The Superiors

by Lena Hillbrand

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Cali exploded out the doors of the bunkhouse, running blindly towards the gardens. She veered a little, shot a glance at the eating hall. She could hide there. But the girls could find her there, too. Her feet pounded the hard, dusty earth. She didn’t look back—she didn’t have to. The footsteps of Ruth and the others came on her heels. Still behind, but not for long. Legs pumping, arms pumping, blood pumping, she ran.

  She shot around the corner of the fence and scrambled to unhook the gate. That’s when she glanced back, as her fingers jerked the fence open. The girls chasing her had always lived in the Confinement. Some of them had been her friends as she grew up. But for the past three years, the girls had worked in the garden all day and slept all night. Cali had sat waiting for Superiors to come to her table most of the night, slept half the day, and did some light cleaning. They had all the advantage of strength and health that Cali had lost.

  One look at the faces of the girls and adrenaline surged through her. She charged through the gate and screamed encouragement to her legs inside her panicked mind. Go go go, run run run, faster. Faster than Ruth and her friends who would give Cali a good pounding if they caught her, and for no other reason than to show her they thought themselves better. She didn’t care if they were better or not—she hadn’t come back to prove anything. If they wanted to be better than her, she’d let them. She wasn’t trying to mess up anyone’s order. If only she could get to the section of the garden where all the people had clustered for the midday meal.

  Cali heard girls closing in, felt them drawing near, but she didn’t dare look back. And then they had her. One of the girls pushed her, and she dove forward, trying to regain her balance, and went sprawling on the hard-packed dirt. She scrambled up, catching herself on her hands, but before she’d gained her feet, Ruth slammed her back to the ground. Cali struggled, twisting around under the blows of the three girls.

  Fighting was nothing new in the Confinement, although more often boys got into it. More often the boys got carried away, too, hurt someone in a real way, a way that lasted a few months, or years. Or forever, in a few cases. Girls minded the Superior rule more often, the rules of the Confinement. They all knew who they belonged to—the Confinement. And the Confinement said no fighting allowed. Fighting risked a life, and that was one whole body full of blood that a Superior couldn’t come along and suck out.

  The people in the Confinement didn’t like fighting much either—not amongst the others. Everyone seemed to think it was okay when they did it. But no one wanted to lose a pair of hands to work in the gardens or help with the food or the clothes or any of the other duties that kept every pair of hands busy all day long. So the fights—especially planned ambushes like this one—had a kind of control to them. They’d hurt her, but they wouldn’t kill her. To avoid getting in trouble by Superiors and maybe even humans, they’d leave her face alone and hit her soft places so as not to break bones.

  Cali scratched at Ruth and left big red welts along her chest and neck and arms, but it didn’t do much good. Ruth was bigger, stronger, meaner, and backed by two other girls. Cali yelled for help, twisted back and forth under Ruth, and kicked at the girl holding her feet. The other girl held her arm and pounded on her arm, shoulder, and chest. That was the best place to hit someone in a fight—the best place to hit a girl, anyway.

  Ruth sat on Cali’s hips and punched her in the stomach so hard Cali couldn’t breathe, and then the girl got her chest on both sides, over and over, pounding away at those two great punching bags that sprouted up on her chest like they were meant for that particular torture.

  “You think you can run from us, huh?” Ruth said. “You can’t get away now, spoilt little restaurant girl. What you think, you think one of your bloodsucking boyfriends is gonna come to your rescue? Where are they now, huh, Cali-girl? Where’s your Jonathan now?”

  The girl holding her arms—Mona, Cali thought—started rubbing dirt in her face and hair, and Cali thrashed her head back and forth, squeezing her eyes and mouth shut to keep the dust out.

  “Oh, you think you’re such big stuff now you been out in the real world, don’t you? But it don’t do you one bit of good here, does it? Trying to run away from us. Who do you think you are? We run this place, not weak, pale, sickly restaurant girls. Look at her, she looks like she’s turning into a Superior she’s so white. Only way I know you ain’t is cause I’m beating your ass right now.”

  “Oh, look, now we made her cry,” Mona said. “Look at that. She don’t just look about as nasty and white as a premature puppy, but she’s a crybaby, too.”

  The fight had ended by the time someone came to see what the fuss was all about. They dragged the girls off Cali and she stood up, wiping her filthy hands on her filthy face and her filthy shift. She hugged her chest and bent over to cough while one of the older women patted her back. Right at the last, Ruth had gotten a good blow in that hit Cali right in the neck, and she couldn’t quit choking from it.

  “You girls are nothing but a bunch of no-good bullies,” one of the older women scolded Cali’s attackers. “Now go on and get yourselves cleaned up and leave this poor girl alone. I know she ain’t done nothing to you.”

  The girls all gave Cali their haughty looks and went off to get cleaned up. A minute later, Gwen and Poppy pushed through the little group that had rescued Cali.

  “Shit, girl, look at you,” Poppy said. “Barely back here and already you got in a fight. Come on, we’ll take you to the shower and then we can come back out and finish up in the garden.”

  Cali went with her sisters, trying to stop choking and stop her eyes from leaking. After a couple minutes her legs regained their usual strength and stopped shaking, and she let go of the supporting arms her sisters offered. They went into the shower area and Gwen went to get Cali a clean shift.

  “I’m going to be one giant bruise tomorrow,” Cali said, groaning as she lifted her arms to pull off her shift.

  “I know, those girls are dumb,” Poppy said. “But they’ll probably leave you alone now that they proved their point. They just want you to know not to mess with them, that they’re the scary ones.”

  “My chest hurts so bad I’m surprised it’s still there. It feels like a giant hole of pain,” Cali said, trying not to grumble but not quite able to shut up about it yet. What was Ruth’s problem, anyway? If she wanted Jonathan so bad, she could have him. His bragging annoyed Cali anyway. And she had no desire to take Ruth’s place as the scariest girl around.

  “Now you know how it feels when you have a baby and first get your milk in,” Poppy said. Gwen came back and waited for Cali, who stood scrubbing the dirt out of her hair. During the day, the showers shut off, and only one could be turned on. So Cali had to take a shower in the lone functioning stall at the end of the hall, and the little trickle of water hardly did more than make her hair muddy instead of just dusty. But she got her face and hands almost clean and settled for that. In the evening, the Superiors would turn on the water and everyone could have a real shower, and she could wash her hair then.

  She pulled on the clean shift and followed her sisters back to the garden. They just acted like nothing happened, like people fought all the time. And then Cali remembered being around for lots of fights before. As long as nothing serious happened, no one paid much attention to little skirmishes.

  But Cali hadn’t seen a fight the whole time she’d been at the restaurants. Too many Superiors around, maybe. Or no time. The only time she even talked to the other girls had been when they did chores and cleaned, and only little arguments broke out then, never fist-fights. Fighting at the restaurants was a huge no-no. They wanted the humans to look fresh and clean and tasty, not bruised and battered and scraped up. At least at the first restaurant she’d worked at. The second one, the nasty one, they probably didn’t care if their saps got in fights or had babies or anything. But at that place, everyone had been way too exhausted to fight.

  She wondered
if she’d ever get sold again, or if she’d end up like her mama, living at the Confinement with a dozen different men over the years and having a dozen babies, and in the end getting sick and dying without ever getting bought. No grand house for mama to clean, no little sapien hut out back to call her own. Mama had died, and Cali could have her spot in the house if she wanted it.

  Now she didn’t know if she did. When she’d been younger, it had seemed great to live in a real house outside the bunkhouses. Now the little houses didn’t offer Cali the same protection they offered others—her bloodsuckers would come and find her, no matter where she lived. And living in that house would only make her think of her mama dying, and the girls might make things even harder if they thought she was getting uppity by moving to a house. They’d already beaten her up once, and right after that dumb bloodsucker had tossed her across the garden, too. Lucky she’d landed on a nice soft garden bed instead of a rock. Then she’d really have been in bad shape and gotten it even worse from Ruth and the girls.

  That wasn’t even the worst of it, though. The worst part was that she’d been in the garden with that bloodsucker, and if she hadn’t gone out there with him, the humans might have gotten away. They might have made it to South America this time. After all, someone had to make it one of these times, right? If she’d hadn’t gone to the garden, maybe they would have been the ones to get there. But she’d been stupid, talking to that Superior like he really cared what she had to say. If it weren’t for her, and him, three people would be on their way south by now. Instead, they were at the blood bank.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Draven sat up in bed and reached for his buzzing pod. Twisting hurt, so he had to maneuver his whole body around to retrieve the device. He clicked it on after a moment’s hesitation.

  “Draven?” Lira said. “Holy sap-crap, are you okay? I heard you got hurt. I heard you almost died.”

  “I’m alright. Thank you.”

  “Really? Because I heard you were in the hospital. Do you want me to visit? Do you need anything?”

  “No, thank you. I’m fine.”

  “Are you sure? I mean, I know we got in a fight last time I saw you, but we can forget all that, right? I’m not mad anymore. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Yes.”

  “I could come visit. I know something that would make you feel better.” Lira smiled sweetly. But he knew better now.

  “How did you know I was here?” he asked.

  “Oh, um, my boss told me. I guess she’s attached to some friend of yours or something, or she heard from her friend who heard from your friend, I don’t know. Someone you know knows her. Anyway, that’s not the point. You sure I can’t help? I do know exactly what you like. I’ll do that thing with my tongue you like so much.” She gave him a suggestive smile. She was quite good at doing that thing with her tongue. Unfortunately she used her tongue far more often for other things—like talking.

  “Lira, I’m hardly in the mood.”

  “Oh. Right. Well, I’m sure I could think of some other way to make you feel better.”

  He sighed. “Thank you. I’ll let you know if I need anything the hospital can’t provide.”

  “Good. I’ll be expecting to hear from you.”

  “Good day, Lira.”

  “Okay, bye. Don’t forget. If you need anything, anytime. Don’t forget to call. I’ll be waiting.”

  Draven put the pod back on the table. He wished he hadn’t answered. He needed more morphine to deal with Lira. He called for a nurse, and after his shot, he slept again.

  When he woke, Cali was in the room, and he started awake so quickly that a sharp pain rammed through him. Hyoki gripped Cali’s arm, and Draven could see Cali’s jaw tighten. She looked like she was enduring a great pain. He needed more than usual, and need sharpened his sense of smell. Her scent intoxicated him until the roots of his teeth throbbed.

  “Let her go,” he told Hyoki.

  Hyoki released Cali and pushed her towards Draven’s bed. Cali turned and resisted, although of course her attempt proved futile. More for show than anything else, Draven guessed.

  “Byron told me to bring you this one, to feed you and to show you she still lives.”

  “Bring her to me, and then leave us,” he said.

  Hyoki lifted Cali and brought the resistant sapien to the bed. Draven reached out and took Cali’s wrist and Hyoki released her. “Should I help you with her?”

  “No, I’m strong enough.”

  Hyoki shot him a doubtful look, but she left the room, glancing back at Draven before closing the door. He looked up at Cali, who struggled to free her wrist from his grip. After a while he grew tired of her attempts and pulled her against the bed. “Why do you struggle this way, little sap? What has come over you?”

  Cali didn’t answer, but she stopped struggling and looked at him in defiance. Right into his eyes.

  “It seems you are unharmed,” he said. “I wish I could say the same for myself. I was afraid I had hurt you when I pushed you in the garden. I didn’t intend to cause you harm, and I’m glad to see that you look well.”

  She still didn’t answer, just looked at him in her sullen way and tried to pull her hand from his. “Come here, pet,” he said. “I don’t intend you any harm.”

  The extent of his wound had weakened him and left him ravenous, and the smell of her sap made him drunk with thirst. She still looked reluctant, but she didn’t struggle more. He wanted to talk to her more, but he couldn’t concentrate with her delicious aroma so close to his hunger. They would talk after he ate. “May I draw from your arm, here?”

  She raised her chin and looked down on him in his hospital bed and didn’t look away. “No.”

  He jerked her down on top of him, and even her slight weight sent a knife of pain straight through him, along the path the shard had driven through him. He grabbed a handful of Cali’s hair at the crown of her head and pulled her head back.

  “Then I’ll draw somewhere else,” he said, and let his hunger guide him into the source. He could hardly breathe through the pain but he didn’t shift her weight off him. He drew hard on her neck and let out a moan of pain with every breath. For a long while he drew from her while she lay motionless on top of him. When he had sucked too long, she reached for his hair and pulled hard, wrapping her hands into the fine tangled mess and tightening her grip as hard as she could.

  “Stop, you’re going to kill me,” she said in a strangled voice. He pulled out and sealed the punctures slowly, letting the cold slipperiness of his tongue travel over her throat and linger until her skin had drawn up in a chill. He remembered her complaining about his thoroughness, so he let his tongue play over her skin a minute longer. Then he pushed her off, and she lay on her back beside him, breathing hard. He could tell that he’d frightened her, and he was glad.

  “Do not say no to me,” he said, his voice hard and smooth. “Another Superior would have you punished.”

  “I hope I never see you again.”

  “I’m here because one of those escapees almost killed me. I could have died. I didn’t mean to throw you, or hurt you, in the garden. I caught those saps for you. I almost died. For you, Cali.”

  Cali stood, shaky and pale. Her glaring look surprised him. “I thought you were different, that you were a good one. But you’re not. You’re evil.”

  She turned and went to the door and knocked, and Hyoki opened it and pulled her out. “Are you satisfied?” Hyoki asked Draven from the doorway.

  Draven paused and looked hard at Cali. “No. Bring me another. A well-behaved one. This one does not know how to please me.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  When Hyoki returned, Draven had already gained strength from his meal with Cali. But he didn’t feel much better. Hyoki came in with the boy Draven had caught, and he stared at her and then the young sap, who stared at the floor. “This is what Byron sent? Why?” he asked, knowing that there would be a reason.

  “He wanted you
to be assured that your wish was carried out.” She pushed the boy forward. He stumbled and stopped. “Walk,” Hyoki said, but the boy didn’t move. He didn’t fight, the way Cali had. He just didn’t move. Hyoki guided the boy to the bed, and he stood beside Draven with his head still hanging down.

  “I’m glad you got what you should have,” Draven said to the boy. “I’m only sorry you had to go to the blood bank before I awoke. Are you quite weak?”

  The sapien didn’t move. All sapiens seemed determined to ignore Draven today. “Look at me,” Draven said, but the boy didn’t move. Draven looked at Hyoki. “What’s wrong with him?”

  “I do not know,” she said in her precise, accented voice. “He was like this when I got him. Was he different before?”

  “Yes.” Draven took the sap’s head in his hand and lifted the chin. The eyes were empty, blinking but unseeing. Dead eyes. He dropped the sapien’s chin and it settled back onto its chest. “I will take it, because I need the strength. Can you do me a favor while you’re here, Hyoki? Would you tell Byron I’d like to talk to him?”

  “Yes, Draven. I know you like eating alone. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He didn’t bother to tell her that he had no objection to eating with others—as long as he wasn’t eating Cali.

  Draven wasn’t so intoxicated by the boy, since it made him a bit wary to feed off the sap not knowing what had happened to it, but it didn’t smell of drugs so he had what he needed. The sapien didn’t react at all, even when Draven punctured the skin. He could control his appetite easier with the boy than with Cali. The boy was too young, not active enough, and his sap had nothing particularly appealing about it. Still, Draven needed strength and the boy provided it.

  Hyoki took the boy away and came back and lay on the bed beside Draven in the same place Cali had lain. “How are you feeling, my brave one?” Hyoki asked, toying with Draven’s buttons. She looked up at him and smiled, revealing her delightfully long drawing teeth.