CARNAL, The Beast Who Loved Me (17 page)

“Balance of power,” Free repeated.

“Uh huh.”

Free frowned. “You’re thinking about the time before Kellareal freed us. The humans could control us because…” He took a deep breath. “Because they knew how to.”

“You don’t need me to tell you that’s true. You already know it. I don’t know what the human children are learning, but if you’re protecting them while they’re learning about science and technology…” Free looked at Serene, who knew him well enough to recognize the alarm in his eyes even if no one else would see a change in his expression. “I’m not saying that the humans who live in Fars…”

“Farsuitwail.”

“Right. Farsuitwail. I’m not saying they would ever attempt to imprison you. Or worse. In my world different races live side by side without incident for long periods of time. Centuries. But eventually, some greedy maniac with a small penis will decide he needs the power to control other people and their stuff.”

“You’re saying we need to be wary of humans with small penises.”

Rosie tucked her chin and smiled. “No. That’s just a theory, a silly way of talking about a real problem. But you have at least three reasons for needing to find out what the humans know. As I understand it, the Rautt killed everybody who was working in advanced sciences or technology when they destroyed power sources. But they may have missed some people. For your sake, I hope they did.”

“Why do you say ‘for our sake’?”

“Because you’d have a chance of recreating longer range weaponry and then establishing a balance of power. Eventually you might even integrate your society with the humans.”

Free was appalled. “Live with humans?”

Rosie blinked before softly saying, “You’re living with me.”

He looked away and then at Serene, ashamed that he had forgotten that he
was
speaking to a human. But wasn’t that what Rosie was alluding to? That, under the right circumstances, differences might become so familiar as to be forgotten altogether?

“You need to learn what there is to know about the people and culture you’re protecting, Free. The Rautt were created, just like you. Maybe it was for benign purposes. I don’t know. But it’s a mess now.”

“And you think the way to deal with that mess is to exterminate them. That’s exactly what was going to happen to us when Kellareal brought us here.”

“Do you feel kinship with the Rautt?”

“No,” Free said quickly. “Not like you mean it. I might have, but then…” He didn’t need to say Crave’s name for Rosie to know what he was thinking. “Between our son, Blaze, and other incidents, they’ve made this personal in a way that can’t be undone.”

Rosie nodded slowly.

Free sat back, leaving his dinner unfinished, and sighed. “You’re right. We have to find out what goes on behind closed doors in Farsuitwail. We’ve been protecting them for a generation, standing between them and the Rautt, without knowing what the humans think of us.”

“What do you mean?” Serene put in.

“I mean it’s important to know how they see us. If we’re just trained dogs to them, then they wouldn’t think twice about taking our freedom from us. Again. But if they see us as people who want things, like they do, then maybe not.”

“That is a consideration,” said Rosie carefully. “But trust may be a bridge too far. Right now the most important thing is making sure that you know what the humans know.” She looked between them. “Charming said something to me about being smarter than humans. Is that true?”

Free looked at Serene. “Charming is a font of information.”

“I’ll speak to him,” Serene said.

“Yes,” Free turned back to Rosie, “we pieced things together listening to conversations between guards or researchers. Once they were satisfied with our enhanced physical abilities, they selectively bred us for intelligence.”

“So you’re capable of learning anything humans can learn.”

Free nodded. “I would think so. Yes.”

“Rosie,” Serene interjected, “we have a sort of working relationship with the humans. If we upset that relationship, we can’t know what the outcome might be.”

“Yes. It’s a risk, but is it riskier than not knowing what’s going on? I don’t mean to scare you, but let’s look at a hypothetical. What if the humans are just a little less afraid of you than the Rautt? What if they’ve been reconstructing their ability to build long range and rapid fire weaponry and, thinking it’s in their best interest, have a plan to wipe all hybrids out at the same time?”

Serene paled as she sat straighter. Her eyes shot to Free. “I think I’m beginning to understand,” she whispered.

“Humans are not as fast or strong as you. Maybe not as smart either. But humans are wily, fiercely protective of those who are like themselves, and they are capable of abominable behavior, including genocide.

“You made a promise to Kellareal and you’ve lived up to it. But your priority has to be protecting your own people. You can’t do that living up here in the hills, hoping that everything turns out for the best.”

Free sat back and stared at the food on the table in front of him. For a long time. At length, he said, “I believed I was the right person to lead us when we arrived in the Newland. We had to build everything from the ground up. Literally. We had to put processes in place to make things work. I don’t know if I’m the right person to lead us into what we might be facing.”

“It’s always better to know than to not know,” Rosie said quietly.

“She’s right about that, Free. And of course you’re the right person. No one has a truer sense about next steps than you. Maybe this is just the next step in a natural progression.”

“And hey, I’m not omniscient. Maybe the humans are not up to anything. At all.”

Free slanted his eyes toward her in disbelief. “But you think they are.”

“In my world, if you put people in a position of living under threat for twenty-five years, with the only protection being non-humans who lived apart and kept to themselves, I can guarantee you that someone would be coming up with a plan to alleviate that threat and restore humans to the top of the power chain. And they’d be careful to keep that plan secret until it was too late.”

“Remember how things were before?” Serene asked her mate. It was a question that didn’t need to be either qualified or answered. “The books we have don’t tell us how to build the technology that made us and enslaved us. I knew that, but thought it’s just as well to live in a world where such things are not possible. So I didn’t question it.” Serene glanced at Rosie. “Until now.”

Free took in a big breath and, when he was done, his expression said he was decided and resolved.

“We’re going hunting in Farsuitwail.” He pinned Rosie with a look she hadn’t seen before. “And you’re coming with me, since you know what to look for.”

Rosie’s lips parted, but for once, she didn’t know what to say. She was just a kid. Not an ambassador. Or a spy. But she
was
the one who’d opened the Pandora’s box and, according to her father’s sense of morality, which was always floating around in the mix that made up her own personality, she was obligated to see through to the end what she’d started. So she said, “Okay.”

At two o’clock the next afternoon, Dandy threw a damp towel over her shoulder and, with one hand resting on a cocked hip said, “You sure you know what you’re doing?”

Rosie raised an eyebrow. “Going for a ride on a motorcycle, not getting married. Or anything else you might be thinking.” Dandy barked out a laugh then shook her head. “Thanks for the cover.”

Dandy chuffed and waved a dismissal.

“Dandelion. You got something against Carnal?”

Dandy hesitated, which was a signal in itself because Dandy wasn’t a hesitator. “Got nothing against Carnal. Just not sure he’s right for you.”

“But you like him okay.”

“I like him okay. I mean, he’s Carnal.”

Rosie smiled. “And there you have it.”

“You know what I mean.”

“See that’s the thing. I
don’t
know what you mean.”

“I’m not saying anything against my Promise’s brother. He’s just…” she waved her hands in the air, “Carnal.”

“Well, that explains it then.” Rosie put her apron away. “Thanks for worrying, Dandelion. I’m a big girl.”

As she was walking through the door, Dandy said, “Who’s worrying? Just don’t you forget that he’s a
bigger
boy.”

Rosie walked back to the Extant’s house to put on the clothes that were outside her door when she opened it that morning. Boots, dark brown soft bike leathers, and a fur-lined jacket. The pants were a little snug. She locked the door and conjured a mirror for a full length check out. It was uncanny how somebody had guessed her size down to the millimeter. Yeah, she thought as she turned to get the back view over her shoulder, she looked good in leather. She wasn’t fully finished admiring how the pants flattered the curve of her derriere when there was a knock on the door.

She got rid of the mirror then opened the door wearing the boots, pants, and a red long-sleeved Henley that made her coloring pop. She was dangling the fur-lined jacket from two fingers.

“You really think I’ll need this?”

Carnal looked her over slowly from the top down and back with a huge grin and sparkling eyes.

“Gets cool when the wind’s whipping past. So, yeah. You’re gonna need it, even though I’ll be blocking most of the breeze.” He leaned down into her space. “You look spectacular.”

Rosie knew she was blushing a little.

His bike was waiting just outside the front door. Rosie looked around.

“It’s just us.”

“Did you think I usually invite an audience along on a
date
?”

As he was busy buttoning her jacket all the way up, she said, “We agreed it’s not a date, Carnal. Just a ride. Nothing more.”

He threw his leg over the bike and smiled. “Nothing less.” Then he held his hand out to help her on. “Hold on to me. The roads aren’t even. So until we get out to the sand, you’re going to need to hold on tight and lean when I lean.”

“Okay. Got it.” She put her arms around his middle.

He took her hands and wound them tighter. “More like that.” He smiled and started the engine.

Though it made no sound at all, Rosie felt the vibration through the seat and was a little excited about the outing. Not to mention the fact that her proximity to Carnal was not just disconcerting, but all-consuming. Pressed so close to his back, she smelled the tanned leather and the saltwater steam, but under that there was a distinctive scent that was pure Carnal. Male. Musky. Wild. Exciting.

She turned her face into his back and breathed a deep, hopefully surreptitious, sniff, but Carnal’s hyper senses made him acutely aware. He turned his head just a fraction of an inch in response. He knew she’d sampled his aroma. He also knew instinctively that it was the first step in a primeval mating dance. Because of that, he was smiling when they rolled out of the settlement slowly, everyone within sight looking on with undisguised curiosity. Once they were beyond the big gate, Carnal sped up.

“Hold on,” he said.

When they lurched forward, Rosie grabbed hold in earnest as a laugh was forced out of her lungs. She was glad the surprise reaction was a laugh and not a girly squeal. Ten minutes later they’d wound their way down the hills to the valley, traversed the winding forest road that ran alongside a stream, and shot out into the wasteland where it felt like they were moving almost as fast as Rosie did when she was traveling the passes between dimensions.

It was a unique and multilayered experience, the combination of vibration, wind, and the desolate space of flat wasteland where it felt like no one existed besides Rosie and Carnal.

In the distance a small cluster of towers rose up from the dust and that was where they appeared to be heading. Within minutes Carnal was rolling to a stop at the base of one of the towers. Though the wind was cold and biting when they were traveling at high speed, the warmth of the sun had Rosie wanting out of her jacket as soon as they slowed.