Close Obsession (25 page)

“Krinar technology,” she explained with a smile. “You can’t even imagine some of the things they can do –”

“But, Mia, he’s not
human
 . . .” Her mom seemed to be in shock. “How can you even . . .”

“Mom, they’re very similar to humans in many ways. You do know that they made us in their image, right?”

Her mom shook her head, apparently unable to believe her ears. “And that makes it okay? How did you even manage to get involved with him? You met him in the park and then what, you went on a date?”

Mia hesitated for a second. “Yes, pretty much. He actually sent me flowers, and we went to a really nice restaurant. And we’ve been seeing each other ever since . . .”

“Just like that?” Her mom was incredulous. “You meet one of these creatures in a park, and you go on a date with him? What were you thinking?”

She was thinking that she didn’t want to die or get kidnapped. But her parents didn’t need to know that. “He’s very good-looking,” she told them honestly. “And it was the first time I was attracted to someone so strongly.”

“So you completely ignored the fact that he wasn’t human? Mia, that doesn’t sound like you at all . . .” Her mom was looking at her like she’d grown two heads.

“How did you get here from Costa Rica?” her dad asked quietly, watching her with an unreadable expression on his face. As usual, he was the only one who could think clearly under difficult circumstances.

Mia looked at him. “Korum brought me. We flew to Daytona on one of their ships, and then he dropped me off in a car, so I could talk to you.”

“And how long are you staying?”

“What do you mean, Dan, how long is she staying? For the rest of the summer, right?” her mom asked, sounding panicked.

Mia shook her head. “I’m here for a week, mom. Unfortunately, I can’t be away from the lab that long –”

Her mom burst into tears. “Oh my God, we are seeing you for the last time . . .”

“What? No! Of course not! I just have to finish out my internship, that’s all. I’ll come back here soon, and you can come see me in New York during the school year –”

“Where is he now?” her dad asked coolly. “If he brought you here, then where is he?”

Mia took a deep breath. “I have to call him. I wanted to have a chance to talk to you first, to explain a little bit before you meet him. But he would like to meet you himself, to reassure you that everything is fine and I’m safe with him.”

“We’re going to meet a K?” Her mom seemed stupefied by this turn of events.

“Yes,” Mia told her. “And you’ll see that there’s really nothing to be afraid of.” She crossed her fingers that Korum would be on his best behavior.

“All right, Mia,” her dad said. “Why don’t you call him? We’d like to meet this K of yours.”

* * *

Half an hour later, the doorbell rang.

Mia had managed to explain a little more to her parents about Korum and their relationship, emphasizing solely the good parts. She told them how he took care of her and about his cooking hobby (her mom’s face brightened a little at this), how he was genius-level smart and ran his own company, and about the incredible opportunity he’d given her by getting her this internship. As a result, by the time Korum showed up, Mia was reasonably certain that her parents were calm enough to be somewhat civil. Still, she couldn’t help her anxiety as she opened the door and saw her lover standing there, looking far too gorgeous to be human.

“Hello,” he said softly, leaning down to give Mia a kiss on the forehead.

“Hi. Come on in.” Mia grabbed his hand and led him into the house. Pausing in the hallway for a second, she gave him an imploring look and squeezed his hand, hoping that he understood her wordless plea.

Korum smiled and whispered, “Trust me.”

Mia had no other choice. Bracing herself for the worst, she led Korum into the living room.

At their entrance, her parents stood up from the couch and simply stared. Mia couldn’t blame them: Korum was a striking sight. Dressed in a white polo shirt and blue jeans, her lover was the epitome of casual elegance. With his glossy black hair and golden skin, he could have been a model or a movie star, except that no human had eyes of that unusual amber hue – or moved with such animal grace. And even standing still, he projected an unmistakable aura of power, his presence dominating the room.

Taking a step toward her parents, he smiled widely, revealing the dimple on his left cheek. “You must be Ella and Dan. I’m very pleased to meet you. Mia has told me so much about her family.”

Mia noticed that he didn’t offer to shake their hand or make any other move to touch them. It was probably the right thing to do. Her parents were already tense enough at having a K in their house.

Her dad nodded curtly. “That’s funny, because we just heard about you today.”

“Dan!” her mom whispered fiercely, clearly afraid of their extraterrestrial guest’s reaction. She seemed unable to take her eyes off Korum, staring at him with a dazed look on her face. Mia knew exactly how she felt.

Korum’s didn’t seem offended at all, giving her dad a warm smile instead. “Of course,” he said softly. “I understand that this is all a huge shock for you. I know how much you love your daughter and worry about her, and I would like to set your mind at ease about our relationship.”

Mia’s mom finally remembered her manners as a hostess. “Can I offer you anything to eat or drink?” she asked uncertainly, still staring at Korum like she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to run away screaming or reach out and touch him.

“Sure,” he said easily. “Some tea and fruit would be great, especially if you join me.”

Mia blinked in surprise. She hadn’t known that Korum drank tea. And then she realized just how extensive his file on her family had to be: he had unerringly picked the one thing guaranteed to make her mom more comfortable – her parents’ daily ritual of making and drinking tea.

“Of course.” Her mom looked relieved to have something to do. “Please have a seat in the dining room, and I’ll bring some tea. We have some really nice local oranges . . . You do eat oranges, right?”

Korum grinned at her. “Definitely. I love oranges, especially the ones from Florida.”

Ella Stalis smiled at him tentatively. “That’s great. We have really good ones this week – juicy and sweet. I’ll bring them right out.” And blushing a little, she hurried away, looking unusually flustered.

Mia mentally rolled her eyes. Apparently, even older women were not immune to his charm.

“The dining room is this way,” her dad said, looking slightly uncomfortable at being left alone with Mia and her K.

Mia walked over to Korum and took his hand, determined to show her dad that there was nothing to worry about. Smiling, she led him toward the table.

The three of them sat down.

At that moment, Mocha appeared, her little tail wagging. To Mia’s huge surprise, she came directly to Korum and sniffed at his legs. He smiled and bent down to pet the dog, who seemed to revel in his attention. Mia watched the scene with disbelief; the Chihuahua was normally very reserved around strangers.

After a minute, Korum straightened and turned his attention back to the human inhabitants of the house.

“So Mia tells us she has an internship in your colony,” Dan Stalis said, looking at Korum as though studying a new and exotic species – which, actually, he was. “How exactly does that work? I assume she can’t really understand a lot of your science and doesn’t know your technology . . .”

“On the contrary,” Korum told him, “Mia is a very fast learner. She’s made tremendous progress in the last couple of weeks. Saret – her boss at the lab – tells me that she’s already making herself quite useful.”

Mia smiled, tickled pink by his praise. “Like I told you, dad, Saret is one of their top mind experts. He’s at the cutting edge of Krinar neuroscience and psychology. And I get to work with him. Can you imagine?”

Her dad rubbed his temples again, and Mia saw him wince slightly. “I can’t, to be honest. The whole thing has been rather overwhelming. You’ll excuse us if we’re not exactly jumping for joy right now –”

“Of course,” Korum said gently. “I wouldn’t be either if it were my daughter.”

“Do you have children?” Dan asked bluntly.

“No, I don’t.”

“Why not?”

“Dad!” Mia was mortified by this line of questions.

Korum shrugged, apparently not minding the prying. “Because I don’t have a mate, and I wouldn’t want to raise a child without one.”

Her dad’s eyes narrowed. “How old are you?”

“In your Earth years, I’m about two thousand years of age.”

The look on her dad’s face was priceless. “T-two thousand?”

In that moment, her mom walked in, carrying a bowl of oranges and a tray with tea cups.

Mia got up and rushed toward her. “Here, let me help you with that,” she said, grabbing the bowl from her.

“Thanks, sweetie,” her mom told her, and Mia breathed a sigh of relief that at least one parent seemed to have recovered her composure.

Setting the cups filled with hot tea around the table, Ella asked Korum, “Would you like some cream or sugar? We have coconut cream, almond cream, soy cream . . .”

“No, thank you,” Korum replied politely, giving her a dazzling smile. “I prefer my tea plain.”

“So do we,” her mom admitted, blushing again. Mia barely stopped herself from snickering – her parent appeared to have developed a little crush on her lover.

“Ella,” Mia’s dad said slowly, “Korum here is apparently much older than we thought . . .”

“Oh?” her mom inquired, sitting down and reaching for an orange. Methodically peeling the fruit, she gave her husband a questioning look.

“He’s two thousand years old . . .” Her dad seemed awed by that fact.

“What?” The orange dropped on the table, landing with a soft plop.

“Mom, you knew the Ks are long-lived,” Mia said, getting exasperated with their reactions. “You and I watched that program together a couple of years ago, remember? It was one of those Nova documentaries about the invasion.”

“I remember,” her mom said, still looking like she’d been hit with a hammer. “But I didn’t realize that meant thousands of years . . .”

“How exactly does something like that work if you’re in a relationship with a human?” Her dad was back to being his blunt self. “Because Mia can’t possibly live that long –”

“That’s between me and your daughter, Dan,” Korum said gently, but there was a steely note in his voice that warned against pushing in this direction. “We’ll figure everything out in due time.” And picking up an orange, he calmly peeled it, his fingers moving faster and more efficiently than her mom’s had been.

“By the way,” he added, biting into the orange, “Mia mentioned that you tend to get frequent headaches, and I couldn’t help but notice that you’ve been rubbing your temples. Are you suffering from one now?”

Caught off-guard, her dad nodded.

At the affirmative gesture, Korum reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a tiny capsule. Handing it to Mia’s dad, he said, “This is something that should take care of the issue. One of our top human biology experts developed it specifically for cases such as yours.”

“What is it? A painkiller?” Her dad studied the little capsule with no small measure of distrust.

“Yes, it works immediately as such. But it should also prevent any future occurrences.”

“A migraine cure?” her mom asked, and there was a desperate look of hope in her eyes.

“Exactly,” Korum confirmed, and Ella Stalis’s eyes lit up.

Her dad frowned. “Are there side effects? How do I know it’s safe?”

“Dad, their medicine is wonderful,” Mia told him sincerely. “Truly, you have nothing to be afraid of.”

“Mia is right. There are no side effects when it comes to our medications. And, Dan, the last thing I would want is to hurt the people Mia loves the most. I know you have very little reason to trust me yet, and I hope that changes in the future. If you don’t want to take the medicine, it’s entirely up to you. I just wanted you to have it in case you are in pain.”

“Just take it, Dan. Right now,” Ella ordered, giving her husband a determined look. “I don’t think Mia’s boyfriend would give you something bad for you. If there’s even a small chance that it can really cure you, then you owe it to yourself and to your family to try it – particularly if Korum says there are no side effects.”

Her dad hesitated, studying Korum’s face for a few seconds. Whatever he saw there seemed to reassure him. “Do I just swallow it?”

“Squeeze it into a cup of water, and then drink it,” Korum said. “It works quicker that way.”

Mia’s mom was already on her feet and pouring her dad a cup of water from a pitcher sitting on the table. “Here,” she said, thrusting it at him.

Dan Stalis took the cup slowly and pinched the capsule between his fingers, squeezing out two drops of liquid into the water. “Is this it?” he asked, looking up at Korum.

Her lover gave him an encouraging smile. “Yes.”