“No. No, perfume.”
“Oh. Well. Maybe it’s the food.” She swept her hand over the buffet of choices. “Are you hungry?”
“A little.” I filled my plate with toast and eggs. There was a bowl of sugar probably meant for the tea, but I sprinkled several heaping spoonfuls over my food. Everything tasted better with sugar.
Everything except these eggs, I realized after the first bite. They possessed enough salt to fill an ocean, and even the sugar couldn’t mask it. I managed to choke down a few bites before pushing my plate away.
Claudia nibbled on a piece of toast. “Did you get the flowers Jonathan sent you? I think he sent you the rosesand the orchids. He feels terrible about what happened.”
Lucius had insisted I find a way to Jonathan’s residence today, so I said, “I’d like to thank him in person, if I may.”
Claudia brightened and dropped her toast onto her plate. “That’s a wonderful idea. I’ll call him right now and see if he can fit us in.” She clapped her hand and called, “Martha. Please bring me the phone.”
A few seconds latter, Martha floated into the room holding a silver tray. A black cell unit and receiver rested on top. Claudia anchored the earpiece in place and said, “Jonathan Parker.” Pause. She grinned. “Jonathan. This is Claudia Chow. Eden Black and I would like to meet with you—” Her lips pursed, and there was another pause. This one longer. “No. We want to meet with you, not you and Hunter.”
“I’ll meet with both of them,” I rushed out.
She blinked at me in puzzlement. “But…but…”
“I’m eager to get this settled.” I needed to be careful about my eagerness.
“Jonathan,” she said into the mouthpiece. “I’ve changed my mind. We’ll meet with both you and Hunter.” Pause. “Yes. Thank you. Until then.” She tossed the unit back onto the tray, and Martha floated out of the room as gracefully as she’d entered. “We’re meeting with them this afternoon, after we make my morning rounds.”
“Excellent. Thank you.”
Her “rounds,” as it turned out, consisted of door-to-door schmoozefests at other-worlders’ residences. I spent the next four hours interpreting conversations about health care, dietary needs, and Earth currency as Claudia Chow visited with her constituents. I admit, her concern for the aliens of New Dallas impressed me.
Finally we were inside the limousine and headed for Jonathan’s house—the moment I had been waiting for. I enjoyed the lush green landscape, the hills on one side of the window and the flat plains on the other that whizzed past the window.
“I feel like I haven’t thanked you enough, Claudia, for championing my cause. You really fight for other-worlders, and I commend you.”
Her cheeks flushed with pleasure. “I do what I can.”
“I’ll be honest,” I said, facing her. “You aren’t what I expected.”
She furrowed her brow. “What did you expect?”
“Someone who saw other-worlders as a prize, but didn’t actually care for them.”
“Aliens are people, too.”
“Yes. We are. But not everyone realizes that.”
She leaned forward and whispered, “I’m considering dating a Taren, the one who spent a few weeks in an A.I.R. prison for allegedly stealing a dress. He’s asked me out on several occasions, but I’ve always told him no. Any”—she coughed—“advice for me?”
I couldn’t picture Claudia with a feline, for that’s what Tarens were. They walked and talked like humans, but their skin was patched with fur and their tongues were abrasive. Some could walk through walls. I’d trailed several over the years, and had seen them do it.
“Advice?” I was not the girl to come to for relationship advice. “Hmm. Well. Treat him like you would a human, I guess. And pet him often. Tarens like that.”
She nodded, her expression rapt, as if she were soaking up my every word. “Pet him. Yes. Good idea.”
“I don’t know what more to tell you,” I admitted. “I’ve never dated a Taren myself.” Tips on killing them, I could give her.
Thankfully, our car eased past the tall iron gates of Jonathan’s estate, effectively ending our conversation. I saw the towering mansion, white brick and jagged peaks. The lawn was perfectly manicured, but the grass was sparse. My heartbeat picked up speed—not out of fear, but in anticipation. Even now Lucius waited inside, ready to push our prey further.
Several black-clad guards manned the outer walls, I noticed, semiautomatic pyre-rifles strapped to their sides. Interesting. Jonathan had human guards today, rather than aliens.
When the car parked in front of the entrance, we emerged in the afternoon heat, strolled over the bridge, and entered the coolness of the house. The French doors were already open, like arms beckoning us inside. We were expected, after all.
My gaze collided with one of the guards positioned at the side of the door. Another human. His eyes widened with…awe? Greed? He took an unbidden step toward me, even reached out to touch me, but an older man dressed in a black suit led Claudia and me past him. His arm dropped to his side.
We were taken straight to Jonathan’s office, the very office he and Claudia had occupied last night. Lucius was there and seated on a blood red chair, his feet resting on the faux-fur ottoman. He watched me through narrowed eyes, his lips firm and unyielding. I pretended to ignore him, though every cell in my body screamed in awareness.
“Thank you for the flowers,” I told Jonathan. “And for agreeing to meet with us.”
A muscle in Lucius’s temple ticked.
“My pleasure.”Jonathan, seated behind the desk, beckoned Claudia and me to take the green couch across from Lucius. He had a cut lip, I noticed. “I’m so glad you could come,” Jonathan said, his cultured baritone very smooth. He watched me, but I didn’t feelhis gaze boring into me like I did Lucius’s, branding me, making me ache.
“This is hard for me.” I cast a dark glare at Lucius. That was the only way I could allow myself to study him. The contacts he wore made his eyes as dark as a midnight, starless sky, but there was a spark inside them I had never seen before. There was a bruise on his left cheek. Had the two men fought? “I’m anxious to have this problem fixed.”
“As are we.” Jonathan nodded to Lucius, a silent you-may-begin.