by E M Gale
I shook my head.
‘I don’t want to get anyone else involved. I’ll have to see Price tonight and I’ll have to go alone.’
“So what’s it like?” asked Mark.
I frowned at Price.
“What is what like?” asked Price, answering Mark. He was either being difficult or hadn’t been listening to Mark at all. “I think Rob hypnotised Anna,” he whispered to me.
“Well, being a vampire, of course,” said Mark.
“It is a hell of a lot better than the alternative,” said Price with a sardonic grin. I narrowed my eyes at him. I didn’t trust him, and, even worse, I knew that I would go to his quarters that evening.
“So you are dead then?” Mark asked eagerly. I stared at him.
‘Does the guy have no sense whatsoever?’
Cleckley looked at Price, wide-eyed.
Price just raised his eyebrows. “We vampires have an allergy to curiosity,” he said, deadpan.
“Oh,” said Mark. Cleckley gave me an odd look then.
‘Why? What have I done now?’
The others looked a little confused.
“Oh, sorry,” said Mark, looking uncomfortable. “I guess you don’t want to talk about it.”
Price nodded. “But enough about me. You were discussing the hypernet when I came in, no?” He smiled. It seemed to put Mark at ease.
“Oh, there is one then?” said Rob.
Mark, Rob and Price started discussing how the hypernet was put together. There was one, and, as I had guessed, it was in the control of governments and private enterprise.
I watched Rob and Anna for a bit, and then I got it.
“Anna likes Rob, doesn’t she?” I whispered to Price. He flashed me a grin.
“So I think you’ll see that I was innocent and had nothing to do with Anna’s machinations.”
‘Fair point.’
‘Why the hell didn’t Anna tell me she liked Rob? She usually goes on and on about the guys she likes. And I can tell her all about Rob, whatever she wants to know: what his PhD was on, what sort of films he likes, or why you should never let him cook you salmon. I wonder what she likes about him. His ferocious intelligence perhaps? Or maybe his boyish enthusiasm? Perhaps his rangy sexiness.’
‘Still, she must have her reasons for not mentioning it. I hate it when people ask me questions about my love life.’
“How do you know about this, are you an engineer?” Rob asked Price, having listened to his description of how the hypernet worked.
“No, I used to work for the mayor of a city on a backwater planet. Managing the hypernet link was part of my responsibilities.” Price was pretty much ignoring me, so I left them to their conversation.
“So, Anna.” I smiled. She looked… guilty. I ignored it. “Where we heading to next after Antigua Nuevo?”
‘After all, I might need to know if I intend to smuggle information there.’
“Eh?” she said.
“C’mon, you and Jane hear all the gossip up in the bridge.”
“They haven’t mentioned it up there,” Jane said. Anna nodded.
‘Anna is still acting weird if you ask me.’
I glanced at Cleckley to see if he had noticed, but he was observing Price.
‘Well, I guess he’s only got one evening left to examine him.’
Cleckley noticed me looking at him though. “If you really want to know, Clarke, you could ask the captain.”
“Huh, I’ve not seen him since the day I stepped on this egg.”
“‘Egg’?” queried Jane.
“The ship. It looks like an egg to me… a shiny, shiny egg.”
Price smiled and raised an eyebrow at that in amusement.
‘Oh, he is listening in then.’
“The captain comes in here all the time,” Cleckley informed me.
‘Really? I’ve never seen him in here. But then again, I don’t particularly want to. I’ve been avoiding him and not coming in the bar if I smelt he was here.’
‘Maybe he’s been doing the same thing with me, but how would he know when I would be in the bar?’
‘Ah… I guess he knows when my shifts are.’
“Well, it’s been nice talking to you all, I’d better go and pack,” said Price, distracting me from my thoughts of the captain. He smiled politely at all of us and stood up slowly.
“I’ll be waiting for you, Flow,” he whispered.
‘What the hell does that mean? Is it a threat or an invitation?’
I frowned at him.
He smiled pleasantly. “It is my last night here, after all.”
‘Does he plan to jump me? Well, probably, but in which sense, sex or violence?’
‘I really should have nothing more to do with the damned idiot.’
“Ja ne!” I casually dismissed him with a wave of my hand. I thought that was what my future self had said to me instead of ‘bye’ when I had seen her. I ought to have found out which language it was before I’d used it. I did know that it wasn’t vampirish or orcish. I’d checked.
“Sayonara,” Price replied to me.
The others said their goodbyes to him too and Price left.
“You picked some up then?” asked Anna.
“What?”
“Japanese, on Ragnarok IV.”
‘Oh, I see. Well, yes, I picked up some Japanese and she even told me off about it.’
I smirked. “Yeah.”
‘Heh.’
A short time passed and Jane and Mark excused themselves. They were rather subtle about it, and I wondered if they knew that we all knew about them.
“What’s Antigua Nuevo like?” I asked Cleckley.
“Oh, where we’re landing, cold, very very cold.”
‘Ah, most of the places we’ve visited so far have been pleasantly warm.’
“Whose planet is it?” I asked him. Rob was scowling at Cleckley again and Anna was trying to interest him in a separate conversation.
“What do you mean?” asked Cleckley.
“Well, which species does it belong to?” Anna had given up and was now listening to our conversation. “It’s not a Kreegle colony, is it?” I asked in a small voice.
“Ah, yes, actually.”
I looked at Cleckley in horror.
‘Kreegles don’t like vampires!’
“They’re not all pirates, Clarke,” he said in exasperation, completely misunderstanding my fear.
“If we had to land on a non-human-colonised planet why couldn’t we land somewhere nice, like an orcish colony?” I mumbled. Cleckley laughed at this.
“What do Kreegle look like, Clarke?” asked Anna.
“What?” That really had been the last thing on my mind at the time I was fighting them. “They’re short, their heads only about this high.”
“They’re a bit taller than that, actually,” said Cleckley.
I paused and looked at my hand. I’d held it out at about neck height on a Kreegle.
‘Oh, I guess that’s more important for a vampire. Or someone who specialises in decapitations.’
I shuddered. “I wasn’t paying that much attention,” I mumbled.
“Are they ugly?” she asked.
I frowned at her. “Only as ugly as someone waving st… swords at you is.”
Cleckley stared at me in alarm. I thought he had noticed that I was about to say ‘stakes’. He needn’t have worried. Anna steamrollered on, flattening all conversation with her bizarre questions.
“Are all non-human species ugly?”
“Well, they might look it to you perhaps,” said Cleckley. He sounded bemused.
“Why do you ask?” Rob asked.
“Because the orcs are ugly. I’ve gotten used to them now, though.”
“What?” I said, shocked.
“Orcs are ugly,” stated Anna.
I stared at her unbelievingly. “No way! You really think that?”
She nodded. Cleckley was grinning.
“What, just �
�cos they’re green?” I had to ask. This was one of those things that I couldn’t leave alone.
“That is part of it.”
“Oh.”
“And they have fangs.”
“Yeah, but they’re pretty blunt,” I said, with a grin. Cleckley spluttered his drink.
‘Oh, come on, I’m not giving anything away by saying that.’
“You don’t find it weird that they’re green?” asked Anna. Rob was looking bored.
I shook my head. “Well… no. They’ve got to be some colour. What’s wrong with green? It’s my favourite colour actually.”
“Why?” asked Rob, a bit more interested now.
“Ah, because plants are green and the countryside is predominantly green. Since I like the country I would obviously like green.”
“Is that why you like orcs then?” muttered Cleckley. “Because they’re green like plants.”
I raised an eyebrow at his strange logic. “Oh, don’t be stupid. Orcs are nothing like plants!”
‘Hmm. I wonder if there is a species that is basically walking trees. Would they have sap for blood? Is sap a good thing to drink?’
“And anyway, I don’t like everything that’s green,” I continued.
“Oh?” said Cleckley.
“Yeah, I don’t like moss, mould, lichen–”
Cleckley was giving me an odd look. I supposed a vampire wouldn’t like such things, they were all a process of decay. That thought inspired me.
“–decomposing bodies…” I thought for a moment. “Peas. A vile vegetable.” I nodded to myself.
‘That’s about it.’
“Huh, you’ve never seen a decomposing body,” said Rob disparagingly.
“Well, she’s seen Price,” said Anna, “does he count?”
‘What the hell was that? Vampires aren’t rotting! Urgh!’
I wrinkled my nose up in disgust at the idea and was somewhat annoyed at Anna, so I glared at her.
“What?” She was somehow unable to understand why what she’d said was inappropriate, and she was the guardian of propriety, not me.
I opened my mouth to say something, probably something that would have given me away, but Cleckley got there first.
“Vampires are not decomposing.” He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “That’s how you can tell that a dead body will turn into a vampire, they don’t rot after death.”
‘Oh? That is well known then? I guess it has to be. Didn’t Price say something about the mortuary assistant leaving the body for a day or two? Given that he died by falling off a building and he was able to have his hand shaken and walk out of there, I suppose he must have healed somehow, and that was probably noticeable before he ’woke up’.’
Anna nodded at this. I glared at her anyway. She looked like she was about to say something else.
“And anyway, Price always seems to be very composed,” commented Cleckley, cutting her off.
I chuckled at that. Anna was nodding. But I was still annoyed at her. And the evening wasn’t getting any earlier.
“Anyway, guys, I’ve got to get some sleep,” I said, stretching backwards and yawning.
They nodded.
“I want some time to explore Antigua Nuevo tomorrow.”
“Do you want me to walk you back?” said Rob.
I looked at him, a little surprised. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
He looked confused.
“Rob, I walk through the dodgy parts of London at three in the morning! I think I can make it to my quarters by myself without the help of a big, strong man, honestly.” I shook my head. “See ya.” I headed out to their chorus of ‘bye’s and wondered what awaited me in Price’s quarters.
Are You Coming With Me?
I was pacing up and down my quarters.
‘On the one hand, I don’t want to see Price… on the other hand, I kinda do. I can’t really avoid it; he’ll just come into my quarters.’
‘Fine, I’ll go, but I am going armed. Except I can’t really wander over there with a sword in my hand–it is a little confrontational and I don’t think he will hurt me. Maybe.’
‘OK then, the diplomatic route.’
I stopped pacing and strapped one of the hidden knives to my right wrist and one to my left ankle. I tried flicking the knife out in my right hand a few times. I was clumsy.
‘Maybe I ought to have spent more time practising with the knives rather than trying to get my head around stupid vampirish hieroglyphics.’
‘Still, I didn’t cut him this morning when he lunged at me. Will I even be able to use the damn knives anyway?’
I left my quarters and headed up to his. I misted under his door and reformed on the other side. He was standing in the middle of the room smiling sardonically.
“Notice that I don’t feel the need to point a sword at you,” he said, amused.
“Damn you.”
He laughed.
‘Now that I think about it, I’m not sure I want to mind-meld with him again: there is a hell of a lot of anger and hate buried in him.’
Price held his arms wide. “Come here, Flow.”
‘Yeah, right.’
“No,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow. “So what did you come here for then?”
‘Uh… well… maybe to talk.’
I strode over to his bed, sat on the edge and beckoned him.
“No, you come here,” I said, with a wicked grin, my teeth long.
‘I wonder how stubborn he is?’
He walked over.
‘Obviously not that stubborn, then.’
He pushed me back onto the bed roughly. I twisted round, pinning him to the bed, and smiled before going for his throat. He arched his back, letting me drink, then cut my throat with a fingernail and let my blood flow out, onto his open mouth. I didn’t heal the wound, but let it bleed for a few moments.
‘Huh, all he is getting is a taste.’
So I healed it.
He moved under me, grabbing my arms and rolling me off him. He went for my throat, so I bit his shoulder. We continued like that, fighting for dominance, drinking each other. It was more frenetic than a leisurely taking turns.
We finished, staying in the mind-meld for the shortest possible time, not really thinking anything whilst it lasted. I think neither of us really wanted to share our thoughts with the other that time. We were tangled up in bloodied bedsheets and clothes. Price pulled off the few clothes I was still half-wearing and ran his hands over my skin in a definite gesture of ownership.
‘Goddammit, Price, it’s my body, not yours!’
I glared at him. He smiled and grabbed my right wrist.
“I don’t think you really need that, Flow,” he said, pulling the knife holster off. He ran his hand down my leg. “Or that,” he added, removing the holster on my ankle.
I twisted, pinning my arm against his throat, pushing him back into the bed. He made a strange gurgling noise. I moved my arm and realised he was laughing.
“Nice idea, Flow. Exactly what do you hope to achieve by cutting off the air supply to a creature that doesn’t breathe?”
I sneered.
‘Creature? Is that what he thinks of himself as?’
“It stopped you speaking,” I said.
He pulled me close with a tender touch, smiling slightly. I smiled back and moved closer to kiss him. Then he started biting my shoulders.
“Hey!” I said, jumping away and frowning at him.
He laughed again.
“You’re not very nice, you know.”
He moved himself closer, looking deeply into my eyes.
“What mysteries swim in the depths of your eyes, Florentina?”
‘This guy is clearly crazy.’
I leaned back, expecting him to bite me again. He sighed and tenderly pulled me into a kiss that seemed to last forever. I broke it, as I, at least, needed to breathe. He smiled at me; it even seemed genuine. I eyed him suspiciously, but he didn’
t attack me. Instead he ran his hands over my flesh gently, far more like a lover than anything he’d done before. No words passed between us as we explored each other as lovers do. Then, for the first time, he took me like a human lover would. It had far more in common with Price’s tender, loving side, a part of him that I had seen only the barest glimpses of.
As soon as we had finished, he rearranged his features from someone enjoying the moment and allowing their inner self to be revealed to someone hiding behind a mask. His mask was a sarcastic belligerence. But I thought that was not how he used to be–perhaps when he was alive, before his family had been killed, he had been a different man.
His eyes, which had been hot with passion only a moment before, were cold.
‘Do his eyes even change between looking at me and looking at a potted plant? Does he see me as nothing more than an object to aid or hinder his revenge? Is there nothing else that matters to him?’
“So, are you planning to stay here tonight?” he asked, with the briefest of smirks haunting his lips.
“Do you want me to?”
He chuckled. “And if I say yes, will you?”
‘Huh.’
I smiled. “No. I don’t put myself out for anyone.”
“Oh, I don’t think that staying will put you out, actually.”
I sighed and lay back on the bed. He pulled me close to him and held me.
‘I’m covered in bruises from him and now he’s being tender? What the hell is going on with the guy?’
I turned towards him. He didn’t look like all he was looking at was a potted plant.
He stroked his fingers over my shoulder. For a brief moment he looked… sad.
‘Why is this guy so confusing?’
“Flow, you don’t think I should have my revenge?”
This didn’t sound good. We’d had an unspoken agreement not to mention anything about it.
“Well…” I started cautiously. I didn’t want to set him off again. “I think it will destroy you.”
He looked at me oddly, but said nothing, so I decided to risk it and continue.
“I understand how you feel… well, no, I can’t understand it really, but I felt it when… I think you will come to hate yourself over this.”
‘That is, if you don’t already.’
“You think it will destroy me?” A dangerous light flickered in his eyes. Without even meaning to, I shrank back a bit. “I won’t hurt you, Florentina.” He sounded reproachful.