First Contact

by S. J. Sanders

  The male grinned at him. “Repairman’s coming tomorrow. We’ll soon be rolling in dough.”

  Ehmhy was at the limits of his patience. So that was the only reason they hadn’t outright killed his nephew—they planned to sell him. Disgust flared in his gut, sparking his temper back into the killing heights he experienced upon seeing Ferikal in his pitiful state. His ears twitched, and he took in the location of the young ones and his mate in her peripheral vision.

  Confident they were out of the direct line of fire, he darted away from them, the weapon barely clipping the fur of his hip before he leaped forward and pulled down the pair with his claws. To his surprise, Ferikal joined in with a savage growl and together they tore into the meaty flesh of his captors. The female screamed at first but transitioned into pitiful wails until death silenced her. Lucas, however, shouted with great fervor as Ehmhy took pleasure in gutting him and allowing his organs and waste matter to spill out onto the floor. His death was slower, but Ferikal’s eyes gleamed in the light as he witnessed his vengeance rain down.

  A small whimper drew his attention, and Ehmhy felt an immediate pang of remorse. The females were huddled together watching them with frightened eyes. Glancing down at himself and over at Ferikal, he took note of how they must appear to them, their red fur covered in the blood of their enemies. To his surprise, Suzee recovered first. She broke free of Geree’s grip and raced over to the young Forad, flinging her arms around him. Her entire body shook with what he suspected was relief as she whispered her thanks to the fashi-afar and he in turn purred contentedly at her.

  Ehmhy observed their reunion for several minutes before reluctantly turning his head to look upon his mate. His mate—it felt right to acknowledge her as such even without the mating marks and the official binding by her consent. His kin would likely be surprised, but he knew they would be happy for him even if he never deposited his genetic material to breed offspring out of respect to his mate.

  He would do anything to make her happy. In turn, she would be his and his alone.

  A savage glee spread through him at the thought and his eyes trailed over her slowly and waited. Wild masses of her dark curls escaped the knot of hair on her head and for a moment she looked at him as if she truly feared him. Ehmhy flattened his ears with misery, wondering if his actions ruined the one truly good thing in his life.

  “Geree,” he whispered, stretching out a hand toward her. She lifted a shaky hand, stopping him, and breathed deeply.

  “Just give me a bit. That was... unexpected,” she said as a shudder racked her body. “What you did to them...”

  “Was necessary,” he finished calmly. “They had no compassion for us and would have harmed us or sold us depending on what was more profitable. They treated my nephew like an animal. What would have stopped them from skinning him like one and selling his pelt? They could not be trusted to remain alive to tell anyone about us, Geree. I won’t risk our safety that way. Not when your people have shown themselves to be determined to find us.”

  “They also hurt Suzee,” Ferikal said. He nuzzled the small yellow-haired female in his arms. “I was forced to listen to them beat her as she cried from their dwelling.” She winced as he ran a hand over a bruise that peeked out just below the sleeve of her garment.

  Geree stared at the smaller female in horror and attempted to move to her side as if to provide comfort; Ferikal, however, reacted instinctively and shifted his female away. Although the worst of the heat was over, the male was still reacting strongly from it. Ehmhy narrowed his eyes at his nephew, waiting to see if he would dare to attack or even growl at Geree, but to his relief he did neither. He merely stood with Suzee clutched firmly to him out of her reach. Geree did not protest. Instead, she raised her hands and flattened her palms peacefully.

  “Ferikal, is it? I’m Gerry. I’m not going to hurt Suzy. I just need to check her, okay?”

  Flicking an ear at her, Ferikal eyed her with suspicion, inhaled, and darted a questioning look to Ehmhy. No doubt he scented him on her and was confused. Ehmhy inclined his head slowly.

  “Geree is mine. She won’t harm her. Allow her to see to Suzee’s health, Ferikal.”

  “She is yours...” Ferikal trailed off, his ears perking with interest.

  “Yes,” Ehmhy interrupted. It was a conversation he’d yet to have with Geree. It wasn’t proper for her to hear details on his feelings from this conversation. Ferikal seemed to understand and closed his mouth into a lopsided grin. He reluctantly opened his arms and nudged Suzee toward her.

  The small female was certainly not a nervous or shy little thing. She smiled at Geree and permitted the other female to check her back, belly, arms, and legs. With gentle hands, Geree examined her from where she was crouched in front of her, gasping and murmuring over the bruises and cuts, Suzee occasionally drawing in sharp sounds of pain. As Ehmhy became aware of just how much the youngling had suffered, he felt anger at the humans. He didn’t want to think such behavior was common; his Geree proved there were good and kind humans. But it seemed that the species had its own share of deviants they permitted to be free.

  He wished he had drawn out their deaths.

  “Humans treat their young in such a way?” he asked, a growl edging his voice.

  Geree looked up at him in surprise and bit her lip. “It’s not supposed to happen, no,” she said slowly. “These assholes should have been in jail for doing this. Somehow, people like them manage to escape notice and fall through the cracks in the system.” She sat back on her heels and scrubbed her face before meeting Suzee’s eyes.

  “Do you have any family?” she asked, ignoring Ferikal’s protest.

  Suzee shook her head. “No. Ruth was my aunt. She’s been taking care of me since Mama and Daddy passed. I don’t have any other family.” Suzee blinked back tears. “Ferikal said I could go with you. Can I? I won’t be no trouble—I swear. Please don’t leave me here.”

  Geree raised an eyebrow at him and Ehmhy, understanding her silent question, nodded. Her grateful smile warmed him throughout as she slowly stood and stretched her muscles.

  “Okay then. In that case, we’d better get a move on. We just need to get back to the boat and...”

  “Uh, Gerry, we don’t have to do that. Lucas has an old truck. It isn’t much, a beat-up, noisy old thing, but it runs. He was saying just this morning that the roads have finally been cleared so we shouldn’t run into any trouble.”

  A relieved smile flashed across Geree’s face and she pulled Suzee into a hug that had the smaller female both wincing and smiling at the same time.

  “That’s great news, kid.” She wrinkled her nose at the body. “I guess I’d better search him for the key.”

  “Allow me,” Ferikal interrupted and stooped over the body to dig into his pockets. A small set of metal sticks on a loop came out in his hand. He raised them for inspection.

  “Is this them?”

  “Yes!” Geree exclaimed. “Good job,” she said as she plucked the keys from his fingers. Whiskers trembling with pleasure, Ferikal turned to grip Suzee’s hand in his as they followed Geree out around the buildings. Ehmhy paced at his female’s side, alert for any surprises as they came across a much-dented blue pickup. Unlike the one that he’d ridden in before, this one was old and covered with rust. Geree whistled low as she looked it over critically.

  “Looks like the only thing holding it together is dirt. Okay, no problem. As long as it runs, we’re good to go.”

  The door squeaked as she pulled it open and she slid into the driver’s seat, her nose wrinkling with distaste.

  “Ugh, smells disgusting in here,” she muttered. She pushed trash off the seat with a grimace. “What a pig.” Sticking a key into what he assumed was the ignition slot, she turned it. The engine whined for a few seconds and fell silent. Geree cursed and tried again. This time, it caught and the engine started with a roar, barely clinging to life judging by its plaintive rattle, but his mate smiled.

  “All ri
ght, everyone. Pile in.”

  Ferikal and Suzee crawled into the bed of the pickup, leaving Ehmhy the privilege of sitting with his female inside. He climbed in beside her, the smell assaulting him. His ears flattened and his whiskers fanned out with disgust. Geree was right; it was foul. He considered moving to the back with the younglings. His thought must have been obvious because Geree laughed.

  “It’s all right if you want to go in the back with them. I wouldn’t want to be in here either if I could avoid it.”

  Stiffening, Ehmhy breathed through his mouth and slammed the door shut. If his female was willing to suffer through it, he would do so with her.

  “It is fine. We need to find a place to hide where we can set the beacon and wait.”

  “I know just the place,” Geree informed him as her head whipped around, looking from the mirrors and through the window behind him as she backed the truck up and got it turned around. “We’re going to go lie low with my aunt in Carville. My aunt always said she’d seen everything, and people looking as different as people can look. She won’t raise a fuss if we hide out there.”

  Ehmhy settled back against his seat, satisfied to no longer be walking. He only hoped that her aunt would be as accommodating as Geree seemed to think she would be. Geree’s fingers ran across a grimy surface before flicking on a switch and turning it until the vehicle was filled with a throaty song. She grinned up at him and began to sing along as the vehicle bounced and swayed over the ruts and holes in the dirt road as they made their way out.

  Chapter 13

  The ride to the main roads was brutal to say the least. Gerry felt sorry for the kids in the back every time the truck pitched against another rut or sank into a pothole. She didn’t get away unscathed either; she bit her tongue a couple of times at the worst of the lurches. Ehmhy didn’t complain, but he held tight to the seat and door, his ears twitching all the while. She was relieved when they finally hit the main road, but it left her with a choice. Did she backtrack through New Orleans and take the I-10, or circle around the long way on the I-12 and cut through Baton Rouge? She asked Ehmhy for his opinion and he frowned.

  “Aside from being quicker, are there any benefits returning through New Orleans?”

  “Not really,” she admitted. “At most, I’d be able to stop by my place for clean clothes and a shower, but I’m not sure how safe it would be if the guys from the government are waiting for me to return.”

  “I am sorry, Geree, but it may be best that we proceed on the longer route.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking too, though I’d hoped that maybe my thinking was wrong,” she said with a reluctant smile. “Reach into the bag and pull out the blanket and hand that to the kids. Ferikal is going to need to cover up as we go through Slidell. You might want to pull your hood down over your face again. People tend not to look too closely at folks in cars, but it’s better to err on the side of caution.”

  As Ehmhy carried out her directions, Gerry tucked a hand into her pants pocket, hunting for the cash she had on her when they’d left New Orleans. With luck on their side, some of it wasn’t ruined by her walk through the rain. To her surprise all eight twenty-dollar bills survived, though they were now faded and crumpled. Still, it was legal tender and that was the important part.

  It wasn’t much, but it would get them to Carville.

  Mid-afternoon traffic in Slidell was smooth and they were making good time. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Ehmhy hand back the last of the jerky to the kids. As much as she wanted to haul ass all the way to Carville, they’d have to make at least one stop before they hit the highway. Fortunately, a Burger King sign loomed just off the highway. Throwing on her turn signal, she took the off-ramp and pulled into the drive-thru within minutes. Ehmhy looked at her questioningly and yanked his hood lower as he settled further down into his seat.

  She placed their order, and sixty-eight dollars later, armed with burgers, fries, and drinks—water for the Forad since she recalled the way Ehmhy curled his lip at anything sugary—they were well on their way again. Ferikal ate all three of his Whoppers in record time and Gerry felt a pang of sympathy for him. He clearly hadn’t been fed anywhere near enough for his body size. Though nowhere near as big as Ehmhy, he easily outweighed human boys his age.

  Although she’d gotten herself two burgers in hopes of having one later, Gerry passed her second burger back through the window. The boy looked at her in surprise, and then with a shy smile he accepted the offering, pausing long enough to utter a sincere thanks before tearing into it.

  Gerry returned her attention to the road, but not before catching Ehmhy’s soft expression. The back of his hand lightly brushed her arm. He said no words, but the warmth in his eyes and the tenderness of his touch conveyed all he needed to tell her. She let go of the steering wheel with her opposite hand and brushed the short, soft fur on his hand gently so that he would know she understood exactly what he wanted to say. His deep purr rattled through the cab of the truck.

  Two hours later, after a slight hiccup in Baton Rouge where she’d accidentally ended up on an off-ramp that got her lost before she found the highway again, Gerry was relieved when she saw the sign declaring they were now entering Carville, Louisiana. She didn’t turn off the main road yet. Aunt Bea had a small place on the outskirts of town.

  Although Carville wasn’t exceptionally big, and its historical claim to fame was the leper colony and museum, Bea had never enjoyed living close to other people, even after her husband died a number of years ago. Her old house sat facing the river, where she spent much of the afternoon watching the birds or fishing when not tinkering in her garden.

  Glancing over at Ehmhy, Gerry took in his wide-eyed watchfulness as they drove along the river.

  “Are you all right?”

  His eyes turned toward her, and he smiled. “Yes, Geree. I am well. It is unnerving sometimes to see so much flat land. I should not have such an instinctual reaction since I spend so much time in the empty stretches of space, but open grassland still makes me feel terribly exposed.”

  “I suppose it would if you grew up in a forest,” she said.

  Rounding a bend in the road, she grinned as she caught sight of her aunt’s house poking out between ancient magnolia trees. The whitewashed exterior was faded and needed a fresh coat in some places, but it looked like nothing had changed in the months since she’d last dropped by. A large rambling garden stretched out from the side of the house. She pulled up the dirt drive and parked beside the faded SUV that Bea insisted she needed for her supply runs.

  “Hey, you there! What’s going on?” a voice shouted irritably, and Gerry caught sight of Bea trudging up the path from the river, a few fat catfish hanging from her fishing line. A floppy straw hat protected her face from the sun, but she still raised her hand over her eyes as if to cut the glare as she peered at them. Gerry stuck her upper half out the window and waved. The elderly woman’s wrinkled face broke into a wide smile.

  “Geraldine, is that you? Go on inside! I’ll take care of these and be right in.”

  She watched her aunt disappear into the weathered boatshed as Ehmhy exited the cab and Ferikal leaped easily from the bed of the truck before turning to assist Suzy. When everyone was on the ground, she led them inside, into the parlor. The entire room and its hardwood floors were immaculate as usual and smelled faintly of Pledge. They had barely gotten themselves seated on the russet floral-print sofa her aunt stubbornly held onto since she bought it in the sixties when Bea came inside. She took one look at Gerry’s guests and pulled her hat off her head.

  “Well, I’ll be... Geraldine, are these folks with you?”

  Gerry went up to her aunt and pressed a fond kiss to her cheek.

  “Yes, Aunt Bea. Please don’t panic. They need help lying low until their family can get them.” Her aunt’s dark eyes narrowed with curiosity when Ehmhy slid behind her and rested a palm on her hip in a show of solidarity.

  “You do realize th
ey ain’t human, right? All except that little white girl over there. What have you got yourself into?”

  “Yes, I know they’re not.” She pressed a palm against Ehmhy’s hand and smiled back at him. “But they don’t mean us any harm. This is Ehmhy, and that’s his nephew, Ferikal. I’m willing to vouch for them. They’re good people who’ve fallen on some really hard times.”

  Gerry tried to explain the events that occurred as her aunt settled herself into her favorite chair and listened raptly. Every now and again, she’d interrupt with a “bless their heart” or “oh my,” and more than once she clucked her tongue in disbelief.

  “So you’ve got the government tailing after you and you just need to lie low until your cousin can arrive.” She nodded and rocked back in her chair. “I suppose it ain’t any trouble to put you up. Our family has never turned away a needy person. My grandmama was a nurse at the leper colony and she told me many times that you don’t judge a person by what they look like. You have fur and a tail and some interesting ears, but I won’t go disgracing her memory by being inhospitable just because you don’t look human.”

  She pulled herself slowly from her chair. “Geraldine, show them the guest rooms. I’m expecting you want to keep the big one with you with the way you are holding onto each other. Just keep it down. My ears may not be virginal, but I like to pretend they are at this point in my life.” Her face brightened with her raspy laugh. “You’ve been running so much you best get some rest. I’m heading to the kitchen. I imagine y’all are hungry, so I’m going to get supper started. I hope catfish is fine. This is the best haul I’ve had in days. Good fishing,” she said as she made her way back to the kitchen.

  Ferikal and Suzy refused to be separated. Although they insisted they weren’t going to do anything, they needed the mutual comfort of being together. Ehmhy seemed inclined to allow them to stay together and Gerry couldn’t think of any reasonable objections, so she didn’t say anything as the pair curled up on the quilt in exhaustion. She quietly shut the door behind them and led Ehmhy to the room Bea reserved for her visits.