Page 18 of The Alien Who Saved Christmas
A few of the aliens began tentatively following her rhythm.
“There we go! Awesome!”
Xane was transfixed. His vivid eyes seemed to glow as he watched Sadie move around stage. She grinned at him, pleased with how well the plan was working.
His big head tilted to one side, a not entirely happy look on his face. No surprise. Xane was never real happy. He seemedparticularlynot happy, as his gaze traced from her to the spellbound men and then back again, though. Maybe he wasn’t a fan of Mariah Carey. Sadie had always been more of a classic punk girl, herself. Xane was supposed to be looking for the duckling, though, not judging her performance. He’d have to deal.
She gave him an exasperated “get moving” look, as she began belting out the lyrics. The aliens couldn’t possibly have known what the song meant, but they didn’t seem to care. Sadie didn’t have the world’s greatest voice, but no one seemed to mind that, either. People were already coming in from the back-of-house area, just to watch her perform.
None of them noticed when Xane reluctantly slipped from the main room to explore the hidden parts of the bar. And considering his very noticeable size and horns, that spoke well of her ability to entertain a crowd. Within two verses, Sadie had the aliens singing along with the chorus. The song wasn’t long enough to be a great distraction, so she just added random words for a few minutes. It wasn’t like theactuallyrics made so much sense.
Sadie began to enjoy herself, as she performed. She’d been too quick to declare Christmas as ruined. There was still a lot of fun and holiday spirit to be found.
Xane still wasn’t back, so she launched into a quick rendition ofGrandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.That was another song that played six bajillion times every December, and she remembered at least half the words. Besides, she felt like her monstrous audience would like the holiday-themed violence.
She was wrong.
The alienslovedit!
They were out of their seats, hollering their approval. Sadie forgot she was just stalling for time and got into her set, shimmying around on stage. Holiday standards really were universal. She should write the aliens some holiday music of their own. There was clearly a market for it.
By then, Xane was back. Sadie pointed at him, belting out the refrain over the crowd’s cheers.
Her very own Snow Miser didn’t seem to be filled with the holiday spirit from her caroling success. Xane looked more dour than ever, in fact. “Enough.” He said firmly, stomping towards her.
“Hang on! Let me just round it out with someSilent Night.”
“With you, a silent night is impossible.” Xane lifted her right off the stage. The other aliens shouted their displeasure, and he flashed them all a feral glare. “Do any of you wish to challenge me for her?”
That shut them up.
Satisfied, Xane slung Sadie over his shoulder, like she weighedwayless than she actually weighed, and headed for the door. She suddenly found herself looking at his naked back. The man was still bare-chested. It was probably really hard to find shirts with four armholes. Or maybe he just liked to show off all his muscles. Who could blame him?
Sadie tried to squiggle free of his implacable grip. “Put me down. You shouldn’t be exerting yourself. You’ll collapse again.”
He muttered out some alien curses and kept walking.
“You’re just being stubborn.” She accused. “And you’re making a scene. Why are you always making scenes?”
“You just put on a concert.” One of his gigantic arms gripped the back of her knees, holding her still. “Was that not a scene?”
“Yeah, but it was a really well-received andintentionalscene. And we could’ve ended it with a less aggressive finale.”
“You were about to start a riot.”
“Everything was going great and then you…”
Xane stopped walking.
Sadie craned her neck and saw a cyclops blocking their path. He was the one who’d bought the duckling earlier, so he must own the place.
“Another song.” He demanded stonily. The man wasn’t as big as Xane, but he was big enough to be a problem. “Something erotic, this time.”
Sadie tried to communicate with the creep, which wasn’t easy while dangling upside down. “Erotic? First off: Ew. Secondly, there aren’t a lot of sultry Christmas carols. Well, maybeSanta Baby, but it’s so clichéd.”
“Move.” Xane told the cyclops. It wasn’t so much an order as a warning.
The man disregarded it. “You’re nothing but a slave. I saw you bought by that Lythion prick today. What did you do? Escape?” He snorted. “I’ll turn you in and keep the woman as my reward.”
