Gyft (Rescued by the Alien)

Chapter Seventeen

GYFT:

IT WAS CONVENIENT that today, of all days, Minniel requested time off. Wondering how I’ll make him agree to what Bride wants makes me scowl as I raise my hand to knock on his door. This is the first day of the cold season and fat snowflakes are falling from a dark purple, angry sky.

Icy breath chills my freelig and I tug my hood closer around my head.

By the time it swings open, he’s standing opposite the entry, though in the warmth of the house, and looks just like me.

A mirror image in his matching brichet.

We wear them separately now, but still gravitate toward the same colors. Our height is the same. The only thing different between us are the scars that whip across his face.

I frown. “You didn’t tell me you requested the day off from work.”

“Didn’t I?” His voice mocks mine as he stands aside to allow me entry. He heads straight for the kitchen. I find it irritating that I have to follow behind him like an errant schoolboy. When he glances over his shoulder and smirks, I know he’s thinking exactly the same thing.

“What can I do for you?”

“You owe me—” I almost wince. That wasn’t the way I wanted to begin but his cocky grin throws me off balance.

“For needing my twin soul to rescue me from the deadlands when we were just children?” he asks lightly. “You really think I owe you? ”

Because much like Kyno and Brisa M’irshlak, Minniel had wandered too close to the boundaries and was dragged in by a soul sucker. I snuck in of my own accord and dragged my screaming brother out. By the time we hid in the natural cages of the sicqurius trees for a long, windy night, a search party had gone out for us. In the morning, they found two white-freeligged seedlings sharing one brichet.

The same one my twin soul had commandeered when he went on his adventure without me, leaving me to search out my other half without my own brichet. The adventure that led to us entering the royal guard training a few annuals later, marked for life as blood suckers.

“Just spit out what you want,” Minniel says warily. Yet there’s something else in his face, almost as if he’s fighting a grin. But I don’t have time to sort it out.

“My bride requests a Santa Fe Claus,” I snarl, knowing that he remembers the mythical creature dressed in the color of blood suckers.

Which we are. We should face the stigma and do this.

For Bride.

“Then I suggest you give her what she wants,” Minniel says smoothly, taking a sip from the cup he’s poured for himself at the same time he pushes an identical one toward me.

I take a sip too but try to angle the cup differently. We’re adults now. No need to mirror each other.

“She doesn’t just want me. Yvette is also dressed as an elf and needs a Santa or something of her own to help her with the presents.”

The infuriating male is expressionless when he takes another sip of his steaming mug. “What do I get out of humiliating myself?”

I sigh. “Again, you owe me—”

He raises his brow and I know that’s not the way to go with this stubborn fool.

“Fine. You want a human mate? I’ll put in a good word for you.”

“And your word is good how? ”

I swear I’m about to strangle him. “Yvette and Olivia are as close as siblings. That makes Yvette almost my sister-in-law. Don’t you think Yvette will be more enamored with you if she finds out we’re twin souls? Don’t you think this will seal the deal, so to speak?”

Because we both know that Yvette may like the idiot, but she hasn’t done anything more than allow a few kisses here and there. No time alone for him to woo her. She’s too focused on exploring the planet and helping Olivia prepare for this Christmas thing. While I know Yvette has feelings for him—my Bride shares all with me—she hasn’t focused on him as much as he would like. He thinks perhaps she finds him lacking.

He wonders if it’s because his face is scarred.

Yet, I know the human females find that mysterious. Sexy. As if he’s a reformed bad boy , as Yvette put it.

I’m not sharing that.

“Yvette truly wants us to humiliate ourselves by wearing the color?” he asks, eyes narrowed.

“They both do. It’s the tradition.”

“And you think she’ll be more interested in me?”

I scowl again. “Of course. What else do you have going for you?”

He narrows his eyes. “You’ll share with her that we’re twin souls?”

“Yes. She’ll want you more than ever when she finds out our relationship.”

He nods, resigned to my manipulations.

“Well, get dressed. They’re setting up in H’liyio as we speak.”

He scoffs and opens his brichet to show he’s fully dressed underneath.

While I assumed he had been out for a morning run and had simply thrown on any old brichet, he’s ready immediately. It makes me wonder if he only owns the same colors that I wear.

As we board my shuttle, we take the dual controls for a faster flight through the falling snow. It feels like old times, twin souls playing video games together. By the time we arrive at the indoor mall, I don’t even mind the cold that I’ve hated for a lifetime. Since we were trapped overnight at the beginning of the cold season. Huddled together under the tree roots, each afraid to tell the other his freelig turned white. And when we were rescued by our father near dawn? We scrambled into his arms, burying our once-twin faces into his neck as we sobbed. Our father cried too, maybe holding Minniel a bit tighter because of his new looks. His fresh scars.

Maybe, just maybe, I resented that a little.

“Thank you for saving me,” Minniel says softly. “For entering the deadlands after me. You didn’t have to put yourself at risk like that.”

“Yes, I did,” I say simply. “You’re my twin soul. I couldn’t watch you die.”

Right there, in the middle of the back entry to the mall, I turn to him and hug him tight. We pull away slightly when Olivia and Yvette open the door to the meeting area they’re setting up.

The elf costumes they wear are green, with short skirts and striped stockings and pointy shoes. They wear matching hats and manage to look regal and sexy at the same time.

“Ohmigod,” Yvette says, turning to Olivia and squeezing her arm. “Brothers. That explains so much.”

“Twin souls,” Olivia corrects. “Makes even more sense that you’d be attracted to Gyft’s lookalike.”

Minniel huffs. “Gyft looks like me.”

Yvette, odd female that she is, nods in full agreement.

“Thank you both for coming to our first-ever Santa sitting. Without the Santa,” Olivia says dramatically, waving her arm and waiting for me to interject that we’ll be okay to dress up.

I sigh, reminding her once again. “Bride, you know I’ll do anything for you.”

She opens her arms. “I’m so glad, baby. ”

I settle into her embrace and it’s the sweetest place to be. Behind us, I hear Minniel huff. “I’m willing to be the Santa Fe, too,” he says to Yvette, which earns him a kiss from her.

“It’s just Santa,” she says, as Olivia giggles. He glares at me as if I made him look stupid.

Idiot probably could have sat back and done nothing and Yvette would still have kissed him. But part of me is glad that he’ll suffer along in the red suit with me.

“Surprise!” Olivia says, pushing her way out of my touch and leaning into the sleigh. Her short skirt rises in back and my eyes are glued to the sweet curves of her tail-less bottom, covered by striped leggings of green and white. She pulls out the Santa suit... but it’s not in the dreaded blood-red.

It’s a rich, royal blue.

“What is this?” I ask warily.

“We appreciate you both volunteering,” Bride says. “But I can’t have such a handsome face look miserable! This is a new planet and we have more blended holidays, so we’ll start a new tradition. A blue Santa.”

As she speaks, she unfastens my brichet and pulls it off, then holds the jacket up so I can slip my arms inside the sleeves. She settles it up over my shoulders and fastens it in front. It’s a ridiculous garment, lined with white fur like an aging wildebeast at the cuffs and collar.

“Ooh, it’ll look splendid with the pants,” Yvette adds.

“I’ll try these pants on,” Minniel says quickly.

“Thanks, handsome,” Yvette says and he turns to me and smirks.

So right there in the hallway, I start to unbuckle my belt. Bride looks surprised, Yvette snorts, and Minniel narrows his eyes. Then it’s a race as he hurries to shed his pants before I do.

“Definitely brothers,” Yvette says, avoiding looking at me as Olivia turns her back to Minniel and hands me the matching pants to put on.

“They feel too big,” I say, sliding a leg in as she holds them up .

“Nah, they’ll feel just right as soon as we stuff you fat,” Bride says and when I look over my shoulder at Minniel, he looks just as resigned as Yvette starts stuffing garments into his waistband.

His breath catches, making me think Yvette touched something in his pants purposely.

“Eyes over here, baby,” Olivia says, snapping my attention back to her by lowering the neckline of her green elf dress. Her lovely cleavage is exaggerated by the way her breasts are pushed up and squeezed together. “We’re going to make you look jolly, and you’re going to be loud and boisterous, okay? Plop all these kids I bring you onto your lap, we’ll snap a picture and you’ll ask them what they want for Christmas. If they speak too softly for me to hear what it is, you repeat it loud enough for Brisa and Kyno to grab what they want out of the sleigh and presto, the kid’s wish is fulfilled. Any questions?”

“How long before we can go home?”

“We’re not going home. We’re going to the M’irshlak’s, remember?”

“Same difference,” I say, meaning I just want to be alone with her. I lean down to nibble her ear, licking across my fang bites to remind her of our mating. She shivers, her eyes becoming hooded.

“Show me a good time, baby. And I’m going to do the same to you.”

That’s all I need to put this show on the road.

And by the time we’re done making these seedlings and their commonfolk parents happy, I get it. I feel the Christmas magic that Bride has been trying to explain to me.

It’s real, it’s tangible, and there’s nothing like it in the world. Nothing like seeing little faces go from shy to lighting up. Nothing like seeing how much Kyno and Brisa have grown by trying to make the little ones happy. Their faces light up when Olivia assures them that they’re on Santa’s good list.

“I want to be a father,” I tell Olivia when we’re cleaning up.

This time, I get to see my beautiful bride’s face light up.