New World--Stay with Me, page 11
“I’m not sure. The bond is just beginning...maybe that’ll change?”
She sighed, letting her hands fall against her sides.
“So unfair.”
Her reaction was so childlike that I almost laughed. I couldn’t fight the smile that crept across my lips.
I wanted to press a kiss to her forehead and envelop her in my soothing warmth.
Her brows furrowed. “I’m smelling something again, but it’s comforting and kind of...soothing. Like someone threw a blanket over me when I didn’t realize I was cold.”
“Guilty,” I said, shoving my hands in my work pants. “I was just thinking that I wanted to comfort you and my body probably took it literally.”
“Wow,” she breathed. “It’s like a superpower.”
I could only laugh.
Her eyes met mine, her gaze assessing. A little hesitant.
“Right.” I cleared my throat, fingers fidgeting with the end of my braid. “I have to get back.”
She nodded, fingers meeting and knotting together.
Kiss goodbye.
Before I was tempted to do just that, I forced my feet backwards to the doorway. I’d meant what I said before—we needed distance to figure this all out.
“Be back later.” My voice was rough, and my lips tingled like they were protesting my decision to walk away.
Twyla
The weekend market was a small affair, at least according to Royal One standards. There were about thirty stalls—including Cedra’s—lining the streets, with different produce on sale. All of the vendors seemed to be renting their stall decor from the same supplier as they were each a simple synthi-wood affair with a display table and a roof to protect sellers from the surprising heat. I recalled the markets that my nannies used to take me to as a child, rife with colors and treats and toys. This was vastly different. Very...minimal.
Cedra got to work quickly, as though this were second nature to her. I found myself working a little slower, fiddling with the pesky ties of the sack cartons much too long before they popped open.
True to her word, Cedra had maintained a cool distance from me over the past few days. She no longer asked me to join her for meals. In fact, she barely spent any time eating in the kitchen or smoking her pipe in the living area. Last night, she’d grabbed her bowl of stew and retreated to her bedroom after dusk. I don’t think she’d even looked at me when she murmured her thank-you.
That left me alone in the semi-dark house, sketching dress designs aimlessly on the e-reader. I hadn’t been sleeping well. My body felt restless and overheated; my core was still red and swollen. I was so unsatisfied that it wasn’t even funny.
“Grains for 1 credit per pound. All other produce for 0.5 credit per pound. Milk is free for those with babies.”
She spoke briskly as she stacked the corn on the display case. She’d taken off her work shirt and simply wore her white undershirt and black work pants in the heat. A cap was slung low on her forehead, and I could barely see her eyes behind the shade.
I couldn’t help but watch her muscles bunch under her ministrations. It was almost hypnotic. I barely registered the potatoes in my hands or the heat that pervaded our booth under the little slanted roof of the stalls.
I wanted to close my eyes and imagine the way those arms felt around me—tight, unyielding...supportive. I could be weak with her. I knew it. She was strong enough to hold me.
She looked up at me briefly and I jerked back into motion.
“Free milk for babies. Yes, got it.”
I winced at my unconvincing tone as I stacked the produce in neat little piles. I wasn’t even done with my task before the crowds started arriving.
I didn’t have much time to ogle Cedra after that. I hadn’t realized how taxing the farmer’s market was from the other side of the table...how had Cedra done this alone every week? The thought alone was certainly impressive.
The morning was an...experience. I’d never seen so many hybrids in one place at once. Royal One was a mixing pot of cultures and people, but hybrids were a rarity. I wasn’t sure why, since Royal One was known for its abundance of opportunities for anyone who dared to brave its bustling pavements. Despite the pull many felt to the Star, hybrid people tended to settle farther away from large cities and create small communities rather than build up into the sky like Royals did. I smiled briefly, taking in the happy families with young ones running about, couples taking a stroll, mothers just out for a quick shop.
I was fascinated by their modifications. True, I’d studied the mods in detail in university but that didn’t compare to the experience of it. The Beast people, in particular, were intriguing. They wore their hair long in thick braids which would be impossible to put a comb through. And at the base of their temples were two pointed horns, kind of like rams’ horns I’d seen in docu-videos. I found it a little amusing that they wore caps with little holes cut out to accommodate the pointed tips. The ladies had smaller, thicker horns while the men had long (and a little scary) pointed ones. My studies had taught me that they could make their body hair disappear and appear on command. An interesting trait indeed, even though I’d yet to see it.
I was briefly distracted watching a Beast family walk by; their little one had candy stuck in her thick dark hair and was wailing her lungs out. I smothered a laugh as I watched her father try his best to soothe her while her mother yanked at the sticky pink round sweet.
A loud feline purr brought my attention back to the stall—a loud purr that was someone’s name.
“Cedraaaa...”
I felt my eyes narrow immediately.
Standing in front of the stall was a slip of a platinum blonde girl. As I watched, her nose twitched as she batted her long lashes at Cedra. A Felin. They were known for their catlike beauty and waspish temperament.
My studies didn’t tell me that I’d feel just like the potato I was selling while standing near one. Because she was truly ethereal.
She wore a shimmery white dress that exposed just the tops of her breasts—modest enough, I suppose, but a little too fancy for the farmer’s market. I myself was wearing the long off-white dress from yesterday with the tie knotted loosely around my waist.
The pearls in her ears told me that she came from a little more money than most people around these parts.
I didn’t like her.
“Dione,” Cedra acknowledged her. “How are you today?”
“Goooood.”
Was anything she said not a purr?
“The usual?” Cedra asked, hands extended for the cloth bag Dione was holding.
“Yes, please.”
The Felin passed Cedra the bag, but not before I noticed their fingers brush against each other.
I felt a growl building at the base of my throat as my eyes narrowed to slits. I didn’t take my eyes off Dione as I watched her admire Cedra’s profile in a manner that should only be reserved for me.
Then, as I watched, she tilted her head to the side and gathered her blond hair over one shoulder. She was baring her neck. BARING HER NECK! It was obvious what she wanted. What she wanted from my Cedra. But I’d be damned before she got it.
This time, I did growl. For someone who hadn’t growled before in her life, I did pretty well on my first try.
It got both their attention immediately.
“Oh right, Ella told me you’d purchased a bot. But why does it sound like that?” Dione questioned, blinking inquisitively with those ridiculously large blue eyes.
“Uh, needs maintenance,” Cedra lied, somewhat unconvincingly.
“Didn’t you just get it?” the Felin questioned. “Why is it staring at me like that?”
Cedra had already packed up her shopping and taken the credit, so why was Dione still lingering?
“I’ll have a look at its mechanics later,” Cedra said noncommittally. “Would you send my regards to your parents?”
“Suuure.” Now her purr was accompanied with a downright flirty smile. “You know you’re welcome back at our home anytime, right?”
Her smile widened, revealing pointed feline fangs, thinner and much more delicate than Cedra’s.
It was an invitation. I knew it. She was propositioning my Cedra.
The growl in my throat turned into a hiss. I took a step forward but Cedra reached out to clasp my forearm, obscured by the display table.
“You should return that thing,” Dione commented with a frown. “Its mechanics sound horribly broken.”
Cedra’s smile was tight. “I will.”
As she walked away, a thick wispy white tail flicked side to side, as though in goodbye.
“Who is she to you?” I demanded when Dione was out of earshot.
Did I have the right to demand anything from Cedra? Technically, technically, I was only her “bot,” her maid. A maid she’d shared a few steamy minutes with. Did that mean I had the right to dictate who she shared her affections with?
YES. At least, that was what my heart said.
Cedra crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I’ve known Dione’s parents for a long time. They’re clothing merchants.”
“Right...” But that didn’t explain just how well she knew Dione.
“And?” I prodded.
“She’s a friend.”
She turned away. Clearly, the conversation was over but I couldn’t let it drop. At least, my mind wouldn’t let it drop.
Cedraaaa...
The purr of Dione’s voice replayed in my head and my eyes narrowed. I probably wasn’t the best at customer service as I attended to different orders over the next few hours.
When the crowd thinned out considerably, Cedra turned away to set up the solar cart and I packed up what little produce remained.
Flashes of Cedra and Dione overwhelmed me. Their hands touching, their bodies, their lips... Doing things that I’d fantasized about for days.
Rage made my skin burn. My brain was starting to fog from the cacophony of doubts echoing through it—with each image of Cedra and Dione together, a little bit of logic flew out the window.
It was quickly replaced by the gnawing, urgent jealousy that crawled up my spine.
“Ready?” Cedra asked me minutes later, and all I could do was nod.
Because I knew if I spoke, I’d scream.
Scream that Cedra wouldn’t hesitate to touch someone like Dione but had kept me at arm’s length over the past few days.
The ride home was quiet. Cedra didn’t speak, and I simmered in silence.
I plastered myself against the side of the solar cart so we wouldn’t touch even when the cart jostled along the back roads to the house. Cedra glanced at me once but looked away just as quickly. I wondered if she was picking up my train of thought—did I really care at this point?
I didn’t need a mirror to know my pinched face wasn’t the least bit inviting.
By the time we pulled up to the backyard, I felt drained. My head was pounding and my skin felt like it was on fire. All I wanted to do was curl up on my little makeshift bed and fall asleep.
Cedra
I fell into a restless slumber a little after midnight. Something was off—I could feel it in my bones. But I couldn’t figure out what it was, and it made me edgy. In the end, I dozed intermittently, half upright in bed, wishing the unsettling feeling would fade through the night.
I was awakened before dawn by a whisper of my name so low I would’ve missed it on any other occasion. I sat up straighter in bed, letting the sheets fall away.
I could just about make out Twyla’s form in the darkness, but something wasn’t right.
“Light, dim,” I called out and a soft glow descended over the bare bedroom.
Her eyes were red; that was what I noticed first. Had she been crying? Her arms were crossed over her chest, fingers digging into the flesh of her upper arms, leaving painful-looking indents in her skin. But worst of all—she was shaking. Not simple shivers like she was cold. No, she was shaking like she was in the depths of a fever.
My heart lurched—I’d known something was up on the ride back from the market! If only I’d checked in on her before bed. I wondered how long she’d been suffering in silence.
“I need some help,” she whispered.
I was out of bed in an instant, reaching for her. She pressed herself against my chest, breathing deep.
Her skin was hot—too hot even for a fever. It felt like she was burning from within. My heart constricted in panic as I tried to map the closest route to a medic.
“Let’s get you to a medic.” I tried to keep my voice as neutral as possible; I didn’t want to add to her panic.
She took a few hitching breaths against my chest.
“I don’t think a medic can help with what I have,” she murmured, slowly raising her eyes to mine.
This time, I did cup her cheek in my palm, stroking its puffy contours.
“What do you mean, ’mara?”
She shut her eyes for a second, swallowing slowly as though she was trying to rack up the nerve to tell me something. I just wished she would hurry up with it.
“It’s embarrassing,” she said finally, her voice so low I barely heard her in the quiet room.
“Shut your eyes, then. Shut your eyes and say it quickly.”
Say it before my mind comes up with dozens of ailments you could be dying from.
She shut her eyes again and burrowed her forehead into my chest.
“I think I have...the Heat.”
I drew back from her, my features in a mask of shock.
There was no way—no way at all that she could be in Heat. She wasn’t a Fanger, and Blood Heat usually affected female Fangers only—shouldn’t I be the one shivering and in pain?
On the surface, the symptoms seemed to match. Heated skin, extreme shivers, reddened eyes... But surely not.
I placed my thumb on her top lip and lifted it slightly to check for fangs, just as a mother would do to her newborn. Nothing.
“What are you doing?” Twyla’s voice was muffled behind my fingers.
“Only Fanger females develop Heat,” I explained, letting her lip drop. “I had to check.”
“I don’t know what’s happening, but all I know is that I can’t take it anymore.”
She shivered against me, her breaths merely hitching pants.
“What are your other symptoms, ’mara?”
When she only looked at me with wide eyes, I clarified, “I just need to be sure. It’s just...unusual.”
“I can’t say it out loud.”
I placed a finger under her chin and tilted her head up to me. “Are you sore? Swollen?”
Her gaze dropped, unsure and afraid. Then she nodded quickly.
She was in Heat, all right. As teens, we learned in Reproductive Cycle modules that the Heat was nothing to mess with. It was pretty common for mated couples to experience this. In fact, the shared experience usually brought them closer together. But it usually only started once the couple was formally mated...once they shared their blood. Again, I knew that Twyla was now in pain because of my stupid inability to control my baser needs that first morning in the barn.
“How long, ’mara? How long has this been happening?”
She reacted to the urgency in my voice; her lovely eyes filled with tears.
“About a week, on and off. Ever since...ever since you held me in the viewing room. But it got so much worse today.”
My heart constricted. My grip on her chin tightened. “And you didn’t tell me?”
Her eyes narrowed. “What would I say, huh? ‘Help me, my parts are swollen and red and I hurt so much I could scream every time I sit down’?”
I shook my head. I should’ve known something was wrong. Her scent had been overwhelming these past few days, but how was I to know it was even possible for her to go into Heat? But then again, how was it possible for a non-Fanger to be my Blood Mate in the first place?
She shuddered against me again, biting her lip so hard I could see the indent it made on her lush bottom lip.
“I don’t know how long more I can take this.” Her little hands were curled into fists.
“You won’t have to for much longer,” I murmured, pulling her closer. “You know what the cure is, don’t you?”
She nodded slowly, looking away. “I—I’m so sorry to do this to you. I just can’t take it anymore.”
“Stop.” I cupped her cheek and brought her eyes back to mine. “I wish you’d told me about this earlier. It’s my fault that you’re in pain.”
“I’m sorry... If you don’t want to do this, I understand.”
“Don’t want to do this?” I felt my forehead crease in confusion. “Twyla, do you really think the only reason I’m offering to do this is because I don’t have a choice? Because you’re in pain?”
“I—I don’t know. You always push me away...and it hurts when you do.”
Her voice was small, hesitant, tearing at my heart.
I gripped her more urgently now, trying to make her understand.
“Because I don’t know if you’re reacting to me only because of the call. I don’t know if this is what you truly want—if I’m what you truly want. I don’t want you to regret anything after the heat of the moment.”
“Oh...” She bit her lip thoughtfully even as another rough shudder racked her small frame. “Do you doubt that I find you attractive, Cedra Holloway?”
I sighed, trying not to let my self-doubt shine through.
“Because you must know how beautiful you are.” Her fingers toyed with the buttons of my sleep shirt, trembling as they moved. “I have a hard time keeping my eyes off you.”
I felt a smile quirk up the corner of my lips. “I’ve caught you looking a couple of times.”
She would’ve reddened had her cheeks not already been ruddy.
