Kila observes the beat-up Navara quizzically. “This doesn’t really suit you,” he comments, before opening the passenger door.

I climb into the driver’s seat and start her up. “I know, but it works.”

As soon as the engine is going, Kila leans across the console to kiss me hard. He cradles the back of my head and devours my neck, sliding his tongue across the skin. It heats and tingles there, then he suckles me hard enough to leave a mark.

“You know, we have to leave here if you want to make it to my bed,” I remind him when we come up for air. We’ve learned that the tongue won’t make me insatiable until I ingest it, but I still don’t know if I could make the drive home if he keeps this act up.

“Start it driving and I’ll kiss you until we arrive,” he says, sliding his hand from my knee down to the apex of my thigh.

“I don’t think you get it,” I say, shaking with laughter again. “I have to operate the car myself.”

“That is ridiculous,” he complains. “This thing is massive and unwieldy, yet it does not bear the proper technology to auto-pilot?”

“No,” I say, picking his hand up off my leg and placing it back into his own lap. “Now keep those over there or you’ll get us both killed in a car wreck. This is from before the Occupation, when very few cars could drive themselves.”

Kila reluctantly obeys as I shift into gear and start pulling out of the lot.

“So… Love,” I say as calmly as possible. “You said you were studying it. Do you mean from watching the movies?”

He is fiddling with the air vents and examining the radio as he replies, “Yes. But I also found there was a wealth of information on the subject in many Earth databases. I’m embarrassed I wasn’t aware. Kiva spoke to me at length on the subject, having researched it prior to our arrival here. I confess… perhaps I didn’t prepare for our original research project as I should have.”

“You mean, since you now know that it’s very important to ‘mating practices’?” I question.

“Yes,” he agrees. “But there is no better way to understand than to experience it. And we are in love, are we not?”

He says this so confidently, so casually. My heart is melting and tightening all at once. My palms are sweaty on the steering wheel. I don’t know what to say. Am I in love? Is that what this is?

His fingers fall away from the dashboard. “Ella? Aren’t we?”

I can’t bear to look at him. “I don’t know,” I croak. “I… Maybe?”

Silence. Heavy silence follows. I sneak a look in his direction. He stares out the window, pensive.

“What does the word mean to you, Kila? How can you know for certain?” I say. “I want to tell you I’m in love with you, but I just haven’t ever said that after knowing someone for only a month.”

“I did not realize there was a time quotient,” he replies. “I have read about an idea called ‘love at first sight’ after all. It seems popular. It was my understanding that love is shared by two persons that wish to be together, in the realms of both sexual desire and daily pursuits of enjoyment, and that there is a level of need involved, similar to addiction.”

“When you put it like that,” I mutter, swinging the car into my apartment complex.

When we stop, he hurries out and hustles around to open my door and help me down. “Why is this vehicle so high from the ground?” he grumbles. “I think your tiny ankles could easily be injured.”

“I’m not a fragile bird,” I snort, flushing at his gentlemanly gesture.

“Birds are designed to land at flight speed,” he informs me. “Your ankles are more fragile than a bird’s.”

“Not really what I meant…”

“You are avoiding our earlier topic of conversation,” he points out. Aliens really don’t beat around the bush and they are goddamn allergic to subtlety.

“I know… I know,” I breathe out, feeling a spout of blabbery nonsense ready to pour out. “I probably do, you know, feel that for you. But I’m not sure I’m ready to admit that to myself, because it’s scary… And you’re wonderful, and this is happening so fast. But then there’s all the craziness of the war and your friends being against it and I just— There’s also this human ritual part of it, that I know you don’t necessarily get and it just surprised me that all this time you felt you loved me and you never said—”

“Ella,” he interrupts with firmness. We are stopped outside the entrance, flanked by the hedges that block the first-floor apartment windows from the street. “I will partake in whatever ritual you wish or wait as long as you need. What is this ritual? Do you refer to marriage? I have heard of it, but I am unclear on the details—”

“No! God, no, not marriage, not yet,” I gasp. “One step at a time. And I don’t mean a specific ritual. Just, taking a special moment to be romantic and confess to someone that you love them.”

“That is vague, but I will strategize on it,” he says, brows furrowing.

I open my mouth to reply, but the sound of snapping branches causes me to hesitate. Kila’s ears perk, and his head snaps in the direction of the hedges behind me.

Then, he launches himself into the greenery.

“Kila,” I hiss, quickly checking the area to make sure no neighbors are watching this odd behavior. “It was probably a rabbit. What the hell are you—”

The sound of growling and groaning follows, along with a thud and a sickening crunch that might be bone.

“AAannnh! Please, I’m sorry, I can explain!”

Oh, shit. That sounds suspiciously like—

“Vic?” I shout, incredulous at the sight of Kila dragging Vic by the ankles out of the brush. Mulch spills out of the garden bed as his wriggling body topples onto the concrete. “Holy shit. Kila, put him down.”

“He tried to run,” Kila says, keeping a tight grip on Vic’s ankle as the man rolls around on the sidewalk clutching his arm.

“He dislocated my shoulder,” whines Vic. I can tell from the way it dangles unnaturally that he must be correct. “Fuck, fuck, fuck…”

“Be still,” Kila growls, then reaches over and shoves the arm back into the socket. Vic lets out a shrill whimper. “There. Now, care to tell us why you are hiding in the bushes outside Ella’s apartment?”

“I came to warn her! I’m trying to help, okay? I was going to catch her after work, but when I saw you were with her, I panicked. And you can see why! I knew from the second I first saw you that you were a psycho,” Vic grits out, now lifting a hand to his nose.

“Warn her of what?” Kila asks, crouching over the man threateningly.

“I think he broke my nose, too,” he says, turning towards me and dragging himself into a seated position.

“The wall broke your nose,” Kila says, leaning back to cross his arms over his chest. “If you had turned to face me like a warrior then you would not have smashed into the wall when I caught you.”

“Oh, stop it. Kila, give him some space,” I say. “What are you warning me about, Vic? I’m getting death threats. What more can you have to say? That’s why he’s here. He’s protecting me.”

“Oh, that’s why he’s here?” Vic sends me a disgusted glance. “Just admit it, you’re an alien fucker. You know, I really shouldn’t have wasted my time, thinking I was doing the right thing.”

I roll my eyes. “Shit or get off the pot, okay? Tell me what you know or get out of here. I don’t need to listen to your bullshit.”

“The crowd I was hanging with, they’re getting a little radical. My friend started going to this compound with these guys that think this genocide is all a hoax. And now you’re the poster girl for it. Do the math. I’ve seen what they do. They know your name! Tell me the truth, Ella. Does the KaKa planet even exist?”

“Kar’Kal,” Kila corrects. “I can tell you many things about it. Would you like to hear the traditional Kar’Kali method of torture? All you need is a simple blade and a long, long, time alone with your victim. I don’t have a blade with me this evening, so I’m disappointed I can’t provide a demonstration.”