Samael's Fire by L. K. Rigel

seemed to light on fire. Char had only seen that once, and it was pretty scary.
    “You think I’m afraid?” Rani said. “No. I am appalled. The ‘aldos destroy whatever joy could be in the world. Your girls won’t change them. But they will change the girls.”
    Durga scoffed. “What are two men when the world is full of monsters?”
    The other girls all brightened and looked at each other like they were bursting with a secret. Chita said, “Durga killed a monster once.”
    From the satisfied expression on Durga’s face, Char believed it.
    “A giant bird came when we were on a picnic. Durga stuck it with a knife.”
    “Girls, don’t tell stories.” The matriarch sighed as if she’d stopped the telling of this tale a hundred times. “There is no such thing as giant birds.”
    “She cut out its heart,” Chita added.
    Durga didn’t correct the matriarch, but she didn’t stop the girls talking either.
    “It was exgusting.” The youngest girl, Maribel, grinned and wrinkled her nose. The others laughed and said eww and made noises in keeping with their gleeful approval of the “exgusting” deed.
    “All I meant—“ Durga stood up. “—was that monsters are everywhere. If they try to kill you, you kill them first.”
    Rani’s irises flickered and she seemed to consider. “You are a warrior worthy of your name, Durga. If I am to be grounded, if I must leave the Space Junque , then I make a new commitment. I will be your protector always.”
    Char hadn’t known Rani long, but she appreciated how huge that was. Jake kept his eyes on his empty plate. Soon the Junque wouldn’t be able to fly. It wasn’t just a matter of no fuel. There wouldn’t be anywhere to go.
    Would it break his heart to never fly again? Char wanted to know. She could spend a lifetime learning everything about him.
    “Corcovado won’t be bad at all,” Mike told the girls. “The land all around is so clean you can eat fish caught in the bay.” He had been unusually cheerful throughout the meal, and with Rani’s decision he was almost giddy. “ I’ve heard of a waterfall in the hills that runs warm, pure water all year round. Before he died, the Emperor invested a fortune getting the place ready for…”
    Char suppressed a smile. How could Mike possibly end that sentence? Getting the place ready to house breeders for the world’s elite families? Exgusting!
    Durga had no problem with the subject. “Asherah says we’re going to make babies in our tummies like dogs and cats. People used to do it that way.”
    Char felt a twinge of jealousy. Asherah sure talked to Durga a lot.
    “There won’t be very many of us,” Durga continued, “so Asherah says any girl who bleeds will live a hundred and fifty years.”
    Bleeds. Char had forgotten about that. Like most females, she’d had menstrual bleeding during puberty. That’s when her eggs had been harvested for future use. Like most girls, the bleeding had stopped before a year had gone by. She didn’t miss it.
    But living a hundred and fifty years would be good. She looked at Jake. Maybe not. “Did Asherah say men would live longer too?”
    Durga shook her head. “Only bleeders.” She opened another protein pack, oblivious to the effect of that little piece of information. “All their children will live longer than baggers. Not a hundred and fifty though.”
    “I don’t know if I’d want to live so long after everyone I loved…” Char didn’t finish her sentence either. The room went quiet. Chita buried her face in her hands.
    “Don’t cry,” Durga said, as if commanding sorrow away could make it so. It had just sunk in that everyone at the table was an orphan now. Except Jake, if his mother was still alive.
    Rani’s face was in her hands too. She looked up. “I don’t feel so well.” Her normal gorgeous brown complexion had gone sickly pale as a—as a ghost.
    “You should take some antibiotics,” Char said, “just as a precaution.”
    “They’re stored in