03 Solar Flare - Spark Series (3 page)

She sighed. He had a talent for lecturing
without touching a subject. “I hear you. I’ll ask him how he’s
doing.”

The chief looked satisfied.

Brandy felt rather like a chastened child as
she returned to Azor with the cups. He glanced at her face, noted
her expression and looked over his shoulder. “Ah. The chief’s been
at you.”

“He has a talent,” she said glumly as she
carefully handed him his cup. “So, how bad’s the bruising?”

He took a sip before answering. “I’ll be
fine.”

She looked at him uncomfortably. “I’m
sorry.”

He set the cup down. “There, that wasn’t so
hard.” There was a suspicious twitch about his lips. “Why don’t we
go get your transport before you combust from all that
charity?”

“It’s not hard to understand why people want
to kill you,” she said matter-of-factly as she rose. She followed
his long stride toward the back of the station. It took some brisk
walking to keep up with him, but she didn’t complain. As usual, the
man made her uncomfortable. She wanted away from him as soon as
possible.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw
for herself that the transport was fine. She hadn’t had it that
long, and she took good care of her stuff. The idea of someone else
messing with it was unsettling.

He handed her the keys. “I refueled it for
you.”

“If only all car thieves were so kind,” she
said drolly. He reached around her, and she blinked as he opened
the door for her, not used to such courtesy. “Thank you.”

He tilted his head. When she’d slipped
inside, he leaned down. “The chief mentioned you need your coolant
changed.”

She sighed. “I know. I’ll get to it.”

“I could do it for you. After all, I owe
you.”

She looked at the steering wheel as she
thought about it. The idea of him doing her a personal service made
her tense. She didn’t want to have any kind of exchange with him,
no matter how mundane. They weren't the kind of people who should
interact more than was strictly necessary. “I was just…cranky last
night. You don’t really owe me anything.”

“I want to.” It was part of the unwritten
code of far-flung colonies that people paid their debts. She’d done
him a favor, let him steal her transport. He’d do her one—fix the
transport. That would end their mutual obligation. Very tidy.

She risked a glance at him. His expression
gave nothing away. She hesitated, but really, what could it hurt?
“Okay, but just because I hate doing it so much.”

His lips flirted with a smile. “You could
take it to a shop.”

“I could.” She shrugged one shoulder. Her
father had frowned on paying someone else to do something you could
do just as easily. She looked on the chore as a form of
discipline…one she put off as often as possible.

“Some night this week, then. I’ll call you.”
He straightened up and closed the door.

She watched him walk back into the station,
but didn’t immediately drive off. The idea of him stopping by on a
weeknight to do something for her was unsettling. It smacked of
friendship, intimacy.

She frowned and decided to avoid him as he
worked. Sure, it would be inhospitable, but he really was paying
her back. A little more relaxed, she pulled out of her parking
space and headed home. She had things to see to.

When her conscience later pestered her about
the vintner, she put it off. Maybe she’d mention it to Azor
sometime. Later.

She’d barely walked through the door to the
back hall when a two-legged missile assaulted her. She grunted as
her five-year-old nephew, Kaden, crashed into her knees and flung
his arms around her. He was closely followed by his twin, Baden,
who looked mad as an accountant with a short till. It took
considerable effort to hold Baden off as he windmilled his fists at
his brother. Knowing Kaden, he deserved whatever came his way, but
Brandy objected to having them fight in the middle of her.

She growled when one of them kicked her and
yelped as Baden used his teeth. Cursing, she yanked him off her
thigh and gave him a good shake. “What the blazes is wrong with
you?” she demanded. She checked her leg, sure she could feel blood
trickling from the bite. Leave it to her sister to produce a
vampire.

“He stole my Meta-toy!” Baden screeched, not
at all repentant. He was nearly hysterical. “He broke it!”

“Which is it? Did he steal it or break it?”
she demanded, keeping a firm grip on their collars.

“Both!” Baden’s chest heaved as he tried to
launch at his brother.

“That’s a lie!” Kaden protested furiously. He
looked up at his aunt and tried a wide-eyed, innocent look. The
picture of blue-eyed innocence was spoiled by the horns under his
halo.

She looked down at him, inured to his ploy by
countless hours of babysitting. These two had emerged from their
mother’s womb spitting and snarling. “I can’t believe your father
used to be a cop,” she muttered, and then brightened. “What a
lovely idea! Come on.” Still gripping them tightly, she turned and
headed for the door. “We’re going to go see Uncle Azor.” He wasn’t
really related to them, but Azor had been their father’s friend
long enough to earn the honorific. He could also be a forbidding
figure when they were up to mischief, with a way of looking at them
that instantly calmed them down. She might not like him, but he
made a good threat.

“Why?” Kaden demanded, sounding as imperious
as his father. “What’s he going to do to us?”

Brandy smiled wickedly. “He’s going to toss
you in jail and feed the key to a lizard. I just saw him at work.
He was putting murderers in a cell. I’ll tell him to use that
one.”

“He won’t!” Baden said belligerently, but he
sounded the tiniest bit unsure.

She nodded and tried to open the door without
letting her prisoners go. It was tricky. “He’d love to. Your
parents won’t mind. They’ll probably enjoy the quiet.” She got the
door open, but lost her grip on Baden and had to lunge for him
while keeping the door propped open with her foot. In the face of
their common enemy, the boys attacked her, kicking and hitting with
twin fury. She growled and tucked Kaden under one arm, then grabbed
Baden’s wrist. The boys took a death grip on the doorframe. They
struggled in the doorway, none of them willing to give up.

“Is this a private wrestling match, or can I
sell tickets?” an amused male voice drawled.

The three in the door abruptly stopped
struggling. Brandy turned, dropping Kaden to his feet as she went.
The boy was heavy. “Blue,” she said, glowering at the boy’s father.
Tall, with black hair and indigo eyes, he looked more like a
retired mercenary than a cop. Certainly his children were
hellions.

They wasted no time running to him and
tattling on her. “She was going to put us in jail!” Baden shouted.
Every word out of his mouth was always at volume.

“She was going to make Uncle Azor lock us up
with murderers!” Kaden yelled, not to be outdone.

“That’s right. I’m pressing charges for
assault and battery,” she said unrepentantly. “I have teeth marks
on my leg.”

Blue coughed, but bent a stern look on his
lads. “Both of you, go to your mother. I’ll be there in two
minutes, after I talk to your aunt.”

The boys looked cowed. Their father was the
only one who had that affect on them.

He waited until they’d rounded the corner
before he fell into step with her. “Theoretically, you’re supposed
to the be the adult. You kind of blended in just now,” he
teased.

“Theoretically, your children are supposed to
be human,” she returned sourly. “Oddly enough, they always remind
me of carnivorous apes. Tell me you two have decided to stop
reproducing.”

He looked a little too innocent…and
proud.

She grit her teeth. “She’d pregnant again,
isn’t she?” She didn’t know what was wrong with Gem. After the
twins, she’d have had her reproductive works cauterized, but Gem
had gone on to produce a daughter who was now three and a son who
was a year and a half. She seemed determined to single handedly
populate her husband’s private island with a teeming nest of rabid
babies.

Polaris was a gas planet. All landmasses were
made up of massive, orbiting chunks of rock. It was essentially a
series of floating islands formed from asteroids that had been
pulled into orbit, stabilized and colonized. Polaris had a
breathable atmosphere, and its special properties kept the land
floating in a belt of temperate air.

While they had no sea, the colonists had
mined ice from the moons and formed lakes in many of the asteroids
craters. They’d filled the lakes with fish and sea life. The planet
formed mist but no rain, so water was plentiful if carefully
recycled. Hauling in more from the moon to form new reservoirs cost
money.

Farmers had used the water to turn the barren
surface of the asteroids into islands of lush growth, gradually
adding small livestock as grass took root and flourished. Each
asteroid had an electric bio-dome over it to keep the precious
water vapor inside.

Blue’s farm produced medicinal plants, and
business was booming. Between his income and The Spark’s, his
family would never lack for money.

Apparently, he and his wife also had plenty
of leisure to pursue the art of baby making. It was a mercy for the
rest of them that they spent most of their time on the plantation.
The inn’s inhabitants would have deserted like rats fleeing a fire
if they’d had to cope with little imps swarming the building.

“We’ll probably stop after this set of twins
is born,” he assured her calmly, as if he weren’t about to unleash
more chaos on the world.

“More twins?” she asked, aghast. “Boys or
girls?”

“Girls,” he said with a smile. “Gem wants
their middle names to be Brandy and Xera.”

She shivered. Some day she could look forward
to seeing her name on a wanted poster. At least they were merciful
and didn’t make them first names. “I’m honored. Really.”

He smirked as they reached the family suite
near the kitchens. He gestured for her to go first. “I can see
that. Go on up—Gem’s waiting.”

Brandy braced herself for the sight of
children taking over her living room. At least the room was
kid-proof. Although Gem no longer lived there, the objects in the
room had gradually gotten higher as the twins had first learned to
crawl, then walk. Now the room had the stark look unique to those
with small children. The exception was with the entertainment
center currently tuned to a children’s program and the scattering
of toys, coloring books and pillows. At least her bedroom door was
shut, and thus, uncontaminated. Hopefully. With the twins, one
never knew.

Gem smiled as Brandy walked in the room. She
didn’t look pregnant yet, but she had a certain glow about her.
She’d turned out to be one of those women who felt fabulous when
carrying—hence the current population explosion. Her pale blue eyes
were glowing as she held her eighteen-month old. The baby’s hand
was knotted in her straight brown hair, but Gem didn’t seem to
mind.

Brandy greeted her and absently took the
baby. The infant promptly latched onto her aunt’s red hair and
cooed as he fell asleep. Brandy gently disentangled him. “I’m not
babysitting the full brood, you know. You’re going to have to hire
a nanny.”

Gem smiled. “Probably. You’re not counting on
the benefits, though. When you get around to producing children,
Baden and Kaden will be old enough to baby-sit.”

Brandy shuddered. “As if I’d give an innocent
baby to those two cannibals.” She watched as their father took the
boys aside to deal with their earlier tantrum. “Throw in something
about biting aunts,” she suggested loudly. She widened her eyes
menacingly at the twins when they shot her looks of protest. She
looked at Gem. “So, are you free for a movie? We haven’t had an
afternoon to ourselves for a while.”

Gem shrugged. “Sure. Blue said he’d hold the
fort for a while if we wanted to have a couple of hours. I need to
buy the boys more pants anyway—they’ve outgrown most of theirs. He
thought maybe you’d watch the kids for us later…if you don’t have
plans. He wants to take me out to celebrate—I’m pregnant with twin
girls this time.”

“I know,” Brandy said, resigned. “Sure, I’ll
watch them. Better yet, I’ll watch Jamir watching them.” She
brightened. Jamir was their head chef. The Latq was barely four
feet and fine boned, and he’d been with them forever. The boys were
in awe of his sharp teeth and the way his milky face turned pink
when he waved his wooden spoon at them. They’d picked up some
interesting curses in his language, though they didn’t know what
the words meant. The important thing was, Jamir was always ready to
turn them loose at a worktable with a huge pan of dough and let
them make animal shaped buns to their heart’s delight. If they got
bored of that before their parents came home, he’d send them out to
collect lizard eggs. They always managed to break a few, but that
was incidental to keeping the boys occupied.

They paid Jamir very, very well.

Gem made a face at her, but didn’t protest.
They’d grown up helping in the kitchens and later the tavern. It
built character.

Gem waited until they were in Brandy’s
transport, headed to town, before she said casually, “Blue talked
to Azor today. Your transport looks to have survived.”

Brandy grimaced. She wondered how much of
Gem’s shopping trip had been planned around grilling her. “It was a
memorable evening.”

“I guess he’s going to come over and work on
it this week.”

Brandy shrugged. “He owes me.” She sensed
more coming, but didn’t want to encourage it. Unfortunately silence
was meant to be filled, at least with a sister in the car.

“He’s pretty cute, in his way.”

“Oh, children and animals adore him,” Brandy
said agreeably. “Why, your sons freeze at one blast of his
poisonous green eyes. I’ve seen rabid dogs turn and run when he
stared at them.”