Part 31 (2/2)

”I haven't. But you did jump in and it's my time to ask questions. You've had yours. If you would like, though, I will question you as soon as I finish with Alan.”

He looked both confused and annoyed. Since he didn't seem to know what to say, I returned my attention to Alan.

”Are humans tools, then? Should we be free to use them according to our needs?”

”Of course not!”

”Is it wrong to send humans out to kill Ina and their symbionts?”

”Of course it's wrong!”

”Do you know anyone who has ever done that?”

”No!” He almost shouted the word. The sound of his own voice magnified by the microphone seemed to startle him, and he was silent for a moment. Then he repeated, ”No. Of course not. No.”

Every one of his responses to my questions about humans were lies. I suspected that his brothers lied when I questioned them. I wanted to believe they were lying. But my senses told me that Alan, with his little twitches and his false outrage ... Alan was definitely lying.

If I could see it, anyone on the Council could see it.

Twenty-seven.

When the second night of the Council ended, I was exhausted and yet restless. I wasn't hungry, and I couldn't have slept. I needed to run. I thought if I circled the community, running as fast as I could, I might burn off some of my tension.

I got up from my table and joined my symbionts. I walked outside with them, and we headed back toward the guest house.

”What's to stop Katharine Dahlman from escaping?” Wright asked. ”She could decide to join her symbiont in Texas or wherever he is.”

”She won't run,” Joel said. ”She's got too much pride. She won't shame herself or her family by running. Besides ...” He paused. I glanced back at him. ”Besides,” he said to me, ”she might believe that she has a better chance of surviving if she stays here and takes her punishment.”

I said nothing. I only looked at him.

He shrugged.

At the guest house, the four of them went straight to the kitchen. While they were preparing themselves a meal, I went out to run. I didn't begin to feel right until I'd had done not one, but three laps around the community. I was the only one running. Everyone else, Ina and human, had trudged back to their meals and their beds.

When I came in, I avoided the kitchen and dining room where I could hear all four of my symbionts and the six Rappaport symbionts moving around, talking, eating. I went upstairs and took a shower. I was planning to spend the night with Joel. My custom was that I could taste anyone anytime-a small delight for me and for my symbionts, a pleasure greater than a kiss, but not as intense as feeding or making love. I made sure, though, that I took a complete meal from each of them only every fifth night.

Now it would have to be every fourth. I would soon have to-get more symbionts, but how could I think about doing that now?

Dry and dressed in one of Wright's T-s.h.i.+rts, I somehow wound up in Theodora's room. I wasn't thinking. Her scent drew me. I sat down on her bed, then stretched out on it, surrounded by her scent. I closed my eyes, and it was as though she would come through the door any minute and see me there and look at me in her sidelong way and come onto the bed with me, laughing.

A couple of nights after she arrived, she had found me reading one of Hayden's books written in Ina, and I'd read parts of it to her, first in Ina, then in English. She had been fascinated and wanted me to teach her to read and speak Ina. She said that if she was going to have a longer life span than she had expected, she might as well do something with it. I liked the idea of teaching her because it would force me to go back to the basics of the language, and I hoped that might help me remember a little about the person I had been when I learned it.

I lay there and got lost in Theodora's scent and in grief.

I must have stayed lost for some time, lying on the bed, twisted in the bedding.

Then Joel was there with me, taking the bedding from around me, raising me to my feet, taking me to his room. I looked around the room, then at Joel. He put me on the bed, then got in beside me.

After a while, it occurred to me to say, ”Thank you.”

”Sleep,” he said. ”Or feed now if you like.”

”Later.”

”I'll be here.”

I turned and leaned up on my elbow to looked down at his face.

”What?” he asked.

I shook my head. ”Why did you want me?” I asked.

”What?”

”You know what I am, what I can do. Why didn't you escape us when you could have? You could have stayed in school or gotten a job. The Gordons would have let you go.”

He slipped his arms around me and pulled me down against him. ”I like who you are,” he said. ”And I can deal with what you can do.” He hesitated. ”Or are you thinking about Theodora? Are you feeling responsible for what happened to her? Do you believe that she was killed because she was with you, and so why the h.e.l.l would I want to be with you?”

I nodded. ”She was was killed because she was with me. She trusted me. Her death is not my doing directly, but I should have left her in Was.h.i.+ngton, where she was safe, until all this was over. I knew that. I missed her so much, though, and I had to have more symbionts here with me.” killed because she was with me. She trusted me. Her death is not my doing directly, but I should have left her in Was.h.i.+ngton, where she was safe, until all this was over. I knew that. I missed her so much, though, and I had to have more symbionts here with me.”

”If she hadn't been here, one of the rest of us would have died,” he said. ”Theodora was probably the weakest of us, the easiest to kill, but I'll bet if she hadn't been here, Katharine would have sent her man after Brook or Celia.”

I nodded. ”I know.”

”Katharine's guilty. Not you.”

I nodded against his shoulder and repeated, ”I know.” After a while, I said, ”You knew much more than most would-be symbionts. You really should have stayed away, made a life for yourself in the human world.”

”I might have gone away if you hadn't turned up. You're not only a lovely little thing, but you're willing to ask me questions.”

Instead of just ordering him around, yes. That would be important to a symbiont, to anyone. ”I won't always ask,” I admitted.

”I know,” he said. He kissed me. ”I want this life, Shori. I've never wanted any other. I want to live to be two hundred years old, and I want all the pleasure I know you can give me. I want to live disease free and strong, and never get feeble or senile. And I want you. You know I want you.”

In fact, he wanted me right then. At once. His hunger ignited mine, and in spite of everything, I did still need to feed. I wanted him.

I lost myself in his wonderful scent. Blindly, I found his neck and bit him deeply before I fully realized what I was doing. I hadn't been so confused and disoriented since I awoke in the cave. I needed more blood than I usually did. He held me even though I took no care with him. Afterward, when I was fully aware, I was both ashamed and concerned.

I raised myself above him and looked down at him. He gave me a sideways smile-a real smile, not just patient suffering. But still ... I put my face down against his chest. ”I'm sorry,” I said.

He laughed. ”You know you don't have anything to apologize for.” He pulled the blanket up around us, rolled us over, and slipped into me.

I kissed his throat and licked his neck where it was still bleeding.

<script>