Light Speed by Arkadie, L. (accelerated reader books .TXT) 📕

We all watch in disappointment asMagnificent Star turns her back and makes an exit.

“Let’s just finish eating,” Telman says, andthen playfully tugs Na’ta’s arm, “Then we’ll do what we came hereto do.” He lifts his eyebrows suggestively at her.

A time existed when I wouldn’t haveunderstood what he means. It’s difficult to picture Na’ta andTelman engaging in the same acts of sex that Chex and I haveengaged in. I saw a slice of what it may look like at the curepod.

“Ah,” Na’ta says eyeing me while wearing awry grin, “You starting to feel my pain, I see.”

“What’s wrong with you two!” Telman’s voicebooms. “You’re hot and sexy! You need to be…um….” he circles hishand like a conductor as he holds on to the “um” in search of theperfect word.

“But I’m not hot,” I say, because thetemperature of the room is perfect.

They all erupt in laughter.

“So Chex,” Na’ta coolly starts, grinning athim. I can tell by her tone of voice that she’s simply changing thesubject and, more than that, she’s about probe Chex forinformation. “Weren’t you the one who wiped out Gung-ho?” She winksat Telman and it appears that he’s no longer interested in sex withNa’ta either. He is now eager to hear what Chex has to say.

“Maybe.” He’s flashing teeth. “Maybenot.”

“Come on Chex,” Na’ta begs while smirking.“I let you poke my sister, don’t I…”

“Is that so?” Chex says dismissively.

Telman turns all of his attention on me.“These vampires, Adore. There were about fifty of them and theyfigured that they could turn children and drink them likehumans.”

I gasp, horrified at such information.

“But someone wiped them out, and anybody whoever knew about kid-cocktailing - that’s what they called it.” Heturns back to Chex. “Admit it Chex, it was you.” He looks back andforth between us. “It’ll impress Adore.”

“It will?” Chex asks, suggestively raisinghis eyebrows at me in a sultry manner.

I can’t help but simper under the power ofhis gaze.

“Alright; it’s true.” His acknowledgement islackluster.

“I knew it!” Na’ta shouts, pointing a fingerat Telman.

And for a very long time Chex, Na’ta, andTelman share stories about all the bad Selells they haveencountered over time. It’s funny how they look for commonalities.I remain quiet as I watch and listen. I’ve never seen Na’ta likethis. It seems the more the conversation deepens, the moreaffectionate she becomes toward Telman.

She nudges Telman in the chest because she’svery close to him now and he has his arm around her shoulder.“Felix sent us into the World Bank in Beijing. We had to get aring. That’s what we do; we recover shit for my father.”

I flinch, taken aback. “You do?” I did notexpect to hear her say this.

She mutters something to herself, cursingunder her breath.

“Was that to be a secret?” I ask becauseshe’s behaving as if she has made a mistake by divulging theinformation.

Everyone at the table is surprised by myoutburst, even Na’ta, who is just watching me with wide eyes but issaying nothing. I want her to speak.

“I worry about you, all the time. I thoughtyou were living your life carelessly and putting it in danger forthe fun of it!”

“Well, then you should calm down Adore,because I do that too!” She’s on the edge of her seat and leaningacross the table toward me. “You know what…” I have awakened thebeast. She’s ready to spar and so am I. “You talk a lot ofshit…”

“Can you stop saying that?” I say, cringing,“That word makes me uncomfortable.”

“Why? You don’t even know what itmeans.”

“It means bodily excrement,” I say with myteeth clenched as I lean across the table and face off withher.

“Like I was saying, you talk all of that…”She pauses and then rolls her eyes, “… stuff, but you arejudgmental Adore. You judge me all the time!” she whines, stabbingherself in the chest with a finger.

“I don’t judge you, Na’ta,” I sigh. But thenI remember that Chex leveled the same accusation against meearlier. I turn to look at him because now I’m out of words.

“Hey,” he gently lifts me to my feet. “Let’sgo rest.”

Na’ta is watching us with wide eyes. Telmanis glaring out the window, shaking his head, no less disappointedthat one of our spats ended the conversation with Chex.

“We’ll see you at sundown,” Chex says as heleads me out of the room, down the hall, and to our bed.

Keeping his eyes on my face, Chex gentlypulls one of my boots off, and then the other, and guides me downon the bed to lie behind me as he hugs me into him.

“Your sister is high voltage,” he finallysays.

“I don’t know what that means.”

He chuckles against me and guides my hairover the front of my shoulder to kiss the back of my neck.

“It means she sucks up a lot of energy.” Hepulls me in closer to him. “She really made you angry, didn’t she?I never saw you worked up like that. I thought you were going tozap her with your light.”

I sniff a little chuckle just rememberinghow many times in the past I’ve tried that. “She’s too quick,” Iadmit.

Chex’s laugh sounds delicious in my ear.

“She’s the only sister that I’m close to,” Isay after it falls silent again. It’s easy to admit what I alwayskeep locked inside of me to Chex.

I shift to flip around and Chex loosens hisgrip on me so that I can face him. He kisses me gently on the lipsand then gently slides a hand down the side of my face. “But don’tbe alarmed if we spend too much time together. We usually,eventually, get to this point. Father says it’s because we’re fireand ice, except he doesn’t know which one of us is the fire or theice.”

We silently stare into each other’s eyes.There’s a question I want to ask him but I’m not sure I should.

“What do you want to know Ad’ru?” he says,and for a moment I wonder if he somehow has a power of themind.

I hesitate, but ask anyway. “As a human,even a Selell, you have free will. Why have you made the choicesthat you’ve made?”

“I’ve made a lot of choices; which ones areyou referring to?”

I hesitate. “You will