Alien Sex: 19 Tales by the Masters of Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy

THE DOORWAY MAKES A picture—

Within the room she stands framed,

Leaning over slightly.

He draws his tongue along her backbone,

Wetly caressing each vertebra.

Moving upwards he reaches her wing spurs.

He licks them hard.

She whimpers with pleasure.

Then holding her tightly

He bites them off.

She snarls in pain.

He strokes her front, along the two long rows of nipples

To comfort her,

And tells himself that now she cannot leave him.

The sun shines through the window

Warming her back

Where two streams of blood

Course from her shoulder blades

Down her back

To his groin.

He mounts her from behind.

The door is open again.

The composition has changed.

She has given birth three times now

To brightly colored geometric objects

That lie heaped in one corner

Gathering dust.

He sits in the chair,

The only furniture in the room

Watching her stand at the window.

Arms stretched like a cross to the sun,

She hums.

He calls her to him.

She comes and stands before him.

He draws his hand up between her legs

Until she parts them.

He’s ready,

So with no preliminaries

He pulls her onto him.

Once inside,

To make it up to her,

He nuzzles her face and ears

Till she softens and hums

As if he, too, was the sun,

Hot and molten within her.

She strokes his hair

As he pivots beneath her.

But when she is aroused

He doesn’t dare let her mouth

Too near his throat.

The door doesn’t shut easily.

She asks for clothing,

Hoping to hide the sharp buds

On wrists and ankles.

He got her when she was young.

She’s grown

And now stands eye to eye with him.

He should give her up

But can’t.

One day

While he strokes and nibbles her sex,

She pulls her feet up fast

And tries to gut him.

When he next returns

He brings a knife.

Pinning her down,

He cuts the new spurs off.

After that she’s passive.

He can pull himself up onto her

Without fear.

Finally

Wrapping himself around her,

Rubbing himself against her bright sleek skin,

Pouring his hips into her as quickly or slowly

As he wants to.

The room is lit with sunlight

Except where the shattered window

Raggedly reveals the trueness of the forever night outside.

She lies broken below,

The pavement already absorbing her.

He has to admit to himself

That he knew all along

She would find a way to escape him.