Libby, the representative from Love Inc. had translucent skin. Her bones, also, were clear, making the presence and operations of her organs visible. Chel-C shuddered.
"I want a refund," Chel-C said. The words tumbled from her throat like broken glass. "He was not a perfect match."
Libby frowned. "He met every criteria you listed. He likes natural things. He's wealthy. He'll love you forever. He believes in the Divine. He's genetically pure--"
"That's not what I wrote," Chel-C said. "I said one hundred percent human. He's a vampire."
"Well," Libby answered. Her tongue rolling like a dark ghost in her mouth. "There was a glitch. Technically, however, he has human DNA."
"So does a crime scene!" Chel-C said.
Libby frowned, sending little ripples of light through her forehead. "We don't do refunds. We can find someone else for you."
Someone else.
Who else could there be? Who else could claim her love was unique across thirty centuries? Who else could truly love her forever? How could she deny him the pure blood he needed and claim to believe in the prophet who'd sacrificed hers for Proxima Centauri?
<scene>
Vincent came to her on a moonless night, setting his teeth to her throat with savage gentleness. Ecstasy caused her lips to part in a moan, like the coo of a dove. He stayed until the last breath left her mouth, to be caught up in his lungs.
He knelt, sobbing beside her. For a time, the universe went still.
When she opened her eyes, they were as blue as tears should be, pale as death's mechanical horse, and pure as the melting centuries.
YOU ARE READING
One Hundred Percent Human
Science FictionIn the thirty-fifth century, there is a genetically synthesized species of people designed to resemble the vampires of literature. Chel-C wants nothing to do with them. She wants a true, one hundred percent, human male with nothing artificial and th...
