The Superiors Read online

  “You know her?” he asked.

  “Oh, yeah. I know her. Pretty little thing, slanty eyes, long teeth?”

  “Yes...”

  “I knew you’d pick a pretty one like that. I just bet you look real good together.”

  “How do you know Hyoki?”

  “She was Mr. Vitrola’s little honey for a while. Yeah, I do believe they spent some years together.”

  “Then I’m officially out-classed.”

  “You sure is. Now get on outta here before I get a good sunburn. I’ll see you next time. Unless you come back to get your old job back. You know you’d be my number one guy.”

  “I’m always your number one guy, Big Bonnie. And you let me know when you change the policy on the blood bank, and I’ll be back on your payroll that very night.”

  “Keep dreaming, dreamboat.”

  “I will, Big Bonnie. Now stop distracting me before I starve.”

  He went through the doors into the compound, brooding over the news about Hyoki. He didn’t like thinking about his woman having spent years as a glorified mistress to the wealthy Second Order Superior who owned this Confinement and two others in the city. It did explain her expensive cigarette habit. But now he’d have to try even harder to impress her, and he could never spoil her the way Mr. Vitrola had. Draven would never have that kind of money.

  He found Cali still in her bed, again curled at the top, as far from probing eyes as possible. It was as good a disguise as she could get in here. But he knew her number, and her smell. When he pulled her foot towards him, he could see that the other man who liked her knew it too. And apparently he visited every night, unlike Draven. She had a lot of unhealed bites on her legs.

  “Cali. Awaken and come with me.”

  She sat up, hunched over in the small space between her bunk and the next one. She squinted at him. He could tell her eyes couldn’t see him in the darkness. She reached out and touched his hair and then scooted along her bed and ducked out from under the next bunk and stood. “Where are we going?”

  “Outside.” They stopped while Draven registered her number and his own with the door guard.

  “Why you taking her outside?” the guard asked.

  “I do not like the smells in here, and I would like to eat in peace.”

  “Alright. Make sure you check her back in when you come in. I get off here in a minute.”

  “Yes, of course.” Draven had responsibility for her if anything happened—if she didn’t show up at night he’d have to account for her absence. It would be difficult to sneak a human out of the Confinement, but it must have happened at some point. More common for a Superior to overdraw a sap and leave it out, too weak to come in. Even that rarely happened. Most Superiors obeyed drawing laws because they liked healthy saps and they didn’t like healthy fines. And the other sapiens would take care of one if it got left outside. They looked out for their own—a rare admirable trait among sapiens.

  Draven and Cali stepped out into the cool morning. She wrapped her arms around herself, and they walked to the garden in silence. He went to the stack of hoses and stood looking at her. She sat and held out her arms, wrists up, for him to choose. He sat down beside her.

  “Are you quite cold?” he asked.

  “Yeah. Why do you bring me out here?”

  “You don’t like it?”

  “I don’t know. It’s warmer inside.”

  He looked at Cali’s shivering body and began unbuttoning his shirt.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “I’m giving you my shirt. You are cold, and I don’t need it.”

  “You’re always cold.”

  “It does not bother me. Not unless it’s quite cold. It never gets cold enough here to make me uncomfortable.” He wrapped the shirt around Cali, and after a moment she uncurled her arms from around herself and slid them into the sleeves. Draven had a thin frame, but the shirt still hung loosely on Cali. The effect was funny, charming even.

  Draven smiled. “You look much better.”

  “I feel better.”

  “May I draw from your arm?”

  “Yes,” she said, holding out her arm. She met his eyes, smiling, and then looked away quickly. “Thank you, you know, for asking me.”

  “You are welcome.” He slipped her sleeve up and felt the hot mounds of flesh inside her arm. “If you want, I will draw on these three, to get the pain out. But it will hurt a lot. Can you take it three times in one night?”

  “Yeah. Just do it.” Her jaw clenched as she held her arm out, and Draven sighed and bent over and began aligning his teeth with the bites. He slipped into the first bite and her whole body tensed and she made the moaning sound through her nose, and he knew she was trying not to cry out. He could let the bitterness out slowly, or do it all at once. He thought she seemed more an all-at-once type. So he put his mouth on her arm and sucked hard, and she let out a series of quick gasps. When he pulled away and spit, Cali was breathing hard.

  “Did I hurt you too much?” he asked.

  She nodded, her eyes wide.

  “I can do it slower, like I did before. But the pain will last longer.”

  “Then do it fast.”

  “You said it was too much for you.”

  “Well, I changed my mind. Just get it over with. I can take it.”

  “You’re very brave, Cali.”

  She thrust her arm at him and he sank his teeth into the second bite, and this time she cried out a bit and hit his shoulder with her palm until he finished. He spit the sap onto the ground, a waste of the precious stuff, but if no one was monitoring his ration he would take it after helping her.

  “Can you take it one more time?”

  “No. I don’t know.”

  “Then I’ll just draw from your arm and be done with you.”

  “You’re going to do it again anyway?”

  “Well, yes. I haven’t eaten yet.”

  “Oh. Okay. Then fix the last one on this arm.”

  “Very well.” He had to stand to angle correctly, and when he had found the right position he sank into her. She cried out and pulled at his hair until he made a sound of pain, and then she let go and sat breathing hard. When he pulled away to spit the bitter poison onto the ground Cali sat shaking and crying.

  Draven felt a stab of anger, and pity for the poor creature, and he sat back down and stroked her hair the same way he would stroke another animal. After a bit she stopped crying and wiped her face on the sleeve of his shirt. He lifted her arm and pulled up the sleeve again and began licking her wounds. When he’d gotten all traces of sap, and the first two bite marks had closed, he slipped back into the third one and drew as gently as he could. Her breath came harder again, but she didn’t make the awful sounds of pain anymore.

  He sealed her skin and pulled the sleeve of his shirt down over her arm. “Who has done this thing to you so many times?”

  “I don’t know. He’s always in such a hurry to get me and then leave.”

  “Is he important?”

  “I…how would I tell?”

  “Does he look important? Do other Superiors treat him like he’s important? Do they walk him down to you?”

  “I…I guess. I don’t know.”

  Draven thought of only one reason someone would hurry that much. Fake papers. Someone scared of being caught. “Is this man large, muscular? Shaved head? An older man with tattoos?” He tried to remember anything else he could about Ander. “Scary looking?”

  Cali startled him with her laugh again. “You all look scary to me.”

  “We do?”

  “Pretty much. Well, most of you.”

  “Do I scare you?”

  “Not very much. Only when you smile.”

  “Why am I less scary? And why does my smile scare you?”

  “Your teeth are scary. But the rest of you…well, you don’t look very strong or anything.”

  “You don’t believe I’m strong? I could kill you with one hand, ea
sily enough.”

  He tried not to take offense, but found it hard when even a sap—a young one, nearly a child—didn’t fear him because he looked weak.

  “And that’s why you’re all scary,” she said, smiling.

  “I see. But that wasn’t my question. Did I describe the man who comes to you every night?”

  “No. He’s not that old, and he has hair.”

  “Can you try to remember what he looks like?”

  “Like any of you. He has dark hair, I know that. And teeth.”

  Draven laughed. “You have teeth too, little pet, and I don’t think you’re scary.”

  “Well, you might if I sucked your blood every time I saw you.”

  “I suppose I might,” he said, shaking his head at the thought. “How is your arm feeling?”

  “Better. Thanks.” He started to get up and she put her hand on his bare arm. He looked down at her and she looked back with serious eyes. “I mean it. Thank you. A lot.”

  “You’re welcome, my jaani.” He stood and ruffled her pale hair. Her hair had gotten longer, and much lighter, since he’d taken her from the restaurant. “Are you still cold?” he asked.

  “Not very. Do you want to come see the garden? We’re getting ready for the rainy season.”

  “We are, aren’t we? Very well then. Show me what you’ve done.” He put on his sunglasses to block out the increasing light and followed Cali. She showed him the area, the beds freshly dug and planted. “You have done all this in the few days since you’ve been here?”

  She laughed. “Not just me. We all help. And I’ve been here over a month.”

  “You have?”

  “Yes.” She looked at Draven strangely. “Did you forget?”

  “It’s not exactly forgetting. We just don’t keep time like you sapiens.”

  “You have a different way of keeping time?”

  “No. I just don’t keep time at all.”

  “But how do you know…anything that happens?”

  Draven shrugged. “I know the days. When to get up and sleep by the light, and when to work by the bells. When I have an assignment, I know I’m finished when they tell me I am.”

  “That’s so strange. I thought you were really smart.”

  Another insult. Perhaps he should just go to bed, try to start over fresh in the evening. “It’s not about being smart,” he said. “It’s about priorities. Time just doesn’t mean the same thing to me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You see, you are born, and you grow up, and you age, and you die. I will never grow or age, or die. So what does time matter?”

  “You guys never die?”

  “No. I told you that before.”

  “I know, but I didn’t know if I believed you. I always thought that was just a story.”

  “It is true. So if I have forever, what is one week, a month, a year? Nothing.”

  “That’s so…sad.”

  “Sad? How is it sad?”

  Cali shrugged. “I don’t know. It just is. I mean, how can life mean anything if you’re never going to die?”

  “You are full of surprises, Cali Youngblood.”

  “I am?”

  “Yes. I think you’re… Oh, I don’t know. I’ve never imagined. But I believe you’re…thinking.”

  She laughed. “Of course I’m thinking. Don’t you guys think?”

  “Yes, but…I was always told that sapiens were bred to be stupid. That you didn’t think anymore. Not in that way.”

  “Well, I don’t know. Maybe I’m a freak of nature.” They walked back towards the barracks, where a few other saps were emerging and going into their feeding area. Neither Draven nor Cali said anything, and then Cali’s hand slipped into his. He looked at her, surprised, but she looked at her feet as they walked. He could hear her heart beating quite fast.

  “Cali?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Can I tell you something?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Don’t say this kind of thing to anyone else, yes? Not to your people, or mine. If people start noticing…it could be dangerous. For you.”

  She laughed. “You’re joking, aren’t you? Everyone thinks, Master. It’s not just me. I talk to people all the time. I’m no smarter than anyone else.”

  “I believe that you are. You just don’t know that you are. Just…be careful. Alright?”

  “Yes, Master.”

  He pulled his hand from hers. “Don’t call me that. I don’t own you.”

  “I didn’t—I’m sorry. Sir. We have to call all of you master.”

  “I don’t like it. Alright?”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  “Do you know my name?”

  “No.”

  “Good. I’ve talked to you more than I should. Perhaps I should stay away for a while.”

  “Don’t. I…like talking to you.”

  “Oh?”

  “I don’t know. No one else heals the bites.”

  “I will come back another time. But perhaps not for a while.” They stopped at the end of the barracks where Cali slept. “I hope your garden grows well. Have a good rainy season.”

  “Yes, mas—sir. You, too.”

  “And remember what I told you, about talking about these things. Never to a Superior. Understand?”

  “Yeah, I understand.”

  “Alright then. I would let you keep the shirt, but you would be questioned.”

  “Right, of course,” Cali said, shrugging out of it and handing it back. Draven slid it on over his t-shirt. He looked at Cali. Her smell enveloped him, lingering like the most delicious perfume.

  “I will come back, little sap. Be careful.”

  “You, too.”

  He left, squinting into the light. He had stayed too long. The sun had risen blindingly bright. Even with sunglasses he had to squint so hard that when he got home he had a headache. Another one waited on his doorstep.

  Lira stood up when he approached. “Where have you been?” she asked. “It’s late. It’s sunny.”

  “Yes, I know. I’ve been out in it. It’s quite bright. What do you want?”

  “You smell.”

  “Thank you, Lira. Now what do you want?”

  “You smell like that sap who was up here. Is she still here?”

  “No. I just drew from her.”

  “You smell really strong.”

  “What is your point, Lira? I had her here, I developed a taste for her. I go there and eat her sometimes. I mean from her. I eat from her sometimes. What is it to you?”

  “I just don’t like the smell.”

  “No one is asking you to.”

  “Can I sleep with you today?”

  “No. I am pursuing a partnership.”

  “That…Oriental girl?”

  “Hyoki. And she’s not Oriental. She’s North American.”

  “Yeah? I don’t see what’s so great about her.”

  “You wouldn’t, would you? But I do. So I am sleeping alone. And the next time I’m not, it will not be with you.”

  “You’re a stupid sap-lover anyway. I don’t know why I bother.”

  “I don’t know either.”

  Draven went inside and into the bedroom and took off his shades and stood there just breathing and calming himself in the pitch darkness of his light-proof room. When he felt a bit better he undressed and got in the bed. Only a trace of Cali’s scent remained. He picked up the shirt from the floor. The sleeve, swathed in her tantalizing aroma, had spots on it where her sap had leaked from the bites and small droplets had soaked in. He put it to his nose and inhaled as deeply as he could, over and over, until he fell into sleep.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “So Cali, I hear you got a new boyfriend,” one of the snarky girls taunted. “That Johnny boy?”

  Cali pretended not to hear the other girls in line at the mess hall.

  “Yeah, I hear he’s real fond of you,” another girl said, poking Cali’s back.

  �
��What, you gonna pretend you don’t hear us now? What, you too good for us, now you got yourself a boyfriend?”

  “He’s not my boyfriend,” Cali said, keeping her head down.

  “Ah, yeah he is. He told me you looking real fine this morning.”

  “What, you not interested? You think ‘cause you been working in them restaurants that you too good for us now? Is that it? Now you come back here, and Johnny just ain’t good enough for you?”

  “Forget her, she’s a bitch.”

  Cali got her food without a word and turned away from the girls. She sat at a table and waited for one of her sisters to show up. Not that she couldn’t defend herself if she needed to. She thought she could. It would just be less likely to come to blows if she had a sister or two with her. She’d gotten used to the teasing. Her sisters kept telling her it would die down, and as far as she was concerned, it couldn’t happen soon enough. It didn’t help that one of the boys had been sniffing around.