Seeking Eden Read online

  Tobin felt a stirring of pity for the old man before him, but he fought it. “I do understand, Reb Ephraim. I can’t even imagine what two thousand people must be like. I grew up in a tiny town. There was only me, Old Ma and Old Pa and my aunts Heather and Francie. They were all really old, even when I was young. And they all died, one by one.”

  Tobin was embarrassed to hear his own voice turn raspy with emotion. “I was alone for almost a year before a peddler came to Eastport. He told me about California. He said there were babies being born there. I didn’t want to be alone anymore. I wanted to find…someone. Anyone, really, but I also wanted to find someone for me. I want to have a family. I want to see babies. I want to have children, if I can.”

  “But Tobin,” Reb Ephraim said with the first genuine smile Tobin had seen from him. “You can have that here.

  ”

  −12-

  This was the man Chedva had thought was so cute, Elanna thought. She looked carefully at him sleeping, his dark lashes casting sooty shadows on golden cheeks. He’d been in the sun. Not many people in the Tribe had that glow, unless they worked on the rooftops, in the gardens. Even those whose ancestors had been brown-skinned were dark from heritage, not time in the sun.

  Purple bruises, some already fading to yellow and green, marred the smoothness of his skin in many places. His right cheek was heavily scratched, the wound scabbed and ugly. She found herself hoping it wouldn’t leave a scar.

  His hair was dark, too, and sleek against his head. A little longish, perhaps, falling over his eyes, but that could be cut. His brows were fine and dark, his cheeks high, and his nose was not too thin or too broad. He was cute. She wished she knew what color his eyes were.

  She’d know as soon as he woke up, but Elanna didn’t want to shake him just yet. For now it was enough to watch him sleep, his chest rising and falling regularly, his lips parted slightly. He was handsome, and she would have to have his hands on her soon, but she just wasn’t ready.

  She’d never minded having appointments with travelers before. Even the ugliest ones served a purpose, and most were so grateful to be allowed access to her bed they treated her like a queen. They gave good gifts, too, items that were scarce around here. It was a good bargain; her body for a few minutes of disinterested grappling in return for a new pair of socks or even something special like a candy bar. Some of the peddlers and passers-through were handsome and talented lovers and so she got even more out of the deal.

  Something had changed within herself, she thought, preparing the needle and syringe by rubbing them thoroughly with alcohol. She laid them on the clean white cloth still smelling of bleach and picked up the Geneto-Tester, its casing so worn she could no longer see the numbers on the dials. It didn’t matter. She’d used it often enough that she could tell by feel what settings to use.

  Her thoughts of running away had faded with the past two days. Replacing them was a subtle sort of despair that left her tired and disinterested in everything. She didn’t know what she was going to do, and she felt more on edge than ever.

  For now, though, she’d been ordered to keep an appointment with this newcomer. It was the Reb’s way of rewarding him and convincing him to help the Tribe. It was also just a standard procedure to try and get fresh bloodlines started within the Tribe.

  She finished with the Geneto-Tester and readied the Communicable Diseases Monitor. She didn’t need the first one, since she was already pregnant, but she still had to test him for the records. If she didn’t, someone would ask why. Both machines were worn and worked only erratically, but she tapped the CDM lightly with one finger until the LED screen flickered. Someday it would stop working all together, just like everything else. And there would be no more. What would they do then?

  “What are you doing?”

  Startled, she nearly dropped the palm-sized machine. It clattered against the side of the table, the screen going black. Elanna mumbled a curse, aware that her hands were shaking.

  “You’re awake!” She let the CDM rest alongside her other tools.

  “Yeah, I guess I am.” He stretched, revealing bare arms finely etched with muscle. He scratched his fingers through his hair, rumpling it.

  “Did you sleep well?” Elanna asked. His eyes were dark, like his hair. When they met hers, the hair on the back of her neck rose, making her shiver. Feigning disinterest, she fussed with the tray.

  “Better. The aspirin helped.”

  She looked at him again, her eyebrows raised. “They gave you aspirin?”

  He smiled, a slow grin that lit his eyes and gave them a glow like sun through honey. Her mouth dried. Elanna took an inadvertent step back, as though his smile could burn her.

  “I must be special, huh?”

  “We don’t have much aspirin left. Your injuries must have been severe.”

  He touched his face. “They’re not so bad.”

  They just looked at each other, him with a puzzled look in his eyes. She couldn’t imagine her expression. She could only hope it didn’t look as hungry as she suddenly felt.

  Heart pounding, she turned back to her tray. She’d had hundreds of appointments with men handsomer than this one. What was so special about him?

  Was it because of what he knew? What he could do for the Tribe? She forced her fingers to stay steady as she prepared the alcohol swab she’d need to clean the needle when she was done. Reb Ephraim had told her Tobin knew nothing of their customs. That he came from someplace far away, and that he’d been alone for a long time. Was it because he seemed so…innocent?

  “What’s your name?” Tobin asked.

  “Elanna.”

  “That’s pretty.”

  She surprised herself by smiling. “Thank you.”

  “What are you doing, Elanna?”

  Of course, she thought. He didn’t know.

  “I’m preparing the Geneto-Tester and the CDM – The Communicable Diseases Monitor.”

  She showed him the tray and the white cloth, the needle and syringe, the shot glass of alcohol and the two small machines. His brow furrowed, creasing some of the small scratches there. He frowned, looking at the tray and then back to her with a wariness that hadn’t been there before. She couldn’t pretend that seeing it didn’t make her uncomfortable, but why should it bother him? Even if he was unused to the Tribe’s ways, certainly he couldn’t argue with the tests’ necessity?

  “You’ll need to be tested,” she said. “Before we have our appointment, I mean. I need to make sure you’re clean and that we’re compatible.”

  His mouth worked for a moment before he spoke. “Clean, how? What do you mean, compatible?”

  She shook her head uncertainly. How could he not know? Even the most widely traveled peddlers knew about the tests. Where had he come from that people didn’t need to worry about such things?

  “Your blood,” she said, and watched his expression slam further shut. He looked like he was going to start yelling, or bolt from the bed, so she talked faster to soothe him. “I have to test it for disease, make sure you don’t have anything that could be passed along. And the same with the Geneto-Tester – it types you out. To see if you have any genetic defects that could be inherited, or any anomalies that might cause problems when matched with my geno-makeup…”

  “Wait, wait, wait.” He shook his head and glared at her. She took another step back. “For what? Why do you need to know this stuff?”

  She looked at him blankly. “There’s no sense in having an appointment if the baby will inherit a faulty geno-structure, or if you give me some disease…”

  “Stop.” He held up his hands as if warding off a blow, and then looked at her intensely. Though his gaze was no longer warm, it still made her tingle. Uncomfortably, but unavoidably. “Go back. What did you just say?”

  Was he hard of hearing? Deafness would only be a problem if it were genetic and not resulting from an accident or disease. “We don’t need to waste an appointment if the baby would inherit…”