Invaded (Alienated, #2)(61)
“Do you have it memorized?” David asked.
“Mmm-hmm.”
He handed her the stack. “Then put it back in the deck.”
Thinking she was clever, Syrine slipped her card on top of the pile and snatched the deck to shuffle it. “I know how this trick works,” she boasted. “You positioned a key card in the deck when I wasn’t looking. But now it’s out of order.” With a beaming smile, she handed him the stack. “You’ll never guess my card.”
Aelyx held back a laugh while David searched the deck, pretending to seek a card he’d already identified. David held one up and announced, “The jack of clubs.”
“No, it was the five of hearts!” Syrine bounced in her seat, clapping wildly. “I win!”
Flashing a wry grin, David wrapped a rubber band around the deck. “Yep, you beat me fair ’n’ square. Guess I’ll be feeding you pears and honey tonight.” He peeked up at her. “Hey, any chance you’re hungry? Dinner’s not for a while, but I spotted a fresh pear in the fridge. If you want, you can go get comfy and I’ll bring it to you.”
Aelyx hid a smile. He should be taking notes, because David was a damned genius.
Syrine was too busy gloating to realize she’d been played like a game of sticks. “Okay. Make sure you slice them extra thin, and don’t forget the cinnamon.” She practically skipped to her room and left the door open for David to follow her into paradise.
“And that, my friend,” David said, pointing at Aelyx, “is how it’s done.”
Needless to say, Aelyx spent the rest of the afternoon alone.
At dinnertime, he prepared a bowl of lo mein noodles and settled at the dining room table with a data tablet he’d borrowed from the ambassador. While Aelyx ate, he scanned the Voyager archives for information about the life-forms they’d discovered. He’d read most of these files in past years, but perhaps he’d overlooked a crucial detail that would lead him to the identity of whoever had launched the probes.
To shorten the possibilities, he sorted the list by intelligence, which left eleven sentient species. He eliminated ten of those because their technology hadn’t advanced beyond the use of basic gear systems. The remaining race of beings had gone extinct fifty years ago from a lethal pandemic.
After an hour of research, Aelyx was no closer to solving the mystery. All that remained to explore were various academic theories on the existence of interstellar travelers. It was worth a try. His first search yielded a thesis by Larish, who believed aliens called “the Aribol” had abducted a legion of ancient humans from the Black Sea region and relocated them to L’eihr, where the soldiers had perpetuated Aelyx’s entire race. Other scholars argued that humanity traced their lineage to L’eihr. But what none of these dissertations told him were any details about the Aribol.
Did the society truly exist? And why would the Aribol send probes to investigate L’eihr if they had already been there, thousands of years ago, when they’d allegedly seeded the human battalion? Aelyx was more confused than ever. He wondered if it would seem suspicious to contact Larish for more information.
He was still debating whether to message the scholar when Syrine’s bedroom door clicked open and she drifted into view as if floating on air, an intoxicated grin dimpling her cheeks. She stopped in the kitchen to fill a glass with water, then sat opposite Aelyx at the long wooden table and rested her chin in her hand.
She sighed dreamily. “That was an amazing pear.”
“Oh?” Aelyx laughed and checked his watch. “Then why did it take three hours for you to finish it?”
Instead of blushing or stammering as he’d expected, Syrine widened her smile with a contentment that said nothing in the world could provoke her tonight. Aelyx noted the sheen in her eyes. This was no mere infatuation—she was completely smitten.
“When each bite is that heavenly,” she said, “you want to savor it as slowly as you can.”
Aelyx wrinkled his nose. “I’ll take your word for it.”
“We probably shouldn’t use Silent Speech for a while,” she added with a giggle.
“I appreciate the warning.”
He’d never seen Syrine so happy. The perpetual smile on her mouth made his own lips curve in response. He’d wanted this for her—a morsel of normalcy and comfort in the wake of Eron’s death—but still, Aelyx couldn’t stop the tentacles of envy from gripping his chest. Until today, Syrine had never kissed a boy, and now even she knew more about physical love than he did. Sometimes he worried it would never happen for him, that he and Cara were jinxed.
Syrine must have read his heart. “Only one month until you see your Elire.” Her gaze was sympathetic, even as she teased, “If you’re nice to me, I might give you some pointers.”
Laughing, Aelyx grabbed the nearest object he could reach—a cloth napkin—and threw it at Syrine’s head. “You can shove your pointers!”
David strode into the dining area, refastening a gun holster around his hips. “What’s so funny?” When he stood behind Syrine and rested both palms on her shoulders, she reached up and covered his hands with her own, not the least bit ashamed to show him affection. Aelyx attributed the uncharacteristic behavior to the rush of dopamine in her system. A post-sex haze.