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  Sure enough, as he spoke, the front door burst open and a voice shouted,

  “Hands up! This is the police!”

  “All right,” I said, making a decision. Stepping forward, I gave him my hand. A strange electrical tingle ran between us and I gasped. “What—?”

  “It’s nothing,” he assured me hastily. “Are you coming with me?”

  “Yes.” I nodded firmly. “Take me to Zoe.”

  “My pleasure. Come on.”

  We raced up the stairs, which were thankfully located on the other side of the living room from the entry hall, and into my bedroom.

  “Wait,” I panted as Grav slammed and locked the door—not that my flimsy bedroom lock would hold the police for long. “Why are we up here? Are we going out the window? Because it’s really high up and there aren’t even any trees to climb down.”

  “Not the window—the viewer,” Grav grunted.

  I didn’t understand what he was talking about until he gestured to the wide, silvery mirror attached to my bureau. It was an antique piece I’d inherited from my grandmother, but there was no door or drawer in it wide enough to fit me, let alone the seven-foot-tall, hugely muscular Grav.

  “What are you talking about?” I said blankly. “Is there some kind of secret passage there? Like the doorway to Narnia or something?”

  “Just watch.” He pulled me closer to him and we stood side by side, staring into the mirror. I noticed that there was a bluish-gray spot on his massive muscular chest that appeared to be spreading.

  “Oh, look—you’re hurt.” I pointed at it. “That’s going to be a nasty bruise.”

  Grav looked down at himself and grinned humorlessly.

  “That’s not a bruise.”

  “Then what—?”

  “You’ll see,” he interrupted. “I wish I had time to explain better but I don’t. Just don’t be surprised when we go through. I’m not, uh, exactly how I appear.”

  “Go through? Go through what?” I demanded but Grav was leaning forward and speaking directly at the mirror.

  “Char’noth,” he barked. “Two to transport and make it fuckin’ snappy.”

  “Two to transport?” I asked, looking at him incredulously. What did that mean? It sounded like something from one of those old Star Trek episodes Zoe used to make me watch. She was a total scifi geek and insisted on inflicting her obsession on all her friends.

  God, I missed her!

  I started to ask Grav more questions but outside I heard footsteps pounding up the stairs and a stern voice demanding that Grav give himself up and release me unharmed. Gerald had really done a number on their heads—the police believed him completely.

  “Grav,” I said nervously as someone started pounding on the door. “If we’re going to go, we have to go n—”

  The rest of the word died in my throat as the mirror began to swirl with a kaleidoscope of rainbow colors. Then a strange blast of music played. With a shock, I realized it was the same thing I’d heard just minutes before Zoe had disappeared. I’d been talking to her on the phone at the time of her disappearance and that music had been the last sound I heard before she screamed and was gone.

  The next minute, I found out why she’d been screaming.

  A force like nothing I had ever felt starting pulling Grav and me towards the mirror. It seemed like someone on the other side of those swirling colors had turned on a giant vacuum which was sucking us in.

  But in to what?

  “Grav?” I asked, trying to keep the panic from my voice.

  His big hand tightened on mine.

  “Here we go, darlin’. Hold on tight.”

  “But I—”

  I didn’t get to finish my sentence. Just as the bedroom door burst open and the police came in with guns out, I was sucked forward into and then through the mirror.

  I had a moment to think that I was leaving Earth and my whole life behind and I had no idea how or if I would ever get back.

  Then everything went black.

  Chapter Four

  Leah

  When I woke up, I was naked in the lap of a huge blue alien.

  I screamed and scrambled away from him as fast as I could.

  “Oh my God! Oh my God—what? Where? Who?” I could scarcely get the words out.

  “No, no—it’s okay. Take it easy, it’s just me!” He put out a hand to me but I shied away.

  The alien was naked too—and very obviously male. I couldn’t believe the size of the member between his legs. But as impressive as his equipment was, that wasn’t what caught and drew my eyes.

  His face was much scarier.

  Curving black horns like a ram’s grew from his temples and his eyes…how can I describe his eyes?

  The whites—or what should have been the whites of his eyes—were pure, liquid black. His irises were brilliant white and his pupils were black with a pinprick of white in their centers.

  I had never seen eyes like those and they scared the crap out of me.

  “Who are you?” I asked in a trembling voice.

  He sighed and ran a hand over his short black hair which was cut close to his scalp.

  “It’s me—Grav, Leah,” he said in a low, quiet voice. Clearly he was trying not to upset me anymore than I was already upset—which was plenty, let me tell you. “I told you I wasn’t how I seemed back on your planet, remember?”

  “Yes, but you didn’t tell me you were…were this.” I made a motion at him which caused my breasts to jiggle. This reminded me that I was completely naked—as naked as he was—and I quickly wrapped my arms around myself and drew my knees up to my chin. “What are you?” I whispered.

  He sighed again.

  “Yeah, I don’t blame you for bein’ scared. I’m an ugly son-of-a-bitch, I admit that. I’m half Braxian and half Vorn. That’s why I look like I do.”

  “But…” I shook my head. “You, uh, didn’t look like this back on…on…” I couldn’t make myself say ‘Back on Earth,’ because I still couldn’t believe we’d left the planet’s surface. “Back in my living room,” I said at last, lamely.

  “That’s because I was wearing a mask,” he said patiently. “And because I’d drunk saphor solution to hide my true skin color.” He gestured to his muscular blue-gray hide. “Which is this.”

  “You wore a mask?” I repeated, remembering his oddly generic features. “I don’t understand. Why?”

  He shook his head unhappily. “You haveta ask? Because of the way you’re looking at me now—like you think I’m gonna eat you up. Because I didn’t want to scare you, Leah.”

  “Oh,” I whispered in a small voice. I had to admit that seeing a seven foot tall blue alien with black horns and white-on-black eyes in my living room would have been pretty damn frightening. In fact, it probably would have caused me to question my own sanity.

  Not that I wasn’t doing that now.

  “I trust the transport went well?” a high, piping voice behind me asked.

  I spun around—as well as I could while still trying to keep myself covered—and saw what looked like a three foot tall, dark blue, segmented worm with multiple arms and legs. It regarded me with bulging purple eyes perched on stalks that swiveled as it took me in.

  I started to scream but the sound stuck in my throat.

  “Oh…Oh, my God,” I whispered, shaking my head. “First a giant, naked, blue alien and now a talking worm. I…I must be going crazy.”

  “No, you’re not,” Grav said quickly. He made a shooing motion at the worm. “Get back and give us a minute, Char’noth. Can’t you see the lady’s upset?”

  “I see only a disheveled Earth female with multiple cuts and lacerations on her face.” The worm Grav had called Char’noth sounded disapproving. “I need to know if this is due to our transport process. If so, the equipment needs to be moderated or changed. Such injury during transport is not acceptable…”

  “Oh. Well, thank you for b