Alien's Heart

Prologue

PROLOGUE

MIRIAMMiriam could admit when she was wrong. Unfortunately, she was wrong often, so she had a lot of practice. Or fortunately, depending on your perspective and how polished you liked your apologies.

Apparently, she needed more practice because she absolutely bungled this one. Miriam screwed up at work by posting pictures of discarded books on the internet. How else would a library make room for new books unless they got rid of the old ones? Especially the ones that were falling apart. High schoolers weren’t gentle on books. There were greasy fingerprints, doodles in the margins, and so many stains—coffee, soda, melted chocolate, and what she really hoped was ketchup.

The internet did not understand, and her friend, Alice, suffered the consequences of Miriam’s post. Miriam brought pizza—fine, with a cauliflower crust—to apologize, but clearly Alice wasn’t in the mood for low-carb pizza.

I should have brought the beer.

Miriam had the six-pack in hand but decided that the locally produced craft beer was too pretentious.

And cauliflower pizza isn’t?

Following Alice to a campsite in the middle of the woods? Totally not creepy. She was enthusiastic.

Mistakes were made. Miriam could own up to that—another thing she had plenty of practice at. Okay, full disclosure: guilt turned Miriam’s stomach into a swirling pit of acid. She had heartburn all day, and the idea of waiting until Monday to apologize was unbearable.

Impulsively, she decided that fixing this couldn’t wait. Here she was, out here in the woods with pizza in hand because she wouldn’t be able to sleep until she fixed the mess she made.

Apologies didn’t really matter when a bright white light blinded them and then the world went dark.

* * *

Three Years Later

The world swam back into focus. Her head pounded and burned almost everywhere: behind her eyes, at the base of her head, and at the top of her head. Her hair felt heavy.

Nausea surged through her.

Miriam rolled to the side as her stomach heaved. Nothing came up except the bitter taste of bile and something. Plastic? Burnt plastic? Was this food poisoning? Too much beer?

“Here. Take it easy.” Alice held a cup of water to Miriam’s mouth and tipped a small amount in.

Fuzzy memories of the previous night came back. Pizza. Crashing Alice’s camping spot.

Lights from above.

Then nothing.

Miriam took another sip, washing away some of the funk in her mouth.

“What happened? Was the pizza bad?” She’d never gotten sick from that place before, but things happened.

“This is going to sound out there, but it’s a hundred percent true,” Alice said. “We were abducted by aliens.”

“Sure,” Miriam said automatically, not really hearing the words. “What time is it? Do you have some ibuprofen? My head is killing me.”

“Aliens. For real. We’re not on Earth.”

Aliens. Whatever.

Miriam’s head lolled to the side. Alice was f*****g with her. Had to be.

Alice turned to speak to someone out of the room.

It was weird that they were in a room and she was in a bed, come to think of it. Did they ditch the campsite and check into a hotel?

Miriam struggled to sit up and ask when a red lizardman entered the room.

She fainted.