“Well, my parents just aren`t good at arranging things like that, so I had to step in to move my records to the school they picked out and hiring the movers and truck,” Alyss replied, still lost in her thoughts. Rather than them lacking the skills necessary to have set things up, though, they simply didn`t seem to care. They never asked how her day was, or thought of buying presents without several strong reminders and a shopping list. Rather than being terribly forgetful or selfish, though, they really seemed to not notice that their daughter even existed.
“What, so you moved your family practically by yourself?” Jacqueline asked, obviously shocked.
“Well, in a word, yes. I mean, Darien would have if I`d asked him, but he works so hard to stay near the top of his grade, so I figured he should be free during his free time. Besides, my family matters don`t really concern him,”Alyss tried to brush off her friend`s concerns.
“What do you mean?” Jackie seemed eager for a potentially juicy bit of gossip. “Is he your live in boyfriend, instead of your brother?”?
The other girl blushed furiously. “It`s not like that,” she said earnestly. “He really is like a brother to me. We just adopted him into the family a year or two ago, is all.” Jackie let it drop, clearly disappointed.
In fact, she was the one who brought Darien into the family. Her parent were so uncaring, she`d never really felt she had a family until she met him. All she`d seen was his shivering form in an alley near her house, as he clutched an equally cold cat with battle scars and a missing eye. She`d felt so lonely that day, aimlessly walking through the streets. But seeing him do something so small, but so kind, she knew she had to take him home then. Her parents hadn`t complained or even mentioned the change, though the table gained an extra place setting at dinner that night. The boy and that cat had become her true family since then, and she had never regretted their addition.
“Well, there you go. You have them to support you, so now you are ready to get to the party!” Alyss blinked, realizing that amidst all her memories she hadn`t noticed they`d finished
CHAPTER TEN
Missing Minions
He just stood looking after her, simmering. It was rather unfortunate that Jackie was walking by right then, clearly looking for her erstwhile friend. He reached out and grabbed her arm then, pulling her along. They went around a corner, running into people all along the path and arranged besides the pool. Each person and step seemed to increase his anger tenfold. He doggedly pulled her along, finally pulling her in the midst of a small copse of trees in the backyard. He spoke then, unheeding of her weak protests and defense of her earnest efforts to help his relationship with Alyss in anticipation of the obvious topic at hand. “I was just trying to…”
He cut her off ruthlessly, thundering “Not yet!” Black fire punctuated by tiny white specks sprang forth from his hands with a muttered phrase, and it quickly enveloped their whole bodies. Neither of them seemed in the least bit concerned about the hungry flames, though Jackie still looked at Aeron in fear of his retribution. In an instant, they were gone from the spot. Warren, who had followed them intent on giving retribution to the girl who had apparently ruined his fun for the day, was already walking away at the sight of Aeron, when the flicker of lights had caught his eye. He was left mouth agape at the sudden and strange flames, then the sudden disappearance of two very substantial beings. He walked into the crowd once again, muttering about soothing drinks and lack of sleep.
Jackie gasped as their bodies snapped into focus in the minor receiving room of the palace better known as the prince’s office. “Look, it was really just awful timing that you talked to her right then, I can fix it, just give me a sec-,” she rushed out the words in a continuous dialog, stopping the second he lifted his pointer finger. “Don`t.” One curt word, and she was silent, seemingly shrinking in fear. But her shrinking continued as he spoke more, and her body seemed to truly be losing size and height even as he increased slowly to the true full size of his natural form which caused him to more than fill the room though he still was in his humanoid aspect. “You`ve turned her, my only Alyssandra, against me. The one member of my kingdom who has been lost for fifteen years, and after my staff and myself have put all of our efforts into those years to finally find her and reunite us you have managed to turn her against me in mere weeks. Do you intend to make me fall as well, like your dear friend Darien?” his tone was icy. She shivered, wringing her hands in a desperate plea for forgiveness. She continued to change, her face now screwed in a grimace of pain as she was now contorted into the rough size of a chihuahua.
“Please let me explain,” she begged, the words teary and strained. One flick of his finger and the changes froze, far from her original proportions but no smaller. “She was just flirting with some womanizer, and they were about to kiss, so I warned her against him, and she was in shock, and you walked into her when she was still upset, so she took it out on you, but I don`t think it means she really hates you,” she gave the breathlessly explained. “?I didn’t say a thing about you, but I was trying to pull off a guy going after your most dear person so that she would continue to be
