Catch the Lightning Read Free Page B

and drew my knees together. “The box. What happened to it?”
    “It picks up radio waves.” Althor leaned in until his chest rested against my shoulder. He touched a panel on the transcom and it went silent. Then he spoke near my ear. “You haven’t told me your name.” His river swirled around us, muddling my thoughts. I felt his moods more than with other people, even Joshua. With Althor it was so intense it almost hurt, or would have hurt if it had been harsh. But it wasn’t harsh. It was sensual.
    “Tina. I’m Tina. Akushtina Santis Pulivok.” I had no idea why I gave him my full name. I could always tell when someone thought it was strange and that happened often enough that I had quit saying it.
    “ ’Akushtina,” he said. “A beautiful name. For a beautiful woman.”
    I stared at him. The surprise wasn’t so much that he thought it was beautiful, though that was unexpected too; the glottal stop at the beginning of Akushtina sounded ugly to most people who didn’t speak Tzotzil Mayan. But what really hit me was that he pronounced it right.
    Althor picked up a lock of my hair. “So long and soft and black.” He had a musky scent, like catnip. “Why are you out here alone?”
    I tried to ignore his smell, but it was impossible. Neither of us realized the truth then, that he was giving off pheromones specific to someone with my genetic makeup.
    I pulled away from him. “I was coming home from work. My brothers are expecting me.” There was no way he could know I had no brothers. “They must be looking for me right now.” Althor tilted his head, like someone struggling to catch a sound he could barely hear. “How do you do that?”
    “Do what?”
    “Upload to me. Overwrite my thoughts. My web is supposed to be protected.”
    “What?”
    “I can’t think.” He put his arm around my waist. “You are doing something.”
    My awareness of him intensified, the textures of his emotions mixing with his actual touch until I couldn’t separate them. It was too much. When he bent his head to kiss me, I slid my arms around his neck, acting before I had time to think.
    When it came to men, Manuel had been as strict with me as a father. More like a priest. But I still had an idea what went on, enough to realize Althor kissed differently from most. He flicked his tongue over my ear, the closed lids of my eyes, the tip of my nose. When he reached my lips, he kept one arm around my waist and held my head with his other hand, stroking my cheek with his thumb while his tongue came inside.
    When we separated, he pushed my hair out of my face. “Where are your brothers?”
    I looked at him, feeling the echo of his lips on my mouth. His scent permeated the air.
    “Tina?” He touched my cheek “Are you there?”
    “ ¿Qué? ”
    “Your brothers. Why they leave you to walk like this?”
    “They don’t.” Which was true, seeing as I had no brothers. “I don’t usually come out this late.”
    “Where are you going?”
    “Home. Rosa usually gives me a ride, but her car is in the shop.” That brought me to my senses, as I realized how strangely I was behaving. I stood up. “I should go.”
    He stood up next to me. “Already?”
    I was afraid to ask for his phone number, thinking he might take it wrong. Earth, in that day and age, was in a state of flux when it came to courting rituals. In some circles, it was accepted for a woman to make overtures to a man. But I had grown up in an environment where that wasn’t true.
    “Tina?” Althor said.
    “I thought maybe—” I paused, leaving him an opening.
    “Yes?” He watched me as if I had turned to water and were running through his fingers.
    “I—Nothing.” I waited a moment, then said, “I have to go.”
    He started to speak, then stopped himself. “You’re sure?”
    “Yes.”
    Again he had that odd look. But all he said was, .“Adios, ’Akushtina.”
    “Adios.” I headed for home, struggling to ignore the feeling that I had just made the