“I’m so glad you’re home! I missed you!” Her voice rises into a squeal.
Lir lifts her from the floor, swinging her in a circle, and pats her back. “I missed you too Stella.” The little sister he told me about. He walks further into the room, leaving me staring after him, not quite sure what to do or say. “Have a seat, Jax.”
I sit, my mind reeling with yet another rapid shift in his persona. He kissed me and stroked my cheek before we got here, then ignored me in the pod, joked with me downstairs and now his demeanor just went from emotionless soldier to adored big brother. Which one is he? The rapid shifts in his persona bring an edge of unease trickling into my body.
I try to sit on the very edge of the starkly white couch, hoping to save it from my dirty clothes. My joints ache with the desire to run, to hide, to escape and I have to clasp my hands together to keep them still.
The child’s chatter echoes from down the hallway and I hear a door open and close. Seconds later, the girl is running back out to the living room, Lirless.
“Hello,” she says, cocking her head to the side. “I like your hair.”
“Um…” How articulate of me. I reach up at pat at my head self-consciously. “Thanks?”
“What family are you from? You’re red like the Revas but they have black too and sometimes yellow. And your eyes don’t match,” she states, mater of factly.
I’m at a loss and I have no idea what she’s asking me, so I just smile, silently screaming at Lir to come rescue me. Almost as if hearing my silent plea, he appears in the hallway. “Stel, please leave our guest alone,” he says. He disappears back down the hallway and I hear the sound of running water.
Stella stares at me, a mischievous glint in her eye. “I don’t care if your eyes don’t match. I think you’re pretty.”
A flush heats my cheeks and I twist my hands in my lap. “Thank you.”
Lir instructed me to keep quiet, but sitting here with the bubbly little girl I’m not sure what to do. If she keeps staring at me, I’m going to crack. Interrogation by child. I lift my eyes and smile at her. She perks up and leans closer to me, as if she’s imparting a secret.
“Do you want to play with me? My brother always hogs the best dolls,” she says. She backs up a little. “You’re not a doll hogger are you?”
I can’t help but laugh. The ride in the transport, the open hostility of the escorts and my doubts about Lir fade into the background. Right now, this little girl has given me just enough normality to make me comfortable. My jittery limbs finally fully relax and I smile at Stella. “No, I’ve never even had a doll to hog.”
Stella gapes at me. “Really? What do you do for fun?”
The sound of a throat clearing brings my eyes up. Lir stands in the hallway watching us, a subtle smile on his face. With that expression, he looks like the guy who kissed me in the truck, the guy who held me while I slept… the beautiful boy I saw in the clearing. It’s nice to see him again. I’m not fond of the icy cold Soldier Lir. He has ditched the jeans and t-shirt and another charcoal colored uniform, like the one he wore when I met him, hugs his frame. Stella’s clothes are the same color. Huh. Must be an alien thing.
Part of Lir’s hair leftover from my pathetic attempt at a haircut hangs over his forehead in wet curls. I would like nothing more than to go tousle them. His eyebrow goes up and I blush. Am I that obvious? But Stella is looking at me strangely too.
“Why do you like my brother’s hair so much?” she asks. “Mine is much prettier.”
My breath catches. How did she know?
Lir’s eyes go wide and the color leaves his face. “Stel,” he says calmly. “Can you go play in your room for a bit? I need to speak with Jax.”
Stella bounds off down the hallway without further question and Lir settles in next to me on the couch. “What was that?”
“You’re asking me? I have no idea. Was she reading my mind? I thought you said you guys couldn’t do that. Though I’m pretty sure there are some worse thoughts in my head she could have gotten, so…” A blush overtakes my face when I realize what that sounds like. “I mean… about the whole half alien thing and Jace… and stuff.”
He smiles softly. “Did you know you were doing it? Were you broadcasting to the others in the transport pod?”
“To the others? You mean the guards? I don’t know.” Another realization dawns on me. “Was I broadcasting to you?”
“A little.”
I run through the trip in the transport pod, desperately trying to remember what I thought about, if I gave anything away. Am I supposed to be policing my thoughts now? I wouldn’t even know where to start with that. Am I doing it now? I don’t have time to figure out the answers to my questions because a tone sounds near the door and Lir jolts to his feet as two more people enter the apartment.
Decked out in clothes the same shade as Lir, the teenage boy and girl stand there for a moment with their mouths gaping before the boy’s mouth climbs up into a grin and the girl rushes across the room and throws her arms around Lir. His arms settle around her waist and she presses her face into his chest. He whispers against her ear and one hand comes up and strokes her long, yellow gold hair. It suddenly feels like someone punched me in the stomach.
It doesn’t get any better when he releases her and she turns around, enabling me to get an even better look. Pure golden perfection from the shining waves of her hair to the perfect matching shade of her luminous eyes. Her lithe body fills out the formfitting uniform…perfectly. There is just too much about her that is perfect.
Acid churns in my stomach and I study my hands in my lap, my filthy hands with ragged, uneven nails. When did I start caring? Better yet, why? Did I really expect… No. No. No. That kiss in the truck is still a bit of a mystery to me and I’m even more mortified that I kissed him, but it’s not like there’s any chance for…
Lir clears his throat and I look up to meet his eyes. Did it get hot all of a sudden? Heat rises in my face as that single eyebrow goes up. How much of that little freak out did he hear? One side of his mouth curls up. That too? Turn it off. Turn it off. Thankfully the other two don’t seem to notice my embarrassing mental commentary, but the boy glances back and forth between us and what I can only call a mischievous smile takes over his face.
“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.”