Copyright PennameWombat July 2019

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental

This is part 3 of "Chronicle: Mel and Chris," which began in "Chronicle" Mel & Chris" and continued in part 2 of the same title. This series is a sequel to the "Mel's Phone Call" trilogy (in Exhibitionist & Voyeur category).

If you haven't read them I hope you'll be interested in Chris and Mel's 'origin story' in the trilogy that begin in "Mel's Phone Call" and continued in "Mel's Phone Call, Part 2" and "Mel's Phone Call, Part 3," all in 'Exhibitionist & Voyeur Stories.' Our core cast of characters were introduced in there. You might also find my 'Geek Pride' series of interest (initial entry, 'You Promised Me Geeks' in Non-Human category) as their characters are likely to drop by here now and again (and vice-versa).

Tags: Anal Sex, 18-year-old, College, Cunnilingus, Fellatio, FFM, FFFM, First Time, Outdoor Sex, Sharing

*****

Gone National

Sam

Sam's first sight as she opened her eyes was a kneeling Mel's smile on a face covered with massively smudged black and red makeup topped by a tangle of black hair with two red horns still sticking out of it. She had her too-small robe on but it was open.

"Wakes, wakey, sleepyhead," the unreasonably chipper demon said, "c'mon, the shower's free. Come with me and share. We'll save water."

"You still have your horns on," Sam said, she smiled then rolled over, "and, fuck off."

The blanket was pushed off and something pointy ran up Sam's bare back and around her neck. It was the red, triangular tip of a devil's tail.

"Oh hell, not the tail too!"

"Yup," said Mel as the tip of the tail worked its way around Sam's bare tits, "when I told Chris this morning I planned to wear it and the horns regularly he got so excited he grabbed my tail, turned me around, bent me over and fucked me again!"

"And right there," she pointed to the foot of the bed with the tip of the tail, "and you didn't even wake up!"

"That... that was real? Last night, fine. But AGAIN? Oh god. The boy-girl smells. The boy-girl sounds. Horrors! I laid here and prayed it was just a terrible, horrible, nightmare," the redhead groaned, but she rolled over and slid her feet off of the bed, "where's Chris?"

"Downstairs getting lots of coffee brewed," Mel said, she took Sam's hands and pulled her erect, she wasn't actually wearing the tail at the moment and besides the horns and open robe had only her ubiquitous ankle socks back on.

As the naked and all-but naked women walked into the bathroom Sam recalled the conversation from last night, no, from earlier this morning.

"Did you and Chris tell me that Anna's an alien? An honest to god not from here alien?"

Mel pushed the door closed and worked her horns off.

"Well, we don't KNOW that... yet at least. It fits in bits and pieces. But don't tell anyone, please. Maybe she's what she said, a girl born in Africa to missionary parents who dragged her all over the world growing up. And died when she was a teenager and she's been on her own since. That fits her too, can't deny, might account for her strange, strange accent."

Sam nodded her agreement, Mel hugged her and Sam hugged her back.

"I told Teresa you fell asleep in our room," Mel said as she stepped to the sink to work on her smudged face, "she didn't seem surprised."

Sam nodded, she looked at the toilet and Mel shrugged so she sat down and 'aahhed' in relief. She stood up, flushed, Mel's mostly-cleaned face turned to her.

"Get the water going, I'll be ready in a sec!"

Sam opened the glass door, reached in and turned the faucet, it was quickly warm and she stepped in to face the stream, soaked her hair, closed her eyes and let it hit her face and chest. She felt a hand run up her back the nape of her neck, it was met by a second and she felt shampoo applied.

"You really need to have Chris do this," Sam heard Mel's voice, a step deeper than usual, "he'd make you blow just massaging your head."

Sam stayed silent, let Mel work her scalp then through her long, red hair. She opened an eye, found the soap in the unfamiliar shower and lathered her hands.

"Rinse," she heard, Mel guided her head under the water, put her hands on Sam's shoulders and turned her, pulled close as she reached around to use her fingers to rinse out the shampoo. Sam used the opportunity to cup and caress Mel's breasts, her nipples erect as usual and growing. She looked up, caught the taller woman's eyes, they both smiled, Mel bent her neck and their mouths met, softly for a moment before two sets of lips parted and tongues met.

Mel's hands traced down Sam's back as the redhead's hands were pinned between their bodies, large, firm nipples between her fingers, her own smaller but now attentive nipples against her own forearms. Mel's right hand traced around Sam's curvy left hip and followed the crease of her leg, Sam started as Mel's fingers found the clit that had been thoroughly exercised in the previous few hours. Mel separated her mouth, kissed her way to Sam's right ear, whispered, her fingers still busy.

"You need a trim, Red, Teresa be getting lost down there."

Sam's snort was cut short by a mouth pressed back against hers. She tried to move her arms to return the treatment but Mel held her tightly and worked the excited flesh surrounded by its red pubic hair. Sam moaned into Mel's mouth as the taller woman expertly worked her to a quick but pleasant climax, her legs went rubbery for an instant.

"Let's get clean," Mel rasped as she loosened her wrap but grabbed the soap and gave Sam her best demon smile and made clear the favor wasn't to be returned.

She'd reached the bottom of the first set of stairs, wrapped in a towel, before Sam stopped suddenly. She looked up, laughed silently. How the hell did she just have a shower with that beautiful, weird black-haired girl yet still not manage to actually SEE her bare feet? This shower, showers after racquetball, barely glimpses. They could just about really be cloven hooves, she thought. She shook her head and started down the second set of stairs.

About 45 minutes later phone extensions on three levels rang in unison. A clothed Sam had just poured herself a coffee in the kitchen so was first to answer.

"Hello?" Sam offered the mouthpiece.

"Good morning, sorry to call so early. I assume my daughter is there?"

The voice was sufficient for Sam to know the caller, much less the reference to a daughter.

"Indeed she is, Mrs. Caldicott, ah, Helen, I'll get her..."

"No," the quick reply, "tell everyone to get on a phone, hurry!"

"Hey," Sam shouted, not bothering to ask why, "everyone get on a phone, it's Mel's mom. Something she wants to tell us all!"

A variety of voices as phones were picked up, a series of groans from the lump of Dave on the sofa as the commotion finally woke him up.

"Ok, mom, what's up?" Mel's voice.

"Melanie Caldicott!! I always knew! Now everyone knows! So natural."

"What? Huh?" Mel being the one to voice the confusion they all felt.

"You guys are an hour behind, right?" Various yups, yeahs.

"Put your TV on 'It's Morning, America,' that's all I'm going to say."

"Ohhh... Kay...," again, Mel speaking on behalf of everyone, "thanks, mom. Have a good day."

"Yup, those lawyers can't function without me. Bye!" The line went dead.

Chris

"Hey, Dave," Chris said as he went down the stairs immediately after the phone call, "do us a favor?"

"Hey, sure, Chris," Dave said with a grunt as he walked into the kitchen, still wearing his ranger-costume trousers and shirt as he found a mug and filled it with coffee. Terry had put out a hitherto-hidden box of day-old pastries specifically saved for this morning. Dave almost purred as a sip of coffee and a bite of pastry hit his tongue.

"Bring that upstairs, watch the TV for us? You're already dressed," Chris said, chuckled, "I'll give you a ride home or to campus. Watch 'It's Morning, America' and call us if you see something."

"Sure," he followed Chris upstairs to the big TV, "but, what am I watching for?"

"Not sure, but I'm sure you'll know it when you see it."

"What channel?"

"KPUD, should still be on it."

About 20 minutes later everyone heard Dave shouting.

"It's the Cat, the freaking Cat! Hurry!"

Teresa and Sam were the last ones in, both puffing from having charged up two flights of stairs.

"... your beautiful elven baby!"

"And now," the costumed reporter continued on what was easily the highest-rated nationally-broadcast morning program, "has this succubus captured her prey?"

Cheers as Mel revealed a sight not common on national morning TV as she stepped into frame leading the leashed, smiling Chris. Her slightly sideways stance showed off her horns and wings and tail but only just obscured her rouged nipple and areola. Her long, athletic legs were highlighted in her high, platform heels.

"Or can this sweet angel rescue him?" Was Sam's cue to take Chris's arm opposite Mel wearing her own beaming smile. She'd put the white high heels back on for her cameo and walked smoothly enough in them, angled to show one feathered wing and only a bit less rounded breast.

The segment ended as before with the camera panning across everyone as Cat said "from somewhere between heaven... and hell... this is your Cat reporting on Halloween."

"Holy hell," said Chris, "we've gone national."

The chirpy female host of the show added "that report from KPUD's own Jane Jacobs."

Mel wrapped her tail, hung from the back of her jeans, around Chris's waist and nuzzled his neck with her horns.

"My mom's right, I'm a natural demon."

Chris heard an odd, slightly strangled groan from Dave, he was badly hungover but he wasn't sure that was all of it.

"Well, Sam," said Teresa, "I think something will hit the fan in about an hour in California when they see their half-naked not-lesbian daughter hanging all over her beau while a nakeder demon drags him to hell..."

"Oh, um, oh shit!" Sam said quickly, then trailed off, "Christmas..."

"Hey, Red," Mel said, "he's coming to North Dakota for Christmas. You can't have him."

"Christmas Eve? Share?" Sam asked.

"Um, no," said with demonic certainty.

"Now, now," said Chris, "let's look at this. December in North Dakota. Or. California. Hmm. Let's weigh this up..."

"Just think of Christmas in California," Mel growled as the tip of a demon's tail found its way to Chris's crotch, "as a brown Emms in a bowl that should have only red ones..."

"If you put it that way," Chris kissed Mel, "sorry, no Cali, Sam. Anyway, bus leaves in 20 minutes, get a move on folks."

"Chris," Dave said with a chuckle, "your email is going to go to hell again after this."

"Well," Chris said slowly, "she didn't use our names and our pictures haven't been that widely distributed since our Mallomar news conference hardly got shown. Besides, people won't even look at me..."

"I wouldn't, that's for sure," Dave's laughter joined by Chris.

"Hey," a random voice, followed by a hurried 'sorry' from Chris as he realized he'd stepped in front of a trio of other students already in the hall. He moved nearer the wall, walked slowly.

'Dave was right, kind of,' Chris thought as he as he scanned the printouts and smiled.

When he'd logged on and checked various USENET forums, he saw that the BBC had also picked up Cat's video and it had made its way around Europe. But even with that he was initially relieved that even with as the connected sites on that side of the Atlantic added their admiring comments along with the sites in the US they were generic and of the "who were the hot devil and angel and who was that lucky asshole between them?"

Unfortunately, thought Chris, enough of the connected sites were observatories and universities and it didn't take long until the clip of the sexiest rep hell had to send and her leather-clad prey had been outed as the discoverers of the "Caldicott-Bajevic Anomalies." The sweet angel no one knew but plenty wanted to name some sort of heavenly object after her once that had been rectified.

Which meant by the time he'd left Dave and Dr. Carlstrom after the PMAI seminar Chris had spent his lunch hour not eating but dealing with the rush of email and newsgroup postings Dave had predicted. Most were indeed requests for Chris to make himself scarce, a few were immediate marriage proposals for Mel and/or Sam and the rest were variations of 'you lucky sonofabitch' directed at him.

He'd printed out a few of his favourites of each sort to share after racquetball. He smiled as he wondered if Mel or Sam would find any of the proposals compelling.

Some Other Place

"I am of the strong opinion, beautiful red headed angel," Sam read the printout, "that if you plan to save anyone, that anyone should be me, not that lameass in the video. I'm smarter and richer than he'll ever be. Please have lameass email me your address so I can mail you the engagement ring and an airplane ticket so you can come and meet my mom. Love, Tommy."

The other diners around the table at Some Other Place restaurant laughed along with Sam.

"Lovely demon, I know you're the brains behind the operation," the horned Mel read, "and that the trained monkey on your leash isn't likely of much help. Take me with you into the infernal fires and find out what a real man can do! That is, if the trained monkey gives this to you."

"I know what I am," Chris shrugged, Mel tapped the side of her head on his shoulder, "but I didn't bother to print out all of the ones that just said 'you lucky asshole. I did like this one though, 'Chris, dude, you're playing for the wrong team. Forget women. We have a better offer for you...'"

"Don't I do it for you anymore," Mel said, a quiver in her voice quickly replaced by a snort and a round of laughter.

"You three are quite famous now," Anna said in that weird, flat voice of hers, "everyone around the world has seen you."

"All of us got an instant there," said Teresa, then she looked at Anna and Bobby, "especially you two taller than all of us. But fortunately most of us just background to these nuts!"

"I told Cat when I gave her the address I didn't want a starring role," Anna shrugged, "she found the right ones."

She'd insisted they come to what she said was her favorite restaurant in town instead of the usual post-racquetball pizza, no one complained too loudly, especially when she'd said she was paying. She'd said she was so impressed with how hard they'd played as well as having hosted such a nice party the night before. Terry and Pam had skipped, plans to meet other friends who'd missed the party.

"But people put enough money in the fish bowl last night," Chris had explained, "we broke even."

The tall, pale, green-eyed amazon had just shrugged at that. Now she leaned into Bobby, who leaned back. Unlike twenty-four hours earlier they were both well covered in jeans and their torsos in snug sweaters, Bobby's powerful chest next to Anna's large, round breasts.

Sam finished reading another marriage proposal and Mel laughed, her braless nipples coaxed by the cold even through her coat prominent through her tight, thin shirt. Chris admired them as they moved only slightly as her shoulders shook. She'd pulled her tail around and the tip sat on her lap. It looked like she was serious about it and the horns, Chris mused. Cool.

"Looks like you have options, Sam," Teresa grumped, "be packing your bags?"

"I dunno," she responded, "Chris, you got any of these from guys who aren't weirdos?"

"I'm afraid they're all weirdos," Mel said, "they're the only people who have email!"

"Hey," Chris started to say, Bobby interrupted him.

"She's right."

Another round of laughs.

Chris and Mel turned to look over the shoulders when they saw Bobby and Anna look over their heads, saw the waiter approach with what looked like a chocolate cake.

"Excuse me," he said, leaned between Mel and Chris as they parted to provide a lane so he could place the cake on the table, "special order for the table."

A second waiter followed it with a large cake knife and set it and a stack of six dessert plates next to the cake.

Chris noticed a soft smile on Anna's face as they all turned to the cake, stared open-mouthed, read the white, cursive lettering.

'Thank you for making me famous, Cat!'

"Wow," Anna said, "she'd told me she had a surprise, that's why I wasn't allowed to take you all to Crompton's tonight. I really want to go there. My barbarian will take me soon."

Bobby turned his head slightly, smiled broadly, nodded in confirmation.

"Ok," said Sam, "I've been dying to ask, Anna."

The cute, dark-haired woman tilted her head slightly, an eyebrow above a green eye quirked up as she smiled and looked at Sam, clearly welcomed the question.

"You've only been here since, what, September?"

She nodded.

"And you know this TV reporter. Chris was born here and doesn't know TV people. How do you know this Cat?"

"Or," asked Chris as he recalled the morning video, "is her name really Jane? They mentioned that this morning."

"You're my swordsman, Bobby, cut the cake," Anna handed him the cake knife, glanced quickly at Chris then looked at Sam, went on in that strange, inflection-free voice, "it goes back to our parents. Yes, her name is Jane. She didn't want me to call her that last night. But they were wrong, it's J A Y N E."

"Jayne Jacobs," Bobby added.

Anna nodded, Chris scrunched his eyebrows, Mel's expression similar as she caught his eyes.

"Yes. Both our parents were missionaries together, the First Presleyterian Church of the Divine Pompadour, in Africa. Jayne was four when I was born, but her parents found out her dad had cancer so they came back to the US, came here for the Uni hospital. He died after a couple of years, she doesn't really remember him."

Anna paused as she helped Bobby put cake slices on the plates.

"When I got to high school my parents had come back to the US, we settled in Nashville. They died in a car crash the summer before senior year, I was used to taking care of myself. When I graduated I used some of the insurance and other money to look up some of their old friends. I contacted Jayne's mom and arranged to come here and visit. She had cancer and I ended up staying the whole summer with Jayne helping out until her mother died. Jayne had just graduated from the Uni and got the job at the TV station so was busy, but I had time. We became really good friends. I was already going to Univ of Tennessee but she convinced me to come here for grad school."

She smiled broadly, put her hands out, palms up.

"So here I am, not much to stay for in Nashville. We're kinda the only family we each have."

"Wow," said Mel, "that's really sad about all your parents. I lost my dad, thought that was sad enough! What about the church though? Your parents and hers were so big in it."

Anna shrugged, crinkled her face.

"Helped me out my senior year, but didn't exactly lead to long, happy lives for any of our parents," she said, Chris read emotion in her face but as always nothing in her voice, "so neither of us cares anymore."

Silence around the table for a few moments, then Anna made the first move, took a big bite of her cake.

"This is really good cake," she said, smiled, waved everyone to dig in. They did.
"Anna," Chris asked, waited for her to smile at him, "did Jayne have a friend named Carole at the Uni?"

Chris watched Anna's face flit through a series of undecipherable responses, her green eyes darted a couple of times.

"No," she finally responded slowly, "she's never mentioned one. Why?"

"Just something I read somewhere, someone else," he said with a shrug, "but you're right, this is really good cake. Tell Jayne thanks for all of us!"

A round of 'yups' and 'uh huhs.'

"I'll let her know," Anna said.

"Oh," said Mel after another bite of cake, "what was Jayne's mom's name? That 'y' is kind of unusual. Was it after her?"

"It was Margaret," said Anna, she shrugged, "no, I've never thought to ask her why it's that way."

Not so Negative

Chris had just turned the 'Do Not Enter' sign off for the darkroom when there was a soft knock. The door opened and he saw a fall of dark hair followed by half of Maria's pretty face.

"Mind some company, nino," she asked, she returned his smile and obeyed his nod to enter.

"Thanks for letting me use the lab, Maria," he started, "I know we've not been..."

She put a finger on his lips and made a soft 'shh' sound.

"No aliens, no spaceships," her face slightly strained, "you said?"

"Some, um, wild Halloween costumes from last week," Chris answered, "and, oh..."

"X-rated ones?" The look of shocked outrage on her face worried Chris for a moment, then she laughed and grinned.

"Got you there," she worked in between laughs, "I heard about your world-famous costume stunt but missed the shows. I want copies! And a couple of the, you know those ones. To keep me warm while I'm alone these nights."

Then she threw her arms around his neck and pushed her mouth onto his, hard, her tongue aggressive. She pushed her jeans and sweater-clad body tight against his. He resisted for a count of two before he cradled her ass cheeks and pulled her tighter. He felt the top of her thigh find his suddenly-erect cock and rub against it.

After a minute that seemed eternal he slowly disentangled his tongue from hers, she didn't resist.

"If I'd done that to you back when I first had you in the lab course...," she said between puffy breaths, "we'd have been on the floor ripping clothes off of each other."

"And spilling chemicals all over...," Chris added, hoarse himself.

"And we wouldn't have noticed, or cared," she kissed his neck, "until we were dead from the fumes."

Chris couldn't deny that so just nudged her head a bit and kissed her forehead.

"Had my chance...," she turned her head to put it against his chest as he held her, "ten years younger... you ten years older... I'd lock myself and your demonio de cabello negro into a room, only one of us would come out."

She leaned back and smiled wickedly as she said that, but the glimmer in her eyes he could see were tears. She took a deep, slow breath then reached up and kissed him softly.

"Camping...," Chris started. She put her finger on his lips again.

"Oh, nino," she said sadly as she leaned against him again.

"I know she'll share this with me," she reached and slowly stroked his still-attentive cock.

"But...," she raised her hand to put it over his heart, "never this. I want both. I'll always treasure that weekend but I know who has this. Keep it safe."

"Now," she said as they released each other, "let's see how much of my advice you've ignored and if any of these are worth my time!"

Having made her choices, Maria helped Chris print those and all of his orders. They worked almost entirely in silence, an assembly line of photo production, an occasional single word enough to indicate each step.

"Dios mio," Maria exclaimed as she held up the 8x10 of Bobby the Barbarian and his pale, green-eyed Amazon, "who are these two?"

Chris's breath caught in his throat, remembered Maria's opening question to him when she entered the darkroom. Well, it's not like he could prove she hadn't been born on earth. Yet. And she did have a good story...

"The guy's a friend I've known since freshman year, Bobby, and that's his brand new girlfriend, Anna. She just arrived, new grad student."

"The babies...," Maria looked at Chris with an open-mouthed smile, " those two will have..."

"Everyone says that," Chris responded with his own smile and a slight shake of his head, not quite as amused as was Maria.

"Ah, here it is," she said with a rising inflection, "demonio, angel, what beauties!"

She held up another 8x10, the recreation of Chris sandwiched between his succubus and would-be rescuing angel.

"You said in the darkroom Mel worked up these costumes," Maria said as she bit her lower lip slightly and stared at the picture, "none of you saw her until she came out?"

"Yeah," said Chris, "not even Sam, the angel."

"She had the spirits looking over her shoulder making these," Maria said, her face lost a degree of its brightness, "but I don't know which spirits!"

A short pause.

"And this redhead, she's the one you turned into a lesbian?"

"I didn't turn her...," he saw raised eyebrows and a toothy smile.

"Good thing I didn't jump you, who knows what might've happened to me. At least Sam escaped unlike that poor Kelly..."

Chris squinted at her, laughed through his nose and shook his head. Maria laughed silently.

As they separated the pictures into their various sets and added up the cost for the work, Chris decided to ask.

"Maria," he said a bit shyly, "do you have plans for Thanksgiving?"

"Oh?" She tilted her head as she looked at him.

"Well, I'll say this poorly," he shrugged, "my mom wants me to gather any 'strays' and bring them. You're more than welcome. I know, well, if you have plans, it's no problem."

Her smile went very soft and her eyes again glimmered. She stepped and hugged him, but less erotically than before.

"It's a date," she said, then she kissed him on the cheek and released him, "the demon will be there, of course?"

"Oh yeah," Chris said with a chuckle, "and for Christmas she's, ahem, well, we're going to North Dakota! Well, it's that or a death in which my suffering would be long and beyond what words can convey, as you've noticed, she knows dark arts!"

Maria's clear laugh was the best thing Chris had heard all afternoon. She put one hand on the table to brace herself.

"Ah, yeah, I believe you," she said, took a deep breath, "driving?"

Chris nodded.

"Want to take my Blazer? Four wheel drive! And lots newer than your rust bucket."

"Huh? Hey, there's no rust...," Chris said haltingly, "why?"

"My ex-husband. I'm going to Costa Rica, what's left of my family fled there from Honduras," a dark cloud passed over her face, she waved her arm to dismiss any enquiries on the subject, "I'll be gone a month. The Blazer is mine, in my name, I paid for it. But, well, I'd just as soon it wasn't where he might, um, find it, get my drift?"

Chris nodded.

"If it's in North Dakota, I don't think he'll find it. You guys leaving before the 19th?"

"No, around that, but depends on the weather forecast. Mel has her last final early that day anyway, lucky her."

"Good. I don't leave until that night. You two can drive me to the airport, well, you drive, me and Mel will make out in the back seat. Very noisily. You guys can take it from there. I come back on January 17th, come get me? I'll leave you phone numbers."

"Better believe it."

"Good. Now pony up some cash for the pictures or I'll have to kick your ass for wasting my chemicals..."

Thanksgiving

"Your hometown team's losing," Chris said to Dave as they watched the Thanksgiving football game, "you ever go to any of the games growing up in Denver?"

"A couple, back in high school," Dave said, "whichever parent wanted to show up the other by begging tickets off of someone, almost all season tickets so can't just walk up and buy one. Football never really my sport though. Not your soccer either."

"Roger told me you were all state in baseball," Chris said, "not bad."

"Honorable mention," Dave laughed, "nothing I was ever going to do pro. By the way, thanks again for inviting me."

"Sure, kinda surprised you weren't going back to Denver? Not that long a drive even if you don't want to fight airports."

"Up through high school I always alternated, one year at mom's, next at dad's. They each got remarried, so then I had little half-siblings. Once I came here, went back first couple years, but had to rush between the two. So I just told 'em 'I'll see you for Christmas!' Neither can get insulted. Peter and I did our own thing that Thanksgiving before he disappeared, that was fun, he could cook! Then I did a couple with Roger and Jeanie and their families but they're getting ready for the baby."

A bout of laughter in the kitchen and Chris saw Mel leave Maria in the kitchen and walk jauntily into the living room, she slid her left arm around his right and kissed him on the cheek. Her horns stuck out of her mop of black hair and her devil's tail swung a couple of times before it settled. Having heeded Chris's warning that his parent's thermostat would be set high she'd worn jeans and a thin but as usual too small black button down blouse which offered plenty of cleavage created by the matching black bra.

"Dave," she said brightly, "how come you've never introduced this new girlfriend of yours to us? If Roger hadn't spilled the beans to Chris it would still be your big secret. This girl have hit men after her or something? And why didn't she come today?"

"Nothing like that," Dave laughed quickly, "dunno, just no good opportunity. But you've already met her."

"Oh?" Stereo.

"Halloween. She was the pirate."

Chris squinted his eyes as he replayed his brain's memories but Mel was quicker.

"Oh, the girl with the gold eye! Her? She was with a guy, they had awesome costumes."

"That's her twin brother. She's Asha and he's Aron. Their parents are dead, they went to LA to deal with some sort of estate issue. Be back for school Monday. Aron's dating some sorority girl."

"They disappeared," Mel's face flexed as she reviewed her brain tape, "before the pizza. Didn't even say goodbye."

"Asha told me they'd promised to drop by another party and were running late," he glanced toward the doorway into the kitchen and its indistinct voices, he lowered his voice as he looked at Mel, his smile strained, "she said she lost track of time because she was too busy staring at the sweetest twat she'd ever seen. They had to rush off."

"I've seen it, too," slightly accented English, Dave's jaw dropped and he reddened, Mel's smile grew even broader, as Maria joined them and entwined her right arm with Chris's left, giving him pretty, dark-haired bookends, "and it IS pretty sweet!"

Chris looked left, then right, two smiles, shrugged as he looked back at Dave. Maria had finally removed the grey blazer that matched her grey, mid-thigh fitted skirt, with dark hose and over the calf boots. Her snug white blouse flirted with translucence in the right light.

'You young people can be slobs,' she'd said when she'd arrived at their place to ride with them to dinner, 'but it's Thanksgiving.'

"She's really pretty, Dave," Mel said, "although we just said a couple of words to each other. Glad she enjoyed things while they were there."

"And she plays D&D, according to Roger," Chris added, "your perfect woman."

"Hard to argue," Dave nodded, "oh, Mel, she has some friends in math and they all call you 'devil girl' over there, although they're too scared of you to do it to your face."

"Whatever gets me that 'A' in calculus," was her response, Chris and Maria both chuckled, "what's Asha studying?"

"Accounting. Says she's going to get rich by keeping books for mobsters."

Three surprised expressions at that, then light laughter.

"Accounting and D&D," Mel said, "she's definitely the best looking geek girl on campus!"

Dave turned toward the television, his face still slightly red. The other three turned slightly to check out the small table in the corner that held Chris's dad's latest jigsaw puzzle in progress.

"Hey!" Dave's voice, surprised.

"What?" Chris said, he and the two women turned.

"Where's the remote?" Dave asked, "It's her, I know it!"

Chris separated himself and grabbed the remote from the coffee table and unmuted the sound.

"...do NOT try to deep fry your turkey unless you know what you're doing."

"That's Cat's voice," said Chris, "from Halloween."

Maria's eyes darkened, then she mouthed 'aah' as she recalled the story Chris had told her, she hadn't seen any of the broadcasts. Cat wasn't masked now. She was tall, slender, wore a thick but snugly-fitted dark blue sweater that did nothing to minimise her impressive bust. Her hair was dark, parted from the left and fell in soft waves over her shoulders. Her face was thin, lightly tanned skin, lovely dark eyes. Her expression was grim as the scene behind her was of a burned out home, firemen doused the last few hot spots. Behind and to the reporter's left were what looked like multiple families, parents, small children, a couple of teens, wrapped with blankets.

"Fortunately no one was injured but as you can all see," she turned as the camera shifted slightly to focus on the smouldering husk behind her, "the house is a total loss. It's the hot oil and the open flame, don't let it overflow. This is Jayne Jacobs with this special live report for KPUD TV News. Back now, to the game."

"That's her," Dave said firmly, "she was the one who delivered doughnuts with Carole. Her face is thinner, hair's longer, bit darker, but, um, her chest is the same. I was pretty drunk at the Halloween party so when I heard her voice that night I figured I was just horny and imagined I'd heard it before."

Chris noted that the graphic at the bottom of the screen as she finished correctly spelled her first name, with the 'y.' The broadcast switched back to the football game.

"She's friends with Anna," Mel said, she and Chris caught each other's eyes, "Maria, you saw Anna's pictures? The tall Amazon from the party?"

"No way I could forget her," Maria answered, "and this is the reporter who came to your party?"

"She had a mask on," Mel said, "haven't seen her face before. But, yes, it's her. And, she was with Carole..."

Mel trailed off as Chris squinted at her, his eyes darted to Maria then back to Mel as Maria and Dave stared at the screen. Mel nodded.

"So why aren't Bobby and Anna here," Maria asked Chris, no more interested in the restored football broadcast as they'd been, "they go to one of their families?"

"Anna said she doesn't have one, parents dead, Bobby's are way in Virginia," Chris answered, "but Anna has some connections. They're in Las Vegas, somehow she got them a room at the grand opening for that new Arista place. Bobby was happy to go, says flying cross-country around Thanksgiving sucks."

"Wow, that place is super fancy, they've got this awesome glass dome, one of the biggest in the world apparently," Maria's eyes widened, "I saw pictures in a magazine, that's all kinds of celebrities and whatever going there. How the hell did she do that?"

Chris shrugged, raised his hands with palms out and up, the universal 'no idea' gesture.

"I've lived here all of my life and know exactly zero TV personalities," he said, "but Anna says she's known this Jayne a few years and has hardly lived here. So, she gets around."

"Going to lose your little boy for Christmas, Mrs. Bajevich," Maria said a bit later as she was the middle of the dish brigade and passed them to Chris to set the table, "Mel taking him to North Dakota."

"Please, Maria, just Pat," said Chris's mother as she pulled the last two Thanksgiving dishes from their storage spot. His dad had taken Dave and Mel to the garage to view his collection of shellacked jigsaw puzzles he used as wallpaper.

"Our daughter and her family will be here for Christmas and we get this one today," Pat said to Maria as she stood and they watched Chris finish the table, "and Mel's so good for him. Not like that sweet girl Jess he saw in high school."

"Say what?" Chris's question, a wary expression.

"Sure," Pat looked at Maria, "Mel's a much better fit, could tell first time she came to visit, and the Halloween news clip sealed it. That Jess was too nice a girl for my pervert son."

Chris's jaw dropped. Maria's shock left her speechless. Pat looked kindly at her son then at Maria.

"Who do you think washed and changed his sheets when he was in high school?"

Maria's shock broke and she grabbed the countertop to avoid falling to the floor as she laughed uncontrollably. Chris's eyes blinked rapidly and his mouth worked wordlessly.

His mother smiled at both of them.

Chris put his empty coffee mug next to the sink, most of the dishes were cleaned and selected leftovers packaged and waited in the fridge for them to take. He looked around, didn't see Mel or Maria, Dave and his dad watched the final few minutes of the last football game of the day, his mom finished a few tasks in the kitchen no one else was allowed to do.

Oh. He looked down the hall and noticed the door to his old bedroom was closed. Suddenly his discussion with Maria back at the lab came into his mind. He took a few soft steps to the door, thought he heard voices. Laughter?

'Only one of us would come out...' ran through his mind. Then the door opened and he saw them, broad smiles on both faces, Mel's left arm across the shorter woman's shoulders, Maria's right around Mel's waist. Chris registered Maria's now bare legs in the gap above and below her knees between the bottom of her skirt and the tops of her boots.

"You two ok?" Chris asked.

"Very ok," was the answer, in stereo. Two sets of eyes bored into him.

Goodbyes said, Chris deposited a couple of packages of leftovers and additional ones of homemade candies in the trunk, some to pass onto Maria later. They stood in the dim light of widely placed streetlights and waved goodbye as Dave drove out of the church parking lot that had conveniently been built across the street from his family home. Ironically, the church wasn't a denomination any in his family were interested in. Even though not so vital today, on really big days like the Fourth it offered easy and ample parking for guests.

"Give me the keys," Mel said to him as he pushed the trunk closed, "you're too drunk to drive."

"I had two glasses of wine with dinner," he said, "that was, um, hours ago."

"No," said Maria as she stepped next to his left side, "you should let her drive, ride home in the back seat."

He glanced quickly at Maria, back at Mel, tried to read their poker faces in the dim light. He felt something, a hand that snaked into his left pocket. It was Maria, she fished around, pushed the cloth of the pocket inwards, his suddenly alert cock met it halfway, unencumbered by underwear at Mel's direction.

"That's the wrong pocket," Mel said huskily, her tail swung and her horns alongside his head now as she pushed her hand into his right pocket, pulled out his keys, tossed them to her right hand, shoved her left hand back in and he felt two pieces of cloth press his erect flesh.

"Says you, nina," Maria said, her voice a clean near-soprano but her accent heavy, "seems like the right pocket to me."

The two women looked at each other, then at him, his cock felt the embraces of cotton fabric.

"I might not be drunk," he said, a slight hitch in his voice, "but my brain has no blood going to it so I'll ride in the back seat."

One mouth kissed him on each cheek, Mel walked around them to unlock the doors and hopped into the driver's seat. Maria pushed him into the back seat and slid in alongside him.
"Comfy?" Mel asked, Chris saw her demon's smile in the rear-view mirror. She started the car, backed quickly and pulled onto the road. He felt Maria's right hand on the inner side of his left thigh, she nudged him to put his arm over her shoulder.

"Sharing?" Chris whispered directly into Maria's ear, she squeezed his thigh, he moved his ear down to where her mouth was next to it.

"I need someone my own age," she kissed his cheek quickly. "but until then I need some other, um, another thing. May as well get it."

She kissed his cheek again, put her hand on his chin, turned his head and pushed her mouth onto his. Unlike that day in the lab he was ready, his tongue parried her initial thrust and forced its way past into the expert photographer's mouth.

"Hey," a sharp voice from the front seat, "I've got the heat way up, got those fucking coats off!"

They broke the kiss, laughed, but obeyed, both shrugged off their coats, Maria followed that and removed her grey suit jacket. Chris put it all onto the front passenger seat.

"Too warm, you two? Still too many clothes maybe..."

Chris felt two hands work his belt and jeans snap and Maria took advantage of his momentary confusion to gain a foothold in his mouth with her tongue. He admired the fact that neither her tongue nor her hands lost any coordination as he found his tongue pressed back and his very ecstatic cock spring free, two cool hands immediately wrapped around it.

"Hmm, need the defroster," Mel said, laughed, adjusted the levers.

His tongue's defense compromised by the pressure on his cock, he found the top button of Maria's blouse, quickly opened it, the rest followed quickly to her waistband, he rubbed across a breast just smaller than Mel's, encased in thin bra fabric, he happily discovered it was a front closure and had it undone an instant later, his hand cupped her left tit, thumb and forefinger found the nipple to coax it to attention.

Her hands kept up their twisting strokes but her tongue faltered, allowed him to push it back into her mouth and besiege her tonsils. He adjusted, was able to get his left hand onto her left breast to keep up the nipple attack, his right hand worked down to her thighs but her skirt and her thighs pressed tightly together presented a solid defense against retaliatory below the waist attacks.

"Hmm, did I leave that blanket on the seat back there or not? Folded up? Where did I leave it...," Mel's voice started firm but trailed off as it deepened with each word.

Chris chuckled, his tongue faltered but before Maria could press her advantage he backed off, pulled his arm from around her shoulder, grabbed her at each armpit and lifted her and quickly turned her until she faced him, he put her on his lap, her legs went apart to fall each side of his.

"Hey," she yelped, a laugh from the front seat. Chris's mouth found Maria's, gained deep entry before she mounted a desultory defense, his hand found the zipper at the center of the back of her skirt, pulled it down. In the sudden gap he felt flesh, discovered that she'd not only removed her hose but whatever panties she'd had on. He pushed the skirt down a few inches, one hand followed the waistband until it was in position to slide into her crotch, she jumped as he put pressure on her clit. She bit down on his tongue slightly, he backed it out, she freed her mouth.

"There's a blanket here, maybe you could lay down on it," she said, her voice hoarse, "that way."

She lifted slightly, his cock bounced as he lifted his ass and dragged the blanket under him along the seat. Maria pulled his jeans down, she lifted and her skirt fell, she shrugged it past first one booted foot then the other, showed no inclination to remove them. Chris toed off each of his Converses in turn to allow his jeans to be removed. Chris started to remove Maria's blouse but she stopped him, with guidance he slipped her bra straps outside of her short-sleeved blouse and tossed it onto the front seat.

"Told you to get rid of that in the house," the voice from the front seat said, "save some time."

"You drive the car, little girl, I'll drive your boyfriend," the response, accent heavy, hoarse, female laughs from both seats.

"On your back," Maria ordered Chris, not Mel's husky but her accent made up for that, thought Chris. He obeyed, she crawled on top of him, he kissed the firm stomach as it went past, he tongued her clit and pussy as he felt a pair of lips push onto his cock as it was sucked into a warm, oral embrace.

Chris saw the occasional splash of headlights or streetlights when he opened his eyes as he sucked Maria's engorged clit and sucked up her flowing juices, his own climax built as she worked two thirds of his cock into her mouth on each deep slow suck. He rubbed his hands under her shirt on her smooth back and kneaded her round ass.

"We've got the whole house to ourselves, Maria, everyone's gone," Mel's voice, deep, there was the rasp, "we just have a dinner to go to Saturday. So go slow, we'll have plenty of time and no need to get dressed for days..."

Maria pressed her crotch hard onto Chris's face as she lifted her head.

"I'm going to drain this sweet boy first, nina, then I'm going to taste that sweet, hot dark-haired demon cunt and once I've left a black-haired little girl in a heap, I'll have this one to myself the whole time!"

"If you think you can, old woman, bring it on, you think you can take me and the vibrator. Last one..."

"She was a weak ass gringa, you'll find me made of tougher stuff..."

She suddenly sucked almost the entire of Chris's cock into her mouth as Mel's deep, rasping laughter filled the car, Chris could do nothing more than lick and suck as Maria's crotch gave him no quarter. He wondered if he'd survive the long weekend.

If not, he'd have no regrets.

Recollections

"What's this place like," Mel asked as Chris drove up Mill Creek Canyon, "you've never mentioned it. So that means it's nice since you only take me to crapholes."

"I...," Chris started, then paused, "never mind. I've never been here, ever. Out of my price range."

He turned quickly and smirked then looked forward again on the winding road.

"But it's supposed to be quite good. You're sure about them treating?"

"All I have," Mel shrugged, "is this Herb guy is paying for everyone, and 'two more won't matter' Anita told me. Said they get together every year the Saturday after Thanksgiving since they all graduated, lucky for us this year here."

"Cool. Hopefully that'll hold. Otherwise we're not eating again for a week."

"I will. I have access to fine, fine dorm food," Mel said with exaggerated enthusiasm, "I'll sneak out some stale rolls and toss them out my dorm window to you."

"We'll find out," Chris pulled into the parking lot about halfway up the canyon, a dusting of snow from a quickly-dissipated storm around the area but the roads still clear, "we're here. I notice no tail or horns."

"We demons can mask our nature," her answer, "when it suits us."

"Like when getting off of buses?" Chris's question, a broad smile in reply.

"We're here for the Worley party," Chris told the maître'd as they met her just past a coat check, having handed over their parkas. Chris had his single sport coat on that he'd worn at Mallomar and Mel had opted for figure-hugging black slacks and an almost too-small red blouse that as usual had too many buttons undone. Rounded flesh and a black bra intermittently visible.

They followed as they were led to a table along a far wall and saw two men and a woman already seated, the trio's eyes drawn to the approaching couple. A thin, tall man with round, metal rim glasses stood up, the other two remained seated.

"Chris, Mel," the man said, in a deep but soft voice, they nodded, "I'm Herb Worley. Good to meet you."

"Chris Bajevic," Herb shook his hand, then Mel's, "this is Mel Caldicott. You're even taller than our friend Bobby, Herb."

He smiled at that. The maître'd pulled out Mel's chair, she sat, Chris helped himself as Herb sat down again. An offer for drinks and the young couple settled for water.

"Phil Orgone," the other man offered his hand, Chris thought like Herb he was somewhere in his late twenties but closer to his own height, the woman apparently a couple of inches shorter, "my wife Anita, I think she and Mel have met, kind of."

"Yup," said Anita, offered her hand to complete the ceremony, "at least on the phone."

"I hope you're happy to talk to us," Mel said, "we don't mean to impose."

"He was a good friend," said Herb with a slight shake in his voice, "to me at least. No one seemed to care... But us."

"We don't know what we can do," Chris said, "but we're hoping to work it out."

"That's good, but," Anita donned a conspiratorial smile and shook her head, paused, looked directly at Mel, "but you're not with the campus paper."

Both Herb and Phil looked at her, the former managed to get out "You said..." before Anita put her hand up. Mel raised an eyebrow and tilted her head slightly, her mouth slightly open and silent.

"That was her story, it was a good one and made perfect sense," she continued, her softly curled brown hair that fell around her thin, friendly face, shook a bit with her head, "but it doesn't matter. Does it Herb?"

The tall man looked at her, his revisited grief seemed clear to Chris, overlaid with a sense of worry.

"It doesn't matter because they're even better," Anita looked right at Herb, "these two already told the world about Peter and Carole. They've been trying to get the world to listen."

Four confused faces looked at her, the two youngest faces mixed that with guarded smiles.

"My brother is the world's biggest fan of Shore to Shore AM and Bart Shell, he told me about that night back in the summer when you two were talking about Peter and his succubus, them disappearing. That it's the same aliens with the crashed satellite. I'd told him the story of them disappearing, back that summer after. He recognised it and told me. And then he heard the audio from that briefing you did the day the star exploded."

She paused and took a sip of water, looked from Mel to Chris and back.

"Now, how did Bart Shell get hold of the audio from that briefing, huh? With the supernova it never made it onto the news. That Black Cloud stuff was pretty wild."

"Maybe someone dropped off a copy while driving past Pahrump, who knows," Mel said through her grin, nodded at Chris, "but this one has horrible timing. He could've blown up the star a week later!"

The waiter delivered a bottle of wine already ordered and poured three glasses, Chris as usual refused in solidarity. A thigh pressed his, a soft, quick smile. To the waiter a round of excuses and promises ensued to actually look at the menus.

"The steaks are excellent," offered Herb in a distracted tone.

The waiter's second trip resulted in a successful round of orders. Anita raised her glass of wine.

"Here's to Peter and Carole the succubus," she toasted.

"You two... do you know...," Herb stammered, "what happened to them? Aliens?"

"Not yet," Chris said, "we have a theory. Like Anita said, we've used Bart Shell's radio show to tell it. But, well, we have no PROOF yet of aliens taking him or that Carole was helping them. We just were the ones to work out that whatever crashed was one out of three 'anomalies' that are, were, in orbit. Two still are, but no one cares now..."

"You don't think Carole was an alien?" Anita's question.

"No, we think they're taller," Mel looked at her, shook her head slightly, "but she was helping them kidnap people. People like Peter without families or too many people to care, who know about our technology."

"Makes sense, if you accept the premise," Anita sipped her wine, she shrugged, "and why not. But it's good SHE wasn't alien. Ship lands, couple thousand hot, horny, babes like her come out, the men would be catatonic."

"My theory exactly! Took us a while to get your names," Mel beamed, "we read the news articles but they didn't use any of your names. Just that Jayne Fraser who was supposedly with them the day before. Did you guys meet her?"

"No," Phil's first contribution, "she was with them when they came back from Crompton's, I guess, we'd seen her car, well, a strange car. She didn't come in, just Peter and Carole."

"Crompton's? Up Emigration, next canyon over?" Chris's question.

"Yeah," Anita shrugged, "one of Peter's favorite places."

Chris and Mel looked at each other, shared a smile.

"So what was the story with those two," Mel's turn, "the articles didn't say much about their history. She apparently had no family and he avoided his."

Herb took a slow and deep sip of his wine.

"He did. Told us they'd never call but if they did don't tell 'em he was in, but let him know so he could deal with them."

"Yeah, it was on the news this week," Mel said, as Chris nodded, "apparently a brother of his attacked a girl up at the Uni last weekend, had a stroke after he'd beaten her up pretty bad."

"Saw that," Anita said with some heat, "he was nothing like that. No wonder he stayed away from them!"

"Ok, the reporter on that story is the same Jayne that was with them that day," Chris added to some raised eyebrows and nods, "but she's changed her name to Jacobs."

"Well. We don't know when or how she got in the picture, Peter and Carole met in the fall. She came over couple of times, but she never stayed over back then," he said, "I don't know. Peter didn't seem too happy then. But I'm not quite sure why."

Anita sniffed.

"She wouldn't put out," she said, "it was obvious."

Phil and Herb's expressions denied it was so clear. But then Phil's eyebrows went up and he shrugged, nodded.

"He'd started seeing a little redhead, over the winter. Same issue, he was having a bad run. But then, suddenly," Anita picked up, "Carole was back in the picture. And whatever had held her back wasn't a problem any more. She pretty well moved in until they disappeared, I think, about a month or so after they got back together. But neither of them ever mentioned Jayne, we just assumed that car had been hers after we saw her mentioned in the paper. Cops never asked us about her either."

"You CS guys and your redheads," Mel elbowed Chris softly, he shrugged, then turned to the former housemates, "this one was with a redhead before I came along. But she dumped him when he turned her into a lesbian. Wonder what happened to Peter's? He turn her into a lesbian? Redheads are dangerous."

The fleeting shock and light laughs at the table Chris met with a shrug and a smile.

"So she was pretty?" Mel asked, "One of Peter's classmates told me he almost upchucks looking at me in comparison!"

"He doesn't say that," Chris interjected, "he can barely speak around you."

Anita laughed, Phil and Herb were clearly unsure what to say.

"Oh yeah," Anita said as she elbowed her husband, "you should've seen this one trying to not let me catch him drooling. Herb just usually ran into his room and hid when she'd walk around next to naked!"

"I did... not," Phil started, "drool. Panted, maybe..."

Herb just smiled shyly and nodded in confirmation.

The waiter brought slices of crusty sourdough and their order of house-special onion rings.

"Dig in," said Anita, clearly the chosen spokesperson for the crew, "Herb, why don't you tell them about that last day?"

Everyone alternated to grab a couple of rings as Herb let out a long sigh. He took a bite and chewed slowly, worked out his statement.

"I had a bunch of golf buddies coming over the Saturday morning," he began, paused for another bite, staring at the wall between Phil and Anita, "we had a tournament. I'd promised them homemade pancakes, sausages, all that. But I'd neglected to inform the guy who'd be cooking it all!"

"Peter?" Chris asked as Herb took another bite.

"Yeah, he was good at that stuff. Did BBQ pretty good, too," at that Mel nudged Chris and gave him a fleeting smile, "I'd bought everything. I'd watched him do it for us on occasional weekend mornings so knew what to buy. Bought way too much, but whatever. Anyway, I sprang it on him. He just stared at me, but, oh well. He went downstairs to get dressed, came back and ripped into it. Made the pancakes from scratch."

"Jeez," said Mel, "this one managed to put a couple pieces of bread into the toaster for me once, poured some milk on my cereal..."

"I'm the boss of BBQ," Chris retorted, "and that's more than you manage to cook."

"I have other talents you appreciate," her contralto dropped a few tones. He smiled as Anita chuckled, "sorry, Herb, go ahead."

"I went out to the garage to get my clubs ready, when I came back in Carole was helping. Then she served everybody."

"You left out some points there, Herb," Anita said, "if I recall, your golf guys were pretty speechless around Carole."

"Well, she, um, wore...," his stammering didn't seem to be stopping.

"She had on shorts that left half her ass hanging out," Anita took over, "and an apron that barely covered her nipples and no way I could wear the heels she had on. That was it. There were no complaints from the customers."

"Hmm," Chris mused, looked at Mel, "sounds like not only did she wear shorter skirts than you her shorts were, um, shorter."

"Not to mention her...," Anita held her hands in front of her chest, her own breasts moderate on her average frame, a gap to her hands.

"No wonder Dave's unimpressed with current sights," Chris laughed.

Mel's tongue gave her opinion on that to a round of laughs.

"I told them I'd take them to any dinner they wanted for doing that," Herb finished, "I still owe them that."

"We were going up to Snowbird," Phil picked up, "invited them along. But they said they were tired. No shit! Said they were going to take a walk through Bonneville Glen, like they always did on nice days, then he was going to play Ultimate. He had some spot he said no one else could find, had a table and a view over rockfalls for the stream. Hidden, he said."

"Ah," Chris said as Mel's thigh pressed again, "we're pretty sure we've been to that spot."

"But that's how we got your names, from an Ultimate guy," Mel said, looking now as Anita nodded, "then looked you up. Fortunately you're still in town, hadn't found Herb yet."

"I went back to LA, just finished my MBA," the tall man seemed better composed.

"Friend of ours has a girlfriend from there! And we were down that way," Chris said, "just after Labor Day. Mount Mallomar. And Castleland."

"That's not LA," Herb laughed, Chris smiled a bit at the big man's improved mood.

"Oh yeah, we're too wimpy to handle the 'real' LA!"

"I'll give you my number, come down sometime. I'll show you around!"

"Deal," said Mel, "but no Christmas in California."

"Don't ask," Chris said to puzzled looks, "an ongoing discussion. Anyway, after you reported them missing, you guys talked to the police? Did anyone from either family ever call?"

"Nope," said Anita, "weird thing. Police even said 'they probably just decided to go away.'"

"But that was wrong," Phil said, suddenly animated, "I told them he'd NEVER have left that car behind! I don't know if he loved Carole but he loved that car."

"1971 Boss 351 Mustang, right?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, how do you know that? Never made it into the articles."

"Classmate of Peter's, he's a grad student now. We saw it... we saw one like it. The classmate, Dave, said it's a different color but same kind of car. I had a bunch of cousins who were big into cars so I'm familiar with Detroit muscle cars. Those are pretty rare. What happened to it?"
"That's a strange thing," Anita looked over their heads for a moment, "a couple of weeks after the disappearance a lawyer came by, all three of us were there. He had a court order to collect all of their stuff, including the car. Towed it away."

"From his family?" Mel asked.

"We asked, he said 'no' but just said it was all going into escrow for safekeeping. Order looked real. Other than what Peter had in his room, what Carole had brought over, the car was all he had. Except the bean bag chairs, we asked if we could keep those. The guy let us. He mostly seemed interested in Peter's books and papers, he collected those himself, movers took everything else."

"Remember the lawyer? Still have any of that paperwork?"

The three looked at each other, all shook their heads.

"Sorry," Herb said, "he looked like a lawyer you see in the TV shows, older guy, some grey hair, nice suit. Had a crew from one of the moving companies. Nothing unique."

"Green eyes?" Mel asked.

"Uh, um, no. Not him. Carole did, really green" Anita said as she glanced at her husband and friend, "I'm probably the only one who looked at her eyes..."

"Hey...," Phil muttered, but offered a closed-mouth laugh as agreement. Chris again felt a thigh against his, he pushed back.

"That was really it," Anita said, "Herb was graduating and leaving, he owned most of the furniture, we both had one year left. Moved out of the house into an apartment, moved down south end of the Valley when Phil got the job at Natural Semiconductor. Never got another roommate there. But we still remember the Cokes."

"Cokes?" Mel.

"There were two left, Herb had bought a case of RC Colas," Anita scrunched her nose.

"Big sale," the tall man explained.

"Anyway," Anita again, "we came home, just RC in the fridge. They liked taking Cokes to the Glen."

"Cokes...," Chris said, steady pressure on his thigh.

"What about her sorority," Anita asked, "talk to any of them?"

"The president of the chapter from then was the only name we had from the news articles, she died a couple years ago in a car crash," Mel shook her head, "haven't names for others."

The waiter arrived to pass out their steaks.

"These look damned good," Chris said, but the focus of his concentration was less than the food deserved.

A couple of hours later a naked Chris stood behind Mel, naked herself but for ankle socks and the restored horns. His hands cupped her sweaty tits, lightly caressed her firm nipples. His still stiff cock, covered with their mingled cum, was nestled between her ass cheeks. Her hands reached back and pulled him tight. His chin was on her shoulder.

"Why'd you keep it," Mel said softly, the now-washed, faded, singed, split Coke can on his bookshelf in front of them, "it looked like garbage."

"It looked, like, something. That burn mark. I saw stuff like that when I learned welding, electric arc. Nowhere else... That split, turned outward like it was heated and burst. The pop top was still sealed. We've hauled old cans out of there a few times, none like this. Would still be there if that paper bag hadn't blown into that tree."

She turned her head and kissed his cheek.

"Think it's really from them?"

"After Anita's comment... We figure out this can, we'll figure out how they were taken," he kissed across her shoulder and up her neck, his cock twitched against her and she rubbed back, "hope you're not tired."

"I'm surprised this thing's not tired," she rubbed his cock again, "after what me and Maria did to you the last couple of days. That was a good idea, pull out the king-size bed in the other room. All three of us fit rather nicely."

"We have the place to ourselves," Chris nipped her neck, hand pulled him against her back more tightly, "twins and Sam not back from Idaho until tomorrow. Our bed was kind of tight with Sam there Halloween night. Plus, for a fold-out it's a pretty good mattress."

Mel chuckled.

"Shelly and Frank had no complaints... Maria seemed plenty happy too..."

"Tried our best, her legs a bit rubbery but she could still walk out of here," Chris said, kissed Mel's neck, "under her own power."

"C'mon," she turned her head, kissed his mouth as she twisted her body to face him and forced him backwards onto the bed.

Devil's Tower

"More impressive in person than that movie," Chris said in the morning chill, their exhalations visible in the cold, clear air under a blue sky. The monolith rose silently above them in still air, the surrounding scrub covered in a couple of feet of snow. The parking lot was unplowed but the Blazer had made short work of the mile from the paved road and they were alone at the National Monument.

"I was too young for even you to be interested in my ass when that movie first came out," Mel chuckled, her left arm wrapped around his right in their parkas with their gloved hands clasped, two-thirds of her red, pointed tail visible below the parka, her hood peaked over horns. They kicked the soft, sticky snow as they walked, their waffle soles left defined imprints.

Mel brought them to a stop and she gripped Chris's hand more firmly for a moment.

"My dad had died couple years before, I wanted to go but my mom still wasn't much for going out to movies. I didn't see it until it was released the second time, in 1980, with Shelly and her parents."

"Frank and I went to see that version, too."

She squeezed his hand again and her voice went to a little girl tone he'd heard a couple of times.

"My ass had developed quite a bit in between and you'd have probably first seen it there then. And your obsession with sticking your prick up it would've been born. A year and lots of ice cream bribery later, a jury, an innocent, pigtailed girl testifying..."

Chris let out a closed mouth laugh, a gush of vapor from his nose.

"But Frank, being a respectful gentleman, would've waited for Shelly. And he'd have watched his friend be dragged off to his twenty year prison sentence the next year."

"Hell, he'd have been first in line to testify against me! Good thing I didn't actually see your ass for a few more years!"

Long streams of vapour as they both laughed.

"You never came here?" She shook her head.

"Before this year, not much reason to come this way. We went to Yellowstone with Shelly's family but we drove through Montana, visited Little Bighorn on the way. And the bus certainly didn't come anywhere near."

More vapour as they both laughed at that. He separated their hands and worked one glove off and prepped the camera on its strap around his neck. He posed Mel to front the tower, she flipped her hood back for full horns and held the tip of her tail. He squatted for one angled upward and played with the sun for a couple.

"That'll do," lens cap back on he pulled his glove on as Mel slipped her arm back in his, horns again obscured.

"Think Anna's people are going to come here when they decide to drop in? They studied that movie? Use music and everything?" Mel said, her tone matter-of-fact.

"Given that her main interest seems to be fucking Bobby morning, noon and night," Chris's tone light, "I'd guess they'll show up at a mattress warehouse! Of course, we still can't prove she's from outer space and not just a grad student with an odd voice. Put her in a room with half the students in the Engineering building and she'd only come in middle of the pack in the 'find the alien' contest."

"If she is an alien," Mel said, "that Africa story and the stuff about Jayne is all pretty thorough. Maybe if we ever get to actually meet this Jayne, ask her about Carole. I know she works the odd shifts but I think she's avoiding us."

"Wonder if that's why she changed her name," Chris mused, "you found Jayne's mother's obituary in the newspaper microfiche."

"Only when I looked under Fraser, not Jacobs," Mel said, nodded, "maybe Jayne uses Jacobs since that was her mother's maiden name and Anna said she doesn't remember her father at all. It said they were missionaries but no mention of Anna or a 'Miller' family. Guess you'll have to buy me a ticket to Nashville so I can check up there..."

"It will be Christmas in two days," Chris said, "but if that's on your list you'll probably be disappointed..."

"Hah! And wild that she supposedly has the same last name of a student possibly kidnapped by aliens... I mean, by her own 'people,' yet claims no relatives locally here."

"From what I've read, there's a few Millers around the Valley who account for much of the police attention, like that asshole who attacked that Tracy girl outside her dorm. Who'd claim them? Peter apparently hated his own family, for good reason it seems. Anyway, Anna picked the perfect place to go undercover," Mel said as she leaned her head a bit, the two of them squinted into the recently risen sun off to the right of the tower.

"That's the girl, Tracy, the 'skinny virgin,' Dave's girlfriend Asha wants us to, um..."

"Do a Shelly on, yeah," Mel said with a raspy lilt, a new combination to Chris's ear.

"It's a living..." Chris said softly. He heard a quick exhaled 'huh.'

"What?"

"That star, you could see it in daytime if the sun wasn't near it for a couple of weeks, no way right now, but it would be, oh, there," she pointed about the width of two fists to the left of the sun and level with the horizon, "if we could see it right now."

"You've had me taking pictures of it since it blew up," Chris said, "I have the hyper equipment from Maria to prep film for more."

She kissed him quickly.

"You're so good to me, blowing it up to get me all hot and getting me pictures of it I use when I masturbate in my cold, lonely dorm room," her tone lilting, "but that's not the thought I just had."

She went quiet.

"THOSE are the pictures you use when you play with yourself? I've been doing it wrong! I use that picture of you bent over naked at the overlook!"

"My ass, how surprising," she pulled his arm tightly, they both laughed quietly.

"Remember Dr. Joyce talking about that star having planets? And if there was life it'd be destroyed?"

Chris nodded, a barely vocalised 'uh huh.'

"What if there was life... intelligent life... and they KNEW their star was going to blow up? I swear some of the old pictures I studied that night showed that star with slight variations, but we argued if it was real or just artefacts of the film or processing... If they were like us, they'd have definitely noticed."

They gazed at the tower, eroded vertical channels left shadows amid glints of morning sunlight that reflected off of hanging ice.

"They noticed. Through green, green eyes...," Chris said slowly and just above a whisper. Mel held his arm like she was a vice before he continued.

"You'd get the fuck out of dodge. Look for a better neighbourhood. I know Bobby hasn't had that many girlfriends but he WOULD know if she, um, wasn't rather accurate in all regards. Not like her skin's 'Star Trek' green, just her eyes."

"A story I read in junior high, 'Rescue Party,' humans scrammed when we knew the sun was gonna blow. But if Anna's people could fly here," Mel's response worked out each word individually, "who says they can't alter themselves? Make perfect pussies? Why else would they have human succubesses like Carole kidnap virile men? They learn. They've been here at least a decade and maybe Anna is the first they're sending down. But probably sent probes before that."

A few moments of silence.

"So," said Chris slowly, "are they invaders or are they refugees? Just scared and worried what we'll do?"

They stood and watched the silent, shifting reflections of the sun as it rose and moved across the ice strewn rock until the cold seeped through their clothes and boots. Arm in arm they turned and kicked snow as they returned to the Blazer.

Homecoming

Chris pulled his gaze away from the camera eyepiece as his gloved fingers worked by habit the aiming dial of the telescope to which it was attached. His breath wafted around him and glimmered in the bright moonlight. With the layer of snow on the fallow fields the reflections meant the night was rife with shadows.

"Two days after Christmas and Shelly and Frank are warm and toasty, with hot chocolate and marshmallows and hot fucking, Helen and Eric are warm and toasty with scotch and hot fucking, and we're out here in the middle of a field in North Dakota taking space pictures...," Chris said as he turned his head, the heavy hood meant he had to turn it ninety degrees to see Mel.

"Are you jealous Eric's the one sticking it to my mom and not you? I did let her borrow... not keep, the vibrator, she'll have to get her own," Mel's question got a sharp closed mouth exhale from Chris.

"And it's a beautiful moonlit night," Mel said cheerily, then her voice went raspy, "and you know how much space pictures turn me on!"

She laughed, a staccato release of breathy vapor.

"I'll hold you to that later...," Chris leered, went serious, "but I know you wanted to get away from your mother's place..."

"Yeah," Mel's voice low but agreeable, "thanks for understanding."

"I love my family too," Chris said, "but I don't live with them either..."

Mel hugged his shoulders.

"Ok," he said with a lighter tone, "at least go get that second thermos Shelly fixed for us or you take over the scope!"

"Oh, no, you've been doing it since the Uintahs," Mel put a gloved hand on each of his shoulders, squeezed, "you're too good at it to change now!"

She stood and turned to walk to the Blazer, parked along the dirt access road along a fallow wheat field, Mel had directed him to this one to avoid damaging any planted in winter wheat. Five miles out with the town opposite the supernova most of the light from the sky, a full moon high, brighter stars around the horizon where they weren't washed out. Chris had the telescope trained on and followed the smear of the exploded HR5256 as it neared the western horizon.

He heard a door open on the Chevy and a slight rustling and the door pushed closed softly. He heard Mel take two crunchy steps on the frozen road then a quick intake of breath and she seemed to go still.

"Mel...," he said softly.

"Yeah, nothing... coming," he heard crunched steps approach, turned, saw her step around the folding chair next to his. His left hand automatically turned the telescope tracking dial to keep it fixed on the spreading and slowly dimming gases of the supernova. She sat down and held the thermos in her left hand in her lap. She leaned over and pushed the hood of his parka and his heavy knit stocking cap aside to bare his air, kissed his cheek and worked her mouth to his ear.

"Don't move or look, we're being watched," she whispered, nudged him as he moved slightly, he leaned his head as if he were leaning into a kiss, kept one hand on the scope, his other holding the empty mug.

"Remember squishy stars?"

He nodded slightly and leaned his head into hers.

"I saw them again, just now, just behind me, twenty, thirty feet away I think. Over that fence at least. It's small, like one of your soccer balls, it was against a couple of stars. Just floating there."

"Pour me some hot chocolate," Chris said softly as he hefted his mug, "I'll stretch my neck. But you're the one with super eyes."

She sniffed, kissed him, reach over to take his mug and sat back. He stretched out his neck and arched his back, looked away then slowly rotated his head as Mel leaned forward. He huffed as he faced forward. She handed him a steaming mug of hot chocolate and he took it, sipped, closed his eyes as she moved her head close.

"Not sure I'm seeing it... ," he rotated his head again, "okay, maybe there... how long?"

"I don't know," Chris had rarely heard Mel sound unsure, "I'm annoyed I never noticed one before."

"Well, I can't imagine they'd have bothered before Mallomar, but that's still been a few months. We know they have stealth..."

"But this close. And, how can it fly? No sound, no exhaust... It's so cold out, any kind of exhaust would show."

"You wanted ten more minutes exposure," Chris said as he glanced at the glowing dial of Mel's old watch wrapped around the chair arm, "did we say what we were here for?"

"No," a heavy shot of vapor as Mel laughed with an exhale, "just about the timing and if the film was prepped."

"Well, you know there's an oil rig way off to our left?" Mel nodded to Chris.

"There's been a Suburban near it, obviously hoping to just blend in there, but I've seen either that one or a few different black ones here and there," Chris said, "since we arrived just before Christmas. Does everyone in North Dakota drive one of those?"

"Oh, um, no," Mel again halting, "but they're not uncommon. But the Air Force likes them..."

"And there are two major bases not all that far, and like, what, a million nuclear missiles..."

"Half a million," Mel chuckled, but it was more sad than happy.

"Back to our closest spy. Ok, let's finish this," Chris continued the whispers, "then I'll walk right toward it and whip my cock out and take a piss. We'll see what it does."

"Hah," Mel bit his ear, "maybe Carole will see it and come back down..."

She kissed him a last time as he laughed then she readjusted his cap and hood. They sat in silence and looked at the soon to set HR5256, sipped their hot chocolates.

"Time," Chris said, the camera shutter closed with a click and he worked the fingers and wrist of the gloved hand that had followed the supernova remnants for thirty minutes, "I need a piss."

He stood and walked toward where Mel had told him the stealthed probe hid, he stopped and started to pull his gloves off, heard crunched footsteps approach.

"Keep 'em on, I'll get it," Mel's voice had a slight rasp as he felt her contact then her hands reached under his arms and around his waist and worked his zipper and turned his body a few degrees, her voice went to a whisper, "now, look straight, twenty feet up..."

She worked his jeans and long underwear, pulled his cock out as he turned his across where the invisible soccer ball supposedly lurked. He grunted as his cock felt the cold air, moved his gaze a bit, relaxed.

"C'mon, let it rip," a husky whisper. Chris 'aahhed' as he loosed a stream of liquid.

"Shit...," he said softly, squeezed her arms, went to conversational tone, "I can't wait until spring to start kicking that soccer ball you got me for Christmas, I can see it all now..."

She sniffed, her chin nudged his shoulder. His stream finished and she shook his cock twice, then began to stroke it. Her left hand let go and she slid around him as her right hand encouraged his cock to not want to be hidden yet.

"Because you've been a good boy," she kissed him on the lips, crouched quickly and slid her very warm mouth over his cock, it hardened instantly. She used her left hand to hold his hip and added loud sucking sounds as her mouth most of his cock in then released it at an increasing rate.

"Ah, yeah, that's... good..., suck me...," Chris moaned as he found the rhythm and pumped his hips to meet her throat on each stroke. She slurped and sucked loudly as his breath went choppy, heavy vapor from his mouth and nose, his crotch wreathed in the same from Mel. The air was around zero but he didn't feel it.

"Shit, ah, ahh...," his hands squeezed her shoulders as she sucked two-thirds of his length and stopped as a large spasm shot a load of hot cream into her mouth, she used her fingers to coax another two spasms before she pulled her mouth off and stood quickly and pushed her mouth against his. He tasted his salty cum on her tongue and lips as her arms went around his shoulders and he grabbed each check of the round ass he so admired. She slid her mouth sideways, kissed his cheek toward his ear.
"Audience?" Her whisper.

"Still there."

"Anna's people are such horndogs," Mel said, "I'd drop my pants right now and let you fuck me, see if they'd stay. But we'd probably die of hypothermia."

She pulled back, their foreheads met.

"Let's get to your mom's place," Chris said, "I'll warm your ass up there."

They kissed one last time, separated, she pulled her gloves back on as they walked.

"I'll get the camera and scope," Chris said conversationally, "get the chairs?"

"Got 'em," Mel said in a similar tone, angled herself toward their visitor. Chris unhooked the camera from the scope, walked it to the Bronco, opened the back, put it into the box. He returned and did the same with the telescope, folded its tripod.

"Gone," Mel said as she stood with the folded chairs and blankets they'd had, "while you were putting the scope away."

"I'm guessing they know where we live," Chris said, "looks like something still by the oil rig, so guess they won't move."

"Can see headlights for miles 'round here," Mel said, her voice went husky, "trust me."

Chris laughed.

"You don't actually expect to see signs of their fleet, do you? Maybe you can get Dr. Floyd at Mallomar to try..."

"It'll be a neat picture, even if not," Mel shrugged, "but no, it's like one in a million to see. I'd bet they've thought of us backlighting them, so they'll arc out of line. It'll take longer but I'd guess an extra ten or twenty years won't bother them."

"Speaking of the way home, I have no doubt they know where mom lives too, may as well take the direct route for us," Mel continued as she put the chairs into the back of the Bronco and Chris closed the rear gate. They kissed quickly, walked to their respective doors, Chris pulled the keys out of his pocket. Mel was in the passenger seat when Chris stopped, his right leg all that was in the car.

"C'mon," Mel urged, "get the heater on."

"Deadman switch."

"Huh?"

"Peter and Carole. And a singed coke can. We need some sort of signal that'll release everything. Just in case... Remember Anita telling us that 'lawyer' came and took all of Peter and Carole's stuff, especially their papers and books?"

"Huh? Oh... shit," Mel said, silence for a heartbeat before she let out a mirthless laugh as Chris pulled himself into his seat, turned the key, "well. Except what he hid in his code."

"Yeah. Back in the summer, I asked Teresa if 'things gonna get weird?' Well, weird as fuck and looks like shit's getting real too."

"If you'd just taken me home and fucked my brains out," Mel said as Chris put the Blazer into gear and started off, "instead of showing off one of your overlooks, we'd have been clueless... But then, life would be so much less interesting!"

"Overlooks are my superpower! May you live in interesting times," Chris snorted, "wasn't meant as a blessing."

Mel chuckled and put her left hand over Chris's right hand on top of the stick shift.

Tutors

"The Old Pasta Factory," Chris said as they walked through the labyrinth of Streetcar Square the second Friday of the recently-started winter quarter at the Uni, "I haven't been there since I was twelve or thirteen."

"Special request," Mel said, "by our student for the night. She said she likes this place."

"No accounting for taste," Chris shrugged, "you're sure she wanted me to wear these leather jeans? Haven't worn them since Halloween."

"That's a shame," Mel said with a rasp, slipped her left arm through his right, her long, black coat swung, the six inch platform stilettos she'd worn at Halloween clicked, "feel free to wear them regularly. She wanted me to wear my Halloween heels too. Not snowing, so not a problem."

"Did she ask you to wear that dress too?"

"Nah, I only told her I'd be 'memorable.' And when I wore this in Escondido that restaurant was too dark, I didn't get quite the satisfaction I'd hoped."

"I do... But this is The Old Pasta Factory, I'm guessing people will faint here. At least you have clothes under that coat this time, I think Maria was quite happy you didn't when we got her at the airport last night."

"I enjoyed that ride, and the first one in December, she did too... I have a slip on under it, a sheer one, but it's there ... and stockings... and my coat," Mel squeezed his arm, "and my shoes. Nothing else, but, you don't have underwear on either."

Chris laughed at that. His pants were form-fitting but opaque. Mel's was form-fitting with the slightest flare from her hips to it's just below the knees length, a long slit on her left side ended only inches below her crotch and showed the top of her stocking and a garter strap with each step. So long as the light wasn't TOO bright it was just not quite translucent. Her coat was open, her nipples still recalled the chilled, winter air walking from the parking lot, her figure clearly displayed if not in full color. Chris had his sport jacket over a form fitting button-down shirt. They saw their goal as they turned right, another fifty feet or so. A couple of families sat in the overflow area outside.

"Do you have a 'Turnbull' party, Cheryl?" Mel read the name tag, asked the hostess with just that hint of Valley Scandinavian which she'd taken to immediately, years of immersion in the much stronger North Dakota version had given her the ear for it. The blonde woman smiled broadly, unlike the occasional hostess who reacted badly when Mel was in full flight.

"Um," the blonde's eyes looked at a sheet, her voice a mimic of the accent, "oh, yeah. Table for four, the rest of your party is already here."

Another blonde woman approached, an armful of menus.

"Bonnie," the second blonde smiled, "take 'em to eighteen."

"This way," she turned to lead them into the seating area.

"Four?" Chris asked softly.

Mel shrugged and shook her head a couple of degrees. They followed Bonnie who led them toward a table where two young women sat.

"That's Tracy, on our right," Mel said softly once they had a view, "other one, no idea."

The cute, slightly round-faced woman on the right was dark-haired, appeared to be not too tall and quite thin. Her hair was just over shoulder length and parted in the middle. Chris wasn't sure, but her left eye appeared slightly out of line with her right, her cheeks not quite symmetrical. Then he remembered. She'd been brutally beaten outside her dorm, but had fought back and the assailant had suffered a massive stroke. As they neared, he saw what he'd thought was mascara but he now saw was a slight discolouration around that eye. He smiled, he'd not suffered anywhere as terrible an event but assuming this made it that far, she could compare the still fine tracery on his chest.

Bonnie stopped at the table, smiled at Chris and Mel, two menus were already at the two free chairs.

"Thank you, Bonnie," Mel said, the blonde left.

The second woman already seated was slightly taller than Tracy, her hair was long and straight, it was that kind of brown that was a shade of red in the right light. Her face was a bit thinner than Tracy's, although her figure was more pronounced, her face was soft and lovely, her eyes a shade of grey. Both young women had dark blue scoop neck tops and push-up bras, Chris had become familiar with the effect since Mel wore only similar bras when she bothered. There, though, the comparisons ended. Despite the effort, Tracy's bust was still hardly there but it matched her thin frame. The other woman had considerably more, the visible cleavage and hair tone brought Sam to his mind, this woman's breasts close to Mel's in size but her height that of their redheaded friend.

"Hello, Tracy, this is Chris," Mel said as she slipped her coat off, both women's eyes scanned down, their eyes slightly wide, Tracy licked her bottom lip. Chris saw their eyes lock on his crotch, the outline of his cock clear, it started to react to make it even clearer. Tracy was first to look back up, slowly, nodded, Mel and Chris sat, the second woman followed Chris's crotch until it was out of sight.

"Hi, Mel, I'm really happy you both made it, this is my friend Dixie," the dark-haired woman put her right hand on the other's shoulder, it was matched by Dixie's left hand, "I told her my plans for the evening. She wanted in, I said sure. I hope that's ok?"

Mel reached her right hand across the table, it was met by Tracy's left.

"We're not ones to shirk a challenge," Mel told her, smiled broadly, both faces looked back and smiled.

"Is this really devil girl and leather boy?" Dixie asked slowly, to Chris's ear her voice a clean, firm alto, contrasted to Tracy's timbre just a bit above Mel's but clean and without that tremolo that had so caught Chris's ear that day in Mexico.

"Yup," said Tracy, "demons can hide their horns and tail when they don't want to scare the lame people who dine at places like this. And you saw his leather..."

"I did...," the response slow and breathy.

Mel grinned broadly and nodded slightly to confirm Tracy's story.

Despite Tracy being a year older than Dixie they'd been best friends since childhood, their families having always lived within a few houses of each other. The summer before Tracy's senior year of high school her parents had gotten their dream jobs a year early, her father as a staff geologist and her mother as curator at the museum and research center at the sprawling Dinosaur National Monument in the eastern part of the state, a couple of hours drive from the Valley in the southern foothills of the Uinta mountains. To avoid disruption Tracy stayed with Dixie's family for her senior year and much like she did now, saw her parents over the holidays and a few long weekends. Thus, her transition to the dorms at the Uni had been almost seamless.

And that transition had come with a bonus. Dixie's family was devout and Tracy's disdain for all things religious she'd inherited from her parents made for a few odd, uncomfortable moments. Fortunately Dixie's family shied away from more explicit proselytizing and so long as Tracy was respectful they left her to her own devices Sunday mornings and for other church events, moving into the dorms had freed her from that tension. Dixie's parents had sent her to the expensive, private Eastminster College a few miles from the Uni, thinking its founding by a religious order more amenable to their views than the much larger and more diverse student body of the sprawling public Uni. They'd somewhat spoiled their daughter, their only child, with a car and a cute, tiny apartment a block from her campus.

Dixie herself, as Chris and Mel learned, had her own ideas on things, something obvious from her presence with Tracy this evening.

Unlike with Mel and Shelly, Tracy and Dixie's relationship had never transitioned into a sexual one. As dinner and their conversations went on Chris noticed that Tracy's attention was shared equally between him and his demon-in-disguise, her horns and tail left behind for the meeting. Dixie's was laser-focused on him. Asha's motive to get Tracy 'experienced' via Chris and Mel had been founded on the fact that Tracy had no reluctance to be with a woman, she and Asha having had a couple of sweaty nights from what the crimson-haired woman had told Mel, so well suited to being the focus of a boy-girl couple. How this would go with Dixie was totally unknown.

The biggest surprise had been hearing about Dixie's run-in with Jed Miller, Tracy's assailant, a few months prior. Dixie had tried to 'break out' of her strict upbringing with a bit of 'rough trade,' but it had gone terribly, his inability to function sexually masked by rugged charm at first and terrible violence later, having raped the girl with a flashlight and leaving her bleeding on the side of a remote road. A passing couple had found her and that saved her but her parents had been livid not with Jed but with their daughter for having 'strayed.' She'd finally bought peace with her silence and avoidance of involvement of the police but it had made her determined to find sexual satisfaction, if very quietly, and move far away for work or grad school upon graduation. She'd lost her virginity her freshman year but beyond that, Jed's abuse and a couple of other quick and barely satisfying trysts meant she was hoping for something to match her dreams.

She also felt bad since it had been an early November chance encounter with Jed when she was with Tracy that had led to his obsession and pursuit of her best friend that culminated in Tracy's permanent scarring and his apparently permanent repose insensate in a bed and fed through a tube.

Chris mostly let Mel tell them about their own meeting, she left out few details about that first night as their time with Shelly was really the foundation of this encounter. The two young women had a few raised eyebrows moments, but Chris noticed plenty of times when they stared at Mel, their tongues licked their lips or teeth lightly chewed on them. They seemed to be enjoying this.

But their own surprise was after dinner, they all stood just outside the restaurant, logistics being discussed.

"Dixie will drive us to your place," Tracy had said, "I've been there. Halloween."

"You were there?" Mel asked and Chris couldn't find her in his memories either.

"Yeah, your costumes were too intimidating so the two guys I was with and me stayed inside, then we left with Asha and Aron. We didn't know anyone, your soccer teammate Reg had invited us, he'd a math major, he never showed!"

"Oh, yeah," Chris said, "he's a major flake..."

After a series of hugs and quick cheek kisses allowed the two girls to get their first feels of Chris and Mel's bodies, the two pairs headed in opposite directions for their respective cars.

"Think they'll show?" Chris asked softly after they were around the first corner.

"Fuck yeah... I'm a girl, remember," Mel chuckled, "they're gonna turn you inside out, boy!"

"Noticed any invisible soccer balls or black Suburbans trailing us lately?"

"No... and I've been looking," Mel said as slipped his arm around his, "maybe we'll keep the curtains closed this evening for the sake of our new friends."

The Lesson

A skirt and panty hose, black slacks, two panties, a pair of open toed three inch heels and a pair of flats were on the floor of Chris's room, alongside two dark blue scoop neck tops and matching blue push-up bras, one with more padding than cup and the other more balanced. Next to them was Mel's dress and slip, her garter belt, stockings and heels still on and her horns and tail restored in all their glory. Everyone's coat had been left downstairs. Teresa and Sam were out but had been warned 'company' was dropping by for when they saw the coats and Terry was away with Pam skiing all weekend.

The undressing had been done with much slow touching and kissing amongst all parties, but Mel had left the removal of Chris's clothing to their two 'students,' although she'd had to direct them to slow down, they both had wanted his cock freed sooner rather than later. Once the quivering, fully erect member had been freed she'd quickly demonstrated her slow deep throat technique to two wide-eyed stares, then challenged them to match it.

Both had managed no more than half, Dixie incrementally better, before she'd told them she'd show them more later.

Now, the two young women were on their backs on his bed, side by side with both sets of legs spread to allow Mel access to Tracy's cunt and Chris to Dixie's as they used their tongues, lips and fingers to slowly bring both women to a state of moaning anticipation. Chris and Mel hadn't spoken but they'd silently agreed he'd take Dixie for now, bring her along carefully since she seemed hesitant to be readily sexual with a woman.

Tracy had no such qualms and pumped her hips as Mel ate her and used one hand to hold and direct Mel's head.

After her experience with Asha Tracy had taken to closely trimming her bush but refused to shave it cleanly, by chance it matched Mel's in all but its slightly lighter color. Dixie had decided to try shaving herself totally like Tracy had told her Asha did. That had been new in Chris's experience, not even Chaos Kelly had shaved. She'd gotten him to start trimming his own pubic hair short, a habit reinforced since he'd been with Mel, who did likewise.

"Fucking hell," Dixie moaned as she pushed her hips at Chris, "make me cum! Oh, god! I've never felt anything like this!"

Tracy had cajoled her friend, on the grounds of fairness, to use her right hand to caress Tracy's much larger than expected nipple while she used her hand to likewise work one of Dixie's cute, pink buds. Seeing Dixie topless reminded Chris even more of Sam's round, full breasts and their small, pink nipples.

"Told ya," Tracy moaned out at her friend, "told ya how nice being eaten is! You've had some shit boyfriends..."

"Damned right about that," Mel said as she pulled her head back, her fingers continued to work Tracy inside of her pussy and her ass, the other hand on her cute and very erect clit, "this one is pretty good at it. Turf 'em out if they aren't!"

With that Dixie moaned, arched her back, her hand left Tracy's tit and joined her other one in grabbing Chris's head to hold his head still, he felt her spasms with his fingers, her wet slit moderately juicier. Mel smiled and pushed her mouth back onto Tracy's clit, the dark-haired girl joined her friend with her own climax. Chris and Mel kissed their way down two wet slits, then slowly removed their fingers and straightened their backs. The leaned in and traced their hands up two sweaty abdomens to cup breasts and tweak nipples. Both of their 'students' opened their eyes.

Mel and Chris smiled, leaned toward each other and kissed, visibly open mouthed but slow, tender, they tasted the other's victim's juices. They stood.

"C'mon you two," Mel directed, "give us some room on the bed, I'm going to show you what Tracy's going to get in a few minutes."

She prodded them to half sit at either edge of the bed and squirmed onto her back to lay between them, Chris walked to the foot of the bed, his cock tumescent, three sets of eyes on it as he turned to face them. He crawled onto the bed as Mel splayed her legs wide, her red and black demon's heels in the air, she quickly rubbed the tip of her devil's tail along Tracy's pussy and breasts.

"Hold this," she told the thin girl. Tracy obeyed, caressed her nipples with it.

Chris quickly licked from the bottom of Mel's slit to the top, sucked her attentive clit into his mouth and swirled around it with his tongue, she purred. He left that and kissed his way up her firm abs, found her large, erect nipples with his mouth, then rose to a ready position.

"Don't worry, Dixie," Mel said, having read the girl's face, "he'll have enough for every one of us. Not like those one and dones you've had! Now, you two, reach in and aim it, get it lined right up for us."

Tracy dropped the tail and moved first which got Dixie going, their hands found the prick and they rubbed it between Mel's lips as Chris pushed slowly, they nudged him and he stopped as the head entered her very hot, very wet opening.

"Ah, got it," she said, deep, slow, raspy, Chris's cock twitched, the two hands reluctantly moved, "now!"

Chris slammed himself fully into Mel's body, a liquid squelch as he bounced Mel's sweet ass on the bed, a 'shit' and a 'wha' on each side of them. He pulled out slowly and this time Mel threw herself at him just as he started, mutual 'oofs' as their pelvic bones met.

His mouth met Mel's as their crotches moved in perfect synchrony, a high speed collision repeated over and over.

"It's supposed to be...," Tracy said, her voice faraway, "like that?"
"Yeah," Dixie's voice no firmer, "like that."

No one kept track of time beyond Mel's increasingly insistent moans and Chris's pants, their mouths separated and their eyes locked, her arms around his back, her legs squeezed him.

"You should... feel...," Chris said without looking to either side, "how her pussy grabs my cock every time..."

"I'll teach you guys that later," Mel said, her voice a near match to Chris's normal timbre, his having gone even rougher, their two watchers simply stared.

"Oh, yeah, ahh...," Mel closed her eyes, moaned, "yes!"

She thrust her hips completely off the bed and met Chris mid-stroke, stopped him, lifted him an inch, before his momentum and gravity practically bounced Tracy and Dixie off of the bed. Mel opened her legs to release him and he withdrew and in an intricate move lifted, her legs went straight as he lifted and straddled her.

"Heads down with me," Mel ordered, her voice deep, rough, both young women forced to obey, "pump his cock, c'mon."

She put her hand on the cock, it was joined by two slightly smaller ones and they used its ample cover of Mel's to stroke it, they laid their heads next to Mel's and Chris moaned as he shot a stream of cum, much of it caught in Mel's open mouth and the rest along her nose and forehead, she turned his next shot to catch a surprised Dixie across the cheek, forewarned Tracy was ready and wrapped her mouth around the head and refused to release it as she coaxed out the last of this load directly onto her tongue.

Chris pulled back, Mel pulled Tracy's mouth to hers and Tracy quickly opened her mouth and shared their mutual loads of cum, she nudged Tracy away and pulled Dixie close, kissing her face to suck of the cum, Dixie's mouth opened more in surprise than willingly kissing. Chris knelt at the foot edge of the bed, his cock still stiff and dripping.

Mel sat up, got the two students to do so as well. She edged over and motioned for Dixie to stay.

"Go to him, Tracy," Mel said, voice still deep, slow, "use your mouth to check his cock. Make sure it's good and hard, then pull him to you. You should be nice and wet?"

The girl nodded to that last bit, she moved so she could crawl to Chris, kissed his cock, he caressed her sweaty back and shoulders, reached under and softly pulled at her large nipples. She managed to get a third of it into her mouth. Mel sat at the edge of the bed, her left leg off of the bed, her right splayed and pulled Dixie to sit against her, the demon's arms around the girl to caress her tits with one hand, the other traced down her flat but not muscular stomach to find her hairless clit. As she watched her virgin friend rise up so she could kiss Chris, one hand on the cock that never flagged, she leaned back against Mel, stroked down Mel's arm with one hand, the other on Mel's firm, athletic thigh.

"Lie back, Tracy," Chris whispered in her ear, "don't worry, we'll take it slowly."

The girl lay on her back, he nudged her legs apart as he moved up her body.

"I want at least a few hits like she got," Tracy whispered back, "but maybe not the first couple."

Chris balanced on one arm, arched his back until his cock was almost in place, joined his hand with Tracy's to reach down and rub the head the from the bottom to the top of her slit and back, he stopped, moved forward so the tip was in. He pushed into her slowly as he locked his eyes on her, watched her mouth form into a soundless 'O' as he intruded more of his flesh into her body.

"Had fingers in there," she said, "wouldn't let Asha use a dildo. Next time. More, please."

Chris pushed more into her, she shifted her body until she purred, having found the angle she wanted. He didn't go all the way, stopped when he saw her face go from ecstasy to doubt, pulled back, she was extremely wet, her own orgasm and the show had done their job preparing her. He pushed in again, maintained his limitation as he gained speed very slowly.

"Can he cum again?" Dixie asked Mel. Both girls had confirmed they were on the pill, Dixie since starting college and Tracy since the beginning of the current school year when she'd decided she'd had enough of virginity.

"Yup, not found a limit yet," Mel said into her ear, but loud enough Tracy could've heard, if the girl could hear anything. Her eyes were closed, her breathing fast, rough, there was no blood, only leakage of her plentiful juices as the cock forced everything but its flesh from its tight receptacle.

Chris hadn't felt a pussy like this since that night not quite a year ago in Mexico. What Mel's flesh could do to his cock was unparalleled, Maria was talented and , but Shelly and now this Tracy were both enthusiastic but hadn't yet figured out how to move their bodies in complementary fashions. That was fine. He focused on making sure he made contact with the sensitive spots inside of her body as she twitched and moaned to the unfamiliar feelings. He saw her face scrunch a couple of times so he carefully controlled his depth.

That meant he had trouble pressing against her clit so he put his mouth to her ear.

"If you need to touch your clit, won't bother me."

She opened her eyes at that, her smile made clear she'd wondered about that, but she kept her hands on his shoulders. He glanced, saw Dixie's mouth open, her breathing hard, as Mel worked that girl's clit with her fingers, Mel's eyes bore into his, her demonic smile topped by horns encouraged him on.

Tracy moved her hips, in as close an imitation to Mel as she could manage, as her choppy breath showed she was close to a climax. Chris could've made it through this girl and Dixie before his own climax, but this was for show. He wanted the girl to know she'd affected him, he adjusted his angle. The girl surprised him by wrapping her arms more tightly and her legs around his hips to pull him fully into her, she gasped at the intrusion, but she dropped so he could pull back and push fully into her again, her eyes closed tightly and her mouth opened.

"Aahhh," was followed by no recognisable words as she jerked against Chris to make sure his last few strokes were fully into her, as Mel had done she wrapped him to pull him to a stop as her body worked its last few spasms. She held him until her breathing settled then released him.

Show me," she said, her voice had found some of Mel's rasp, he pulled out, her mouth quirked at the loss, and he straddled her, their joint efforts brought forth a slightly less expansive load all over her tiny tits and their majestic nipples. At the end he leaned and she sucked on the tip. Then she collapsed, her head dropped, her eyes closed. Chris adjusted himself so he could kiss her slowly, their mouths opened and their tongues danced. Chris heard Dixie half-scream as Mel brought her to another climax.

"Goddamn," said Dixie, loud enough to be heard by all, between ragged breaths, "why the fuck couldn't my first time have been like that?"

"Maybe this time," Mel said, kissed the girl, nudged her a bit. Chris and Tracy had broken their kiss, Chris knelt above her, the girl's eyes were closed and she breathed slowly and deeply. Mel worked her leg around Dixie, stood. She put her hands on Dixie's shoulders.

"Why don't you and Chris make out a bit, give him a chance to catch his breath and your pussy might be a bit sensitive for a minute, I'll go get us some water."

She leaned past the seated girl, Chris leaned forward and kissed Mel, slowly, again their mouths opened and tongues slowly caressed each other. She broke off, smiled, her hand touched his cheek and chin, she turned and walked out.

By the time she'd returned with two plastic cups of water Dixie moaned as Chris pushed into her with strokes about the force he'd finished with Tracy, the sounds of Dixie's grunts clear. Tracy was on her back, her head turned toward them, her hand idly fingered her own slit.

Having covered Dixie's chest with a new, even more diminished stream, Chris drank half of a glass in one long swig, Dixie had dragged herself to a half-sitting position, she'd had another orgasm during the fuck and with the previous ministrations the exhausted satisfaction on her face was clear.

Tracy sat next to her, her head on her taller, bustier friend's sweaty shoulder, their hair both sweaty and rather askew. Having finally shed her shoes upon her return, Mel and Chris were next to them, kissing softly and Mel's hand stroked his cock back to wakefulness as he pinched and pulled her nipples.

"Those are the most awesome tits I've ever seen," Tracy mused, an 'uh huh' from Dixie. Mel broke the kiss, pushed Chris down, opened a section of the bookcase headboard and grabbed a plastic bottle, then laid herself on the bed, her knees bent and her stockinged feet at the head of the bed.

"Tracy," she said in a deep, slow husky voice, "ready for your next lesson?"

The dark-haired girl smiled, nodded and kissed Dixie quickly on the cheek.

"Straddle me," Mel guided her, "your pussy on my face."

She obeyed, had Mel's tongue on her well-exercised clit and lips immediately. Chris positioned his rested erection behind her and slid it between Tracy's pussy lips and Mel's mouth. He pulled back and Mel nudged him into position and he slid the first third of his cock into the thin body of their student.

"Ah, oh," Tracy said, a mix of pleasure and discomfort, "tender..."

"Yeah," Mel purred at her, "it's like exercising, need to build up. Don't worry..."

Chris took the bottle from Mel and squirted lube onto his fingers, Tracy gasped slightly as he pressed on her back opening but then she wiggled her hips, her thin ass seemed to anticipate what was next as Chris slid one finger past her ring, pulled back, put two in. She pushed back slightly, but his cock prevented her moving too far.

"I'm ready," she said, she kissed toward Mel's crotch, the difference in height meant she had trouble reaching Mel's clit properly.

"You heard her," Mel said, her eyes looked up at Chris. He withdrew, lubed his cock thoroughly, saw the confused look on Dixie's face, her mouth moved as she understood. Chris placed the head of his cock at Tracy's pink, puckered opening and felt the girl push back at him, he raised an eyebrow, saw Mel's smiling eyes before he slowly but firmly pushed himself into her rectum. Her head rose, her neck bent back, an extended and audible 'aaahhh' from her. He pushed deeper as she wiggled her hips slightly, as if to pull him in. She finally grunted as he had all but the last two finger widths buried, deeper than she'd taken most of her pussy fuck.

He pulled back until only the head remained, she groaned, he saw Mel's eyes closed, her head moved as she licked and sucked the girl's other erogenous zones. Chris found a slow but steady rhythm that elicited heavy breathing and moans but no sounds of distress from the girl, any thoughts of returning the favor by licking Mel forgotten in her climb to yet another climax.

"Ah... oh... fuck!" Tracy jumped slightly and her ass squeezed Chris's cock enough to stop him, he saw Mel's head go still, her arms supported the girl as her legs wobbled, she put her forehead on Mel's taut lower abs. Chris waited for a count of three then pulled back very slowly, her ass clamped shut as he withdrew fully. He leaned over her back, kissed the nape of her neck and she responded by turning so he could kiss her lips. He rose, with Mel's help she flopped onto her back to lay next to the demon.

"Awesome," Tracy said, her eyes closed, "even better than my butt plug..."

Chris raised an eyebrow, caught Mel doing likewise, Mel mouthed 'explains that!'

"You've gotta try that Dixie, you so have gotta try that..."

Mel looked at the reddish-haired girl, her face a mask of apprehension.

"There's baby wipes in the headboard, Dixie, get them, then c'mon," Mel purred, "same thing, I won't let him hurt you..."

Dixie bit her lower lip but finally crawled over, Tracy's right eye opened a slit, she smiled, as her friend positioned herself. Despite liberal use of lube and Mel's best tongue efforts, no more than a quarter of Chris's cock could penetrate the girl's ass without too much discomfort. Another round of baby wipes to clean Chris's cock off and they jointly brought Dixie to a final orgasm with a combination of a doggy-style pussy fuck and Mel's mouth.

"Let's get cleaned up," Tracy said to her friend a short while later as she slid off the bed, Chris and Mel sat cross-legged next to each other, Dixie followed her and they went to the bathroom.

"My turn," Mel's deep, raspy husk, as she rubbed an overly generous amount of lube onto Chris's still hard cock, "you haven't cum in a while and neither have I."

She got onto her hands and knees and he wasted no time pushing his full length past her anal ring, his pelvic bone hitting her ass, drawing a grunt. Within a half-dozen strokes he had a high-speed rhythm going that shocked both young women when they returned, they paused, approached the bed slowly.

"Fuck," said Tracy, "I thought I did pretty well..."

Without a mouth to help, Mel had retrieved her vibrator and had it going on her crotch.

"Flip," she said, Chris pulled out and slid off of the bed, Mel flipped herself in a smooth move and landed with her ass at the edge of the bed, Chris had re-entered her almost before she'd landed, the vibrator battled with the sounds of flesh hitting for dominance.

"Suck my tits, girls," Mel ordered, neither considered disobeying, Tracy ran to the far side of the bed, they climbed on to suck her extremely hard nipples into their mouths, but both sets of eyes looked downward to watch the entirety of Chris's flesh disappear into the demon on each stroke. Chris heard the shift in Mel's breathing, pushed himself even faster, hoped the two students would enjoy what was about to happen.

"Watch," he said simply, slowly, as much moan as word. They obeyed, lifted their heads for a clear view between Mel's widely spread thighs.

"Aaahhh, fuck!" Mel screamed and a high-pressure stream of cum blasted from her cunt as Chris hit full depth, he pulled back and rammed himself home again to draw forth a second, almost as heavy shot, before Mel wrapped her thighs around his back and held him, a third, scant squirt followed, a half-dozen dry spasms left her silent, breathing heavily.

"Did you see that?" Tracy asked softly, she looked up at a smiling Chris, at Mel, her mouth open, her eyes closed, then at Dixie.

"I've... wow...," said the second student, "I didn't think girls could do that..."

"Demons can," Mel said with the deepest and raspiest voice Chris had ever heard, her eyes still closed, his cock did its twitch, "best part coming, get ready for it. Move with me."

She released Chris and he pumped his cock in and out of her ass, cum dripped down his abs, his thighs, off of Mel's ass and thighs.

"Now," he said, he backed up, stood, Mel lifted herself and sat on the edge of the bed, leaned over and she turned him slightly to face Tracy, she quickly pulled his dripping prick into her mouth and sucked greedily and noisily at his load and held him, the light load not even a challenge to her inexperience, her hand held his ass and she resisted Mel's efforts to give anyone else a chance. Mel mouthed 'sorry' to the second girl, Chris was pretty certain from Dixie's expression she was fine with it. Tracy finally released Chris and turned to face Mel, read the demon's intent and met her halfway to join their mouths and share what the thin girl hadn't swallowed.

A few minutes later Mel and Chris were again cross-legged, next to each other on the bed, Dixie nudged Tracy.

"C'mon," she said, "come with me. Stay at my place tonight."

"You two can stay here," Mel said softly, "might be crowded here, next room we have a fold-out."

Dixie laughed sadly.

"My parents put me in the building I'm in because people spy," Mel and Chris squinted a bit at that, "if I don't go back, someone will tell. But if Tracy's with me, everyone knows she's my bestest friend. She's done sleepovers."

"Yeah," Tracy said, "keeping up appearances!"

"I'll drop you at your dorm in the morning, on my way to church, ok?"

Tracy nodded, they stepped to sort out their clothes.

"What time? You go to church?" Mel asked.

"About nine, gotta be at my parents by 9:30... It's a financial arrangement. I go to church, mouth the words, don't cause more scandals... They pay my tuition. I love them, they love me, but, we're... different."

She shrugged.

"Well, Tracy, want to come to breakfast with us? We'll come pick you up? We go while all these good people are in church."

"No need," she said, "I have extra clothes at Dixie's, she can just drop me off here. Take me to the dorm after?"

"Can do," Mel glanced at Chris, he nodded softly, "we'll wake up the lazybones in the basement to go with us! Know what Asha is doing?"

"She and Dave had D&D last night," Tracy said with a lilting laugh, "then she said she'd fuck him inside out all weekend and cook him meals! That beautiful weird geek girl is sooo in love, just won't admit it!"

"She cooks," Mel and Chris said simultaneously, quirked eyebrows at each other.

"Yeah," said Tracy as she dressed, took it as a simple question, "really well. I've had a few of her dinners!"

Their students dressed, Mel and Chris slid off the bed, each kissed Chris quickly but deeply while Mel retrieved her too-small robe.

"I'll walk 'em downstairs," she led them, they both mouthed 'goodbyes' to Chris, he followed, turned to the bathroom.

A few minutes later he'd emerged, his eyes hooded, tired, met Mel as she arrived at the top of the stairs. She met him, put her arm around him, had his do the same to her.

"Got one more?" she asked.

"Only if it's long, slow and requires lots of kissing," he said softly.

"Deal," they walked into the bedroom, he pushed the door closed with a quiet click.

The Gift

"What is it?" Mel asked as she sat in the second desk chair and turned the cardboard box over, "No markings."

They'd just arrived in his room after the usual Friday night racquetball and dinner, Teresa and Sam had gone with Anna and Bobby to the Green Parrot after their usual pizza, Anna had said it would have an interesting crowd. Fortunately you had to be twenty-one to enter and that had given Chris and Mel an easy out to get home and deal with the package from Asha without making up a false excuse. Mel had already delivered her bag of dirty clothes to the basement room where the washer and dryer would be employed over the weekend. They'd dropped their sports bags full of sweaty racquetball wear there as well and had brought their school backpacks to their room. Mel had a second bag with whatever selection of clean clothes she'd decided to add or trade with what she kept in 'her' closet and drawers in their shared-for-the-weekends room.

"No idea," Chris said, sat on his desk chair and opened a drawer, grabbed a small pen knife, pulled out the blade and offered it to Mel, "Dave met me in the lab today, gave it to me, told me that Asha had warned him of very dire consequences if he opened it. I think she and Helen are somehow in communication, he said her warning included mention of a knife applied to very sensitive parts of his anatomy."

"Hah. Maybe they were sisters in past lives," Mel chuckled, "other than a couple of words at Halloween I've only met her when she set up our little, um, 'tutoring session' with that cute Tracy and Dixie for this past weekend that got us this whatever-it-is. She's certainly an odd one."

"Also he told me to wait until we were here to open it. So, here we are."

Mel smiled, nodded, ran the knife carefully along the taped seam at the 'top' of the box, careful to go only deep enough to pierce the tape itself. She sliced sideways on each end and handed the knife back to Chris, he folded it and slipped it back into the drawer. She opened the box, crinkled newspaper provided a thin layer of padding around brown paper wrapped around a solid rectangular something. She held that and Chris took the cardboard and newspaper, inspected it all quickly, found nothing of interest and set it all on the floor behind him.
"What the hell...," Mel's voice trailed off as she unwrapped the brown paper to find a lined piece of notebook paper covered with fine handwriting and something solid wrapped in thin, cotton cloth. She handed the paper to Chris and unwrapped the item from the cloth.

She held it up with one hand, it wasn't heavy enough to be solid metal, but one side of it was a thin, glass plate. The opposite side of it was some sort of hard material with a very slight texture to it, in the center about a quarter of the length from one long end were a couple of round holes a quarter of inch or so in diameter.

"Okay," Chris said, "really, what the hell? Hey, hold it."

He reached out and held Mel's wrist, turned the not glass side so he could look closely at it.

"This is a lens of some sort," he said, "a camera? This small? How the hell? But hey, I know lenses!"

"This side is glass," Mel ran the fingers of her other hand along it, tapped it with her fingernails, "there's a couple of tiny holes on this side, on this long end closest to that 'camera,' one centered, the other off to the side of it."

"What is this material," Chris said, it didn't scratch with his fingernails, "ah, kind of like, fibreglass! Tight seal between the layers."

The item was about as thick as two panes of glass, not quite a foot long and about two-thirds as wide, with rounded corners. There were no obvious switches or buttons they could see as Mel rotated it.

"Too heavy to be hollow, I think," Mel said as she used her hand like a balance, "maybe, weighs, like, a dinner plate. Yeah. One of those heavy plates in fancy places you never take me."

"Huh. Ok, wait," Chris opened a second desk drawer, rummaged around, pulled out a small magnifying glass. He looked down each side of the item in turn.

"Some sort of markings under the glass this edge, here, here and here," he said, touched three spots along one side, flipped it, "and this really looks like a tiny camera lens, and a, hmm, flash? A light?"

He set the magnifying glass on the desk, they looked at each other.

"What the fuck is this thing," Mel said, "and where did Asha get it?"

"It's half glass, fibreglass, seems to have a camera...," Chris said, paused, "fuck. Here, trade me."

Chris offered Mel the letter and she handed him the item. He held it vertically in his left hand with the 'camera' side up, used his palm to balance it. He put his index finger on the right side where the 'lowest' 'button' would me, then he rotated it ninety degrees, put his fingers along the bottom as if they were on a keyboard.

"It was on some sort of glass computer," he said, "a glass... computer. With writing."

"What?"

"Jess... remember? 'Tall, pale,' she'd said..."

"No. This? How?"

"Ok, stop," Chris put the item on his lap, "we should read whatever Asha wrote before we get too nuts."

Mel unfolded the paper, held it in both hands. It was written in a smooth flowing script.

"Wow," Mel said softly, "I thought Jess had nice handwriting. This... is... beautiful. Compared to your handwriting... Do you close your eyes when you write?"

"Well, people are impressed when they see yours. Until they find out it was you and not a hungry otter promised all the yummy oysters he could eat if he dragged a pencil across the paper!"

"Read it," said Chris as he forestalled a reply, "that kind of handwriting deserves to be read aloud."

Her expression assured him a reply would come. It would be, epic.

"I can't do Asha's voice," said Mel, Chris shrugged, "it's too high and clean! Oh, well."

She read.

'Dearest Devil Girl & Leather Boy,' Mel snorted, 'I hope this finds the both of you well. Please know that because of you two no virile man or woman on this campus is safe now that a skinny math geek has had her cherry popped. She has the taste and plans to sate it. Often.'

Warm smiles on two faces.

'Unless I misunderstand the both of you, and I rarely do that, you've been poring over my gift before you bothered to read this. My guess is you know what it is you just won't admit it to yourselves. I will explain but I ask one thing. Please burn this once you've read it and forget from where this item came to you. Dave & Roger told me your theory about their friend so this is my offering to help you help them find closure.'

Mel paused, looked at Chis, who shrugged.

'Neither I nor my brother know how it works. Nor do we even know IF it works. It was in our parents effects and we discovered it only after they had entered the land of shadows. We had never seen it before, our father had mentioned to Aron they existed, a 'padlet' he'd called it, Aron says, but hadn't told him we had one. My brother says to not turn it on, not that we know how you'd do that or if you can now. It may be dead. But, if you do manage to Aron says dad told him it will try to connect to some sort of network, an ultranet, with some sort of radio.

What is a fucking 'Faraday Cage?' Fuck you, dearest brother. He claims you'll both know. Whatever.

Maybe I won't make his death quick.'

"I've never seen 'fuck' and a death threat written in such pretty letters," Mel chuckled, Chris nodded, smiled. Mel continued.

'Sorry about that.

We don't know why our parents had it. They stole this item and caused deaths and were scared of meeting them again. As a point of reference our parents were murderous psychopaths so them being scared is not to be dismissed. It was before our time so know this item has been around a bit longer than us.'

"Deaths? They were what?" Chris injected.

"'Murderous psychopaths' she wrote," Mel said, scrunched her face quickly, "that's... wonderful. Pissed off aliens? No wonder she wants to get rid of this. What, they're twins, juniors, a year behind you?"

"Yeah, what she told Dave," Chris nodded, "twenty, twenty-one, I guess, dunno their birthday."

"How is it," Mel's expression distant, "we know TWO sets of boy-girl twins sorta involved in this? I never met any growing up!"

"Me neither," Chris shrugged, caught her thoughtful eyes, "must be you. My black cloudness just blows things up..."

Mel laughed gently.

"Ok, just a bit more," she added.

'There is one tall, pale 'person' [quote, unquote] we know of on earth who you could ask. I think you two know who that is. Why she's here, we don't know. Our parents left us with the impression that we should never want to duplicate their encounter. In the case she has knowledge of whatever happened with our parents if you decide to discuss this item with her I implore you to keep us out of it.

It's your padlet now.

Love, Asha.

Postscript: Please don't say anything to Dave about my parents. I wish to tell him in my time.'

"There are aliens. Fucking aliens with glass computers," Chris picked up the computer, pad, whatever you wanted to call it, rotated it, "in orbit. But if Asha is right, whatever happened with her parents was before those anomalies seem to have appeared, that was only a decade or so ago, if the Mallomar folks are right."

"I reviewed their photos, none of us could find anything older than 1975, nor could any other observatory. But yeah, you and me talked about they probably sent probes before that."

Chris nodded, mouthed a 'yup' as he continued to rotate the device.

"And one, the pale, tall, green-eyed lover of one of our best friends is one of them," said Mel, "not much doubt who she means."

"No," Chris laughed, "it would be someone we're all familiar with, the way she hints. Of course, this could be an elaborate prank."

"Sam's the only one we told about Jess's story," Mel said in a serious tone, "under my torture she admitted talking about us and Shelly, nothing else. She prefers to think we're a bit, you know, ga ga, when it comes to the alien stuff."

Mel stuck her tongue out and folded it, flicked the tip up a couple of times, put her index finger to her temple and swirled it, Chris sniffed in light laughter.

"Yeah, you 'tortured' her. Where the hell we going to find a Faraday Cage?" Chris jerked an eyebrow at his lover, his mouth opened slightly.

"Well, no way we're turning it on unless we're in one," Mel said firmly, "and there's gotta be one in your building or mine. Somewhere. Basement or something."

"Might be a moot point. There's no port for a power cord or anything. Battery? No idea what kind though or how to charge it, unless she's lying or wrong it's over twenty years old. But yeah, there's gotta be a cage somewhere in the bowels of the engineering building. Hell, there's a baby nuclear reactor down there!"

Mel set the letter on the desk, folded it flat, patted it. Chris put the glass computer on top of it. They looked at each other, shrugged. Mel took his hands.

"Let's go downstairs, get some ice cream," her eyes glittered, "we have some searching to do this weekend!"

Chris leaned in and kissed her, had it returned, their tongues touched, they separated.

"But, sweet demon, you forget what tomorrow is? We'll be busy. And unless you want to stand up my parents we're going there for dinner on Sunday."

"Wha? Oh..." Mel smiled crookedly, her tongue visible in the corner of her mouth, "hell of thing to forget."

Chris stood and walked to one of the closed sliding doors of 'his' closet.

"Your mom called me a few weeks before Christmas," he scrunched his eyes to again forestall comments, Mel obeyed for the moment but scrunched her eyes back.

"She had a specific plan but I convinced her to make one modification."

Chris slid the door open and there was a large box in colorful wrapping paper, a large bow on the top of it. Mel's mouth slowly opened.

"It's kinda half Merry Christmas and half Happy Birthday. But, well, with that thing sitting on the desk maybe it's a bit anticlimactic."

"What is it? I got plenty of stuff for Christmas..."

"Not one of these. Your actual birthday is in, what, oh, ninety minutes, so we can wait. Or, I guess, I just couldn't wait after what we just saw."

Mel stood and walked to the closet, elbowed Chris in the stomach.

"That's for not hanging up on my mom when she called to no doubt have phone sex with you."

"Well, once we'd handled business I described in very thorough detail how I'd sneak the vibrator out and shove my cock up her ass while she played with it... If only they'd actually followed through on the video phones from the sixties!"

That got him a loud and wet raspberry. Mel tore a strip down the front of the box, her mouth dropped open.

"A FruitTree Computers RedFruit Plus," she read the large lettering slowly.

"I've shown you the couple of RedFruits up in the lab," Chris said, Mel nodded as she dragged the box from its hiding place and stripped the paper. Unlike the grey, blocky office machines that had proliferated in businesses and that Mel had used at her temp jobs the RedFruits were colorful, rounded and with the highest definition screens built for graphics that existed.

Even the box exuded a sense of 'cool' that the blocky and dull grey Inorganic Brain Makers office systems that she, and almost everyone, used for work just didn't have. Would never, could never, have.

"This new 'Plus' model was just released this month, and is cheaper than the previous model, more memory, better screen, expandable, better software for you to do papers. With the graphics we could write a real sweet orbital simulation program. I convinced your mother it'd be a better buy to wait for this one. Fortunately, as you know, I'm related to many people and one of them is having an affair with an electronics wholesaler. In return for me, um, not telling on her, we were first in line. And got the wholesale price!"

Mel wrapped her arms around Chris's shoulders and kissed him hard and deeply, he grabbed one ass cheek with each hand and pulled her tightly. When she released him after a long, long time he spoke softly.

"Everyone's coming over here for the party tomorrow and dinner at my parents on Sunday. We won't be able to get both of these computers set up this weekend! This one here isn't as slick and tiny as that thing on the desk..."

"But this one, big as it is, might actually work," she said, kissed him quickly again.

"Yeah. Now, let's get that ice cream. Then we can set it up and try it out."

"And then I'm going to torture you until you admit you had phone sex with my mom!"

"If you think you can suck it out of me, feel free to try," Chris laughed at Mel's loud 'hah!'

*****