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Offering me another bite of fruit, if I would only open my lips and take it, he looked at me as if I were the greatest gift he might ever receive. “Could it be that maybe I’m lovable too?”
I took the sweet offering, biting his finger a bit too hard, this level of sober intimacy not something I was ready to entertain. “I might hate you a little less than I did. But that’s probably based on chemical brainwashing and a growing addiction to sex.”
He loved every last bit of pain, rubbing a thumb over my lips before he pulled away. “I don’t think you could be more perfect for me.”
When he said things that way, without the sexual undercurrent or the playful teasing, it always made me unsure how to respond.
It made me shy.
Cyderial believed every word he spoke. He really did believe we were some kind of divine union nature herself designed.
And I had no sardonic reply to that.
“So, as I was saying before you so cruelly insulted me, we should go out today. Humans are not allowed in hybrid-designated zones. No one will record you as they did yesterday. Nor will you be stared at.”
Wait just a moment. “What do you mean ‘recorded’?”
“Our conversation yesterday is all over the broadcasts, playing on repeat. Humans do these sorts of things; they are very invasive creatures. And, it seems you struck a chord with them.” He went back to chopping fruit as if this was no big, massively humiliating deal. “The government will pull it down soon, but it can’t be unseen.”
I must’ve sounded stupid, but I needed clarification. “Do you mean broadcasts, as in on a screen? My personal breakdown is on screens, and people are watching it?”
He nodded.
“Oh my God.” That was so unsettling.
Setting the knife down, he circled the counter so he might put his hands on me, which would lead to something I would either really like or be angry about. Nothing could ever be neutral when we were touching.
“Lorieyn, I knew they were recording, but you needed immediate attention. You can blame me if you want.”
As much as I’d love to blame him for everything in my life that had ever gone wrong, this one was not his fault. “Who films a crying stranger?”
“It wasn’t your intention nor mine, but it seems the human population is largely sympathetic to your suffering. Mothers of hybrids have come forward to speak about how much they love their children and hated having them taken away. Not many, but enough to make a point. You may have inadvertently helped develop human sympathy for our kind. A crying child is a powerful thing, even if that child is an adult. You may have even humanized me somewhat for allowing me to comfort you.”
Being mated to a general had garnered extra attention too; I was certain. Even my birthmother’s husband had eyes only for my mate. “Richard seemed pretty impressed by you. I thought you were already popular with the humans.”
“As a violent contender in the arena they could cheer for.” Tucking hair behind my ear, he said, “Their respect for me had nothing to do with my humanity but how much carnage I could rain down on a challenger. I’m a figure to them. Entertainment.” As if proud of me, as if he too might know a taste of shyness, his eyes grew soft. “Until yesterday, I’m not sure many ever considered me a person. Some are even saying a sweet hybrid girl has tamed the wild beast.”
Tamed? Not in the slightest.
I was the one with the addiction, and he was still as crazy as ever.
But maybe there was some good that could be found in this mess after all. I stole another bite of pink fruit, and asked, “Could human acknowledgment of the suffering of hybrid children be leveraged to help the kids at the academy? Would they still send them there to be drilled day and night? What about the little girls crying there? Most of the female recruits hate being soldiers. My friend Agnes wants to study biology at the human university. Could my crying on video help her do that? Should I talk to the humans?”
“No. I’m sorry, Lorieyn.” Careful of his words, he took his time articulating a denial. “If hybrids don’t have an obvious purpose—protecting humans from vorec—then we are superfluous in their eyes. Worse, we are a threat. Stronger, disease-proof, ageless, beautiful, smarter. Their species does not want to recognize they are already dead. Until our numbers are higher, we cannot risk our children’s safety.”
This kind of talk could lead to genocide, and I already knew Cyderial had a taste for such things. “Then what is it you have in mind? Torturing hybrid children in the academy is not exactly mercy.”
His hand came to my shoulder, rubbing where I had grown tense. Watching my every tic, he said, “We’ll have our chance to prove to the universe that we deserve to be here, even if we were not naturally created. But until our gene pool is large enough to be self-sustaining, we still need human women to bear us. We still need to suffer for them in exchange.”
“You make us sound like some kind of disease, eating away at the very humans I was raised to protect. Waiting them out until our numbers are high enough to make them obsolete.”
That clever touch moved to the nape of my neck, massaging fingers trilling along the bone. “Humans are the cancer on this world, just as they were back on Earth. We are the cure and the only means of survival on this planet. They will never be able to adapt. Were they wiser, every human female would birth only hybrid children who could care for her until her inevitable death from old age.”
I could not believe what I was hearing! Throwing off his touch, I let him see just how disgusted I was with his words. “The extremists are right. With talk like that, humans have every right to fear us!”
“I don’t support a human holocaust. Merely an inevitable transition.” All said as if my temper was expected, accepted, yet unsupportable. “Humans will breed themselves into starvation again. It is only a matter of time. Our video will cause an uptick in the popularity of carrying a hybrid baby. In that, it is a boon for our kind. We need genetic diversity to survive.”
“You’re talking about something that could be thousands of years away. What about today? What about Agnes? What about all the children you brainwash in the academy now?”
