Liam made his way through the convention center as quickly as he could. Luckily he was moving through a wide hall that was packed, and the sheer volume of people meant it was a hell of a lot easier for him to escape into the crowd.

He weaved in and out of people in costume. He ducked past a group of pretty girls covered in glitter lotion. He moved around a guy who was arguing with a cosplay girl and quizzing her about who her favorite captain was on Star Trek, as though that mattered if she’d said she was a fan.

He was about to duck down another hall when he saw something that froze him in place. It was none other than a group of vampire vixens, and their costumes were so elaborate and detailed that they had to be the real deal.

“Shit,” he muttered.

He was about to move in with the crowd again when one of the vampires pointed at him. All of them opened their mouths and hissed, and they started running towards him.

A bubble in the crowd appeared around the vampires as they chased him. He wasn’t sure if that was because of some subliminal mind control thing they were doing, or if it was simply the natural disposition of people at a convention to get out of the way of anyone in a group costume who looked like they were part of a show.

“Why did this fucking convention have to put on Vampire Vixens demonstrations this weekend?” he muttered. “This is going to get me killed!”

“Turn left,” the voice in his head said.

He stumbled and very nearly fell in front of a girl carrying a copy of the Sparklefang comic that’d eventually been made into the blockbuster movies.

“Watch where you’re going!”

“Turn left!” the voice said, sounding way more insistent.

He turned left, and found himself staring at none other than Olivia from the front desk that morning. Only she wasn’t dressed in her work clothes anymore. No, she was in an outfit that looked almost spot on for one of the vampire high inquisitors from Sparklefang.

Which is to say her outfit was strategically placed strips of tight leather, and it looked good on her. The curves that’d been hinted at in that suit jacket earlier were on full display here.

She blinked as she looked him up and down, for all that he wasn’t wearing anything particularly special. Just a Spaceballs T-shirt that said “I knew it, I’m surrounded by Assholes!” Only with the naughty language bleeped out.

He wanted to be able to wear it out and about, after all.

“Liam?” she said, her face lighting up. “I was hoping I’d see you this weekend, but I didn’t think it’d be so soon!”

He turned and looked back into the crowd. He could still see the parting wave of humanity behind him that meant the vampire vixens were working their way through the crowd.

“Come on,” he said. “We need to get out of here.”

He tried to grab her arm and pull her along, but she stayed rooted to the spot.

“Hold on. I mean you’re cute and everything, but don’t you think…”

The group of vampire vixens broke through the crowd, and it looked like they were out for his blood now that he didn’t have a blaster pistol in his hand and a Galactic Enforcer to defend him.

“Shit,” he said.

“Do you want to tell me what the hell is going on here?” Olivia asked.

“No time,” he said.

The vampire vixens pulled out their weapons and leveled them at him at the same time. They fired off in one volley. He held a hand up, and was surprised when he didn’t feel his body disintegrating all around him.

Not that he had any idea what his body disintegrating around him would feel like, but he imagined it was far more unpleasant than the nothing he felt right then.

Liam looked at his hand, then to the rest of his body. He was pretty sure an outstretched hand couldn’t do much against alien energy weapons from the future. Or rather from the present for the aliens but from humanity’s future assuming technological development was a steady march forward through time which was a simplistic view of things that…

Whatever. He needed to worry about escaping those futuristic weapons.

He figured it was possible disintegrating wasn’t nearly as painful as it looked, but a quick look at his body showed he wasn’t rapidly being disassembled one molecule at a time.

He turned to Olivia and looked her up and down. He ran his hands over her quickly, checking for wounds, which earned him a lopsided smile.

“Usually that’s not the kind of thing I go for until the second date, but under the circumstances…”

“You’re fine too,” he said.

“I mean I like to think I…”

He didn’t let her finish that thought. No, he turned back to the vampire vixens who looked very confused.

“Holy shit man,” someone said. “How are you able to pull off special effects like that in person?”

Liam looked around in confusion. He had no idea what the guy was talking about.

“Are you part of the show or something?” Olivia asked. “Because if you are you should’ve told me. I’m supposed to give a discount to people working for the convention.”

There was the barest hint of accusation in her voice, but more than anything she looked impressed.

Not that he had time to explain. No sooner had he looked up than he saw the vampires had raised their weapons again, and all the tips were glowing purple and letting out an ominous hum. He threw his hand up again, and this time he didn’t turn away so he could see what happened.

A shield, for that’s all it could be, went up between him and the blasts. The blast slammed into the shimmering yellow shield, and his molecules remained integrated.

Though this time he did feel the force of that blast slamming into the shield. He shook his head to try and clear the stars dancing in front of his eyes from the force of impact.

One of the blasts went wide, didn’t hit his shield, and hit a girl in a Sparklefang T-shirt. She started to disintegrate from that midsection out, screaming the entire time.

Or rather she screamed until the disintegration took out her lungs. It turns out in the real world a person couldn’t scream after their lungs had been destroyed. Which made sense, but apparently nobody had ever bothered to tell the Star Trek sound design team about that little detail.

“Holy shit,” Olivia said. “That looked real.”

“Because it was,” Liam said. “This isn’t part of any show, and we need to get the hell out of here!”

“That’s all I can give you,” the voice in his head said. “So if you want to survive this run!”

Liam didn’t have to be told twice. He pulled Olivia along with him. She allowed herself to be pulled along. She also kept throwing glances over her shoulder. Like she still couldn’t quite believe this was happening.

This time the vampires weren’t having nearly as much luck getting through the crowd. No, the sight of someone getting disintegrated had convinced enough of the crowd that this might actually be real that panic had set in. That blocked the vampires’ progress, and they seemed reluctant to do anything to the crowd.

Odd, that, but if it kept them off his back then he wasn’t going to knock it.

“You need to get to the elevator,” the voice in his head said.

“Elevator, right,” he muttered.

“You’re going to an elevator in an emergency?” Olivia said. “Are you mad?”

“I’m not mad,” Liam said. “I’m following directions from the voice in my head!”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better!” she said, but she still let him pull her along.

Apparently if there was a choice between madness and getting caught by a bunch of alien vampires packing the kind of firepower that could disintegrate a person, she was more than willing to go along with crazy if it got her out of there.

They reached the bank of elevators just in time to hear more screams breaking out behind them. He turned and saw blasts of energy rip through the air above the crowd, and that terrified crowd surged towards them in a wave of humanity. Liam didn’t want to see what would happen when that wave of humanity washed over them.

He slammed his hand down on the elevator button over and over.

“I hope this works,” he muttered.

“This is what you get for listening to voices in your head!” Olivia shrieked.

He turned to look at what she was looking at, and things didn’t look promising. No, that wave of humanity was pressing toward them inexorably. It would only be a moment before they reached them, and from there…

Something grabbed him from behind and pulled him in. It was only through sheer instinct that he reached out and grab Olivia. They landed in a tangle of arms with her on top of him like something out of a cheesy anime, and he stared up grinning.

She grinned right back at him, wiping a strand of hair from her face and breathing heavily, but she also looked like she was having a hell of a time for all that their lives were in danger.

Their lives. In danger. It occurred to him that now wasn’t the greatest time to have a moment with the pretty girl from the front desk. He needed to get up and close those damned elevator doors before that wave reached them and made escape impossible.

When it came to a choice between getting captured by the vampires and getting crushed by a panicked crowd he wasn’t sure which one was worse, but he’d prefer to avoid both if it was at all possible.

A finger shot out and pressed the close button. A strange electric current ran over the elevator doors and they slammed shut. The elevator shot up with so much power that it pressed Olivia back down into him again.

Which he wasn’t going to complain about. He figured if he was going to get rescued and at the same time have a pretty girl in a sexy cosplay pressing against him then life was pretty good, on balance.

Especially since he still had that life, and hadn’t just been killed or captured by a bunch of vampire vixens from some strange world.

Finally the elevator came to a halt. Though Olivia stayed on top of him, staring down at him.

“What the hell just happened?” she asked, though she was still grinning like she was having the time of her life rather than the terror he would’ve expected from someone who’d just escaped a bunch of crazed vampires who wanted to relieve her of all her blood.

“We just escaped from the vampire vixens from Planet X,” he said.

“No shit?” she said. “So that wasn’t part of some demonstration?”

“Not at all,” he said.

“We really were in danger? Like those were real weapons?”

He could see the realization finally starting to wash over her. It was no longer just a game. They’d really been at risk of getting their asses handed to them, and the only thing that saved them was…

“Glad I could help,” a familiar voice said.

Olivia looked up, and Liam followed her gaze. He found himself staring up at none other than his rogue.

“Come with me if you want to live,” she said, offering him her hand. “Isn’t that how they phrase it on this world?”

“Something like that,” Liam said.

He reached up to take her offered hand, and was surprised to find that it was quite solid. She was also strong. She pulled him up, and he pulled Olivia up with him as the door opened, revealing a blessedly empty hallway beyond.

“What the hell is going on here?” Olivia asked.

“I wish I could tell you,” Liam said.

“Follow me,” the mystery girl said. “I think I can explain.”

“Oh hell no,” Olivia said.

“What?” Mystery Girl asked.

“I know how this works. I follow you, and I wake up in a bathtub full of ice with a couple of slices where my kidneys used to be. There’s not a chance in hell I’m doing that!”

The mystery girl cocked her head to the side. She seemed genuinely confused.

“What is she talking about?” she asked, looking to Liam as though he had all the answers.

“I honestly have no idea,” he said.

“Seriously?” Olivia said. “You’ve never heard that urban legend?”

“I’ve heard that urban legend before,” he said. “But never attached to an alien abduction story.”

“What the hell would make you think we’re in the middle of an alien abduction story?” Olivia asked, but then she looked at Mystery Girl again. Her eyes went wide and she pressed herself against the back of the elevator.

“She’s one of them?”

“I wouldn’t say she’s one of them,” Liam said. “But she’s definitely an alien of some sort.”

Mystery Girl sniffed. “Are you going to come with me or not?”

Liam sighed. He didn’t see that he had much choice. He looked to Olivia.

“I know this is a lot to take in, and it’s all getting dumped on you pretty fast, but…”

He trailed off.

Olivia sighed. She muttered something under her breath, then spoke a little louder.

“I’ve been waiting my whole life for some sort of adventure,” she said with a shrug. “It wouldn’t be very cool of me to flip the middle finger to the universe once it’s giving me what I’ve been asking for, right?”

“That’s one way to look at it,” Liam said, though a bunch of alien vampires threatening him wasn’t exactly his idea of an adventure.

Sure he’d had fantasies about having the kinds of adventures that happened in Vampire Vixens, but never quite like this. Those fantasies had always involved…

Well, probably best not to think about that. Not when he was trying to get away from the vampires. Especially not when he had two beautiful women with him and he didn’t need that kind of distraction.

“This way,” the mystery girl said.

“I don’t even know your name,” he said.

Mystery Girl turned to look at him. She cocked her eyebrow. It was an odd look, but it was also sexy coming from her.

He’d known women who thought Nimoy was sex on a stick when he did the whole eyebrow raise thing, and he’d never understood that before. But he could definitely see the allure now that it was a beautiful woman doing the same to him.

“I…”

“Can’t remember your name?” he asked.

“All I can think is Torvalian Dynamics,” she said.

“Is that like a company on whatever planet you come from? Do you work for them or something?”

She frowned and shook her head.

“I don’t know.”

“Great,” he said. “We’ve got an alien with amnesia projecting herself into the hotel.”

“I didn’t see you complaining when I was saving your ass earlier,” she said.

“How did you do that whole shield thing anyway?”

“Are you talking about that thing where you were using the Force to keep their blasts from hitting us?” Olivia asked. “Because that was pretty fucking awesome.”

“It wasn’t me,” Liam said.

“It was you,” Mystery Girl said. “I mean it was you, and it wasn’t you. You wouldn’t be able to do it without the bond, and I wouldn’t be able to project if you couldn’t be bonded.”

“That makes no sense,” Liam said.

“Sounds pretty circular to me,” Olivia said.

“I know,” Mystery Girl said with a sigh. “But that’s all I can tell you.”

“Torvalian Dynamics,” Liam said, tapping a finger to his chin. Hadn’t Katie the enforcer said something about Torvalian something while looking over his shoulder?

He looked there again and almost thought he saw something hovering there, and Mystery Girl caught his look.

“That’s the projection showing that you’re bonded, sort of,” she said. “Odd that you knew to look there.”

“I ran into a Galactic Enforcer who saw it,” Liam said.

“A Galactic Enforcer? Here?” she said. “That’s amazing!”

“It would be if I knew where she was,” Liam muttered as they turned down yet another hallway

He tensed as they rounded the corner. He was terrified they’d run into more vampires, but the hallway was blessedly empty of any aliens from another world seeking to relieve him of his blood.

There were a few people who were obviously from the convention. Probably stopping off at their rooms before they went back down to enjoy more of the festivities, but none of them were bloodsucking aliens from another world.

“How about Tori?” Liam asked.

“What’s that?” Mystery Girl asked.

“Tori,” he said.

“You got that from Torvalian?” Olivia asked.

He shrugged. “It’s the best I could come up with on short notice.”

Mystery Girl paused. She peered around another corner, and a pistol that looked like a very real blaster materialized in her hand. Though it didn’t look like anything he’d ever seen in Vampire Vixens.

“Holy shit,” Olivia muttered as the thing materialized in the girl’s hand.

“It looks safe to move down this hallway,” she said, turning and smiling at Liam. “And I like Tori. It has a nice sound to it.”

“All this really is real, isn’t it?” Olivia said.

“That’s what I’ve been telling you,” Liam said. “That girl down in the convention hall is dead.”

“Shit,” Olivia said. Then her face lit up. “Shit! I mean this really is like an adventure, isn’t it? Like the one where the aliens come down and only you can save the world?”

“What are you talking about?” Liam asked.

“Clearly you’re not reading the right kind of fanfiction,” she said with a sniff.

“Clearly,” Liam said.

“Hold a moment,” Tori said, holding up a hand and her blaster.

Down at the end of the hall a group of vampires appeared. Though they weren’t doing a very good job of watching their surroundings. No, they were shepherding a group of gentlemen along, and those guys were exchanging looks like they couldn’t believe they were hanging out with women that hot.

The vampires maintained constant eye contact with the men. Though Liam didn’t think they needed to maintain that constant eye contact to keep those guys going along with whatever the hell they wanted.

No, an older and far more powerful form of mind control was working its insidious magic on those guys, and it was more than enough to keep them in line.

He breathed a sigh of relief once they finally disappeared.

“Was that what I think it was?” Olivia asked.

“They’re gathering people from the convention for some reason,” Liam said.

“For some reason,” Tori said.

“Okay, I think we all know the reason a bunch of vampires are gathering people,” Liam said. “It’s a good idea. Get a bunch of guys who wouldn’t normally have a chance with a woman that hot, put them in a situation where a vampire could play off any of their weirdness as cosplay, and you have a perfect recipe for them to pull a bunch of two-legged cattle.”

“Exactly,” Tori said, her mouth compressing to a thin line. “Though I can’t complain too much since it’s distracted them enough that I can make this transmission.”

She pushed her hand to the lock on a door, and there was a small beep as it went from red to green even though she didn’t have a key card.

“That’s a nice trick,” Liam said.

“The hotel would be pissed if they knew someone could hack their stuff that easily,” Olivia muttered.

“This room should be unoccupied,” Tori said, then shook her head and frowned. “I don’t know how I know that, but it’s like the more time I spend with you the more I remember. Weird, isn’t it?”

“Very,” Liam said.

“Lucky bastard making a bond with a badass hot alien,” Olivia muttered, which caught Liam’s attention.

They stepped inside, and sure enough the room that looked like it was ready for someone to arrive, but it was empty.

When the door clicked shut behind them Tori did her thing again. A small spark ran from her finger to the door, and there was a surprisingly final click.

Liam suddenly felt nervous. He was stuck in a room with two beautiful women, which would normally be really fucking awesome, but in this case one of them was an alien from another world, and he didn’t know what her intentions were.

Sure she’d protected him from the vampires so far, but what if it turned out she was protecting him from the vampires because she wanted to suck out his brains for herself or something?

So imagine his surprise when she wheeled back around, a slight glow to her reddish orange curls, and jumped on him pressing her mouth to his!