by Elin Wyn
But right now, all that sparkle was overwhelmed by worry. I could read the fear on her face, in her eyes. She was absolutely terrified, but she shifted her attention back to Dottie.
“Oh my god, thank you for coming. Thank you,” she said as she threw her arms around Dottie and drew her in for a huge hug.
“No problem, sweetie,” Dottie answered. “Can we come in?”
“Oh, oh, yeah, please. Stay quiet, though, I have no idea what my father would do if he knew you were here, any of you,” she added as she looked at the two of us. “He’s just been acting rather strange.”
I never wanted to reach out and hold someone in an attempt to make them feel better in my life.
I wasn’t exactly that kind of guy.
But with Sybil, suddenly I wanted to.
We entered the home as quietly as we could. Sybil led us through the home and out the back to another small home-like building past the pool.
“Is this where you’re staying?” Dottie asked.
Sybil nodded. “It lets me have my own privacy, even though I still have my room inside.” Then, after closing the doors, she looked at me. “Who are these guys?” she asked Dottie with a little sidelong glance.
“Uh, this is Jalok and Cazak.” Dottie’s voice got very precise. “They’re Skotans, they’re cousins, and they’re how I got here so fast.”
“Did you have to bring them with you, though?”
Dottie narrowed her eyes. “Well, if something goes really wrong, they can protect us.”
“What if they’re the cause for what goes wrong? I mean, not to blame you guys,” she said with a nod to me. “But, if my dad is suddenly being possessed by whatever is messing with people, won’t they actually be a catalyst, or whatever the word is?”
Jalok rolled his eyes and took a seat on a stool in the kitchen of the small home that fit in the backyard of the mayor’s house.
I tried my best to smile a nonthreatening, non-creepy smile, but I’m not sure it worked as much as I hoped. She returned my smile, but it seemed more perfunctory than genuine.
As she told Dottie about what had happened, I tried my best to pay attention, but I struggled to do so. I found myself mesmerized by Sybil.
Her skin, with its light brown tones and its supple smoothness, caught my eye and had me daydreaming of being able to touch it, to run my hands across it.
That also made me self-conscious about my own looks. While the loss of my ear and the scar that led to my mouth never truly bothered me, there were a few times where it did make me concerned.
When I was first around the children, I was worried it would scare them. But they were okay with me.
Now, while looking at Sybil and listening to her voice, a voice that sounded beautiful to me, I started to worry about how I looked. I turned my broken side away from her so she wouldn’t have to look at it.
Unfortunately, this put me in position to see Jalok better, and he noticed me turning away.
“What are you doing?” he mouthed at me.
After a quick glance at the girls to see if they were looking at me, I mouthed back. “Nothing. Just shifting. Trying to get comfortable.”
“Don’t lie to me. You like her, don’t you?”
“What?” I said, trying to make my face look like he had said something stupid. “I was trying to get comfortable, that’s all.”
“Uh-huh.” He turned back to the conversation that the girls were having, but every once in a while, he would reach up and mess with his ear. It was his way of showing that he knew why I had turned away from them.
“I promise,” Dottie said. “I’ll try to help you as best I can.”
Jalok’s comm rang. “What?” he muttered into it. “Really?”
A pause. “Fine. On our way.”
He tilted his head to me. “We’ve got another call.”
Dottie nodded. “It might be for the best, really. If it is a ‘possession’, then I don’t want Sybil’s dad getting violent if he sees you. Plus,
it’ll let me assess the situation.”
Jalok and I agreed to leave her, but only if Dottie kept one of the comms with her, just in case.
She rolled her eyes at the idea, but agreed.
We left the small house, and as Dottie and her friend went inside the main house, I wondered if I ever stood a chance of being anything other than a giant red monster to Sybil.
Sybil
Once Jalok and his intriguing friend Cazak departed and we returned to the main house, Dottie plopped down onto the loveseat next to me and gave me a warm hug.
I returned her embrace, feeling better already.
Not better enough to return to the living area, however. One look at the area rug or the chandelier brought back memories of my father’s strange rage. Dottie and I were sitting in what my father called the den, even though he hardly ever used it.
“Are you feeling any better?” Her voice was muffled because she spoke into my shoulder.
“Yes, I am. Thank you so much for coming over. It really means a lot.”
“Hey, we’ve always been there for each other, ever since elementary school.”
We broke apart and she pulled her knees up under her. Dottie’d always been on the petite side, which brought up something I’d been dying to ask her ever since she arrived.
“So, you and Jalok are a thing, right?”
Dottie positively beamed. It wasn’t the jittery, anxious look of a woman who was just beginning to date a guy. It was more like the glowing smile of a woman who’s met ‘the one’.
“Yeah, we’re a thing, all right. He might look mean, but he can be so sweet when he wants to.”
“And here I thought there wasn’t any room in your life for any man other than the Puppet Master.”
Dottie laughed, and rocked back and forth on the loveseat.
“Oh, the Puppet Master’s not the possessive type. He’s more like the ancient organism who barely understands the trivialities of our brief existences.”
“That sounds kind of scary.”
“Nah.” Dottie shook her head. “He’s just a big teddy bear, really. At least, he’s always been nice to yours truly.”
I looked at her through narrowed eyes.
“Well, I think he must have turned you on to non-human guys.”
Dottie misinterpreted my expression and tone, and her gaze hardened.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Are you going to give me a hard time for dating an alien?”
“What? No!” I put my hands up defensively. “No, nothing like that. I don’t mind one way or the other, I really don’t. I’m just surprised, that’s all.”
Dottie relaxed and settled back into her seat.
“Good, because I’ve gotten enough flak about it from people I work with. I don’t understand why some people are so prejudiced against the Vengeance crew. Without them, we’d probably all be dead.”
“You’re probably right.” I tilted my head to the side and gave her a sloe-eyed smile. “Still, Jalok seems a lot different from the last guy you dated. What was his name? Tru?”
Dottie squealed and rolled her eyes.
“Oh, that guy. Dru. His name was Dru.”
I shook my head sadly.
“You know what I and the rest of our friends were thinking the whole time you were with him?”
“No, what?”
“What in the hell is Dot doing with that peabrained imbecile?”
We laughed in unison, because my description was not far off.
“I kind of figured that.” She shook her head and sighed. “He was pretty thickheaded.”
“Remember the time he tried to get a Sorvuc drunk by pouring vodka into its venom hole?”
“Yes. He needed like twenty stitches after that.”
“God, what a dunderhead. What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that he had an eight pack and a really big—”
“Dottie!”
“—car. You have to admit he was kind of hot.”
I scrunched up my face in concentration, trying to decide if I could ever consider Dru hot.
“I don’t know. Sure, he had a nice body, and nice definition in his arms, but he had that look.”
I put on a dazed expression, letting my lower lip droop and looking about with an unfocused gaze.
“Uh, hey, baby. You want to blow this place and maybe blow me instead?”
Dottie was overcome with laughter, nearly falling off the loveseat.
“Oh god, he didn’t really ever say that.”
“Close enough. His innuendo never made it past the sixth grade. You have to admit I got the face right.”
“I know you did, but please stop making it, I’m having flashbacks.”
Of course, that caused me to gleefully re-adopt my Dru face.
“Hey, darlin’, did you fall from heaven? Because if I was in charge of the alphabet, I’d put us together.”
“God, stop.” Dottie’s face had turned red, and tears formed at the corners of her eyes. “I’m going to pee myself if you don’t stop.”
“Sorry.” I shook my head and sighed. I’d really needed Dottie worse than I had thought. “Things have sure been strange lately. I’m so glad you’ve always had my back.”
“Hey, what are friends for?” Dottie spread her hands and grinned. “Didn’t I cover for you with the teacher when you snuck out of class for a makeout session with Roy whatshisname?”
“Oh god, don’t bring that up. I can still taste the orange soda and cheese puffs on his breath. Besides, it’s not like there wasn’t reciprocity. I totally covered for you when your mom called my house after you told her you were sleeping over—but were really at an adult party instead.”
Dottie sighed and leaned back against the arm of the loveseat. She stretched her legs out over my lap, just as she’d been doing since we were kids.
“It’s so good to catch up with you. I’ve been so busy, it’s hard to keep in touch with any of the old gang.”
“Yeah, well, between you and me, you aren’t missing much.”
“What’s the matter?”
I described, in detail, the incident with the anti-alien rhetoric the day after the New Year’s party, and how I’d stormed away from them all. Dottie seemed somewhat relieved by my story. I think she really had been worried how I was going to take her hooking up with an alien guy.
“Next time, tell those assholes I am going to kick their asses if they don’t know when to shut up.”
“Small-but-mighty Dottie strikes again.”
“Hey, I mean it. I’ve been through some stuff since the last time we spoke. I nearly got killed in a riot, for one. Of course, that’s where I met Jalok, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.”
“Mmm. I guess you can’t deny fate when it comes knocking.”
“Guess not. You know what else you can’t deny?”
I arched my eyebrow in query.
“What?”
“My rumbling belly. We need some snacks, girl.”
“All right, I’ll go scrounge something up.”
“No, you won’t. You’re going to sit right there while I take care of you.”
I laughed, but when I tried to rise up and help anyway, Dottie knocked me back onto the loveseat with a nifty leg-trip. I wondered if she’d learned it from Jalok. I was too busy laughing to ask at the time.
Dottie wandered into the kitchen, and soon I heard the clink of ceramic platters and the buzzing of the food prep machines. I sighed and relaxed on the loveseat, feeling very warm and loved.
Since I felt as if the crisis with my father was, if not over, at least seeming more distant, I allowed myself to relax a bit and consider Dottie’s relationship with the alien, Jalok. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever seen her look quite so happy. I guess love really was blind.
Not that Jalok was hard to look at, not at all. But who I had really found intriguing was his companion, Cazak. There was a kind of presence he had, something intangible that I couldn’t put into words, that made him seem both intriguing and an enigma.
I bet he was one of those kinds of people who played their cards close to their chest.
He was oddly silent during their visit, but I had noticed him looking at me when he thought I wasn’t paying attention.
I didn’t know if he was really interested or not, but Cazak was definitely checking me out.
Frankly, the thought thrilled me.
Cazak was certainly nothing like the privileged, spoiled, party boys I normally hooked up with. His eyes seemed both stoic and haunted at the same time, which I supposed came from being a warrior.
But there was a strength of character there in his gaze, something that said he’d already seen hell and refused to be broken. His body certainly wasn’t unattractive, that was for certain. The sleek, yet muscled lines of his form were quite pleasing, even beneath the confines of his uniform.
As Dottie puttered about in the kitchen, I found myself wondering what it would be like to be held by those big, powerful arms.
In my mind’s eye, I could almost feel his hands caressing my long hair, then sliding down to the small of my back and squeezing me tightly against him.
My fantasies soon took over. I imagined myself nuzzling up to his chest, resting my cheek against the smooth slabs of muscle. More than anything, I recalled his scent. Something akin to peat moss and lilac, but neither of those things.
It wasn’t unpleasant, far from it.
“Okay, I got cheese and luurizi and koovar nuts.”
I sat up rapidly in the loveseat, shaking my head quickly to blow away those thoughts.
I needed to change my life, sure.
But throwing myself at a Skotan warrior probably wasn’t the best way to do it.
No matter how tempting he was.
Cazak
Once we were back in the aircar, Jalok put the comm on speaker.
“Hey, we have a supply drop heading for Kaster,” Sk’lar’s voice snapped out. “Inside the shuttle is some new security gear that the mayor requested, all the way from Duvest. You should be there when it arrives.”
Jalok and I looked at one another. “When does the shuttle get here?”
“About two hours. Vrehx figured that since you were already there, you could supervise the arrival. The mayor had his own people scheduled to pick it up, but there’s some sort of snafu and they can’t make it until tomorrow. Vrehx wants to make sure that it’s properly unloaded and put away,” he answered.
I dropped my head. Not exactly what I’d anticipated doing with my day, but then, I didn’t have a clue what my day was going to be anyway, so this, at least, was something to do. I looked up at Jalok. “What do you say?”
“What can we say? We’re essentially under orders,” he said.
“Not essentially,” Sk’lar cut in over the comm. “Exactly. Vrehx wants you two specifically, mostly because you’re already in town. It’s tech that we’ve been helping the engineers at Duvest make, so we’re really wanting it in the right hands, understand?”
I caught his meaning. “Got it,” I said.
“Good. Get your asses over there.”
The comm clicked off and Jalok looked at me. “Got what, exactly?”
I loved my cousin, but there were times he wasn’t exactly the fastest to pick up on subtle clues.
“We helped make the security gear. And the general wants it secured. It seems pretty clear that if it fell into either the anti-alien faction’s hands, or the hands of anyone affiliated with them, then that would be a problem.”
“Ah, I understand now. You really think we might have any problems with that?”
“You never know,” I said. “Do you want to risk it? Or worse, risk ignoring an order from the general?”
“Well, let’s get going then.”
We made our way to the airfield, leaving a message for Dottie to let her know where we were going.
On the way to the airfield, we got another comm. “Delivery has been delayed by
a couple hours. Try to stay out of trouble,” Sk’lar ordered. “And no whining about plans changing.”
I shot Jalok a glance. He’d been about to say something, but Sk’lar hung up too quickly.
“Hey,” Jalok said after a moment. “While we’re in town, I want to go see Adam.”
“Um, no,” I said back. “You do remember that he’s the one that attacked you and tried to kill you, right?”
“Yes,” he said in exasperation. “I do remember that. But he wasn’t himself, and I’d like to see if he’s been able to clean up.”
“Really? Seriously?”
“Yes. I know he lost it, but did you know he checked himself back into the facility?” he asked. “He feels better, but decided it wasn’t worth the risk of being out in public. Doesn’t that sound like someone who’s trying to make amends?”
“Or doesn’t want to cook for himself,” I grumbled.
“I’d like to go,” Jalok insisted. “Dottie would like it if we checked in on him.”
“What, you need my protection or something?” I asked.
“Kiss off,” he said, but he smiled when he said it.
I shrugged. “Fine, let’s go. But just so we understand that honesty is key to any relationship, including familial ones, I don’t like this idea. I don’t think it’ll be good, like you’re hoping.”
“I’m not hoping for anything, just curious,” he answered back as he hailed a courier. When inside, he directed the driver to the facility where Adam was being held.
It wasn’t hard to get inside; the people there already knew Jalok and knew about his connection to Adam. We were let in quickly.
Adam was given a seat. He seemed calm and collected and even cheerful. But this man had tried to kill Jalok. “Jalok, my friend! How are you?”
“Um, doing well. How are you, Adam?” Jalok answered. I was assuming that Adam’s sudden giddiness at seeing the man he’d nearly killed was a shock to my cousin.
“I’m happy to hear that. So, what can I do for you, my friend?”
“Well, why aren’t you in restraints?”
“What?” Adam looked genuinely confused for a moment, then his eyes went wide in understanding. “Ah, you hadn’t heard. I’m sorry, I tried to have them call you. What you did for me, I want to thank you for that. I also want to apologize for attacking you and trying to kill you. It wasn’t something that I’m proud of. I mean it. So, I hear that you and Dottie are still together? Am I right?”