“And?”
“She’s human.”
Rentir nodded sagely for a moment, hoping Haerune would elaborate without his admission of ignorance. When he didn’t, Rentir scratched the back of his head, huffing. “…And? What’s a human?”
The shiver of amusement that passed over Haerune’s tentacles made it clear he’d let the heavy silence hang for the sheer sake of annoying him. He whipped his tail at Haerune, smacking him in the arm hard enough to sting. Haerune glared, stepping back so he was out of range of another blow.
“I don’t know any more than you do,” Haerune said haughtily. “It’s a medpod, not an anthropological encyclopedia. I can only tell you that their genome was sequenced by the Aurillon at some point, though the data seems less extensive than some of the other donor races.”
Rentir sucked his teeth, frustrated by the lack of information.
“There’s more,” Haerune said.
Rentir looked at him expectantly. Haerune grabbed a swab and inserted it into his mouth, swiping his cheek several times, then carried the sample over to the long-disused sequencer.
“What are you doing?” Rentir asked, truly lost.
Haerune grabbed another swab and approached the medpod. Rentir stood up as the pod shifted beneath him, the lid popping free as one of Haerune’s tendrils punched the release on the wall.
“Haerune?”
Haerune reached for Cordelia, still nude and limp under the sedative, and a strange fury sparked within Rentir. He caught Haerune’s wrist in a bruising grip before he could grasp the human’s chin.
“Don’t touch her.” The words tore from Rentir on a snarl.
Haerune stiffened, staring at him with obvious bafflement.
“What’s gotten into you?” He twisted out of Rentir’s grip, straightening his sleeve with annoyance. He hadn’t quite been able to conceal the flicker of fear in his eyes when Rentir had grabbed him, and the knowledge that it wasn’t unfounded was a familiar guilt that soured Rentir’s gut.
“I’m sorry. Just… please don’t touch her. And don’t… don’t look at her.”
“Don’tlookat her?” Haerune echoed with disbelief. “Shall I bumble around the room with my eyes closed? Around the whole of the facility, I suppose, given that she has nowhere else to go. Maybe it’d be easier if I just gouged my eyes out now.”
“While she’snude. Don’t look at her while she’s nude. You don’t have to gouge out your eyes—just look somewhere else.Anywhereelse.”
Haerune scoffed, but he moved away.
Rentir didn’tknowwhat had gotten into him. For a moment, he’d nearly been moved to violence against his own brother. They’d been reared in the same batch, together nearly all their lives. Where had that aggression come from? He knew he was capable of violence, that was no surprise to him, but to be moved to wield it against his brother…
Fear and shame roiled beneath his skin, dragging him back to the last time he’d used violence against his own kind. The regret caught in his throat like a wad of half-hydrated gruel.
He sidled closer to Cordelia’s shoulders, putting himself more bodily between the two of them.
“Here, then,” Haerune said warily, holding up the swab. “You do it. Just inside her cheek.”
Rentir took the swab and turned to her. His free hand trembled a bit as he cupped her jaw, pressing down on her chin with his thumb until her lips parted wide enough to slide the swab into her mouth. Her tongue was pink, wet, and soft-looking behind her blunted teeth. The sight made his blood rush from his head.
His mouth fell open as he began to pant softly, desperate to suck down her scent, but it was overpowered by the reek of healing chemicals that coated her.
“Rentir?”
He shook himself, teeth clacking audibly as he forced his mouth closed and rolled the swab over her cheek a few times. He gently closed her mouth with a thumb under her chin, mindful of his claw as he smoothed it over her cheek before turning back to Haerune. His brother took it, a shrewd gaze darting between him and the human female. Rentir growled, and Haerune’s gaze quickly shifted away from her.
“Step back,” Haerune warned, reaching for the button to seal the pod once more. Rentir reluctantly obliged. The glass eased back down around her, and the healing mist began filling the pod once more. “I think you should keep your distance from her until we know more. Something is causing you to behave… strangely.”
Rentir’s lips pulled back from his fangs at the suggestion, and he swallowed hard against another wave of anger. He scrubbed a hand over his face, reeling from the emotional turmoil. “Perhaps you’re right.”
Thin-lipped, Haerune turned away and put the swab into another receptacle for the sequencer, then turned the machine on. It pinged and began to whir softly, processing the newsamples. A few moments later, it pinged again, and a fresh batch of data filled the holoscreen.
