Part 37 (1/2)

May reconsidered. ”Yes. That's no way to stand guard. We'd better have a third person.” She glanced at Geode and none.

”Geode can do it!” none said immediately. ”I'll stay here at the house.” For she had just thought of a way.

”But that would leave you alone,” May protested. ”We don't want anyone left alone.”

”If I came too, you know what Geode and I would be doing,” none said, and the others had to nod in agreement. ”That would be no good either. You need someone who isn't-otherwise occupied. The house here is secure; we can have the alarm system on, so nothing can get in without setting it off.”

Frank nodded. ”That does make sense. You safe, us ready for the firefly. With luck we'll wrap it up, and the threat will be over.”

”Tomorrow night,” none agreed.

So it was decided. The others left. Geode turned to her. ”But if you think you're-”

”I suddenly realized that the security system is the key!” she said. ”If nothing can get in, nothing can get out! When you go, you leave me inside, and if I try to leave, the alarm will go off and everyone will know. So if I'm the firefly, I'll be caught, as I deserve to be.”

”I don't like this!”

”Geode, it's the only way to be sure. If I'm not the firefly, this will prove it, because it will come to the cabin and you will kill it and I'll still be here. But if I am, you must either confine me or kill me. I'll be safe here, either way, and you'll know.”

”I can't believe you are the firefly. I love you!”

”And if this proves me innocent, I'll be yours forever,” she concluded. ”Geode, you've got to do it!”

He remained doubtful. But she told him another story, and made love to him again, and wheedled him winsomely, and slept naked in his arms, and he agreed to go along with it. Any man would have, with such persuasion. The daughters of Eve knew their business.

The following afternoon they set it up. Frank and May drove out to the cabin together, and Geode agreed to join them within the hour. May was going to be the decoy again, with Frank armed with knife and pistol in the cabin and Geode in the pickup truck. They would all be in contact with each other, the two men watching May from their respective positions. If the pheromones increased, they would know the firefly was coming, and would be especially alert. If Geode saw the other two having s.e.x, he would know the firefly was near, and would try to intercept it. There was no prudery here, no false modesty; they all knew what they faced and what they had to do. One way or another, they intended to get the job done. Pride no longer mattered; they were in a conspiracy of sorts, and none of them would make any issue of s.e.x, just of survival. There was the distinct possibility that the firefly would try to take two oblivious people together, as they copulated uncontrollably. But then the third one would get it.

All this they agreed on. What none feared did not affect it. She intended to see that she hurt none of them.

”Now put me in the special room and tie me up,” none told him.

”But-”

”Do it, Geode. It's the only way. You know I know the layout here; I could avoid the seeing-eye and break out a window without opening it, and I'd be out without setting off the alarm. You need to put me where I can't escape.”

Reluctantly, he took her to the special room. This was a large windowless closet off the room above the one Geode slept in. The alarms were normally off in the rest of the house except for the night or when it was empty, but the alarm was always on in this room. It could be disabled only with the use of a special key, and Geode carried that key on his person. When he put her in there and ”locked” her in with the security system, she would be unable to leave without setting it off.

The room had its own air conditioning vent and fluorescent light. They brought in cus.h.i.+ons so she could lie down. ”I can bring in a book for you to read,” he said.

”No. Tie me up. Get rope from the garage and tie my wrists and ankles so I can't escape.”

”But-”

”Suppose I found a way to make a hole in the door without opening it? I could climb through it. Then the alarm wouldn't go off. This has to be sure. Tie me.”

”Oh, none, I hate this!”

”If you truly believe me innocent, this will prove it. Nothing can get in or out. In the morning you can disable the alarm and come in and untie me. Then we will be together.”

Obviously loath, he fetched cord and tied her hands and feet. ”Tighter,” she said. ”Make sure I can't escape.”

Finally he had it done to her satisfaction. She had circulation in hands and feet, but no leeway to struggle. She was securely bound.

”Kiss me, turn out the light, lock me in, and don't come back until morning,” she said.

He kissed her, trussed on the cus.h.i.+ons; then he went to the switch, and hesitated. ”You aren't afraid of the dark?”

She reconsidered. ”I am afraid of the dark now! When I'm without you beside me. Very well, leave the light on; it won't make any difference.”

He went out the door. ”I love you, Geode,” she said. ”Never doubt that, no matter what happens.” '

”I love you, none,” he replied, a catch in his voice. Then he closed the door. She heard the faint click of his key in the security lock, and then his footsteps going away. He would arm the main alarm system, then drive to the cabin to help watch for the firefly.

She was alone.

She was afraid.

* 43 - IT WAS QUIET. Unable to do anything else, none drifted to sleep, woke, and slept again. It was timeless here, because she couldn't see her watch, and because the closed room with the constant light made it impossible for her to judge the progress of day or night outside.

Had she done the right thing? Now that she was so thoroughly committed, she was uncertain. Where would she, a dull housewife, have found such things as a flesh dissolver or pheromones unknown to science? Why would she use them to go on a rampage of killing? Why every three days? It really didn't seem to make much sense now. Oh, maybe she had hated her husband for his faithlessness, when she had offered him several times as much s.e.x as any man could use, but killing him certainly hadn't brought him back. She would have done better to use those pheromones to go on a rampage of s.e.x herself, uncorking the vial under the nose of any man she might hanker for, causing him to fornicate with her uncontrollably. She could have used it on Paris himself, keeping him so worn out s.e.xually that he had none left over for Helen. That would have been a truly suitable ploy! ”Have you been having at your wife again, you poor excuse for a philanderer?!” Helen would have demanded angrily, gazing at his limp member. ”What will everyone think?”

none's fantasies were like that; why not make them reality, if she had the means? Most women had fantasies, but few actually wanted them to come true. They dreamed of being raped, and loving it, being freed from any responsibility of the sin of s.e.xual appet.i.te, so they could enjoy it without guilt. But real rape was violent and painful, and carried formidable risks. Fantasy rape was merely a mechanism, a token act without its ugly aspects. Fantasy rape was the only kind that was worthwhile. Much the same was true of being the object of unbridled pa.s.sion by many men. A dream of facing a crowd of naked, virile men who were all desperate for her s.e.xual favor was a turn-on, because it meant she was infinitely desirable and had control of the situation; she could have anything she wanted. But a similar reality was apt to be disgusting. Men o.r.g.a.s.ming simultaneously in her v.a.g.i.n.a, her a.n.u.s, her mouth, on her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, in her hands as she squeezed their stiff members, their s.e.m.e.n fountaining-what a mess that would be! Who would clean the sheets, the bed, the floor, the walls, after? More was not better in real s.e.x; love was better. As for the fantasies of monstrous p.e.n.i.ses, animal p.e.n.i.ses, huge amounts of s.e.m.e.n jetting as from firehoses-those would be painful at best. No, none of it made sense in real terms.

But with the vial of pheromones to compel the ultimate attention of any man she chose-there was a fantasy whose realization was practical! What delight it had been, pa.s.sing near the cabin with Geode, he become potent at last, having at her twice before the cabin, once at it, and twice more after it before his s.e.xual exhaustion and their removal from the cloud of pheromones had allowed them to complete their travel in peace. That had been her dream of bliss!

Then, having proved his potency, she had made love to him again in the evening, and in the night, and in the morning, arousing him whenever she chose. He was so glad to be able to perform, and he loved her-the two were certainly linked, once the two of them were free of the pheromones, but it had been the pheromones that forced the breakthrough-so he had done his best. There was the realization of yet another aspect of her fantasy: to cause an impotent man to make love to her repeatedly. What did that say for a woman's desirability?

So even if she had an evil facet of her personality, hidden from the others, she shouldn't have used the discoveries to harm others instead of benefiting herself. To be evil was not to be stupid. So now she questioned her hypothesis on two grounds: she was unlikely to have gotten those vials of acid and pheromones, and she wouldn't have used them to kill.

Still, she wasn't only proving her innocence to herself, she was also proving it to Geode. If the firefly struck tonight, she would be exonerated even if they didn't manage to kill it, because there was no way she could be responsible. Then she could be free of her doom of death, free to love Geode forever. She had never really believed in that, being sure that anyone she truly loved would die, or that she would die if truly loved by anyone. Yet now she had reenacted the love of her childhood, and in the process expiated the geis that had burdened her for thirty years. The spell had been dissipated, and she could now love normally. Geode had to know beyond any question that she was innocent of any harm to others, and this would be the proof.

There was a faint sound. At first she wasn't sure whether she imagined it, but it was getting louder. A keening, as of the edge of a radio station. Maybe the security system was adjusting itself.

Yet she felt deja vu. Hadn't she heard that sound before, maybe in her sleep? She had forgotten, but now it seemed she had.

Then she realized that if she were not the firefly, something else must be. Those deaths had certainly occurred, and those pheromones certainly existed. There was a monster. That being the case, whom would it attack next? The three who were ready for it-or the one who wasn't?

none struggled in her bonds, but only chafed her wrists. Geode had done his work too well; she could not escape.

But if some other person had found those vials and was using them to kill, how could he get in here? If he drove in by car, the gate would not admit him. If he climbed the fence and walked in, and forced open a door, the alarm would go off, dialing the security folk and summoning the authorities. If he broke in a window without opening it, he would still be caught by the infra-red eye, and the alarm would sound. If he was smart enough to bypa.s.s that, and came up here and opened the door, the alarm would go off. There really was not much way a man could do it-and if he were an expert in breaking in without activating the alarm, and knew exactly what to do, why should he waste his time coming after her, instead of robbing the house? How would he even know she was here? If he did, why should he take the risk of dispatching her, when the others could return at any moment?

For if he were here, he would not be there at the cabin, and they would give up their stakeout and return here. So it made little sense to take that risk for so little.

The sound intensified. Now she started feeling s.e.xy.

The pheromones! There was no mistaking that eroticism. That was the hallmark of the firefly. She thought of Geode, of his poor flaccid p.e.n.i.s, and how she had made it stand tall. She thought of touching it, kneading it, kissing it, climbing on it, absorbing it, flinging her legs around his waist, kissing him, clenching her internal muscles, drawing from him the most avid spurts of pa.s.sion. Of falling down with him, and riding him, his member still in place, and forcing him to a second climax, and a third. She felt her v.a.g.i.n.a wet with eagerness for him. ”Oh, Geode, come into me!” she breathed clenching her legs together in an effort to hold him there.

But at the same time, on another level, she thought of the firefly. The pheromones were its flashes, its signals to its prey. Once the prey saw those flashes, it was helpless; it had to come in and try to mate, though it died of the effort. If the prey did not come to the firefly, the firefly came to the prey, and took it anyway.