Passion Model Read online

  Eddie looked back at the dome barrier, which remained unbroken. “They might not know exactly where we went through, but they’ll be sending Security Ops instead of R.I. Ops in here pretty soon. We have to find shelter and passage out of here.”

  Eddie pulled a billed cap from his back pocket and put it on. His wallet, which came out with the cap, he left on the pavement.

  “Guess I won’t be needing that anymore.”

  Declan made a rough sound in his throat. “When we get where we’re going…”

  Eddie turned to stare at him, his blue eyes questioning. “Yeah?”

  Declan shrugged and held out his hand, which Eddie took. “I’ll see you get back everything you had. And more. For helping us.”

  Eddie shook Declan’s hand, and shot me a grin. “Hell, without G riding shotgun, I couldn’t manage, anyway. Time to move on to brighter pastures. I’ve always wanted to move Offworld.”

  “Thanks, man.” I could see how difficult it was for Declan to say such a thing, which made it mean all the more.

  Men don’t waste time with mushy sentiments, though, and that brief exchange signaled the end to their bonding. They each grabbed a bag, and I picked up Kaelyn again. We set off down the deserted, decrepit street, and sought a place to hide.

  It wasn’t as difficult as it would’ve been in Newcity. Oldcity is a haven of thieves, Earthen and Offworld-bred. There are plenty of places that’ll offer succor to strangers—for the right price. Of course, the people who run them will turn their visitors over to their pursuers for another, higher offer, but for now at least, we had a place to stay.

  Newcity credits are useless in Oldcity, which has no automated supply delivery, no viddy, not even any constant source of power. What luxuries the city had reveled in three hundred years ago had been dismantled or destroyed while its sister city grew and flourished with nothing more than eighteen inches to separate them.

  “Not used to slumming, eh?” Fostruff, the grizzled man who’d taken the contents of our pockets in payment for a night’s shelter pointed at Declan. “Not you, eh?”

  “Food?” Eddie asked rudely. “We paid you enough, old man.”

  The man, who was probably only a few years older than me, lifted his hands and backed off. “Yeah, I’ll get your food.”

  “Don’t ask what it is,” I told Declan under my breath. “Just…eat it.”

  He leaned over to whisper in my ear. “I’m not the naive prude you seem to think I am. I spent some time in Class A survival camps Offworld, Gemma.”

  “For fun?” I asked. “Good God-of-choice, why?”

  “To prove something to myself.” His answer was serious.

  “And did you?”

  He brushed his hands along my cheek. “Only that what I was trying to prove really wasn’t that important.”

  “I’m sleepy.” Kaelyn nudged her way onto my lap. This ordeal had made her far more affectionate and clingy than she’d been before, or perhaps it was the change in our relationship. I didn’t mind.

  I tucked the soft floss of her hair behind her slightly pointed ears and smoothed her jersey. “I think it’s time you’re in bed then, don’t you? We have a long trip ahead of us tomorrow.”

  She nodded, then yawned so hugely the sharp points of her teeth showed all in a row. I took her to the back room we’d rented and put her on the pallet. It was clean enough, at any rate, with no sign of vermin. We’d gone to a lot of hostels before settling on this one.

  “Sweet dreams, Kiki.” I pulled the covers up to her chin, and she closed her eyes. I kissed her forehead and took in the fresh scent of her for a few moments. Elovenians have a life span approximately twice that of humans, yet they reach maturity about twice as fast. Kaelyn wouldn’t be a child much longer. What that meant for us, I couldn’t know. I only knew that I loved her as much as I could ever have loved a child I could’ve carried in my womb.

  With another kiss that made her smile in her sleep, I left her. By the time I returned to the front room, our host had provided several bowls of thick gravy and a platter of some brown sliced something or other that smelled suspiciously like artibeef.

  “Don’t ask, remember?” Declan told me as he stabbed a piece with a broken-tined fork.

  The Adar family probably dined on meat several times a month, but real beef hasn’t been available to the public for about one hundred years. Oldcity didn’t get the shipments of algae processed into foodstuffs, and it certainly didn’t raise cattle. I took my own advice—I didn’t ask.

  Whatever animal it had come from, the meat was surprisingly sweet and tender, with an undertang of wood smoke from being grilled. I had real beef once, just a taste, at Alfie Zoydman’s house. He’d received a package as a gift, and he’d eaten it while taking one of his forever-long soaks in the tub.

  Eddie returned from the hall with a piece of crumpled paper scribbled on both sides. He laid it flat on the table while he helped himself to a plate of food. He didn’t even comment as he chewed, but Eddie would eat anything.

  He pointed at the crude map on the paper. “We’re here. Closest checkpoint is over here. We got lucky.”

  The zip we’d found was units away from the closest official door through the barrier, which worked in our favor. “Still, it won’t take them long.”

  “My father commands the entire Newcity Security system.” Declan paused, swallowed, touched the map. “But I don’t think he’ll risk sending more troops than what followed us last night.”

  “No?” Eddie asked.

  I shook my head, thinking of how much Howard Adar feared the public learning of his son’s nasty secret. “Even he’d have to explain using such large amounts of force somehow. He won’t want to draw undue attention to the chase.”

  “So a dozen officers, no more.” Eddie chewed some more, swallowed. “What the hell is this stuff?”

  “Don’t ask,” Declan and I said together, and we laughed.

  The laughter lifted a weight I hadn’t realized was on my shoulders. We weren’t out of trouble yet, but being able to laugh made things seem much brighter. We had shelter, we had food, and for the moment, we had a chance at escape.

  “Fostruff says he can get us in touch with a pair of Annvillian traders who’re heading Offworld tomorrow.” Eddie smoothed the paper to point at another location about twenty blocks from where we were. “Here. He says they’ll be willing to take half payment now and the rest when we get to Annvilla.”

  “I can handle the amount when we get to Annvilla,” Declan said. “But what are we going to do about now?”

  “We’ll figure it out.” How, I didn’t know, but with my belly full my mind’s attention was turned to other things, like the pain in my muscles. “Didn’t Fostruff say there was a bathroom around here?”

  Eddie folded his map and put it in his pocket. “You go ahead. I’m going to get some shut eye. We need to leave just before first light.”

  Declan and I stared at each other across the table after Eddie went into the back room. It seemed foolish to be thinking what I was when this was not the time, nor the place, but the heart rules the mind, not the other way around.

  “Come with me?” I asked, and held out my hand, and he took it with no hesitation.

  “Anywhere,” Declan said.

  What Fostruff had called a bathroom was little more than a closet with dripping, stained sink, toilet and a narrow but deep plazglass bathtub standing on rusted metal legs above a glowing brazier. He had promised hot water, though, which was a luxury worth every cent we’d paid him, even if the water was synthetic and not real.

  The tub was just wide enough to allow Declan and I to sit facing each other. The water came up to our chests, cloaking us in blessed heat kept at temperature by the glowing coals beneath.

  I’ve experienced a lot of sensual pleasures in my life. They can’t be avoided in Newcity. Enfolding myself into that hot water, though, allowing the heat to seep into my abused body, and sharing it with Declan, surpassed anything I