it is!” Maria sighed. “Stop worrying about us. Worry about your own relationship.”

“Max and I are fine. Great.” Liz said, her voice hardly convincing.

“Good. So are Michael and I. The only thing bothering us is people butting into our lives.” Maria sighed tired of it all. Long haul. So long. “Look, it’s true. Michael and I don’t have that whole stare in my eyes, gushy soulmate crap going. All we have is each other. No destiny. No ‘meant’ to be. All we have is what we feel, and the choice that we both made to be together. We weren’t created in any stars. Instead we chose each other. Maybe not as romantic, but it suits us.”

Liz hadn’t expected this to be so hard, but she should have. “It doesn’t matter, does it? Whatever worries or complaints or even observations we might have, the two of you are going to ignore them.”

“Yeah.” Maria licked her lips and blew out her breath hard. “We are because that night was tantamount to an alien wedding ceremony, and two weeks later we went to Reno and did it in a very human way. And a week from this Saturday, we are doing it again for my mom at our church. We live close together, because that’s what married people do.”

Liz’s mouth opened in shock. “You got married? How?” How could they with everyone watching their every move?

Maria laughed at that. “It wasn’t easy. With all of you dogging us ever hour of every day, but we found the time.”

“Are you pregnant?”

“No!” Maria shook her head. Of course, Michael would only marry her if he knocked her up. “No. I’m not pregnant.” Maria said with not a little indignation. Sure, they had a pregnancy scare, but that was two weeks after they got married.

“You told your mother?” Liz’s tone was tight, a little dry.

“She’s arranging a ceremony in the church, so yeah, we told her.”

“I see.” Liz’s voice was expressionless.

“What?” Maria asked, exasperated at what seemed to motivate and bother Liz of late.

Liz shrugged. “We once were so close that you never didn’t tell me things. We shared everything.”

Maria looked at Liz sadly. “Yes. We did. It was like you being sick, and not telling me. Or finally telling me about Future Max, but weeks later. Even letting me think that you slept with Kyle, lost your virginity and didn’t bother to mention it. I had to hear rumors about school. How about the aliens originally? I had to threaten you with exposure before you told me, your best friend.”

“Maria…”

“No. It’s okay. I understand perfectly. This is by far a bigger transgression. You can keep secrets, exclude me infinitely, and that’s okay, but that doesn’t swing both ways. After all, I’m not that important. I’m not changed. I’m not some fated great love. I’m just human.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Then what are you saying? That I should feel bad about not sharing every minute detail of my relationship with Michael with you, but you can pick and choose what I need to know, or what is convenient for you to share?” Damn. Loyalties changed. Maybe that was growing older, maturing. Once she would share everything with Liz, but now her loyalties changed. Michael was her first consideration. Maybe that was what happened to Liz too. Her loyalties changed to Max, and he was first concern in all things. That Maria could accept, but she would not live under a double standard.

“I’m sorry. Maybe it’s not a good time to talk about this. I’ll…” Liz made for the door fast.

“Liz!” Maria sighed. “I love you. You are my best friend, but Michael is my husband, my lover, and also, my best friend. He hasn’t replaced you, but he has taken a larger part of my life. He’s my future. You’ll always be my friend, but he is more.”

Liz nodded, and peeked at Maria. “Married?” Maria nodded. Liz smiled, slightly. Another thing she always thought her and Max would do first. “I envy the way you and Michael cut through everything and do what you must. It seems that Max and I are always talking, discussing, planning, and then talking some more, but rarely do we act impulsively. Even the convenience store robbery was thought out in advance.”

“Impulse is like a fatty diet. You have to be careful for that increasing waistline.”

Liz laughed. Going to Maria she hugged her tight. Whispering softly to Maria, “I can hardly tolerate losing Alex, but you? Maria, I couldn’t stand to lose you too. Not to this crazy alien stuff. Not again. When Michael was so out of control, I was afraid. I was afraid that like Tess, he would cost us someone’s life. Yours. I don’t think I could have taken that. Not again.”

“Michael would never hurt me, Liz.”

Liz nodded. She knew that. She was coming to accept that. “I know, but I didn’t know it then. God, Maria. What it looked like. How upset Michael was. You can’t blame us for what we thought. We know Michael, but he wasn’t himself. After what Tess did, we couldn’t risk it. Not after Alex.”

Maria understood, but she couldn’t back down on her and Michael now. “I understand too, but you’ve got to give us some space.”

Liz laughed self-consciously. “So this 24/7 thing is….”

“Newlyweds. We are desperate to spend some real time alone and away from all this craziness.” Maria gave Liz a pleading look. “Sorry about the dumped shifts, but you moved our shifts around and if we worked them as is, we’d never see each other. I dumped them to have time with Michael. He needed it after what happened. He was pretty shaky at first. Think you could do something about that? We could use the work.”

Liz nodded. “I’ll get you both on at the same time.” Liz bit her lip. “So this ceremony…”

“Week from Saturday. Time so far unknown. My mom is taking care of the details.” Maria tipped her head. “I was hoping you would stand up with me.”

Liz smiled big and hugged Maria hard. The two of them went to sit on the sofa and talk details while Michael was gone. Sometimes friendships had to be redefined, and renegotiated as new circumstances arose. The thing was that true friendship found a way to weather the tough storms.

~~~

Michael groaned and rolled over burying his face in Maria’s hair as he held her against his front, spooning in behind her. He was restless. Flopping around.

“Michael, I can’t sleep. Can’t you settle down?”

Michael sighed and rolled on his back. “No. This is wrong. Real wrong. Why do we have to share the living room with him?”

Maria glanced over in the dark at the sleeping form of Rath. He seemed untroubled by where and how he slept. Basically, he pulled up floor and was out like a light. Shellie was still asleep in their room. She hadn’t stirred since she ate and took a bath.

“We could send him to sleep in our room with Shellie.” Maria suggested.

“No! I don’t want to think of him sleeping in our bed.” Michael didn’t know why it bothered, except perhaps the idea of someone looking like him in his bed with a woman not Maria, or the thought of Rath in a bed that he shared with Maria. Maybe both. Maybe it was Rath himself.

“Do yah two evah shut up?” Rath asked turning over pulling a pillow over his head.

Michael tossed a shoe at the lump in the dark, and a satisfying grunt made it easier to go to sleep. Despite getting to sleep finally, he was the first one up. Drinking a cup of coffee, he sourly looked at Rath as he wandered to the kitchen scratching his naked chest. The tattoos and piercings fascinated Michael. He could see getting a tattoo. Not the stupid alien crap, but maybe something from one of his favorite bands or something.

“You leaving today?” Michael asked quietly not wanting to wake Maria still asleep on the sofa.

“In a hurry, G? What? Yah don’t like my ass in yor space?”

Michael shrugged. He could get used to having Rath around, and that scared him somewhat. Rath was many things. Mostly, he was a man that killed his version of Max without remorse. Tried to kill Max. It would be stupid to underestimate Rath, or to forget what he was capable of.

“I’ve got a life.” Michael nodded to his closed bedroom door. “So does she I suspect. Her family is missing her. She has places to be. Maybe it is time to take her home.”

Rath scratched his stomach. “Yeah, we got a place.” Rath seemed struggling to say something, but seemed unable to decide how to go about it. “Yah think she still wants tah know me? I means after all this shit?”

“Ask her. That’s the only way to know.” Michael raised an eyebrow at Rath. “Lonnie told her that you were fucking Maria.”

“Shit! That wuz yah! Fucking whore! I shudda burned her skanky used ass.”

“Maria set her straight on that immediately.” Michael said. He reached up into the cabinet and grabbed two bowls, cereal and milk. He quickly made himself a bowl as Rath did the same. The sat next to each other quietly eating, neither aware of how identical their movements were. “Lonnie also told her that on the day she was kidnapped, you got a blowjob from Lonnie.”

Rath stopped eating. Shit. Rath shrugged. “Shell knows me.”

“Perhaps.” Michael kept eating. “Maybe she knows you too well now, and won’t want to deal with a man that lets other women suck his dick when he’s with her. Maybe she’ll wonder if you’re worth it. Not like you can be trusted.”

“I said Shell knows me.” Rath said. “Though I did kinda promise not to stick it tah any other bitch.”

“Oh yeah?” Michael said in interest. “When did you promise that?”

“Umm,” Rath scratched his eyebrow. “The night before she was taken.” Rath frowned. “What? Is that a problem?”

Michael snorted. Yeah. Could be. Shit. He might be stuck with his New York reject if Shellie didn’t take him back. “Oh, I’d say stick a fork in you, you’re done.”

Rath looked real confused. “Yah mean yah don’t bounce around on other Bettys? Just yah and the Maria babe are it?”

Michael laughed. “Hell yeah, it’s just me and Maria. For good reasons, too. First, I love her, and it would make her unhappy if I was unfaithful and running around on her. There are many things I can take, but I hate Maria being miserable because of me. I’ve seen it, and believe me, I know how hard it is to take. Second, there is no one I want more than her. She is everything, and I think I proved that. She’s my wife. Third, and most important, I wouldn’t survive once Maria ground me in the dirt for tripping out on her with some other woman.”

Rath stopped eating as he listened to Michael. “You find it easy? I mean only one bitch in the stable.”

Michael coughed on his cereal, trying not to laugh while eating. “Believe it or not, most people find one more than enough.” Michael actually laughed when Rath seemed even more confused by that concept. That was just unnatural. Natural was whatever felt good. “You keep too many on a line, you might find yourself short of cash. Women, they expect things. Material things, like presents and going out. They expect attention.”

“Money is nevah a problem.” Rath said waving off that concern. Money. Shit, there was always money.

Michael rolled his eyes. “I’m not talking about rolling some person for cash. I’m talking about getting a job to pay for rent and other things.”

Rath laughed, his eyes full of mirth. “Yor shitting me, right?” Now it was Michael’s turn to be clueless. “Damn, G! Don’t even tell me that yah work! Like a 9-5er?” Rath laughed harder. “Shit, I thought I had the bank on the Eastside. Yah got Sin City nearby, and yah are flippin’ sliders?”

“Okay, what the hell did you just say?”

Rath laughed. “Powers, G! They givah advantage, yah see? Yah can work the slot. Yah can move the ball. Even toss the bones. Hell, don’t get too obvious. Take it slow, and yah can bank a year’s roll in one night.”

“Gambling. You’re talking about gambling.”

“Hell, yeah! Numbers. Ponies. Dice. Craps. Slots are the best. Yah can push a jackpot easily.”

Michael laughed. “I tried Vegas. Got busted.” Michael sniffed. “I doubt Maria would find that a good source of income.”

“What she’d rather watch yah sweat over grease for minimum?” Rath pushed his empty bowl away. “Look, G. People gamble all the time. Professionals. They gots some talent. Real talent. Poker. Pool. Real players. Take our powers. They give us an unfair advantage, true. But, some human had them, wodda they let them slide? No. Yah use whats yah got. That’s the rule.” Rath shrugged. “Don’t get greedy. Low profile. I roll enough in one weekend at Atlantic City to keep me in the green all year. One night. No one notices a big winnah, if it happens only one night a year. Rotate the Casinos.”

“What do you do for the rest of the year?”

Rath shrugged. “Whatevah yah want. Hell, a weekend in Vegas wudda covah yah and the babe long enuff to get on yor feet.”

Maria laid there listening as they talked. Rath was right. Their powers gave them an unfair advantage, but that was life. Some people were born more gifted than others. Did anyone make them not use their talent because of that? If a human could do what Michael and Rath could do, would they let a conscience stop them from making a killing? No. Maria mulled over the possibilities. Strange. She never thought about it before. Las Vegas might be a fun place for a honeymoon.

~~~

Rath was slow to enter the bedroom. He heard her wake a few minutes before, but he was hesitant to go into the room. “Hi?”

“Rath.” Shellie’s voice was still husky and soft. Her throat was sore from the dehydration.

“Can I?” Rath gestured to coming into the room. Shy? Shellie frowned. Since when was Rath ever shy about anything. She nodded. “How are yah feelin’?”

“Better.” Shellie pulled at the bedding. “Where are your brother, and…Maria?”

“Gone. School and other junk.” Rath cleared his throat. “Yah feel like goin’ home? I can get us there.”

Shellie shrugged. Home seemed so long ago. All she could see was darkness and taste terror. It might be a while until that sensation went away. “I…it doesn’t matter.”

“Yah still have school, and Law school this fall.”

Shellie closed her eyes. “I didn’t know you knew that much about me. That you paid that close attention.”

“I knew yah were in school.” Rath sat on the edge of the bed. He wasn’t good at this shit. He watched Michael with Maria a little, but this was different. Difficult. He didn’t want to step over the edge out of ignorance. “Can yah help me here, Shell? I don’t know how tah do this stuff.”

“Stuff?”

“Make things right between us.”

Shellie sighed. She knew that. He had very little social skills. Most the time that didn’t bother her, but now it made it difficult. She had to carry everything. Decide to forgive him or not. Keep him or lose him. That decision. She was of two minds.

“I can’t help you. I don’t know. Inside, I want you gone.”

Rath looked away from her. That hurt. Was that supposed to hurt? Damn Michael for leaving him to do this alone. He needed help dammit. Clearing his throat, he nodded. “Okay. I can leave yah alone, if that is what yah need.”

“You’re an alien,” she said almost in accusation.

“I told yah that! Almost the first week.”

Shellie sat up in the bed, “I thought you meant illegal! Like from Canada!”

“Do I look like a damn Canuck?”

Shellie calmed down leaning back in the bed. “How am I supposed to know. I thought it was why you never worked.”

“I work! At least once a year.” Rath frowned. “I got money. Where didya think it came from?”

“I thought you stole cars or ran illegals or something.”

Rath nodded. Yeah, not like he wasn’t known to jack a car, but only for his own joyriding. Not money. He didn’t drink. He didn’t do drugs, unless you counted sex.

“I gamble. Professionally. Casinos. Usually once a year.”

“Oh.” Shellie frowned. She never asked. As a pre-law student, it was almost as if she was afraid to know where he got money. He had enough. He gave her a set of beautiful diamond earrings. She had been afraid to ask where he got those, too. Six weeks of living with him, and except for what was inside him, she knew little.

Rath seemed afraid to ask. “So, yah afraid of me, and want me gone ‘cause of the alien thing?”

“No.” Shellie shrugged. That actually didn’t bother her too much once she got her mind wrapped around it. It explained a lot. His hair. His attitude. Those strange images she got at times when she kissed him. “Is the sex thing part of the alien thing?”

“Yeah.” Rath smiled, his eyebrow lifting. “Call it a perk.”

“Whoa!” Shellie smiled back at him. “My boyfriend is an alien!”

Rath’s smile bled away to seriousness. “Am I? Am I still your boyfriend?”

Shellie breathed hard. “Is that Lonnie cow coming back soon?”

“No.”

“Are yah gonna let her suck your dick again?” Shellie’s eyes narrowed in anger. Rath could read that expression just fine.

“Nevah again! I swear. Hell, if it helps….I’ll find her cum sucking ass and kill the bitch! Yah can decide.”

“Kill her? You’re offering to murder her if I want?” Shellie stared at him, holding her breath.

Rath shrugged. “Kicking. Just say word.”

“Shit!” Shellie swung her legs out of the bed. Going to stand in front of him, she lifted his face to her, her hands framing his face. “You know that killing is wrong, right?”

“Why?” Rath didn’t get that. People get in your way. Get rid of them. Easy. Why sweat the small shit.

“Because…” Shellie paused. Religion. Morals. All the things that told a person right from wrong. Rath didn’t seem to have any of those basic beliefs. “It just is. When you live in a society, one such as the society of man, here on Earth, you have to abide by the laws and moral codes of that society.”

“Who’s gonna make me? I’m stronger than them. Any of them.”

Shellie shook her head. How to explain in a way that he could understand. “Someone takes something of yours…..”

“I get it back and then kill the bastard. No one! No one takes my shit!”

Shellie licked her lips. So maybe she understood why he came so far for her. “Why? Why is no one allowed to touch or take your stuff, but you can take theirs?”

“I have more power.”

Okay so basic moral concepts were a bust. Shellie changed tactics. “Rath, do you want to live with me still?” Rath nodded. Of course. She was his. He nodded. “Even if that comes with rules, or me requesting things from you?”

“Such as?” Rath was suspicious. Michael warned him that dealing uno-uno with women could be lethal with landmines.

“First. No more killing. Ever! Not unless your life is in danger, or you are protecting someone else.” Rath frowned. Okay, maybe. He could try. He nodded. “Promise?”

Promise? Rath scratched his eyebrow. Shit it looked important to her. “Promise. I won’t kill anyone unless yah say I can, or they threaten yah or me.”

“Fine.” Shellie breathed out hard. This was a big one. “Second. I want you to move out.”

Rath stood up at that one and paced the room. “Yah said I wuz yor boyfriend!”

“I know. But you promised not to stick your dick in any other female, male or whatever. Hours later, you were being blown by a huge ‘whatever’. That tells me that you can’t be trusted to keep a promise, let alone be faithful to me, and me alone. I was willing to accept that you were different, and that I had to live with how you are. So I will. I accept that you are you, and more than likely you will toss some woman up against a wall and fuck her, even if I am standing there. Fine.”

“Yah saying I can fuck otha people?” Rath scratched his brow confused. First he couldn’t. Now he could?

“Sure, but then so can I! That’s why you can’t live with me anymore. We can date, but no longer exclusive, or at least I’m not going to be exclusive to you anymore. You were never exclusive. So we can still see each other, maybe get together, have sex, and then you can go home. If I am busy fucking my other boyfriends, you’ll have to wait your turn. I have school and stuff, so my time is limited. I’m sure we’ll at least get together once a week or so.”

Rath walked up and down. Things exploded off the wall. A chair went up in the air, and hit again hard. Steam. If steam could come out of a set of ears, then steam was pouring out of Rath’s.

“Yah are talking fucking other men?”

“Yes. You get to fuck other women, then I get to fuck other men. I’ll agree to stay a girlfriend to you up until the time I find someone I want to marry.” Shellie said softly.

Married? Shellie married to another man. Shellie ducked. That did it. The place exploded. Michael was going to be pissed. Maria might understand. Nope. She was going to be pissed too. Shellie winced. Damn, they were going to have to clean. Maybe Rath’s alien power thingy could fix things? She listened as he postured, ranted and raved. Amazing. Aliens had double standards. Huge ones. Imagine that.

“What do I gots tah do tah keep yah from doing bootie calls for every Tom, Dick and Shit?” Rath raged. His. She was his! “I’ll fuckin’ kill the first Clyde that touches yor ass!”

“You don’t want me to date other men?” Shellie asked in a clueless voice.

“No!”

“But I’m not supposed to object to you spreading your shit all around town?” Shellie sat forward, “Fucking GI Jane up against a wall in her ugly staid panties and butch lesbian cut?”

Rath grabbed her up close, his anger etched on his face, but Shellie was calm. Unafraid. He wouldn’t hurt her. He couldn’t. Everything in him told her that she was something that meant something to him. Maybe it had no name. No words. But, she knew that she meant more to him than anything he ever had. That had to be something. It had to be enough. For now.

“No other men!” He screamed at her.

“Fine!” She screamed back. “No other women! Or sex with anyone not me! Not even kissing!”

“Fine!” Rath released her. He frowned. “Not even kissing?”

“Rath…”

“Fine!” Rath paced again. Was this what Michael was talking about? Shit. Relationship landmines. “But I want something too!”

“What?” Shellie held her breath.

“You blow me publicly once a week.”

Shellie seemed to be thinking about it. No sense in giving in so easy. Negotiation was a cornerstone of good relationships. “Three times, and don’t try to talk me down.” Her eyes narrowed.

Rath stopped, stared at her, and then laughed. Jumping on the bed next to her, he pushed her down in the bedding kissing her enthusiastically. As the t-shirt slipped down her body, Rath followed it, sinking down her body. His face stopped at the same level as her chest. "Oh, god, Shell," he breathed. "So beautiful."

“Rath…” Shellie tried to clear her throat.

“Missed yah. I wuz…” Rath struggled for a word to describe it. What he had felt. Michael had told him. “Lonely. I felt lonely.”

Shellie pulled his head from her body. The shock was evident on her face. “Do you even understand what that means? What it feels like to be lonely?”

Rath nodded. Yes. He did. Now he did. It was like a bottomless pit in his stomach, cold and hollow. Endless. Insatiable. “I had to get yah back. Had to.”

Shellie kissed him hard, with lots of tongue. God forgive her, but she actually loved this strange alien creature. He lacked social grace. Lacked morals. Lacked any real understanding outside his own needs, but that didn’t matter. She loved him, almost from the first lustful kiss. He took over her world.

“Had to?”

Rath nodded, his mouth tonguing her breasts. His teeth catching the small silver hoop in her nipple to tug it gently, and then not so gently making her squirm, and feel it deliciously in her womb. Butterflies. He gave her butterflies.

“That fucking Michael and Maria were evil! Evil. Fucking like bunnies, making me all horny, and there was no Shellie.”

“Bastards,” Shellie admonished breathlessly, her voice a light laughter. Rath nodded in agreement. She should tell him she loved him, but she couldn’t. He didn’t understand the word. It wouldn’t mean anything. Later. After she taught him what it meant, then she would tell him.

She couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. She grabbed his shoulders to steady herself and let herself feel everything, every bit of it, as he explored her breasts with his lips and tongue. His hands glided over her ass, up and down her back. She swayed under his touch. It felt good, so good when he finally closed his mouth over an aching nipple he caused, and he sucked firmly. Shellie whimpered, but remembered where they were.

“Rath, we can’t! Not in their bed….”

Rath lifted his head and smiled wickedly. “Don’t worry, Michael won’t mind.” Rath squinted his eyes making her laugh. Sure he wouldn’t.

Chapter Eleven

Sinning in the City…

“I don’t know why we gots to do laundry now? Just wave your hand, G.”

“Shut up, and put that load into the dryer.” Michael said nastily.

“Whatsup? Yah…”

“Shut up!” Michael said his eyes narrowing angrily. “I can’t frickin’ believe you come asking for my help, and then sleep in my damn bed! I told you to stay out of my bed.”

“Shell wuz in there, so….”

Michael glared at Rath again as he shoved more quarters in the slots of the washing machine, rewashing the sheets from his and Maria’s bed for the third time. Rath’s eyes narrowed, but he scratched his eyebrow and shrugged.

“I’z just saying…”

Michael made a hushing gesture.

Rath paused. “I means…”

Michael grunted as a box of detergent next to Rath exploded.

“I told her I missed her.”

Michael slammed a lid. “Do I look like I want to hear any frickin’ details?” Michael looked at the time on the clock on the wall above the large industrial dryers. “Dammit, I had a damn test today, and…”

Rath almost looked contrite. “Go. I’ll finish the washing shit.” Wavering, Michael seemed indecisive. “Go. I’ll do it!” Shit he was so damn uptight.

“Fine!” Michael didn’t even bother to make any more chit chat. Coming home from school to find….or actually hear Rath and Shellie getting it on in his bed was enough to make him see red. There was a limit to his tolerance.

Rath rolled his eyes, and waited until Michael was gone to take the laundry out of the dryer and washer. Looking around, he shrugged, and quickly ran his hand over it to return it to dry pristine condition. Grabbing it, he was out the door and back to the apartment. Maybe Shellie would be back from the Roswell PD, and calling her parents. They could try out the sofa or the shower.

~~~

Rath ignored the door or tried to as he munched on fried chicken from takeout. On his way back to Michael’s he stopped at a convenient fast food place. So the sheets got a little stained from the grease, but he’d fix it later. The knocking wouldn’t stop. Pulling open the door he stopped his chewing to stare at a slight woman, older, but not too bad on the eyes.

“Michael?” Amy DeLuca moved passed him, staring at him in confusion. The tattoos, the piercings, and the hair. It was a mystery. “What…”

Rath frowned, but remembered his appearance compared to Michael’s. He remembered the last time he had been in Roswell. “Play. School. Um, yah know, that Grease thing….modernized.”

Amy’s eyebrow arched. “Really? I never thought of you as the participating type.”

Rath smiled at her, almost winking, but he refrained. Toning it down, he swallowed his natural instinct to put the moves on the older Betty. He promised Shellie. Shit this was going to be difficult.

“I’m not. I wuz just celebrating my quitting.” Rath shook a greasy drumstick at Amy. “It wuzn’t me. All that singing.”

“I can imagine.” Amy smiled, her DeLuca charm oozing. Rath smiled at her shyly despite himself, her regard was….warming. “Glad you were home. I was looking for you specifically.”

“Me?” Shit what did G have going on? Thought he said he was exclusive to the Maria bit.

“Fitting. I know Maria’s sizes, but you are a guess only. So I need you to come with me to be measured.”

“Measured?” Rath was having a hard time following.

“For the wedding.” Amy frowned. “You and my daughter are still getting married, right? Maria didn’t tell me…”

Rath smiled big. Oh, Maria’s mom. “No problem! Yep, we’re getting married.” Rath sort of owned G, so he played nice. “Do we need tah go now?”

“No time like the present.” Amy cleared her throat. Taking a seat she gestured to the bedroom. “I’ll wait while you go get changed to normal clothing.”

Normal? Rath looked down at himself. Oh yeah. Changed. Smiling he went into the bedroom, the one room that he was expressly forbidden to ever enter again. Closing the door with relish, Rath finished the chicken leg he had been munching on, and quickly changed his appearances.

“Ready.”

Amy smiled. There. Now he didn’t look like a street urchin. “Now I don’t know what style of clothing best suits you, and I thought I would stay away from a full suit or tuxedo. Maybe something stylish but loose fitting, not so formal.”

Rath smiled sweetly offering Amy his arm. “I thinks whatevah yah decide would be da bom…um, great. Good. Neat…um, righteous.”

Amy laughed at the smiling version of Michael. Strange. He was always a dour individual, hardly smiling. Occasionally she saw him talking to other boys his own age, mostly Max and Kyle, but this was a completely unexpected side of him. He seemed almost…, Amy frowned searching for the word. Mischief. He was like a little Loki on speed.

“What shudda I call yah?” Rath asked uncertain what Michael and Amy’s relationship was. “Maria’s mom? Um,…” Damn. What was Maria’s last name?

“Amy. I think you better call me Amy. Ms. DeLuca seems so formal considered that you’re married to my daughter. Maria’s mom. Wow, lets not even go there.” Amy and Rath crossed the street, Rath glaring at a car impatiently revving its engine. Discreetly, he placed his hand on the hood and smiled evilly at the driver making a very suggestive gesture at him.

“Michael!” Amy giggled. That was her first instinct too. Standing her ground and inconveniencing the rude driver.

Rath smiled and laughed in amusement as the man got out of his car to pop the hood when his engine stalled. “Aw, nows that’s a pity. Rudeness nevah pays.”

Rath spent the next hour trying on all the different clothes that Amy insisted he try. “I like this one. It’s tight.”

“I thought you liked things looser? I never noticed you wearing tight clothing.”

“Naw, naw sweet mom, Amy. I’m saying, it’s ‘tight’, a good piece of material. Yah hear?”

Amy laughed. No wonder her daughter was so easily charmed by Michael. He had a hidden side. Playful and witty. “Can I hear yah now,” she said. Rath laughed.

“Whatcha wearing? Yah know, Mother of the Bride. Once in a lifetime gig.”

Amy shrugged, “I’ve got a dress. It’ll do.” Her funds were limited. She was trying to keep cost down so most of the money in the account could go to Michael and Maria and their future. They were so young, hardly old enough to realize that they needed to think about the future, think about how things cost. She hadn’t much, but it was a start.

“Yah gonna need a dress! Pictures will tell the tell. Beauty like yah should shine.” Rath handed the man the shirt back not bothering going back into the changing room. He pulled his tight black tee over his head. “We through here, Jeeves?” He asked the man measuring him, and altering Michael’s clothing.

The man nodded and talked to Amy about when Michael would need to come in for one more fitting next week so it could be done by next Friday. Amy took the card.

She was ready to thank him for being so cooperative, and actually entertaining, but Rath grabbed her hand. “C’mon. I saw a shop.” He dragged her into a nice boutique. One that Amy had only visited a few times. The place tended to be out of her price range. Maria’s wedding dress was the most expensive dress she ever bought, and this place was in that same range.

“Michael, I can’t this is far too expensive. I have a dress. Really.”

Rath made a snorting noise. “This is my treat. Yor paying for the weddin’, so I want to buy the mother-of-the-bride a dress.” Rath held the door and tipped his head gesturing in, his eyes gleaming an open challenge. “Fraid yah will break me?”

Amy lifted an eyebrow and cleared her throat. Hitting Rath on the stomach, she went inside. “You asked for it.”

They spent another hour going through dresses and clothes, Rath making comments as Amy tried on different dresses. By the end of the hour, he had a few other clerks around them making suggestions too. Amy’s cheeks reddened as Rath made howling noises of a light flimsy dress that was like an ethereal vision. It had multi-layers of colored light silk upon each other, and it felt so light, Amy was afraid it wasn’t really there.

“That one!” Rath looked at their audience, all who were nodding enthusiastic.

Amy twirled. “I’ve got a perfect pair of shoes to go with this!” She stopped and looked at the young man that recently joined her family. He was always so quiet and reserved, and she liked that about him. He had this quiet strength, and when Alex died, her estimations of him had gone up immensely. He had told her so much about his life with Hank, without realizing how much he revealed. It was good to see him so young and carefree. Even if it was only for a moment, a glimpse.

Rath had stolen the price tag and went to pay, easily dipping into his stash. Amy DeLuca, Maria’s mom, she…she was special. She didn’t look down on him. She did boss. But there was something. A certain amount of ‘no bullshit’ to her. Rath frowned as he waited for his change. She had a warmth of her. Maybe there was so much he missed out on and he never knew.

Rath handed Amy a card as he carried her box with her dress. “The dude wanted me tah give yah his number. He thought you were a real hottie.”

Amy snatched the card and shoved it in her pocket looking around at other people walking on the streets. “Oh my very goodness!”

Rath walked her home, carrying her bags. Amy for once was quiet.

“Michael….” Amy stopped at her door and turned to Rath. “I…I wanted to say, that I’m sorry. Truly sorry.” Amy cleared her throat. “When you and Maria told me you were married, I behaved dreadfully.” Amy stroked his cheek. “Violence is never the answer. Not that way. Not to anyone. I…I lost control and hit you, and for that I…”

“It’s okay. I’ve had worse.” Rath said suddenly uncomfortable.

“No it wasn’t.” Amy cleared her throat again. “I know how it was for you. Remember? How Hank treated you, and even getting out of foster care at sixteen, you still had to live ten years through that. I knew, and I hit you, and that was wrong. Very wrong.” Amy gently kissed his cheek. “You grew up well, despite everything. I always thought so. You should be proud.”

Rath was speechless. Suddenly, being Michael. Playing wasn’t the same. He was taking something not his. Something that was meant for Michael, and for once in his life, Rath seemed to understand what that meant.

“Tell me later.” Rath scratched his eyebrow. “Tell me after I marry yor daughter. Then I feel like I did something right.”

Amy pressed her hand to his cheek and nodded. Going into the house, she watched him walk away. For the first time, since she had heard, she really felt good about everything. Playful Michael was one thing, but the Michael she had come to know, the one that stood by her and Maria during hard times, the one that was worried about hurting Maria, he was the one she should have trusted in, and it took seeing the other side of Michael to realize that he was so much more than what first impressions or even second ones created, or more specifically, what a town’s bias were. Michael Guerin had always proven himself to be so much more. She could trust that no matter what happened, Michael Guerin could be trusted to protect her daughter.

~~~

“You did what?” Michael moaned and put his head down on the counter.

Maria stood beside him, her hand covering her mouth, the mirth in her eyes apparent. Rath’s tales of his adventures with her mom were colorful and eventful. First thing Maria did was call her mother, who was bubbling over with enthusiasm, happy, and laughing about ‘Michael’.

“He has given you a lot to live up to. My mom is gushing over your ‘amusing playful side’,” Maria said.

Michael peaked over at his evil twin. “Tell you didn’t make a pass at her, you didn’t kiss her, and most important, tell me that you didn’t break out in damn song.”

“He can’t carry a tune,” said Shellie biting into another piece of pizza. She felt better. The police contacted her parents and informed them that she would be home soon. She concocted a story about an ex-girlfriend of hers from high school who went psychotic on her and took her out of state. She claimed that her boyfriend tracked her down, rescued her, and the girl was gone. There were other legalities she needed to take care of once she got home, but it was good to talk to her parents. They took care of her classes, and she was scheduled to do make up work in the next week.

“Neither can Michael.” Maria said. She sat next to Shellie, and they both sat watching the other two while eating. It was interesting.

Shellie and Maria had sat down and talked a while about aliens. Alien boyfriends. Alien sex. And specifically, they talked about Michael and Rath. It was scary how much they were the same. Shellie listened in interest as Maria told her things about the aliens. Told her about Antar and what had happened.

“He’s not evil.”

Maria sighed. Evil. A human judgment on Rath. He murdered. He did as he pleased. He was almost the direct opposite of Michael. Rath had no conscience about his actions. Michael tormented over every aspect of his. They were polar opposites, but yet in some things, they were identical.

“Shellie, it’s not that.”

Shellie watched Rath and Michael interact, and she caught the slight pull of Michael’s mouth, as if he were amused against his will. Michael protested, but she felt that even he was feeling the charm that Rath tended to exude.

“Then what is it?” Shellie sighed. “I know, there is history. He can change. He can learn. Maybe never be your Michael, but he can learn to live in this world.”

“Behave?” Maria asked softly. She picked the cheese off her pizza. “Do you really want that?”

Shellie laughed, and her dimple in her cheek deepened. Meeting Maria’s eyes, they both broke out laughing drawing Rath and Michael’s attention. What the hell were they laughing at. Both men frowned, their eyes narrowed, and they reached up and scratched their eyebrow. That made Maria and Shellie laugh even harder.

Truth was, neither of them wanted to change them. Maria loved Michael. After all these years, he changed, but those were changes he chose to make. Rath deserved the same consideration. There was only so much a person could change about another, before they became something totally different.

~~~

“You sure about this?” Michael asked as he tossed their bags on the bed.

“Yeah. He’s right about this. It doesn’t have to be a lifestyle, but it can stake us until we get on our feet.” Maria jumped on the bed, laughing as she heard Rath and Shellie in the other room making loud happy noises.

Las Vegas.

Rath talked them into going to Vegas for the weekend. He wanted to teach Michael how to run the tables and slot machines discreetly. How to read a hand. How to walk from a table that was too volatile. It was his gift to them for their wedding. He and Shellie had airline tickets home from Vegas, so this was their last hurray before they returned to the City on Sunday.

Michael had his own reason for going. It all started and ended with Maria. He didn’t want her to have to work extra Crashdown shifts over the next year. He didn’t want everything about their lives together to be a struggle. They struggled for three years. It was time to break free for even a moment. To be young. To be free. To finally be someplace better than Roswell.

He wanted her to go with him to buy real rings. She deserved a real engagement ring, and Rath was offering him a way of affording it.

“Okay, Margarita, here are the rules. We have fun! I gamble. You gamble. Go get your salt rub. Do whatever you want. We forget Roswell. We forget everything for forty-eight hours. Deal?”

Maria dragged Michael onto the bed with her. “Deal. Mini-honeymoon. Just you and me, and no crazy stuff.”

“Chapter one. Michael and Maria live an insanely normal life.” Michael said.

Maria giggled softly when the noise next door increased, and Rath made a howling noise followed by a loud scream and giggle by Shellie. “And what chapter is that?” Maria asked gesturing towards the wall separating the rooms in the suite.

“That is the Animal Kingdom.” Michael said. “I should’ve made them get their own room, preferably on the opposite side of the hotel.”

Maria grabbed his head. “Promise me something?”

“What?” Michael bit back his first response to say, anything. Telling Maria he’d do anything for her might come with terrible consequences.

“Don’t be Max. Not this weekend.”

Michael sat up frowning. “What do you mean?”

Maria sat up and moved her hand up his arm. “With Rath. Don’t be a version of Max. Remember how you felt when you wanted to have fun with Max, and he disappointed you? He failed to heal you? Don’t be the heavy brother. Cut loose. Have fun. Allow him to have fun with you. It might be a real experience.”

Michael seemed to think of what Maria was saying. He came to Vegas once with Max, just wanting to cut loose, leave Roswell behind, and be free. He had failed miserably. The only good was his better relationship with Maria. It taught him how easy it was to make her happy. It had never been about the expense of things for her, but rather just knowing he noticed her, listened. That had been everything.

“I thought a real experience was going to be the sharing of the hot tub with Rath and Shellie,” Michael said with a slight grin.

“Oh my! We’ve got to get a video cam!”

~~~

Maria hugged Shellie one last time and whispered encouragement in her ear. It was too bad they couldn’t invite them to stay for the wedding next week, but Shellie was already behind on school.

Michael and Rath had found a quiet friendship. It started with a friendly pool game that had exploded into a huge exhibition as both of them used their powers to out do the other. It had shocked the pool gambling crowd, and left both Michael and Rath in a very good mood, both of them enjoying the mischief and attention.

That had escalated into them running themselves ragged in Vegas hitting Casino after Casino. It had to be a special bonding when they only got into three fights, and almost arrested once. The stolen car joyride was a little over the top, but since Michael couldn’t stop talking about it, Maria ignored it and hoped it wasn’t a new pastime for Michael.

She and Shellie had hit the spa, everything from facials to body wraps. It had been glorious. Stress free and fun. They both got a bucket of tokens and hit the slots, both of them winning big. It took them a little while to realize that Michael and Rath had put their hands on the machines and made it happen. It had still been fun.

“Feel free to not keep in touch,” said Michael to Rath before he got on the plane.

Rath laughed grabbing Shellie’s hand and kissing Maria on the cheek. “Yor gonna miss me, G!” Rath squinted his eyes and stuck his tongue at Michael on his way up the tarmac to the plane.

Michael and Maria stood at the window watching the plane taking off. Maria was held under his arm tight to his side. Her left hand was resting on his chest, and Michael looked down at the set of rings on her finger they had picked out. Sometimes, things did work out.

And sometimes, they didn’t.

~~~

Michael paced, stopped, paced some more, and finally took off across the school quad to the table Max was sitting at reading.

Shit. This was stupid.

“Hi.”

Max looked up from his reading, lifted a brow, and went back to reading.

Michael sat down, and leaned on the table. “So…how’s it going?” Michael cleared his throat. He scratched the back of his neck, crossed his arms, and then moved them again. He couldn’t get comfortable.

“Fine.” Max continued to read.

“Can we talk?”

“About?” Max said, nonchalantly.

Michael sighed. Maybe he should’ve made Maria do this. “Things. Stuff has been happening, and…”

“The King Michael stuff?” Max said. “Marrying Maria? Both in some whacked out violent alien bonding and a real marriage in Reno?”

“There is that.” Shit. He knew a lot. “Liz told you?”

“Yeah, my ‘bitch’ occasionally talks to me.” Max said bitingly.

Michael groaned and sunk his head in his hands. Not again! He ran into Muriel Puce earlier, and she made gooey eyes at him, even passed him a note in class. Now Max. He hated Rath. He really hated him.

“Look, Maxwell. It’s not what it looked like. There was….um,” Michael paused. What the heck was he supposed to say?

Max closed his book. “Is he gone?”

Michael startled. “How?” He cleared his throat. “How…..when did you know?”

“The kissing bandit thing was an eye raiser, but you should tell him that in the future not to forget to put the scar on his chest.” Max poked Michael on his chest where his scar was. “And, since when do you talk like that?”

Michael rubbed his face, and he looked at Max. His mouth moved strangely, and then he could help it, he laughed. Max nodded, and he smirked too.

“You gonna tell me?”

Michael sat back relieved. “Where to start? His kissing strange women or his shopping trip with Maria’s mom?”

Max’s eyebrow raised at that. “Damn, you’ve been busy.”

“You’ve no idea!”

~~~

Maria was laughing at something Michael was telling her when the knock came at the door. Stealing from the pile of food Maria was chopping, Michael munched on a carrot stick on his way to the door. Before he could answer the door, Max walked in with Tess and the baby.

Michael went still and his hand immediately came up in defense. “Tess, you are not here!!”

Max rushed forward to get between Tess and Michael. “Michael, no!”

“Maxwell, get out of the way.” Michael gestured to Max. His eyes never leaving Tess.

“Not until you calm down.” Maria in the kitchen dropped her knife and came to stand behind Michael.

“Whatever she told you, she's lying,” said Michael, his voice rising in anger. Maria’s came to rest on the small of his back.

Max shook his head, his voice becoming desperate. “She has my son.”

Michael cricked his neck to the side. “Well, get the baby out of the way.”

“No, he needs her. If you kill her, my son will die.” Michael hesitated, and Maria drew in her breath harshly.

Michael’s anger was more than apparent. His eyes refused to leave Tess. She was in his home. She murdered Alex. Maria. Maria was in the house. “Max, what the hell's she doin' here?”

Max sighed and looked at Maria, who was silent. “It's a long story. But we need to get them out of Roswell.” Maria rolled her eyes, and buried her face in Michael’s back, her body shaking in rage at Tess’s presence, and Max’s protection of her.

Michael’s mouth tightened, his arm going around to bring Maria around to him. “Yeah. My heart bleeds.”

“Nice to see you, too, Michael.” Tess looked at the other girl. “Maria.”

Maria shook her head ignoring Tess, avoiding looking at her. She looked up at Michael. “Is this chapter one of Michael and Maria live an insanely normal life?”

Michael shrugged. “Normal appears overrated.” Roswell. If it wasn’t one thing. It was another. Like he said. Sometimes things worked out, and sometimes, it didn’t. Welcome to their lives.