Volunteer (Selected Book 3)

by Robin Roseau

  Then she bent her face and buried it in arms and tentacles.

  Again, Posey was next.

  We love you. Please come home.

  Then Bluebell and Azalea together. They were sitting in my room in their house. It hadn't changed.

  This is still your room, Skye. You are still our daughter. Please come home.

  And then there were a series of images of happy times. Me and Violet. Me, Violet, and Posey. Me and Bluebell. Audra was in the mix. Images of playing games. Images of them teasing me. Images of hugs, and dinners, and laughter.

  And then all four of them. They were seated on the sofa.

  We are not a family without you, Skye. Please come home.

  The visor dimmed, and then it loosened. I removed it from my face then grabbed more of the napkins and worked on my tears. Amaryllis watched me carefully. I set the visor on the table between us.

  "If you go home now," Amaryllis said, "You can finish your degree fall term."

  "No."

  "Skye."

  "When you leave, please ensure I still have a job."

  I stood up and walked out.

  Violet

  I received a call the next morning. It was the manager. "We had a little excitement here last night."

  "So we did," I agreed.

  "It made the local papers."

  "That's not a surprise."

  "The ET ambassador descended on our restaurant to talk to you. You have become a local celebrity."

  "Just what I needed," I said sarcastically. "Do I still have a job?"

  "I think we're likely to be swamped. Can you work a double? Lunch is going to be crazy."

  * * * *

  It was two days later that Blossom and Ladyslipper came for a late dinner. My shift was was just about over, and I was dead on my feet, when I saw them.

  "I'll take them," I said. "But no more tonight."

  I settled them in at table seventeen.

  "Sit," Blossom offered. So I nodded and accepted. "It was Amaryllis from whom you were hiding."

  "No. Jasmine Brighteyes, and I suppose Bluebell Beamer."

  "And, we imagine, her daughter."

  "Yes. How long have you known?"

  "A few weeks. We saw a video. I imagine it's the one you saw last night."

  "I imagine. You knew they knew where I was."

  "You speak exceedingly good Catseye for a human, Skye," said Ladyslipper. "No one speaks that well unless she has lived with one of us. And we don't let go easily."

  "Apparently not," I said.

  "When are you going to forgive them?"

  "I should do that for the lifestyle they can give me?"

  "No," said Blossom. "You should do that because you love them as much as they love you."

  At that I started to cry. I managed to apologize and said I couldn't serve them tonight. I ran and punched out and was out of the restaurant moments later. But they were already waiting.

  "Let us walk you home," said Ladyslipper.

  I didn't say anything but simply turned for home. They moved to either side, but they were wise enough not to touch.

  I let them follow me all the way to the apartment. "It's all I can afford," I said as they followed me in.

  They looked around. There was little to see. I headed for the bathroom and cleaned up. I was getting tired of crying. When I stepped out, they were waiting for me.

  "We wanted to see where you live," Blossom said.

  "You didn't get dinner. Will you let me make something for you?"

  "That would be lovely."

  "Human food."

  "We can eat human food."

  "I know, but I don't have any of your spices. If you haven't been here long, you may find the flavors unusual." But I headed for the kitchen area and did a review of what I had that was fresh. "I can make a stir fry with chicken and vegetables. And I think rice."

  "That would be lovely," said Ladyslipper.

  I got started. "I'm sorry. I haven't any chairs. I normally just sit on the floor."

  "This is fine," Blossom said. They leaned against each other and watched me cook. "May we help?"

  "No. This is easy."

  I focused on cooking while they made small talk. Then, when it was ready, I turned to them. "I do not have proper bowls. I will eat from a plate with a fork, but I believe you would rather be served in a bowl. I only have these little ones, and there are no handles. But you can come back for more servings."

  "You are gracious, Skye."

  So I dished for them then took a bowl myself, because that just seemed right. I gave them their bowls then moved to the window and pulled all the blinds.

  When I turned back, they were standing there, watching me, holding their bowls.

  "You will not mind if we open our shirts?"

  "Why would I mind?" I asked. I grabbed my bowl and picked my favorite place on the floor. A moment later they joined me, setting their bowls aside while they released their clothing. Shortly, eight tentacles appeared, and Ladyslipper offered a Catseye snuffling sigh.

  We ate, and then I warmed damp towels in the microwave, handing them out. I collected everything and quickly washed before returning to sit on the floor.

  "Are you going to forgive them?" Ladyslipper asked.

  "I don't know." I turned away, not wanting to meet anyone's eyes. "They deliberately hurt me. I have no reason to believe they wouldn't do it again."

  Ladyslipper extended a tentacle to pull my gaze back to her. She looked around, I thought pointedly, then turned back to look at me. "You have options, if you decide you do not wish to forgive. Will you hear them?" I nodded.

  "First, you can continue to do what you are doing." She looked around once more, and she made her point.

  "It's home," I said quietly.

  "Ambassador Amaryllis would give you options," Ladyslipper went on. "I believe you know how to contact her."

  "Anything I do with her will come with a price. And I would see Azalea, probably a lot. If I'm not willing to forgive them, I don't want to see them."

  "The ambassador has great influence, and her options could be somewhere else."

  "With a price."

  "This is probably true, but maybe you have already paid any price she would ask. There is another choice. You could ask me for a job. I would give you one."

  "Where?"

  "One of the Testing Centers here."

  "Unless there is a dramatic change in that process, I must decline. I will not help you do to other humans what I would not let anyone do to me."

  "I understand," she said. "The offer remains open."

  "I appreciate it, Ladyslipper."

  "If we invite you to dinners, will you come?" Blossom asked.

  I thought about it before answering. "Yes, but give me a little more time before you invite me."

  "When you are ready, please tell us."

  "I will."

  They stood fluidly, then Ladyslipper held a tentacle to me. I took it, and she lifted me to my feet.

  "We wish a non-professional relationship," she said.

  "What sort of non-professional relationship?"

  "The sort that involves hugging you."

  "I'd like that," I said. I loosened my blouse. "When a Catseye tastes a human, she leaves marks upon our skin. Please do not mark my face or neck, and I am not ready to accept a tentacle across my lips."

  "We understand." And then Ladyslipper stepped closer. I moved into her arms. She wrapped me in tentacles, and if she tasted, it was lightly done. Blossom treated me the same, and then they were both gone.

  * * * *

  Amaryllis told me to expect someone else in a month. The ETs didn't wait a month. They waited a week. I came home from a trip to the grocery store, and there was an ET car parked in front of my building. I stared at it, but it was empty. There was no one in the foyer, either, so I decided it wasn't really for me.

  I was wrong.

  I was barely inside my apartment before I heard a voice. "
Hello, Skye."

  I shrieked and nearly dropped my groceries, then twirled. "How did you get in here?"

  "Human locks aren't very secure," said Violet.

  I turned away from her. I had groceries to put away and a surge of adrenalin to push back.

  "I didn't mean to startle you."

  I turned to her and discovered she wasn't alone. Rapid Flitter stood by the window, looking outside.

  "What is she doing here?"

  "We'll come to that," Violet said. Then she lowered herself to the floor in front of me, her head touching the ugly carpet. "I'm sorry, Skye. Please forgive me. Please come home with me."

  I stared down at her. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to think.

  "I was some sort of experiment," I said coldly. "A demonstration. You didn't even let me finish school."

  "Come home. You can finish this fall. Please, Skye. I know you still love me."

  She still didn't get up.

  "Get up. I'm not talking to you like this."

  "You told me I had to abase myself. Am I doing it wrong?"

  "No. Get up."

  "Not until you say the words."

  "What words?"

  "That you forgive me."

  "Get up. I will not be manipulated." I sighed. That probably wasn't true, but I wasn't going to make it that easy.

  Slowly she rose to see me scowling at her. She made it to her feet and reached for me, but I stepped away. She dropped her arms. I stared at her.

  "Do you hate me?"

  "No."

  "Do you want to forgive me?"

  "It's too late."

  "No, it's not. Do you want to forgive me?"

  I stared then turned away, moving to the sink. There was a dish from breakfast, so I filled the sink with water and washed it, slowly and deliberately, then dried it, equally slowly and deliberately.

  "Your parents call me their adoptive daughter. Human parents don't do things like that to their children. I take it Catseye parents do. Oh wait I bet they don't." I turned back to face her. "So they never really saw me as a daughter the way they said they did. I'm just someone to manipulate and use when they deem it useful." I shook my head. "I don't know who was worse. Jasmine, Bluebell, or you."

  "What we did was terrible," Violet said. "But nothing was ever an act. I think you still love me. I think you still love all of us. Do you want to forgive me?"

  "You and Posey broke promises to me."

  "I know. We shouldn't have. We're sorry, Skye. We won't break any more."

  "You picked Jasmine's game over Audra and me."

  "I know."

  "You hurt me, but worse you hurt Audra. I might have gotten over my anger if it had just been me, but do you really think you get to hurt Audra and I just shrug it off?"

  She looked down for a moment then raised her gaze back to me. "Do you want mating candidates treated differently than they currently are?"

  "That's not the point."

  "Do you?"

  I sighed. "Yes. That still isn't the point."

  "Do you want the Federation of Allied Planets to treat humans with more respect than they do?"

  "Like, oh, I don't know? Keeping promises?" She looked back down. I thought my barb had landed. "You didn't do it for Jasmine's video. You did it because you could."

  "That's not true."

  "You congratulated each other for tricking the trusting humans, Violet. You congratulated each other for successfully breaking your promises and destroying our trust. For all your talk about man's immaturity, I consider that pretty damned immature, don't you?"

  "Haven't you ever made a mistake?" she asked quietly. She looked up again. "Is there any room in your heart to forgive us for a mistake?"

  I turned back to the sink, drying the last few dishes. Then, with my back to her, I said, "I hurt, Violet. Jasmine. You and Posey. Bluebell. You all took turns hurting me, one after another."

  "I know," she said softly. "I can't speak for Jasmine, but the rest of us weren't trying to hurt you, Skye."

  "Then what were you trying to do?"

  "Bluebell was trying to make you come home. Posey and I were being far less mature."

  I turned around at that.

  "We're just as capable of making mistakes as humans, Skye. We made a mistake. We've learned from it. Please forgive us."

  I stared for a while then turned away, staring into the dishwater. "I don't know how."

  I heard movement, and then Rapid Flitter was beside me, her blue hand on my shoulder. "That, Skye, is why I am here."

  "Don't you use your pheromones on me."

  "Not yet," she said. "Only if you ask. And I'd use them on both of you." She stepped slightly closer. "You have not hugged me."

  "No pheromones."

  "Not yet."

  So I let her hug me, and we held each other for a while. Then we relaxed, but she didn't entirely release me.

  "Do you still love her?" she asked in my ear.

  "Yes," I said, my voice cracking.

  "Please let me help, Skye. It will be the best make up sex in the history of make up sex."

  I couldn't help it. I laughed.

  "Or you could give yourself to me," she said.

  I smiled and kissed her ear. "I can't even tell if that is a serious offer."

  "Neither can I. I would need to find three more. We cannot be five, after all."

  She leaned away from me and looked into my eyes. "You want to forgive her, but you do not know how. Now you know how. You must only stand here and breathe."

  I didn't say anything, but I didn't pull away, either. It took a few minutes, but soon I wasn't just holding her. I was clutching her tightly, my nose buried against her, as I panted.

  "More," I whispered.

  "Lick my neck," she ordered, and I did. Then, "Tell Violet you still love her."

  I did that, and she gasped. "Skye..."

  "Tell her to breathe deeply of me," Rapid Flitter said. "Tell her to take your blouse from you and taste both of us."

  "Violet," I said, "My blouse. Taste us. Taste us both."

  She didn't need encouragement. I refused to release Rapid Flitter, but Violet got the blouse from me, and then she wrapped us both in her tentacles.

  "Tell her to taste deeply of me," she said. And so I did. A moment later, Violet began snuffling loudly.

  Then Rapid Flitter got us moving towards my air mattress, commanding us from our clothes -- and her own -- before we sank down.

  "Lick me," she ordered. "Take in my taste."

  And we did, both of us insane in our lust. My mind was gone, driven with need, driven with the need to obey my queen. We licked, and we touched, and we tasted, and we breathed in all her delightfully wonderful pheromones.

  "Take Skye into your arms, Violet. Skye, go to her willingly and completely."

  And so we shifted. Rapid Flitter moved off the mattress, but she talked to us for a while, over and over telling us....

  You will forever trust each other.

  You will forever love each other.

  You will forever earn trust, and never again offer betrayal.

  You will worship each other, and care for each other, and belong to each other.

  Skye, beg to be Violet's.

  And I did.

  Violet, beg to be Skye's.

  And she did.

  Violet, beg for forgiveness.

  And she did.

  Skye, give forgiveness, deep in your heart, to all who have wronged you.

  That was harder.

  We didn't hear her leave.

  Home

  Rapid Flitter had opened the window before leaving, and so, some hours later, our brains cleared. We lay together, sweaty and spent. And I was filled with love and peace for the first time in six months.

  "I'm sorry," I whispered.

  "No. You did nothing wrong."

  "You will never do anything like that to me again."

  "Never."

  "Promise."
/>   "Never again, Skye. I promise."

  "I don't care what argument Jasmine uses."

  "I promise."

  I paused for a moment. "Did you mark my face?"

  "I'm sorry."

  "How badly?"

  "Um. I'm really sorry."

  "It's fine."

  "Please go look in the mirror and then tell me that."

  I thought about it. "All right." I got up and walked to the bathroom. I barely avoided shrieking. I didn't even remember her doing it, but my face was covered in marks. I stared for a while. When I returned, Violet was sitting up, watching the bathroom doorway intently. I stopped and stared at her.

  "That was pretty amazing make up sex," I said. "Who knows what we've done here?"

  "The two of us and Rapid Flitter. I didn't tell anyone I was coming."

  "What are you offering me?"

  She smiled and moved to her knees on the floor, looking up at me, all six limbs in a praying gesture. "Skye Andrews, will you marry me?"

  I began crying then ran to her and let her wrap around me. "Yes," I whispered.

  * * * *

  I fed her in bed, and then we lay together for hours, finally sleeping near dawn. When next we woke, I rolled over to her.

  "Skye?"

  "Violet."

  "I know I asked you to marry me."

  "And now you're already onto the divorce."

  "I really, really hate your apartment. Please tell me we're not staying here."

  I laughed. "Let's go home."

  * * * *

  It took about fifteen minutes to pack. She drove me to the apartment management building. They didn't want to let me out of my lease.

  Violet took off her glasses and stared into the shocked woman's face. "We're going home. There's the key. This is my business card. If there are lingering issues, you will talk to me. You will not bother my fiancé. Thank you for your assistance." Then she replaced the glasses, picked me up, and carried me, giggling, back to the car.

  We were in the air an hour later and naked on the floor fifteen minutes after that. The jumper could fly itself.

  * * * *

  I stood staring at the door. I was scared, but Violet understood. Then I nodded, and she opened the door.

  Bluebell was waiting for me. I came to a stop, staring at her. She stared back, her tentacles quivering. I couldn't read them.

  "Hello, Bluebell," I said.

  "When you walk into this house after a six month absence, you do not say 'Hello, Bluebell'. You say 'Hello, Mom. I am home.' Am I clear?"