Spark: Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides (Intergalactic Dating Agency)

by Michelle M. Pillow

  “Um, ah, yeah,” Carrie answered. She held up her cup. Kal’s smile deepened. Her heart quickened.

  The waitress ignored the empty cup and walked toward the men. Her voice became sultry. “Can I get you gentlemen coffee?”

  Vin leaned down to the pot and sniffed. He gave it a strange look and pulled back. “No.”

  “What about a brunch cocktail?” the waitress insisted.

  “Food here is strange,” Sev stated. “And too colorful.”

  “Vanilla ice cream shake?” the waitress tried. “It’s all white. It’s the least colorful thing we have.”

  “I will try that,” Vin answered.

  Kal brushed past the waitress and approached her. Carrie didn’t turn away. She couldn’t. When he neared her chair, the full impact of his height became pronounced. He towered over her. She nervously set down her empty cup, trying to think of something charming and witty to say.

  “Women don’t like the ball gag,” Carrie blurted ineloquently. “I mean, most women. At least women you don’t have to pay. I don’t know what whoever told you, but that level of honesty isn’t the right way to meet someone.”

  “There are levels to honesty?” His expression fell some. How could a man this handsome appear so completely clueless? He moved to sit by her, ignoring the dirty plates that had yet to be cleared. “But honesty is honesty. I like pleasure time. It’s fun.”

  “Honesty is good, but choosing which honesty to lead with might help.” Carrie paused, realizing she was giving unsolicited dating advice to a stranger who, by the looks of him, probably had no problem finding women.

  “So, if I am honest with you, you will spend time with me?” Kal leaned forward and placed his arms on the table. Heat radiated off his body like the air conditioning had no effect on him.

  “Why don’t you start with your name?”

  “Spark,” he said.

  “The name your parents gave you,” she corrected.

  “Kaldietrichbauer,” he said. “But you are supposed to call me Spark.”

  “Ok, Spark.” Carrie leaned forward, drawn to his heat but not daring to touch him. “It was very nice to meet you. Good luck on your woman search.” She gave a meaningful glance to the ball gag. “And lose the props.”

  “Wait,” he placed his hand on her wrist to stop her from standing. His fingers sent warmth up her arm in contrast to the cooler restaurant, and she became acutely aware of his touch. “You won’t stay? I enjoy speaking with you.”

  “I’ll be around this week. We’ll let fate decide if you find me again or not.” Carrie walked away, wondering if she’d ever see him again. Part of her hoped not. She didn’t come to Vegas for a hookup with a random stranger—no matter how weak he made her knees.

  Carrie strolled through the hotel, and then the shopping center, not having a destination in mind. Hoover Dam had sounded interesting, much more so than watching her cousin prance around the pool. She glanced behind her several times, not sure if she wanted to see Kal following her or not.

  She wandered into one of the many casinos. Even though it was mid-morning, the smoky atmosphere and loud shouts of the slot machine voices made it feel like she was walking into a nightclub. Music blasted from the games, creating a chaos of sound and light.

  Adults of all ages lounged. Their bodies draped over their choice of poison as it were. A little old lady in a floral dress, probably the same one she wore on Sunday to church, sat on the edge of her seat. Her fragile hand gripped the ball of the lever on the slot machine. With a shot of energy, she yanked the lever down hard. The lines of apples and oranges plummeted on the digital screen, their reflection showing in her glasses as they recoiled and settled on a winning combination. The alarm in penny arcade brought fleeting glances from those around her, but no one could be bothered to congratulate her on the win as they all turned back to their games with renewed force.

  A businessman, his thinning hair dyed far too dark, played the roulette wheel. On his arm was a pretty little thing that would scream his name. The petite model cooed as he pushed the stack of chips onto her favorite number. Her shapely calf muscles became overly defined when she jumped for joy in heels higher than the stack of the man’s chips, which had just doubled.

  The noise became discernible as Carrie broke down the stories in front of her. Each one different, but the same. Few won, most lost and continued to the next round, pouring money and time into the endless circus that was Las Vegas.

  Something happened to her while she stared at all the passing faces and she accepted her surroundings for what they were. These people were happy, some of them extremely drunk, but they were having fun. When was the last time she’d had fun? She worked organizing charities for her father’s company. There were events, but they were all working events where impressions were everything and fundraising was paramount. In college, there were a few parties, but she’d spent most of the time in the dorms studying, taking extra classes for a double major. There was High School when teenagers were supposed to be young and crazy and stupid. She’d spent that time prepping for college. So that left childhood. Surely she’d had fun in childhood.

  “I’m an idiot,” Carrie whispered. It wasn’t like she was in Vegas for her own wedding. “A cute guy was talking to me, and I just walked away. And what for? To look mysterious? To stroll by myself through life like a moving wallflower?”

  An older man stopped and stared at her curiously, slowly blinking as if he was trying to process what she’d said. His hair stuck up at the sides as if he’d pulled his fingers through it. Finally, he slurred, “Yeah, sure, I know that restaurant. It’s that way.” He pointed a wobbly finger back the way she’d came. “You should definitely go that way.”

  Looking over her shoulder, she saw Kal had not come after her. For a moment she felt like an idiot for thinking he would. A man like that would have his pick of women. He would not have to pursue her.

  Suddenly, the other women around her became prominent in her view of the casino. Their faces were perfectly made up, and their accessories shone. They held their heads high because they loved their lives and they had someone who cared.

  Carrie drew her eyes away from the scene and focused again on where she was walking. In the entire scheme of what was going on in the world, none of this mattered. Children needed help. People were exploited. She had no right to act this way and be envious of these people when she knew the things she knew.

  Slowly the glum, sullen view of the world wiped across her perception. The drunk happiness of those around her was nothing but a mask for poor decisions to be regretted later. The fleeting wins would soon be overtaken by significant losses. The man with the black comb over would lose the interest of young beauty on his arm the second his chips ran out.

  Sadly, her pessimism was comforting in its familiarity. She knew it well. And it wouldn’t disappoint. Not a single bit.

  Chapter Three

  “Ooh la la,” the woman said as she pushed her gluteus maximus muscle into Kal’s groin. Or was it the gluteus medius? For the most part, the Earth language package they uploaded into his brain worked seamlessly, but humans sometimes had a lot of words for the same thing, and it could take concentration to remember which was the right one in any given situation.

  No, it was her ass. Working class people called it an ass.

  Kal politely grabbed the obviously tipsy woman by her shoulders and edged her sideways to place her away from his groin. There, in an instant, was another one bumping and grinding against him to the local music. She was just as friendly, just as skimpily dressed, and she too prized her buttocks as a seductive device for enticing males to her.

  Kal had made the mistake of being dragged into a group ritual of sorts. He’d seen it on the rogue program waves floating through space, where the Earth people gyrated to harmonious sounds. In some cases, it was a mating ritual and in other situations, it seemed as if it was just a straight unleashing of chemicals brought on by the rhythmic cohesion by man
y.

  Reminded of the fact they were supposed to blend in with the local culture, Kal began to jump around, trying to mimic the moves of those around him. They moved together in a primitive form of expression.

  “What are you doing?” Sev demanded. “You look like an idiot.”

  “Tribal mating ritual, I think,” Kal shouted to his cousins, who stood like spare pricks on the parameter of dancing bodies. “I saw it on the intergalactic transmission waves we intercepted that one time we were flying to the Larceny Casino. Only, I think they’re usually in loincloths, so this must be for practice. How do I look? Do you think that woman we saw in the restaurant will want me if I do this for her?”

  “She might want to have you taken away by the local authorities,” Vin mused.

  “Phew, wow!” Kal beamed as he jumped free of the group. Catching his breath, he looked around. “That was crazy. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it out of there. The women were starting to grab. Hey, maybe you should jump in there and start shaking it, Vin. You might get lucky.”

  “I vote we throw Sev in,” Vin answered with a smirk.

  The expression on Sev’s face dared them to try it. “Let’s move away from this throng. They grow in number.”

  Sev set a fast pace as he led them through the crowd. He didn’t appear to notice the strange looks he received as he did so.

  Vin placed a hand on Kal’s shoulder and watched as his brother made it several feet away from where they stood by the dancers. Quietly, he said, “Hey, buy me some time before you point out to Sev that I left, will you? I’m going to head back a few blocks. I saw some of that ice cream I’d like to try. Tell my brother I’ll meet you both at the hotel suite later.”

  Kal nodded and moved to follow Sev and Vin disappeared the way they’d originally come. He lifted his hand in a friendly gesture as he noticed several of the mate-ready woman wiggling their arms to entice him back into their gyrating folds. He had to hurry to catch up to Sev who was already a half block away.

  “Slow down,” Kal stated. “It’s not an exercise course.”

  Sev turned as if he hadn’t realized he’d been walking fast. The crowds seemed to make him uncomfortable. He searched the sea of passing strangers. “Where is Vin?”

  “Relax, he just went to find food. He’s going to meet us back at the hotel later. I—” Kal’s words were cut off as a large group of women flowed around them on the sidewalk, forming a brief cocoon of silky dresses and perfumed skin. At the feminine smell, he sighed with longing. Nonchalantly, and to no one in particular, he admitted, “I can’t stop thinking about her.”

  Another group of beautiful woman passed by the busy sidewalk as if following the first batch. None of them were her.

  How the Earth females managed to walk around scantily clad in such cool weather, he didn’t bother to question. The sun here felt weak, reaching only one hundred Earth degrees Fahrenheit. It wasn’t enough to even break a sweat.

  “Because she is the only woman who didn’t run away scared from you,” Sev answered. “You’ve been searching for her for two days.” He frowned. “We should turn around. We should not have let Vin go out alone. He has been acting stranger than usual.”

  “Vin knows the way back to the suite Galaxy Brides procured for us,” Kal dismissed the concern. His cousin was a grown man. Vin didn’t need his big brother following him around everywhere like an overprotective mother. “You promised to help me find that woman. Are you sure you remember what she looks like?”

  “Please don’t describe her again. It becomes more and more like a moon ballad each time you do. There are plenty of women here. Pick another one.” Sev gestured toward a scantily clad woman with a large feather hat. Men walked up to her and stood by her side, grinning while others pointed their communication devices at them to capture the potential pairing. “She looks pleasant enough. She smiles at us. Go stand in line with the other men to see if she will choose you.”

  “I don’t want that one,” Kal dismissed.

  “Then choose another.” Sev snickered, as he pointed at a fuzzy humanoid with rounded black ears, an oversize head, and a frozen smile. The strange female had giant white hands with fingers that did not appear to move. Several of the passing humans also paused to capture the pairing with their communication devices. “That one will make you a fine bride, and mother. The young ones seem to like her.”

  “What about the one who is following you around?” Kal motioned down the sidewalk.

  Sev turned, but the woman ducked behind a pillar. “No one is following me. They have no reason to.”

  “Vegas continues to burn through countless stories, some of them have happy endings, but most of them end in loss,” a street vendor called out as he handed flyers to those who passed. “Jaded memories filled with opportunities to exit the game but that is against the spirit of the oasis in the desert. It is all about chance. And what better way to exemplify fortuity than taking the ultimate leap of faith, for love! The only gamble worth anything. Get your weddings here!”

  Kal reached to take a flyer and stuck it in his pocket with the other presents the street strangers had given him. “Sev, there was something about this woman. Don’t you think there was something about her? I keep thinking about her voice. Did you hear her voice?”

  He stepped inside a building to continue searching for his mystery lady. The ground shifted beneath his feet, carrying him upward on moving stairs.

  The woman’s straight, dark brown hair made Kal want to stroke it, and her brown eyes were filled with an expression he wanted to learn the secrets of. Even now, he remembered the feel of her skin beneath his fingers. She had told him to find her. He needed to find her. He couldn’t leave Earth without getting his chance to be with her. It would be the kind of memory that carried him through the long hauls in the ash mines.

  “She said something about being with Fate. I should find this Fate person,” Kal said.

  “Ask him.” Sev pointed to a man standing on his own near the top of the moving stairs.

  “Excuse me.” Kal approached the man. “Do you know Fate?”

  The man didn’t move. He didn’t even bother to look at Kal as he continued to stare into the distance rudely.

  Kal shared a questioning look with Sev. Slowly, Kal reached forward to touch the man’s unmoving cheek. The waxy feel of skin wasn’t normal, not for any species they’d ever met. The flesh didn’t give beneath his fingers. He withdrew his hand quickly.

  “What is this?” Sev asked, touching the man’s hand. “How did they do this? Why?”

  “They were turned to wax for not obeying,” a woman said to her two children as she passed. “This is what happens to boys who don’t behave themselves, so you better mind. I don’t want to see you ever act like that again in a restaurant, do you hear me?”

  The two boys muttered a response to the affirmative. Kal smiled widely at the two youthful troublemakers. The mother frowned at his attention and placed her body between Kal and her sons like a shield.

  “They encased him in a substance called wax?” Kal slowly backed away from the unfortunate man. Under his breath, he whispered, “Sev, it’s a prison. I saw something about this. It must be visiting day—a time when Earth woman take their children to see their imprisoned fathers. This substance must be how they keep the prisoners in line.”

  “Like Nanuah 12’s biofreeze facility?”

  “I think so.” Kal nodded.

  “Does it look like he can hear us?” Sev studied the wax prisoner’s face.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Come,” Sev ordered a little too harshly, grabbing Kal by his arm and jerking him down the moving stairs at a pace faster than was intended. “Where there are prisons, there are authority figures. I do not know the nature of this wax if they were to imprison us in it. We cannot go in there.”

  They made their way down the escalator. The mother continued to shield her children’s faces from Kal as he smiled at them while sinking beneat
h the floor.

  Chapter Four

  The great thing about Vegas was that there were many places to hide. Carrie found herself crouched behind a slot machine trying to avoid the accusing gaze of an oversized pink bird as her cousin and the bridal party passed. Today was co-mingle day with the groom and his groomsmen. That meant Carrie was supposed to stay next to the charming Greg Huntsman.

  All. Day. Long.

  No, really, he was charming. She was lucky to be in his presence. Just ask him.

  “Insufferably charming,” Carrie whispered, staring at the man’s back as he appeared to search the casino floor for her. Missy looked irritated more than concerned. Chucky, the groom, had gone ahead with some of the others.

  Carrie had lied and said she was going to the restroom before ducking out of sight the second their eyes were turned. Luckily the restrooms were located across the casino floor, so it had been easy. Later she’d say she lost them and went back to their hotel to wait.

  “The old man who smelled of sweat and old liquor told me I would find Fate inside the casinos.”

  Carrie turned and came face to crotch with Kal. For a stunned moment, she couldn’t move.

  “And here you are.”

  Carrie’s gaze slowly roamed up the expanse of his body. She was bent over, still hiding, and the position afforded her a unique view of his physique. “I’m…here.”

  “You’re here.” He nodded, smiling widely. Kal still wore the special effects contacts that gave his eyes the metallic sheen. “I found you again. Surely that means I am worthy of being with you now.”

  At the intense excitement in his voice, she glanced toward where the wedding party had been. They had started to move away from her, but Greg turned around.