Chapter Five
Skiden:
I softly tuck the blanket around the gorgeous female. Her eyelids flutter, but she doesn’t wake.
Much as I hate to tear myself from her arms, the others tiptoeing around in the kitchen will get suspicious if I don’t head in there—especially if Lucy and I show up at the same time, or if she blushes or avoids looking at me.
After a quick stop in the bathroom to wash up, I find Maman and my two sisters in the kitchen.
“Skiden, my beautiful boy, did you sleep well?” Maman’s eyes are shrewd, the clever female.
“Mmm, I did. The size of Bel’s ex made for a comfortable bed.” I ignore Isabel’s sharp elbow in my ribs.
“Don’t speak ill of the dead,” she hisses, which is rather comical. I can’t help but smile and she shares the grin. Her ex was a brinyiak—or as she says, bastard—and deserves to toss and turn in his cold grave.
“Looks like there’s a message for you on the communicator,” River says, eyeing it on the counter. There should be, I’d sent one last night.
I flip through it, read the reply concerning Lucy, and confirm the time to pick up the females. I quickly type out a request to stay longer, along with additional food and he responds back immediately.
Isabel slides the back doors open and takes out their three bags. “Did you bring anything?” she asks me when she comes back in.
“No, but Mikhail will bring me a few things.” As all three look up at me, I continue. “I’m not returning with you. Mikhail is a little worried about Lucy being alone. He wants to make sure she’s safe for a while longer.”
The grins across all their faces match in size.
“Oh, good, I won’t worry about her then,” Isabel says. “Here, take my key. You can bring it to me later when you get home.” She hands me a strange metal object.
“Good for you two,” River says, waggling her hairy brows.
“I hope you will figure out a way to bring her home. She belongs with us,” Maman says, and that makes everyone go quiet.
A rustle comes from Lucy’s bedroom, and I know she’s headed into the bathroom to clean herself up before meeting the others.
“Good news,” Maman says as soon as Lucy makes an appearance. “Mikhail is nearly here to pick us up, but you won’t be alone, my daughter. I leave with you”—she waves her hands with a flourish toward me— “my precious son.”
Lucy’s jaw drops.
A moment of panic hits me. Doesn’t she want me? Was she hoping for just one experience? Sure, I’d teased about that interspecies kiss, but perhaps she’d decided a Pimeon was a notch in her belt. A one and done.
“Not forever,” I rush to explain. “But I will make sure you’re safe for a few days. In case anyone has gotten wind that you’ve had guests.”
“Oh, okay,” she says, and her smile is somewhat relieved. Just like that, my stress melts away.
A light flashing on the com box lets us know Mikhail has arrived. His ship is cloaked so we wait until we hear a rap on the glass. River slides it open, and his image appears when she does.
“How was your vacation day?” Mikhail asks. “I’m sorry I had to cut it short. I’d hoped to give you another day, but your mates are struggling without you.” His benevolent smile makes the ladies titter.
“I hope we can do it again? Now that we’ve gotten to meet Lucy, we want to keep in touch,” Maman says.
“Yes, once things settle down a bit. There’s a political uprising going on here, so we need to lay low.”
“Politics?” I ask. “Isn’t Lilaina the first lady?”
“Yes. But there’s always an uprising to overthrow that. A crowd who thinks a woman isn’t enough and needs to have a strong man there instead.”
Lucy has gone quiet.
“The man they’re preparing to run against her is gaining in popularity so we’re working on what to do about that,” Mikhail continues. “In the meantime, we’ll need to make sure people don’t realize that Lucy and Isabel aren’t two different people living in this house.”
“Can we make sure she has food at least monthly, so she doesn’t have to go out to market and expose herself?” Isabel asks.
Mikhail nods. “We will keep an eye on her.”
I’m not sure but I think Lucy looks a little wary. I’m not sure why unless she values her privacy. Or perhaps it’s because she goes out so rarely she values each excursion, even going to market.
“Well, let’s get you back to where you belong,” Mikhail says. “Make your goodbyes and then you can follow me out.”
Maman heads to Lucy, cups her face in her hands, and presses her forehead to hers. “You will always be my daughter. And though I may seem far away, remember I am not.”
And then River hugs Lucy. “You’ll be fine, Luce. We’ll find a way to come back and visit, okay?”
And then Bel hugs her friend and the tears stream down Lucy’s face. She will really miss Isabel.
“I’ll think about you every single day.”
“Same,” Lucy says.
As soon as the four head outside, their images waver and disappear. Lucy’s jaw drops as she stares.
“Mikhail has the entire back area cloaked,” I say. “So that no one knows a Britonian pod landed. But they have to leave quickly in case someone decides to take a walk and bumps into the pod when they can’t see it.” I can’t help but wind my tentacle around her waist, offering her comfort when she is so down.
“Sorry,” she says wiping her cheeks with the backs of her hands. “I didn’t think it would be this hard to say goodbye.”
I know I will do everything in my power to stay or find a way to get her to Pimeon so she’ll never have to be alone. For now, the best I can do is distract her from her misery. “Look,” I say. “Watch your back patio.”
Sure enough, in a few moments the boxes appear. Probably more groceries than we need, but Mikhail is generous and probably included quite a bit of dry goods for her use later when I’m long gone.
Lucy gasps as the products appear.
“Mieka, I didn’t hear you gasp that much when our family disappeared into thin air.”
“Oh, that was magnificent too,” she assures me, not protesting when I call them ours. She heads over to the porch and sticks her head out the sliding doors before asking, “Is it safe to go outside?” she laughs softly. “Or will we get beamed up?”
A grin that curls my lips. “It’s safe. The boxes appeared because the pod lifted away, taking the cloak shield with it, and leaving the boxes visible.”
She slips out onto the back patio, lifts a box, and turns to bring it inside, but I take it from her arms at the open door. She goes back for another as I place the first box on a counter. I take the second box from her and place it on the table while she goes back for yet another. I like that we can work without words, with her knowing that it’s best for me to stay indoors even though I glanced around to make sure there was no one in the distant park or that any of her neighbors weren’t out and about watching or walking. But it never hurts to stay safe. When I take the last box from her arms, she locks the patio door and closes the blinds. Then together we start to unpack the boxes and put away her groceries. I can feel the tic in my jaw working as I realize how barren her cupboards are.
“We can have steak, salad, and baked potatoes today,” she says excitedly. “You’ll love it.”
“I’m sure I will.” I can’t help but lean in and press a kiss to her softly parted lips. “I want to learn everything about you during this short time that we have.”
“I wish we had more time,” she says.
“Maybe we can have another excursion one day, who knows? The future’s not set in stone.” I’m aware that I’m more optimistic than she feels because her expression just looks sad.
My goal in life is to never see that look on her face again. I want to bring everything to this female. Joy, happiness, wealth. I want her to experience life, not to remain locked in a darkened house pretending to be someone she’s not.
“What do you do when you’re not working?” I ask softly.
“I have a garden,” she says brightly. “But I guess I can’t show you since you can’t go outside. But Isabel and I… we came up with an idea to wall it in with shrubbery. That masks the view of one of us working in it and when we do, we usually have our hair pinned up anyway, with a big straw hat on so no one can really tell who we are. Plus, I only garden in the early morning hours, pulling the weeds and taking care of it. Days when I’m sure others aren’t out and about. After this many years, I know the neighbors’ schedules. I avoid Wednesdays because most people are off and they’re out early in the summer.”
“I’ll bet you have the best produce,” I say. “Completely weed free and organized.”
She laughs. “And too much for two people sometimes. A lot of it I can freeze or dry. But there’s also a lot that I leave on the doorsteps of houses around us. Isabel used to take some to the church to leave for River, but I don’t think she ever got any of it. It made her feel better, though.”
“I’m glad she found her. In a way, it was good that River had to come back to Earth to announce her choice. It enabled Isabel to find her and to make a quick decision to follow.”
She nods, her eyes drifting away as she remembers the day. “She was so excited. We have a system, you know. When she approached the house, she made a pattern of knocking sounds to let me know someone was with her. Dropped her keys a couple times.” She chuckles. “He probably thought she was the clumsiest human ever. I hid in my bedroom in a place we carved from the wall and hung a tapestry over. But I could hear everything. She’d entered with someone—I think it was your brother—and he helped her pack up some things. She spoke loudly enough so I could hear she was leaving for another planet and that she had to leave a ‘note’ for the housekeeper who would come, instructing her to clean out the fridge and check on the place once a week to make sure the appliances worked, water the plants, stuff like that. Said she wasn’t sure how long she would be gone but on that slip of paper, she left me all her account info, even signing her name a few times so I could practice forgery. Even left her ID tags in the kitchen drawer.”
I’m aghast at how detailed these females plan out their lives to protect each other.
“And she wrote that she would miss me and wished that she could at least hug me before she left, but that one day she’d be back and would give me the hug we’d missed.”
“You must’ve missed her dreadfully.”
She nods. “She was my best friend for years. Besides my cousin, Sam. But I lived with Isabel. We saw each other day in, day out. We shared clothes and food and ideas. We had the same job, knew of the same people, though from a distance. Although I lived with Sam when I turned eighteen, it was different because I was hidden in her basement while she lived upstairs with her parents, and I was a secret. I wasn’t with her every minute of the day, you know?”
“But you love Sam, also?”
“Oh, yes. I owe everything to her for getting me out of the children’s home, and for searching for a safe place. She found Isabel and it was absolutely a perfect fit. Plus, you know, Sam could have married and forgotten about me. She was high enough on the social ladder to make a good arrangement, but she didn’t. She turned down every offer, even to the point of her parents’ threatening to pick a male. So, Sam pretended she was having an affair, knowing they wouldn’t live with the scandal of marrying her off and her continuing the affair until she was caught.” She shrugs. “Better to be caught and single then caught while in a good match your parents made for you, I guess. Still, it was hard on her because she was so scrutinized that she couldn’t come here or have me go to her. Her parents were determined to find out who the man was.”
“So, she was also alone.”
“Just like me. But her priority was to make sure I was safe before her. She knew I was being hunted.”
“Why?”
Her expression freezes. “My father. A man I’ve never met. He’s climbed up the social ladder and is rich and powerful now. He wants to make sure ties to his past are cut, including all proof of indiscretions.”
“You’re not an indiscretion,” I growl. “You’re a strong, brave, beautiful female with a heart and soul of pure light. Just like Isabel. Just like River.”
Just like Isabel and River, I will make sure that Lucy finds her freedom.
“You know, your mother tried to tempt me with tomatoes?” She laughs as she sets a basket of the fruit on the counter.
“Why?” I ask, genuinely puzzled.
“I don’t think she knew that I had to stay here, and she was trying to let me know that some things would stay familiar if I went to your planet. That tomatoes exist in both lands, though they’re called something different.”
I snort. “Maman lied through her pointed teeth. Did she also give you a sob story about desperately wanting females and only being unlucky enough to birth three males?”
“Yes?” Lucy blinks, surprised. “You don’t have tomatoes?”
“Nothing close, mieka.” I can’t help but chuckle. “You know how and why River, Isabel, and Maman wanted to get away from Pimeon?”
“Why?”
“Maman got the two of them hammered and took them to a house of ill repute where males are employed to pamper females, including giving them a—how shall we say—a happy ending?”
She sucks in her breath, her eyes rounded.
“Thankfully it didn’t get that far since someone got word to Bronan and Tiran. They fetched their tipsy females, leaving me with our drunken maman. The next morning, she snuck out to gather the other two and contact Mikhail about their plans to make sure Isabel’s affairs were in order. Maman knew it would distract Tiran and Bronan from her taking the two for massages if a new issue arose.”
A smile breaks across her face. “You know your mother well.”
“There is no one else like her. You are lucky she’s taken you under her wing. You’ll have her on your side for life.”
And one day, she will know another life. This, I’m sure of.
But then there is a pounding at her front door and the small box that she is holding drops to the floor.
Her cheeks are pale, and her eyes are wide and terrified.