“I don’t think Sergei will let you out alone with me. I’m a pretty strong boy, you know, but not a trained bodyguard.”
“Okay, okay.” Chloe thought furiously. “We’ll make it a group date. He can’t object to that, can he? A bunch of us—whatever goons he wants to send along with us—we’ll all go out. To a movie together. How about that?”
She fell back against the wall and slid down until she was sitting on the floor. “I just want to go out,” she said miserably. “I want to eat popcorn.” Not wild deer. “I want to drink a blue slushy, watch stupid previews, and use a crappy public bathroom with ugly tiles and mirrors that show all my zits.”
There was a long pause at the other end. She waited for Alyec to ask about that last thing—she wasn’t sure why she had said it but remembered when she and Amy used to go in before and after a movie and make faces and put on lip gloss. Amy would complain about the size of her nose, wrinkling it, and Chloe would bitch about getting breasts too early.
He didn’t let her down.
“I’ll see what I can do. But your skin is perfect, Chloe. You have no zits.”
Sergei said he couldn’t refuse a thing to his adoptive daughter, which was how Chloe, Igor, Alyec, Valerie, a couple of the kizekh—the same ones from the other night—and Chloe wound up sitting around the lounge with the entertainment sections of different newspapers.
And Chloe was reminded how, no matter what your race was, whether you were human or Mai, trying to get more than three people in a group to decide on a movie was a royal pain in the ass.
“I would like to see The Russian Ark,” Valerie said. “It’s still playing at a couple of art houses.”
The two guards nodded in approval.
“Kiss ass,” Chloe muttered.
“Well, okay,” Valerie admitted gamely. “I would rather see the new Hugh Grant movie.”
“Is Julia Roberts in it?”
“No, but Reese Witherspoon plays his niece….”
“No, thank you,” Alyec said, sticking his tongue out in disgust.
“How about Hills of the Dead?” Igor asked.
“Yeah!” Alyec agreed, leaping, Mai-like, onto the back of Igor’s chair and looking over his shoulder.
“Absolutely not,” Valerie said, sticking out her jaw—a lot like Amy. “Horror movies freak me out.”
“That’s the point, dumbass,” Alyec said. “I hear Raymond Salucci did the score,” he added to Igor, who nodded excitedly.
“It’s gonna suck,” Chloe said hesitantly. Honestly, she didn’t mind—but Valerie did look really upset.
“How about The Return of the King?” the other girl suggested, offering a compromise.
“I’ve seen it four times already,” one of the guards replied, shaking his head. Chloe shot the scarred older man a look. He just shrugged. Although she was almost positive that he was one of the ones from the night she’d been ambushed by the Tenth Blade, the other kizekh, the woman, had called him “Dima,” but tonight he had introduced himself as “Dmitri,” and she was pretty sure that was the name Sergei had used, too. She didn’t know what the woman’s name was. Living here is worse than being in a Russian novel.
Chloe scanned the newspaper, hope dwindling. She didn’t really give a rat’s ass what they saw—as long as she was out, at a movie, with crowds of normal people around her. Well, she thought as she eyed the two guards, already standing protectively behind her, somewhat farther around me. The guards had their arms crossed like storm troopers.
“Hey!” She suddenly had an idea and flipped through the newspaper, looking for the right ad. “The Red Vic always shows Star Wars at midnight on the weekends.”
“I thought it was Rocky Horror,” Igor said.
“Theater one. Theater two always shows Star Wars,” She finally found the ad, the sort of cheap, tiny five-line text-only ad that gave away the theater’s independent nature. “Yep. Midnight tonight.”
“Fine with me,” Alyec said, still balancing on the back of Igor’s chair.
“Okay,” Valerie agreed.
“Absolutely!” Igor grinned, big, thick white teeth showing for the first time since … well, since Chloe had met the serious young man. Even the two kizekh nodded. Who, after all, could say no to Star Wars?
“Let’s get ready and be back here in an hour,” Igor said, looking at his watch. “An hour,” he added, giving Alyec a look.
“That still gives me time to kick your ass in Soul Calibur,” Alyec said with a sweet smile. Valerie rolled her eyes and gave Chloe a look. Chloe smiled back, sympathizing. But she felt pretty sure that she could kick Igor’s ass at it, too.
“You’re on,” Igor agreed, suddenly leaping up so that his chair tipped backward because of Alyec’s weight, sending the other boy flying. But he did a neat little flip in the air and landed on his toes and one hand—somehow reminding Chloe of Nightcrawler in X-Men United. Who needs movies when you are a mutant?
She went back to her room to brush her hair and grab her jacket. The only makeup Chloe had with her was cherry-tinted lip gloss. She put it on as thickly as she could and mourned the fading of her healthy skin to a pasty paleness from being inside for so long. She grabbed her cheeks and pinched them hard, remembering something out of Gone with the Wind or some other old movie. It gave her a little color; she hoped it would last.
Kim was padding silently upstairs as Chloe headed back to the lounge, reading a book she held before her with the deference of an ancient monk reading his hours. The brown tunic-length sweater with bell sleeves that she wore did nothing to detract from the image.
“Hey,” Chloe called, catching up to her. “Want to go to a movie? A bunch of us are going.”
Kim looked at her as if it was the strangest thing she had ever been asked.
“Thank you,” she said slowly, “but I have some reading to do….”
She said it unconvincingly.
“Come on,” Chloe said, exasperated. “It’s a Friday night. You have exactly jack shit reading to do. I don’t care how homeschooled you are; classes are over for the day, chiquita.”
Kim looked her over again, curious about Chloe’s strange energy and goodwill. I certainly haven’t displayed a lot of it since I came here, Chloe realized.
“I haven’t been to a movie in a long time,” Kim hazarded, closing her book.
For some reason, Chloe couldn’t imagine Kim ever going to a movie. “Great. Get your coat. Come on.”
“Do the others know you’re asking me?”
She said it in the same infuriatingly calm, even tone she always used—which kind of reminded Chloe of Paul—but there was a catch in her voice this time, the subtlest swallow. Her eyes were large, her pupils so wide that you almost couldn’t tell they were slits.
The armor of the pious scholar had just cracked a little, and Chloe felt a rush of pity for the poor girl, aloof and alone. But if she did or said anything that was the slightest bit patronizing, it was all over.
“No, but I totally think there’s enough space in the cars.” She had no idea if this was true, but it was the correct answer. Kim looked relieved at Chloe’s brashness, the assumption that everyone would just do what she said—and let Kim come—without question.
“I’ll get my coat, then, and meet you in the lounge.”
“Uh—what about your …?” Chloe indicated her ears, not sure what to say. “I mean, is it going to be all right?”
Kim gave what was almost a smile through her teeth, pointy and sharp. “Yes. They always just think I’m some freaky goth kid.”
Chloe smiled back. “Right on,” she said, holding her fingers in a peace symbol.
Now that she thought of it, why did she just assume that the others would go along with whatever she said? Chloe wondered at her behavior as she went back to watch Alyec and Igor. Why would anyone disagree? Did people think Kim was that much of a freak and a pariah?
Alyec was jumping up and down, moving his body with the game pad, using his claws oc
casionally for a tight move. He threw his entire body into the game. Igor sat stock still, a serious look on his face, fingers barely moving across his own game pad. And he was royally kicking the other boy’s ass. The two guards, looking almost like CIA agents, stood in the background, quietly waiting.
“Hey,” Chloe said. She threw herself onto the couch with one leg over the side. “I just ran into Kim. She’s gonna come with us.”
“You’re kidding,” Igor said, but all his concentration was on the game.
Valerie came in, looking like a movie star. The cat was very strong in her, and even without Kim’s eyes or ears, there was a barely contained power and sensuality beneath her features. Her eyes were heavy-lidded, like Sergei’s, but with long lashes and a smoldering look. She slunk like a cat, too, smoothly and languidly. Her hair was lighter than Alyec’s, an almost Marilyn Monroe blond. But natural.
Chloe tried to work up a little envy, but it was hard: she admired the other girl too much.
Of course, the fact that she had seen her take down a deer bare-handed might have something to do with the whole lack-of-envy thing.
“Ah, crap,” Alyec said, throwing down the game pad as Igor executed his fatality. “You lucked out.”
“No,” Igor said easily, sliding back to put his hand on Valerie’s knee, “you just suck.”
“I’m ready,” a voice said behind them.
Everyone in the room turned. Kim stood, all bundled up in a fake black fur coat that went down to her knees. A black baseball cap was pulled down over her ears. Giant black Doc Martens, several sizes too big to fit her foot claws, clunkily covered her feet. She looked a little defensive.
“That’s a … very interesting outfit,” Valerie said, as tactfully as she could manage.
Kim gave her a cold, dismissive look.
“I don’t think we can fit everyone in the Explorer,” one of the guards said.
“That’s okay,” Alyec said smugly, drawing on his leather jacket. “I have a car with me.”
“Oh no,” Chloe realized. “It’s not …”
But he just grinned.
It was, in fact, the exact same hatchback he had stolen before from the senior running back at school. Igor and Valerie went with the two guards, muttering something about Alyec’s proficiency at driving.
“This is your car?” Kim asked, getting into the backseat without being asked.
“Don’t ask,” Chloe recommended. “And buckle up.”
“It’s … very nice,” she said doubtfully, unconsciously imitating Valerie’s earlier comment.
Chloe checked the rearview mirror a couple of times to see how the girl was handling it, but Kim looked steady no matter how fiercely Alyec took the turns; she had one hand braced on each side of the car and swung between them, bouncing.
“This is great.” Chloe sighed. “This is just what I need.”
“I’m glad.” Alyec leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. Except for their occasional sort-of dates, they had actually been far less physical in the last week than … well, ever. Sergei never said anything aloud about his feelings toward Alyec, but it was obvious there was a tension between them and some invisible line her boyfriend could not cross. But it didn’t feel like a normal “don’t date my daughter” scenario; Chloe got the feeling that if it were anyone besides Alyec, it might have been okay. She made a mental note to ask someone about that sometime—maybe Olga.
“Hey, Kim,” Alyec yelled to the backseat, trying to be sociable. “You ever see Star Wars?”
“Of course I’ve seen Star Wars,” she snapped; the you idiot was understood.
There was a long pause.
“Who’s your favorite character?”
Chloe caught the girl’s eyes widening.
“The … ah … furry one. Not only do his physical characteristics set him apart, but the … obvious subservient dynamic between him and the … uh, protagonists indicate his role as either a hero-ally or comic-mentor archetype.”
“So what you’re saying,” Alyec said philosophically, squealing around a corner, “is that you’ve never seen Star Wars.”
Kim glared at him. Chloe was glad their cat abilities didn’t include anything like shooting lasers from their eyes. If they had, Alyec would have been fried.
“No. I have not seen Star Wars,” Kim admitted, then looked out the window so she wouldn’t have to look at them.
Chloe laughed.
In the theater she wound up sitting between Kim and Alyec, since he and Igor and Valerie all insisted that since Chloe had brought the other girl, she had to sit next to her. Actually, it wasn’t so bad. Kim was inordinately pleased with the popcorn, another humanlike thing Chloe had a hard time comprehending. But the girl with the hidden cat ears relished every bite, using her claw to spear one kernel at a time and carefully deposit it on her tongue, never taking her wide, unblinking eyes off the screen.
Igor and Alyec shouted lines with the characters and other lines at the beloved heroes with the rest of the crowd. Valerie and their two guards watched it in silence. Chloe had to answer a lot of whispered questions from Kim but didn’t mind; she knew the script by heart and found it kind of fun to initiate a newbie.
“What is that they are on?”
“A consular ship.”
“Spaceship?”
“Uh, yeah. Starship, really.”
And:
“Why is everyone cheering? What is the significance of that being a space station and not a moon?”
And:
“Stupid Alyec. I was closer than I thought. This story taps perfectiy into Western archetypes—from the hero to the quest to the tragic hero. It is right out of Joseph Campbell. In fact, there are even parallels between it and the Egyptian story The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor….”
“So, in the other movies, do they reveal Darth Vader as being Luke’s father?” Kim asked casually, picking up a flyer and looking at the upcoming releases.
Alyec’s jaw dropped. “How did you know that?”
“It is pretty obvious, if you know anything about mythology and religious tales,” she answered smugly. Chloe grinned, then noticed Igor trying to win a stuffed animal from one of the claw vending machines for Valerie. “Hey, win me a toy, huh?” she demanded, handing Alyec a dollar. Then she pulled Kim after her into the women’s room.
“I don’t have to go,” Kim protested.
This is so not like Amy. Chloe sighed. She would just have to make the best of it. She pouted into the mirror and applied more lip gloss. Kim watched her without saying anything, taking off her baseball cap briefly so she could scratch her ears.
“Hey,” Chloe suddenly said, remembering. “What was that you were going to tell me the other day? About the pride leader?”
Kim looked startled. She licked her lips and tried to speak didactically, but something was worrying her. “Um, just that the leader of the Pride has to be the first to charge in and the last out of battie. The leader has to stay to defend the weakest, run into a burning house to save the slow. The leader gives his or her life for the Pride. Up to nine times, if necessary.”
Chloe laughed. “like a cat, you mean? Like …” Then she suddenly noticed how grim the other girl looked. “You’re serious,” she realized.
“A true leader proves him or herself,” Kim said quietly. “It comes out in battie. In war. In times of danger and catastrophe. Usually leadership runs in families. Sometimes a Pride gets lucky and several warrior family members rule together. But sometimes it does not; sometimes a person rises up in a time of need when there is no one else. And is killed and rises again.”
“Pride leaders have nine lives?” Chloe repeated slowly, to make sure she understood.
“Not all … pride leaders. But true ones do. It is what protects our race.”
Coit Tower. Her fall. The dreams. The lions. “This wouldn’t have cost him a life. Assuming he even has more than one.”
Chloe opened her mouth. “Are there … uh … others?
Who can do that?”
“Well, there were,” Kim said almost mournfully. “As I told you, the only daughter of our pride leader—the one before Sergei—was murdered before she had a chance to prove herself, and no one else of this generation has shown any signs. Or risked their lives to find out.”
Kim was gazing steadily into her eyes. Chloe blushed and turned away. She couldn’t deal with this now. Pride leader? But sooner or later, she was going to need to think about what Kim had said.
When they got home, Chloe went immediately to Sergei’s office. It was very late, but he didn’t have normal sleeping patterns, and she wanted to tell him what a great time they’d had … and maybe talk about finally getting to call or see her mom. She would have said something to announce her presence, but about four Twizzlers were crammed into her mouth. Alyec claimed he had won them from the prize machine at the movies. Twizzlers were definitely not one of the prizes—only cheap stuffed animals and plastic jewelry and stuff like that—but Valerie said that apparently Alyec had spent an additional five dollars to the one that Chloe had given him trying to get her something and had finally given up and gone to the concession stand. Chloe had laughed—that was definitely something lighthearted and stupid that someone like Brian would never do.
The older man was standing behind his desk, talking urgently to one of the upper-ranked Mai in his company and two of the kizekh.
“So we agree. She presents too many liabilities, I’m afraid. Something will have to be done to remove her—”
He suddenly noticed Chloe, his blue eyes fixing on hers without recognition—for just a second. Then he warmed up. “That’s all for now, gentlemen. Thank you.” All three nodded at him in a way that was practically a bow and almost backed out of the room facing him, as she had seen Olga and Kim do.
“What was all that about?” she asked, sliding into one of the enormous chairs that no one had been sitting in.
“Someone who is not working out at the company,” Sergei said quickly, shuffling papers together on his desk and sitting down. “We will have to let her go.”