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.Yeah, right, like he knew how to take care of anything.Hell, he couldn’t even take care of himself.Orin looked up.“Please?”The lawyer’s eyes went hard.“I’ll try.”Chapter 63Okay.This was getting old.What the hell was it with this place? Every time Farley turned around someone was knocking him out or doing him over until he passed out.And all this nap time? It was seriously screwing with his internal clock.Farley tried to move but the chains around his wrists and ankles didn’t give.When he opened his eyes he saw a collage of Human bodies and Kin in full form.The picture was pieced together with hundreds of thousands of tiny tiles.Colors so vivid he had to blink several times just to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.But Farley never dreamed.Most Kin didn’t.Dreams took imagination and inventiveness, something which was a Human quality.No, Kin didn’t paint, write poetry or music.They could sing though.Not because of talent but biology.Their vocal cords were simply able to reach pitches and tones a Human couldn’t.But this thing covering the ceiling? Man, it was a work of art.A real beauty.And Farley almost lost himself staring in wonder at the images of half-Human half-dragons, pushing and pulling against each other, teeth locked, bodies entwined, frozen in a moment of violent sex and brutality.“It came to me one night, in a dream.”Farley turned his head.He could only see Heikman’s back.The distinct shape of wings, a back ridge, and scales hovered beneath his skin in holographic clarity.The Lesser-Bred had traded down his fancy slacks for black cotton scrub pants like the ones packed in the drawers of Farley’s room.Not my room, a cell with a hotel interior.While Heikman looked elsewhere, Farley gave the room a once over.Unlike the ceiling, the walls were solid black.Light came from candles perched on shelves.There had to be dozens of them.The wax dripped in a multicolored wash down to the floor.Small sounds, like silverware being shuffled, sounded off.Heikman said, “You asked me how an Alchemist can shift.” Yeah, he did.“Do you know what a mosaic is, Farley?”Well, he was pretty sure that the ceiling was an example.Heikman paused in whatever he was doing and turned.His golden eye flashed and rolled over him.There was a high flush to his usual pale complexion and his scent screamed arousal, anticipation, hunger.As if Heikman was reading his mind he said, “Not the art.A genetic mosaic?” He turned back to the table and the sounds resumed.“I suppose it was silly of me to ask, considering most of your kind can’t even read and write.“A mosaic is when an organism has two distinct DNA types.Normally, we express a combination of traits from each parent.Sometimes there are mistakes during fertilization and you wind up with genes competing for expression.In my case, the Kin DNA was dormant until I went through becoming, after which it reacted to the presence of the Alchemy.” Heikman put some sort of black band on his arm.He pulled it tight and there were Velcro sounds as he adjusted it.The process was repeated on the opposite bicep.“As a Human I was taken into the Circle, but when the Shift happened the Alchemy I housed in me couldn’t win out.Sometimes I think if I’d had more time, if it had been allowed to grow… You see, they tapped me when I was only twenty one.Some said I had a future as the Prime for Atlanta.” He paused.“You cannot possibly imagine what it was like to wake up one day as the thing I hated most.”Heat rolled out of the Lesser-Bred.His shoulders flexed and muscles jumped along his back.His next words were strained.“Normally…normally I don’t have to do this again so soon.But…like the feeding, it has increased.I almost killed Lor last time.I waited too long.You are right.I wait too long.And I’m hungry.So hungry…starving.” His breath came on a sharp intake of air.Farley said, “I’ll help you if you’ll just let me go.”Heikman shook his head.“I can’t do that.”“I’m Food.I know how to sate a Dominant.” But he couldn’t do it like this.Flat on his back, hands and feet bound, offered up on an altar like a freaking sacrificial lamb.“There isn’t anything you can do, trust me.This…this is a necessity like the feeding.I didn’t mean to shoot Junily, you know.I just couldn’t not kill him.” He glanced at Farley again.“You understand that, don’t you?”Sad to say, he did.There were many times where Farley wound up doing things because he had to, not because he wanted to.That was a part of being Kin and not Human.Heikman picked up something and padded across the black tile floor to the table Farley was on.Farley saw it was an IV bag when Heikman fastened it to the wall.The Lesser-Bred Alchemist extended an IV line.Farley watched.“What are you doing?”“Making sure you can heal.” Heikman pulled the cap from the end.Farley felt fingers press against his wrist.There was a small stick, then Heikman wrapped tape around the port several times to hold it in place.Farley arched his head back.The bag on the wall was red.“Fuck no…that’s Human blood.”“Yes.”“Shit--” Farley struggled and the collar flared.“Christ, no, not that.Heikman…please just take it out--”“I can’t risk you dying
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