through Cali’s wet, tangled hair.
“Girl, you are so pretty,” he said. “No wonder that Jonathan boy you told me about liked you so much. Sheesh, girl, you should’ve snapped him up while you could.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered. Master already favored me before I even met Jonathan. He still would have bought me, and then I’d be without my husband.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Some masters are nice about that stuff, and they’ll buy a married pair just to keep them happy.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t think our master is one of those.”
“Maybe not. He does look like a total stiff. I mean, can you even imagine that man laughing?”
Cali laughed at the very thought of it. Their master was about the sourest, most distracted and hurried Superior she’d ever seen. She didn’t know what job he had, but it must be something that required an awful lot of haste. He always rushed in and out to feed on his saps. Usually he didn’t even draw from Cali now that he owned her. He just bit and left her to fill a cup with blood for him.
She thought about the Man with Soft Hair for a minute while Shelly tried to untangle her knotted hair. Man with Soft Hair always closed up the incisions from his teeth, sometimes too thoroughly. It made her a little uncomfortable how he liked to lick on her arm for much longer than any of the others. But he’d been nice to her. He’d told her his name. Oh well, no use dwelling on that. Now she lived countless lengths from everything in her old home, from the warmth and the dry winds that blew in across the city, the swelling heat so intense she could hardly draw a breath, the months without rain and the months with steamy rains that came every day.
Now she lived in this alien white world where snow fell instead of rain, and where it didn’t sink into the ground but sat on top, piling higher and higher every day that it fell, blowing into strange dips like the sand dunes she’d seen once. In her whole life, she’d only left the city once, although at the Confinement, she’d lived on the outskirts. But once, she’d gotten transported to another area to work on a cotton field for a few months with a big group from the Confinement. Out the window of the train, she’d seen the city go by, millions and millions of apartments that looked exactly the same and then lots of big houses that looked like they could fit as many people as an apartment building. She’d thought of all those Superiors living there who wanted to suck her blood, and it made her skin crowd in on itself. Then she’d seen the sand dunes, the forever of beautiful swells with no houses and no Superiors, just sand the color of her hair.
And now, the second time she’d left the city she’d always called home, she’d come in a closed container and missed all the sights along the way. But this was her home now, this place where buildings didn’t fill the land—she could see lots of space out the window with no buildings at all. The land didn’t roll and dip like the empty sand, but jutted upwards like the earth gods had pounded their fists at it from below, breaking it into peaks and leaving gashes along the bottoms of the mountains.
She’d spend her whole life here with her Master and her one friend, her mate. She would be the good little slave Master wanted. She’d probably never see that other place again, her family, her wreck of a house in the Confinement, her repeat feeders. She had been so rude to that Superior who had treated her good—at least sometimes—who seemed to care if she got hurt. Maybe if she’d been a good little sap for him, he would have bought her instead. But she hadn’t, and Master had already bought her, so no use thinking about it now. If she behaved as she should, maybe Master would treat her better, too. Now she didn’t have any other options—she couldn’t change how she’d acted before. She had a new home to make, and the past was a place she’d never go again, full of
“Girl, you are so pretty,” he said. “No wonder that Jonathan boy you told me about liked you so much. Sheesh, girl, you should’ve snapped him up while you could.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered. Master already favored me before I even met Jonathan. He still would have bought me, and then I’d be without my husband.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Some masters are nice about that stuff, and they’ll buy a married pair just to keep them happy.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t think our master is one of those.”
“Maybe not. He does look like a total stiff. I mean, can you even imagine that man laughing?”
Cali laughed at the very thought of it. Their master was about the sourest, most distracted and hurried Superior she’d ever seen. She didn’t know what job he had, but it must be something that required an awful lot of haste. He always rushed in and out to feed on his saps. Usually he didn’t even draw from Cali now that he owned her. He just bit and left her to fill a cup with blood for him.
She thought about the Man with Soft Hair for a minute while Shelly tried to untangle her knotted hair. Man with Soft Hair always closed up the incisions from his teeth, sometimes too thoroughly. It made her a little uncomfortable how he liked to lick on her arm for much longer than any of the others. But he’d been nice to her. He’d told her his name. Oh well, no use dwelling on that. Now she lived countless lengths from everything in her old home, from the warmth and the dry winds that blew in across the city, the swelling heat so intense she could hardly draw a breath, the months without rain and the months with steamy rains that came every day.
Now she lived in this alien white world where snow fell instead of rain, and where it didn’t sink into the ground but sat on top, piling higher and higher every day that it fell, blowing into strange dips like the sand dunes she’d seen once. In her whole life, she’d only left the city once, although at the Confinement, she’d lived on the outskirts. But once, she’d gotten transported to another area to work on a cotton field for a few months with a big group from the Confinement. Out the window of the train, she’d seen the city go by, millions and millions of apartments that looked exactly the same and then lots of big houses that looked like they could fit as many people as an apartment building. She’d thought of all those Superiors living there who wanted to suck her blood, and it made her skin crowd in on itself. Then she’d seen the sand dunes, the forever of beautiful swells with no houses and no Superiors, just sand the color of her hair.
And now, the second time she’d left the city she’d always called home, she’d come in a closed container and missed all the sights along the way. But this was her home now, this place where buildings didn’t fill the land—she could see lots of space out the window with no buildings at all. The land didn’t roll and dip like the empty sand, but jutted upwards like the earth gods had pounded their fists at it from below, breaking it into peaks and leaving gashes along the bottoms of the mountains.
She’d spend her whole life here with her Master and her one friend, her mate. She would be the good little slave Master wanted. She’d probably never see that other place again, her family, her wreck of a house in the Confinement, her repeat feeders. She had been so rude to that Superior who had treated her good—at least sometimes—who seemed to care if she got hurt. Maybe if she’d been a good little sap for him, he would have bought her instead. But she hadn’t, and Master had already bought her, so no use thinking about it now. If she behaved as she should, maybe Master would treat her better, too. Now she didn’t have any other options—she couldn’t change how she’d acted before. She had a new home to make, and the past was a place she’d never go again, full of
Similar Books
