How to Marry an Alien (24 page)

The Only Exception

In His Eyes Anthology

Daniel rolled over and punched his pillow.
“Ugh! I give up,” he muttered.

Sleep always eluded him and tonight was no
different. Groomed as a thief and mercenary, his mind was ready to
act. Most nights it was hard to shut off. He definitely wouldn’t
get any sleep tonight with the distant murmur of voices that filled
his head and grew louder each second.

“Gambling night,” he spat out. Daniel
snatched the pillow from under his head and covered his face. It
didn’t help, the angry voices filtered through anyway. He just
didn’t get it. Every week it was the same thing. Fights over
cheating, his father’s outright refusal to take on any snatch jobs,
and then the old man getting chewed out. He was sick of his
father’s screw-ups.

Daniel shook his head at the thought of
another late night caused by his dad’s weekly game with his
friends. He let out a deep breath, threw the pillow aside, and sat
up on his bed. “Serves him right,” he sneered. “Been picking up his
jobs for three years now, and I’m ready for my own territory
anyway. I’m finished picking up his slack – I’m done doing
it…TONIGHT.” He wiped his hand down his face then punched down on
the rumpled bed.

Remorse crept up his back. He squeezed his
eyes shut and then opened them. Maybe, he should’ve picked up the
load his father refused to get from Haden. His father’s best friend
and leader of the EBRA, was sick of his dad’s refusal to do his
job.

Daniel looked down at the snoring body of his
cousin on the floor, and acknowledged that Faulk didn’t have the
same dirty blond hair, dimples, or gray eyes as he. No, Faulk was
different. His mother’s Asian features dominated Faulk’s face
instead. He shoved Faulk’s leg out of his way so he could stand.
With a
crack
of his neck, he stretched, and then scratched
his bare chest.

“Faulk,” he smirked, “your parents would kill
you if they knew you were hiding out here. Hell, my father may kill
me
when I tell him I let you in.” Daniel figured Faulk had
the Pierce family’s adventurous spirit. Proven fact, since Faulk
dropped out of flight school two days before his graduation, only
to land on Daniel’s doorstep.

Faulk had showed up earlier that day with a
sack of wrinkled clothes, his flight school uniform and a stupid
grin. Daniel let him in, even though he hadn’t seen Faulk in years.
The first and last time he’d laid eyes on Faulk was four years ago,
when Uncle Kiev came to demand that his father change his criminal
ways and come home to Earth.
No way Uncle Kiev would get my old
man to change. He’d never give up being a Zukar.
His father had
been with the Zukar, a faction of thieves on Merwin ever since he
was a kid. Celebrated for his undisputable snatch jobs, his father
had become a legend.

The voices in the front room grew louder with
angry shouts and the muted sounds of laser fire pierced the air.
Daniel’s head jerked toward the door, his brow wrinkling. The
tingling down his back confirmed this wasn’t the typical weekly
banter. He pulled his gun from beneath his pillow. Gripping the
handle of the gun, he crept to the door, and pushed it open. He
leaned against the door and tilted the gun up, prepared to shoot.
Ready to attack, he was stopped by a call from his ten-year-old
brother.

“Psst,” Nickel whispered from his bedroom
doorway across the hall.

Daniel turned his angry gaze on his younger
brother, whose short, light brown hair stood on end. Nickel’s gray
eyes filled with concern on his rounded face as he shook his head
at his brother’s stupidity. He gestured in their coded sign
language. “No, too many.”

Daniel’s mouth thinned. He raised his free
hand to motion for his brother to stay put, and crept slowly along
the wall leading to the front room. Whispered arguments had
elevated into shouting. More laser fire went off, and a smoke bomb
followed, filling the long hallway with thick smoke before Daniel
could make his way down. Daniel held his breath and fought his way
through. His eyes burned, and his lungs fought to breathe. He
narrowed his eyes and felt around in front of him. With his gun at
the ready, he frantically searched for his father in the dull,
smoke-filled room.

“Humph! The bastards ran.”

Coughs sounded behind him. Daniel knew his
brother and cousin were not far behind. The roar of an engine lit
the night. He ran toward the front door to pursue the men who fled,
but he tripped forward, stumbling over a firm body. He used his
free hand to brace himself before falling face first on the floor.
The smoke started to dissipate out of the opened door and Daniel
didn’t have to look at the body to see whose it was. The punch of
dread hit him dead in his chest when he pushed himself back off the
slightly rounded stomach of his father’s large form.

Daniel held back a sob and swallowed. “Keep
Nickel back! Keep ‘em back,” he yelled. He sat back on his knees
and forced his angry eyes to land on his father.

“No! Damn! Who-did-this?” His lips formed a
scowl. Tears from the smoke and his grief fell slowly. Balling his
fist, he punched down on his bent knees as grief and desolation
caved in on him. Anger at his father - even dislike -didn’t take
away the fact that he loved the old man and wanted him there with
them. “Arghhhhhh!” His fist tightened, “I never wanted this. I’ll
kill them. Why didn’t you just yell for help? I would’ve saved
you,” his voice cracked. He raised his fists and pushed them
against his eyes to stop his tears.

Daniel heard his brother cry behind him. “No,
no...
Dad
! Please don’t be dead. NO!” Nickel tried furiously
to fight his way out of Faulk’s firm grip.

Daniel’s muscles tightened, and years of
training as a thief reminded him to shove those sappy feelings of
regret down. “Don’t let him go Faulk. Not yet.” He quickly pulled
himself together. His expression grave while he examined his father
to see if he was breathing.
Nothing, he’s gone. The old man’s
…gone.

With a grunt, he tilted his father’s body for
a better look, just to be sure. His eyes traveled over his dead
father, up and down his back. The finality of his father’s fate sat
heavy in his gut. The laser left a hole clean through his father’s
leg, but it was the knife to his heart that ultimately caused his
death. His father’s body landed with an eerie, lifeless
thump
when Daniel released him. Daniel looked at his
father’s grayish--blond hair and the shocked expression of his
death in his eyes, and screamed out. Anger at his father’s killers
- even at his father’s carelessness choked up within him.

Nickel broke free of Faulk and ran into
Daniel’s back. He collapsed to his knees, laid his head on his
father’s stomach, and cried in loud, choking sobs.

Putting his sorrow aside, Daniel reached back
to console his little brother.

“Daddy, no..no.” Nickel cried and kneed the
floor in anger. “Why, Daniel? WHY him?
Our Dad?”

Faulk came and put his hand on Daniel’s
shoulder. “Daniel, I’m sorry man. I’m so sorry. Maybe…maybe I
should call my parents.”

Daniel stood up with a glare. “Don’t,” he
forced out the words through gritted teeth. “Your parents don’t
know this place. They’d make things worse. Trust me -much worse.”
His mouth thinned as he watched his brother cry.

“You gotta be kidding me! Your father was
murdered, right
here
,” Faulk pointed to the floor. “Here,
while we were in our beds, dude. Cold blooded with us in the house.
Who’s to say our asses aren’t next?” Faulk yelled, and then pushed
Daniel’s chest.

Daniel grabbed Faulk’s shirt, balled it up in
his hand and slammed him against the wall. “You came here
uninvited. You wanted to live here, but you don’t…Look, you- don’t-
know- the- Zukar. Outsiders stay the hell out of our business.
Don’t try your Earth logic on this planet. I’ll handle it.” He
jammed his index finger into Faulk’s chest. “And by the way, the
next time you push me, you best be ready for a beat down. Now go to
my room and pack up my weapons – all of ‘em. I’ll take care of
Nickel,” Daniel forced out, trying to hold onto his anger at
Faulk’s misplaced judgment. He pushed Faulk into the wall in
disgust, and then let him go with a jerk, releasing his wrinkled
shirt.

Daniel turned away from Faulk, and then bent
down to touch his brother’s trembling shoulder. “He’s gone, Nick,
but don’t worry. I’ll take care of you. You know I will.”

Nickel turned to Daniel and hugged him. He
sniffled and wiped the tears from his eyes. “I know you will. I’ll
take care of you too. Dad wanted me to.”