“All because of my dark skin?” I said.
“That’s the most obvious reason. You’re not only able to stay completely awake and alert during the day, but you don’t burn.”
“I burn.”
“You didn’t yesterday.”
“I blistered a little. I tried to keep covered up, and it was cloudy yesterday. Did the brothers like me?”
“Have you healed?” Wright asked, interrupting. “I meant to buy you some sunscreen, but I forgot.”
“I healed,” I said and wondered what all this talk of my mating was doing to him. I looked at him but couldn’t read anything more than mild concern in his expression as he examined my face—probably for burns.
“The Gordon brothers were delighted with you,” Brook said. “They wished you were a little older, but they were willing to wait. They planned to go down to meet your sisters and your mothers. I don’t know whether or not that had happened, but it would have been necessary. Your mothers would have to meet the whole Gordon family and then give or refuse their consent.”
“Where do the Gordons live?” I asked.
She hesitated, frowned. “Somewhere on the coast of northern California.”
“You don’t know exactly where?”
She shook her head. “Their community has a name—Punta Nublada—but it’s not a real town. It’s only the four brothers and their three fathers and a couple of elderfathers who were born in the sixteen hundreds. It’s amazing to meet people like that.”
“You met them?” Wright asked.
“I went with Iosif and one of Shori’s mothers and some other symbionts to visit them. I loved the trip, but I didn’t know where I was most of the time. I know we flew into San Francisco Airport—at night, of course—and a couple of symbionts from Punta Nublada met us in vans and drove us up. It was more than two hours north of San Francisco Airport and on the coast. That’s all I know. They have a lot of land. Inland, away from their community, they own vineyards. They have a wine-making business, which is kind of funny when you think about it.”
Wright laughed. “Yeah. I’ll bet they still don’t drink it.”
“What?” I demanded.
“Old joke from a vampire movie,” Wright said. “From the Bela Lugosi version of Dracula. Someone offers the Count a glass, and he says, ‘I do not drink … wine.’”
I shrugged. Maybe I’d watch the movie someday and see why that was funny. “We’ll go to Punta Nublada,” I said. “You’ll find it for us, Brook.”
She looked distressed. “I don’t know where it is, I swear.”
“Did you sleep while you were being driven?”
“No, but it was dark.”
“You can see in this darkness—here, under the trees. Your night vision is good.”
“It is. But most of what I saw was headlights and taillights.”
I nodded. “They can be a problem. But I think you saw more than you realize.”
“I didn’t,” she said. “I really didn’t.”
“We need help, Brook,” I said. “Can you think of anyone else—anyone other than the Gordons—who might help us?”
She faced me and shook her head. “But these people may not help us, even if we find them. I don’t know whether there was a confirmed agreement between your family and theirs. And even if there was, they … I’m sorry, Shori. They might not want you without your sisters. It’s hard for only children to find mates. Iosif said it would have been hard for him, but he was already mated when his brothers were killed. His mates were just smart enough to get out before he did.”
I shrugged. “All right, even if the Gordons don’t still want to mate with me, they should be willing to help find and stop the assassins. That’s what I really need help with, after all. Human gangs wiping out two whole communities of Ina. Any Ina should be willing to do something about that—out of self-preservation if nothing else.”
“They should.”
“Then you find them, and I’ll put it to them in just that way. Self-preservation. Iosif must have seen some good in them.” I looked at her, and she looked away. “I feel as though I know humans better than I know my own kind—not that that’s saying much. Am I missing something here? Is there some reason these people might not help us?”
She shook her head. “I think they will help, even if they don’t want you as a mate. I’m just scared I won’t be able to find them for you.”