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“Yes, come in,” Mia said in resignation, knowing that Jessie must’ve been anxiously waiting for her to wake up and listening for any movements in her room.
Her roommate entered sheepishly and sat down on Mia’s bed. “So I guess my patented guy-repellent strategy was a total fail, huh?”
Mia rubbed her eyes and gave Jessie a bitter smile. “It’s pretty fair to say, yes.” Taking a deep breath, she said, “Look, I’m sorry about yesterday. I didn’t mean to yell at you – I just really didn’t want you out there, seeing what I guess you saw.”
Jessie nodded, clearly having figured it out on her own. “No worries. I would’ve done the same. I was just worried that he was fo
rcing you or something. So, are you, like, really into him now?”
Mia groaned and buried her head in her pillow. “I don’t know. Every sane part of me says to run as far away as I can, but every time he touches me, I just can’t help myself. It’s like I don’t have any control over this thing. I hate it.”
Jessie’s eyes widened. “Oh, wow. That’s so hot. It’s like the kind of thing you read about in romance novels – he kisses her and she swoons!”
An elusive something kept nagging at Mia this morning, and Jessie’s words suddenly put the puzzle pieces together.
Of course! He did kiss her, and he had explicitly told her that K saliva contained some chemical that kept their prey docile and drugged. It all made sense now – the pleasant lethargy that had spread through her veins and the way her brain had simply turned off the second his lips touched hers, leaving her to operate on pure animal instinct. The chemical was probably even more potent directly in the bloodstream, but she had undoubtedly gotten a nice dose of it last night.
No wonder she had acted like such a slut – not only was she drunk from champagne, but she was also literally high from his kiss.
A burning fury slowly built in her stomach, replacing the sense of humiliation she’d felt earlier. The bastard. He had basically drugged her and very nearly took advantage, and then he had the nerve to accuse her of playing games. Well, screw him! If he thought she would meekly go with him today after class, he had another thing coming.
Her brain whirled, searching for alternatives.
“Jessie,” she said slowly. “Didn’t you once tell me that a cousin of yours had some kind of connections in the Resistance?”
“Uh –” Jessie was clearly surprised. “Are you talking about that thing I once told you about Jason? That was a long time ago, when we were still freshmen. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have anything to do with that anymore, not that I’ve kept in touch with him.” She stared at Mia with a concerned look on her face. “Why are you even asking? What, you want to join the freedom fighters now?”
Mia shrugged, not sure where she was going with this. All she knew was that she refused to meekly become Korum’s sex toy, to be used and discarded at whim.
She had never believed in the anti-K movement and thought that the Resistance fighters were crazy. The Krinar were here to stay. Human weapons and technology were hopelessly primitive in comparison to theirs, and Mia had always thought that trying to fight them was the equivalent of banging your head against the wall – futile and likely dangerous. Besides, it didn’t seem all that bad, once the days of the Great Panic were over. The Ks had mostly left them alone, choosing to live in their own settlements, and life went on with a few minor differences – cleaner air, a healthier diet, and a lot of shattered illusions about humanity’s place in the universe. However, now that she’d had some personal interactions with one particular K, she felt a bit more sympathetic to the fighters’ cause – not that it made the Resistance movement any less futile.
She sighed. “Never mind, it was just a stupid idea. I think I just need to clear my head.” Hopping out of bed, Mia pulled on her jeans, an old T-shirt, and a comfy sweater.
“Wait, Mia. What’s going on?” Jessie was confused by her actions. “Are you upset about what happened last night?”
Mia pulled on her socks and a pair of sneakers. “I guess,” she muttered. Telling her roommate the whole story would just make her worry, and a worried Jessie sometimes did drastic things – such as calling the police once to report Mia missing, when she had simply fallen asleep in the library with a dead phone battery. Not that Jessie could do anything in this case, but she still preferred not to cause her unnecessary distress. “Look, I’m fine,” Mia lied. “I just really need to take a walk and get some air. You know I haven’t exactly had a lot of experience with this type of thing, and this is a little like being thrown in the deep end of the pool. I just want to try to figure out how I feel about all this before I can even begin to talk about it.”
Jessie looked at her with a faintly hurt expression. “Okay, well, sure. Whatever you need to do.” Then she brightened. “Are you going to be home for dinner tonight? I was thinking of cooking some pasta, and we could just have a girls’ night in, watch some old movies . . .”
Mia shook her head with regret. “That sounds amazing, but I really don’t know. I think I’ll be seeing him again today.”
Seeing the worried look on Jessie’s face, she quickly added with a sly smile, “And it might be quite fun.” Before Jessie had a chance to reply, Mia grabbed her backpack and ran out the door with a quick “see you later.”
She walked briskly down the street with no particular destination in mind. Stopping by a deli, she bought a pack of chewing gum – since she hadn’t even brushed her teeth this morning – and a wrap loaded with hummus, avocado, and fresh veggies. Her brain seemed to have gone into hibernation, and she simply walked without thinking about anything in particular, enjoying the feel of her feet striking the pavement and the mid-morning sun warming her face. She must’ve walked like that for a long time because, by the time she started paying attention to street signs, she was already in TriBeCa, a block away from the luxury high-rise that she’d been in less than forty-eight hours ago.
And just like that, she knew what she was going to do – what her subconscious must’ve known even earlier because it had brought her here.
It was really quite simple.
Running was futile. He could track her down anywhere she went, and he had already proven that he could manipulate her body into responding to his with the aid of various chemical substances. No, running wasn’t the answer. He was a hunter. The chase was what he loved, and there was really only one thing she could do to thwart him. She could deny him the chase, take away the enjoyment of pursuing a reluctant prey.
She could come to him herself.
* * *
Having reached the decision, Mia lost no time in putting it into action.
Entering the lobby of his building, she calmly told the concierge that she was there to see Korum. The man’s eyes widened a little – he clearly knew what the occupant of the top floor was – and he notified the unit of her presence. Ten seconds later, he motioned toward the elevator that was positioned a little to the left of the main one. “Please go ahead, miss. Just enter in 1159 when prompted for a code, and it will take you to the penthouse floor.”
