Call and Response

by Sara Rustan

  She wanted to stretch and display herself for Tom’s appreciation, she wanted to press herself against him and feel him with all of her senses, she wanted to flood herself with his scent and texture, stroke his skin, caress his form, run her fingers through his hair.

  She wanted him to want her. She wanted to be beautiful for him. She wanted him to sink his hardness into her softness, to merge physically with him. She wanted to tangle her limbs with his, and get their bodies as close as two bodies can be.

  She wanted to be complete.

  If she were at home or in a Shenkiloi colony, there would be rituals and customs to support her in the transition. Here, she had to deal with these sudden, disrupting changes and new emotions all by herself.

  He tugged his hand away from her and stretched his fingers. “Your skin feels electric. What’s wrong with you?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” she murmured. “Not now.” She hadn’t felt so well in weeks. The flush of blood and his touch caused her nipples to tighten and the parts between her thighs grew swollen and moist. She had never experienced arousal like this. She shifted from foot to foot as heat swirled through her, and then leaned toward him, vibrating with the desire to press her body against his.

  He backed toward the door. “You’re using drugs.”

  Her eyes widened. “No, I’m not.” She took a step toward him.

  “It’s a very tempting proposal. But I don’t make deals with users. I’m sure you’ll be able to find someone who will take what you’re offering.” He glanced meaningfully at her body.

  “I’m not on drugs. Just let me explain…”

  “I’ve got to go.” He opened the door.

  She called to him, like she had called this morning, but more focused. She sent it straight to him. It was her last chance.

  He paused, his hand still on the door.

  Janeth didn’t breathe. It felt like she was waiting for a coin that was lazily turning through the air. Time slowed to a crawl.

  He turned toward her, a puzzled look on his face. His hand dropped and he took a step toward her.

  “Please,” she said, her voice low. “Please help me.”

  “Are you talking about the business deal?”

  “Not just a business deal. There’s more involved than just business.” She twined her fingers together. “Talk to me about it?”

  His voice was tight. “I don’t know you, or what you want. I’m sorry, but I have no time for this.”

  She heard the door close behind him, and took a deep shuddering breath.

  She wanted Tom. She had been so afraid of who would answer, and was so relieved that he was someone she might be able to love. Now he was gone.

  What would she do now? She could look for somebody else. She had taken enough energy from him to make another attempt. But now… She didn’t want somebody else. She wanted him.

  Chapter Two

  Tom headed back through the early morning traffic to his rental. That had been a truly bizarre conversation. The woman was a phenomenally strong empath, that much was clear. She must be level seven at least. And beautiful—especially toward the end. The change in her within the few minutes they talked was so noticeable it defied normal expectation.

  When he entered the room she looked like she had been sick for weeks. By the time he left she was glowing with health—and sexy enough to make his dick sit up and take notice.

  Even the drug explanation didn’t quite fit. And those telayin jewels—all AIA agents were instructed to watch for any information that might lead to the source of telayin jewels. They mysteriously appeared now and then, and fetched enormous prices. The research division of the AIA empath corps had spent years trying to figure out how the jewels managed to hold human emotions—with no success.

  Had it been foolish of him to brush her off?

  Maybe. But one thing he was certain of was that she was concealing something major. She wanted to use him. Though…if she wanted to use him sexually, his dick was voting for letting her do whatever she wanted.

  He just couldn’t afford the complications. He wanted off this planet. The plan was to run down the checklist of everything he had to do to look good, write up a report, and get the hell away from here. He was smelling something bad here, something that could put a serious dent in his prospects for promotion.

  He had no time for sexy women with a fortune in jewels. Did he?

  Shit. He looked back the way he had come. Should he go back?

  No. He’d leave it up to chance—or Janeth. He’d picked up a touch of desperation from her. If she found him again, he’d take it as a sign that some god wanted him to complicate his life.

  If she didn’t find him… Well, nothing would have changed, right?

  ***

  He drifted through the back alleys of the crowded city, avoiding people when possible, preventing them from noticing him when necessary. He hungered. He wasn’t sure what he hungered for, and that puzzled him, but there were many gaps in his memory and fuzzy places where it hurt to think. Who am I? he wondered. Sally, Trelnor, Jen, Jorj… Many names presented themselves. But that couldn’t be right. Shouldn’t he have only one name? And most of the names were women’s names, but he knew that he was male. Rusty amusement flickered, and he stroked his male organ with one hand. Yes, he was definitely male. But why didn’t he know more about himself?

  Hunger stabbed his gut, and his interest in identifying himself disappeared. He had to feed. Food was close, tasty, seductive energy. His body stirred in anticipation and he drifted closer to the source. A young prostitute who hadn’t been on the streets long enough to be hardened posed anxiously at the mouth of the alley.

  He touched her arm, and she whirled around. “Hey! Don’t touch the merchandise without paying.”

  He projected soothing thoughts, and her face grew soft and puzzled. His hunger roared to life. It pulled, and satisfying energy flowed into him. His cock stirred and filled with blood, aching to satisfy another kind of hunger.

  But along with the energy came a swirl of foreign emotions. An identity—Mishella. Fear and anxiety, shame and pride. What was she doing? Was this her body? It was male and couldn’t be hers. Was that her, that this hand was holding?

  The shock of confusion turned his hunger-satisfaction sour. There was familiarity in the confusion, and despair. Memory shadows echoed through him. He’d gone through the same thing time and time again.

  Maybe it would be best to end it all… But some part of him—whoever he was—still wanted to live. He released the woman, who slumped to the ground and leaned on her hands, breathing in short, sharp pants.

  He backed away, sour disgust at the back of his throat. His cock softened as he turned to flee down the alley.

  ***

  Janeth stepped out of the lodging house into the street and froze. She detected the emotional signature of her brother. It was faint but unmistakable, and was dissipating quickly. After a week with no success, she finally had definite proof that Darian was somewhere nearby.

  She pictured him smiling and happy like she had last seen him before he left Lorelly on a business trip, though she knew he couldn’t possibly be happy or healthy now. The last message from him said that he had gone into plenerty and would do his best to book cryosleep passage on a spaceship. Janeth and her parents had waited anxiously, hoping, but after a month passed it was clear he wasn’t coming.

  She had worried that he wasn’t here anymore, that he had fled to some other city or…died. That he was still here was the good news. The bad news was that his emotional signature was distorted in ways that told her he was not in good mental health.

  She was torn between going after Tom and following her brother. If she could find her brother—and he was sane enough—he might be able to help her avoid binding Tom. The sane part didn’t look likely, though. If she finished the binding, at least she would be able to help Darian.

  But this was the first time she had detected him. She had to grab the chance to
find him.

  The emotional scent was stronger toward the center of town, so she hurried in that direction, picking up speed as she wove in and out of the crowds. She ran past crowded little stores displaying their wares on advertising screens, each one competing with the next with bright colors, flashing images, and intrusive musical slogans. They blurred together into flashes of color in her peripheral vision, all of her attention ahead of her, where she could feel wisps of emotional color with her brother’s flavor. She skidded to a stop next to a pale young prostitute sitting slumped against the wall.

  Had her brother used this woman?

  Janeth kneeled next to her. “Are you all right? What happened to you?”

  “I—I’m not sure. A man touched me… Then he did something to my mind.” She shuddered. “It made me feel…sick.”

  Janeth projected feelings of calm. “Can I help you get to a doctor?”

  The young woman got to her feet. “No, no. I’m fine.” She backed away. “No problem.” Then she turned and fled.

  It was as she feared. Her brother was desperately searching for the empathic energy he needed, but trying to pull from incompatible women was swamping his mind with their emotions. The Shenkiloi depended on their mating partners to balance and ground them, to allow the expansion of their empathic talents. Joining to random, unmatched people like this could drive a Shenkiloi mad.

  She had to find Darian and get him off this cursed planet in coldsleep. Back on Lorelly, doctors could restore his sense of self, and maybe eventually allow him to take a mate—if she could manage to escape the same fate long enough to find him. Her first priority was to save herself. She would do her brother no good if she slid into madness too.

  Relaxing and opening herself to the empathic currents around her, she searched for signs of her brother, but it was too late. The trail had dissipated into the emotional cacophony of the passing crowds. She shielded herself, but a throbbing headache remained.

  Perhaps the public computer net would have information about empaths on Dragnath. Sometimes the talent was concentrated in particular ethnic groups or geographic areas. Maybe all the empaths lived in a different city.

  Several hours later she slumped over the net terminal, despair a sick lump in her stomach. There were no empaths on Dragnath. It had been a topic of interest for a number of academic researchers, who had come up with a number of hypotheses to explain the anomaly, but nobody had gone so far as to actually import a higher-level empathic talent to investigate, due to the expense. The cost of weeks of travel time and a few weeks of investigation would have been enough to bankrupt the local university, so the question remained unresolved.

  The only people with empathy on Dragnath were off-worlders. Like Janeth, Darian, and Tom.

  That would at least make her search for alternate mating prospects short. The few off-worlders were all concentrated here in Limbai, the largest city on the sparsely settled planet.

  She covered the entire tourist area on foot, walking past hotels and pensions and boarding houses. She called silently every now and then.

  Nobody responded. Nobody.

  Finally she returned to her room with food she had purchased from some of the many vendors lining the streets.

  That night, she called to Tom again, her voice lifting and falling in liquid trills and crystal clear runs, her yearning and need narrowly broadcast to him alone.

  She sat by her window, waiting, until she fell asleep.

  In the morning, Janeth headed to the customs office that recorded all off-planet visitors. The bureaucrat who helped her found her very likable and sympathetic—with a little assistance—and easily handed over Tom’s current address.

  He was staying at a rental house in a complex that catered to well-to-do businessmen on the edge of the quarter, closer to the merchant section.

  As she walked down the street toward his lodgings, she was aware of the abrasion of her shirt against her nipples, the moistness and heat between her thighs. Her awareness of her body changed the rhythm of her walk. Her hips were looser, and she was aware of every admiring glance. She felt as though she glowed with sexuality, like a light in a dark room.

  She thought of Tom’s body and things clenched deep inside her. She wished she had the luxury of taking time to become familiar with her new desires. If she hadn’t rushed off to find her brother, she would be at home, carefully protected from the sea of sensuality, and allowed time to grow accustomed to being a full adult.

  But she had chosen to take the risk—and would do the same thing again. The idea of abandoning Darian to possible insanity and death was intolerable.

  She settled down at a café to wait. She was already attuned to Tom and could detect his emotional signature nearby. It was faint, but clear enough to tell her he was inside his apartment. When he was about to leave, something changed, a matter of intention or flavor. She dropped a few coins on the table as he walked by, his strides energetic. She hurried after him.

  His body looked familiar and perfect. Was this the beginning of the binding process? She knew, in an intellectual way, that his face wasn’t classically handsome. His nose was a bit dominant, his chin too square. But just being close to him was deeply satisfying. She hardly knew this man, but she trusted the Shenkiloi call. She knew many mated couples, and all of them loved each other deeply, wholeheartedly. They weren’t all perfectly happy, of course. Some people weren’t capable of perfect happiness.

  “Tom Domdil K’Restan. Would you do me the favor of speaking with me, please?”

  He slowed and turned his head to glance at her. “I’m not going to change my mind about…your business deal.”

  “This is not about that.” She sighed. “I need help, desperately, and you are the only one who can help me.”

  His tightly controlled face provided no clues to what he was feeling, but Janeth could still read him. His emotions were in turmoil. He was attracted to her, that was evident. His response to her call meant he was compatible with her. But he had responsibilities and other emotions to balance.

  She hardly breathed, waiting for his response as they walked along the busy street.

  The tension in his body relaxed, and she knew she’d won another chance.

  She could feel a smile spread over her face. “Thank you for listening to me.” She couldn’t resist the urge to lightly touch his arm.

  His breathing deepened, and a sheen of sweat developed on his forehead. Her arousal must have flowed to him. She imagined licking his salty flesh, grasping the cock swelling in his loose pants, and slowly withdrew her hand, caressing his skin with her fingertips.

  Two days ago she would have found such behavior wanton. She supposed it was. She didn’t care. Her body was driving her now, and she would do anything to have this man in her bed, touching her as she wanted to be touched, relieving the need inside.

  His steps quickened until they reached a small park surrounded by busy stores, and stepped into the semi-privacy of a grove of trees.

  His voice was still cool. “So tell me your story.”

  “The truth is…the business deal was just an excuse.” At his lowered eyebrows, she hurried to add, “It was real. I have a source for the jewels and would be glad to contract with you to sell them. But the main reason I’m here is to find my twin brother who disappeared on this planet three months ago.”

  “I’m not a missing persons’ investigator. I’m not even from here. How could I possibly be of any help?”

  She leaned forward and touched his arm again, unable to resist the urge. “I’m not really sure.” His eyes darkened, and he shifted restlessly. “My family has certain…talents, and they tell me you are important to my search.” She shrugged in feigned confusion. “Unfortunately, I’m not exactly sure how.”

  She moistened her dry, sensitive lips with the tip of her tongue. Tom’s breathing deepened even further, his gaze fixed on her mouth. Could she hear his heartbeat?

  “Do you believe me?”

  Hi
s gaze jerked from her mouth to her eyes. “Believe you?” He spread both hands in a gesture of ignorance. “I don’t know. It’s possible I suppose. Some of my family—” He stopped.

  He was a sensitive, so she would be surprised if his family hadn’t had some minor talents.

  He asked, “Is your brother hiding from you?”

  “No. Not exactly.”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “Well…he may not be…he’s probably not…quite sane.” She rubbed her hands on her skirt.

  He crossed his arms. “So, for some reason you don’t understand, you want me to help you find your brother, who may be crazy.”

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  He laughed and ran his hand through his hair. “And to compensate me for helping you, you’re willing to offer me a contract to broker telayin jewels.”

  “Right.”

  He took a step closer and she moved back against the rough brick wall behind her.

  “And this sexual arousal? Is that caused by another of your talents?”

  Her eyes widened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  He stepped even closer, and she could feel the rigid shaft of his erection pressing against the softness of her belly. The arousal she’d been fighting surged through her, and her legs shook. Only the wall behind her prevented her from collapsing to the ground in a puddle of hormones. Her gaze fastened on the lips that were so close to her.

  “I don’t normally go around with an erection that could break rocks, and certainly not for someone I don’t even know, even though you’re an attractive woman.” His lips skimmed hers, and pleasure coiled inside her. He pulled back an inch. “So, answer the question. What are you doing to make me so goddamned horny?”