“It is natural for our kind to be drawn to a forest,” Lomen said. “I propose we begin searching there.”
Savhoran gave a nod, then looked at Pirian. Everyone else looked at him too.
Pirian shrugged one shoulder. “As you wish.”
“You disagree?” Caeran asked.
Pirian’s gaze shifted to him. “I think it likely to be a waste of time. They have fed; they have probably already found shelter. They will rest for a few days.”
Len brought another chair from the dining nook and set it next to Caeran’s. She sat and picked up her coffee mug.
“Where did you shelter when you first came here?” Caeran asked Pirian.
“I didn’t stop here. I continued north.”
Amanda shifted in her chair. Savhoran put a hand on her thigh.
“And now?” Caeran’s voice was quiet, but I thought I heard a hint of challenge.
Pirian’s eyes narrowed. “I prefer the mountains to the bottomland.”
Caeran nodded and sipped his tea.
“If we are to search, we had best begin,” said Savhoran. He drained his mug and set it on the coffee table. “Thank you for the tea, Len.”
She smiled. “Any time.”
Savhoran stood. Amanda handed him her car keys. He squeezed Amanda’s hand, then went to the door and picked up his helmet.
Caeran followed and fetched coats. Pirian stood, leisurely, and turned his head to look straight at me.
So Caeran and his friends have a new pet.
I flinched, unable to help physically recoiling from the unpleasant contact. His soul did not feel beautiful. There was definitely something wrong.
He dropped the contact, much to my relief. I sat frozen, watching him put on his coat, which still looked wet. He didn’t seem to notice, or maybe he didn’t care.
Steven?
I almost cried out with relief. I flung myself into Lomen’s mental embrace.
What happened?
He spoke to me.
Lomen glared at Pirian.
What did he say?
Nothing important. An insult.
Lomen stood, and for a moment I feared he’d start a fight. Caeran was helping Savhoran into his coat.
“Success to you,” Caeran said.
Savhoran smiled as he and Pirian went out, and I couldn’t help wondering if he would become like Pirian. He seemed nice enough, now, and Amanda liked him. What would the disease do to him, long-term?
Don’t let Pirian bother you. You probably won’t see much of him.
OK.
I didn’t want to argue; not then. Lomen was leaving, going out with them. I had a hard time thinking about him in Pirian’s company. I hoped he wouldn’t do anything rash. I shielded again, then looked at him.
Be careful.
He smiled.
Don’t worry. I know better than to respond to Pirian’s taunts. He is angry at his fate.
He felt wrong. He felt bad.
It’s the curse.
Lomen went to the closet and pulled out a heavy suede coat, slung it over his shoulders, and went out. Caeran gently closed the front door behind him, then returned to his chair.
Awkward silence. I glanced down at my phone, still in my hands. It had gone dark.
“There’s dessert,” Caeran said.
My throat tightened. I shook my head and stood. “Will you guys excuse me? I’ve got homework.”
Silence followed me down the hall, along with the feeling that they’d be discussing me the minute I closed the door of Lomen’s room. I didn’t care. I needed to be alone.
I sat on the bed and poked my phone to wake it up, stared at it until I realized I wasn’t registering the words. Set it aside and rubbed my eyes.
What was I doing here?
I felt exhausted, terrified, confused.
Hopeful.
I lay back and threw an arm over my eyes. Thought over the past couple of days, everything that had happened.
It had started with finding a body.
No. It had started when I texted Amanda. That message had set all this in motion.
And when I sent the text I’d wondered—hoped—it would lead to my seeing Lomen.
So face it, he was the reason I was here. Was he worth it?
Oh, hell yes.
We were just at the start of something. I was thrilled, and terrified that I would screw it up. And be alone again.
I took a deep breath and sat up. Realized I hadn’t turned the light on when I came in, but a soft glow warmed the room from the candle on the nightstand. Lomen must have lit it.
I looked around the room again, this time taking in small details. The walls weren’t white, but a pale green, maybe sage. The candle cast a golden tint on it.
Opposite the bed stood a matching bookcase and dresser, hand-carved from pine. The bookcase held textbooks, a few small nicknacks, and two very old, leather-bound books. Their titles had once been gilded but were now so worn they were almost illegible. I didn’t want to turn on the light to try to make them out, and I was afraid to handle the books in case they were fragile.
I looked at the nicknacks. There was a brass compass no bigger than a half-dollar. It looked very old, so I didn’t touch it. Next to it was a metal cup decorated with grape vines, and behind that was a small portrait in a silver frame.
I carefully picked up the picture and carried it to the candle. It was a painting of a woman. An ælven; the shape of her eyes—green—and the expression on her face made me sure of it. She was dressed like something out of Shakespeare, a lot of pearls sewn onto her sleeves and a hat hiding her hair. She seemed wryly amused.
The frame looked old, now that I had it in the light. It was slightly tarnished but well cared for. There was a nick on the right side, result of some misadventure.
Had she been Lomen’s lover?
I swallowed, trying to clamp a lid on the anxiety this thought raised. No sense in being jealous of her. Was she even still alive?
I put the portrait back in the shelf and went to the little desk, intending to follow through on my homework. The desk looked like the same handiwork as the bookcase and dresser, and come to think of it, the style was familiar. I’d seen something else made by the same artist. The sideboard in the dining nook?
Focus. Homework.
What day was it?
Took me a minute to remember. It was Thursday.
So, Friday. Two classes: Computational Physics and the Physics 102 class I was student-assisting. I’d be dropping them both.
I looked up the course catalog again, searching through the upper-level classes. Molecular Biology caught my eye. The biomedical track led straight into genomics, and that sounded exciting to me—right on target for the Ebonwatch project. So I’d drop both the physics class and the student-assisting job, then add Molecular Biology and the corequisite Genetics.
I hadn’t put this much intense thought into my college education before, not even when I first enrolled. Despite Len’s assurances that we had time, I felt an underlying urgency to get as much of the necessary science under my belt as soon as possible.
My brain was fried. I put away the laptop, got out my bag of bathroom stuff and got ready for bed. The bathroom was across the hall from Lomen’s room. Someone had cleared a shelf in the medicine cabinet, so I put my toothbrush and all there, wondering how long this would be my home.
Thunder rumbled in the distance. I glanced westward. Lomen was out there somewhere, driving around in the rain. If they were searching the bosque they’d have to get out of the car. I wouldn’t want to be there in a storm—those old cottonwoods dropped limbs when it got windy.
I ran through the white-light shield, then on impulse I pictured Lomen with white light around him. Figured he could use all the protection he could get.
I went back across the hall, blew out the candle, and got into bed. The sheets were the softest I’d ever felt, and the pillow smelled like Lomen.
My loins immediately started to ache, and after taking the precaution of shielding I allowed myself to remember our encounter earlier in the day. Probably stupid to think about it, because it made me horny as hell, but I couldn’t help myself. I was ready for more, ready to give Lomen as much of a thrill as he’d given me, or at least to try.
I fell asleep thinking about him, and dreamed of sex. Some of it was weird vampire sex, which was disturbing.
I woke up alone.
At first I didn’t remember where I was. I looked around for a clock, but there wasn’t one.
I had classes. Tempting to skip them, since I’d be dropping them anyway, but I didn’t want to be rude to the Prof.
I dragged my ass out of bed, saw my bag on the dresser where I’d left it. Went to get out some clothes and found a note on top of the dresser.
Steven -
Your face in sleep is like a child’s – very beautiful. I did not wish to wake you.
I will meet you on campus midday, at the pond unless I hear otherwise from you. I have put my number into your phone.
Lomen
Ridiculous, how relieved I was by that note. I pulled on my jeans, then folded the note and shoved it deep in my pocket. Didn’t want any chance of it slipping out.
I found some more clothes and stumbled to the bathroom. Smelled coffee in the hallway, which made my stomach growl. Got myself presentable and went to the kitchen.
No one there, but the coffee pot was on the warmer and breakfast was lined up on the counter: granola, bowls, spoons, a pottery pitcher of cold milk, and a bowl of sliced fresh peaches. I helped myself, grabbed one of my yogurts from the fridge, and went out the back door.
The garden smelled rain-washed, cool and wet, but the sun was shining and it would soon be hot. Amanda was sitting under the pergola, nursing a mug of coffee.
“Morning,” she said.
I nodded to her, dragged a side table in front of a chair, and didn’t say anything until I’d eaten half my breakfast.
“Where are Len and Caeran?” I asked as I opened the yogurt.
“He drove her to class. He’ll be back.”
The coffee pot clock had said 7:45. “I have to be on campus at nine.”
“Me too,” Amanda said. “I’ll drive you.”
“Did they find anything?”
“Don’t know, but we probably would have heard if they had.”
I leaned back to look at the garden. The pergola’s ornate carved columns caught my eye—that’s where I’d seen the carving before. Whoever had done these had also made the furniture in Lomen’s room.
“Who carved these?” I asked, gesturing with my spoon.
Amanda glanced at a column, then smiled. “Madóran.”
“Multitalented guy.”
“Oh, yes. Wait ’til you see his place—he built it himself.”
“He lives up north, right?”
“Mm-hm. Guadalupita.”
I’d never heard of it. Probably one of those tiny towns where the post office was in the general store.
I finished eating and took my dishes back to the kitchen, topping off my coffee before heading to my room to collect my pack.
My room. I’d settled into that fast.
Amanda was waiting for me in the living room. We headed out to her car, which was parked at the curb. The gutter was full of yellow leaves that the storm had brought down.
“So you didn’t see Savhoran.”
She shook her head. “I tried to wait up for him, but I fell asleep. I usually do, but I still try.”
“Do you see him every day?”
“Every night, you mean?” She started the car and headed toward campus. “Not always, but most nights. In the winter when it’s dark by dinner time he tries to see me every evening. It’s harder in daylight savings time.”
“I was under the impression you two lived together.”
“Sort of. He’s at our apartment about half the time. The other half he finds someplace to hole up for the day. He spends a lot of time in the bosque.”
“So he would notice if some alben moved in.”
“Well, it’s a big forest. Since he got the bike he’s able to patrol the whole length of the city every night, pretty much, but that’s not a thorough search.”
“So he’s been patrolling there before now? Even when there weren’t any alben in town?”
She paused to get across a busy intersection. “He considers it his beat, I guess you could say. He likes making sure the bosque’s safe for everyone who uses it. He keeps tabs on the homeless who live there, too—and if one of them needs help, or accidentally sets a fire, he calls in a tip to the cops. He’s called in four bosque fires this year. He’s pretty proud of that.”
“If he calls in too many tips, the cops will start suspecting him of starting the fires.”
She laughed. “Yeah, we talked about that. He uses a pay phone unless it’s a serious emergency.”
“Is it hard for you? Being with Savhoran?”
She gave a wry smile which turned into a grin. “It’s worth it.”
She dropped me at the Astronomy and Physics building. I wasn’t early enough to ask for a private word with the prof, so I resigned myself to visiting his office later. Not a conversation I looked forward to.
I listened to the lecture and made random notes in my notebook, stray thoughts about Project Ebonwatch. All my powerful feelings about the effort had shifted since I’d met Pirian. Ultimately, he was the one I’d be fighting to cure. Was he worth it? Would he even be grateful?
Class let out, and I crossed Lomas and headed for the duck pond. It was warming up, and I’d forgotten to bring a hat. I stuck to the shade of trees wherever I could, hopping from pool to pool of shadow. The last stretch was across open ground. I made a beeline for the trees where I’d met Lomen the day before.
He wasn’t there.
O
ne hard, self-pitying swallow, then I took a grip on myself. It wasn’t yet noon. Maybe Lomen was still in class, or running an errand. Don’t panic.
The thought of errands reminded me there was a book on biochemistry that I wanted to check for in the library. Zimmerman was right next to the pond, so I walked over and hit the catalog. Located the book, ran up to get it, and took it to the front desk to check out.
“Hi, Steve!” said a sharp-boned girl in a black baby-doll dress that gave glimpses of bits of her tattoos: purple and green curlicues peeking out of the neckline. Her hair was black and cropped with a knife-edge cut that ran right along her jaw, then dipped to long points in front.