Forbidden Law (An Alien Love #1)

Chapter One

    "Ah." My sigh of relief made a gust of visible breath puff out of my mouth. The cold air was made colder by the wind and the fact that it was late autumn. I held my palms to the burning fire Mom had made in our natural fire pit. Our vacation house was right behind us, looking a cross between a home and a tan colored barn. The sliding glass door was closed tightly and the radio played a soft bubbly tune. The crackling flames had been slowly lulling me into a sleepy stupor.

"Can you pass me a marshmallow? I'm starving." My little sandwich bag had emptied as I made them into melty s'mores that stuck to my fingers. Mom and Dad sat on folding chairs holding hands and drinking hot cocoa. The fire popped and cackled like it was dancing to the music.

Dad shook his head and reached for the big bag.

"Just wait 'til your metabolism slows down, then you'll be sorry," he teased. But he still passed it to me, the plastic crinkling in my numb fingers. Mom just stared at the fire, a small smile on her lips. Somewhere, a dog barked profusely, making another ten bark in reply. Yesterday had been Thanksgiving and I still had turkey and pumpkin bread on my breath.

Cold wind swept through the air around the three of us. But it still felt nice instead of blistering heat left over from the excruciating summer. It blew my unkempt hair around my head, causing it to fall into my gooey s'more that had a burnt crisp on the top like a top hat. Somewhere in the woods that sat behind our house, you could make out the faint sound of the flowing Trinity River. No one swam in it besides to boat sometimes, due to the strong current and occasional shark.

"You know we have to leave soon. We still have to go visit Gran at home. Thank God she still has Jimmy around or we wouldn't be able to come up here very much." My mother tightened her grip on her husbands' hand as red embers flew and danced to the cool breeze. Gran was about a hundred years old and had a college guy babysitting her while we couldn't. Our vacation house lay about a hundred miles north of our actual home, which was triple the size. So we had hired Jimmy to take care of her. He might be the nerdiest dude I had ever met, but he sure did take Gran for a run of her money.

We doused the fire with a bucket of cold water, leaving the simmering remains to sizzle and throw embers.

We packed up our belongings and squished them in our stuffed SUV. Everything looked ominously like it was about to explode when we finally closed it quickly.

"Skyler, can you get the trash from the shed? We still have to pack that." Dad offered a weak smile. I groaned internally, but went obediently. I traveled through the jungle of grass and made my way to the cement shed that served as our makeshift storage unit for trash and lawn equipment. But when I saw something unnaturally blue flash in the corner of my right eye, it distracted me and I froze. I squinted at the storage closet door that hung on for dear life on one rusty hinge. Now I definitely saw something. A hand? No sound came from that side of the house...

Making my feet go slower so I could be quiet, I made my way and stepped onto the back porch. I reached my slightly shaking hand to swing the white door open. As it did so, I heard scrambling crash around inside and held my breath. A dozen possibilities flashed through my head of raccoons and thieves.

What I saw next made my breath freeze and my heart stutter. My stomach contracted in fear.

What stood crouched in the dimly lit storage room was tall. And I mean tall. He was maybe seven feet tall or more. His long black hair fell a few inches past his shoulders and his pale blue skin stretched tightly across his bones with a stone-like smoothness. His long frame was squashed under the low hanging roof with startling green eyes reflecting back at me guardedly. He wore a black thing that looked a cross from a robe and toga. And he had no nose. Only smooth skin was in its pace. But besides that, he had abnormally large, studying eyes and a long mouth that held a hard line of fear. The hand I'd seen before was tightly balled at his side.