Then he looked at me. “Something wrong?” he asked.
“Not wrong,” I said. “But perhaps something that will be hard for you.” I frowned. “Hard on you. And I don’t want it to be.”
“Tell me.”
I thought about how to do that and decided that directness was best. “Preston has offered me another symbiont, one whose mother, when she was alive, was one of Preston’s symbionts. The new one’s name is Joel Harrison.”
He turned his shaver off and put it on the sink. “I see. Is Preston the father?”
I stared at him in surprise. “Wright, that’s not possible.”
“I didn’t think it was, but I thought I’d ask, since you didn’t mention the father.”
“I don’t know who Joel’s father is, but he’s here. He’s one of William’s symbionts. Joel’s mother was killed in a traffic accident ten years ago.”
“What does the father think about his son coming to you?”
“He wanted his son to come to me. He asked Preston to introduce us.”
“So he’s pimping his own son.”
I hesitated. “I don’t know what that means, but your voice says it’s something disgusting. Joel’s father hasn’t done anything disgusting, Wright. He and Joel both looked at me and decided I would be good for Joel. He’s been away at school. He could have stayed away, could have come back now and then to visit his father. But he chose a life with the Ina, with us. I’m glad of it. I need him.”
“For what? You need him for what?”
I looked at him, wanting to touch him, knowing that at that moment he did not want to be touched. “Three of you aren’t enough to sustain me for long without harm to you. I’m going to try to have Theodora brought here, too.”
He shook his head angrily. “I don’t mind the women so much I guess. I kind of like the two downstairs. I was hoping you’d get all women—except me. I think I could deal with that.” He turned around, filled with energy and violence, and punched the wall, breaking it, leaving a fist-sized hole. And he had hurt his hand. I could smell the blood. But he did not seem to notice. “Hell,” he said, “you don’t even know Harrison. Maybe you’ll hate him.”
I shrugged. “If I don’t like him, I’ll have to find someone else and soon.”
He looked at me sadly. “My little vampire.”
“Still,” I said.
He stepped over to me, picked me up with a hand under one arm, sat down, and sat me on his lap. I took his injured hand and looked at it, licked away the blood, saw that he hadn’t done himself much damage. It would heal overnight like a shallow bite.
“I could get a lot more pissed with you if you were bigger,” he said softly.
“I hope not,” I said.
He wrapped both arms around me, held me against him. “I don’t think I can do this, Shori. I can’t share you.”
I leaned back against him. “You can,” I said softly. “You will. It will be all right. Not now, perhaps, but eventually, it will be all right.”
“Just like that.” The bitterness and sorrow in his voice was terrible.
I turned on his lap, straddled him, and looked up at him.
After a moment, he said, “I want you for myself. It scares me how much I love you, Shori.”
I pulled his head down and kissed him, then rested my forehead against his chest, savoring his scent, his wonderful furry body, the beat of his heart. “Preston says our symbionts never know how much we treasure them,” I said.
“You treasure me?”
“You know I do.”
He held me away from him and looked at me. “You’ve taken over my life,” he said. “And now you want me to share you with another man.”
“I do,” I said. “Share me. Don’t fight with him. Don’t hurt the family by fighting with him. Accept him.”
He shook his head. “I can’t.”
“You can,” I repeated. “You will. He’s part of the family that we must form. He’s one of us.”
When I left him and went down to the kitchen, I found Joel sitting at the table drinking coffee with Brook and Celia.
“Hey,” he said when I came in. He had two large rolling suitcases parked near his chair.
“Hey,” I said reflexively. “Come talk to me.” I took his hand and led him to the other end of the house to what I had been told was the “family room.”