Alexander Death(21)

Kisa left the room and closed the door. Jenny hesitated, but the bath looked extremely inviting. The whole house was kept very clean and neat, probably by the two women.

Jenny removed her dirty tennis shoes, her jeans, her gloves. It always felt nice at the end of the day when she could finally take her gloves off and let her fingers breathe a little.

She looked at herself in the mirror. Big purple and yellow bruises were splattered all over her face, her ribs, her legs, where the mob had hit her and kicked her. They were already fading, though—Jenny healed faster than most people, and she never got sick.

She sat down in the hot bath and laid back, letting her hair float out all around her head. She looked up at the tiled ceiling. This was all crazy, she knew. Hitching a ride to Mexico with Alexander, whom she only knew from dreams of a distant past life. He'd saved her, though, from the mob, and apparently from Homeland Security, the CDC, and the National Guard, too.

She thought about her father, alone in the hospital. Only he wouldn't be alone anymore. June would have gotten there hours ago, and June was much more calm and sane than Jenny. June could even hug him, try to comfort him with human contact, things Jenny herself could never do.

The door to the bathroom opened, and Jenny sat up and gasped, covering herself with her arms.

“No fear,” Kisa said. She lay a thick towel, clothes, and a pair of sandals on the bathroom counter. “No touch, no fear.” She left again quickly.

“Thank you,” Jenny said, but Kisa had already closed the door. She was already making a bad start with that girl. And if Jenny was going to hide out here and wait for the United States government's interest in her to fade, she really did appreciate having a girl her own age to talk to, especially one who spoke some English. Jenny could help Kisa learn more English words, and maybe Kisa could help Jenny learn Spanish, or whatever language everybody was speaking.

Alexander had gone to a lot of trouble to bring Jenny here, and she still wasn't entirely sure why. Her previous elation and recklessness was slowly sinking, and doubt and worry started creeping in. She could understand well enough why Alexander would want to reconnect with others of their own kind—so far, Jenny herself knew only Alexander, Seth, Ashleigh, and Ashleigh's opposite, Tommy. And the last two were just monsters. Seth wasn't looking so sweet himself these days, either.

She imagined him embracing the slutty blond girl, but the image made her sick and she blinked it away.

She thought instead of Alexander—his bizarre power, animating the dead with his touch. He could control them, but he said his power was greatly enhanced by Jenny's touch. She wondered how that worked. He would probably show her, since that had to be the real reason he'd gone to all this trouble for Jenny.

And she thought of Alexander some more—his dark, intelligent eyes that looked at her and knew far more about Jenny than she knew about herself. The muscular feel of his arms and chest when he carried her. Because that was the other thing about Alexander. He could touch her. His touch did something to her, too. It charged her up, made her feel powerful. And a little bit high.

Jenny felt herself growing warmer, and found her hand creeping down between her legs as she thought about him. She stopped herself, remembering how Kisa had just walked in the door unannounced. She didn't really have any privacy here.

Jenny hurried through the bath, and quickly dried and dressed herself. Kisa had left her a lightweight, brightly colored dress.

She gathered up her dirty clothes and wet towel and walked out into the hall.

“What do you think you're doing?” Alexander asked. He leaned against the wall next to an open bedroom door.

“Where's the laundry room?” Jenny asked.

“Are you kidding? Just leave stuff like that in the bathroom. Kisa will clean it up.”

“I can do it,” Jenny said.

“Look, this is your room,” Alexander said, pointing to the open door beside him. “Kisa is staying in the room next to yours.” He walked a few steps to the next door and knocked on it. “You need anything—like somebody to pick up the bathroom—you just tell her.”

“I don't want to bother her,” Jenny said.

“I think you kind of miss the point of having servants.”

“You're right, I kind of do,” Jenny said.

Kisa opened her bedroom door.

“Hi, Kisa,” Jenny said. “Can you just show me the way to the laundry room?”

Alexander spoke to her in that strange language that didn't really sound like Spanish.

Kisa took the dirty clothes from Jenny and carried them toward the stairs.

“No, wait!” Jenny said. “I didn't tell you to take them, I was just asking...”