Broken Skies

“What the blazes happened to your hair?” His golden eyes stay focused on me even though he directs the question to Lir as if he’s waiting to see a reaction from me.

Lir clears his throat. “Just a poor attempt at a human disguise.” He ruffles his hair forward and turns his head from side to side, posing. “I’ve been told it’s what the humans call a mullet.”

The boy laughs, but the girl scoffs. “Why would you want to look human? It’s not like—” She breaks off and takes a close look at me, her hand rising to cover her mouth as her eyes widen. “Lir…what have you done?”

The boy’s eyes narrow at my face before widening as well and shifting to Lir.

He clears his throat again and runs his hand back through his hair. “Rym,” gesturing to the boy, “Trel,” a hand to the girl, “This is Jax.” Two incredulous pairs of eyes bore into me. “She assisted me in my return. I could not have done it without her.”

Four long strides bring Rym to the couch with his hand out. “Well Jax, let me be the first to formally thank you for returning my cousin to us. Full of himself as he is, we missed him.” He winks. Humor shines from his eyes and it relaxes me enough to accept his hand. He promptly lifts the back of my hand to his lips, waggling his eyebrows at me over my knuckles. “This is how it’s done in the human world, yes?”

I pause at the touch of his mouth on my hand just long enough for my breath to catch in my throat and my limbs to tense before snatching my hand away and offering him a small smile. “Yeah. I guess so.”

If he thinks my actions are strange, he doesn’t comment on it. “You the one that massacred his hair?” At my nod, his smile gets even bigger. “Well, good for you. That wanker was always a bit too pretty with all those curls.”

“Wanker?”

Lir shifts over until he’s standing next to me and rests one hand on my shoulder. “Please just ignore him. My cousin has spent too much time watching the vids from the London team.” London team?

“They have all the best slang,” says Rym with a chuckle. He springs up and musses Lir’s hair. “At least now I’ve got a chance with the ladies. Do you know how tough it is to be in competition with this guy?” He jerks his thumb at Lir.

Lir just rolls his eyes and Trel is still standing there with a bit of a dumbfounded look on her face watching their interaction.

Really, Rym has nothing to worry about. Although his looks are different than Lir’s, he’s no less attractive. Close cut hair and the same brilliant eyes as his sibling. He’s perfect and golden just like her.

Lir swivels his head to me and the eyebrow goes up again. Then again, there’s an intensity to my alien boy, something special in his emerald gaze that pulls me in more than his cousin’s friendly nature and good looks. I’m obviously not immune to physical attraction, but Lir is the only one I’ve ever felt it for.

“So tell us about yourself, Jax. Why are you here?” Trel’s voice is almost overly sweet, but her eyes bore into me.

What am I supposed to tell her? My gaze slides to Lir.

Staring straight at Rym, Lir speaks, his words careful and precise. “We have had a long trip and my parents should arrive soon. I think it’s best if I speak with you later. Jax will be here for a little while.” I will?

Rym nods slowly and grabs Trel’s sleeve and pulls her toward the door. “Come on, Sister. We should let Lir get settled.” He sends me a wink as the door slides shut. “Very nice to meet you, Jax.”

TWENTY ONE

Lir sits next to me on the couch. “Are you okay? Rym can be a little… exuberant…” His voice trails off and he looks away. “You could have turned down his hand. I know touching makes you uncomfortable. He wouldn’t have been insulted. Casual touching is different for us anyway because of—”At the sound of the door sliding open, Lir breaks off, jolts to his feet and distances himself from me. A pang of disappointment hits my stomach as the stoic mask covers his face again and he nods to the male and female who have just entered.

“Mother. Father.”

“I am so happy you are home Steliro,” says his mother. There’s kindness and a genuine happiness in her gold eyes as she looks at her son. “Have you spoken with the techs yet?”

“No Mother,” Lir answers. “I have barely had time to bathe, must less wander down there.”

“But…”

“Don’t worry Mother. I’ll be fine,” says Lir. He gives his Father another subtle nod. “Sir.”

“Good to have you home, Son,” says his father. His nose tilts into the air arrogantly, but there’s a softness to his face that suggests he really is happy to see his son. “You will have to tell us all about your adventures with the humans.” He says the last word with disgust and Lir’s eyes darken slightly.

“Yes, about that…” Lir straightens and brushes his palms over his pants. “This is Jax.” His hands gesture to me. “Jax, my mother Vira and my father Stellan.”

If his parents could have been any more shocked, they would have fainted. Both of their mouths drop a little, but they recover quickly, Lir’s mother with a small smile and his father with a bit of a sneer. This isn’t going very well.

I stand up and copy Lir’s previous movement, brushing my palms over my pants. Holding my hand out to his mother, clearly the lesser evil in the room, I work up my best friendly smile and say, “Pleased to meet you.”

Vira makes every effort to return my smile, but the effect is not quite there. She ignores my hand, shooting glances at Lir and Stellan and avoiding my face. I awkwardly lower my hand and turn to greet Stellan, but the glowering look he’s sending at Lir stops any words from exiting my mouth.

“What were you thinking?” Stellan says. “Bringing a human here? To our home? Where your sister is? She’s already fragile Steliro, are you trying to kill her?” His voice rises with each word until at the end he’s yelling, punctuating each syllable with a shake of his finger.

I shrink away from the irate alien, my heartbeat sounding in my ears and a tremble retuning to my hands. Lir catches my eye and a warm sense of comfort flows over me. Indecision flickers on his face for a moment before he speaks. “There is something—”

“Who else knows she is here?” snaps Stellan.

“The two that escorted us here, Stella of course and Rym and Trel just left.”

Stellan closes his eyes and rubs the bridge of his nose between two fingers. “The twins know? There is no way to hide it now.” He opens his eyes and narrows his gaze at me and then turns to his son. “My office. Now.” He spins on his heel and strides down the hallway, Lir following close behind.

I’m left standing in the middle of the living room with Vira. She watches Lir’s retreating back and then flicks her eyes to my face. It takes a lot of effort to keep some semblance of a neutral expression on my face when I feel like I want to puke.

Eventually she takes pity on me and leads me down another hallway to a bedroom.

“There is an attached bath if you would like to get cleaned up. I will see what I can do about finding you some clothing.” She meets my eyes and looks away quickly. “Thank you for returning my son to me.” A soft smile and then she walks away.

The bathroom is just as clean as the rest of the quarters, sparkling white and I’m like the mud somebody tracked in on their shoes. Can’t complain too much, though, the shower is amazing. A shower head extends from both walls so they rinse both sides of my body at the same time. Steam fills the bathroom and I inhale the warm relaxing scent of the soap that Vira found for me. Tilting my head back to wash my hair, some soap leaks into my eye and I yelp, twisting away from the spray and feeling around for a towel.

My hand hits open air instead of the wall I was expecting and I stumble, falling to my butt in the water and knocking over the line of bottles on the edge.