Page 25 of Vicious
I nodded. “Without females, a species obviously can’t reproduce, so the Saelis went biblical—an eye for an eye. You destroy us, we destroy you. Only the Saelis aren’t doneyet.”
She gripped her jaw as if she feared it might drop at her feet while she paced the floor. “On Orin, you cut yourself in front of me, like a test.Why?”
“Because…” I scratched at my bandaged arm, pretending to scrape at my courage reserves to bare my soul. “I’m a ghost magnet. You asked me what I was, and there you have it. Ghosts flock to me to cross to the other side, usually without asking if it’s a convenient time or place, so to keep them away, I eatmetal.”
She stopped her pacing and stared. “You haveconsumectalons.”
“Bingo. Iron keeps the ghosts away. I cut myself to see if you’re a Saelis human hybrid since consumectalons drive them mad. Mad enough to attack. Probablykill.”
“Hybrids…”
“They look just like humans and can be controlled by their Mind-Is. The Saelis created them to infiltrate us. We had two on our ship, and nobodyknew.”
“This is…” She shook her head. “This is a lot to take in, is what itis.”
I sighed. “Yeah.”
She placed her hand on her chest, her long fingers tracing the delicate links on a chain necklace that dipped below her burnt-orange shirt, and took a step toward me. “You've been touched by a higherpower."
I gaped at her. Then I barked out a laugh, half expecting her to join in at my expense. “You're…you’reserious.”
“You pass lost spirits through you to someone’s idea of heaven or hell.” She said it with deference, her head tilted slightly as if trying to see me in a betterlight.
Or trying to see me as something Iwasn’t.
“I don't know where they go,” I snapped. “It's definitely not some kind of religious experience. It's pain. Pain and suffering, and I still feel it in my heart long after they’vegone.”
She backed up a step, nodding even though it didn’t even make sense to me. “Why you?” she asked. “Have you ever thought aboutthat?”
I gritted my teeth. “All the fucking time. Look, don’t put me on a pedestal I never wanted to be on in the firstplace."
“Maybe it’s time to use that pedestal to youradvantage.”
“What does that even mean?” Idemanded.
“I don’t know.” She heaved a sigh. “I guess it means I’ll get you a Mind-I.”
“How? Do you haveone?”
“No.” She posted her fists on her narrow hips. “And I don’t quite know how I’ll get you oneeither.”
“Nesbit, the guy who used to be our engineer, had one, but I don’t know where he put it.” I pointed at the engine room door. “Maybe it’s in there and maybe it’snot.”
Despite our combined lack of knowledge about how to proceed, it was a start. Now, I felt like I should offer her something in return, take her to the stasis pantry, and make her point at what she wanted to eat. Seriously, how was she still alive if she hadn’t eaten anything since she’darrived?
“What do you eat?” Iblurted.
“Titanium.” She started toward the engine room door. “I’ve got an evolved version of consumectalons in myblood.”
Wow. We were growing more and more alike with every shared word. “You don’t plan on eating through the ship anytime soon, doyou?”
A genuine smile played over her face, revealing her fangs and deepening the wrinkles at her temples. “I can’t make anypromises.”
8
Meal preparationwithout Randolph seemed unnaturally quiet. For the next three days, he stayed in his quarters until about a half hour before we were to eat. He didn’t trust himself, he’d said, and I think the very idea of poisoning someone with his food, whether he’d consciously done it or not, tore him apart faster than I could try to put him back together. While he found solace in his wine all day, I worried about him, but I kept my word and didn’t tell Captain Glenn about him. Mostly because I didn’t trust the captain, but also because I feared he would say something to Randolph that would dangle him over the ledge evenfarther.
I’d grown so used to Randolph’s grouchy mutterings and had looked forward to saying something stupid enough to make him throw back his head with a well-endowed belly laugh. To fill the silence, I whistled while I bathed the humo bird’s breasts in egg yolks, flour, and crushed tazilnuts.
