“See my gift from the She-Devil?” he asked proudly.
“Yes.” Jaxon gave the necklace a cursory glance, and Le’Ace noticed he didn’t have to ask who the She-Devil was. “So.”
“So. It was supposed to lock me in place. It didn’t and won’t. I doubt your people have anything that will work.”
Jaxon’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “You possess a lot of knowledge about Earth, its people, and its technology. In fact, your English is perfect. Especially considering the fact you’ve only been here a few weeks.”
Nolan shrugged. “We study planets before we enter them.”
Planets, plural. More proof the Schön had visited other planets. “How?”
“There are ways,” was all the alien said. “Television, computers, people.”
Ways that would help A.I.R. study other planets and their people, too, she was sure. If they weren’t already.
“I’m not sure I want to help you with anything. So far, I feel nothing but contempt for you,” Jaxon remarked.
“As I feel the same for myself.” Nolan gave another shrug.
Good actor or truly sincere? He’d stayed away from the other Schön he supposedly planned to betray because of their actions, yet he himself had taken a lover and passed the virus to a human.
She’d nearly killed him when she’d seen the woman stride from his bedroom. Instead, Le’Ace had held a knife at his throat, he’d cried and babbled, and she’d listened. Those tears had not affected her, and she had moved her wrist to slice. Then, he’d uttered the only words capable of staying her hand: I’ll help you and your love.
You and your love.
Jaxon.
Just like that, she’d befriended the alien, just as Estap had wanted. Her reasons had been her own, however. Jaxon. Always Jaxon.
“You got something else to say to us?” she asked Nolan.
The waiter appeared again, ready to take their order. Le’Ace waved him away.
“First, I want a guarantee of lifetime protection from A.I.R.,” Nolan said.
“Not going to happen,” Jaxon responded promptly.
Le’Ace shook her head. Had he forgotten how to lie?
“Why would I offer you protection,” he continued, “when I’m not sure you can deliver the kind of information I want?”
Ah, the bluff. She should have known he’d have an angle to work.
Nolan shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “They’ll soon scatter. You have a week, perhaps two, before it will be too late to stop them.”
Two bluffs at war. Whose would win?
“Why will they scatter?” she asked, determined to trip him up if he was indeed exaggerating.
“Many reasons,” Nolan said. “One you can probably guess. They know you’re on their trail and want to evade you. They’re still studying, searching for answers to a question we all share. They’ll take all they can from New Chicago, then move on to learn more.”
Jaxon’s shoulders squared. “And what’s the question they want answered?”
Silent, Nolan sipped his water.
A minute ticked by, then another. He never replied, just continued to drink his beverage as if he were alone.
“Can the victims talk to each other through their minds?” Jaxon asked, moving on.
Nolan’s eyes widened, shock in their lighted depths. “They can’t, no.”
She blinked. What does he mean?
Unknown. There might be a hidden meaning to his words.
“They can’t,” she said, “but someone else can?”
Grim, Nolan nodded.
“I don’t understand,” Jaxon said.
“Think about it.” Nolan leveled a hot look at him. “Once they are infected, what else is inside their minds?”
“Only the…no way.” Jaxon shook his head.
“Oh, yes.”
As if he couldn’t yet process that information, Jaxon quickly moved to his next question. “Why do they only choose fertile women?”
A sad, wistful aura overcame the alien. “I thought you would have figured that out by now. And women are not the only victims.”
“Nolan, you know I hate it when you evade and you know I’ll pick him over you in a fight, just like he’ll pick me.” She told herself she made the claim because Nolan believed she and Jaxon were in love. Both of them, not just Le’Ace. She withdrew a blade from her boot and pressed the tip between the alien’s legs. “Answer him.”
Nolan laughed, his eyes twinkling. “I wish you were not taken. Woman, you do amuse me.”
What the hell? Jaxon was the only other man who had laughed while she held a weapon on him. When Jaxon did it, she wanted to join in his amusement. When Nolan did it, she wanted to cut deeper.
He was just so smug.
“Answer him.” Damn it. “Please.”
“You are a lucky man,” Nolan told Jaxon.
Jaxon remained silent, features growing cold.
What did that coldness mean? No reaction. Don’t think about it.
“They do not need fertile women to pass the virus. Sex does that, no matter the gender or the circumstances. Fertility is merely a bonus, an aphrodisiac.”
Jaxon nodded encouragingly. “Go on. I’m listening.”
God, she admired him. Poised, strong, unbreakable, unflappable. He was utterly magnificent. I’ve touched him, kissed him. For one night, he was mine. Why did he look at me with such coldness?
Not going there, remember?
“Each of us, my brothers and I, have the virus within ourselves.” Nolan sounded ashamed. “The only way to control it is to”—he gulped—“give it to others, releasing bits of it from within ourselves and keeping its levels at a minimum.”
There was crackling silence as she and Jaxon absorbed that.
Nolan continued, “Those who are infected can maintain their own life if and only if they pass it on. And on. And on. Our women were already sparse, so they were used by many of us. They didn’t last long. It’s why we’ve had to move from planet to planet. We refused to teach them, so they don’t know what to do, how to save themselves.”
Le’Ace removed the knife from his thigh, too close to stabbing him already. His announcement inflamed her. “Ever heard of mast***ation, you sick bastard?”
“Believe me, that does not work.”
“Why not? If all you need to do is ejaculate to control the virus, making yourself come should do the trick.”
Nolan tapped a finger to his chin. “How can I explain this properly?” The question was for himself, his gaze ceilingward.