Starcrossed: Perigee - A paranormal romance trilogy (33 page)

I grunted.
It's not funny Olaf! He wouldn't be impressed if it were me flirting with some guy in front of him!

I think he would trust you.

I opened my eyes and turned my head to catch Olaf's meaningful gaze. I was kind of ashamed. He was right, Aric would trust me, and I should be affording him the same trust and respect. I was acting like a spoiled twelve year old.

I sighed.
Okay, point taken.
We were silent for a while and I tried hard to concentrate on the passing scenery rather than the conversation in the front seat. When I couldn't block out Carole's squeaky, over-zealous laughter any longer, I turned back to Olaf.

How do you think he explained the floating car to her?

He probably repressed her memory of it.

That's what the Innaki had done to me. I didn't know he could do that. A shudder rattled through me, even though Carole had turned the car's heating up. Could everyone repress another's memory, once they knew how, or was it an 'Innaki thing'? Aric was part human, part alien. Where did one end and the other begin? If I was confused about that, it was no surprise Aric didn't know who or what he was.

I'd said it didn't matter what he was. There was good and bad in everyone, and it was how you chose to live, think and feel that mattered. On that point I wondered whether there was a chance that there were any good Innaki, or whether they were all inherently evil. If the rule was that there was both good and bad in everyone, then didn't it follow that some of the Innaki weren't all bad? So far I hadn't seen any proof of that, but then maybe those Innaki who were drawn to blood farming and abduction were the only ones I'd come across, and there was a whole mixed society of them, good and bad, somewhere, on whatever planet they called home.

All this deliberating was confusing and made my overtired head hurt. After a while, I sank into a restless sleep, troubled by visions of fanged monsters, winking suggestively and cackling in a high-pitched, girly voice.

* * * * *

Carole's home was a shabby, isolated farm in the spruce-covered hills to the west of Evanton. The property was littered with rusting farm equipment and old, broken building materials. At the end of the winding drive, the old farmhouse sat in the morning sun, its ancient, neglected paint peeling in places, the wooden walls surrounded by a lopsided fenced in porch with missing banisters, reminiscent of a gap toothed grin. The remains of spent flowers wilted in polystyrene boxes on either side of the farmhouse steps. All along the porch a series of wind chimes in various sizes tinkled in the morning breeze. Colored glass spirals twisted enthusiastically on their strings, catching the sunlight and sending a smattering of rainbow colored prisms across the porch treads. I followed Aric and Olaf up the steps, resisting a smile as Olaf's head hit the low-hanging spirals. Carole threw him a warning look, and Olaf sheepishly tried to stop the glass from clashing.

"Nate! Travis! We have guests!" Carole hollered at the top of her lungs as she entered the house. There was no answer. She led us through the front hall, down a long passage, and into a large, cluttered kitchen.

"Please, sit down and I'll make you all some coffee." Smoothing her hands over her tight white jeans, she cocked her head as though she were listening for something. "Now where are those boys?"

Moving to the window, she leaned over the kitchen sink and peered out, squinting at the sun.

"No sign of the truck. They must be in those damned caves."

She looked at us apologetically, and picked up the coffee pot.

"My brothers are a little... odd. Grown men but I swear they act like kids most of the time."

Gathering four mugs from the cupboard, she deposited them on the table and turned to the fridge.

"I'm not sure what we've got left here, but I could cook you up some breakfast." She fished about in the fridge. "Damn, they've eaten all the bacon."

She grabbed the milk and turned back to us, smiling ingratiatingly at Aric. "I could make you some toast, honey." She pointed to a jar of honey on the kitchen bench, but I knew she really meant 'honey' as a term of endearment. My teeth ground together.

"Sorry, that's all I've got," she added with a shrug, smiling coyly and thrusting her chest out in an unspoken invitation to admire her ample bust.

Aric beamed back his most irresistible smile - even my heart flip-flopped as I watched him - and I was used to it.

"That'd be awesome, thanks. Toast sounds just the thing."

I declined the toast but I needn't have bothered - Carole only had eyes for Aric. She blushed at the intensity of his gaze, and I felt a wave of nausea. She poured the coffee, leaning over the table so far I thought she was about to spill out of her top. I watched Aric's eyebrow raise, and the grin spring to his face as he held out his mug, and I wanted to kick him under the table.

I needed to get away from there. Olaf just looked uncomfortable, although I could tell he was quite impressed with the view. The flirting thing was making me ill. I wished Aric would forgo the niceties and just tell her to fetch her brothers so we could buy their damned car. Surely he couldn't have put this much effort into the other people he'd manipulated? Maybe he really was attracted to her.

Appraising her over my coffee mug, I sipped the weak brew and considered my 'competition'. She was busy making the toast, 'accidentally' brushing against Aric as she moved about the kitchen, all swaying hips, generous cleavage and fluttery eyelashes. She was attractive in a fake, trying-too-hard way, but I figured, according to Aric and Olaf's stupid, appreciative grins, men liked that kind of thing.

I compared my own appearance - I wore a pair of muddied blue jeans and a plain beige woolly sweater. Nothing special and certainly not very sexy. I'd taken off Aric's jacket and slung it over my backpack in the hall. My hair cascaded over my shoulders in dark, clumped-together tendrils - I really needed a shower. Yanking my sweater straight, I sighed at the sight of my unremarkable chest. I wasn't flat-chested, but I was certainly not in the league of Carole's considerable assets. I wondered if they were fake. Whatever, Aric seemed to be impressed.

Yes, they are.
I looked up to find Aric watching me, his eyes twinkling.

What?!

They're fake. And you're a million times more beautiful.

I scowled, my face reddening, embarrassed he'd heard my thoughts. I was too grumpy and jealous to be pleased by the compliment.

Pressing my lips together, I glared at him and thumped my coffee mug down on the table a little too forcefully.

Have you been listening? Ugh! Get out of my head!

Grumpily, I threw a shield up around my thoughts, then stood abruptly, nearly knocking the chair over.

"I need to use the bathroom."

Carole gave me directions and I stalked down the hallway. Let him do what he thinks he had to do, but I wasn't going to watch it any more. I tidied myself up as best I could in the bathroom, ignoring my limp hair and dark-ringed eyes. When this was over I was sure I would sleep for weeks.

I decided I'd sit out on the porch. I'd spotted an old cane rocking chair which looked as good a place as any to sit for a while so I didn't have to hang out with Carole. Maybe I could grab a nap there until the brothers got back. I sneaked past the kitchen door, and was about to head out the front door when I glanced into the living room to my right. In the dimly lit room I just made out a scrawny gray figure which gave me the chills. I screamed.

Aric was by my side in a flash, followed a short time later by Olaf and Carole. With a shaky hand, I pointed at the creature sitting slouched on the sofa. It was, well, an Innaki, but it looked a little strange.

Carole laughed and switched the living room light on.

"Oh, that!" she giggled, walking over to the sofa. "This is Fred, he belongs to Travis." She picked up the alien, and it crumpled forward in her arms. It was a doll.

"I told you my brothers are weird. They're into this stuff." She shook the doll then dropped it back on the sofa where it leaned over the arm and stared with unseeing eyes at the ceiling. "They bought this at Roswell," she continued. "You know... Roswell? A town in New Mexico s'posed to have had a spaceship crashed..."

I leaned against the door jam and closed my eyes, breathing a sigh of relief. My heartbeat began to return to normal.

"Sorry it gave you a fright. Creepy thing." She patted the alien's scrawny leg. "They're idiots, my brothers. They'll believe in anything - they've got lots of this stuff around."

The color returned to Olaf's face and he grinned as he checked out the doll.

"Pretty cool! Although the eyes are a bit too big..."

Aric rubbed my forearm. "Are you okay?"

I shoved myself away from the door jam. Carole was still giggling as Olaf positioned the doll so it sat politely, legs crossed, as though it were ready for a tea party.

"I'm fine." I pushed past Aric and headed for the front door. "I'll leave you... three... to it. I'm going to sit in the sun for a while." My tone held no invitation to join me and I hoped they'd leave me be. My nerves were stretched taught, made painful by the creeping exhaustion overtaking my body. I lowered myself into an old wicker chair, its creaking seat an apt metaphor for my tired aching body. Closing my eyes, the morning sun's gentle rays warmed my face, the heat easing my knotted muscles until I was slouched like a rag doll on the chair. I relished the peace, determined to make the most of what seemed to be a rare commodity in my life these days. Perhaps it would get better - perhaps Canada really would be our sanctuary away from all this weird madness. We still had to get there, and that would be complicated. Aric was planning on buying the brothers' old car which Carole had promised would get us to our destination. Somehow I suspected just driving, incident free, over the border wouldn't be an option. The trip in Olaf's rig should have been an easy run, but our plans had been derailed. Who had tipped off the Innaki? Would Smith come sniffing around once he'd heard about the recent attack? I wondered if they'd found Olaf's rig - would they trace it back to Jomi and the others? I figured, being extremely old, wise and experienced with this kind of thing, Aric's people would have made plans for this kind of incident. I tried to follow Olaf's philosophy, and told myself not to worry until it was absolutely necessary. Live for the moment, he'd believed. I concentrated on the delicious warmth on my bare face. The sound of the tinkling wind chimes and the rhythmic creak of the rocking chair was comforting, hypnotic. I dozed off.

"She must be one of Carole's friends."

"Negative. She's too hot. Carole doesn't have any good looking friends."

"True, but then there's a first time for everything."

I opened my eyes to find two guys standing in front of me, observing me as though I were merchandise in a store window.

"Well, hello there, Sleeping Beauty."

I rubbed my eyes and blinked in the sunlight.

"Er, hi." I presumed these were Carole's brothers, although they didn't look like brothers at all. One was short, stocky, with light brown hair cut so close to his head he was nearly bald. He was wearing camouflage print trousers which clashed with his red plaid shirt. The other was tall and lanky, and quite good looking. He had an olive complexion and his dark straight hair flopped down over one eye. His dark eyes, floppy haircut and black clothes made him look rather emo.

"How're ya doin'." The tall one grinned down at me with straight white teeth, his flashy smile incongruous to the emo image.

I struggled to get up out of the creaking rocking chair. Emo Boy held out his hand, presumably to help me up, and I took it tentatively. He hauled me to my feet.

"I'm Nate," he said confidently, pumping my hand in a firm hand shake.

"Lucy," I offered. I looked to the other guy.

"Travis," he said, looking me up and down. I shuffled on my feet uncomfortably.

The screen door opened and Carole came out to the front porch, with Aric and Olaf behind her.

"About time you boys showed up! Have you been out all night?"

"You're one to talk." Nate grinned.

Carole grunted and folded her arms under her ample chest. "I've been waiting for you. We have visitors."

"So I noticed." Nate threw an appreciative glance at me. I noticed Aric's eyebrow shoot up, and his mouth twitched into a strange half smile. He looked pointedly at my hand, and I realized Nate was still grasping it. I pulled my hand away quickly.

Carole did the introductions and explained we needed to buy their car.

Travis snorted. "They haven't seen it yet. They might change their minds about buying it." He wasn't much of a salesman.

I looked to the old Land Rover parked next to Carole's car. It seemed okay to me.

"Not that one," Travis said. "That's not for sale. The van's kept elsewhere."

"Oh."

Aric stepped forward. "We'd like to take a look at it, if you don't mind. We're in kind of a hurry." I detected the smooth note of a whisper in his voice.

Nate and Travis exchanged glances, and then Nate shrugged. "I s'pose we can take you up there to look at it. It's been a while since we've run it. It may not even start."

We all climbed into the Land Rover. Carole seated herself next to Aric while Olaf and I sat in the very back row behind them.

Nate went to climb into the driver's seat, but stopped when he spotted Carole.

"You're coming?" he asked incredulously. "You hate it up there."

Carole threw him a 'shut up' look, and smiled coyly at Aric. "Just making sure our guests are treated right."

Nate rolled his eyes and jumped into the driver's seat.

"Let's hope for your sake the van runs, Aric. With Carole after you, you'll need a getaway car."

I could see his grin in the rear view mirror as he threw the 4WD into first and revved the engine.

Carole huffed, then leaned closer to Aric, smiling sweetly. "Don't listen to him, Aric. He smokes all sorts of weird stuff. Makes him a bit..." She twirled her finger around the side of her head in the classic 'crazy' signal.