Genesis Girl (7 page)

“Yes.” I take a steadying breath, and my chest heaves against the boning of my corset.

“He’s a real douchebag.”

“No. He’s not.”

Seth snorts and loosens his tie. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Of course I do.”

I sit down on the bench, and Seth joins me two seconds later. Warmth radiates between our touching legs.

“Isn’t my dad, like, thirty-five years older than you?”

“So what?”

“
So what?
” Seth scratches his jaw. “Doesn’t that creep you out?”

“Oh wait. You think —”

But before I can finish my sentence, Seth types the air. He pulls up
Veritas Rex
, and then I see the video.

There’s Calum McNeal and a redheaded woman in bed. There are twisted sheets and nakedness everywhere. Seventeen-year-old Seth walks in on them, shooting video from his hand.

“What the hell are you doing, Dad?” teenage Seth yells.

The redhead turns away. You can’t see her face because she tugs up the sheet. Cal looks guilty. Sweaty.

“Son?” he starts to say. “It’s not what it—”

But then the video cuts out, and you never hear what Cal says next.

“I did
not
want to see that,” I say, with all sincerity.

Seth shakes his fist, and the image disappears. “That was a week before my mom died. The asshole was screwing another woman when my own mother was dying of brain cancer!”

“Seth—”

“And now you’re doing him too!”

“I am not!” I leap to my feet. “It’s not like that at all.”

“Yeah? Then what’s it like. Tell me. Why does an old man spend thirty-two million dollars on an eighteen-year-old Vestal?”

“Because he’s lonely. Because he wants a daughter.”

“A daughter?” Seth flexes his neck. “I don’t believe it.”

“It’s true. He misses you. He misses your mom. He’s lonely, and—”

“Don’t talk about my mom!” Seth jumps up and kicks the tree trunk with his dress shoe.

I follow him, and we stand underneath the branches.

“I’m sorry,” I say. And I genuinely am. What happened to Sophia was awful.

“You have no right to talk about her, and neither does my dad!”

I wait a second, not saying anything.

“She was a good mom,” Seth whispers. “The best.”

I put my hand in his. I’m not sure he notices.

“She didn’t deserve any of that crap. That’s why I posted the video online. That’s why I started
Veritas Rex
.”

“She deserved better.”

Seth thinks I’m agreeing with him. “Yeah.” He nods. “She did.”

It’s hard not to get riled up when the conversation has turned to everything I stand for as a Vestal. “It’s not only the video, Seth. Your mom didn’t deserve to die in the first place. There never should have been a cancer epidemic. As soon as people realized cell phones were evil, they should’ve stopped using them.”

Seth looks at me, bemused. “I wouldn’t go so far to say cell phones were ‘evil,’ but they were shitty technology.”

Even now, he’s completely brainwashed.

“Shitty technology that killed people! And the tech companies didn’t care. They wanted money, and the customers wanted tech. It’s disgusting! The Brain Cancer Epidemic was the whole reason Barbelo Nemo founded Tabula Rasa to begin with.”

“Is that why?” Seth asks. “I thought you guys were fancy spokespeople or something.”

Irritation coils inside me. “That’s only a small part of it.”

“So what’s the rest?”

“We follow a sacred calling. We are beacons of light in a dark world that’s forgotten what’s important.”

Seth rolls his eyes. He clearly doesn’t get it.

So I inch closer to him. “For centuries holy people … nuns … monks … hermits … they locked themselves away and took on the sins of the world. They were living sacrifices of prayer, and it made the whole world better. They kept knowledge alive through the Dark Ages. Vestals are living sacrifices too. We are reminders that you don’t need chips and you don’t need texts, and you shouldn’t give away every last piece of yourself for one more hit.”

“Because selling yourself is so much better?”

I square my shoulders. “Yes.”

“But you’ll never have a normal life. Doesn’t that bother you?”

“Of course not. Not when ‘normal’ is so messed up. Not when ‘normal’ gave a whole generation of people brain cancer.”

“
That
I get.” Seth rubs the cord of his pendant. “My mom was always talking about you guys. Did you know that? She loved all things Vestal. That’s why I took your picture.”

I wonder what Seth’s mom would say now.

We stand there in silence looking out across the city. The whole world feels huge and empty. If I reach up my arms, they’ll touch sky forever. There’s nothing holding me in and nothing protecting me. The only person between me and disaster is Seth.

“I should get back,” I say. “Your dad will hate me being out so late.”

Seth looks at me suddenly, like he’s remembering why he brought me up here in the first place. “Why worry about a liar like him?” He steps closer and encircles me in his arms. “We’ve got all night.” Seth smiles a wicked grin and bends down, brushing soft lips against mine.

I know what he’s thinking. He’s thinking he’ll ruin my relationship with Cal forever.

But I’m the one who will ruin Seth. By the time I’m done with him, everything he knew to be true will be shattered. Veritas Rex will never be the same again.

So I curl my fingers around Seth’s neck and deliver a perfect kiss. I let Seth put his infested hands all over me. They run down my back and under my butt cheeks. Our lips part, and our tongues intertwine. I tell myself I don’t enjoy any of it.

When we finally come up for air, I put my cuff on his chest, the position for the tightest blessing. “Seth, you’ve had a hard road. In so many ways it’s difficult being you. But I know that you can do it
.
You have everything you need to achieve happiness.”

“You think so?”

“I know so,” I answer. The blessing always works.

Tell people what they want to hear.

“Blanca, you’re different than I thought you would be.” This time when Seth smiles at me, it’s for real. And when he kisses me again, I can tell he means it.

Exactly like Cal wanted.

“You don’t have to go back,” Seth says later, his arms swathed around me as we sit on the bench. “Come home with me instead.”

“Why would I do that?” I stare out at the city lights.

“Because he’s old. Because he’s bad news, and because you deserve better.”

“He is not bad news,” I say. “He’s your dad.”

“What’s he doing with you, then?”

“I told you. Cal’s lonely. He wants a daughter.” I try to sound certain, but I can’t quite keep the edge from my voice. The lonely part is right, but Cal doesn’t want a daughter. He only wants Seth.

Seth pulls me onto his lap. “You shouldn’t trust him.” He flexes his arms and I have the weird sensation of feeling safe. Protected. “Come home with me instead.”

I look into Seth’s eyes, unsure if he’s being sincere or not.
Nobody outside Tabula Rasa is truthful. Everyone is jealous of Vestals.

“What do you want?” I ask.

“To keep you safe.”

“I
am
safe.”

“Not from him, you’re not.”

I smile, trying to lighten the mood. “You’re the one I need to be careful of. If I listened to you, I couldn’t be a Vestal anymore.”

“So give it up,” Seth says. “Be your own person. Own your own life.”

“I have a contract. Remember? A thirty-two-million-dollar deal.”

“That’s exactly why it’s dangerous for you! My dad thinks he owns you.”

“No,” I say. “That’s how come I know he’ll protect me. Cal won’t let anything happen to me, not when I cost him so much.”

“You don’t know him.”

“Maybe
you
don’t. When’s the last time you and your dad talked?”

“No idea. I try to avoid him at all costs.”

“So how are you going to see me again?” I pause. “Or do you not want to?”

Seth looks at me, right in the eyes. “Of course I want to. Don’t be ridiculous.”

I tuck my head on his shoulder and fake a sigh.

Fatima would have played this scene differently. But I’m not Fatima. I’ll never be the seductress, but my girl-next-door tricks work pretty well too.

All the McNeal Solar Enterprises board members have left by the time Seth and I return home. It’s way past midnight. Cal waits on the threshold, pacing back and forth underneath the columns.

Seth rides the motorcycle all the way up the drive and then revs the engine before he cuts it right in front of his dad.

I haven’t taken my helmet all the way off, and Cal is already yelling.

“Where were you, Blanca? I was so worried!”

I’d think, “Nice touch,” but Cal’s a horrible faker. This rage is for real.

“I’m sorry, Cal. I was with Seth.”

“And you couldn’t leave a note?”

A note? The concept honestly never occurred to me. It’s not like I’ve ever left someplace before.

“And you,” Cal says, turning his anger to Seth. “How could you? You know privacy means everything to a Vestal like Blanca.”

Seth’s about to say something, but I don’t give him the chance. Ugliness isn’t going to help. So I physically place myself between the two of them and try to broker peace.

“Nobody saw us,” I say. “Seth wouldn’t do that to me.”

“Think again.” Cal taps his wrist and pulls up a video screen.

And there I am, plastered all over the Web again. I’m turning into a real Net-rat.

veritas rex joyrides with blanca
, the tag reads. I’m captured at a red light, my arms around Seth, my platinum cuff clearly visible.

“What did you do?” Cal asks Seth. “Did you pay somebody to follow you?”

Seth starts to protest, but I don’t give him the chance.

“You did this?” I say, turning to him. “You tricked me?”

“Blanca, no—”

“What kind of bastard are you?” I shove my helmet into his stomach and then hightail it for the house. There’re about a dozen workers in the great hall, cleaning up after the party. I try not to run over a maid on my way to the stairs.

I slide the deadbolt behind me as soon as I get to my cloister.

I’ve got this thing I do when somebody yells at me. I keep my eyes open but I try to look behind me, like I can see through the back of my head. I sit up straight and pull my shoulders down. Then I start counting. Usually by the time I get into the thousands, the worst is over.

The trouble with Cal, though, is that he’s not yelling at me when probably he should. He’s still royally pissed about me taking off with Seth last night. Cal saws away at his toast like he’s attacking it, but when he talks to me, his voice is eerily calm.

“I was improvising,” I say again. I must have said that a million times, but Cal still seems disappointed. “I thought you’d be happy.”

“I was worried about you.”

“But I was with your son.”

“Exactly!”

“But the plan—”

“The
plan
was for you to go for a walk around the estate where I could keep track of you.”