He remembered her the next night, though, and the next, and every night after. Each night he had to save one of his rations for Cali, though he should have visited five different restaurants. He could not bear to miss something so delicious.
Sometimes Cali appeared drowsy, and she sat relaxed, as if she hardly felt his teeth piercing her vein. Sometimes when he came, he found her sleeping, as many saps did between customers. When she slept, he did not wake her, but lifted her arm to his mouth and drew until he’d had his ration. He knew she was probably awake, except on nights when he noted the unpleasant aftertaste of drugs in her bloodstream.
Some kinder Superiors used drugs to calm saps and ease their pain. Some even preferred the taste, having gotten so used to it that sap without the addition of pharmaceuticals tasted strange to them. Draven had never been able to tolerate the foreign taste, despite his sympathy for saps’ pain. He disliked drugs the same way he disliked the preserved sap sold in stores and at bars. Even warmed, it lacked the taste of life, the fresh vitality of sap direct from the source.
One night, after a busy shift in which Draven had reported a restaurant allowing its saps to be overdrawn, he made it to Estrella’s just before closing time. He’d stayed most of the night with the team of Enforcers who came to confiscate the weak and nearly lifeless sapiens, so he’d not eaten since evening.
He entered Estrella’s to find Cali sleeping on her arm. He placed her free hand in the crook of his elbow while he massaged her upper arm. She sat up and blinked at him, hair sticking to her cheek. She brushed it away and then, clearly without thinking, reached both her arms above her head and curled her whole body into a stretch. Her bouncer stepped forward and crushed her arm back onto the table.
She winced and bowed her head. “I’m sorry, Master,” she said to Draven. “I was half asleep. I meant no offense or disrespect, sir. I apologize.”
“It’s all right,” he said, taking her arm in his hands and resuming his preparation. She studied him as if she were trying to figure him out. “Really,” he assured her with a small smile.
She offered a tentative smile and sighed. “Thanks.”
“I’m not a horrible person who wants to hurt you,” he said, shaking his head and flicking her vein. It bulged suddenly, beautiful and pulsing with life. His teeth throbbed a painful stab deep into the root. “After I’ve eaten, I will speak with you,” he said. He lowered his head and buried his teeth in the relief of her nourishment.
Some of the saps babbled while he drank, and some whimpered, and once in a while, one screamed. Some, like Cali, remained silent, which he preferred. When he finished, he closed the two small punctures and turned her arm to gently lick away the last traces of sap, his tongue and lips moving over her warm skin. He felt her shiver and lifted his head to look at her. “Are you sick?” he asked, recalling that common symptom of sapien illness.
“Your mouth is just awfully cold. Most of you don’t…linger.”
“I apologize,” he said, releasing her arm. “Does it cause you severe discomfort?” Among their many weaknesses, saps were bothered by temperature change. They could even die from it. Of course, saps could die of any little thing, or nothing at all.
“I guess not,” Cali said. “At least you’re thorough about closing.”
“Animals should not suffer without purpose. If I could make it painless, I would. But I do not like the drug taste.”
“You can taste that?”
“Of course. I can taste anything you’ve eaten or drunk or taken, or even that you are of breeding age, unlike the first time I drew from you.”
She squirmed and crossed her legs under the table. He did not know what to think of this delicious little sap. She seemed much like any other sap, and yet… It appeared she was experiencing some sort of embarrassment. Of course he was mistaken. Saps weren’t intelligent enough to experience this sensation.
5
Auction night always excited Ander—even more so when he had some anyas in his pocket. He prided himself on the thoroughness of his inspections and his selectiveness. He wanted the best of the best, and today he could choose two saps. Business boomed if you just picked the right business, and he had. After all, everybody had to eat.
He walked along the platform looking over the livestock. He’d read a book once about the slave trade in human times, about how slave owners tested to see if slaves were healthy, and he’d borrowed a few of their techniques. Slaves were just homo-sapiens, after all, and that’s what he needed. Some healthy saps that would last for a good many years in his restaurants. Of course, the ones who didn’t do so good could always be sent down to South End, where no one cared if saps were healthy or not.
Ander stopped and looked over a young sap. She had long legs and a pretty face, good hair. She smelled nice, too, and he guessed her age to be pushing twenty.
“Open your mouth,” he said. He felt around inside, then ran his hands over her bare skin and took in all her savories. When he finished, he nodded to an attendant. She stepped forward to record Ander’s bid in the system. He bid on two more saps before he moved back and sat in the audience, watching the screens where the saps’ numbers scrolled along, the highest bidders changing now and then.
It sure beat the old auctions where people had to yell out bids. Like most things, auctioning had gotten a whole lot better when Superiors set them up. Of course he’d heard the old saying about how it had taken Superiors a hundred years to wreck everything humans had built, and a hundred more to put it back exactly as it had been. Ander didn’t agree with that, but then, he’d never been around when humans ran things, so he didn’t know for sure.
He’d read books, though, and from what he could tell, the world was a less shitty place now. Or maybe power just kept Superiors happy. Nothing could keep whining, pathetic bloodbags happy. Even when they’d been the top of the food chain, every book he read made it seem like they were just a bunch of sniveling, self-absorbed pricks. Plenty of pricks among the Superior crowd, too, but most of them didn’t whine.
The saps on the auction block weren’t whining, at least not the ones Ander wanted. Unlike slaves in the old days of human rule, sapiens didn’t wear chains. They were stupid as a rule, but not suicidal. Like most animals, they had an instinct for survival that Ander shared. When you came right down to it, Superiors and sapiens were built the same way and had about the same instincts. The sapiens knew they damn well better stand there and submit to the examinations, so they mostly did. They knew the consequences of disobedience.
After a while, someone outbid Ander, so he punched in the number for the leggy sap with dark hair and upped his bid. One of the other saps he’d bid on had already gone over his price limit, but the other two were still good options. He watched the screens until the last bidder sat. Only four or five bidders had come after him, which he liked. He tried to get near the end of the line, see what other Superiors were putting down for the saps he liked before he put too much on them.
After the last bidders sat, the whole audience could use their pods to up their bids. This went on for a few minutes. Ander had to bid twice more on the leggy sap, and he went a little higher than he usually would have, but souldamn she looked good up there without any clothes on. He could always make her earn it back at one of the restaurants, renting her out to the more adventurous clientele. Ander didn’t judge men by their sexual preferences. To each their own, that was his thinking. He enjoyed illicit dabblings with his saps on the side now and then, himself.
He liked to try out his new saps, see where they’d fit and if they would make good earners. He had a handful of restaurants, and he prided himself on his judgment of where each sapien would best fit the needs of his clients. When Ander finished transferring money to the sap farmer who’d held the live auction, he took the two saps he’d won and drove back to his place. He knew some Superiors abhorred the thought of letting saps ride in the car, but he’d never much cared. Why waste money renting a trailer when he had three extra seats in his
car?
Back at his house, the two saps followed him inside. He ordered them to his room and they obeyed—an encouraging sign. Ander fed on both of them and then sat in his chair smoking and looking over his purchases with satisfaction. He’d done good. They looked good and they tasted good, and he was sure they’d do well at the restaurants. The leggy one, Nina, would probably fit in at 28 Flavors. Maybe the other one, too. He hung around that restaurant most, and he could enjoy his new purchases until they lost the appeal of novelty.
He had a few hours until bedtime, so he thought he’d have a little fun with his new saps before putting them up at the restaurant.
“Take off your clothes,” he said. The one named Cheryl obeyed—a good thing for her. Nina hesitated, and Ander stood holding out his hand impatiently for a minute before she followed suit.
Ander sat back and smoked the rest of his cigarette. He could have gone down to South End and gone to one of the sex movies, but here he could have the live show. Lots of Superiors from this side of town headed down there after a long night to catch a show at a theater or visit with a whore. Ander didn’t much care if anyone saw him going into one of the theaters, but this way he didn’t even have to leave the house. Of course these girls weren’t Superiors like the ones in the movies, but sometimes he liked that. The movies had a choreographed feel to them, with the staged situations and the girls all panting and moaning at calculated paces.
His show had a more natural, organic feel to it. The best thing about having the real thing right here was that he could direct the show. And when he got bored of watching, as he always did after a few minutes, he could star in it, too. Sure, he knew all about what people thought of that—cruelty to animals, violation of their rights, it was unnatural and brutal, blah blah blah. The human rights activists were always up in arms about the matter. But Ander didn’t much care about that, either. The human rights activists could go suck a sapien for all he cared.
Ander didn’t see what all the fuss was about, anyway. Sure, sapiens were a different species and all, but they had the same hole in the same place, and that was good enough for him. Didn’t seem so unnatural when you thought of it that way. He liked the cowering way sapiens obeyed, too, not like the whores who always looked bored or tired or sullen, or worst of all, coy.
As far as rights went, saps didn’t have any claim to rights. After all, Ander fed them, and clothed them (most of the time), and put a roof over their heads, and kept them warm. The least they could do was, on occasion, keep him warm in return.
6
On days when he got held up, Draven missed drawing from Cali. He no longer felt satisfied after his five rations if one wasn’t hers. Her sap capped the night like a delicious dessert. But he had to work, and some nights he didn’t make it to Estrella’s before the bells signaled the end of waking hours.
He’d not had any luck with 28 Flavors on his previous attempt, so he returned several times. One night he found a plump, pleasant-scented sap with dark hair and arms severely scarred with pockmarks. She appeared alert, so he sat down to question her. “You must have very strong veins,” he said, squeezing her upper arm. The doughy quality of her flesh and its repulsive warmth made him cringe. He looked at the bouncer. “Do you have a cord, please?”
The bouncer produced a cord. Though it looked harsh and not well padded, Draven used it. It was better than feeling for veins in her soft arm.
“I been in the restaurant business near eight years now,” she said, her accent strange to him.
“From where did you come?”
“Up north of here, near the panhandle,” she said. Her sap had an appealing robust quality. She continued talking while he ate. “Yeah, I been all over the place. They say I have a generally appealing sap. I’s born up there, yep, and bought by a feller from up north of there, and then north of that, in them mountains where it snows all winter. You wouldn’t believe how cold it gets.” She laughed, carrying on this pleasant conversation as if he were some sort of friend.
He concentrated on measuring off his ration, but her talk distracted him.
“You don’t feel that cold, though, do you? Y’all are like snakes, right? Freeze right through and y’all still healthy as hens. Anyhow, I was stolen from my master one night and bitten up right nasty, I was. Them gangs got me for a while, and then they done left me near drained out. But someone found me out in the cold and took me in and nursed me back to health, he did. I owed that Superior my life, and I still serve him with a smile on my face. He owned a restaurant up there, see, and I was happy to help him start up his business. And now he got this place, and I’m still serving just as faithful as ever.”
Though Draven didn’t like to hear them, he knew many similar stories existed. Like his. But he had more important things to think about, like getting proof of a restaurant prostituting a sapien.
“And do you serve anyone else? I can pay well for another hour of your time.”
“Oh, I only serve the master in that way,” she said, laughing heartily. “But if you’re of that inclination, that’s what you’re looking for.” She nodded towards another table where a younger female sat with a man. She had long dark legs and long dark hair.
This woman’s master could indulge himself in his own saps without anyone finding out, but prostituting them violated the law. So did the owner’s indulgence, but that was impossible to regulate. Draven relished calling in a raid when he discovered that kind of activity. It wasn’t as rare as he would have liked. The thought of burying himself in the hot flesh of a sap made his stomach lurch.
“And I could use her as I wished?” Draven asked.
“Yeah, she’s the prettiest so she’s rented out the most. But there’s a few others, too. They’re all busy now, though.” The sap craned her scarred neck to look around the restaurant.
He tried to keep his face from showing his disgust. “I like the look of her,” he said. “I may go gather some money. Do you know how much she is worth?”
“Ain’t too much, I know that.”
Draven slipped out to his car and made the call. He waited a few minutes before going back inside. “I’m interested in some extra services I’m told you provide,” he told the host. “I would like to inquire how much is the cost of the sap called Nina.”
“You want to buy her?” asked the skinny host, swaying in a feminine manner. He was thin as string and wearing tight leather pants and a shimmering shirt. He looked like a child playing dress-up. Calling him a Superior seemed a joke, but when Draven thought of the saps, he decided the flamboyant host was indeed far superior.
“Perhaps just borrow her for, say, an hour. If that would be possible.”
The boy looked him up and down. “Are you an Enforcer?”
“No. You’re not going to report me, are you?” Draven tried to sound convincing. He was a practiced liar and it came easily enough.
“Just asking. Nina’s very popular. The ripest age for many of us. I myself prefer males.” He looked Draven over in a more appreciative manner. “Not just sapiens, either,” the boy added.
“Is that right? Perhaps I could persuade you to let me spend a little time with Nina outside the restaurant. In my car, for instance? I’d let you punch my ration card twice if I took too much.”
“I’d let you punch my ration card any time,” the boy said, smiling up at Draven from under his eyelashes.
“I’ve my mind set on her, for tonight at least.” Draven smiled a bit. “I’ll only take one ration in the whole hour.”
“You look like you know how to control yourself, make it last. I like a man who takes his time.”
“I do like to take my time,” Draven said, glancing at the door. He needed to speed things up. He leaned on the host’s stand and lowered his voice. “And if I brought Nina back and I had indulged other appetites, could you keep it between us?”
“Our little secret.”
“And how much would that cost me?”
“Eight anyas.”
<
br /> “Is that all?”
“And maybe a little nibble for me later.”
“I’m sure that could be arranged,” Draven said with a smirk. “Is there a place here, or shall I take her?”
“We have rooms that can be used for two more anyas, if you can keep things quiet and not upset the other saps. Nina’s a pro. She can be quiet.” He arched an eyebrow. “Can you?”
“I’ll do my best.” Draven handed the boy the ten anyas, making a mental pin to get it back after the raid. It was nearly a night’s wage, and he’d come up short on last week’s rent.
“Here you go,” the boy said, gesturing for Nina. “By the way, I’m Crane. Don’t forget me, pretty boy.”
“I won’t forget.”
The sap came swaying over, very much the professional the boy had advertised. If he didn’t know better, Draven would have thought she looked forward to this.
He took her arm and glanced at the door one more time, hoping the Enforcers would arrive promptly. He couldn’t loiter without drawing suspicion, so he forced a look onto his face that he imagined would convey desire when Nina smiled up at him. In his mind, he pulled up the scent of Cali, the taste of her, and his teeth sang quietly, like the reverberation of a high-pitched noise through a glass.
He smiled down at Nina, who took his fingers in her own and led him down a shadowy hallway. He trailed behind, listening for sounds of an impending raid. Nothing yet.
Nina drew him into a room and closed the door behind him. Her persona didn’t slip when they were alone. She ran her fingers down his arm and stepped close, smiling up at him. Draven could hear a human and a superior moaning in the room beside them, could hear the sounds of their copulation. He suppressed a shudder. He hadn’t set up a prostitution raid since retaking the job. He’d forgotten how sick it made him. Even overdrawn saplings weren’t as sickening as a Superior fornicating with a sap.
“So, what’s your fantasy?” Nina purred at him. “What do you want to do to me?”
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