Lilah snorted and tried to lick my face with her enormous tongue. Not my nose or cheek, my entire face. She weighed almost two hundred pounds, had silky golden fur, a black face and the saddest eyes I’d ever seen. I didn’t know how such a huge creature could throw such pathetic puppy eyes at me when she wanted something, but she did. And I gave in. Every time.
“Let’s go, girl.” I slipped around the corner with Lilah right behind me, the perfect amount of slack in her leash. I’d worked with her since she was a puppy, making sure that when she grew up, she knew how to behave. I loved big dogs but I also knew they could be a lot to handle if you didn’t start training them young.
She padded along at my side as I carefully placed each step, determined not to make a sound. I had always been able to move quietly, scaring friends and family on multiple occasions; a talent I appreciated now. My plan was to locate where these bastards had set up their operation, and turn them in to the police. If they saw me, I had the perfect excuse to be outside. I was just a simple girl from the neighborhood out walking her dog. I would find them. The police would round them up, and my kids would be safe. Well, not safe—no one was ever completely safe in this part of town—butsafer.
My cell phone buzzed in my back pocket and I pulled it out to check the text. It was from one of my co-workers at the youth center.
Andreas is ok.Doc sending him home.
My hand shookas I responded with a simplethank youand put my phone away. The birthmark on my palm itched.Again.The darn thing had been driving me crazy all day. I rubbed my hand along the seam of my jeans to ease the burn and kept walking. I was close. I could feel it.
I knew the men I sought were pure evil. They had to be. No one else could distribute that kind of drug to kids.
Tomy kids.Teens who came to me for safety and shelter, who told me about the hellish lives they led at home or about how often they went hungry. I loved these kids. Watched over them. I was like a savage older sister with an unforgiving attitude. No one messed with my kids. These alien assholes had put one of them in the hospital this afternoon with their new, designer drug. They called it ‘Quell’. No one had ever heard of it before a few weeks ago. Not my contact at the police station or the kids I knew who kept dangerous—gangster—company. No one had heard of this particular gang before either. They had appeared out of nowhere, started selling the drug and killing any other gangs or drug dealers who stood in their way.
They were efficient, I’d give them that. The police had their hands full processing dead bodies. I’d read on a local news feed the FBI and DEA had been called in to help stop the violence. Our city was being destroyed by a ‘gang war’.
True, my city wasn’t Beverly Hills, but it was home and now it was turning into a freaking disaster. No one could get close to the new dealers. It was like they could read minds or something. They never got caught; always got away.
But Andreas had whispered something to me before he collapsed, slipping unconscious as the paramedics loaded him into the back of their ambulance.
Aliens.
I’d asked who sold him the Quell, where he got his hands on it, and that was the only word he’d spoken. Aliens. God damn, freaking aliens.
And then he’d pressed his hoodie into my hands with a terrified look on his face. He took my hand and wrapped it around something about the size of my fist that he had hidden in the pocket and said, ‘Its theirs. I stole it. I’m sorry. They’ll come for it. I’m so sorry.’
He’d sobbed like a three year old. I’d asked what it was and why he’d taken it. How this had happened. Who had given him the drug. I spoke so quickly the words slurred together. No that it mattered. He’d had one more word for me –aliens—then he’d passed out while I rambled. The first responders lifted him into their van, slammed the doors in my face and drove away.
A few years ago I would have laughed at the idea of aliens like everyone else. But one of my best friends, Katie, had volunteered to be an Interstellar Bride. She’d walked into that processing center and never come back out. The aliens had some kind of transporter,Beam-me-up-Scotty,technology in that building. I’d received the money she’d been awarded for volunteering and a note telling me she was tired of Earth and all the crazy. She wanted a fresh start.
Her parents both being drug addicts as well as dealers, I didn’t blame her one bit. I’d used the money to improve the center and to pay Lilah’s rescue fee. She’d been the best birthday present I’d ever given myself. A puppy. A clumsy, adorable puppy with the biggest feet I’d ever seen.
And now I was out at night in a scary part of town, lurking in dark alleys. Did I have a gun? A knife? Even pepper spray? How about a Jedi Knight to protect me with his bright blue light saber? BigNOPEto all of those. I had a dog. A great big, lick my face every chance she got, two hundred pound lap dog. She made me feel safer. Right now, that was all that mattered.
Ten minutes and two turns later I stood across the street from a run-down strip mall. Once upon a time this had been a bright and shiny shopping center. Now the bricks crumbled on every corner, several windows were boarded up where the glass had broken and no one cared enough to fix it, and the parking lot was more potholes than pavement.
There was a light on inside the defunct business on the end. The retail space was not huge, but it had a drive up window where, right now, a dark SUV pulled up and rolled down the driver’s side window.
A low rumble came from Lilah. A growl. A warning.
“Shhh, girl.” I took out my cell phone so I could take a picture of the license plate. I zoomed in and out, trying to bring the numbers and letters into focus. “Got it.” I hit the button to take the picture.
Bright light flashed from my phone. The SUV’s reverse lights came on and it backed up toward me as a couple of huge men came out the front door of the business.
The SUV skidded to a halt. I saw a flash. Heard a loud crack.
“Shit.”
I looked down to see a dark stain blossoming on my side, soaking my favorite yellow blouse.
The SUV sped away. The two huge men were menacing shadows now, quickly closing in on me.
Lilah stepped between us and bared her teeth, a deep warning growl directed at the two shadows. They stopped about ten paces from me, wary but not scared.
“What are you doing here, female?” The voice was harsh. Unforgiving.
“Walking---my dog.” I pressed my palm to my side, felt the warm blood and then lifted my fingers in front of my face to confirm what I suspected. Dark red stained my fingers and palm. The ground started to spin. Instinctively, I put my hand on Lilah’s back to steady myself.
