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  Plus, though the material was baggy, it was still clinging closer to her breasts than it should. The shape of them was almost visible through the thin gray material, which was causing Lathe to look at her chest strangely.

  “Oh, uh…sorry.” Ari hastened to change her towel so that it hung around her hips. It felt incredibly uncomfortable to be walking around bare-breasted but since her look/touch projected the image of a flat, boyish chest, it greatly enhanced her disguise as a male.

  “Is everything all right?” she asked Lathe, who was still staring fixedly at her chest.

  “Everything’s fine. Before you moved your towel, I thought I saw…” He shook his head. “Never mind.”

  Ari’s heart caught in her throat. So he had seen the shape of her breasts under the towel before she moved it! How stupid and careless could she be? Feeling comfortable with the big Kindred was making her sloppy—she had to get back on track.

  Twitching the towel to one side as though straightening it, she made sure to flash the big Kindred with the sight of her projected phallus. She saw his eyes widen and then he looked away. Good—that was certain to throw him off the scent—at least until she could decide if she ought to trust him with her secret.

  “So…you’re sure we won’t have a repeat of yesterday like what happened with…with Hexer?” she asked, to change the subject…and also to reassure herself.

  Lathe shook his head.

  “Shouldn’t be a problem.” He frowned. “Hexer, Gods…I hated like the Seven Hells to kill him.”

  “You did?” Ari was surprised. “Why? After the way he came after you I would think you’d have no compunction at all about taking him down.”

  “He was my patient.” Lathe sighed and ran a hand though his hair. “Well, they’re all my patients, really. But Hexer was special. When I first came here, he nearly lost an arm in an industrial accident. I managed to reattach it—the Goddess alone knows how it didn’t become infected. I used every skill and tool I had—I even milked my fangs and gave him a little of my essence to help with the healing. I didn’t tell him that, of course…” He shook his head. “But he acted so grateful when he made a complete recovery. I just never thought…”

  “That he would be the one to try to kill you?” Ari finished for him in a low voice.

  Lathe nodded. “Exactly.” His face went suddenly hard. “I hate people who don’t tell the truth about who they are. If Hexer had showed himself to be an ungrateful bastard from the first, it wouldn’t have hurt so much when he came after me.”

  “Oh,” Ari whispered. Suddenly she remembered his muttered words as he sat at the table after killing Hexer. “I hate liars,” he’d said and now he had just told her the same thing again.

  He hates people who don’t tell the truth…who lie about what they are, she thought, her heart sinking down to her toes. So much for telling the big Kindred her secret. He would hate her for fooling him—for making him feel confusion and doubt over his own sexuality. Because that was surely what he had been feeling last night when he left the bunk so suddenly—Ari was certain of it.

  I’ll have to find another way to keep my identity as a female a secret, she thought, despair creeping over her. I can’t tell Lathe—he’ll feel betrayed and be angry at me. I’ll have to find another way…

  But what way that was, she had no idea.

  “Well, come on.” Lathe sighed. “It’s time for a quick shower before First Meal. Let’s go.”

  “Right behind you,” Ari said. She followed the big Kindred out of the cell but under the thin gray towel, her stomach was tied in knots.

  Twenty-Two

  “So there are some rules you need to remember in the shower,” Lathe told her as they walked down the corridor leading to the trustee shower facilities. They were dressed only in their towels and holding two identical bars of gritty brown soap. Ari was still having trouble with the feeling of parading around bare-breasted. But her holo-projection was holding up well and as long as no one grabbed for her chest, she ought to be all right. Safer than if someone happened to see the curves of her breasts under her towel, for instance.

  I’ll just have to deal with it, she told herself sternly. But how would she manage once the limited power source for her holo-projector ran dry?

  Since she had no answers, she tried to put the question from her head and concentrate on what the big Kindred was saying.

  “What rules?” she asked, looking up at him. She had been having trouble keeping up with his long stride, taking two or three steps to every one of his. Seeing this, Lathe shortened his gait a little so that they could walk together without Ari having to run.

  “First and foremost, keep your eyes up,” he instructed. “You don’t need to be looking around—you don’t want to be perceived as a shaft-gazer.”

  “A shaft-gazer?” Ari didn’t know whether to laugh or be offended. “I wouldn’t want to look at men’s—uh, other men’s shafts,” she protested.

  “Of course not. I’m just telling you to keep your eyes up so no one thinks you are,” Lathe said mildly. “Also, if you drop anything in the shower, let it go—it’s gone.”

  “So…don’t bend over for any reason?” Ari asked.

  “Exactly.” He nodded. “That kind of behavior is seen as…an invitation. And unfortunately we share this shower room with Tapper, as well as the other prison trustees, most of whom are gang leaders. You don’t want to give any of them any ideas.”

  “Tapper showers?” Ari couldn’t keep the skepticism out of her voice. “He certainly doesn’t smell like he does.”

  “I agree with you about his stench.” Lathe wrinkled his nose in apparent disgust. “He mostly just wets his face and hands—that’s his idea of a morning wash. But he likes to make a showing in the shower—strut around and let the rest of the trustees see that he’s in top form. Just stay away from him.”

  “Won’t I be safe if I stick with you?” Ari asked. “I mean, after what you said yesterday in the Mess Hall—”

  “You should be,” Lathe said grimly. “I swear I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe, little one. But it’s best not to invite trouble.”

  “Got it.” Ari nodded. “Keep my eyes up and don’t drop the soap. Anything else I should know?”

  “Don’t ignore a barrier if there’s one up,” Lathe said.

  “A barrier? What do you mean?” Ari asked, confused.

  “A trashcan standing in the doorway…a towel hung across the entrance—basically anything that might serve to block the showers is a message.”

  “A message? What kind of message?” Ari frowned.

  “A message that there’s something private going on in the showers—something you’re probably not going to want to see,” Lathe said darkly. “Also, never go to the showers alone. It’s not a safe place to be unless there’s a crowd.”

  “Okay,” Ari said neutrally. She was fairly certain she could promise not to wander into any dark corners of the prison on her own but she couldn’t help wondering how she would get a shower once her look/touch stopped working.

  Worry about it later, she told herself. Right now concentrate on the matter at hand.

  There was a lot to concentrate on because just then they came to the end of the hallway and found themselves at the entrance of a large, echoing room rapidly filling with men.

  The slap of bare feet and the deep, masculine voices that echoed from the tiled space filled the air. Tattooed flesh was on display everywhere but Ari resolutely didn’t look below the waist. As she and Lathe walked in with some of the other prison trustees, she scanned her surroundings—careful to keep her eyes up as she did so.

  What she saw made her heart sink. The walls were dirty yellow tile that might once have been white and there were no stalls for separate showers. Instead, rusted showerheads were placed every few feet around the long wall—about fifteen in all. Great—so she couldn’t even wear a towel into the shower stall and hope to get some privacy that way. She was really