Inheritance

the Egyptian pyramids, Mayan paintings, and pictures of giant lines carved into the ground. He skimmed the article. “Some people think aliens have been visiting Earth for thousands of years and helped the ancient Egyptians build their pyramids? That’s crazy.”

She forced herself to accept the change of subject. She didn’t really want to talk about Amber, either. “Yeah, I’ve heard of it before. I’m not a big fan of the theory.”

“Because it makes it seem as if ancient civilizations were too stupid to figure these things out on their own?”

“Exactly. Julian’s kind of into it, but even he doesn’t buy some of the ancient alien theories. He does think some of it can’t be explained without alien intervention, though.” She pointed at the photo of the lines carved into the mountains. “Like this. These are in Peru, and they were made a long time ago.”

“ ‘The Nazca lines,’ ” David read from the caption. “ ‘Some experts believe that these lines, created in the fifth century AD, were ancient runways used by a visiting alien civilization. Could it have been the Imria?’ ” He scrolled down. “This article thinks the Imria are lying about when they first came to Earth. It says that sightings of spaceships began a long time before Roswell.”

“That part’s true. People have seen UFOs forever.”

“Does Julian think the Imria got here before 1947?”

“I don’t know.” She rolled onto her back, moving away from David and the laptop.

He glanced at her. “Is something going on with you two?”

She stared at the overhead light fixture. “We had a fight.”

“About what?”

She couldn’t tell him that Julian had basically accused her of wanting to stay closeted. That was not a discussion she wanted to have with David, who clearly had issues with Amber. Instead she said, “He wants to be adapted.”

“Seriously?”

She shifted onto her side, propping her head in her hand. “Yeah. He says he wants to volunteer to be a test subject. I told him he’s crazy.”

“Why does he want to volunteer?”

She ran her fingers through the shag carpeting. “He thinks the adaptation procedure is this big huge thing that will change humanity for the better. He wants to be part of it. I think he’s romanticizing it.”

David closed her laptop and pushed it aside, turning to face her. “He’s got a point.”

“What do you mean?”

“It will change humanity. If the Imria do what they say they’re going to do, everything is going to change.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Do you think they’re some kind of savior?”

“They don’t have to be saviors to change everything. You have to admit, this adaptation thing is pretty intense. Think about what the world would be like if everyone had it.”

She flopped onto her back again, avoiding his gaze. She thought about what Julian had said—that if humans had the ability to share their consciousness with others, they wouldn’t be so quick to hate—and she wondered if he was being hopelessly naive. “I don’t want Julian to put himself at risk. You and I didn’t have any choice in the matter—what’s been done to us is done. We have to deal with the consequences. But Julian doesn’t need to get involved.”

“You make it sound so grim.”

She shot him a surprised glance. “It’s not exactly a picnic. Being followed everywhere, being lied to, everybody talking shit about us on the Internet.”

“That’s the public part. But think about what the adaptation has really done to us.” David reached out and touched her arm with one finger. His presence wavered into her consciousness as his finger stroked her skin. “It’s pretty amazing. Remember when we met with Eres Tilhar? I don’t know what you felt, but I felt like this was the answer to everything. Eres—whether she’s a woman or a man, who cares—Eres was bigger than life.”

She felt David’s heartbeat quickening as he spoke. His chest tightened as he remembered what Eres had shown him. He rested his hand on her arm, and her pulse leaped in response.

“I feel like this happened to us for a reason. I know that sounds crazy, and I’m not really religious, but…”

“What?” she said softly. “You can tell me.”

He gave her a quick smile. “Karma. I think about karma, right? I don’t really understand it, but I feel like there’s something bigger than us. Like we pay into a central pot of goodwill or something, and we get back what we put in. That day with Eres Tilhar—that was the first time I felt like I was connected to that pot of karma.”

She grinned in spite of herself and reached for his hand. “A pot of karma? Do you know how much I want to make jokes about Buddhist leprechauns right now?”

David’s mouth curved up. “It’s a good thing I like you or I might be offended.”

“That is a good thing,” she agreed, pulling him closer.

He propped his head on his right hand as the fingers of his left laced through hers. “What did you feel with Eres?” he asked.

She thought back to the moment in the ship with Eres Tilhar. “It felt… big. Like I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. It felt scary.” His body was pressed against her side now, and the warmth of him spread through her limbs. He wanted to touch her, but his hand was motionless in hers. He was holding himself back, and sensing that made her skin flush. This feels scary too, she thought.

She raised her right hand to his waist, where his T-shirt had pulled up. Her fingers ran over the smooth skin of his obliques, and she felt him feel it, a ripple traveling through his body. He let go of her left hand and touched the side of her face, his thumb trailing over her mouth.

Do you want me to stop? he asked. They were both nervous, remembering the overwhelming experience in the shed at the party, how frighteningly easy it was to slip over the edge. Reese told herself to focus on David. She looked up at him: his dark, half-hooded eyes; the sharp strands of his black hair angling over his forehead; the shape of his mouth, slightly open.

No, she told him. I don’t want you to stop. He bent his head and brushed his lips against hers. Her fingers tightened around his waist, pulling him down. His leg slid over hers.

A startled shriek came from the stairs. David jerked his head up and Reese rolled away. Chloe was halfway down the stairs into the family room, her face pink. “Dinner?” she squeaked, and then fled.

Reese sat up, her face red, and when she caught the embarrassed expression on David’s face she burst into laughter. He rubbed a hand over his eyes before scrambling to his feet. “Come on. Better my sister than my parents.”

CHAPTER 18

Their first lesson with Eres Tilhar was on Saturday. Their parents had agreed to take turns escorting them to Angel Island, and this week David’s father was driving. When he picked up Reese at her house, he told her that he had arranged for them to go to UCSF Medical Center on Sunday afternoon. “We have a preliminary team of geneticists assembled, and they need to take some samples—just blood and a buccal swab,” Winston Li said. “Are you all right with that?”

“What are they going to do with it?” she asked.

“They’ll sequence your DNA—and David’s. We want to find out where your DNA differs, post-adaptation, from normal human DNA.”

Reese, seated in the backseat, touched David’s shoulder in the front passenger seat. So we’re doing this? she thought.

He turned to look at her, nodding. I think it’ll be fine. My dad knows the team.

“Okay,” she said out loud. “Tomorrow it is.”