Switchback

By DocPaul

Sequel: Switched

Email: DocPaul2002@yahoo.ca

Rating: NC-17….very.

Spoiler: After Panacea and before Graduation.

Warning: Some of the sex is questionable.

Disclaimers: M&M and Rath belong to somebody who forgot them on a shelf. I play with them.

Summary: After Michael and Maria return from New York City , life in Roswell remains anything but normal, and just when it couldn’t get any stranger, they have a visitor collecting on a debt.

Author’s note:  This story is a fast down and dirty story, originally unbeta’d. It will be beta’d after it is completed. Because it is Rath……it is definitely much more graphic sex. There is a plot……sure there is! Thanks to Diane who braved this story to get it beta’d.

 

 

Switchback

For Cindy and Vin, and Rath lovers.

 

 

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?”