It doesn’t surprise me. It shouldn’t surprise them. I close the top and move to the next bag. Toiletries.Muchmore important.
But still missing a few things.
Arc hands me a tablet with every conceivable thing I might want on it, but… “Can you switch the language settings? I can’t read Sianese.”
The language is pretty. It almost makes an abstract painting, but the circles that create their letters just look like circles to me.
It takes a few keystrokes, but when he hands it back to me, the text is all in English. I scroll through the excruciatinglythorough inventory and select my preferred shampoo and conditioner along with the purple rinse. They have the brand deodorant, but not the fragrance, which is fine. And I check the bag one more time before I get a roll of floss and a reusable handle. It’s the handle that reminds me to get a razor too.
“Find everything?”
“Everything I can remember.”
“It’ll be here in a little while. And if you think of anything else, we can get that too.”
I nod and look down at the small pile of things.
“You can stay in the room we put you in,” Arc says.
The way that Shock and Risk look at him, I know it’s his room. The way he says it… I don’t think he plans on using it while I do.
“Thank you.”
I stand and don’t mind the way Shock steadies me with a hand on my leg. “I’ll put these away.”
Arc nods and picks up the pile of new clothing. I don’t need to read his mind to know he’s going to follow me. And that’s okay.
But he doesn’t follow me into the bathroom, and he’s gone before I finish pulling the toiletries out of the bag.
By the time I open the bondmate kit again, Ifeelalone.
That’s not quite right. I feel… isolated.
I should want some time alone. I should feel some kind of apprehension about this situation…
All I feel is the desire to keep one of them with me.
I look at the pill bottle. If the universe didn’t want me here… if it didn’t want me to take these pills, it wouldn’t have given them to me.
I take one dry, and after some quick thinking about Agency ads, I take another. I place the bottle on the counter beside the other things they got me. They were pretty thorough. I wonder if they had a list.
My eyes are almost as heavy as my limbs and I know I need to lie down again.
But I don’t want to sleep in here, where they’ll leave me alone. So I grab two of the blankets and make my way back out to the living room, bundling myself up on the couch. It’s warmer here with the fire anyway.
“So…” I look at Risk… the man who seems to just know things. “Why did someone take me from Earth?”
He flinches and, in that moment, I don’t want to know the answer.Hedoesn’t want to know the answer.
“They were going to deliver you to the Company.”
The other two curse.
It takes a moment for my brain to connect the bouncing dots in my mind. “They’re the ones who wanted Laurel, right?”
He nods.
“Well, sucks for them.” I snuggle my cheek into the blanket, feeling drowsier than I want to. “They can’t have me.”
