Page 40 of Defiance
He laughed, ears upright and cheeky. He adjusted his fangs one after the other, offering a flash of dark muscle inside his mouth.
“I just used the river as an identifier since I knew you spent a lot of time there. I believe I also said you had long silk in a plait of fire. Maybe she should have led with that.”
“So you didn’t choose me because I smell like fish?”
He stepped over the boxes of neatly packed gifts and tapped the top of his muzzle. “I think you chose me, Charlie Halloway. The first time I sampled yourchemia,it practically punched me in the face. Left me reeling for sols.”
My eyelids fluttered with confusion as I crossed my arms. “But you’d only been in the colony for—”
Novak leaned in close with a drawling grin and my words evaporated. “How do you think Mel got pregnant?”
“She would never!” I gasped, raising my hand to smack his chest. He caught my wrist and held me there.
“I was their advenan donor for diversification,” he clarified, thoroughly enjoying himself at my expense. My chest deflated, the fight leaving me in a confused post-rage glow.
“Oh.”
“On my way to the clinic, I caught a trail. A subtle musk with flashes of bright zest. Salt and wind, not the sort that humans sweat out. Heated spices I can’t name, and herbs soaked in water. Your skin is often in contact with rubber—the waders, I assume—and you have algae and dirt in your cuticles. The fruit I taste on you is from wax you put on your lips, though I didn’t know that until we met.”
Novak’s eyes descended to my neck and his tail slid up my spine. He wrapped the tip around the end of my braid and pulled it over my shoulder so he could lift it with his claws.
“Your silk has only grown two inches since you arrived here, but the rest of it smells like an island with tall grass and land meat. High levels of cortisol, some sort of incense. There was a period not too long ago in which you ate almost nothing of substance. The tips…” He lifted my split ends to his nose and breathed in, pupils blowing wide with their shocking red color. “They still smell like you were fertile, which tells me that you haven’t cut your silk in years. And in your teeth, remnants of something you smoked when you were much younger. Your blood, your saliva, the dead cells in your silk and nails, the fluid in your eyes. I can scent it all. Your unique biome lives in me. I can form a perfect picture of it with mycoleara.A magenta haze that glitters like a fever dream in the places you’ve been. Every time I breathe it in, the picture of you grows stronger.”
My braid slipped from his grip as I backed up, landing on the window bench with a soft huff. Novak stood above me with his fingers wrapped lightly around the bones of my wrist like he was taking my pulse. Like he wouldn’t let me fall too hard. His pupils narrowed again.
“I’ve told plenty of women that they smell sweet over the years, Charlie, but it’s a lie. They smelled like everyone else. Soap, musk, exertion, stress…Chemiatells me a story about the person’s life. A complete sensory signature, not just the parts you want people to see.”
“So I just scream mine a little louder than everyone else.” I looked away. “That tracks.” I’d never been accused of delicate sensibilities. Who had time for that when you were surrounded by fishermen and trying to date in your forties?
Novak retracted his hand, leaving a zing from the tips of his claws over my pulse.
“Or maybe the portrait you paint is more striking.”
Certainly didn’t feel so after laying all that bare.
He lifted the bag of leftovers with an i Cline of his head.
“Thank you for themoog,Charlie. I’ll see you in the morning.”
After Novak left, I scrubbed my face and peeled off my clothes, then stared at my fingernails.
Algae? Really?
No matter how knackered I was, a scalding hot bath was in order. I made a list to waste away the evening. Unpacking, reviewing the outdated schedule, choosing what gifts to give out to who…
Instead, I rolled myself up naked in my sheets and fell asleep, not even bothering to towel off.
The last thought I had was of a true crime podcast I’d listen to on the Clare Island ferry. The host nagged me as I drifted,Always wear clothing to bed. What if you have to run?
“Sod off…” I mumbled, descending into fitful dreams of running naked through the streets of Hja Qiyua, jiggling like a jelly dessert.
18
The next few days were busy but pleasant. Novak was hypervigilant, blending in with the shadows and ignoring conversation. Sath ignored him in return, so I did my best to do the same. My safety was his job, after all. It would be foolish to distract him.
So I focused my attention on experiencing Hja Qiyua and the friendship I was forging with Sath. He was funny and easy-going, not at all the stick-in-the-mud stereotype. He laughed with me when I tripped over cobblestones or sneezed, making a playfully disgusted face as he dodged the blast radius. He even let me poke his eye “for science” when I worked up the guts to ask about them. They had a hard shell like contacts with a glossy lubricated surface to keep them free of dust. If you cut one open, it apparently looked like the inside of an orange with six pupil clusters made up of dozens of optical nerves each.
When I grimaced and admitted that I kind of wanted to dissect a hjarna eyeball, he shrugged and said,It’s okay. We kind of want to dissect you too.
