Her need cleared, and she breathed again. Just a momentary glitch then.Breathe.
She noticed Vargr staring at her and shrugged.It was nothing.
The scare made her look inward in search of her Lure manipulation power. It was there. It had to be. She closed her eyes, opened them, and for the first time since she killed the Thing she saw the translucent pink threads. They thronged the air, yet this was dusk, and then… then she discovered the column of them wriggling down from above through a part of the ceiling. Was there a flaw in the bridge roof, or some naturalconcentration of Lure threads? Whatever the cause this place was not as safe as it should be.
Her stomach crawled with fear, and who wouldn’t fear this if they saw it coming?
Fuck.If she backed away and left, she might be better off, or she might find herself lured again. It was a terrible dilemma, and Rutger was a better choice than being alone. In the meantime she should practice.
At least she saw them again.
So she reached for the threads while the others listened to Willow.
“We’ve not seen your beaster type before. Do you have a name for what you have become? I am a biotechie. I can do some forms of healing, and also I can handle electronics.” She extended her arms to show how the blue under her skin ran down to her wrists and hands. As if her neon-blue snake-hair and her eyes weren’t evidence enough. “These others are weaponsmiths, and soldiers of foot and wing. This one, Cyn, is an unknown.”
Unknown me.It was true. Not an insult. To her sorrow and frustration, that description still hurt. It made her feel an outsider.
And so? Look at these guys. She was wallowing in misery when no one was normal anymore.
“We call ourselves rockmen. It’s apt.” Vincent smiled. “Our skin resists most traumas. Our?—”
“Wait. You say this quarter refused to let you live there, sir? And so you live here, the three of you?” Willow indicated the bridge.
“We also claim a part of the adjacent quarter.” The bald rockman nodded. “I like yoursirs, your politeness, Willow.”
“Thank you.”
“I will admit to…” He sighed. “Being disliked by this quarter.”
“You committed some offence?”
“We are too ugly, too unusual for them.”
“Seriously?” Cyn couldn’t help asking. This was ridiculous.
His gaze switched to her. “It’s true, miss. Besides, they have several humans among them, and the smell does bother us. We are not prejudiced against our origins, just the scent of a human is bitter to us.”
“I see. We have one human only.” There she was apologizing for Maura. And Maura was completely oblivious and zombified—only the rope attached to her waist that Locke held was keeping her from wandering.
“You may pass, Willow.” The three rockmen began to move aside. “Just step carefully with the Adult Tribe. They can be touchy.”
“Wait. What if I were to invite you to come with us? Would you? I think there will be fighting along the way, and you look as if you can handle that.” She nodded at the cars they’d obviously been rearranging.
“Let us discuss this.”
The rockmen went into a huddle.
The concentration of Lure threads gave her an easy target. Cyn reached out again and tried to weave them as she once had. Pain built slowly between her temples, but she refused to acknowledge it. If she pushed through the middle of these threads, maybe…
A lance of darker pain blasted in. She ducked her head and splayed her hand across her forehead. Stopping was not an option. Not now, not here. When she looked up again, temples still throbbing, with the Lure threads worming at her thoughts and beckoning her, she found Vargr peering at her. He blurred, refocused. The whispers began. She stomped on them.
No!
Concern radiating from his frown, Rutger took her wrist and pulled it down, away from her face. “You okay, girl?”
“Of course,” she bit out the words, took a slow breath. “I am okay.”
“She’s not. She needs fucking.”
