A flurry of activity ensued, screams and shouts as the group charged Kalan at the same time. I screamed as they pile-drove him into the decrepit floor. A loud crack rang out as Kalan’s body met wood. I lunged for him and clawed at those in the dog pile. My fingernails scratched and tore at any skin or fabric my fingers came into contact with.
Somebody grabbed me around the waist and ripped me backward, flailing and shrieking Kalan’s name. I was dragged into the stairwell and shoved down the stairs. I grasped at the banister and caught an iron rung, but momentum twisted my arm and forced me to let go. My elbow tangled between rungs and pain sliced white-hot through my elbow and shoulder. My feet continued to travel down the stairs and wrenched my arm even further.
I screamed and looked up at my assailant. A middle-aged man with long brown hair and a thick gray beard looked down at me with a smile on his face. His eyes were red, glossy and hooded.
My trapped arm stopped the descent, and I twisted to right myself. Despite the terrible pain, I gingerly removed my arm from the banister.
My attacker’s face remained fixed with that same smug expression.
“Don’t think you’re going back in there, bitch.”
I shot him my most withering glare. My mind whirled as I tried to think of a solution.
A sudden concussion of sound reverberated the floor beneath my feet. My bearded attacker spun around and ran back in.
My sleeve was torn, and blood spread out from a central point like red food dye in white icing. With my good arm, I held my injured arm tight to my side and went back up the stairs.
I entered the second floor and my jaw dropped, my legs nearly giving out.
The dog pile on top of Kalan looked like a swarm of maggots. They writhed, twisted and flipped about. Kalan was almost covered, and the way the angry horde flopped and bumped, it was clear Kalan was no match for the sheer number of people.
I went for them once again, and with a bloodcurdling battle-cry, I grabbed the backs of shirts and flung people aside, as hard as I could. The larger, more robust men were under them, and through the flurry of limbs and heads, Kalan’s face came into sharp focus.
One whole side of his head and face was covered in blood, like a complicated latticework of crimson swirls. A scream tore from my throat, and I jumped on the back of a larger man and clawed at his cheeks, his eyes, his neck. He yelled and yanked me off by the hair so I tumbled to the floor.
I scrambled back to my feet. The man was already right back on top of the maggoty heap. The pile of people flew off of Kalan in a burst. Their bodies hurdled through the air as if each person was merely the weight of a kitten.
Kalan, bloodied and bruised but now back on his feet, looked down at the people he’d tossed off of himself. They surrounded him on the floor in a six foot perimeter. His eyes flashed blood-red.
#
I dabbed gently at the blood on Kalan’s face, though somehow, miraculously, his cuts were already partly healed, including the purple bruises under one eye that were now a pale greenish-yellow. We’d checked into the first descent hotel we found to tend to our injuries, regroup and strategize our next step. Luckily, the hotel suite was impeccably clean.
“How is it possible you’re healing so fast? I mean, your cuts are almost gone, your bruises…” I wiped a smear of dried blood from his lips. “Even your black eye is almost gone.”
Kalan blinked as he gazed into my eyes, watching my every move. “It’s one of the effects of the genetic modifications. Rapid healing has been the one thing I’ve always appreciated about being different. I’ve been able to heal like this for as long as I can remember.”
Here, in the bathroom light, Kalan’s eyes were glossy and near colourless, like polished silver, the blood-red gone. I wanted so badly to lean down and kiss his silvery lashes that curled against his cheek. Instead, I made another slow stroke with the cloth to the side of his jaw, where blood had dried and stuck to his pale stubble. “I thought they were going to kill you.”
Kalan ran his thumb across my cheek. “I thought so too. When I saw him drag you to the stairwell… I almost went out of my mind. If they hadn’t been tackling me at that moment, I would have torn him in half.” He looked at me with intensity, a kind of deep intimacy I’d never experienced before with another human being.
A strange tightening sensation started in my belly and I set the washcloth back into the rusty-orange colored water in the sink. I evaluated his appearance, finally satisfied that most of the blood was cleaned off. He hadn’t flinched once, not even when I’d scrubbed at his sore eye.
“The first time I saw you I thought you looked like a hero from a cartoon. Some kind of angelic Superman. But now I realize you’re not an angel or a superhero.”
Kalan snorted. “No. I’m not.”
“You’re just a person. You may have chromosomal mutations and genetic abnormalities, but you and I are the same.” I gathered his hands in mine. “We’re human.”
He looked into my eyes, blinking, but not saying a word.
“And it’s because of our ordinary, average humanity that we are alike. We’re flawed, we’re weak, we have issues and family hang-ups. But when we’re together, it’s like all of that is more easily endured. Like the flaws are smoother, the feelings softer around the edges, the hang-ups more tolerable.”
Kalan shook his head, his eyes closed. “I don’t know why you’re saying this. But I want to believe it. I need to believe it.”
“What do you mean you don’t know why I’m saying this?” I asked. “You think I’m saying it to make you feel good about yourself?”
“I don’t know. Nobody has ever said anything like that to me before.” Kalan’s voice was soft and low. “All I know is that I am… I think, I’ve—Oh, Jesus, Adriana.”
I set my palm on his soft cheek and gazed into his eyes. The atmosphere between us was almost palpable as he waited for my response.
I let my hand drop away from his cheek. “What would have happened to us in there if you weren’t super strong?” I asked.
Kalan’s shoulders sagged a bit, obviously not expecting my question. He followed my every move, even as I pulled the plug in the sink and let out the bloody water.
“I don’t know.” His voice was quiet. “What would I have done if you’d been seriously injured? I would have gone out of my mind.”
“Why? Why would you have been so shaken?” I swallowed, the memory of that moment with Derek, the day Analiese died, flooding me, washing away this temporary happiness. “I don’t think you see me clearly,” I said, washing his blood from my hands. “You seem to think I’m better than I am.”
His eyebrow crooked. “What is that supposed to mean?”
I felt like a bomb, ready to explode. I couldn’t have him looking at me the way he did… He had to know the truth.
“I almost made out with my sister’s boyfriend the day she died.” I gasped from my abrupt admission, and backed into the wall. It felt like every last ounce of oxygen had been stripped from my lungs. Wow, Adriana, you are quite the colossal bitch-slut. I’m going to get up and leave now.
Kalan peered at me, his expression impassive. “You said almost. What stopped you?”
My mouth twitched and my chin quivered. “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t mess around with him.”
“Why not?”
A salty tear burned its way down my raw cheek. “It was wrong.”
“Did you want to?” Kalan asked.
A sob tore from my mouth. “Yes! I wanted him first, and do you know what she did after I told her? She fucked him! That same night. She seduced the one guy I liked, and she never even apologized for it.” Tears flowed from my eyes now, dripping from my chin to my chest. I glanced at the door.
Kalan caught where I was looking and stood up, grasping both of my hands. “Did she do it to hurt you?”
“Yes.”
Kalan’s thumbs stroked my palms. “Why?�
��
I bit my lip as another fresh round of sobs threatened at my throat. Finally, the words tore from my mouth, “Because I still had my innocence. And she could never get hers back.”
Kalan pulled me into his arms, my chest heaving. He smelled like blood and sweat and Kalan. “She was in pain. Her world, her life, everything was unjust.”
I pressed my cheek to his clavicle and breathed deeply. His supple skin was smooth beneath my lips. “I should have known that and understood it. But I didn’t. Instead, I was angry. Hurt. I wanted to get her back.”
“Of course you did. Who wouldn’t?” Kalan’s question was more of a statement.
“Anyone with half the emotional intelligence of a gnat would have forgiven her, Kalan. But not me. Not Adriana. No, I had to hold onto the resentment, and wait until my opportunity came… and then…”
Kalan placed a finger under my chin and raised my head so my gaze met his. “You didn’t do it. You’d forgiven her.”
I closed my eyes, wishing so much his words were true. The facts were the facts. I shook my head. “No. You don’t understand.”
“I think I do. I don’t think you understand,” Kalan said. His voice was firm but gentle.
“That’s where you’re wrong—”
“Forgiveness doesn’t mean acceptance. There’s a difference. You understood, you forgave her, but that didn’t mean you accepted what she did was okay. It wasn’t okay. She hurt you. Betrayed you. And you had a right to be hurt and angry. But you still forgave her for it.”
I gazed into silvery eyes that held mine, challenging me to disagree. Was he right? I swiped the tears off of my face and turned away, pushing him off to the side. I set my hands on the sink and looked at my blotchy face in the mirror. I was such a train wreck. Look at you. Alone in the world. Analiese gone forever. This is what you deserve.
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” I said. Then I ran a clean cloth under some cold water and washed my face, the coolness soothing to my chapped skin.
“You’re not ready to stop punishing yourself yet?” Kalan asked.
I didn’t respond. Instead, I took off my dirty shirt and threw it in the tub. “This is filthy. So are your pants.”
Kalan looked down at himself and stripped down to his black boxers and sat down on the toilet seat. After having been under the dog-pile of dirty, sick, homeless people there wasn’t a single item of outerwear that wasn’t soiled. I didn’t want to stare at him, but it was hard not to look.
I touched my sore shoulder. It was warm under my fingertips.
“Does it hurt?” Kalan asked.
“Yes. But at least it isn’t dislocated. Maybe the rotator cuff is sprained. I’m pretty lucky all that’s wrong is a tender shoulder and a bruise on my hip and elbow. Things would have been different if you were just a normal person.” I tried to keep my eyes on his face and not look down at his body. I failed miserably.
Kalan smiled and his face lit up. Without clothing on, and despite the blood and bruises, he looked like a meticulously sculpted god, his skin pale and flawless as marble. The toned muscle of his body almost stood out more because of his paleness, the way the hills cast shadows on the valleys, his shoulders wide and round, his arms thick and defined. Just like the statue of David, I could look at him for hours.
I touched his swollen cheekbone. “Does this still hurt?”
His pupils dilated wide and black. “Not anymore.” He placed his hands on either side of my hips and pulled me slowly toward him. When our bodies connected, he leaned in to me, wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his head on my stomach. I stroked his silken hair and wondered if he could feel the pounding of my heartbeat, matching his.
We’d been to hell and back.
“What do you think will happen when we really find out the truth?” I whispered.
Kalan traced a line from my hipbone to my ribs, almost absently. “I think we will need a lot of therapy.”
“Funny.”
Kalan shrugged. “I have no clue.”
“Then I want to tell you something,” I said. “If both of us are potentially going to need years of psychotherapy to deal with the truth of our existence, then I want you to know how I feel.” What was I going to say?
Kalan’s eyes widened. They were so bright they looked like twin diamonds. “How do you feel?”
“I… I want you—”
My words were cut off when Kalan pulled my face down and brushed his lips against mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he pulled me onto his lap. Our kisses were soft and gentle at first, but soon grew sharp with fear and desperation. His breathing staggered. Was it pain or the effort of restraint? His hunger was clear in the pressure of his lips, warring with his incredible effort to maintain control. His mouth was hot on mine, and he tasted like coppery blood. Was his mouth bleeding?
He tried to move with gentleness, but his movements were far from careful as he grasped the fabric of my camisole and tugged the hem up and over my head. His hands fisted my hair, winding through the strands so tight it almost hurt. The loss of control I felt was overwhelming. I gasped as I tangled my fingers through his hair, gripping tight enough that my teeth came down on his lip, grazing it slightly. He moaned, a sound edged with both pain and pleasure.
I leaned against him, his pale skin warm against mine. I gazed at the curve of his collarbone, the swell of his shoulders, the dip between his hipbone and waist. You’re so perfect. My fingers traced a line from his navel down to the waistband of his boxers. Kalan’s entire body stilled, and his breath hitched in his throat as I ran my fingers over the skin of his hard stomach, just above his waistband. My heart pounded so hard, I wondered if he could hear it.
He kissed my throat, his breath hot against my clavicle. Each kiss was like an electric jolt straight from my neck right down to my toes. I shivered at the delicious intensity of the sensation. The intimacy.
“Adriana. If you want to stop, we can…?” His voice buzzed against the skin at my throat, sending more electrical shocks through my body.
“No.”
“Are you sure?” Kalan asked.
“Yes. Are you?”
Our lips met again. His mouth was superheated now, impatient. His fingers found the clasp of my black lacy bra, and within seconds, we were skin to skin.
Kalan groaned as my body melded against his chest. The image of Analiese, pressed against Derek flashed through my mind, but somehow the memory of that moment lost its usual emotional reaction.
“I’ve wanted this since the moment I met you.” Kalan’s voice was husky. “I’ve dreamed of this moment every day since then. You are what I’ve been waiting my whole life for.”
Tears built at the back of my eyes, creating pressure and heat. “I have too,” I whispered.
Then he smiled and kissed me with such ferocity I forgot to breathe. I moaned as pleasure rippled through me, jolts of heat straight to my core as he removed the remainder of my clothing, one item at a time.
Kalan dropped his gaze and looked me over with that unbearable reverence once again. But this time, I revelled in it. “God. Look at you. You’re beautiful,” he said.
A quiver of excitement slid through me, and I couldn’t help but smile. You don’t deserve to be this happy. The burning heat inside me ignited into a full-fledged blaze. Our tongues twined together, a slow erotic dance. Then I noticed his lips were swollen.
“Your mouth. It looks… sore. What’s wrong?” I asked.
He licked his lips and smiled sheepishly. “I guess it’s not only your tears that cause my skin to tingle.”
I examined his lips, the way they were slightly redder than they usually were. My cheeks warmed. “What?”
“You’re like a superheating lube. But I’ve noticed it seems to be lessening. Maybe with exposure… maybe I’m building immunity?”
I stared at Kalan. He smiled as if unperturbed while I felt like crawling under a rock. S
uddenly I was acutely aware that I was naked and vulnerable.
“You make it sound like this is no big deal?” I covered myself and turned to leave, but he stood up and grabbed my wrists, holding me in place with a gentle but firm grip.
“This isn’t a big deal. This is another genetic thing, I’m sure of it. Besides, it feels good. I can’t wait to see what it feels like when we....” He smiled, and his lips were on top of mine in an instant, his tongue invading my mouth. I went pliant in his arms. Oh, my God. All feelings of embarrassment vanished.
“I want you. Now,” I said.
Kalan’s expression went serious. “I have a condom.”
“Good,” I said without hesitation. “Maybe I won’t burn your…”
Kalan chuckled, his eyes ablaze when he left the bathroom for an instant, returning with a condom. A moment later, his boxers were off, the condom was on and he pressed me to the wall. He grabbed one of my knees and pulled it high up on his hip.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
My mouth opened. “Yes.”
(There is) strong evidence that evil behavior—mass murder, armed robbery… might be caused by the right set of genes interacting with the wrong environment.
-Scientific American
CHAPTER NINE
KALAN KANE
“I never want to leave this bed,” Adriana said, her mouth vibrating the skin on my neck.
“Me either. I want to stay naked with you forever.”
Three loud raps at the hotel door rang out.
My mouth dried up.
“Who would that be?” Adriana asked. I shrugged.
I jumped out of bed, threw on my jeans and went to the door. Who would be knocking at our hotel door? Adriana disappeared into the bathroom to get dressed. I looked through the peephole.
The door blasted in and slammed into my shoulder so hard it propelled me backward against the wall. My neck wrenched from the impact.
“What the hell—”
The Eve Genome Page 10