The Other Side of Life (Book #1, Cyberpunk Elven Trilogy) Read Free Page B

quipped sarcastically, drawing quotation marks in
the air, “by voting online.”
    “ The votes were probably
rigged.” Nin spoke the exact words that formed in Anya’s mind,
before she had a chance to vocalize them. “Fancy name for a project
lacking in substance. Trees are holograms in the heart of the city
now—Zouk lives and breathes a world of make-belief.”
    Nin stopped in his tracks when he saw a
couple of motorcycles parked (haphazardly—one looked almost ready
to keel over) to the side. The bikes needed a good clean and
polish.
    “ That would be ours,” Anya
informed Nin.
    “ Cool. I ride one
too.”
    Nin immediately regretted what he had just
told them. He knew how to ride a motorcycle, though he didn’t
exactly own one.
    Anya’s next question confirmed his
sentiment. “Where’s your bike?”
    Nin casually waved a hand to the left,
towards a slight curve of a road which was half-blocked by a clump
of trees. “Somewhere over there.”
    The girls seemed to buy it. Or maybe they
were quiet because of the two figures that greeted them at the
unused, rusty train tracks behind the church.
    “ Tavia!” Nin went up to a
slender, sassy female who had curves in all the right places. He
planted a kiss on the side of her check. She patted the back of his
shoulder twice, in response. Ink markings on a section of her inner
wrist showed—a tattoo design of some sort.
    “ Are they models?” Leticia
whispered to Anya, enviously eyeballing Tavia, who sported a chic
crop which featured various shades of blue.
    “ You’d need money or
connections, to get away with that, ” Anya whispered back to
Leticia, referring to Tavia’s sense of style. If Tavia was like
Anya and Leticia (of “the common people” variety), she could be
prosecuted for being too trendy. Zouk City considered it a
violation of the commoners’ code of uniform conformity.
    “ Why haven’t we seen them
before?” Anya whispered back. Nin and his friends looked like
interesting personalities. Had they been living under a rock all
this while? What were they doing, out here in the outback of a
derelict building?
    Tavia had a darker-skinned companion, who
introduced himself as “Dresan” followed by a “pleased to meet you,”
after Anya and Leticia said hello. Leticia wondered if he was some
kind of bodyguard, judging from his strong, silent stance. Dresan
quickly brought some strands of his long hair forward, to cover the
sides of his head and face, when Leticia seemed to be spending a
second too long staring at one of his ears.
    “ I brought the dream
catcher.” Tavia’s tone said what she didn’t: that she wanted Nin to
explain what this was really all about. It wasn’t often that he
requested them to do things—or bring forth cherished items—without
telling them why first.
    She handed it to Nin. The dream catcher was
a stunningly intricate glass ornament, embellished with silver and
little gemstones.
    “ A sophisticated piece of
artwork, featuring symbolic geometry,” Nin described with panache,
to Anya and Leticia. “The centerpiece represents an imago mundi …uh”—he
fumbled for a moment, for words Anya and Leticia would
understand—“a systematic creation, in the form of the four
elements, the life cycle of the moon, and the signs of the
Zodiac.”
    He looked at Anya for a moment, tilting his
head to one side slightly. He liked playing games, and playful mind
games were no exception. “You’re an Aries, aren’t you?”
    She was about to cross her arms, but
attempted to look unfazed, despite his accuracy. “How did you
know?”
    “ I can always tell…” Nin
conveniently didn’t mention the help he got from his N-Gage. He’d
keep up the image of being a séance. “Do you believe in
astrology?”
    Leticia did. She turned her face towards
Anya, lips curving up in a thin smile.
    “ Are you a Libra?” Leticia
asked Nin, wanting to see if she had gotten better at guessing
people’s sun signs.
    His smile matched