Odd Coupling (2 page)

The battle only lasted a few seconds.
He immediately released the body, but didn’t quite step away fast
enough to avoid getting a broad splatter of blood on his chest as
the carcass twisted and fell to the ground.

Another animal, almost an exact
duplicate of the first, charged unchecked into the clearing. Vren
repeated the same moves he’d already used to kill his next
attacker. Afterward, his head pounded from unrelenting pain, and to
add to his misery, he heard more animals approaching. He also
detected a different sound—human voices. They yelled in harsh and
threatening tones.

Several males were headed
in his direction, and they didn’t sound helpful. Sharp popping
noises accompanied their voices.
Guns.
The humans didn’t have power
blasters or stunners. Their hand weapons fired projectiles, which
could inflict more damage than he was willing to chance on the
slight possibility the men might’ve come to help him.

He chose the only alternative left
open. He ran.

The alien vegetation tore at him and
obstructed his escape at every turn. Sharp thorns, long and short,
shredded his uniform as he ran head first into the thick growth.
His ability to see clearly at night was the only thing that made it
possible for him to thread his way through the nightmarish
assortment of plants. A spike sticking out from a tree trunk caught
the side of his trousers. It ripped a gash in the material and
sliced into his hip. He snarled in pain, but kept
moving.

Suddenly, the animal sounds
quieted. He suspected his pursuers had come upon the crash site and
they’d found the two bodies he’d left in the clearing.
Excellent.

He had to put as much distance between
them as possible so he pushed onward. He spied an opening ahead and
picked up speed as he fought his way through the clinging brush. He
broke from the thick cover and ran straight into a tall wire
barrier. It threw him backward, and he fell to the ground, flat on
his back.

Undeterred, he sprang to his feet and
rushed to examine the structure. It looked weak. If he tried to
climb over, it might collapse under his weight. He glanced from
side to side and located a tall metal post that supported the wire
panels. Vren sprinted over and gave it a hurried examination. It
would support him. He scrambled up the thin pole with ease and
vaulted over the barrier. A barb snagged his uniform top. It ripped
a long slash down the back as he fell to the ground. The landing
jarred him and sent stabbing pain to his head. He struggled to his
feet and then stumbled off at a faltering run.

He was disoriented, and could only
hope his path took him away from the crash site. The unremitting
pain in his head clouded his vision, but he thought he saw a
roadway ahead. He staggered in its direction. He wanted to cross to
the other side first, then hide in the thick plants for a brief
time, just to rest and recover. Time to clear his head, plan and
gather his strength was what he needed more than
anything.

Spurred on by desperation, he darted
across the opening. Just when he thought he’d made it to safety,
something hard slammed into his side. The force sent him tumbling
across the hard ground. He blacked out the instant he stopped
rolling.

Chapter Two

Date: 2092

Location: Earth. Texas.
Somewhere between nowhere and everywhere else.

Each dip and bump jarred Bethany’s
spine and rattled the ancient Ford 4x4 pickup truck as she sped
down the twisting caliche road. The relic creaked and groaned as if
it protested the mad pace. She kept the pedal jammed to the
floorboard, and took the sharp turns and twists as they came while
the tires kicked up a thick dust cloud in her wake.

She knew all the roads that ran
through the drought-stricken ranch like the back of her hand. The
property was left to her and her older brother, Drew, after their
parents had died in a car crash ten years earlier. There was also
an embarrassingly large mansion in an elite neighborhood in Houston
they both owned. Well, up until a few months ago they’d shared the
house.

Drew, now thirty-five, had
found the right girl at last. By some miracle, the sparkling
socialite agreed to marry him. Bethany no longer felt comfortable
living in the family home
after that. Oh,
she liked Cassandra well enough, but three was definitely a crowd.
She and Drew decided to divide their inheritance. He took the
mansion. She got the high-fenced, three-thousand-acre hunting ranch
in Butt-Fuck-Nowhere, South Texas.

The only thing Drew kept was half the
mineral rights. She couldn’t blame him. The income from gas
production alone was substantial these days. It meant neither one
of them had to work an eight-to-five job. He pursued his dream of
working as a freelance photographer while Bethany took over one of
her father’s businesses, a rental property management
company.

Advanced Property Rentals was a
part-time job at best. One of her best friends worked for the
company. Shelly was great, perfect for the job. She’d even taken
college courses at night for several years, and had graduated with
a business degree. Bethany knew the company was in good hands, and
it made her decision to move to the ranch all the more
easier.

A small whitetail deer jumped out of
the underbrush and darted in front of her. Bethany slammed on the
brakes.

“
Damn doe!”

It scampered away, oblivious to how
close it’d come to being roadkill. The last thing she wanted to do
at that moment was scrape a deer off the hood of her truck. She had
her sights on larger game.

Minutes before sunset, she’d watched a
ball of fire streak across the sky. The sight had been stunning,
especially when seen from her back porch where the view was wide
open. She’d thought it was a plane or a helicopter of some kind
when it’d first appeared. However, the object had slowed just
before it’d plummeted to the ground beyond an outcropping of brush
and mesquite trees near the back fence line of her
property.

Without hesitation, she’d grabbed her
keys, sat phone, a bottle of water, a flashlight and the
twelve-gauge shotgun she kept loaded near the front door of the
ranch house. The keys were for the truck. The water, phone and
flashlight were for her in case the truck broke down. The shotgun
was for…well, anything that got in her way.

A woman all alone on an isolated ranch
at night or even in the daytime could never be too careful. At any
moment, she could drive up on a group of illegal refugees or
encounter a pack of starving coyotes or a roaming cougar around any
turn. Poisonous snakes could be anywhere along the road. Some had
rattles.

Since the doe had forced her to a stop
on top a small hill, Bethany took a second to scan the horizon. The
sun had set, and the stars were out. They twinkled against the
black cloudless sky. Tonight there was no moon, and since her
headlights only worked on low beam it made it especially hard to
see and drive in the darkness.

She coughed as a light breeze blew a
cloud of caliche dust into her open window. If only she could roll
it up. Air conditioning would be nice to have too. It was
mid-October and still warm before sunset. Too bad both features
were broken. The old truck was an antique, and the parts to fix it
cost more than what she could get in salvage. She could easily
afford to buy another one. She was being stubborn. They just didn’t
build them like this one anymore.

Bethany squinted at the horizon. She
could barely make out an orange glow in the far distance. Whatever
it was that had fallen out of the sky had hit the ground just
outside her property line. She punched down on the gas pedal and
sped off once more. The road would take her all the way to the back
fence. The truck tires rumbled over a cattle guard placed in the
road between a cross fence, which meant she’d crossed onto the back
five hundred acres. The glow ahead seemed to fade instead of grow
brighter.

The possibilities of what
might have crashed spurred her onward. Her first idea seemed too
outlandish to even consider.
Think
logically.
It had to be an aircraft from
one of the military bases near Houston or San Antonio. Or it
could’ve been a private plane from one of the larger ranches in the
area. There could be survivors who needed help

The other prospect seemed too
farfetched to even consider. It couldn’t possibly be one of the
alien aircraft. No. That would be silly. The aliens were too
advanced to have something so ridiculous happen. Their ships
wouldn’t fall out of the sky. They had some kind of anti-gravity
something-or-other that kept them airborne. Besides, what
self-respecting alien would ever allow his ship to crash into
Texas?

Over the past two years, life had
changed in so many ways. The newest change was the most mind
blowing of all for everyone on the planet. The fledgling New World
Government had come forward and made a stunning announcement.
Travelers from other worlds had arrived. They represented a large
group of planets and different species, and they wanted Earth to
join their Alliance. In return, the aliens promised to provide
protection and resources to help her world recover from a near hit
by a giant asteroid, a planet killer.

As proof of their goodwill, they’d
replaced all the damaged and destroyed satellites in orbit around
Earth with their own design. The technological leap in
communication was extraordinary, and made cell towers obsolete
almost overnight. Most of the ground based comm-systems had been
wiped out by clusters of meteor strikes that came ahead of the
Doomsday Asteroid, anyway.

Bethany had watched the live news
reports in amazement as several Alliance shuttles had landed at
different pre-arranged sites around the world. She’d also joined in
on the collective worldwide gasp at the sight of the very first
alien who’d stepped out of one of the spacecraft.

He’d looked perfectly human, well over
six foot tall, shoulder-length blond hair, blue eyes, and he wore
what appeared to be a uniform. The government commentator had
explained that he was a Sauren, a commander in the Alliance fleet.
The next being to exit had caused a major uproar to flow through
the gathered crowd. Bethany thought the tallish alien resembled her
favorite barn-tabby, Tom, but only if her pet decided to stand up
and walk on his two back legs. The lanky male screamed alien to her
way of thinking, although he was a gorgeous-looking kitty with
bright gold almond shaped eyes. The commentator had called him a
D’Lyrian.

More species made their appearance
that day, but Bethany had seen enough. What interested her most was
what the aliens offered—protection. Apparently, Earth had been
under attack for some time.

For several years, groups
of humans had been kidnapped from Earth by a race of beings called
Krellians. They’d stolen them for decades and sold them as slaves.
Bethany felt certain one could add
sex
in front of
slaves
. One of her girlfriends
had
disappeared
along with a hundred women and a few men during a vacation
trip to Key West.

The Alliance had rescued the abductees
and had returned them to Earth. Her friend had been among them, but
she’d immediately gone into hiding. Pam had always been so fun
loving and sweet. Now she refused to leave her family’s west Texas
ranch, and Bethany hadn’t been able to reach her by phone or social
media. The horrifying possibility of what her friend had endured
made her angry every time she thought about her.

Lost in thought, distracted and not
paying as much attention to the bumpy road as she should have,
Bethany startled as a large shape darted out in front of her. She
slammed on the brakes in time, but the truck’s wheels slid over the
slick caliche just far enough to clip the animal with the driver’s
side bumper. Her phone, flashlight and water bottle tumbled to the
floorboard. The shotgun remained secured in an overhead
rack.

“
Aw crap!”

There was nothing in the road she
could see from the truck’s weak headlights. Bethany shoved the
automatic transmission into park and leaned across the seat to
retrieve the flashlight before she pushed her door open.

Please don’t be hurt too
bad. No broken bones,
she silently prayed
and turned on the flashlight to see around the front of the truck.
From the dull sound of the thud, it hadn’t seemed like a hard hit.
She cringed. The one thing she hated the most was putting a wounded
animal out of its misery. Especially when she was the guilty one
who’d caused the injury, but she’d do what needed to be
done.

Her hopes sank as soon as
she directed the light on the bumper. She was wrong. Whatever she’d
hit, she’d hit it pretty hard. The front edge was dented and the
headlight was broken. Strangely, there was no sign of blood or
hair. Maybe the animal had crawled into the brush. She aimed the
flashlight toward the side of the road. The beam illuminated a
large
something
right next to the edge. At first glance, Bethany couldn’t
quite make out what it was. Then, almost in slow motion, it moved
its
arm,
a very
large one. A harsh masculine moan came from the huge
form.