"We won't touch him," Eli told Lorene. "We'll leave it to you to give him the disease." Lorene's smile vanished. She looked from Meda and Gwyn to Eli.
"He might die on you," Eli continued. "If he does, we'll get you another one." She frowned as though she did not understand.
"We'll get you as many as necessary," he said.
"You don't have any right to make me feel guilty!" she whispered. Her voice rose abruptly. "This is all your fault! My husband-"
"Remember him!" Eli said. "Remember how it felt to lose him. Chances are, you'll be taking someone else's husband soon."
"You have no right-"
"No, I don't," he said. "But then, there isn't anyone else to say these things to you. And you have to hear them. You have to understand what you are-why you feel what you feel."
"It's because you killed-"
"No. Listen, Lori. It's because you're the host, the vehicle of an extraterrestrial organism. It's because that organism needs new hosts, new vehicles. You need to infect a man and have children and you won't get any peace until you do. I understand that. God knows I understand it. The organism is a damned efficient invader. Five people died because I couldn't fight it. Now, it's possible that at least one person will die because you can't fight it."
"No," Lorene whispered, shaking her head.
"It's something we can't forget or ignore," Eli continued. "We've lost part of our humanity. We can lose more without even realizing it. All we have to do is forget what we carry, and what it needs." He paused. She had turned away, and he waited until she faced him again. "So we'll get you a man," he said. "And we'll turn him over to you. You'll give him the disease and you'll care for him. If he dies, you'll bury him."
Lorene got up and stumbled out of the room.
PRESENT 16
When Blake and Meda had gone, when Ingraham had led Rane away, Eli and Keira sat alone at the large dining room table. Keira looked across at Eli bleakly.
"My sister," she whispered. Rane had looked so frozen when Ingraham led her out, so terrified. "She'll be all right," Eli said. "She's tough."
Keira shook her head. "People think that. She needs to have them think that."
He smiled. "I know. I should have said she's strong. Maybe stronger than even she knows."
A woman carrying a crying child of about three years came into the house. The child, Keira could see, was a little girl wearing only underpants. She had a beautiful face and a dark, shaggy head of hair. There was something wrong with the way she sat on the woman's arm, though-something Keira could not help noticing, yet could not quite identify.
The woman smiled wearily at Eli. "Red room," she said. Eli nodded.
The woman stared at Keira for a moment. Keira thought she stared hungrily. When she had gone into a room off the living room and shut the long, sliding door, Keira faced Eli.
"What's going on?" she said. "Tell me."
He looked at her hungrily, too, but then leaned back in his chair and told her. No more hints, no more delays. When he finished, she asked questions and he answered them. At one point, the woman and child came out of the red room and Eli called them to him.
"Lorene, bring Zera over. I want you both to meet Kerry."
The woman, blond and thin, came over with her hungry eyes and her strange child. She looked at Keira, then at Eli. "Why is there still a table between you two?" she asked. "I'll bet there's no table between that guy and Meda."
"Is that what I called you over here for?" he asked, annoyed. "Don't you want to brag about your kid a little?" Lorene faced Keira almost hostilely.
Keira and the child had been staring at each other. Keira roused herself, met Lorene's suspicious eyes. "I'd like to see her."
"You see her," Lorene said. "She's no freak. She's supposed to be this way. They're all this way."
"I know," Keira said. "Eli has told me. She's beautiful."
Lorene put her daughter on the table and the child immediately sat down, catlike, arms braced against the floor. "Stand up," Lorene said, pushing at the little girl's hindquarters. "Let the lady see you."
"No!" Zera said firmly. To Keira, that proved something about her was normal. Before Keira's illness, she had been called on to take care of little toddler cousins who sometimes seemed not to know any other word.
Then Zera did get up, and in a single fluid motion, she launched herself at Eli. He seemed to pluck her out of the air, laughing as he caught her.
"Little girl, I'm going to miss some day. You're getting faster."
"What would happen if you did miss?" Keira asked. "She wouldn't hurt herself, would she?" "No, she'd be okay. Lands on her feet like a cat. Lorene does miss sometimes."
"I never miss," Lorene said, offended. "I just step aside sometimes. I'm not always in the mood to be jumped on." Eli put Zera back on the table and this time, she walked a few steps, leaped off the table, and stood beside Lorene.
Keira smiled, enjoying the child's smooth, catlike way of moving. Then she frowned. "A kid that age should be kind of clumsy and weak. How can she be so coordinated?"
"We've talked about that," Eli said. "They do go through a clumsy period, of course. Last year, Zee fell down all the
time. But if you think she's agile now, you should see Jacob. He's four." "What will they be like when they're adults?"
"We don't know," Lorene said softly. "Maybe they peak early-or maybe they're going to be as fast as cheetahs some day. Sometimes we're afraid for them."
Keira nodded, looked at the child. She was perfect. A perfect, lean, little four-legged thing with shaggy uncombed hair and a beautiful little face. "A baby sphinx," Keira said, smiling.
"Think you could handle having one like this someday?"
Keira glanced at her, smiled sadly, then turned back to Zera. "I think I could handle it," she said.
Zera took a few steps toward her. Keira knew that if the child scratched or bit her, she would get the disease. Yet she could not bring herself to be afraid. The child was as strange a being as Keira had ever seen, but she was a child. Keira
reached out to her, but Zera drew back.
"Hey," Keira said softly. "What do you have to be afraid of?" She smiled. "Come here."
The little girl mirrored the smile tentatively, edged toward Keira again. She was a little cat not sure it should trust the strange hand. She even sniffed without getting quite close enough to touch.
"Do I smell good?" Keira asked. "Meat!" the child said loudly.
Startled, Keira drew back. She expected to be scratched or bitten eventually, but she did not want to have to shake Zera
off her fingers. Anything as sleek and catlike as this child probably had sharp teeth. "Zee!" Lorene said. "Don't bite!"
Zera looked back at her and grinned, then faced Keira. "I don't bite."
The teeth did look sharp, but Keira decided to trust her. She started to reach out again, this time to lift the child into her lap, but Eli spoke up.
"Kerry!"
She looked across the table at him. "No."
His voice made her think of a warning rattle. She drew back, not frightened, but wondering what was wrong with him. Lorene seemed angry. She picked up Zera and faced Eli. "What kind of game are you playing?" she demanded. "What's the kid here for? Decoration?"
Eli looked up at her.
"Don't give me that look. Go do what you're supposed to do. Then you can take care of her! And if she doesn't make it, you can-"