“You thought I was lying to you?” Iosif said.
“I thought your … paternal feelings might kick in and make you keep her in spite of your promise.”
“She’s tough and resilient, but I fear for her. I’m desperate to keep her.”
“So …？”
“She wants to go … and … I understand why. Keep her hidden, Wright. Except for my people and hers, I don’t believe anyone knows she’s alive. I even got that boy, Raleigh Curtis, to forget about her. Keep her hidden and bring her back to me on Friday.”
Wright licked his lips. “I don’t understand, but I’ll bring her back.”
“Even though you don’t want to?”
“… yes.”
They looked at each other, each wearing a similar expression of weariness, misery, and resignation.
I took Wright’s hand, and the three of us went out to the copter. Wright said nothing more. He let me hold his hand, but he did not hold mine.
Nine
Wright and I didn’t talk until we reached the car. We had flown all the way back to the ruin in silence, had said goodbye to Iosif and watched him fly away. When we got into the car and began our drive home, Wright finally said, “You have others already, don’t you? Other … symbionts.”
“Not yet,” I said. “I’ve gone to others for nourishment. I can’t take all that I need from you every night. But I haven’t … I mean none of the others …”
“None of the others are bound to you yet.”
“Yes.”
“Why am I?”
“I wanted you.” I touched his shoulder, rested my hand on his upper arm. “I think you wanted me, too. From the night you found me, we wanted each other.”
He glanced at me. “I don’t know. I never really had a chance to figure that out.”
“You did. When I was shot, I gave you a chance. It was … very hard for me to do that, but I did it. I would have let you go—helped you go.”
“And you think I could have just gone away and not come back? I had to leave you lying on the ground bleeding. You insisted on it. How could I not come back to make sure you were all right?”
“You knew I would heal. I told you you weren’t bound to me then. I offered you freedom. I told you I wouldn’t be able to offer it again.”
“I remember,” he said. He sounded angry. “But I didn’t know then that I was agreeing to be part of a harem. You left that little bit out.”
I knew what a harem was. One of the books I’d read had referred to Dracula’s three wives as his harem, and I’d looked the word up. “You’re not part of a harem,” I said. “You and I have a symbiotic relationship, and it’s a relationship that I want and need. But didn’t you see all those children? I’ll have mates someday, and you can have yours. You can have a family if you want one.”
He turned to glare at me, and the car swerved, forcing him to pay attention to his driving. “What am I supposed to do? Help produce the next generation of symbionts?”
I kept quiet for a moment, wondering at the rage in his voice. “What would be the point of that?” I asked finally.
“Just as easy to snatch them off the street, eh?”
I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “Iosif said the children of some symbionts stay in the hope of finding an Ina child to bond with. Others choose to make lives for themselves outside.”
He made a sound—almost a moan. For a while, he said nothing.
Finally, I asked, “Do you want to leave me?”
“Why bother to ask me that?” he demanded. “I can’t leave you. I can’t even really want to leave you.”
“Then what do you want?”
He sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know. I know I wish I had driven past you on the road eleven nights ago and not stopped. And yet, I know that if I could have you all to myself, I’d stop for you again, even knowing what I know about you.”
“That would kill you. Quickly.”
“I know.”
But he didn’t care—or he didn’t think he would have cared. “What did those three people tell you?” I asked. “What did they say that’s made you so angry and so miserable? Was it only that I take blood from several symbionts instead of draining one person until I kill him?”
“That probably would have been enough.”
I rested my head against his arm so that I could touch him without looking at him. I needed to touch him. And yet, he had to understand. “I’ve fed from you and from five other people—three women and two men. I’ll keep one of the women if she wants to stay with me. I think she will. The others will forget me or remember me as just a dream.”