The Renegades (The Superiors) by Lena Hillbrand Read Free Book Online Page B

the
smaller car he’d previously occupied. After allowing his treasures to dry and
air out, he spread them behind the back seat of the Rosso.
    The
nights grew colder, although the days remained tolerably warm. Because the
Rosso’s blinders darkened the windows and helped to warm the car during the
day, Draven slept comfortably. Once he’d fitted together a blanket from old
clothing scraps to wrap about himself while he slept, he had no complaints.
    One
night a week, he skipped calling upon Cali and trekked to a small lake formed
at the base of two mountains. He washed himself, any clothing he’d scavenged,
and other acquisitions that needed washing. After bathing, he wrapped the bar
of soap Sally had given him in its crumpled wax-paper package and wondered
about her, as he did each time he ventured up the mountain. But he would never
return to her.
    Although
he let himself think only of Sally, the one bright spot in the eight months
he’d spent with her family, the knowledge of those months would always stay
with him. He carried the memories on his body a year and a half later, just as Cali carried her bruises as a reminder of her escape attempt. Draven could not lie on his
back, although he’d dug the splinters from his skin everywhere he could reach.
Those in his back, he would live with, having made a few minor adjustments and
not allowing anything to touch his back more than necessary.

 
     
    Chapter 12
     
    Cali wandered into the garden, even though the plants had died and the cold pierced her
woolen jumpsuit in minutes. She poked at the dirt, looked around. The moon
sagged round in the sky, almost full, like a belly in the eighth month of
pregnancy.
    “What
you doing out there?” Shelly asked, poking his head out the door.
    “Oh,
nothing,” Cali said, kneeling to push at the edge of one of the garden beds.
The plastic border strips had begun to crumple, letting dirt spill out. They’d
have to be fortified next spring, after the thaw.
    Without
another word, Shelly slid the door closed. Cali wrapped her arms around herself
and glanced up.
    “Are
you looking for something?”
    The
warm, low voice startled Cali, and she jerked upright and spun around, catching
her free foot in the chain. She stumbled and almost fell before Draven caught
her arm. “Steady there,” he said, smiling at her in the most gentle,
un-Superior way. Sometimes she almost forgot what he was, forgot the impossible
distance between their species, the unforgivable difference. “May I draw from
you tonight?”
    And
then he reminded her of it.
    “I
guess.”
    Draven
drew her close, slid his arm around her waist and held her body securely
against his. She submitted to his preference without comment or analysis. She’d
worked in restaurants long enough to know that Superiors had as many different
eating styles and preferences as humans did, maybe more. She’d gotten used to
Draven, although she didn’t know if she’d ever get used to his stroking while
he fed, or the way he kept his cold mouth on her neck for so long after he’d
withdrawn his teeth.
    He
finally finished cleaning her neck and pulled back. Her skin prickled with cold
where his mouth left her wet. He slid both hands into Cali’s hair and pulled it
back from her face. “I can’t bear him so much as touching you,” he said
quietly. His eyes shone like polished black stones in his moonlit face. Without
releasing his hold, he pulled her face closer until their noses almost touched.
“When will you be ready for me?” he whispered.
    “You
weren’t here yesterday,” she said, pulling back. Draven released her and
wrapped his hands around the bars, leaning back into the empty space of
darkness behind him. At night, Cali could see nothing but her own garden, as if
the rest of the world blinked out altogether every evening, leaving only her
small rectangle of light in existence. Only Draven’s appearance, as he slipped
easily from the unseen world to the seen, proved that