Belatedly, she realized she had been told to leave during the distraction. Now would seem to be the perfect time to get away.
Still keeping half an eye on the apparently sleeping Kindred, she slipped out of the booth and began edging towards the door. But the copy/paste twins were in the way and now the second one seemed to be having the same problem the first one had.
He seemed to be at war with himself, first reaching for the door handle, then turning back towards the table where the big warrior still slumped. Meanwhile, the other twin was still clutching his head as though he had a terrible headache.
Vicky stood there watching them indecisively—should she try to get past them and get out the door? By now she wanted to get away from the whole mess. Pretending to be the big Kindred’s girlfriend had been fun, especially when he kissed her. But what she’d seen beneath the human masks of the weird alien twins was enough to make her want to go home, lock herself safely away, and curl up with a hot cup of tea.
As she watched, the twins continued to struggle.
“Let’s go,” the second one said. “Let’s…let’s…” He seemed to be fighting with himself as his twin watched him suspiciously.
“Grizok, is that you?” he demanded. “You are speaking strangely. Is the Kindred in your head?”
“No, of course not,” the second twin denied. But the next minute, he doubled over, clutching the sides of his skull and groaning. Then he straightened up again and looked at Vicky. “Run!” he commanded her.
By this time, Vicky understood that it wasn’t the freaky copy/paste twin talking to her—it was the Kindred who had somehow taken over the alien’s body. Her paralysis seemed to break and she ran, dashing around the two weird alien twins and reaching for the door.
The first twin tried to grab her but the second one snatched his twin’s hand away as its clawed fingers—because they were claws now, not human hands, Vicky saw—caught in the fabric of her red dress.
“Run!” he grated again. “I can’t hold him for long!” And then he doubled over in pain just as Vicky opened the door.
Immediately the first twin grabbed her dress again.
“You’re not going anywhere Earth female,” he snarled, his mask slipping again so that just for a moment she was staring into his lizard-yellow eyes. “You are with the Kindred which means you must be searched.”
“Let me go!” Vicky kicked out at him but he wouldn’t let go of her dress. As she pulled, she heard a ripping sound coming from the thin red fabric.
“Hey, what’s going on there? Leave the lady alone.”
The commotion had finally caused a reaction. Looking up, Vicky saw the large bartender—a man with tattoos up and down every inch of his burly arms—coming out from behind the long wooden bar. He was wiping his hands on a clean white dishtowel and his face looked like a thundercloud.
“Stay out of this, Earth male—it does not concern you!” hissed the lizard twin with his claws hooked in Vicky’s dress.
“Let her go!” the other twin exclaimed. Then he clutched at his head and snarled, “Get her! She must not be allowed to escape!”
“I said, hands off the lady!” the bartender bellowed. He grabbed the twin who was holding onto Vicky but the alien shifted in his grasp, as fast as a snake. Pulling a weapon that looked like a sleek, silver pen from somewhere he pointed it at the bartender and pressed one end of it.
A finely collimated beam of bright blue light shot out of the other end of the silver pen and suddenly the bartender had a gaping hole in his thick midsection.
But it didn’t look like a shotgun blast or any other kind of wound made by a gun, Vicky saw with horror. The hole was perfectly neat and clean and the wound was sealed. It looked like someone had taken a volley-ball sized cookie cutter and neatly cut a round chunk out of the bartender’s body, right at the midsection. Vicky could look right through him and see the shocked face of another bar patron where the man’s belly button ought to have been.
“Hey, what…” The bartender looked down at himself unbelievingly. He stared at the neat hole where his guts should have been. “The fuck?” he muttered and then fell to his knees.
This was enough for Vicky. She’d had plenty of adventure for one night, thank you very much. Despite the claws still hooked in her dress, she yanked open the door of the Last Call Bar and ran out into the night.
The alien twin made a hissing exclamation and there was a loud ripping sound as the back of the sexy red wrap dress was shredded beyond repair.
Well, there was definitely no returning it now.
Vicky didn’t care—she just wanted to get the hell out of there. Stumbling in her heels, she ran down the street as a narrow beam of blue light passed right by her left ear. In front of her, a large hole appeared in the middle of a tall metal lamp post. The light went out as the top of the pole crashed down into the street, right onto the top of a passing car.
The car slammed to a halt and the one behind it crunched into it. A third car right behind the second joined the pile-up as well.
Vicky ran past the honking and swearing, only pausing for a moment to kick off her shoes—the heels were too high and it was a wonder she hadn’t twisted an ankle yet—before running on.
Have to get home! Have to get home! The words beat like a
