Page 29 of Rock Hard Alien

Cairn had refused to sleep on the sofa. Apparently, gharrgoils preferred to rest in high places, although my mezzanine was a poor substitute for a mountain or one of the towers on his home planet. He had perched with his back against one of the roof beams, wings wrapped around his body and his tail hanging through the railing. I'd been slightly worried about the extra weight on the platform, but the iron chains were strong enough to hold at least ten people, and surely gharrgoils weren't that heavy. I still wasn't sure if any parts of him were stone in his natural state. His skin still looked harder than I was used to. And his wings would have added to his weight as well.

A question for another day. I stretched and pushed my tangled hair out of my face.

Cairn slowly turned to me, a smile on his lips. I could just about make out the fangs peeking through.

I looked at my wrist. There were no marks, not even light bruising. No sign at all that he'd drunk from me. That hadn't been a dream, right? No, the memory of that blissful state returned in full force.

He unwrapped his tail from the chain and stretched. His wings opened until they brushed both sides of the roof. The platform swayed beneath the movement.

“Careful!”

Cairn froze. “I barely moved.”

Maybe I should have asked for his weight after all.

He rose into a crouch, unable to stand upright beneath the sloping roof. His battle wrap had shifted during the night, sitting low on his hips. Very low.

I dragged my attention back to his face.

Cairn grinned.

“I was checking whether you had turned to stone,” I told him.

“That part of me has never been stone.”

“Downstairs. Now.”

He laughed and climbed down the ladder ahead of me. His tail brushed my arm as he descended. I was beginning to suspect that it did far fewer things by accident than Cairn claimed.

My phone rang before I had finished making the first pot of tea. Pam’s name appeared on the screen.

“Morning,” she said when I answered. “How’s our new alien?”

“Large. Still half-naked. Still moving.”

“I can hear you,” Cairn called from the other side of the room.

“I know.”

Pam laughed. “Good. The Authority has provisionally registered him, although they’re asking questions nobody can answer. Species, home planet, reason for arrival, length of intended stay.”

“He crash-landed five hundred years ago. I don’t think he intended any of this.”

“That’s what I told them. They’re treating it as an unusual first-contact situation.”

“Unusual?”

“The last first contact involved an alien laying eggs in the Edinburgh University library. Safe to say that species did not get on my roster. My standards have shifted since I took up this job.”

I decided not to ask. This was all too crazy for me.

Cairn stood close enough to hear both sides of the conversation. He had discovered the leftover naan from last night and was tearing pieces from it while he watched me.

“We need to get back to Stirling,” I said. “My car is still at the castle, along with half my tools. And I need to talk to my apprentice and come up with an explanation for disappearing in the middle of the job. And for taking the Guardian with me.”

“Keiran has been dealt with,” Pam said.

I lowered my spoon. “What does that mean?”