Enhanced: Brides of the Kindred 12 (The Brides of the Kindred) (19 page)

And
she didn’t mean predatory as in sexual or lascivious. No—the man with the steel
teeth looked at her as though he was a hunter and she was fresh meat. And the
things he had said…it was almost as though he was telling her they had a truce
up here on the medical barge but once they met again on Z4, the hunt would be
on.

Don’t
be silly,
she told herself uneasily.
It was nothing. He was just
trying to be charming. It wasn’t his fault he couldn’t manage it with all those
metal teeth.

No,
whispered
a little voice inside her brain.
No, that was a threat. You need to stay
away from him, whoever he is.

That
thought made her realize she had never really gotten his name. He had said his
title was…was what? Something about the Collective—the nose of the Collective?
But that couldn’t be right, that was just weird. Then again, the whole
encounter had been weird and unsettling. Mei-Li wondered how many other people
like Six’s strange colleague she was going to meet once she got down to Zeaga
Four.

Trying
to push it out of her mind, she sat carefully down on the edge of the
beanbag-like
sousa
and picked up the thin plastic sheet to study the
contract she had unwittingly signed. She really needed to know what was
expected of her during this Claiming Period—she didn’t want to be caught by
surprise again as she had been with this whole enhancement business.

Still,
though she tried to concentrate on the contract, she couldn’t get the image of
the tall, skeletal man out of her mind. And she couldn’t quite forget the feel
of those icy, corpse-like fingers enfolding her own…

*
* * * *

Six
was relieved to see no sign of Two when he got to their room. There was a faint
sourness in the air, as though the male might have passed that way, but that
was all. Then again, Two never left much of a scent for some reason. Six was
just glad he wasn’t here. All the way back from Yipper’s Enhancement Area the
tightness in his midsection had been growing until it was nearly unbearable.
Not that he thought Two would
hurt
Mei-Li—not aboard the med barge,
anyway. But he couldn’t be absolutely sure about that.

As
well as running the sniffers, Two was on the Purge Squad—a role he could
rightfully have relinquished after rising in the Collective. Instead, he chose
to retain it. Six had watched him work—every time he personally purged an
individual who had been convicted of Feel-crime, he had that strange,
unpleasant grin on his face. Six was aware that Two had no more emotions than
he had but at times, it almost seemed as though he
relished
purging
offenders.

No,
the male was not to be trusted. Especially around
his
female.

Six
didn’t stop to think that he had considered Mei-Li in a possessive sense. The
thought felt right in his head and he didn’t question it. For as long as she
was with him, the little female was under his protection. And he intended to
keep her as far from Two as possible. He didn’t even want Two to lay eyes on
her and he
especially
didn’t want her scent in the other male’s
nostrils. It was better that way. Safer.

He
opened the door to find her fully dressed and sitting gingerly on the edge of
the
sousa,
perusing the Claiming Contract
.
Good—she needed to get
over her fear of the sleeping platform since it was the same kind he had in his
own domicile. Not that he used it much—mostly he slept in his recharging
station but during the Claiming Period he might have to change his habits.

“Oh,
hi.” She looked up at him. “I was just studying this contract—we
really
need
to talk about this when we have time. The way it spells out exactly what you’re
allowed to do to me and the things we’ve already, um…” She broke off, her
cheeks growing pink.

Six
cleared his throat. “Of course…we can talk about it once we reach my domicile
on Z4. That is, after all, when our Claiming Period officially begins.”

“Oh,
uh…right.” She nodded.

Six
thought he perceived a lingering awkwardness between them, perhaps because of
the physical encounter they had shared. Had Mei-Li been affected by it in the
same way he had been? Her scent had been warm and ready and her pussy had grown
wet with need but that was just a physical symptom of arousal. Had she also
experienced other, more emotional symptoms? Did she…feel for him?
Do you
want her to feel for you?
whispered a voice in his head. But that was
foolish—the obvious answer was that he had no feelings about it one way or
another.

“Are
you okay?” she asked. “I know earlier was kind of weird. We probably shouldn’t
have, um…”

“I
am well,” Six said quickly. “It was…not problematic for me. I only left quickly
because I just had to speak to Yipper about…a few matters.” He cleared his
throat. “And speaking of Yipper, he is waiting for you now—are you ready to
go?”

“Yup.
Ready to go when you are—see?” She stood, showing that she was dressed completely
in the white clothing and boots he had synthesized for her.

Six
tried to keep his gaze from moving to her chest since she had told him it was
off-limits but he couldn’t help noting the lacy outline of her undergarment
beneath the thin white fabric. It made him think of her small, perfectly formed
breasts with their sensitive nipples…Gods how he wanted to touch those tight
little points with nothing between them…

No.
He
cut the thought off abruptly. It was just a physical symptom of his Kindred
DNA, nothing else, he told himself firmly.

“Ah,
yes. I see,” he said, keeping his eyes firmly on her face. “Good, then we’ll
go. Yipper is ready to see you and he promised to have an array of ocular
enhancements for you to choose from.
Subtle
enhancements,” He added when
her gaze flicked to his own ocular scanner.

“Good.”
She smiled. “Not that I don’t like yours, but I’ll still need to be able to fit
in when I go back to Earth.”

“Of
course. When you…when you go back.” The words stuck in his throat for some reason.
He looked away. “Come—we shouldn’t keep Yipper waiting.”

“Lead
the way.” She motioned for him to precede her. “I don’t really know which way
we’re going. I was kind of out of my mind when you brought me here last night.”

“You
were upset because I didn’t explain the requirements of the enhancement
properly.” He raised an eyebrow. “I hope you are more at ease now?”

“Yes,
of course. I still don’t like it but as long as I can get something subtle and
I don’t have to lose a limb, I should be okay. And uh…I
don’t
have to
get an emotion damper, right?”

Six
frowned as they walked down the corridor together to the lift. “No, it is not a
requirement. As an official visitor to Z4 you will be getting an emotional
dispensation, as I explained.”

“Huh.”
Mei-Li frowned skeptically. “The way you say it, it sounds like I’m getting a
pass for being mentally ill or something. Like a card I can hand people that
explains I do crazy things sometimes because I’m not right in the head.”

“Well,
it isn’t actually a card but we
do
consider Feelers to be less mentally
competent than ourselves.”

“What?”
Mei-Li stopped and put a hand on her hip. “Are you trying to say you think I’m
crazy? Or just stupid? Because either way it’s pretty insulting.”

Six
frowned. “I’m simply saying that emotions cloud judgment. Have you never done
something in the…what is the English expression? In the fire of the minute—have
you never done something in the fire of the minute and regretted it
afterwards?”

“I
think the phrase you’re looking for is ‘heat of the moment,’” Mei-Li said dryly
as they resumed walking. “And yes, I
have
on occasion done something I
regretted. But that’s part of being human. Or I should say, being a thinking,
feeling person.”

“It
doesn’t have to be,” Six said. “You can live your life without such mistakes if
you relinquish the irrational impulses that drive them.”

Mei-Li
raised an eyebrow at him. “So you’re telling me you’ve lived a life completely
free of regrets?”

Kill
me, Jax…

Six
looked away. “Not…entirely. But tell me why you asked about the emotion damper
in the first place. Is it because I have one?” He reached up to touch the small
silver and black button at the back of his neck.

“No.”
She shook her head. “I was just worried…I met a man while you were gone and he
said—”

“You
met a male?” It was Six’s turn to freeze in mid-stride. He looked at her
sharply. “Who?”

“Well,
he never actually told me his name but he said he was a colleague of yours. Oh,
and he had the most horrible metal teeth.” She shivered.

Six
frowned. He had been certain for a moment that she’d had an encounter with Two.
But Two didn’t have metal teeth. Could it have been another Enhanced One close
to the Collective? Those in the upper echelons of the Enhanced society were
often at the barges and though metal dental enhancements were rare, they
weren’t unheard of.

“Anyway,
he said I would have to get an emotion damper but then I told him I was getting
a dispensation,” Mei-Li continued. “And he told me not to let it run out,
whatever that means.”

“An
emotional dispensation is only good for a limited amount of time,” Six
explained as they began walking toward the lift again. “If you stay past the
allotted time, you would automatically be considered guilty of Feel-crime.”

“Feel-crime,
huh?” She frowned. “Guess I’d better be careful not to overstay my welcome.”

“I
suppose not.” Again Six pictured himself taking her home, back to Earth and
again he felt the familiar heaviness in his midsection. But perhaps it was for
the best. Despite Yipper’s reassurance, the strange physical symptoms he’d had
when he touched her had been…troubling.

Truly,
the sooner their Claiming Period was over the better.

Chapter
Fifteen

“Are you ready, are you ready?” Yipper
looked at her anxiously and Mei-Li nodded.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she said
grimly. “I guess if I
have
to get an enhancement, this is the best and
least obvious one.”

“The best, the very best!” the hairy
little Tolleg assured her. He had already explained the procedure to her in
detail thought Mei-Li sort of wished he hadn’t.

Apparently he was going to stick his
tongue
in her
eyes
—not something she was looking forward to.

But Yipper and Six both had assured her
that this was how surgery was done here and the Tollegs were excellent surgeons
who never lost a patient. Their saliva was a natural anesthetic and antiseptic
and their tongues had the ability to morph into any instrument they needed to
do the job. Mei-Li supposed if they could take off somebody’s leg and replace
it with a robot one, fitting a pair of permanent contact lenses ought to be a
snap. She hoped, anyway.

“And you’re
sure
these will work
for me?” she asked for what was probably the fiftieth time. “Because I can’t wear
contacts back home on Earth—they dry my eyes out too much. And what if my
prescription changes? What if my eyes get worse?”

“The magnaflux lenses will automatically
correct for any changes your eyes go through, yes they will, yes they will,”
Yipper said patiently. “All will be well.”

“I hope so.” Mei-Li was lying on a pure
white table while the little Tolleg, who was perched on a stool, leaned over
her. As he got closer, her toes curled inside the new boots Six had given her
and the weird, bland
garn
she’d eaten for breakfast felt like a lump of
lead in her stomach. She was glad at least that the white shirt he’d given her
to wear had long sleeves because she was suddenly freezing. It felt like the
temperature had dropped about fifteen degrees. Was that standard procedure for
an operation here or was it just her nerves?

Mei-Li didn’t know and she honestly didn’t
really care. Mostly she just didn’t want to get poked in the eye.
God, I
wish it was over already! I wish I didn’t have to watch!
She got this same,
squirmy feeling when she went to the dentist but at least with the dentist she
could close her eyes and wait for it to be over with. With this procedure she
had to look on as Yipper’s long, prehensile tongue dipped down into a small
glass dish containing two shiny iridescent lenses. It was blurry since her
glasses were off but she could still make it out well enough to see—

“Stop.” Six suddenly came up to the table
on her other side.

Yipper pulled his tongue back. “What is
wrong, what is wrong?”

“She is in distress, just as she was last
night.” Six was frowning at her in a way Mei-Li might almost have thought was
worried if she didn’t know he was incapable of feeling worried. “Her heart rate
and blood pressure are severely elevated. This level of stress cannot be good
for her physiologically.”

“Mei-Li is simply nervous, yes she is, yes
she is,” Yipper said. “If you will hold her hand during the procedure it will
eliminate a good deal of her stress.”

“Hold her hand?” Six looked as though this
was a foreign concept—which it almost certainly was, to him Mei-Li reminded
herself. “What purpose would that serve?”

“It will calm her nerves, as it did last
night when you picked her up,” Yipper said patiently. “Many Feelers find touch
comforting during times of stress. Yes they do, yes they do.”

“Oh, of course.” Six nodded as though he
was finally getting it and reached for Mei-Li with his non-metal hand. He
didn’t seem to know quite how to manage, though. The night before he had
gathered her into his arms instinctively and a little while ago he had cupped
her breast with no problem but now he seemed uncertain of how to touch her. Or
maybe he was just feeling awkward because of all the touching and kissing they
had done earlier—Mei-Li knew
she
was still a little uncomfortable, even
though she was trying to put it out of her mind.

“Like this,” she said and entwined their
fingers. She had a moment to notice that he had beautiful, well-shaped hands
for a man—long, artistic fingers with short, clean nails—and then Yipper was
leaning over her again.

“Now just hold still, hold still,” he told
her, reaching for the glass dish with the lenses again. “This will only take a
moment…”

“Okay,” Mei-Li squeezed Six’s hand tight
and felt an answering pressure in return as Yipper maneuvered one of the tiny
iridescent disks onto the end of his tongue. “Only I don’t know how I’m going
to keep from blinking. I can never—”

There was a flicker in the air above her
face, too fast to follow and suddenly everything she was seeing with her left eye
came into focus.

“Wow!” Me-Li gasped. “That was so fast! I
didn’t even—” There was another flicker and suddenly she could see clearly from
her right eye too. Mei-Li blinked and looked around the room in amazement.
Everything had sharp, defined edges from the rack of prosthetic parts at the
end of Yipper’s Enhancement Area to Six’s face with its stern angles as he bent
over her.

He was looking right at her, his steel
gray eye filled with what she would have sworn looked like concern though she
knew it couldn’t be since concern would be an emotion. Still, Mei-Li looked
back, hear heart pounding as she focused on his gaze.

Suddenly it was as though he had come
closer—or his eye had, anyway. Mei-Li started seeing much more detail—noticing each
separate eyelash and seeing the tiny, almost imperceptible flecks of deep blue
in his gray iris.

“What in the world?” she whispered,
tearing her gaze away. How had she been able to see such detail from where she
was? It was almost as though she had seen his eye under a microscope. She
lifted her hand—the one that wasn’t still clutching Six’s—and stared at it as
well. When she concentrated she could see every tiny wrinkle, fold, and crease
in the lifeline that bisected her palm. Then the individual whorls of her
fingertips came into view, fascinating in their complexity…

Suddenly she realized she was lying there
staring at her own hand like some kind of stoner on a really good trip.

“What the hell?” she whispered, tearing
her eyes away and looking at Yipper. “What did you do to me? How can I see so
much?”

“The magnoflux lenses enable microscopic
and telescopic sight. Yes they do, yes they do,” Yipper said happily. “Do you
like the effect? You will be able, just by concentrating, to see things that
are normally too small or too far away for your feeble original eyes to
manage.”

“Seriously?” Mei-Li looked at him, not
sure if she liked this. Her vision had never been sharper or clearer so she
guessed she shouldn’t complain. But still… “Uh, how do I turn it off?” she
asked. “If I want to, I mean,”

“It will only happen when you concentrate
deeply and will it to happen,” Yipper explained. “During the course of your
normal everyday life, you will not have the effects unless you want them.”

“Well…okay.” Mei-Li started to sit up and
Six helped her.

“Are you well?” he asked, looking at her.
“Are the enhancements comfortable?”

“Completely.” She blinked and was
surprised when she felt absolutely no movement from the lenses. The problem
with normal contacts was that they slid all around in her eye and never quite
stuck right which made her tear up and then dry out. After a short time, it
always felt like someone had stuck a piece of sandpaper in her eye. With
Yipper’s lenses, she didn’t feel anything. It was as though there was nothing
in her eyes at all. “This is amazing,” she said cautiously. “I mean, I want to
see how they wear for a little while but if it keeps up like this I’ll be very
happy.”

Yipper nodded approvingly. “Naturally you
must stay a bit, yes you must, yes you must. I will want to check the fit once
more before I let you go down to the surface of Z4.”

“Speaking of that, would you please
install Mei-Li’s emotion dispensation counter in a most prominent place,” Six
said. “Her feelings are very strong and I do not want there to be any confusion
as to her right to experience them.”

“What? What are you installing in me?”
Mei-Li asked, discomforted all over again. “I thought the dispensation was
something I would carry with me—or a sign I would wear or something. Maybe a
piece of jewelry like a medic alert bracelet?” she finished hopefully.

“The counter is nothing painful or
invasive,” Yipper assured her. “It is simply a timer to show that you are
allowed to have emotions without committing Feel-Crime for the exact length of
your stay on Zeaga Four. Six is correct in thinking it should be in a prominent
place, yes he is, yes he is.”

“Well…if it doesn’t hurt any more than the
lenses…” Which hadn’t hurt a bit.

“It will not be painful in the least,” the
little Tollege assured her and Mei-Li found she believed him.

“All right, go ahead then.”

Six was frowning as he looked at the
chronometer slash communicator on his wrist.

“Forgive me but if we are to be punctual
in meeting One on the surface, I should go prep the ship. Will you be all right
if I go or would you prefer that I stay and soothe you with my hand?”

Mei-Li nearly choked. “Um, no,” she
finally managed to get out. “I think I’ll be fine. I don’t need any, um,
hand-holding for this.”

“Very well, I will return for you
shortly.” Six nodded at her and left the Enhancement room with quick,
economical strides.

Yipper watched the big Kindred go, then
shook his head.

“Ah, Six, he is one of my greatest
successes. Yes he is, yes he is.”

“He is?” Mei-Li said. “You’re the one who
did his implants, right?”

“Yes I did, yes I did but I wish he had
not asked for them in the first place.”

“What? Why not?” Mei-Li was intrigued. “I
thought everybody had implants here—it’s the law, isn’t it?”

“For those who choose to live on the planet’s
surface, yes it is, yes it is. But Six is not like the other Dark Kindred.”
Yipper shook his head and busied himself with setting some supplies on a
rolling tray.

“He’s not? How is he different?” Mei-Li
propped herself up on one elbow to look at the little Tolleg. “Does he…does he
secretly have emotions?” She didn’t know if she wanted that to be true or not
but after that kiss they had shared…

“Certainly not.” Yipper shook his head, his
long floppy ears swaying with the motion. “I saw to that myself when I gave him
his emotion damper, yes I did, yes I did.”

“Oh…” Mei-Li tried not to feel
disappointed. Although why should she care? It wasn’t like she
wanted
the big Kindred to have feelings for her. That would make leaving him at the
end of a month much more difficult. “Is the implant good forever or does he
have to get a new one every once in a while?” she asked, having a new thought.
What if her month staying here was just at the time when Six was due for a new
implant and while he had it out—

“It should last his lifetime, yes it
should, yes it should,” Yipper said, killing her idea before it could even
fully form.

“Oh, well that’s…good.”

“It is indeed considering that he was an
adolescent when he came to us,” Yipper said.

“So everyone else gets their implant put
in when they’re just a baby?” Mei-Li tried to imagine an emotionless baby.
Probably it would never cry a bit—but it wouldn’t laugh either and there was
nothing cuter than a baby’s laugh. What a sad world Z4 must be!

But Yipper was shaking his head. “No,
no—the organic life forms on Z4 are grown to adulthood in incubation tubes. We
implant the emotion damper just before we release them from their tubes. But
this was not the case with Six as he came to us from outside the Z4 system.”

“So…everybody down on Z4 is a test tube
baby?” Mei-Li asked. “But…who socializes them? How do they learn how to talk
and walk and interact with others?”

“We implant the knowledge of basic social
conventions in their brains using a chip. Yes we do, yes we do.” Yipper
frowned. “It works better with some than others.”

“Un-huh,” Mei-Li muttered. “But you’re
saying Six wasn’t grown in a tube?”

“No he wasn’t. Which was what made the
implantation of an emotion damper so tricky. But it has lasted well so far, yes
it has, yes it has.” Yipper frowned. “Although he did come to me earlier with
some concerns…”

Mei-Li’s heart started beating harder.
“What concerns?”

“Oh dear, I’m not supposed to say. No I’m
not, no I’m not!” Yipper shook his head, looking worried.

“Say what? What he was concerned about?”
Mei-Li prodded. It was definitely wrong to be poking into Six’s business but
since she had to live with him for the next month, she wanted to know as much
as she could.

But the little Tolleg only shook his head.
“I cannot tell, no I can’t, no I can’t.”

“All right.” Mei-Li sighed. It had been
worth a try, anyway. But she couldn’t help wondering if the passionate kiss
they had shared and the way he had touched her afterwards had worried Six as
much as it had worried her. Had he gone running to his doctor to find out if
something was wrong with him?
If he did, it makes you sound like the symptom
of some deadly disease,
a little voice muttered in her head.
Great
going, Mei-Li. You made him think he might have caught feel-itis or cancer of
the emotions or something.