Gabe made a short, wordless sound. ?You can still sting, can?t you??
Akin suppressed an urge to stand up, to face Gabe. His body was almost tiny compared to Gabe?s. Even if he had been larger, physical confrontation would have been pointless. He simply stared at the man.
After a time, Gabe came closer and bent to face Tate. ?You really want to let him do this??
She sighed, closed her eyes for a moment. ?I?m dying. Of course I?m going to let him do it.?
And he sighed, stroked her hair lightly. ?Yeah.? He turned to glare at Akin. ?All right, do whatever it is you do.?
Akin did not speak or move. He continued to watch Gabe, resenting the man?s attitude, knowing that it did not come only from fear for Tate.
?Well?? Gabe said, standing straight and looking down. Tall men did this. They meant to intimidate. Some of them wanted to fight. Gabe simply intended to make a point he was in no position to make.
Akin waited.
Tate said, ?Get out of here, Gabe. Leave us alone for a while.?
?Leave you with him!?
?Yes. Now. I?m sick of feeling like shit that?s been stepped in. Go.?
He went. It was better for him to go because she wanted it than for him to give in to Akin. Akin would have preferred to let him go silently, but he did not dare.
?Gabe,? he said as the man was going outside.
Gabe stopped but did not turn.
?Guard the door. An interruption could kill her.?
Gabe closed the door behind him without speaking. Immediately, Tate let her breath out in a kind of moan. She looked at the door, then at Akin. ?Do I have to do anything??
?No. Just put up with having me on that bench with you.?
This did not seem to disturb her. ?You?re small enough,? she said. ?Come on.?
He was no smaller than she was.
Carefully, he settled himself between her and the wall. ?I still have only my tongue to work with,? he said. ?That means this will look like I?m biting you on the neck.?
?You used to do that whenever I?d let you.?
?I know. Apparently, though, it looks more threatening or more suspicious now.?
She tried to laugh.
?You don?t think he?ll come in, do you? It really could kill you if someone tried to pull us apart.?
?He won?t. He learned a long time ago not to do things like that.?
?Okay. You won?t sleep as quickly as you would with an ooloi because I can?t sting you unconscious. I have to convince your body to do all the work. Keep still now.?
He put one arm around her to keep her in position when she lost consciousness, then put his mouth to the side of her neck. From then on, he was aware only of her body?its injured organs and poorly healed fractures
and its activation of her old illness, her Huntington?s disease. Did she know? Had the disease caused her to fall? It could have. Or she could have fallen deliberately in the hope of escaping the disease.
She had strained and bruised the ligaments in her back. She had dislocated one of the disks of cartilage between the vertebrae of her neck. She had broken her left kneecap badly. Her kidneys were damaged. Both kidneys. How had she managed to do that? How far had she fallen?
Her left wrist had been broken but had been set and had almost healed. There were also two rib fractures, nearly healed.
Akin lost himself in the work?the pleasure?of finding injuries and stimulating her body?s own healing ability. He stimulated her body to produce an enzyme that turned off the Huntington?s gene. The gene would eventually become active again. She must have an ooloi take care of the disease permanently before she left Earth. He could not replace the deadly gene or trick her body into using genes she had not used since before her birth. He could not help her create new ova clean of the Huntington?s gene. What he had already done to suppress the gene was as much as he dared to do.
3
Gabe?s interruption of Akin?s healing produced the only serious disruption in his memory Akin ever experienced. All he recalled of it later was abrupt agony.
In spite of his warning to Gabe, in spite of Tate?s reassurance, Gabe came into the room before the healing was complete. Akin learned later that Gabe returned because hours had passed without a sound from Akin or Tate. He was afraid for Tate, afraid something had gone wrong, and suspicious of Akin.
He found Akin apparently unconscious, his mouth still against Tate?s neck. Akin did not even seem to breathe. Nor did Tate. Her flesh was cool?almost cold?and that frightened Gabe. He believed she was dying, feared she might already be dead. He panicked.
First he tried to pull Tate free, alerting Akin on some level that something was wrong. But Akin?s attention was too much on Tate. He had only begun to disengage when Gabe hit him.
Gabe was afraid of Akin?s sting. He would not grasp Akin and try to pull him away from Tate. Instead, he tried to knock Akin away with quick, hard punches.
