Broken Skies (25 page)

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.

“Jax?” Lir’s voice from right outside the bathroom. “Are you alright?”

“Fine,” I yell, scrubbing at my eyes with my hands. “Just fine.”

I hurry through the rest of the shower, rinsing my hair this time without getting any more soap in my eyes. When I step out, fog covers the large mirror over the sink. A single bottle of lightly scented lotion sits on the counter next to a folded towel. The thick fluffy towel is a luxury in itself and I almost moan when I rub the lovely lotion over my skin. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so clean and pampered.

I fold the towel back up and set it on the counter, but no clothes… Thankfully there’s a robe, a white one of course, hanging on the back of the door. It’s short and reaches only halfway to my knees when I wrap it around me, but I don’t have any other options unless I want to wander around naked. I half-stumble out of the bathroom— stupid door stuck— and stop in my tracks when I see Lir sitting on the bed. The robe was a good choice.

“I had to tell my father about… what you are,” says Lir, gaze fixed firmly on his hands. “I just…” His eyes come up, trailing from my bare feet up my damp legs and landing on my face. “Where are your clothes?”

My face heats and I grip the robe closer to my body. “They seem to have run off.”

Lir grins and chuckles, shaking his head. “I’m not really complaining anyway.” The tension in my body releases at his relaxed attitude. “Can we talk?”

“Uh, sure,” I say. I plop down on the bed next to him and his face flushes.

“I meant later, you know, with clothes on?”

My head tilts and I shrug. “You’re here now, let’s get this over with.” I’m not sure what I expect him to say, but it can’t be good. Lir fidgets and looks away. Maybe clothes would be a good idea. There’s no barrier between us, nothing protecting me from the words he’s about to say.

“Jax…” he starts, “I haven’t been fully honest with you.”

“No kidding. I think we’ve already had that conversation,” I say in monotone.

He sighs and pinches the top of his nose. “First of all, let me apologize for my Father. He’s… under a lot of pressure right now and bringing you here is just going to complicate it even more.”

“Then why’d you bring me here? Why am I lounging around your house instead of finding Jace? How is this helping?”

“It’s not…” A loud exhale pushes past his lips. “I thought this was going to be the easy way. That my family’s position here might….be of assistance. But the tensions between us and the humans have gotten too far out of hand. My return hasn’t exactly escaped notice and the fact that I brought you into the city…”

“And which camp am I in? The ‘us’ or the humans? Because I didn’t ask for any of this. I just came for my brother.”

His eyes flash. “You seem to forget the things your brother has done to end up here. In our eyes he’s a criminal.” I guess I’m solidly in the ‘them’ category then.

“That still doesn’t explain why I’m here lounging around instead of out getting Jace back.”

Lir’s hand moves up, ruffling his hair in a gesture I’ve come to recognize as frustration. “About that…” The hand on my back freezes when my muscles tense. He can’t possibly back out now. I’m depending on him and I’m completely out of my element here. “I don’t know where he is.”

“What is that supposed to mean? You promised.”

The hand goes to his hair again and he sighs. “I didn’t promise anything, Jax. I said I’d get you here,” he says. My head tilts to the side and I blink once slowly. “No, that’s not coming out right… I want to help you, but after I found out what you were, I knew we had to come here first. It’s a good thing we did, because there’s been absolutely no news of your brother’s arrival here. My father has a good idea about why that may be, and so do I, but there are steps that have to be taken. You can’t go running around trying to find him by yourself. It’s going to take time.”

“Time? I don’t have time.
Jace
doesn’t have time. I need to find him now! Who knows what they’re doing to him!”

His brow furrows. “I am doing all I can…”

I turn and poke my finger into his chest. “You don’t get it. They’re torturing him. Your people…I can’t just sit here….”

He wraps his hand around mine and gives it a gentle squeeze. Warmth trickles into me, lowering my heart rate, slowing my breaths and…calming me. “It will—”

I snatch my hand away like it’s been burned. “Don’t do that! What gives you the right to shove your emotions on me?” Springing up off the bed, I stalk to the other side of the room.

“I didn’t mean anything by it. I just thought—”

“You thought that you’d control me? Manipulate me?”

Redness creeps up his neck and he stands. He stalks across the room until he’s standing right in front of me. “No. I thought I would
help
you. You don’t understand—”

“I don’t want your help!” The words explode from my mouth before I can stop myself. “I just want to get my brother and get out of here!”

There’s a flash of pain in his eyes, then he flexes his jaw and a visible wave of tension flows through him. The chilly solider persona has returned. “I have arranged a Council meeting to discuss my return and allow you to present a formal request for Jace’s release. Get some rest. We will discuss this in the morning.” He strides out of the room without looking back.

What did he expect me to say? Yes, please, crawl around in my brain. The prickling heat of irritation slowly gives way to a wash of guilt. It’s not his fault I’m not… like him. He’s had his entire lifetime to get used to this emotional thing and it’s probably instinctive for him. We’re both exhausted and stressed…I’ll apologize in the morning.

After searching through a few drawers I throw my hands up in frustration. My clothes disappeared and there’s no— A small gray stack of folded fabric on the edge of the dresser catches my eye. I fluff out the clothes. No surprises here, simple gray shirt and pants. Socks and underwear too. I sure hope it was Vira that dropped this stuff off.

The fabric slides easily against my skin, softer and smoother than anything I’ve ever experienced before. If not for the fact I was virtually alone in this alien city having seemingly pissed off my only ally here, I’d be reveling in all these little luxuries. I collapse onto the bed, sinking into the mattress as it molds around me. Maybe I’ll revel a little anyway.

Despite the comfort of the mattress against my body, when I close my eyes and try to sleep, it won’t come. I pull the pillow over my face and close my eyes, searching for that elusive peace and failing. My mind is too busy bouncing from thought to thought and every one leads me back to a different worry. Where is Jace? What if I can’t get him out? Have I completely screwed things up with Lir? What
things
?

I’m lost in thought when the sound of giggling comes from the end of the bed and Stella pops up into view. “Hi!”

I sit up and smile at her. “Hi Stella, what are you doing in here?”

“I just wanted to talk to you. No one would let me talk to you…” She makes a pouty face and shakes her head. “So, are you really a human? I’ve never met a human before.”

“Yes.” What else am I supposed to say? I don’t want to scare her and, if her parent’s attitudes have anything to do with it, she’ll probably never see one again. “I’m human.” It’s only a little stretch of the truth.

She nods as if satisfied with my answer. “I like you, Jax. Don’t worry Lir will forgive you.” Leaning closer, she whispers the next part. “I have tantrums too and he always forgives me.” Such a simple statement, but it is enough to reassure my racing mind and my chest moves with laughter.

I impulsively reach forward and hug her. As her little arms go around my waist, I realize there’s no
kitu
on her wrist. Does that mean she has to stay within the city or she’ll die? But…then how did I broadcast to her? Didn’t Lir say the mental communication came from the
kitu
? Have the E’rikon altered the atmosphere within the barrier and that’s why they stay in the city? But then…how did Lir survive outside it when his
kitu
wasn’t working? The questions just keep coming, swirling in my head until Stella releases me and hops off the bed.