Page 22 of 20% Blood 80%
One sun later, the remains of twenty-three bodies were neatly lined up and covered with sheets. Less than I’d expected.
“May the goddess Sola watch over you in your life’s sleep and guide you to solace.” The simple prayer lifted my heart. I tossed a handful of graneth seeds over the bodies—a Boola funeral ritual to foster a fruitful life for their next embodiment.
Tucking my gloves into my pocket, I followed the floor lights along the corridor to room seventy-six, washed my hands in the corner sink andquickly found the envelopes of eggs. A glance at my wristport told me I had two suns to shower and make dinner.
Once in a fresh uniform, I pulled the fragrant pie from the oven and gave the graneth and mantu porridge a final stir. After rifling through the drawers in the communal kitchen on my level, I produced a couple of sealed containers. I’d made plenty, so Silver wouldn’t have to revert to kale smoothies while I was out hunting.
After stacking everything in a neat pile, I made the short trip to level thirty-one.
“Holy shit, that smells good.” Silver jumped from his curved pod where the bed was nestled and scooped the pie from my arms. His hair was still wet and twisted into a long tail, the collar soaking his clean coveralls.
My fangs itched at his rare show of excitement, and I wanted to rub them against the pulsing vein above his collarbone. I wondered if they had apple-pie-scented cologne on Earth. Maybe that would be what it took to get Silver to kiss me.
Or maybe my surprise would do it? Shuffling my feet, I started to question whether all the work I’d put in in the last three weeks would amount to anything. Inhaling deeply to bolster my nerves, I spit it out before he sidetracked me again. “I have something to show you.”
“Right now?” Silver stared longingly at the food he’d started to plate.
“It will only take a second. C’mon.”
He shoveled a scoop of the mantu porridge into his mouth, talking around it. “Just to tide me over.”
Why did he have to be so blanting cute?
We walked side by side, past the terratherm hub and around the corner to the biodomes, the huge oscillating fans overhead flooding me with Silver’s delicious scent.I hope he likes this.
“What are we doing here? The human biodome is fucked.”
The plasmaglass door swooshed open under my palm scan, and I stood in the open doorway. Silver’s pinky brushed mine as he passed me, and my gut swirled.
I scurried over to the fresh mounds of potatoes and rows of corn I’d planted. “I salvaged what was left after it overheated, and the corn and potatoes have already started to come up. They seem to love my fertilizer…” In my excitement, I grabbed Silver by the hand and tugged him toward the trays of seedlings I started. “Look, I also found tomatoes, carrots and rice—”
“Shit…” Silver gulped and took in the vegetables I’d planted and all the trays of lovely little leaves unfurling from the substrate in their trays. “You did all this? I thought all these plants had been fried.”
“They were pretty shriveled…but some still had viable seeds or a bit of green left to revive them.”
“You mean I’m going to be able to eat french fries again?” Wide eyed, he gazed at the mounds of potatoes before turning back to me.
I shrugged. “From what I’ve seen, that depends on whether you can cook them or not.”
His wide grin slammed into me like a punch to the gut. “Smartass.” But when he took three steps toward me and wrapped me up in his arms, the ground might as well have shifted under my boots. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I whispered.
We walked back to his pod, hands brushing and me smiling like a lovestruck idiot.
“What are we watching tonight?” I asked.
“I haven’t seen this one yet, but C highlighted it, so I thought we could give it a shot.” Silver cued the movie while I spooned warm mantu jerky porridge into bowls and handed him one.
“Damn, this is tasty.” Propped on the edge of his thin mattress, Silver shoveled food into his mouth. “These little bean things taste like basil.”
Pleased with his praise, I pulled a chair close to his raised sleeping hollow. “There is some of that shooting up already.” The idea of growing Earther food for a future life with Silver satisfied a part of me I hadn’t known existed.
“I can’t believe you got all that growing.” Silver flicked on the movie. A projector screen dropped from the curved ceiling above him, and he tilted it so I could see. We watched in companionable silence—him on his bed, me on the kitchen chair—occasionally throwing in the odd comment about our rotation.
On the screen, two males, one a soldier, the other a florist, were arguing. Just as I thought the soldier would punch the florist in the face, he leaned in and bit the florist’s lip, plastering their mouths together in a searing kiss.
I sucked in a breath. My fangs throbbed.
