She tossed another section of mundo branch on the fire to keep the blaze up and predators away. “That’s you, right now. In possession of yourself. You told me earlier today that the different strains of TriNA were still working it out. What if Demon starts pulling out the old Derek Taglioni? The one who trolled courtesans through Corporate high society as a way to show off? That guy worries me. Before I let you get close enough to see, let alone hold any heart of mine, I have to know that guy’s dead.”

Dek pursed his lips, chewed on them for moment as a frown lined his forehead. Finally, he nodded as if to himself. “Yeah, that makes two of us.”

“That’s giving in pretty quickly. Why no dying protestation of love?”

His eyes gleamed in the firelight. “Because I’ve come across the stars to find a woman I love more than life itself. Having done that, I don’t want a bunch of alien chemicals to screw it up. And I don’t know what’s going on with the quetzal stuff inside me. I can sense rather than feel it, like a churning, and it’s been fingering around the edges of my mind, as if trying to judge me.”

“Judge you how?”

Dek frowned again, deeper, eyes narrowing in concentration. As if to something inside, he said, “Because I’m back on the rim again. And before I let you ruin my life, I’ll toss us all off the edge. And this time, there won’t be any water at the bottom. Just hard and unforgiving rocks.”

64

The look in Michaela Hailwood’s eyes should have frightened Felix. Instead, he was more worried about the deep-seated ache just down below the corners of his jaw. He hadn’t been able to figure out what it meant. Just that the sides of his mouth hurt, and if he pushed on either side of his neck, he could trace the pain down to just above his collarbone.

And the sound had changed. Like the Voice had promised, he could hear more now. A faint singing, like a changing, fluttering harmony that surrounded the Pod. It sort of sounded like Shin’s symphony music that he used to play on Ashanti, but different. And there were deep bass sounds, like a reassuring thrumming that crept up from the sea and through the pilings.

“Felix?” Michaela asked, leaning her dark face down to stare into his eyes. The woman looked scared. That, more than anything, had him slightly unsettled.

“Do you hear the music?” he asked, head cocked. “It’s coming from the water.”

“I don’t hear anything. And we’re way above the water.”