Part 9 (1/2)
Refusing to look at Langton again, he rearranged his clothing, schooled his features, and crossed the dance floor to an opening in the hedge. Never again. I'm never going to do this again.
As he approached the opening, senses raw, he felt Inea. She crouched behind the hedge, watching him cross the floor. Then she broke and ran, the hedge tossing in her wake.
What she thought she'd seen-what he'd been projecting for anyone pa.s.sing by to see-was a man and woman hastily coupling with embarra.s.sing intensity.
He broke into a shambling lunar run. ”Inea, wait!”
Chapter seven.
Inea ran from him as if he were truly evil.
It would be so easy to stop her with Influence. t.i.tus skidded to a halt in the midst of a weight lifting cla.s.s and summoned the revulsion he'd felt as he'd forced each of the codes out of Suzy Langton. I won't be addicted to Influence.
”Hey, Mister, anything wrong?” called the instructor, a muscular young woman who had oiled her black skin until she looked like an ebony statue. Abner Gold stood behind her.
t.i.tus noticed an odd intensity in her gaze, but brushed it aside. ”Oh. just forgot something.” He pushed on.
As he emerged from an arch in the vine that s.h.i.+elded the weight lifting area, he found Inea poised on the b.a.l.l.s of her feet, eyeing him. They were near the entrance to the gym. The rowing team he'd seen working out was gone, and their area was dimmed. t.i.tus cast about for any trace of Abbot. He found nothing, but one of his string could be watching.
t.i.tus moved into the rowing area, and called, ”Inea, you didn't see what you thought you saw. Not here and not in the cafeteria. We really need to talk. Come sit?”
He settled cross-legged on the floor beside one of the rowing machines, leaning against its side, waiting. He had almost given up hope, when she drifted through the gate.
As she entered the area, he erected a s.h.i.+eld around them to divert the interest of pa.s.sersby. ”Let me explain my-apparenta” behavior. Please, Inea, please listen.”
”I can't imagine what you could say after what I saw.”
”Remember the bat?”
She glanced sharply at him. ”So?”
”I can make people see anything. In the refectory, you thought I'd eaten a meal. Here you thought I'd taken a woman. I did neither.”
”How do I know? You could say anything.”
This was why he'd promised himself never to Influence her. ”Think,” he pleaded. ”People must believe I eat, so I must create that impression even if it means using the defensive gift of my kind.”
t.i.tus watched as she digested that, and recoiled. ”You lied to me. You drank blood from that woman. Is she dead?”
He sprang to his feet. ”G.o.d, no!”
But she was out and around the divider, racing back to the dance floor. He caught up to her at the dance floor's hedge, grabbed her by the shoulders and held her. ”Listen to me!” he whispered fiercely. ”I haven't lied to you. I will never lie to you. The cut on Suzy's face nearly drove me out of my mind, but I didn't take anything from her-except the information I need to do my job. She'll never remember me. You've no cause to be horrified-or even jealous.”
She relaxed. ”All right, then let me go look.”
”She'll be waking up soon.”
”I'll be quiet.”
He let her go. She crept through the hedge. t.i.tus thought he could feel Suzy stirring. Perhaps she had, for a moment later, Inea reappeared. ”Well, she's not dead anyway. I guess I shouldn't leap to conclusions.”
He put his arm around her shoulders and led her back to the rowing area, this time guiding her all the way in and sitting her down beside him. ”Do you still doubt me?”
”I don't know. When I saw you eating in the cafeteria I thought you'd tricked me, but I couldn't imagine why unless you really had killed someone and had him buried in your place.”
”Why didn't you go to the authorities right then?”
”I-I wasn't sure. Then I saw your expression when Suzy's blood spattered all over the mat.”
He groaned. ”Did I really give myself away that badly?”
”No, everyone was l.u.s.ting after the sight of blood. I don't suppose they're all vampires.”
”No. Humans have their own ideas of amus.e.m.e.nt.”
”You didn't find it amusing. It made you hungry.”
”Yes.”
”Then why didn't you just drink Suzy's blood?”
”You believe I could but didn't?”
”I don't know what to believe. If you could do such a thing-if you have to do such things-why didn't you?”
”Because I didn't have her permission.”
”Permission? Is that supposed to be funny? You took information from her, you said-I presume with this power of yours. I a.s.sume she didn't give permission for that.”
”What I took from her was not for myself, but for the benefit of humanity. What I refused was for myself alone.”
”You never used to be so selfless-or concerned about honor.”
”That's true. The young have so little power, they don't have to agonize over its proper use.”
Slowly, she said, ”I believe you. It adds up. I've been trying to watch you, but I can't keep up with you. n.o.body can go as long without sleep as you do. But why steal information from Brink's? To sell it? Professors don't make much. It takes lots of untraceable money to create false ident.i.ties.”
”But anyone in the market for Brink's secrets couldn't be trusted to use them for the benefit of humankind.”
”Why would that stop you?”
He caught her hands and hissed, ”I don't use any power, human or otherwise, in such ways! I simply do not!”
Stunned, she let her hands lie between his.
Against his will, his head lowered and his lips sought hers.