“Ah, you love it.”
“Yes, I do love you.” He sighed softly as he cuddled her. “Now, get some sleep.”
She tried to relax while her heart was thudding hard in her chest.
He lifted his head. “What is the problem?”
“You haven’t said that before.”
“But, you knew.”
“I suspected. I hoped. I didn’t know.” She looked up at him. “It is nice to know.”
He looked at her expectantly, his jaw flexing. “You feel the same, right?”
She chuckled and stroked his cheek dreamily. “Yes, purple pretty; I love you, too.”
He looked at her in surprise. “How old are you?”
She blinked at the question. “I am twenty-four. Why?”
“I once met a girl who called me that, but it was years ago, and I was just entering the program.”
She yawned and leaned against him. “What did she look like?”
“She was with a bunch of other kids, and her skin was translucent, her eyes wide and bright green. They were part of a find that the teams had discovered at a northern base.”
She mumbled. “A find? How did you meet the kids?”
She felt her body winding down to a resting state.
“We were taken to see them, and the little girl got out of the fencing that they had her in. She looked up at me and said, purple, pretty.”
She chuckled. “You were pretty then; you are pretty now. Don’t worry. The others of my clutch are dead. No one needs to worry.”
She fell asleep and could feel the riot of his emotions through the rushing of his heartbeat. Served him right. He had interrupted her own peace of mind countless times.
* * * *
Torun looked down at his love. Holy hells. If he was right, this was the same woman he had met when she was a child. He had been fourteen and only recently activated. His skin was as much of a sensitive point as his having moved away from his family and losing his last name. Fifteen percent of the population were activated, and his parents were not among them.
He had been hurting, feeling lost as they toured the detention facility where a batch of six creatures had been found at an abandoned northern research base. The strange, bald translucent girl had stared at him while the others she was in with fought using a variety of activations. Her green eyes had stared into his soul, and he had moved on when he was ushered along with the rest of the group. They were an unknown species, and there had been no one else alive at the base. How the children had survived was a mystery.
He had continued the tour, and when they were looking at the med centre, a tug at his tunic made him turn around. The little girl smiled. “Purple. Pretty.”
She reached out to take his hand, and a tremendous wave of power ran through him, but he kept control of it.
“Who are you, little girl? What are you called?”
She smiled happily. “Zero.”
Alarms went off, and she got an upset look in her eyes. He knelt, and she threw her arms around his neck, hiding against him.
A female researcher ran into the room and halted. “Sir, you need to let her go.”
“I know. Zero doesn’t like the alarms.”
The researcher blinked. “Zero? Right. Just a moment.” She talked into her com, and the alarms stopped.
The little girl nodded and leaned back to talk to Torun. “Thank you. I don’t like things that hurt my ears.”
The researcher gasped, and Torun stood with the child in his arms.
The group with Torun was very still. It was obvious that the little girl was considered dangerous.
“Sir, can you bring her this way?”
Torun nodded. “Sure.”
The researcher murmured, “What is your designation, sir?”
“Cadet Torun.”
“Well, Cadet. We don’t know what... uh... Zero is. We don’t know what the others she is with are. But, the boys appear to be burning themselves out. They grow weaker every day. She is a little weaker, but she is stable.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Um, because she is mildly radioactive, and you are the first person she has sought contact with.”
He smiled. “I am radiation-resistant. It comes with the purple skin.”
The researcher relaxed. “Well, that’s good then. So, if you just put her down in her holding cell.”
“Why is she in here and not with the others?”
“What?”
“When we saw them earlier, she was with them.”
The researcher paused and was about to speak. Zero leaned over and patted the woman’s belly. “Hello, baby.”
The researcher jolted. “How did you know that?”
Zero smiled and showed serpentine fangs. “Best friends!” She shot her arms up in the air.
Torun laughed, and they set the little girl in front of a sealed door.
The researcher knelt. “Now, how did you open the door, Zero?”
The little girl giggled and ran toward the door at full tilt. She ran straight through it and then ran out again, her arms out like the wings on an aircraft.
She stood in front of Torun and looked up at him. “Will purple pretty play?”
The researcher shook her head. “He doesn’t live here like you do. He can’t come back and play.”
Zero’s eyes got watery, and tears ran down her cheeks. He crouched and said, “When you grow up, come and find me, and we will go out and get ice cream.”
Zero paused. “What is ice cream?”
“Frozen cream and sugar with an egg-based stabilizer in a variety of flavours.” The researcher filled it in.
She frowned and stuck out her hand. “Deal.”
He took her tiny pale fingers in his own. “Deal. Will you go back into your room now?”
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t like people looking at me.”
He laughed. “You need to be seen, Zero, for people to know you are there.”
She sighed and walked over to the researcher, taking her hand. The woman looked surprised, but she smiled. “I will try and find you a new room, Zero. Or at least some curtains.”
The little girl beamed. “Can I have a tablet? I want to
