Cat Refuge

by Liza O'Connor

  3// Love, don’t do this.

  2// I can only do this. There are no other paths.

  3// You will destroy our tribe.

  2// I will save our cubs. That is a mother’s first law.

  3// Leap well my love. You carry our tribe with you. I wish you great hunts.

  2// Do not give up the hunt my love. Our tribe will return in future and make **** our den again.

  ***

  Carmella cried as she read the words. His mother had escaped her planet to save her cubs. She reached down and stroked her stomach. Her cub had been sleeping but was now awake. He was sad and searching to understand why he was sad.

  “It is nothing little one,” she thought to him. “Just a sad story.”

  “What is a story?” the cub asked in return.

  Carmella froze for a moment. “You can hear me?”

  “Yes,” the cub replied. “Who are you?”

  “I am your mother.”

  “What is a mother?”

  “One who creates you from her own blood. Who holds you within her. One who loves you very much.”

  “What is love?”

  “It is the surging of my heart when I think of you. It is the sense of joy and happiness that I feel now.”

  “I like that feeling. I am glad you love me.”

  Suddenly the love was washed away with anguish and pain. “What is it?” the cub cried. “Make it stop!” it mewed.

  ***

  Carmella turned to the source of the pain. The Warrior was reading the screen. She had not realized he could read. Yet, by the pain on his face, it was all too apparent he could.

  “I killed her,” he whispered. “She left her world to save me and my sister. And I killed them both.”

  “My love, you didn’t know. You were just a cub.”

  “Was I why she had to leave? Did they know there was something wrong with me?”

  “Love, please, you’re upsetting our cub,” Carmella soothed. “It’s the past, forget it.”

  The Warrior looked at her. “But it’s not the past, is it? It’s going to happen all over again. He’ll kill you, just as I killed my mother.”

  “No. This time it’s different. I can talk to him. I can tell him to wait, and not to use his claws.”

  The Warrior stopped. “What do you mean you can talk to him?”

  “Our cub. He can hear me. He can understand me. He’s so wonderful. He won’t hurt me. He knows I love him.”

  “Apparently my mother loved me…”

  “But she never spoke to you. If she had, you would have told me.”

  He gasped in pain. “You’re right. She never spoke.”

  ***

  “What is wrong? Why am I so hurt?” the cub mewed.

  “You are feeling your father’s pain.”

  “Why does he hurt so?”

  “When he was born, he did not wait for his mother to bring him out into the world. Instead, he tore his way out, never realizing that in doing so, he hurt his mother so badly she died and was no more. What you feel is his sorrow of not waiting.”

  “I do not like this feeling.”

  “Nor I. So, you must promise me, when the time comes for you to be born, you will hold your claws tightly in a ball and wait for me to bring you out into the world.”

  “And then I will not feel this pain?”

  “You will only feel great love if you do this.”

  ***

  When she repeated their conversation, the Warrior stood in wonderment. Was it possible that she might live beyond the birthing? He knew hoping was dangerous, but he had to hope. It was all that he had left.

  Carmella had also turned to hope as she now resumed the analyzing of further data on the tube. Much of the data, had to do with astronomical coordinates, and without knowing the point of reference, the coordinates were meaningless. It was boring work, but she stubbornly made her way through the data to make certain there were no other diamonds among the coal. While she might possess such patience, the Warrior did not, so she sent him away. “Take a very long hunt. Your mood is disturbing our cub.”

  She had just finished translating a section when the door behind her crashed open and two men rushed within with guns aimed directly at her.

  She stared into the eyes of a familiar face. “Kyle?”

  Kyle mouth opened in shock as he noticed her swollen stomach. “Oh God,” he whispered and pulled her to him. “I’m so sorry,” he said repeatedly as he held her against him.

  “It’s okay,” she assured him. “I’m okay.”

  “You have an odd definition of okay.” He glanced around the room. “Where is he?”

  “He’s off hunting. You two have to leave now, before he returns.”

  “Won’t work. He’ll catch us within five miles. We have to ambush him when he returns,” Tom said.

  “What?” Carmella asked in shock. “You can’t kill him.”

  “Carmella, that’s the pheromones talking. He’s raped and impregnated you with his monster. He must die.”

  “No. It’s not like that. Kyle, please. You have to listen. He’s not evil. He was just lonely, but now that he has me. He’s okay.”

  “Carmella, yesterday we came upon the remains of one of his hunts. It was a young girl no more than twelve.”

  “No,” Carmella said, backing away. “He wouldn’t do that anymore. He wouldn’t…”

  “Carmella, you aren’t thinking straight. Where’s my little researcher?”

  “Leave me alone,” she whispered.

  Kyle started to argue, but Tom shook his head and indicated they step outside.

  Once outside, Tom pointed towards the generator shed. “That looks like a good place to wait for him. Stay alert and be ready to fire. The natives say he can smell a man, two miles away.”

  Kyle nodded. “Remember what I said about your aim.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Sure enough to bet my life on it,” Kyle replied. Carmella had shared her discovery of the Warrior’s Achilles heel with him, back when she was rational.

  ***

  Carmella sat before the computer. They had gone. Hopefully, they would be far away by the time the Warrior returned.

  Strong emotions had woken the cub, but now that he was awake, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He opened his eyes and stared through the film that wrapped around him. Sometimes, such as now, he felt tempted to free himself from the warm soft substance, but then he would remember his mother’s warning and curl his claws tightly.

  As he stared out, he noticed movement outside the film. Like him, this creature was also in a film, but it looked very strange. Had an enemy entered his den? Instinctively his claws uncurled, and his tail twitched.

  ***

  Carmella was too engrossed in her own worries to realize what was about to occur within her. She planned to keep the Warrior occupied when he returned. However, she realized he would not return here first. Upon the first scent of the men, he would go directly after them and not return until they were dead. The only way she could stop him, was to find him before he caught their scent. She ran to the door. It was at that moment her cub attacked the creature within the den.

  ***

  The Warrior had already caught the scent of men and knew they were either in or near the house. He slowly circled the area when he heard her scream. With her cry, he broke from cover and ran full speed to the house. The first shot struck his wrist, the second solidly in his left foot. Still he moved forward. The next hit his right hand. Every survival instinct told him to turn and disappear into the woods, but he couldn’t. Nothing, not even his life was more important than Carmella. He pushed onward, hoping beyond hope, their aim had just been lucky. As the shot entered his right foot, he crashed through the door, screaming in rage and pain. She lay on the floor, blood seeping from her womb.

  When she realized he was hurt, she dragged herself to him checking his hands and feet for wounds. She knows, he thought.

  “
Can you live with one?” she asked holding his unharmed hand in hers.

  “The wrist,” he whispered. “The chord is damaged. I don’t know how they knew…”

  “I’m so sorry,” she cried. “It is my fault. It is all my fault.”

  He could smell her blood. “You are hurt,” he stated piercing his finger with his teeth. “Drink.”

  “No! You need your blood.”

  “Not anymore. Take it. When I die, drain me and take all my blood with you. If you need help, contact a man named David Ross in California. You can trust him to keep you and our cub safe from harm. Give him no more than a small vile of my blood. The rest is for you. You’ll need it if our cub is to survive. Now obey my last request, and drink.”

  Sobbing, she obeyed and felt the lifesaving blood enter and heal the damage in her womb.

  Moments later, Kyle and Tom burst into the room and stood like great warriors over the dead body of their quarry.

  “Carmella are you hurt?” Kyle asked when he realized that she sat in a puddle of blood that appeared to be hers.

  “I’m fine now.” She struggled to stand up. “Can you help me lift him onto the table?”

  “Why?”

  “To drain his blood.”

  “Carmella?” Kyle asked wondering if she had lost her mind.

  Carmella looked up at him. Her face looked grief stricken but sane. “His blood has healing properties that I will need to survive this pregnancy. Will you help me or not?”

  Chapter 33

  Carmella’s refusal to consume anything but the Warrior’s blood appalled Kyle. Yet, he soon realized she wouldn’t have survived the four-week journey without super human strength.

  When he reported in to Jason that he had successfully retrieved Carmella, Jason ordered him to bring her immediately back to the states. He argued for a time to rest but was overruled.

  “I need her here,” Jason explained. “Catina Nelson could go into labor any day.”

  ***

  Catina woke to a strange sensation of familiarity. “Tiburon,” she whispered and turned her head towards her visitor. It was not Tiburon. It was a petite, pregnant, black woman.

  “Drink this,” the woman said.

  Catina could tell it was not chicken blood, so she was cautious in tasting it. The sweet taste revived her body and she drank it hungrily. Only when she was done did she realize what the drink meant. She looked at the woman in horror. “You have killed Tiburon.”

  “No. The blood came from the great Warrior himself.” Carmella turned her head from the camera, so it would not record her tears.

  “Why are you here?” Catina asked with mistrust. For how could she trust a woman who would kill her own lover?

  “To help you survive the birth of your cub.”

  “You cannot help me. There is no hope without Tiburon.”

  Carmella started to lay her hand on Catina’s belly, then paused. “May I?”

  Upon Catina’s nod of approval, she rested her hand upon the womb and reached out to the cub.

  “Your cub is frightened and alone. Her thoughts are incoherent.” She pulled away and shook her head. “I cannot help her in this state of mind. You must calm her and let her know you love her.”

  “I don’t want to love her,” Catina whispered.

  “How can you not love her? She is so wonderful.”

  “I have seen what she will grow to be,” Catina replied, the image of Morta coming to her mind.

  “You are wrong. Morta was half-animal, and that is what you fear. This cub is nothing like that. She is kind and gentle. However, you are hurting her with your sadness and misery. You must talk to her, even if she doesn’t understand your words, she will understand the feelings.”

  Catina studied Carmella’s swollen stomach. “You also?”

  Carmella nodded happily and caressed her stomach.

  ***

  Carmella could tell this meeting was not going to be good for her cub, but it was too important for her not to attend. Catina and her cub’s lives depended upon it.

  Laurel Engels glared at Carmella as she sat down. “I would like to go on record that this woman should not be in this meeting. In fact, she should be in quarantine.”

  “But I do not exude pheromones,” Carmella replied. “Therefore, I pose no danger to those around me.”

  “And she is our expert in this field,” Jason added.

  “She’s not an expert. She’s a woman impregnated with God knows what. And I don’t think we should be letting her run about loose. She is a security risk.”

  “Agent Ginkabo is not a security risk. She is one of my top agents. And she knows more about these aliens than any other person alive, so she is most certainly an expert,” Jason snapped. “Now can we settle down and let her give us a report.”

  Carmella took a breath and began her report. “It’s my opinion that neither Catina Nelson nor the cub will survive if you continue to hold them in isolation until the birth of the cub. The cub is highly sensitive towards emotions. While Catina’s cub appears to be gentle, Catina’s state of mind has it so frightened it is highly likely that it will try to escape early, causing a trimester spontaneous miscarriage, killing both of them.”

  “You do not have the expertise to make these judgments,” Laurel objected.

  Carmella stared at her for a moment. “I may lack the degree, but I do have the knowledge, and will be willing to discuss it with any qualified person you choose. You are a psychiatrist, which means you should be able to understand the dangers of isolation, since that is a well-documented field of study.”

  “Even if what she says is true, the pheromones risk still remains.”

  “I can teach her not to exude pheromones.” She realized she had not told Jason that before. She had not trusted him since returning from the field and seeing what they had done to Catina.

  Jason looked surprised and disturbed by this revelation. “Thank you, Agent Ginkabo. Now if you’ll excuse us, we’ll let you know our decision.”

  Carmella nodded and left the room. She tried very hard to remain calm. To her estimation, she only had fifteen minutes or less to make her escape, but she knew that she had to take Catina with her or her son would never have a mate.

  She entered the security room and created a patch-loop, which would continue to play Catina’s last thirty minutes. This should give her some time before someone noticed, unless they looked at the time code on the bottom of the screen. She stepped over the grumbling body of the security guard sitting on his chair tied and gagged and opened the door to Catina’s room. Speaking in the microphone, she woke Catina from her sleep and told her the door was open and to make her way out to the fifth stairwell, to go up three flights and wait in the broom closet outside the stairwell.

  From the security room, she headed down the stairwell, catching Catina as she was headed up. “Change of plan, follow me,” she ordered and continued to make her way down the stairs.

  In the car park, she hotwired a car, and with Catina safely in the trunk, she pulled out. She had not driven fifty feet before she had to slam on the brakes in order to avoid running over Kyle, who appeared from nowhere.

  “Hey, where you off to?”

  “I don’t have time to talk right now,” she said, her voice flat and emotionless.

  “That’s too bad.” He went around to the passenger’s side, opened the door, and climbed in. “Because I don’t intend to let this go for another day.”

  Carmella sighed. “Get out or close the door.”

  Kyle closed the door and leaned back. “Must be some trouble.” He pointed out the sharp shooters at the gate tower.

  “Shit,” Carmella cursed. ‘I’m in no mood for red tape tonight.”

  “Go around the back. The supply entrance is manned by a friend of mine.”

  She followed his directions, wondering all the while if he was leading her into a trap.

  “Stop here,” he ordered as they pulled behind a building.

&n
bsp; “Can we talk about this later? I really don’t have time.”

  “Are you in that big of a hurry to get yourself shot?” he asked softly.

  Carmella froze. “What do you mean?”

  “There’s an all-points bulletin out for you. Whatever you said in that meeting brought you down. Jason wants you locked up.”

  “I can’t let them do that, Kyle,” she whispered, wondering if this might be a reasonable time to release pheromones.

  “I agree. I’ve seen what they’ve done to Catina Nelson. I don’t want that done to you, or my child.”

  She looked at him in shock. “You know?”

  “Yeah. It’s in your file. Subject 2AXQ is pregnant with a human fetus, age estimate six months, and unknown species fetus, age undeterminable.”

  She grabbed her stomach. “He’s still alive then?”

  “Yep, and it’s mine, right?”

  She nodded.

  “And were you ever going to tell me?”

  She could hear the pain in his voice. “If he lived, yes. If he died, no. I was going to spare you that.”

  Kyle swallowed. “Look, I wasn’t lying about a friend back here. Get in the back seat and put that blanket over you. I’ll get us out of here.”

  ***

  Several miles later, he pulled over and helped her out of the back. She noticed the phone booth near the car. “I have to make a phone call, I’ll be right back.”

  Kyle waited by the car. When she returned, she took the keys from his hands. “I really appreciate what you’ve done for me, but if you go any further, you’ll destroy your career. So you should go back now.”

  “Like hell. I let you go off once without me. Never again. As for my career, I destroyed that when I went AWOL in Africa and kept trying to find you when they told me to give it up and return to the states.”

  “I’m serious, Kyle. There’s no path back from where I’m headed.”

  “I’m serious too. I’m going wherever you go.”

  “Then you can come, but I just hope you don’t grow to hate me for ruining your life.”

  “It really hasn’t been that good of a life. I’m due for a change.”

  ***

  She drove the car to an old shipping dock where they were met by several men in suits.