by Zaires, Anna
Hearing Mia come in, he looked up and gave her a smile. “You were very quiet on the way back,” he said, regarding her inquisitively. “You didn’t like the movie?”
She approached and sat down next to him. “It was entertaining,” she answered, shrugging.
“Then what’s the matter? Are you still upset about what happened earlier today?” He reached out and took her hand, lightly massaging her palm in a way that made her melt a little inside.
“No.” Mia stared at the large hand cradling hers so tenderly. Her fingers appeared tiny and delicate in his grasp, the pale color of her skin contrasting erotically with his darker hue. “Well, maybe. I don’t know. I’m trying not to think about it too much. The movie was a good distraction, actually . . .”
“So then what?” He clearly had no intention of letting it go.
Mia raised her eyes to meet his gaze. “I was just wondering about the future, that’s all. I know I should focus on the present and enjoy what we have right now, but I just can’t help it sometimes –”
He leaned toward her and kissed her lightly, his lips stopping her next words. “We’ll talk about this when we’re back in Lenkarda,” he murmured, pulling back and looking at her with a rather enigmatic expression on his face. “Don’t worry about anything right now. It will all work out, I promise.”
Surprised, Mia blinked at him, and then she remembered that he’d mentioned something similar a few weeks ago, when they were still in New York. Unbearably curious, she opened her mouth to ask him another question, but Korum kissed her again and all rational thought left her head.
Picking her up, he carried her upstairs to their bed, and Mia didn’t have a chance to think for the rest of the night.
Chapter 22
The next morning, Mia woke up in Korum’s arms. It was such an unusual occurrence that her eyes flew open as soon as she realized what was happening.
She was lying on her side, cradled against his body. They were both naked, and she could feel his semi-hard erection prodding at the curve of her buttocks. Startled, Mia turned around to look at his face and saw that he was wide awake.
At her sudden movements, he smiled and brushed his lips against her forehead. “You’re awake, I see.”
She nodded, blinking at him sleepily. “What are you doing here? You’re usually up much earlier . . .”
“I didn’t want to leave you alone,” Korum explained softly, caressing her cheek. “You seemed to be sleeping restlessly, crying out every couple of hours, and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Touched, Mia burrowed against him, holding him tightly. “Thank you,” she mumbled into his shoulder. “I think I must’ve had nightmares after yesterday.” She vaguely remembered some dreams involving guns and blood, and she was surprised that she’d actually been able to sleep through the night. Undoubtedly, Korum’s presence beside her had helped in that regard.
He slowly stroked her hair. “Of course, my darling. It’s entirely understandable.”
“Do you ever have nightmares?” she asked, pulling back, the psychology student in her suddenly curious about the topic.
“Not typically,” Korum admitted, his hand now playing with her long curls. “I usually sleep very deeply for a couple of hours, and then I wake up. I can’t remember the last time I had a dream of any kind. It can happen for us, but it’s rarer than for humans. Our sleep cycle is somewhat different.”
“Oh, I see.”
“What do you want to do today?” he asked. “We don’t have any plans right now.”
“I was thinking we could have dinner with my parents again tonight, but I don’t know about the day . . . No beach, though – I don’t think I’m ready to go back there yet.”
“Of course.” His body tensed for a moment. “Why don’t we do something else entirely? How about a trip to Orlando? We could visit one of those theme parks with roller coasters and all –”
“What, like Disney World?” Mia gave him an incredulous look.
“Sure,” he said seriously. “Or maybe Universal. That’s the more adult one, right?”
Unable to help herself, Mia burst out laughing. “Really? You want to go to Universal Studios?” She pictured the two of them standing in line for the Incredible Hulk, and all the tourists freaking out at the sight of a K near their children.
“Yeah, why not?”
Why not indeed. Still giggling, Mia said, “Okay, I’m game. We can go to Islands of Adventure – that’s the part of Universal that has more roller coasters. How are we getting to Orlando? Driving?”
“Might as well. I don’t mind driving – it gives me a chance to see more of the area.” He grinned at her, looking so charming and carefree that she couldn’t help but kiss the dimple on his left cheek.
When her lips touched his face, however, she could feel his mood shifting. By now, she was so attuned to him that she realized immediately what he wanted. Sure enough, when she pulled back, he was regarding her with a heavy-lidded golden gaze. “This is why I don’t normally stay in bed with you,” he muttered before his lips descended on hers and his hand ventured lower between her thighs.
And for the next hour, they forgot all about Orlando, caught up in their own wild ride.
* * *
Two hours later, they were whizzing down the highway at over a hundred miles per hour. With anyone else at the wheel, Mia would’ve been scared out of her mind, but Korum’s reflexes were better than any race car driver’s and she felt utterly safe with him. For the first twenty minutes of the ride, he drove with the top down, but Mia’s hair kept blowing into her face, and they had to pull over to put the top up.
“I should really cut this mess,” Mia grumbled as they got back on the highway, trying to smooth down the curly explosion on her head. It was futile. Wind and her hair didn’t mix.
“Don’t even think about it,” Korum said seriously. “I love your hair long.”
Mia sighed. “Fine. Maybe I’ll just get it straightened . . .”
“Why? Your curls are beautiful. Leave them just as they are.”
“You’re weird,” Mia told him. “Most men like straight, silky hair, not this rat’s nest I’ve got going on here –”
“I don’t care what most men like. Leave the hair as it is.” His tone was utterly uncompromising.
Mia smiled to herself, mentally shaking her head. Even in this small matter, he had to be in control. It was strange that she didn’t mind it quite as much anymore, though nothing had really changed. She was still his charl, and he still had way too much power over her life. The difference was that now she knew that he loved her, that she wasn’t just a human toy to him.
A little tidbit from her encounter with Leslie nagged at the back of her mind. “Korum,” she said tentatively, “what exactly is this blood addiction you’ve warned me about before? Leslie said something about it yesterday . . .”
Keeping his eyes on the road, Korum asked, “What did she say?”
Mia struggled to remember the girl’s exact words. “It was something like her brother was addicted and he was walking around begging Ks to bite him every hour until they killed him . . .”
For a few seconds, Korum remained silent. “That sounds like a particularly unfortunate case,” he said after some time. “It must’ve happened not long after we first arrived here.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you remember how I told you that we no longer require blood to survive? That it’s now basically a pleasure drug for us?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Well, it turns out that there’s a side effect to getting too much of this drug. The pleasure is so intense that it’s addictive for us – and for the humans we’re drinking from. However, for a Krinar to become physically addicted, he or she has to drink from the same human more frequently than a couple of times a week. Essentially, the Krinar gets addicted to the specific DNA signature in that human’s blood. It’s a peculiar side effect of the genetic fix that allows u
s to survive without blood. Some of our best scientists are currently studying this phenomenon and trying to figure out why it’s happening and how it can be stopped.”
Mia stared at him in fascination. “So what happens when you get addicted? Is it physically painful?”
“When the Krinar is separated from their human for whatever reason, yes. They can’t go longer than a few hours without getting their fix – and that’s a problem both for the human and the Krinar.”
“So is that what happened to Leslie’s brother? I’m not sure I fully get it . . .”
“No, it works differently for humans. Your species gets addicted to the substance in our saliva, but any Krinar’s saliva would work. I don’t exactly know what happened to Leslie’s brother, but I can venture a guess. It sounds like he might’ve been involved in some of the early x-clubs –”
“X-clubs?”
“X-clubs, xeno-clubs – that’s your slang term for nightclubs where humans go to interact with our kind.”
Mia blinked. “I’ve never heard of this before. Is it like the websites where humans advertise to have sex with Ks?”
He looked vaguely amused. “Pretty much. The websites are usually for those who are just curious. Very few people posting there would consider actually going through with their fantasy. The ones who are serious about it go to x-clubs.”
“Really?” Mia was amazed that she’d never come across this before. “Where are these clubs located? Are there some in New York City?”
“No, they’re actually close to our Centers – we generally don’t like going to major cities. That’s probably why you don’t know about them. There are a few in Costa Rica, some in New Mexico and Arizona, some in Thailand and the Philippines . . .”
“And Ks actually go to these places?”
Korum nodded. “Some do, especially those who are otherwise reluctant to venture outside of the Centers. I’ve never gone myself, because I don’t have a problem spending time in human cities and towns. Many Krinar do, though; they can’t stand the crowds or the pollution, so the clubs are a convenient way for them to enter into sexual relations with humans.”
“So you think Leslie’s brother might’ve gone to an x-club?”
“It’s a likely possibility. In the last couple of years, these places have become more strictly regulated. Now a particular human is only allowed in twice a week, and the Krinar who go there are warned against sharing that human for the night. However, in the early days, everything was much more disorganized, and some humans got carried away. They would hook up with one or more Krinar per night and have their blood taken much too frequently.”
Mia wrinkled her nose, disturbed at the thought. When Korum took her blood, it was such a transcendent experience that she couldn’t imagine sharing it with anyone else. Of course, she couldn’t imagine having sex with anyone else either, so it probably wasn’t a fair comparison. “I see.”
“My guess is that Leslie’s brother became seriously addicted. Why he died, I have no idea. Perhaps he became violent and tried to force one of the Krinar women – that’s been known to happen and could be one reason why he would’ve been killed –”
“A human forcing a Krinar?”
“I didn’t say he would’ve succeeded. Our women are much weaker than Krinar men, but they are still stronger than humans. However, an attempt would’ve been sufficient to earn him a death sentence. No sane human would try such a thing, of course, but some of these addicts are not rational, particularly when they’ve been deprived for a while.”
Mia shuddered. The whole thing sounded awful. “Is there a cure?” she asked, trying to imagine how desperate those poor people must be.
“Not yet. As far as I know, it’s still in the experimental stages.”
“When did you learn about this? The addiction, I mean? Was it before or after you came here?”
“We’ve known about it for a few thousand years, but it wasn’t regarded as a real problem until we came here. It mostly happened with charl and their cheren, and it was considered to be part of the bond between the couple. And since those relationships were exceedingly rare, nobody really thought anything of it. Of course, now that we’re living among humans, it’s very different.”
“I see . . .” Mia looked out the window, trying to understand the implications. Something didn’t quite make sense to her, but she couldn’t place her finger on it right now.
And then it hit her.
Turning back to look at him, she frowned in puzzlement. “Korum, what would happen when the charl passed away? To the Krinar, I mean? If they were addicted to that specific human, how did they go on?”
For a second, Korum didn’t answer. Then he said softly, “The charl wouldn’t pass away, Mia.”
Stunned, Mia stared at him. “What do you mean?” she whispered, unsure if she had heard him right.
He was silent again, and she could see the tightening of the muscles in his jaw. All of a sudden, he swerved into the right lane and headed for the exit, disregarding the sound of screeching brakes and the outraged honking from the drivers he cut off. Startled, Mia gripped the door handle with her right hand, trying to hang on. A minute later, he pulled into the parking lot of Comfort Inn and put the car into “park” mode.
Turning to her, he said quietly, “We don’t let the humans we love die, my sweet. You, Maria, Delia – you’re all as close to immortal as a biological being can get. You won’t age, you won’t get sick, and any injuries you get – as long as they’re not beyond repair – will heal quickly, as they do for me.”
Chapter 23
For a few seconds, Mia could only gape at him in shock. Was this a joke? “B-but h-how?” she stammered. “I’m not Krinar –”
“No, you’re definitely not Krinar,” Korum agreed. “You’re human, just as you’ve always been.”
“So then how?” Mia could barely process what he was telling her. “How is this possible?”
“Have you noticed that you’ve been healing quicker? Maybe feeling better, more energetic?”
Mia nodded, her heart galloping in her chest.
“And you’ve never wondered how that’s possible? How your arm healed so quickly yesterday?”
“I thought you gave me something,” Mia whispered. “That pill yesterday . . .”
“The pill was a painkiller; it didn’t have the ability to heal you like that. For that, I would’ve needed specialized equipment similar to the devices I’ve used on you before. No, my darling, your arm mended so well because there are now millions of highly advanced and complex nanocytes in your body, and their sole function is to keep you healthy by repairing any damage – whether it’s on a cellular or DNA level.”
“What?” Dark spots swam in front of her vision, and she inhaled deeply, realizing that she’d stopped breathing for a second. “What do you mean? How would they have gotten into my body?”
“Ellet implanted them at my request the first night after you arrived in Lenkarda,” he explained, studying her with a watchful amber gaze. “I brought you to her lab, and she performed the procedure.”
Mia’s head was spinning, and she couldn’t seem to wrap her brain around what he’d just told her. “Y-you brought me to Ellet’s lab? While I was sleeping? You did this to me over t-two weeks ago?”
“Yes,” he said, his eyes slowly turning more golden. “I didn’t want to chance something happening to you by delaying it any further.”
She stared at him, utterly bewildered. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you ask me before you did it?”
“I couldn’t take a chance that you’d refuse,” he said simply. “You were still too angry, too resentful when I had first brought you there. And frankly, my darling, I was too angry with you – too hurt and angry to offer this to you at the time and have an entire discussion on this topic. Your betrayal wounded me, Mia. Logically, I understood why you did it, but it still hurt me more than anything anyone had ever done . . .”
Mia swallowed, te
ars welling up in her eyes. “I’m sorry . . . I really am so sorry about that –”
“And later on,” Korum continued, his gaze holding hers, “after the procedure was done, I delayed telling you because I wanted to see how our relationship would develop, whether you would grow to feel as strongly about me as I felt about you . . .”
“You were testing me?”
He nodded. “In a way. I know how much immortality would mean to most humans. I wanted you to love me – and not just the long life I could give you. I was going to tell you when we came back to Lenkarda, but the topic kept coming up, and I didn’t want to lie to you.”
Her thoughts racing a mile a minute, Mia reached for the door, her hand scrambling to find the handle in the unfamiliar vehicle.
“What are you doing?” he asked sharply, his eyes narrowing.
“I . . . I need a minute,” she said tremulously, her arm shaking as she pushed open the door. She felt violated and invaded, and the realization that the man she loved had done that to her was making her sick. “I just need a minute –”
Before she could get out of the car, he was already there, looming over the passenger side. “Stop it, Mia. You’re not going anywhere.”
Feeling like she was hyperventilating, Mia scrambled out of the car, ignoring his order. She needed some distance between them right now, needed to find a way to come to terms with everything she’d just learned.
He grabbed her arm as she tried to slide past him. “Stop acting like this. You said you loved me – you even risked your life yesterday to save me – and you’re upset about the fact that we can be together long term?”
Mia frantically shook her head, trying to yank her arm away – a futile attempt, of course. “No, of course not!” She could hear the edge of hysteria in her own voice. “But you didn’t even ask me! How could you do something this big without asking me?”
“Do what?” His tone was ice-cold, and his expression hard. “Give you perfect health? A long life?”