The Superiors

by Lena Hillbrand

  “Why don’t you clean up,” he said, turning and going into his bedroom. Her smells lingered in it, mostly the smells clinging to the outside of her, but he detected a hint of her sap scent. He tried to focus on that as he dressed. When he came out he heard the shower running, and he waited for her, his impatience mounting. He never ate breakfast at home, and the prospect excited him.

  After a few minutes he went into the bathroom and pulled back the door to the shower. Cali cried out in surprise and shrank back, covering herself. It surprised him, what a sap looked like naked. Her breasts looked just like any of the Superiors’ he had seen. Of course they did—Superiors evolved from humans. He sometimes forgot he used to be a sap, too.

  “Close the door,” Cali said, her voice shrill.

  He’d been so surprised that he’d stood staring, watching the water course down the white slope of her breasts and over the pink, upturned nipples. Then he’d noticed what he was doing and looked at the showerhead instead of her breasts. Only after he’d closed the door did he realize he’d taken an order from a sap. He opened the door again, just to make sure she knew her place. When she saw his determined expression, her eyes filled with fear.

  “Get out,” he said. “I want you before I leave for work.”

  She paused and came towards him, still hugging herself. He handed her his towel and turned away while she wrapped it around herself. When he turned back and pulled her to him, her body trembled all over.

  “Aspen,” he said. After a second she looked up and met his eyes. “I’m a Superior and you’re a human. All I want from you is food. You understand, yes?”

  They stood in the small, steamy room looking at each other until she nodded and dropped her gaze. Her pale shoulders were warm and beaded with water from the shower, and her hair was brown when wet. He took it in his hand and bent her head back to reveal her long white neck. Her vein pulsed softly under the skin and he put his mouth on her throat and his teeth entered her skin. He sucked at her gently, and the smell and taste of her rushed into him. He hadn’t realized just how badly he’d wanted her all the time he’d been gone. Now that he had her here with no one to answer to, he wanted to keep going, to bite her all over and suck her dry as a husk.

  He might have, if she hadn’t let out a moan and slumped against him. He withdrew and gathered her into his arms, startled. What had he done? She had already been overdrawn and weak, too weak to feed from. He carried her into his bedroom, his thoughts racing. What if he’d killed her? He hadn’t meant to harm her, but he had. He laid her on his bed without thought, and listened to her heartbeat for a few minutes to convince himself that she wouldn’t die.

  Looking her over, he noticing the unclosed wounds sprouting all over her arms. She would have many of the pebble-like scars under her skin when they healed. He ran his hands behind her knees and found more already formed in the soft flesh. He looked at the mark he’d made on her neck and put his tongue on it again to make sure it closed, since he’d been distracted when he pulled out.

  When her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at him, he realized he’d put her in his bed. But what would it hurt? He liked the smell of her anyhow, and he’d be gone all night while she perfumed his bed with her tantalizing scent. And she looked quite pale. It couldn’t hurt her to sleep in a soft bed.

  She crossed her arms over her bare breasts. “I’m cold.”

  “Indeed. I see that.” Draven stood and pulled the blanket over her. He had no idea if it provided accurate warmth for a sapien, but he had only one blanket. He didn’t know why he still used it—he didn’t need it and it did nothing useful. He just liked the feeling of comfort, perhaps a remnant from his days as a sap that he had retained without awareness.

  “Thank you,” Cali said from the bed. Her eyes closed and she sounded half asleep already. “And thank you for not killing me or…doing other stuff to me.”

  “If you wake while I’m gone, are you going to run away?”

  “No.”

  “Good. Because I know your smell quite well, and I will find you wherever you go. But I won’t be as soft-hearted if you make trouble for me by running away.”

  “Is this really your bed?”

  “Yes.”

  “You sleep here every night?”

  “Most days, yes.”

  “It’s like…heaven.”

  He smiled. “Do you know what heaven is?”

  “It’s the best thing possible. And this is the most wonderful thing I’ve ever felt in my entire life.”

  Draven laughed to himself. She was the most wonderful thing he’d ever felt in his life. Filling himself with her sap, her life. No wonder he wanted all of her, didn’t want to stop. If his bed felt anything like that to her, she could have it.

  “You may stay here while I’m gone,” he said. “Two cans of food are on the table. I will bring you more when I come home, before I bring you back.”

  Her eyes flew open. “No! You can’t bring me back there. It hurts so bad. Please don’t make me go back.” She started crying, fear rolling off her, tainting the wonderful bouquet of her natural smell.

  “I would rather keep you all for myself, believe me. But I can’t buy you. I will see if I can rent you for another night or two.”

  Draven left then, wondering again how he got himself into such a mess. Even if he wasn’t mistreating her or hurting her, he shouldn’t have her at all. That evening he reset his ration card with a small amount of guilt. It seemed fair though, since he had traded his own rations for her food, that he got to feed off her. And he had paid enough for her that he’d better get something out of it. He didn’t want anything else from her. Her bodily functions had odors he didn’t like, and her body’s strange combination of familiar and foreign aspects reminded him of pictures he’d seen of cavemen. He didn’t know how long he could keep her or what things she needed besides a toilet and food. He didn’t remember needing anything else when he’d been a sap.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Draven worked at Estrella’s that night, and after only half a shift he remembered why he hated the job and had quit his other bouncing jobs. He had to watch people eat and eat and eat all night, and even if he was full, it made him want more.

  After his shift, he ate from one of the saps at his tables and stayed to visit with Byron. Byron selected backgammon from the menu on the table top and they began playing, but thoughts of Cali distracted Draven. He wanted to go home and check on his illegal boarder, see if she’d run away or made noise to call attention to his apartment. Or if she had died.

  That thought nagged at the corners of his mind. He could get in trouble for any number of reasons if anyone found out, and he didn’t know if Lira would keep quiet. She might come and check to see that he’d returned the sapien. And although he didn’t think a human could figure out how to open the door, he didn’t want to take the chance. Cali didn’t seem very stupid. He could track her if she ran, but if she had died, he would have trouble explaining to the authorities why he’d had her at all.

  He wanted to hint at it to Byron, to ask a hypothetical question, but he held his tongue. The last thing he needed was to arouse an Enforcer’s suspicion. His fidgeting brought Byron’s attention after a while anyway.

  “Have you eaten?” Byron asked, scooting his can to the edge of the table.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Getting your favorite sap on a regular basis now that you work here?”

  Draven almost told Byron she had left, but paranoia about having her in his apartment made him hesitate. If he just agreed, Byron would ask no further questions. “Yes, it is nice.”

  “Which one?” Byron asked, rolling the dice.

  “Her,” Draven said, pointing to the sap he’d drawn from tonight and once before when Cali’s rations had already been used. The sap was ordinary in every way.

  “This is a nice place. They usually keep the saps on the menu for a while, don’t they?”

  “I don’t know. I have not been c
oming for long.”

  “Do you have somewhere to go after this? You seem anxious.” Byron studied Draven more closely. Of course an Enforcer would notice something amiss. That was his job.

  “The hostess is not very happy with me,” Draven said. “I was thinking of making it up to her somehow.”

  Byron smiled. “What did you do?”

  “I told her we would meet, and I forgot.”

  “Then why don’t you go on and meet her now.”

  “Are you sure you will not take offense?”

  “Of course not,” Byron said, shaking his head. “I forget sometimes what it was like not having a wife. Go right ahead.”

  Draven slipped around to the front, but the hostess had already gone. He went out to his car and saw her leaning on her electric scooter, smoking a long cigarette. He stopped, surprised, and watched her for a minute before approaching. How she could afford something so expensive on a hostess salary puzzled him, but he found he liked her better for it.

  “May I apologize again for my inexcusably rude behavior?”

  “You can try,” she said, looking sideways at him from her narrow eyes.

  “I am Draven.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  “And you are…?”

  “Hyoki.”

  “How long have you worked here, Hyoki?”

  “Long enough.”

  “And what do you do when you’re not working?”

  She looked at him and then smiled, seeming to soften when she did. Her cheeks rose when she smiled, and he very much liked the shiny pinkness of them. “Maybe you find out sometime.”

  “I’d like to. I’m not working three nights from now. I have an appointment in the last hours, but I would like to see you before that if I may.”

  “You may.”

  “What time shall I meet you then?”

  After arranging the meeting, Draven got in his car and drove away into the darkest hour. He had to call Sap Heaven while he drove, and he kept one eye on the road, not wanting to get into any trouble tonight. The face that appeared on his screen blurred so he could hardly tell if it was male or female, but after a few seconds he recognized the boy from the night before.

  “Hello. I came in last night, and I borrowed your sap, Cali Youngblood. I’m keeping her one more night.”

  “She ain’t for rent.”

  “I already have her.”

  “You do? Um, okay. Same rate as last night?”

  “Yes.”

  “She ain’t dead, is she?”

  “No, I will bring her back better than I got her.”

  “Yeah, I bet,” the boy said, sneering into the screen. “But you better bring her back. That one guy was a real prick about it.”

  “I will return her.”

  Draven hung up and pulled into the apartment complex. He went up the stairs quickly. He looked around, hoping he wouldn’t see any of his neighbors, but he ran into one in the hallway. “Hey Draven,” the neighbor greeted him with a smile. “Haven’t seen you in a while. How was your trip?”

  “Quite well, thank you. Anything new with you?” Draven glanced at his door while the neighbor talked. He wanted to listen for signs of life behind the door, but he couldn’t hear with the man talking about his job and his new partner.

  Finally the neighbor finished talking and they parted. After waiting until the man had pushed open the door to the stairs and gone down, Draven looked both ways in the hall and listened. He heard nothing. He couldn’t hear a heartbeat or breathing—just silence. He checked the hall again, in case Cali lay in wait to run when he opened the door, and then he put his hand to the panel, slid the door open, stepped through and slid it closed in one motion. When he stood listening, he thought he heard Cali, faintly, or perhaps he imagined it.

  He checked the kitchen and found the bag with the five sapien food cans in it, all empty. It smelled rancid. He cursed himself for having forgotten to bring her more food. He didn’t know saps ate so much. Five cans seemed like a lot. A glance around the living area told him what he already knew—she wasn’t there. He would have smelled her more, noticed her obvious heartbeat. After checking the bathroom, he went to the bedroom. She had to be inside. The other rooms had an open enough layout that he would have sensed her immediately. Only the bedroom had soundproof, light-tight walls. He turned the knob and opened the door.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Draven inhaled, almost giddy with the wonder of her fragrance, contained and undiluted in the small room all night. His mouth watered at the scent. He stepped into the room and closed the door. Cali slept sprawled out on her back. Her shift had ridden up, exposing a white hour-glass shape of her underpants between her legs. Her head lay turned to the side, her tawny hair spread on his pillow in tangles. He went to the bed and knelt beside it, unable to contain himself. He slowed when he saw the rash of wounds inside her arm.

  Was there a correct place, a place that would scare her less or hurt her less? He always used the arm because of convenience, and restaurants wanted it that way. Other Superiors preferred legs or wrists, and those with their own saps could take from anywhere. He’d never had the luxury of so much choice. He let his nose lead him, lingering over the smell and the sound of the sap pulsing under his breath, pulsing with so much life.

  A knock at the door interrupted his sensual exploration, but he ignored it. After a while it went away, and he bent over Cali’s sleeping body again. His lips brushed the skin on her collarbone and he felt her skin prickle, but she didn’t move. Her heart beat so loud, so blood-pumpingly full and rich. Without thinking, without even meaning to, he let his teeth slide into her. The veins in her chest lay close to the surface, so near the hub of life and so irresistible.

  She started awake in the complete darkness and cried out, gripping a handful of his hair and pulling. While she wrenched at his hair, she began to struggle under him. He pinned her body with his own, turning so he could restrain her. She cried out again, kicking in a futile attempt to free herself. He had trouble keeping his teeth in her chest at such an awkward angle, the surface too hard and flat to get good purchase on the surrounding area. She continued tugging his hair until he covered her mouth and pulled out.

  “Make no sound,” he said softly. “I do not wish to hurt you. Just be still, little sap, and you’ll hardly feel it.” His mouth went down on her again and he let his lips rest against her, feeling the throb of her skin with every beat of her heart.

  She released his hair and lay still, stomach shaking, until he closed the entry point. He rolled from the bed, suddenly aware of the heat of her body under his now that he had appeased his hunger and could think more clearly.

  He rubbed his head. “You’re strong again.”

  “You scared me to death.”

  “I did not mean to frighten you. I was only hungry.”

  “Are you taking me back?”

  “Do not be afraid. I have rented you for one more night.”

  “Will you hurt me?”

  “No more than I have to.”

  She quieted, and he switched on the lamp when he saw her eyes roving blindly in the darkness. “Why are you doing this?” she asked, sitting up and pulling her shift down over her thighs.

  “I have told you how much I like the taste of you.”

  “That’s all?”

  “Of course. What else would there be?”

  “I don’t know.” She regarded him and then shook her head. “You’re just…I mean, it’s nice of you to do that. To get me out of there just so you can feed off me a couple times a day. You could do that when I was at the restaurant.”

  He sat down on the edge of the bed. “I do not like to see animals suffer. It makes me a bit sick.”

  For once she kept her eyes averted in the polite custom. “Do you do this a lot?”

  “No. Never.” She glanced up at him and a strange thought flashed through his mind. Caramel.

  “So why’d you do it now?”

  “I have told you
. Now you tell me, Cali. Why are you at this establishment? Did you run away again, from Estrella’s?”

  “No. My vein is collapsing.”

  “Your vein…is…collapsing?”

  “Yes. From all the times I’ve been bitten in this same place,” she said, holding out her arm for him to see. Her vein only looked darker, bruised.

  “Have I bitten you here?”

  “Yeah, sometimes.”

  “Does it cause you much pain?”

  “Not that much.”

  “Is there anything I’m not providing that a master should get for a sap? I’ve never had one of you before.”

  “Shouldn’t you know that?”

  “I probably should not have you here. If you would like to tell me, I might get what you wish for. If not, I will sleep soon.”

  “Why do you sleep in the daytime?”

  “Why do you at night?”

  “That’s when I’m tired.”

  “So we are different. You know this. I will be tired soon. You are well for today? You won’t run away?”

  “What if I do? Why are you so worried?”

  “I would be in some trouble, with the authorities and your place of employment. I could lose my job if they found out I rented a human. They would think it was for…carnal purposes.”