Touched by an Alien

tuned it to my best hard rock music mix, the one that had them, Motorhead, Metallica, and others. I even had a couple of Stones songs in there. Maybe Martini wouldn’t hate me if he knew that.
    I realized I was terrified of what he was going to do when he discovered Christopher had almost had me in the elevator. A normal man I could lie to, but I’d liked it, more than I figured I should have, and the likelihood of Martini picking that up was high, burned out empathic powers or not. I tried not to feel guilty, but I couldn’t. I’d been a bad girl, and it was going to show.
    I took a look in the bathroom mirror and could see why Claudia and Lorraine’s suspicions had been raised. My hair looked as though I’d just gotten up or had been rolling around on a bed with someone. I brushed my hair and tied it back in a ponytail, did the face wash, avoided looking at the shower. I’d enjoyed my first shower here—I didn’t want to think I might never take another one like it.
    I made sure all the rest of my stuff was in my purse and left the room. Christopher was leaning on the wall outside, arms crossed over his chest, looking bored. “Took you long enough.”
    I didn’t grace this with a reply. “Where are we going?”
    “Top floor.”
    Another elevator ride. We stood on opposite sides. I thought about what being ravaged by Christopher had felt like. Okay, no elevator rides with Martini for a bit, that would probably be wise.
    Between trying to avoid thinking about the bed, shower, and elevator, I was ready to have sex with the entire complex by the time we reached our destination level. I was overjoyed to see Reader waiting for us.
    “We’re pretty much ready,” he said as we got out of the elevator. “I’ve got Jeff in my car. I think he’ll be okay, but he’s still kind of messed up.”
    “Your car?”
    “We’re taking two,” Christopher said. “Standard procedure, just in case.”
    We walked through a lot of men in uniform, most of whom looked human. Human men, no longer tempting, maybe I’d just stay here a while. As we neared a large gate, I saw a crowd of people around two gray SUVs. “Everyone comes for these things?”
    “To say good-bye, yeah,” Reader said. He didn’t have to add why.
    My parents were there. Mom looked at me, then at Christopher, grabbed me, and dragged me aside. “What happened?”
    “Not now, Mom, please.”
    “You two an item now?”
    “No, we’ve just stopped trying to kill each other.” Well that was true.
    She sighed. “Kitty, you know you can’t lie to me.”
    Damn, also true. Where was Dad? “Fine. I really don’t want to have a fight with you or anyone else right now, okay? I’ll tell you about it when we get back. It’s all part of my secret plan,” I added in a desperate attempt to get her off the scent.
    She gave me the hairy eyeball. “We’ll see.” She grabbed me and gave me the bear hug. “I love you, kitten. Be careful.”
    “I will.”
    “Oh, almost forgot.” She opened her purse and pulled out a gun. “It’s a Glock Twenty-Three-C.”
    “It’s a gun I can’t shoot.”
    “Sure you can. Only point it at what you want to hit, never at anyone on your team unless they’ve gone bad, never at yourself. There’s not a lot of recoil; a couple of shots and you’ll be used to it. Safety on, safety off.” Complete with live example. “It loads like this,” she dropped the clip out and then put it back in, several times. Then she handed it to me with not one, not two, but ten additional clips. “These are fifteen-round magazines. Hope these’ll hold you, but you’ll probably run out.”
    “You couldn’t have taught me this, say, last week when I’d have had time to practice?”
    “No time like the present. Practice on the superbeings.”
    “Will do.” I almost moved away but stopped. “Mom, how did you know Dad was the right one?”
    She thought about it. “He knew all I could do but still tried to protect me. I think that was probably the deciding factor.”
    I kissed her cheek. “Thanks for picking him.”
    “Wouldn’t have gotten you without him.” She laughed. “He picked me, too, remember.”
    My brain waved urgently, but I couldn’t tell why. “I want to say bye to Dad.”
    “Of course. Sol!”
    Dad trotted over. “You all set, kitten?”
    “Yep.” Hugs and pecks all around.
    “Dad, why did you pick Mom?”
    He gave me an odd look. “Now? You want to know this now?”
    “Yes.”
    He shrugged. “She