Page 120 of Light Leech

“Do you mind introducing us?”

“Why of course! Come.“ He took her hand and sped ahead on thick-platformed shoes, twisting his head in every direction like a pigeon in the middle of Zingang.

I kept up by forcing my way through clusters of people, surely earning scowls though I had no time to apologize. The music ate up the scoffs, gasps, and complaints–if there were any. I was still trying to understand the proper form of behavior for an event such as this. The eccentric talk-show host wasn’t the best example to base my reading on, though it was hard to find the best behavior between the fornication to my left and the civil vows to my right.

I stopped before bumping into Naoma, looking up in time to see her before bumping her into a Finian butler. The Sea-mech offered a black substance that pulsed like a heart in an open clam shell. I politely declined and turned to look at the savory alternative.

Zeg, Lyler had nice teeth. Perfect pearls with a violet sparkle under the light of the room. Despite the two jeweled incisors, I wanted to pluck each of them and savor their unblemished enamel like a reclined hedonist enjoying grapes. I licked my molars and almost shuddered at the thought of someone else’s in my mouth. The powdered remains on my tongue like cocaine in the nose of an addict suffering from withdrawals. The idea of that innervated pulp against my tongue caused me to shiver.

Naoma took my hand. “Yes, this is my boyfriend, Petya.”

She moved it forward to another man whose teeth looked just as delightful. His face tensed as I held my hand out, limp, but I couldn’t care about anything more than those teeth. He didn’t have any ornamentation like so many other people I had seen here. A fresh set. Unblemished by the foul diet of poverty.

Naoma squeezed my hand. I turned to her. Despite the glimmer of her teeth, I did not reach for them. The promise I had made to her to never harm her overrode my hunger. I had enough will to do that but knew such strength would soon expire.

She moved my hand out to shake his. The vice of his fingers against mine woke me. The hunger remained, but I held onto clarity, knowing that it would soon expire with the next surge of desire.

“Sorry,” I said. “The music was turned up too loud on my neurospace again. I love the Finian beats, you plug?”

The man chuckled. “Yeah, I get that. So you’re the du from Medislavia, huh?”

I took him in, now that I could focus on something other than his incisors. He wore thick-framed glasses and had a silver scalp with a variety of violet illustrations, some of which were classic Nichley characters with a grim twist. He didn’t even attempt realism with his yellow eyes, which had star pupils to match the yellow star-pointed light-fund makeup around his eyes. Stars adorned his tight black tracksuit with another grim rendition on his right pectoral, this one a skeletal Elmer the Eel with a smile despite his decomposing flesh.

I flashed my eyes in my neurospace for show. “Sorry, I turned the Fin+ mod all the way off. Can you say that again?”

“You’re a Medislacian influencer?”

“Yes.” It wasn’t hard to force a smile with the excitement of feeding creeping up on me. “Just as they say.”

“How interesting. I don’t even notice an accent.“ He snagged a drink from a Finian and offered it to me. When I refused, he passed it to another person who glared, then shrugged. I was glad the other person wasn’t standing with us. As far as I could tell, Kell was alone.

“All the Republic media makes it easy to learn Amerikese while you’re young, you plug?”

“Right.” He nodded and sipped his drink. “I’m kinda glad we don’t have to waste our time here with guk like that.”

“Like what? Learning a language?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Don’t you want to travel?”

“Most people know Amerikese. Just look at you! Why waste time?”

“Don’t you ever want to appreciate their culture? That’s why I travel, at least.”

“Yeah, then you settle here in the best country conglomerate known to man. Why waste my time with other cultures when I found what I like? No offense, of course.”

Like that helped ease my frustration. I forgot about my hunger for a moment. I had met too many Republic citizens who thrived on convenience and denied anything new because they thought they had already won the birth lottery. I appreciated the Republic, but people like this made me want to follow that Arabasian dream. I relaxed, knowing that any frustration I bore would just make it easier to feed.”

“Of course not, du!” I clapped him on the shoulder and looked around. “So, who’d you come with?”

“Why tie myself to anyone when people like you come to me!“ He laughed and I joined.

“Zeg ’em!” I said.

He agreed, though I didn’t even know what I had meant in the first place.

Lyler was speaking with Naoma. I patted his shoulder. “See you around!”