Close Remembrance (15 page)

But no matter how much his body demanded it, Korum didn’t want to push her. She seemed to be responding so well to the entire situation, looking at him with curiosity and desire instead of fear. If he could just be patient, she would come to him herself, lured by the same need that crawled under his skin.

So, as the lunch went on, Korum kept a tight leash on himself, not even touching Mia in case his good intentions flew out the window. He told her more about the nanocytes in her body and showed her some of the capabilities of Krinar technology, creating a silver cup using nanos and then dissolving it the same way. He also explained about her internship and how she had already begun to contribute to the Krinar society, enjoying the way her eyes lit up with excitement at the thought.

Toward the end, as they were finishing dessert – a platter of freshly cut mango with pistachio sauce – Korum noticed that Mia seemed a little nervous, as though there was something on her mind. Unable to resist any longer, he reached across the table and took her hand, massaging her palm lightly with his thumb.

“Is there something you’d like to ask me, my sweet?” he said, smiling, watching as a pretty blush crept across her cheeks.

“Um, maybe . . .” The color on her face intensified. “Okay, you’re probably going to laugh at me, but I just have to know . . .” She swallowed. “Is there any truth to the rumors that you guys drink blood?”

At her innocently provocative question, Korum almost groaned, his cock instantly hardening to the point of pain. She didn’t know, of course, that human blood and sexual pleasure were inseparable in the mind of a modern Krinar – and that bringing up the topic like that was the equivalent of asking a Krinar to fuck you. Even the most amazing sex paled in comparison to the ecstasy of the combined act of blood-drinking and intercourse.

“There is some truth to them,” Korum said carefully, glad that she couldn’t see his raging hard-on. “It was once necessary for our survival, but it’s not any longer.” And trying to suppress his overwhelming need to take her, he went through the complicated story of Krinar evolution and the seeding of the human race.

“So now you drink blood for pleasure?” Mia asked, staring at him with a shocked, yet intrigued expression on her face.

“Yes.” Korum hoped she would drop the topic before he completely lost it.

She didn’t. Instead, she looked at him, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright with curiosity and something more. “Did you –” she stopped to moisten her lips, “– did you ever take my blood?”

Korum thought he might literally explode. Something of what he was feeling must’ve shown on his face because she gulped nervously and pulled her hand out of his grasp.
Smart girl.

There was a moment of awkward silence, and then she asked hesitantly, “Why do your eyes do that? Turn more golden, I mean . . . Is that a Krinar thing?”

Korum took a deep, calming breath. When he was reasonably certain he wasn’t going to pounce on her, he replied, “No, it’s just a weird generic quirk. It’s most common among people from my region of Krina. My mother has it too, and so did my grandfather.”

“Your grandfather?”

Korum nodded. “He was killed in a fight when my mother was about my age.”

“What about your grandmother and your other grandparents?”

“My grandmother from my mother’s side died in a freak accident when she was exploring one of the asteroids in a neighboring solar system. Some even thought it was a suicide, since my grandfather was killed only a few years before that. As for my father’s parents, they dissolved their union shortly after my father’s birth – one of the very few couples to do so after having children. Apparently my grandmother wanted out, but my grandfather didn’t – and he ended up getting into an Arena challenge with the man she took as her lover. My grandfather didn’t survive, and my grandmother took her own life shortly after that, apparently too sick with guilt to go on living. It was not a happy story.”

Her eyes filled with sympathy. “Oh, I’m sorry –”

“It’s all right, my sweet. It happened before I was even born. It’s unfortunate, but death is a tragedy that happens to everyone at one point or another. Humans might view us as immortal because we don’t age, but we are still living beings – and we can still be killed, no matter how advanced our technology is or how fast we heal. That’s why the Elders are so revered in our society: because it’s nearly impossible to live that long without meeting with one deadly accident or another.”

“You’ve mentioned these Elders before.” Mia was clearly fascinated. “Who are they? Do they rule Krina?”

“No.” Korum shook his head. “They don’t rule in the sense of being involved in politics or anything like that. That’s what the Council is for: to deal with ongoing matters. The Elders provide guidance and set direction for our species as a whole.”

“Oh, I see.” She looked thoughtful for a second. “So how old are they?”

“I believe the youngest is just over a million Earth years,” Korum said, smiling at the look of wonder on her face. “And the oldest is somewhere around ten million.”

She stared at him. “Wow . . .”

“Wow indeed,” Korum agreed, enjoying her reaction.

When the lunch was finally over, they took a long walk on the beach and talked some more. Korum held her hand as they leisurely strolled on the sand, reveling in the feel of her small fingers squeezing his palm so trustingly.

He had been worried initially that her memory loss would set them back months, that she would be frightened of him again. But instead, it seemed as if a part of her still knew him – maybe even still loved him. Her calm acceptance of the situation was both surprising and encouraging, particularly since there was no guarantee they would ever be able to reverse the damage Saret had caused.

After the Council meeting, Korum had visited Ellet, hoping that the human biology expert had made some progress toward finding a fix. While the human brain was not her specialty, Korum had hoped she might’ve been able to learn of some research being done in that direction. To his tremendous disappointment, Ellet hadn’t come across anything, despite reaching out to dozens of Krinar scientists on both planets. She had also spoken to all the mind experts at the other Centers. As far as she knew, there was no way to undo a memory wipe of the kind that Saret had used.

“So what made you decide to come to Earth?” Mia asked as they stopped to sit down on a pair of large rocks. In front of them, a small estuary flowed into the ocean, serving as an obstacle to further passage but creating a very scenic view. “I know you told me how you planted life here and basically created humans, but why come here and live alongside us? From what you’ve said, Krina sounds like a very nice place to live. Why bother leaving it?”

“Our sun is an older star,” Korum explained, repeating what he’d once told her. “It will die in about a hundred million years. At that point, we’ll need another place to live – and Earth appeals to us for obvious reasons.”

She frowned, wrinkling her forehead in a way he found very endearing. “But that’s so far away . . . Why would you come now? Why not wait another ninety million years or so?”

Korum sighed, recalling their last discussion on this topic. “Because your species was becoming very destructive to the environment, my sweet. We wanted to make sure that we had a habitable planet for when we needed it.” That was the official story, at least. The full explanation was more complicated and not something he was ready to share with Mia quite yet.

Her frown deepened. She obviously didn’t like hearing that – but then his charl tended to get defensive when he criticized her kind. He couldn’t really blame her for that; she was as loyal to her people as he was to his.

“So when your star begins to die, all the Krinar will come to Earth?” she asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.

“Most likely,” Korum said. He actually hoped that wouldn’t be the case, but he couldn’t tell her that yet.

“Then what would happen to us? To the humans, I mean? Do you really intend to live with us side by side? Wouldn’t the planet be too crowded then?”

Korum hesitated for a moment. She was asking all the right questions, and he didn’t want to lie to her – but he couldn’t tell her the truth yet either. The last thing they needed was for some rumors to spread and cause the humans to panic again.

“Not necessarily,” he hedged. “Besides, that’s not something we’ll have to worry about for a very long time.”

She looked at him, obviously trying to decide how much he could be trusted. Korum could practically see the wheels turning in her head. He loved that about her: her unabashed curiosity about everything, the logical way her mind processed information. She was young and naive, but she was also very intelligent, and he had no doubt that one day she would leave her own mark on society.

For now, though, Korum needed to distract her from this particular line of questions. Smiling, he reached over and brushed her hair away from her face. “So what do you think of Lenkarda so far? Are you starting to feel more comfortable, or is it still very strange to you?”

She gave him a small smile. “I don’t know, honestly. It’s not as strange as it should be. I don’t
remember
anything here, but it’s like I know it on some level. And it’s the same thing with you –”

“I’m as familiar to you as the furniture?” Korum teased, watching as her smile widened into a full-blown grin.

“You are . . .” She laughed ruefully. “I don’t understand how any of this works, but you’re not nearly as scary as you should be. None of this is, for some reason.”

Korum felt his chest expanding to fill with something very much like happiness. “That’s good, my sweet,” he said, stroking the softness of her cheek. “You shouldn’t be scared of me. I would never hurt you. You’re my everything; you’re my entire world. I would sooner die than hurt you. Believe me, there’s no reason to be afraid . . .”

As he spoke, he could see her smile fading and a strangely vulnerable expression appearing on her face instead. “Do you –” she swallowed, her slim throat moving, “– do you love me?”

“I do,” Korum answered without hesitation. “More than anyone I’ve ever loved in my life.”

“But why?” She seemed genuinely confused. “I’m just an ordinary human, and you’re –” She stopped, her cheeks turning pink again.

“I’m what?” Korum prompted, wanting to see more of that pretty blush. He wasn’t sure why he found it so appealing, but it never failed to arouse him. Then again, she turned him on simply by breathing, so it wasn’t all that surprising he found her flushed cheeks irresistible.

The color in her face deepened. “You’re a gorgeous K who’s been around since the dawn of time,” she said quietly. “What could you possibly see in me?”

Korum smiled, shaking his head. His little darling had never understood her appeal, never realized how tempting she was to the male of both species. Everything about her, from the soft, thick curls on her head to the creaminess of her skin, seemed to be made for a man’s touch. She might not be classically beautiful, but in her own delicate way, she was quite striking, with those large blue eyes and dark hair.

In hindsight, Korum should’ve known better than to let her work in such close proximity with another unattached male. He couldn’t really blame Saret for wanting her, for craving something that he himself was so obsessed with. He wanted to tear his former friend apart for what he’d done, but he understood – at least partially – why Saret had done it. If the roles had been reversed, and Mia had been someone else’s charl, Korum didn’t know how far he would’ve gone to get her for his own, how many taboos he would’ve broken in his quest to possess her.

Of course, her physical appeal was only a part of it now. Reaching over, Korum took her hand again. “I see in you the woman I love,” he said, not even trying to hide the depth of his emotions. “I see a beautiful, smart girl who’s sweet and brave and has the courage of her convictions. I see someone who’ll do anything for those she loves, who’ll go to any lengths to protect those dear to her. I see someone I can’t live without, someone who brightens every moment of my existence and makes me happier than I’ve ever been in my life.”

Mia inhaled, her eyes filling with moisture. “Oh Korum . . .” Her slender fingers twitched in his grasp. “Korum, I don’t even know what to say –”

“You don’t have to say anything,” he interrupted, ignoring the pain of her inadvertent rejection. “I know I’m still a stranger to you. I don’t expect you to feel the same way about me now as you did before. Not yet, at least . . .”

She nodded, and a single tear rolled down her face. “I hate this,” she confessed, her voice breaking for a second. “I hate that such a big part of my life disappeared, that I lost everything that brought us to this point. I need you, but I don’t know you, and it’s driving me crazy. I loved you too, didn’t I? Even though all that stuff happened between us, we were still in love, right?”

“Yes,” Korum said, his hand tightening around her palm. “Yes, we were very much in love, my darling.” And unable to resist any longer, he gently wrapped one arm around her back, bringing her closer to him. She buried her face against his shoulder, and he could feel the wetness from her tears on his bare skin. The sweet scent of her hair teased his nostrils, her nearness making his cock harden again.

Don’t be such an animal. She needs comfort now,
Korum told himself
.
And ignoring the lust raging through his body, he let Mia cry, knowing she needed this emotional release.