"Can I get a better look at the markings and take a photo?"
"What is 'take a photo'?"
She grins, revealing her small, white teeth, and I step back wary of attack even though she is small and seemingly friendly.
She lifts the tablet, holding it up for a moment before once again checking the surface. Then she walks over to me and shows me the tablet.
I'm staring at my own face. It's much clearer than a reflection in water. And I have not used a metal mirror since I was banished. I lift my hand to my jaw, but my face on the screen remains the same. It's not a reflection. "You made a painting that fast?"
I step closer. It's so detailed.
"It's called a photo." She lifts the tablet again, and this time I notice that she presses something on the edge. When she shows me the tablet this time, there is a picture of her. It is exactly the same as her face, right down to the freckles. "Can I take a photo of your markings?"
I would like to see all of my markings. There are some on the backs of my shoulders I have never seen, even though I know what they mean.
I lift the hem of my shirt and pull it off in one smooth movement, tossing it on the bed. Chloe gasps and her eyeswiden. While I can't hear her pulse, I am aware it has quickened because the charge in her body has changed.
"Oh. I didn't expect you to take your shirt off. I didn't realize you had them on your chest, too."
I turn around so she can see the ones on my upper back.
Another little gasp. I am glad I am causing them. "And they all have a meaning?"
"They do." I turn around to face her. "Some of them all of my tribe members have. Others are for my family. This one shows my birth order, and this one my status as a banished warrior."
Her gaze skims over my body and drops lower to the front of my pants. "Do you have any others?"
"Why would I have markings on my legs?"
She looks up at me. "Why wouldn't you?"
"Because the markings help direct the signal from my kam." I touch the crest over one ear.
That confused expression is on her face again, and her gaze jumps from my groin to my hands, to my chest, to my head, and then my arms. She touches her head where her kam would be if humans had them. "They are kam?"
"They are."
"And what is the signal?"
I keep my hand pointed at the floor as I spread my fingers and send a charge to the tips of my claws. The markings on my skin glow with a soft blue light and sparks dance between my fingers.
Overhead, the lights flicker as though my charge affects them.
Chloe's mouth opens. "You make the electricity."
7
CHLOE
If I wasn't seeing the sparks between his fingers, I wouldn't believe it. It's not his sword that makes electricity, it's him. "How are you doing that?"
He gives his hand a shake and the sparks vanish and his tattoos dim. "With my kam."
And perhaps that is all he knows. He called himself a warrior, not a scientist. Perhaps his kind does not understand how the charge is made, only how it works. "What do you use it for?"
I take a couple of photos of his chest.
"Hunting and fighting."
