Starcrossed: Perigee - A paranormal romance trilogy

by Tracey Lee Campbell

  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.

  Instead of heading off down the driveway to the main road, Nate drove in the opposite direction
along a rutted track which wound up the side of a fairly steep, forested slope. The track deteriorated the further we went until the old Land Rover was making some spectacularly bumpy maneuvers over the eroded, deeply rutted surface. After ten minutes of being tossed from side to side Nate stopped the vehicle and Travis climbed out and went into the woods. I figured maybe he was needing a pee, but the stop wasn't a bathroom stop - he began to pull big branches aside. They hid yet another track which led off into the woods. Nate edged the car on to the trail, and waited for Travis to pull the branches back into place.

  Weird, I thought. All this camouflage stuff - maybe they grew something illegal up here? I was a little uneasy at the thought that we were up here on the side of the mountain with strangers who felt the need to cover their tracks like that. Still, we'd battled aliens and gargoytes, so a couple of strange hillbillies were small fry if it came to defending ourselves.

  We drove for another ten minutes up the track. Here the forest was thick; the tree canopy blotted out much of the sunlight and the air around us felt damp and cold. It was actually very pretty forest, but I didn't take much notice. I was too busy scowling at the back of Aric's head as Carole whispered and giggled in his ear.

  Eventually we arrived at a massive face of rock. It stretched up and to either side, covered here and there in ferns, moss and other hardy plants which had managed to grab a foothold in the crevices. Travis climbed out again and pulled more branches to the side. They hid the entrance to a cave.

  Nate turned around in his seat.

  "I don't know why we're showing you this. No one but us gets to come here. If you tell anyone..."

  Aric held up his hand. "No problem," he said. "The secret's safe with us." He leaned forward. "You can trust us." Was that his whispering voice I detected?

  Nate looked a little dazed, then he seemed to snap out of it, and he turned and opened his door.

  "Wait here, we'll go get the car."

  The car they wanted to sell was parked in the mouth of the cave. We climbed out of the Land Rover and waited for them to bring it out. After five minutes, Nate came out, wiping his hands on his jeans.

  "Sorry, we can't get it to start. I don't think it's the battery. If you can wait around we'll take a look at it and see what's going on."

  "No, we haven't got time to wait." Aric looked at the Land Rover. "We'll buy that instead."

  Nate grinned. "No, sorry, that one ain't for sale."

  "Everything has a price."

  Nate's eyes began to glaze over. "I'll ask Travis."

  He called Travis, and his brother exited the cave.

  "He wants to buy the beast."

  Travis declined the offer. "We need it," he said. "Can't get up here without it."

  "You can buy another one. I'll give you double its worth."

  The two brothers looked at each other, but Travis rejected the offer.

  "We ain't got time to go looking for another one."

  Aric took a step forward, until he was only a few feet away from them.

  "You need to sell me that car." I recognized the strange, hypnotic tone.

  "I guess we could do with the money," said Nate.

  Travis just stared at Aric and slowly nodded his head up and down.

  I was surprised at how easily and quickly they'd succumbed. As pleased as I was that we were getting the car, it was still a disturbing process to witness. Basically, it was stealing someone's free will, and it was unsettling. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

  "Come on then," said Aric. He turned around to find Carole staring at him like a zombie. He flashed a smile at her, and she came to with a startled jump.

  "We'll sort this back at your place, shall we?"

  She seemed a little confused, but they all obediently got in the car, and we drove back down the mountain to the farmhouse.

  Olaf and I sat out on the porch while Aric sorted the deal in the kitchen.

  I rocked on the old wicker chair, staring unseeingly into the distance. The scene at the cave played through my mind. How easily they'd succumbed, the manipulation was just so... complete. I imagined Aric doing the same thing to the Innaki's victims. According to the Bible, 'God' had given humans the ultimate gift of free will. The Innaki took it away again. Aric had been doing that for hundreds of years. The number of victims didn't bear thinking about.

  "You okay, Luce?"

  I glanced up at Olaf.

  "Yeah. Sort of. That... whispering thing he did, it kind of... freaked me out, watching him in action."

  "It was necessary."

  "Maybe..."

  "They're actually better off for it - he's paying them twice its worth. They can buy two cars with the money."

  I closed my eyes. I couldn't get my thoughts together. On the one hand it was good, and on the other, it was so very, very bad. Any wonder Aric had been so confused about his role in this big mess. I understood why he'd rather flirt naturally with Carole to convince her to help; it meant he wouldn't be whispering, not really anyway. As irresistible as I believed him to be, it really would have been down to her own free will.

  The screen door opened with a creak, and Aric, Travis, Nate and Carole emerged from the house. Aric was carrying our backpacks. A set of keys jingled in his hand. Nate and Travis each clutched a massive wad of cash and were looking pretty pleased with themselves. I hauled myself out of the rocking chair and went to meet them.

  "All ready to go then?" Aric said. I was more than ready to go.

  They walked us to the car and Aric opened the front passenger door for me. I thanked them for their hospitality, and climbed eagerly into the car.

  Carole was all clingy as Aric said goodbye. He shook hands with Travis and Nate then turned to Carole.

  "Thank you Carole. For... everything."

  She pouted and flicked an imaginary speck from his T-shirt, her hands coming to rest on his biceps. "I can't believe you won't stay the night. You could phone the hospital from here and see how your sister..."

  Aric smiled awkwardly and extricated himself from her embrace. He leaned over and kissed her cheek before moving away so she couldn't grab him again.

  "No, thanks, but we really have to get going."

  He walked to the driver's side, and stopped to wave. "I appreciate all you've done."

  She looked a little put off. I guessed she wasn't used to her advances being declined.

  "Call me!" she called as he climbed behind the wheel. He gave her a small wave and started the engine. I noticed a scrap of paper in his palm.

  "What's that?" I asked.

  "Her phone number."

  "Oh." I slouched down in my seat, my arms folded across my chest.

  He threw the car into first, waved to them again, then hit the gas. We headed off down the long dirt drive.

  When we got out of sight of the farmhouse, Aric hit the brakes.

  "What is it?" I asked, peering around nervously.

  He held up his hand with the scrap of paper, Carole's phone number surrounded by a love heart was scrawled on the note in pink glittery ink. His hand closed around it and he scrunched it into a ball. He shoved it unceremoniously into the ashtray.

  "It's going in the trash, by the way," he said. "I'm sorry about all that."

  "For what?"

  "The flirting thing. I should have just whispered and got what we needed. It hurt you and I'm sorry."

  "It doesn't matter."

  "Yeah it does. At first I figured you'd understand, and then, you know... when I saw Nate holding your hand, I kind of got a taste of what it must be like for you."

  "You mean you were jealous?"

  He grinned sheepishly. "Yeah. Very. I was ready to thump him."

  "Oh!" I was surprised this kind of pleased me. I turned to him and met his gaze.

  "I understand why you didn't... whisper," I told him.

  "You do?"

  "Yeah." I didn't say any more, but I knew he understood I finally got it.

  Leaning over, he took my c
hin in his hand and moved my face to meet his. He kissed me then, and I melted.

  After a minute or so, he pulled back, his eyes crinkled and he beamed a mischievous grin.

  "That's better," he said, before settling back in his seat. He continuing on down the drive as though he'd never even stopped. I was left breathless and gooey eyed. In the back seat, I heard Olaf mumbling to himself.

  "Kids..." he said with a grunt. But I knew he was grinning.

  * * * * *

  We drove west for nearly an hour before turning north to the border. It would add a sizable amount of distance to our journey, but we decided to err on the side of caution and skip past Evanton. The fracas in the sky was sure to have attracted Smith's attention and I was eager to stay out of his way.

  The fuel gauge was precariously low by the time we spotted a truck stop. On the side of the road a hand-painted sign proclaimed 'LAST FUEL BEFORE THE BORDER!' with 'Home of the Famous Monster Burger' added in uneven letters underneath. We pulled in to refuel - both the gas tank and our grumbling stomachs.

  I felt my bones creak as I climbed out of the car. Stretching my cramped limbs, I breathed the cool mountain air and took in the surroundings. The truck stop was a cobbled together collection of buildings on the side of the highway, built on a thin strip of land reclaimed from the mountain behind it. Across the road, another space had been cleared for parking overflow. A couple of R.V.s and a silver saloon were parked beside the trees. Beside the diner, a grassy area with wooden picnic benches was so overgrown it was impossible to reach the tables. Olaf and I decided to pass on the outdoor picnic and head inside to order a late lunch while Aric took care of the car.

  For a diner in the middle of nowhere, the place was pretty busy. We headed to the only available table - a booth at the back. At the table across from us, a pair of truckers tucked into burgers half a foot high - probably the 'famous monster burgers' which seemed to be the house specialty. In the booth in front of us, a young couple struggled to manage a pair of young children who refused to sit in their seats. The rest of the restaurant's patrons consisted of a few 'gray nomads', local farmer types and random travelers.