Chapter 52
52
P ari, Shona, and Kitty stared at Uncle Al’s ratty looking Christmas tree. It had to be twenty years old if it was a day, and just as many fake needles fell from it as if it were a real tree. A dried out, decrepit one.
“Wow, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” Kitty confessed.
“It will be fine,” Shona said with a confidence Pari and Kitty didn’t share.
They grimaced at the same time. Pari looked at the old box of ornaments on the loveseat and shrugged. “Well, it’s all we’ve got. I better tell Uncle Al he needs to get a new tree this year.”
“No kidding, when Melvale sees this, he’s going to freak,” Kitty said.
“I thought he’s never experienced Christmas before,” Pari reminded her.
“True,” Shona said, “but a Muiraran’s second heart needs…” She looked at Pari. “Um, how much did Melvale tell you about us?”
Pari made a face. “He said you have a second heart?”
“Did he tell you they need to feed it?” Kitty asked.
Pari’s eyes rounded. “Say what?”
Kitty nodded. “Yep. But it’s no big deal. Their hearts don’t feed on people, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Pari lowered the hand she’d placed over her own heart. That’s exactly what popped into her head. “What do they feed on?”
“Mine feeds on music,” Shona said with a smile. She picked up the tree’s electrical cord and plugged it into an outlet. The tree lit up, but only half the lights worked. “Well, that’s disappointing.”
Pari sighed. “Uncle Al has a string of lights he puts on it to make up for all the ones that don’t work.” She stepped toward Shona. “So, what does Melvale’s heart feed on?”
Shona and Kitty exchanged a look. “That’s a good question,” Shona said. “If I had to guess, fashion, beauty, having things in order.”
Pari made another face. “He sounds obsessive compulsive.”
Kitty sat on the sofa. “He’s good at organizing and details. But he also likes turning something so-so into something beautiful.”
Pari unconsciously reached up and touched her hair, then looked at her bare arms. “I… I used to have really short hair. Like a buzz cut. It was this ugly yellow. And… tattoos. Lots of them.” She took in the shocked look on their faces. “Everything changed while Melvale and I were held prisoner. My tats disappeared, my nose ring fell out, my hair…”
“You had a nose ring?” Kitty interjected.
Pari nodded. “My hair grew into this cool pixie cut and turned pink overnight.”
Shona smiled. “You are becoming the desire of his heart.”
Her eyes rounded to saucers. “What?”
She nodded. “I didn’t change much for Dallan, but Zara, her sister was blonde haired and blue eyed.”
“Was?” Pari hedged. “What happened to her?”
Shona glanced at Kitty and back. “She died.”
Pari’s eyes locked onto the box of ornaments. “Oh, I see.” She took a deep breath. “What does Zara’s heart feed on?”
Kitty snorted. “Um, maybe you’d better ask Zara.”
Shona pressed her lips together to keep from laughing but failed. “Yes, ask Zara.”
Pari’s face screwed up in confusion, but she wasn’t going to push it. The fact that Melvale’s second heart had to feed on something was freaky. Was it the reason her hair changed, and her tats disappeared? Not that she was arguing. Those sudden changes saved her life. She’d be dead if her tattoos and nose piercing hadn’t disappeared when they did.
The front door opened, and Pari backed across the room to see who was coming in. “Melvale,” she breathed and went to him.
He gave her a pleased smile. “Miss me?”
Her cheeks heated and she began to fidget. “I… was wondering when you’d come back, that’s all.” She noticed the box in his hand and that he’d changed clothes. He wore a black tee-shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and black boots. The man looked like he’d stepped out of a fashion magazine. Pari’s heart skipped a beat, and she forced herself to back side step out of the way.
Kwaku and Zara were right behind him. Dallan stood in the hall. He’d been guarding the door. Everyone acted like she was some porcelain doll that could break at any moment, but she couldn’t understand why. No one had disclosed to her she was some chosen one, or that she held a great power that could save the planet, or was some long lost alien princess raised by humans, put in danger, and rescued by a handsome highland warrior.
Pari looked at Shona as she brushed past Melvale to get to Dallan. The latter was her story, and Pari thought it terribly romantic. Pari turned to Kitty. She was single but not necessarily looking. Both she and Shona told her Kitty had been man crazy for the longest time but had grown out of it. Pari couldn’t imagine being that way. She avoided men after her wild days as a teenager. She wasn’t even man crazy then, just stupid.
She hung her head as Melvale set the box on the love seat next to Uncle Al’s box of ornaments. He looked at the tree and a hand went to his chest. “Oh… stab… me. What is that ?”
“A tree, silly,” Kitty said and started going through the box he’d brought. “Wow, this is cool.” She pulled out a beautiful ornament that looked old. Real old, but gorgeous.
“A Christmas castle,” Pari said. “How pretty.”
“Yes, isn’t it?” Melvale said. “Unlike this tree…”
“Sorry,” Pari said with a shrug. “It’s all we have.”
“Not anymore.” Melvale smiled at Pari, then nodded at the front door where Dallan now stood holding a tree.
She turned and gasped. “Is that a live tree?”
“Yes. We made a little stop on the way back.”
Pari turned to him. “It smells good.”
He nodded, eyes bright. “I got it for you.”
She swallowed hard. “Wow, you didn’t have to…”
“I wanted to, Pari,” he said, cutting her off. “I want to do a lot of things for you.” He took her by the hand and pulled her out of the way so Dallan could bring the tree in. She had nine-foot ceilings, and the tree had to be eight and a half feet.
Shona entered. “I have the tree stand.”
Pari gave Melvale a wide smile. “This is perfect.”
He put an arm around her. “Yes, it is.” He pulled her close. “Are you ready to take your uncle’s tree back to the basement?”
She giggled and nodded.
“Me too.”
“Me three!” Kitty laughed and unplugged Uncle Al’s tree. It didn’t take long to take the fake tree apart and run it back downstairs. Melvale accompanied them, and by the time they returned upstairs, Kwaku and Dallan were arguing over whether the new tree was straight.
Melvale cleared his throat and eyed it. “A little to the left. No, too much! Right, Kwaku. Just a tad, yes, no!”
“Och, ye two can finish this,” Dallan groused. “I’m going back to guard duty.” He got to his feet. “It’s just a wee tree! How hard can it be to get the thing straight?”
Shona laughed and followed him into the outside hall. The front door closed with an ominous thud, and Pari took in the amused look on Kwaku’s face. It was in that moment she realized she’d never had this before. A house full of people with a common purpose. In this case, putting up a Christmas tree in July. Kitty was carefully taking ornaments out of the box Melvale brought. Zara took strings of lights out of another box she must have brought in, and Melvale and Kwaku were still arguing over the straightness of the tree.
“I’m going to bake cookies,” Pari announced. It was the only thing missing in her mind.
Melvale, on his knees by the base of the tree, straightened and looked at her. “Really?”
She gave him a happy nod then looked around the room. “I know what else we need. Be right back.” Pari hurried into her bedroom, grabbed the little speaker she used with her phone and laptop, and brought it into the living room. They’d set up the tree in front of the only window. It sat between the radiator and the closed-up fireplace. She set the phone and speaker on the mantle and found some Christmas music. Bing Crosby began to croon “White Christmas,” and she grinned like an idiot. And why not? She was having fun!
“Perfect,” Kitty said. “Do you need any help with the cookies?”
“No, I’ve got this.” Pari practically skipped into the kitchen and got to work. She’d been through a lot over the last week and a half, and wasn’t sure when this was all going to end. But shouldn’t she try to enjoy it while it lasted? At least she’d have some great memories. In fact, she should start taking pictures with her phone. Why she hadn’t thought of it until now Pari didn’t know. Probably because she’d been so overwhelmed.
“You’ll want to get him a gift.”
Pari jumped at the sound of Kitty’s voice. She spun to her as Kitty entered the kitchen. “Melvale?”
“Who else, silly? Let us know if you need help picking something out. Trust me when I say, he has everything.”
Pari pulled flour out of a cupboard. “What do you mean?”
“He has access to centuries worth of things. You name it, he’s probably got it stashed somewhere in the Muiraran library.”
She thought of the meadows, forests and the old west town she’d seen in the so-called library. “Oh, yeah.” She sniffed. “What do you get for the man who has everything?”
“Well, he doesn’t have everything ,” Kitty went on. “He doesn’t have you.”
Pari froze. What was she getting at? A spark of jealousy ignited, and she tried to bat it down. “No… he doesn’t.” She pulled out a mixing bowl next then began to gather the rest of the ingredients. “He’s an alien man. I’m a human. Enough said.”
Kitty sighed and leaned against the counter by the stove. “You like him, don’t you?”
“What is this, high school?” Pari scoffed.
“Wow, I’m sorry. I thought you could see it.”
“See what?” Pari heard the hint of terseness in her voice and pulled a glass from a cupboard. She went to the fridge, poured herself some filtered water from a pitcher and drank.
Kitty watched her a moment and waited until she’d drained the glass. “I thought you could see how much he’s into you.”
Pari froze. “He’s leaving.” She put the glass in the sink, then went to her pantry to get her hand mixer. When she came out, Kitty was gone. Pari sighed in relief and tried to ignore the dark fist of dread in her chest. Yes, Melvale and the others would eventually return to their time, their world, and all of this would seem like a dream. Even if she had to return with them for a time, as soon as the danger passed, they’d bring her back, and she could get on with her silly little life.
Good grief, what was she going to tell Dr. Merrill the next time she saw him? “Did you make any new friends over the last two weeks, Pari?” She muttered to herself in a low voice. “Oh, yes, I made friends with a bunch of aliens and some crazy people tried to kill me.”
Pari stared at the sugar she’d just measured into a bowl. If she breathed a word of this to Dr. Merrill, he’d put her in the nuthouse for sure.