Alien in the Family

you’re going to look as you get older.”
    He hugged me. “That’s okay, then.”
    White joined us. “Interesting. I see you’ve dressed, Miss Katt.”
    “Yes, I decided to keep the outfit for when I have to convince you of something.”
    “Good, anticipation is the key to any good relationship.”
    “Mister White? Why are most of them not as hot looking as your people?”
    “Bluntness is your specialty. No idea. They look normal to me.”
    “They don’t look unnormal to me. But they don’t look like all of you, either.”
    “Granddad wasn’t all that great, if you recall. Maybe we just have a concentration of hotness. Does it matter?” Martini was looking at the Poof again.
    “Hopefully not.”
    He hit the intercom button. “Hi, there. Who the hell are you and why are you here? And how soon are you leaving?”
    The guy I recognized as having been in our room stepped forward. He was nursing a lovely black eye. “Your Majesty, we are here to begin the rites of passage for your intended.”
    “Nice. I don’t plan to have her do them. Don’t plan on any of you sticking around. Don’t plan on going back to the world that exiled us. Rot in hell. Have a nice day.”
    “Harlie has accepted you.”
    “Harlie?”
    I looked up at Martini’s shoulder. “Here, Harlie.” I put my hand up, the Poof purred and jumped into my palm. “Good little Poofy thing. Meet your new pet, Jeff.”
    “You will refer to His Majesty as My Royal Lord at all times!” A woman’s voice rang out from the back of the holding cell. She stalked up to the window, and it didn’t take an empath to tell she was furious. “How dare you speak to him casually?”
    “Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” I was ready to lunge through the window. Test one—failed. Test one—pissing me off. Could not wait for test two.
    White stepped up to the intercom. “Excuse me. Who are you, and why do you believe you have the right to give anyone on Earth orders?”
    “We are the emissaries from the royal court. You, as an exile, have no right to speak to us.” She actually turned her back on White and walked to another part of the window.
    “Five minutes, that’s all I ask. Me and my Glock. Trust me, Mom’s been teaching me how to shoot really, really fast.”
    “Tempting as that is,” Martini said through clenched teeth, “I’ll be the one kicking their asses.”
    “You’re the king, My Royal Lord.”
    “Do not start.” He let go of me and went closer to the intercom. “You, come back here.”
    She turned around and stalked over. “Yes, Your Majesty?”
    “First off, I’m fascinated that you exiled my entire race here, you’re insulting my religious leader who also happens to be my uncle, and yet you’re somehow thinking I’m your king. Secondly, if you ever speak to anyone on Earth, particularly the Sovereign Pontifex, that way again, I’ll kill you with my bare hands. Oh, and I know how, believe me. Finally, I don’t know who you people think you are, but unless you start giving us some explanations, and quickly, I’m going to order you all put to death. Got it?”
    She gave him a small, very self-satisfied smile. “You are so like your grandfather, Your Majesty.”
    Martini lunged at the window. I thought he was going to break through. Christopher and I both grabbed him. “Jeff! Jeff! She means the other one! Not ours. Well, ours, but the other ours! The one who stayed on the home world!” Christopher was shouting, which he had to, because Martini’s growl was already at “enraged bear” and about to go to “lion takes over the veldt.”
    “She means your father’s father, Jeff!” I was shouting too. We weren’t calming him. At all. Of course, in his mind, Bitch Leader had just compared Martini to Ronald Yates, aka Mephistopheles, aka the Supreme Fugly. The rage was understandable.
    “Jeffrey, let it go.” White spoke softly.
    Martini stopped, took a deep breath, and let me and Christopher pull him back. “Sorry.” He was shaking.
    The emissaries looked shocked, other than the one I was calling Bitch Leader. She looked amused. “Your Majesty has a temper, I see.”
    “Really. I mean it, Jeff. Let me in there. I’ll do Crane Opens a Can of Whupass, they’ll never know what hit them.”
    “They can kill you.” Martini’s voice was low. He was staring at the emissaries, and I’d never seen so much anger in his expression before.
    “Maybe. I want in.”
    “I don’t want you hurt, so