by S. E. Smith
“Honey, why don’t you sit down and I’ll fix you some tea,” Sam replied with a shake of her head.
Lacey nodded distractedly, staring at her hands as she walked over to the kitchen table and sat in one of the brightly painted chairs. She closed her fingers and opened them again. The patterns weren’t as noticeable when she wasn’t in the sunlight.
A soft whine at her feet drew her attention. She smiled and bent to lift Little Bit into her lap. A flutter of a chuckle escaped her as Little Bit stretched to lick her chin. The soft, warm body of the puppy and unconditional love soothed her ragged soul.
“So, tell me about the other male,” Sam asked casually as she set the kettle on the stove before opening the bread box and pulling out the loaf of whole wheat. “What happened to him?”
Lacey blinked as she pulled herself back to the present. The corner of her lips curved upward as she remembered the look of shock in the other man’s eyes. He would think twice before messing with her again.
“I turned him into a fluffy bunny,” Lacey replied with a grin. “A very fluffy white one.”
Sam paused as she placed the bread in the toaster. Soft laughter burst from her, growing louder at the image. She shook her head and turned her attention back to the toaster.
“Aliens, huh?” Sam asked with a quirky grin. “Theo is really going to love that.”
Chapter 7
Frost glanced carefully around the corner of the building. The back entrance to the local holding cell led out to a narrow alley. He could not take a chance of leaving through the front entrance as there were too many inhabitants going about their business in the late morning light.
Fury poured through him. The last hour had been a waste of time. The local law man had been a pain in the ass. Not only had he refused to tell him anything about the female named Lacey, he had insisted that he take Frost back to his transport.
Since that was not going to happen, he had finally had to wipe the man’s memory of him. Fortunately, that had worked. Unfortunately, now he had to find his way back to the dwelling of the female… all without being seen.
“Watcha’ doing?” A young voice asked from behind him.
“Yeah, are you on some kinda secret mission or something?” Another voice echoed. “You’re acting like one of those spies in the movies when they are trying not to be seen.”
Frost jerked back in surprise as two dark-haired boys, one wearing a tall, black hat and the other wearing a curved white one, stared back at him with curious brown eyes. Frost blinked, but the images didn’t change. They were identical except for the hats.
“I’m looking for a female named Lacey?” Frost responded hesitantly. “Do you know where she is?”
“Aunt Lacey?” One boy asked.
“She’s not really our aunt, but we call her that ‘cause it is easier than saying cousin,” the other boy explained.
“Whatcha’ want with Aunt Lacey?” The first boy asked, curiously.
“What is she?” Frost asked, thinking he might get more out of the boys than the law man named Theo.”
“Duh, he’s not so bright, is he?” The second boy said, rolling his eyes.
“She’s a girl,” the first boy replied in a serious voice, ignoring his brother. “Whatcha’ want with Lacey?” He asked again.
“I need to find her,” Frost growled in frustration. “She is in danger.”
Both boys looked at each other for a moment before they burst out laughing. Turning back to him, their eyes swept over him before they seemed to come to a joint conclusion. Frost wasn’t sure if the decision was a good one or a bad one by the glimmer of mischief in their eyes.
“I’m Joseph, this is Jonah. Are you gonna kiss her?” Joseph asked, tilting his head to the side.
Frost opened his mouth to respond before snapping it shut as a long forked tongue slipped out of the hole in the tall, black hat that Joseph was wearing. A moment later, a pale green head appeared.
“What is that?” Frost asked, curling the fingers of his right hand in preparation.
“That’s Larry,” Jonah replied without looking. “So, are you gonna kiss her?”
“What are you two?” Frost asked testily, folding his arms across his chest. “Do you know where this Lacey is or not?”
“I told you he wasn’t too bright,” Jonah whispered to Joseph. “Do you think we ought to capture him? He was coming out of Theo’s back door.”
“I don’t know,” Joseph replied, frowning as he looked at his twin. “Sean said we was to help him get back to Lacey.”
“Yeah, but Sean’s dead,” Jonah pointed out. “Do you think we should be listening to dead people?”
“Why not? We do it all the time down at the cemetery,” Joseph pointed out. “Besides, Sean says he’s a law man like Theo.”
“I don’t see no badge like Theo’s got,” Jonah complained, eyeing Frost with suspicion.
“You got a badge?” Joseph asked suddenly. “Just ‘cause we told Sean we’d help doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be careful. After all, Sean’s dead and he might not know better.”
“Yeah, worms could be eating his brain and all,” Jonah added.
“He’s a spirit, dummy, worms can’t eat spirits,” Joseph retorted, glaring at his brother.
“Spirit worms can,” Jonah insisted. “And I’m gonna tell mom you called me a dummy.”
“You can’t ‘cause if you do, you’ll grow a tail. Remember, dad put a tattletale spell on us both last night,” Joseph said before he grinned. “On second thought, go ahead! I bet it would be totally awesome to have a tail.”
“Yeah, I bet I could hang from it,” Jonah replied as his eyes lit up at the idea.
Frost unfolded his arms and ran one hand through his short, dark blond hair as the two boys bickered back and forth. This mission was turning into one of the most bizarre he had ever been on. So far he had found his mate, been turned into a fluffy mammal, encountered the local law enforcement, and was currently stuck with two young inhabitants who thought talking to the dead and having a tail were normal.
Obviously the information gathered on the planet was misleading. While the inhabitants here may be primitive in regards to space travel, they were capable of doing things that were beyond anything he had ever experienced before and that fact worried him. What else were they capable of?
“I am a Star Ranger,” he finally interrupted as the two boys became louder in their excitement of growing a tail. “I am chasing a deadly fugitive. Your… aunt… is in extreme danger. It is imperative that I get to her.”
Joseph turned to look at Frost with wide eyes. His lips formed a circle not unlike the one his aunt had on her plump lips earlier. He stopped as another thought came to him. How long had he been unconscious?
Pulling the scanner from his pocket, he glanced down at it. He had four days, sixteen hours and twenty-seven minutes to get back to his transport and before it self-destructed. He still needed to kill Taar, as well. His gut tightened when he remembered the Learian holding the blade to Lacey’s throat.
“You’re an alien?” Joseph asked in awe.
Frost frowned before he gave a sharp nod. He would erase both boys’ memories before he left. Until then, he needed their assistance.
“Yes,” he said.
“That is so cool!” Jonah exclaimed loudly before grunting when his brother elbowed him. “That is so cool!” He repeated in a whisper.
“Do you have a badge to prove it?” Joseph insisted. “‘Cause we got to make sure and all, even if you are an alien.”
Frost bit back a groan of frustration. He pulled his identification badge out. A hologram image of him, followed by a detailed technical description of his position as a Star Ranger displayed above the small disk. Once it finished, he slid it back into the small pouch at his waist.
“Are you satisfied?” He growled.
“I want one of those,” Jonah remarked, looking at Joseph. “Make a de
al with him. I get a badge like that in exchange for taking him to Aunt Lacey.”
Joseph rolled his eyes and shook his head at Frost. “He’s younger by five minutes,” he whispered with an exaggerated sigh. “Mom said it was the longest five minutes in history.”
“She did not,” Jonah defended.
“Did too,” Joseph retorted.
Frost listened as the two boys argued. Fortunately, they did it as they turned and walked away. He followed them as they worked their way further down the alley behind the buildings. He wondered what other nasty surprises he would encounter before he was able to leave this planet.
One thing was for sure, though. He would not be leaving it alone. After he killed Taar, he was would capture the female called Lacey. She had a lot to answer for as far as he was concerned; turning him into a fluffy-haired mammal and handing him over to the local law was just the beginning.
He pushed aside the fact that he would have even more to answer for when it was discovered he had kidnapped a resident of a forbidden planet. He would worry about the consequences later. Right now, he had a fugitive to kill and a mate to claim.
Chapter 8
“We’ve gotta go,” Joseph whispered to Frost as a car pulled up out front of the dwelling he had been at earlier this morning. “Mom thinks we came to play with Dusty and visit Aunt Lacey.”
“Yeah,” Jonah added. “Aunt Lacey won’t squeal on us, but Dusty will if mom sees him first.”
“Dusty? Squeal?” Frost asked in confusion.
He shook his head, trying to clear it. He was still trying to figure out how the twin boys were able to get the transport they arrived in to work. His eyes shifted from the dwelling to the strange two-wheeled vehicle with pedals and a small sidecar.
He had been doubtful when the boys insisted he fold his long frame into the narrow seat of the little oval-shaped egg with a hole cut out of the top and a hard seat in the center of it. It had been surprisingly roomy once he sat down.
Jonah said that their dad had enchanted it to change shape cause sometimes they had friends riding with them. The two boys had climbed onto the twin seats of the ‘bicycle’ as they called it. It had taken him ten minutes to loosen his fingers from the sides of the thing when it lifted off the ground.
After a lot of silent cursing and more than one roar for the boys to be careful as they followed a series of narrow canyon passages, they had soared up over the side of one not far from the back of the huge brown barn. A large replica of the golden-haired mammal from this morning greeted them with a wagging tail.
He had managed to climb out of the transport despite his shaking legs. Both boys had removed the dark goggles covering their eyes leaving dark, dirty rings circled each set.
“Dusty is the pot belly pig that someone dropped off last year,” Joseph was explaining as he waited for the car to stop and the dust to settle. “He can’t keep a secret.”
Frost just shook his head again. He needed to erase the boys’ memories before they left. He reached for the small memory flash attached to his waist. His fingers groped the empty spot.
“What…?” He started to say.
“Good luck with Aunt Lacey,” Joseph said, grabbing Jonah’s arm and pulling him out from behind the barn. “Sean says you’ll be okay if you kiss her. She won’t be able to change you into a rabbit again then.”
“Bye!” Jonah called out as they started to run to the car before their mom could get out.
Frost briefly closed his eyes and counted to ten before he opened them again. He watched as Lacey’s slender figure stepped out onto the porch. A look of confusion flashed across her face as Joseph yelled out to her before understanding dawned and she smiled.
The soft curve of her lips pulled a low moan from Frost. He greedily drank in her flushed cheeks, soft lips, and long brown hair. She was shorter than he normally liked his women to be, but it fit her. She was curvy. Her hips flared out to fill the blue trousers covering her legs. His fingers itched to grab them from behind and press her up against his cock.
He listened as she spoke in a lilting rhythm to the woman who had arrived while the two boys climbed into the back of the transport. Her honeyed tone flowed over him, the soft cadence making him want to hear his name against her lips. His hands clenched. He wanted her and he planned to have her.
Turning, he slipped into the barn through a narrow side door. Joseph’s last words echoed in his mind. A kiss. He needed to kiss her. The corner of his mouth lifted. He planned to do that… and more.
*.*.*
Lacey shook her head as Tory, Joseph and Jonah’s mother and her first cousin, drove away. Now all she needed was for her parents to unexpectedly pop in for a visit. It had taken almost three hours to finally convince Sam, Joanna and Topper that she was fine so they would leave. The ‘bad’ alien was tightly sealed in a double insulated plastic container and the ‘good’ alien was hopefully on his way back to whatever galaxy he had come from.
Theo wouldn’t have just let him go. Hopefully, Theo mistook him as being another nosy conspiracy theorist wanting information about Magic. Lacey sighed as she leaned against the post next to the steps and watched the dust trail slowly settle back down. Her eyes roamed the wide open area.
It was mid-afternoon and the heat had risen with the sun. It was at least ninety-one today. She raised her face to the sun and closed her eyes. She loved the feel of the warmth on her face.
Theo was very protective of the residents of Magic. The local council members made sure that there was the most current and strongest protection spell in place so that other ‘normal’ visitors did not see the more unusual ones. Her mother was a current council member and a huge advocate of protecting the residents while encouraging tourism.
Lacey opened her eyes and sighed again. Magic was the only place on Earth where those that were ‘different’ could be normal. It was also the only place on Earth where the governments of the world were not invited. Many, many years ago, long before Lacey and her sisters were born, the governments of the world had started rounding up those they thought were different.
Lacey’s parents talked about how their great grandparents had been pursued across Europe. They could no longer hide as gypsies or minstrels. Only a handful of those considered to be cursed managed to escape persecution.
Desperate for a place to call their own, they had traveled across America before settling in the dry desert territory of New Mexico. Once settled, they sent out an invitation to the four corners of the world. The spell traveled on the winds spreading the word of a safe haven for those seeking it. Even those with the slightest hidden talent felt the call. Now, over two thousand residents made up the population of Magic.
While not all the residents were gifted with the ability to do magic like her family, those that were not were just as powerful in their own ways. The creatures of legends lived and roamed the area within the safety of Magic’s boundaries. Lacey suspected that may be what drew the aliens to the area. Somehow the magic embedded in the winds caught and pulled the two males here.
“Still, for the safety of my people, I need to make sure that no one else finds out about them,” Lacey murmured as she thought of what would happen if the government somehow managed to track their spaceships. “I need to find their ships and make sure they are hidden.”
She wasn’t sure what she would do if she found anything. A concealing spell might work, but it would need to be constantly redone. She suspected the two aliens did not come in the same spaceship.
Lacey bit her lip. Right now, only Topper and her sisters knew about them. She would have to notify her parents, but she was reluctant to interrupt their vacation. It was the first one they had taken in over twenty years. For right now, she would try to keep things from getting out of control.
A bark from the barn drew her attention. It was past feeding time and Ginger could probably use a break from her growing litter. Evan wouldn’t be back until next week. He had
gone with his dad and brothers on a hiking trip before school started back.
“I’m coming, girl,” Lacey called out with a chuckle as Ginger impatiently barked again. “Your babies must be driving you crazy by now.”
Little Bit had returned to her mother after the first hour and lots of loving. She was probably the worst one of the litter, Lacey thought with a small grin. The small pup was definitely the most adventuresome.
“She reminds me a lot of the twins,” Lacey said to herself as she pulled open the door to the barn. “What’s the matter, girl? Were you missing me?”
A startled gasp tore from Lacey’s throat when a hand suddenly wrapped around her wrist and turned her until she was pressed against the other door to the barn. Filtered sunlight shone through the windows, illuminating the sharp features of the alien from this morning. His piercing blue eyes held her frozen even as his whispered words swept through her mind.
“Yes, I was,” he murmured before pressing his lips firmly to hers.
Chapter 9
Frost had been concerned when he first stepped into the barn that the larger golden haired mammal might be an issue. Instead, the creature had greeted him with a wagging tail and a bright orange ball. Soon, he found himself tripping through an invasion of smaller replicas of the mother beast.
He smiled as he remembered the smallest pup. It had bowled through the lot of its siblings and tumbled to a stop at his feet. Fortunately, the group settled down after a few minutes of attention and a stern growl from the mother. Well, all but the little one. It remained glued to his side as he stepped up to the double doors and peeked through the cracks.
Joseph and Jonah’s mother, Tory, only stayed for a few minutes, but those few minutes gave him the chance to study the female who was his. It was said that a warrior would recognize his mate through her markings. All females had them, no matter what the species, but a warrior would recognize the one destined to be his when the markings ‘spoke’ to him.