When Draven had done all he could to prepare for the journey, he still had hours left before sleep. He tried to read but his mind strayed. He paced in the cramped apartment, then pocketed his cards and an anya and went out into the night.
He could take the Mert, but he liked the coolness of the night, the gusty wind and the wet air on his face. Rain had fallen during the day, and the night smelled of rain and wet asphalt. The wind had taken the steam off the ground, and a chill had crept into the air. Draven wanted to test himself, once more assure himself that he was up for the task ahead, that he could perform the duties required when the time drew near.
He set off at a sprint towards the edge of the city, the air streaking past him like cool ribbons spooling out in the night behind him. His skin burned with a pleasant chill as he moved through the night, not slowing until he reached the Confinement at the edge of the city.
He entered, bright-eyed and in high spirits from his newfound strength. He punched Cali’s number into the pad the door guard held out to him. He looked at the man sharply. “Where is this sap?”
The man looked at his pad and scrolled through to the next screen. He studied it and then turned it to Draven. “She’s in one of the houses now. This one right here. Go out through the far doors, take a right, past the shower areas. She’s in the last house on the left.”
“Thank you.”
He followed the guard’s directions and came upon the structure Cali called a house. Like all the houses, it was nothing more than a collection of trash piled into some semblance of a shelter. He couldn’t imagine why anyone would prefer that to the protected bunks in the barracks. He paused in front of the house, taking in the scent. He caught Cali’s scent and a few others, one of them sickening and putrid.
He found himself wondering if she lived there with her new partner or if she’d moved into her family’s dwelling. He hadn’t thought to ask the door guard who else lived in the house. Draven tapped on the door once to alert the sapiens inside, an unnecessary act. None of the other Superiors did this sort of thing, but he had found in his work with homo-sapiens that they appreciated little gestures of kindness.
He pulled the twisted piece of rusty tin away and stooped to enter the dwelling. A fetid stench permeated the air within. Draven counted four adult heartbeats and the rapid one of a sapling. He made his way across the flimsy plastic strips that covered the old tires to make up the floor. The place was only about three meters long, and the mat on the floor took up two thirds of the space. It offered little more than a sleeping area. The walls, like the rest of the dwelling, looked salvaged from an endlot of worn-out materials. The few makeshift shelves held more of what looked to Draven like junk.
The sapien houses didn’t contain clothing or food. Those things stayed in the communal area in the big building. They would have molded in the damp environment of the shelters, anyway. He couldn’t make out the faces as well as he could have outside, but he could savor distinctly where Cali lay. He knelt and shook her leg. One of the other figures sat up.
“Cali’s sick,” the female said. “Take me instead. Please, Master Superior. She’s real weak.”
“What ails her?”
“I don’t know, Lord Master. She was complaining about her arm hurting and we thought she just didn’t want to work. Y’know? But then she stopped getting up at all. Our mama died, and maybe she got the thing from her, I don’t know. You can take me.”
Draven could tell now that the putrid odor originated from Cali. “Has she married? Why is she in this diseased place if she could have a mate?”
“Cali don’t want no mate. She just wants to be left alone.”
“Cali, awaken and talk with me,” he said, shaking her again. She moaned but did not move. The sister protested while Draven dug Cali from under the thin blanket. The baby started to wail, a terrible sound. “I will take her to the garden,” Draven said. He gathered her limp body and stood.
“Please don’t kill her,” another sister said. “Please, Master. She’s real sick. If you draw from her again she might not make it.”
“Why have you not taken her to the clinic?”
“We tried, but she don’t want to go, and they’re too busy to come out and see her. Please take me instead.”
“Tend to your child,” he said, and left the stinking shanty through the tin door. Outside, the odor wasn’t so cloistering, and he breathed deeply of the clean air when the wind blew. The scent of sickness clung to the air around Cali, and now him. He carried her to the edge of the garden and found the stack of hoses and sat with his bundle.
“Am I dying?” Cali asked, her voice thin.
Draven brushed the hair from her face. Her skin scalded him, like it had the night she’d been sunburned. But tonight the heat, pervasive and clotted, burned through her body. He could hardly bear to touch her with such feverish heat, worse even than her usual animal warmth.
“It’s possible. Why did you refuse to visit the clinic?”
“The doctor…I hate him.”
“Because he hurt you before?”
“He gives us no privacy. He is…we are…animals to him, with no feelings.”
“That is not unusual. I didn’t know saps could have these things until I met you.” He touched her cheek with the back of his fingers.
“Are you going to suck my neck again?”
“I’m sorry I hurt you. I was quite hungry that night.”
“You didn’t.”
“May I see your arm, little pet?”
“I can’t say no to you.”
“You may. I’ll not force you if you do not wish to show me.”
She sat quiet for a minute, her breathing quick and shallow. Her head rested against his chest, and he thought she slept. Then she said, “I don’t care. You can look at it. But it’s oozy.”
He slid her around and turned her arm over to look at the wound. The heat radiated from the black center, spreading with the infection from a purple color inside her elbow to red streaks along her arm.
“Oh, hell. Cali.”
“Mmm?”
“I will take you to the clinic. You might have blood poisoning. Your arm is infected, likely from the bites. Merde. Why did you not go earlier? You might lose an arm, or worse.”
“I don’t like you.”
“I don’t give a damn if you like me. You’re a brainless girl, too willful for your own good. Dammit, Cali. I shouldn’t have listened to you. I should have come back to see you.”
He stood and pressed his lips to her hot forehead. “My dear little pet, my jaani,” he said, carrying her out of the garden and towards the clinic. The doctors worked all night, so they could tend to her. Draven carried her in, and she lay still and silent while he said soothing words to her and waited for a doctor.
After an hour or so, a doctor came to take her into an exam room. He gave Draven a curious look but offered no comment. Likely he assumed Draven worked at the Confinement. Draven did not correct him. He knew most of the workers at the Confinement wouldn’t have come into the hospital room with a sapien, but he wanted to know if she’d live. He sat quietly while the doctor examined her.
“You get to recognize this odor after a while,” the doctor said. “She’s got an infection, like you suspected. And her blood is poisoned.”
“So she’s going to die?”
“Not yet. The infection isn’t what’s poisoning her. We can put leeches on her to draw out the infection and the poison, but it may be too late. She should have been brought in earlier.” He gave Draven a reproachful look. “The infection may still spread and kill her. It’s hard to know if leeches are strong enough to get it all out. We can make some small incisions in her arm to let more of the infection out, but there’s no way to know if it will all come out in time to save her. This is a waste of a human, Mister…guard.”
“Castle. Draven Castle. I’m not a guard. I wanted to purchase this human, and when I came to get her, she was in this condition.”
/> “I sure hope you have an alternate chosen.”
“I don’t.”
“You just may have to find one.”
“Can I draw out the infection?”
The doctor gave him a look of pure horror. “Why would you want to? Can’t you savor it?”
“Yes, I savor it.” The stench sickened him, but the thought of losing her sickened him more. “Is it possible? I know it would be unpleasant, but if it could save her…I have much more strength than your leeches.”
“That’s true…” The doctor studied Draven in a calculating way. “I don’t know that it’s ever been done. But she’ll probably die anyway, so I’d be willing to let you try it.”
“Then get me a basin to spit into.”
The doctor came back ten minutes later with three basins, and three other doctors. Two doctors-in-training trailed behind them. “We’ve never seen this before,” Cali’s doctor explained. “Everyone is curious to see what happens. And to see your reaction, honestly.”
“Fine. Give me a basin and let’s get started.”
Draven took Cali’s arm and took one last breath. He knew he wouldn’t be able to breathe so close to her wound while he drew on it. In the light of the hospital room, it looked much worse. The whole arm had swollen and discolored, and despite the heat, the blood behind it sounded slower than it should. He bent to his work, prepared for the taste, and bit into the center.
He thought he’d readied himself, but there was no way to prepare for what surged into his mouth. The bitter fluid, sickeningly thick and salty, forced him to withdraw. He gagged a string of red and yellow and dark colored slime into the bowl. No one spoke while he continued retching for some moments. Clotted fluid coursed from the marks he’d made in Cali’s skin. He squeezed her arm gently, not sure he could bear to return it to his mouth. The brackish liquid flowed out for several minutes before it slowed, and finally ceased.
Draven turned from the group of doctors to the arm. He did not mean to give up yet, in front of all those people, so he brought Cali’s arm to his mouth and put his teeth into her again. This time she awakened, and screamed, her whole body convulsing in pain. He clamped his teeth down for purchase, and she shrieked and pounded his face with her other fist. Two doctors came forward and pinned her writhing body while Draven drew as hard as he could. When his mouth filled with the foul stuff, he spit and gagged for minutes, steeled himself, and repeated the process. After the second mouthful, Cali stopped shrieking abruptly, and he could only hope she’d lost consciousness and was lost to the pain.
He wished he could be lost to the horror of what he did. If it proved ineffective, it would be the worst thing he’d ever done. After every pull on the infected area, his body heaved with retching, and instead of growing accustomed to it, he seemed to grow more sensitive to it. Finally he could bring himself to repeat the process no longer. Cali’s sap looked more like it should, although it still tasted off. When he spit the last mouthful into the basin of slime, it had returned to the usual color.
Draven wiped his mouth on a towel one of the practicing doctors had given him. He slumped back in the chair, drawing breath after ragged breath and looking back at the group of solemn doctors who stood watching him.
“What was it like?” one of the trainees asked.
“Like it looked,” Draven said, wiping his face and his mouth again. “Can I have a glass of water, please?” He couldn’t move. He didn’t think morning had come while he worked, but the horrifying task had exhausted him.
The trainee brought him water, and he rinsed his mouth over and over, and then got himself another glass and drank this one. Then he sat shuddering at the taste he couldn’t seem to get out of his mouth or his mind. The doctors drifted away, except Cali’s doctor, who went to get an antibiotic and leeches to remove what remained in her arm, leaving Draven alone with the human girl.
He scooted to the edge of her bed and leaned forward until his forehead touched the bed. “I’m sorry, my jaani. I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
She didn’t respond.
“I’m so sorry, Aspen, my jaani. I’m so sorry,” he repeated. Then he grew quiet and rested his cool forehead on the inflamed and offensive arm.
40
As morning approached, the doctor returned to examine Cali. He removed the leeches and checked her vital signs. Draven watched with the fascination of someone who has forgotten such things after so many years without them.
“Will she live?” he asked.
“I think so,” the doctor said. “Can’t say for sure, but she’s better than last night. Could be all that draining helped her out. No way to know for sure.”
“Thank you, doctor.”
“Maybe I should be the one thanking you. You want to see what happened?”
Draven approached and the doctor held Cali’s arm and pointed to the raised welts. “You see these here? These are the result of unclosed draw-points. Someone who owned her must not’ve liked her much.”
“She worked in the restaurants.”
“That explains the sheer volume of the bites. Anyhow, you see, a sapien body is a tricky thing. We forget what it was like. It’s fragile in a way you and I aren’t ever going to be again, but at the same time it’s resilient and adaptable. It protects itself when it can. And here we’ve got a miniscule drop of poison goes in, and when you close properly your saliva it draws it right out and closes up the wound. But when you don’t finish, that little drop of poison stays right there.”
The doctor poked one of the bumps and Cali twitched. “Hurts them a little, I imagine. Not so bad, though. They don’t feel pain like we do.”
Draven remembered the pebble-like scars, and he knew it wasn’t any little pain. His hand unconsciously drifted to his back. He scratched, then let his hand fall away.
“Anyhow, these little bumps are where the human body has developed a way to make some sort of protective shell around the poison, like a clam makes a pearl out of a grain of sand. Except these are softer, but not much. You see, what happened here to this sap is that someone nicked one of those little pearls and the poison got out into her bloodstream or the tissue around the area. So her body attacked it, like it attacks any foreign substance. No way of knowing if that caused the infection or if something just got in one of her open marks. The way I figure it, she’s pretty lucky you sucked all that gunk out.”
“If she lives,” Draven said. “ I’m going home to sleep now.”
“You coming back to buy her?”
“I’ve yet to get paid.”
“You wanting us to hold onto her for you?”
“She’ll have to return to her home when she recovers. I won’t get paid for a while.”
“That’s a shame, then. I hope she’s a clean sap. Some of them get infections from all that filth and never cleaning themselves right. Might have to choose a different one if she doesn’t change her hygiene habits.”
Draven frowned down at her. He hated to leave without knowing if she’d live, and he hated his inability to do anything about the man who left the bites. But the only thing he could do for her now was to go on the assignment, and if he made it back, buy her so she wouldn’t have to worry about the other man anymore. He would have liked to say goodbye to her, but he couldn’t do anything about that now, either. He had to go, whether or not Cali lived long enough for him to buy her when he came back.
Since he’d not eaten all night, he returned to the compound and Cali’s house. None of the sisters had Cali’s scent, but one of them was appealing. She, as well as one of the others, slept through his arrival. The one with the child sat suckling her young.
“Cali is at the clinic,” he said, shifting to sit in the cramped space. He’d never liked entering houses at the Confinement, and he guessed other Superiors didn’t, either. The homes appealed to sapiens for that reason. Cali’s house smelled of mold and mud, her lingering scent and that of the infection. Draven had to pull the sister halfway onto his lap so he could sit cro
ss-legged on the cornhusk mat they called a bed. She shifted and opened her eyes and jerked a bit when she saw him, but she lay still and quiet while he ate.
“Cali is a sister to each of you?” he asked when he finished.
“Yeah. We all got the same mama.”
“The doctor believes she will live, but she may need some time to recover her strength. She will be weak from the infection, and a good amount of fluid including blood had to be taken from the infected area. Please let her know…no. If I live, I’ll tell her when I return.”
The three sapiens gaped at him. He had said too much, spoken to them as if they were like him. As if they were like Cali, perhaps. “I like animals,” Draven said, shrugging. “I don’t like to see them die.”
The girls absorbed this information, and the one with the baby nodded. “Thanks for letting us know, Master. We were real worried about her.”
“And thank you for taking her to the clinic,” the one he’d drawn from said. The other sister had awakened and lay watching, her hand resting on her swollen stomach.
“That your shirt?” the one with the baby said, nodding towards the back corner. Draven followed her eyes and saw his shirt hanging in the corner over the bed.
“Yes.”
The girls all looked at each other, a meaningful sort of look, but one whose meaning Draven could not imagine. “You want it back?” a sister asked.
Looking at the shirt, Draven remembered the peace of the morning he’d wrapped Cali in it, before the chaos started. “No,” he said. “If she lives, she might need it at night sometime, if she gets cold. If she dies…use it for your baby.”
He pushed the girl off his lap and pulled the tattered blanket back over her before standing. “Please take care of Cali.” He wanted to say more but didn’t dare, so he ducked out of the tin shack, leaving the three girls staring after him. He heard their whispers begin as soon as he replaced the door. He could have stayed to hear what they said, but he didn’t imagine he wanted to. Instead, he went home to rest.
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