We take in the scene,including the gun held to the human woman’s head. We confer and agree that she is human. The light bends around us, making us appear to be human. Doug, as he is known on this planet, uses a much more primitive disguise that has to be uncomfortable.
“Release the woman, Doug.” Is she his next sale?
Something glints in her eyes. Her leg moves, she swings her elbow, and twists out of Doug’s grip, but she doesn’t run to our side the way we expect. We are law enforcement. We appear trustworthy. Instead, she moves to the side to form a triangle with us and Doug.
Smart.
Doug points the gun at her, and then at us, as if he isn’t sure what to do.
“Doug, whatever you have done, it’s best to comply, and then call your lawyer.” Her voice is steady.
“You are a stupid human.” He swings the gun at her and fires.
Shadow lunges and drags her down before the primitive projectile can hit her. It’s a violation but a small one and we immediately return to appearing to be human. Though Shadow sulks at having to mimic me.
Doug snarls, his gaze on Shadow.
A prism of curses that he noticed the split. The woman glances up from the ground. Shadow brings his fingers to his lips. We sometimes wonder what it would be like to have only one body, not two.
But it would be lonely having only one.
And also bad in a fight.
Doug tears away the layer of skin that hid his true form. He is livid green and rather too gelatinous for our taste. He snarls, baring fangs as long as our fingers, he fires the gun twice more, aiming for us both.
The woman has crawled away. It’s only when she fires at Doug we realize it was to get a weapon of her own.
Her projectiles pass through his body with no effect. We gather light in our hands, hot and bright, and launch it at Doug—his kind doesn’t like heat or burns. Doug evades, fleeing out the window. The blast leaves a large sun shaped scorch mark on the wall.
“Prism.” Shadow peers out the open window. “We can’t even see the slug.”
“Don’t use the slur.” We process the same information. Doug the slug—Shadow’s joke is amusing, though Light would never say it aloud—is gone. A moment later, so is Shadow.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” She keeps the gun on me. “And what the fuck was that?” She jerks her head at the window where Shadow had been only moments before.
We think she means Doug, not us.
We could tell her the truth or lie. She knows him, so she might be useful. We concur…which is always a good thing as sometimes we don’t. We see the street as Shadow pursues and the room where Light stands; my realities separate and blending.
“That was the creature we have been tracking for months. He has been selling human women off world, a crime on two counts. Trafficking and trading in a non-spacefaring species.” We can now add exposing his true form to his list of crimes.
She blinks, but her hand holding the weapon remains steady. She is not afraid of us. Intriguing. Most species fear us.
“Why did he turn green, and what is that on the floor?”
“The clothing and skin he was wearing.” That is fairly obvious. Though without the host body to nourish it, the skin will disintegrate. We have been told ripping away camouflage skin is painful as it is melded to the body and also reshapes it. We try again because she is staring at us blankly. Shadow smothers a laugh at Light’s predicament as he slides through the night after Doug. “Doug is an alien. He is selling human women to other aliens, both on this world and others. Do you know where he has gone?”
Shadow’s thoughts are mine.She is no use.
She stares at me. “What the fuck are you?”
“We are Thistle.” We say. “Please lower your weapon. It will not harm us.” That’s a lie. It will hurt and I’d rather not experience another projectile wound, as it messes with our ability to bend light and neither of us like to bleed. “If we wanted you dead, we would not have saved you from Doug’s projectile.”
“You’re telling me my boyfriend is an alien?”
“Yes.”
“And you and the other guy are both aliens?”
