Becca turned and peered over at Iggy. He was stunned, still shocked, and she was looking at him for some sort of reaction. Whatever it would be. He could see the exhaustion in her ringed eyes. He could see the dried blood on her lips from a few hours before. He could see her small sharps. Premature and useless. He planted a hand onto her narrow shoulder under her black springy hair. He felt her newness seeping off of her stronger than his own. Just as his fingers wandered into the dark curls of her hair, she peered over his shoulder and noticed Takeshi and Emi standing there, watching. Her stare had the power in itself to incite fear, even in the bravest of people.
"New friends?" she asked.
Iggy pulled off the black-out blanket and he wrapped it around her. "For now," he said under his breath. He guided her under his arm into the house. There, he prepared a hot bath and laid her down into it. He hung over the ledge so that they were face to face. She was beautiful. Not only beautiful in her own way, but she was his. There was a part of his soul inside of her, and on the highest spiritual plane, he knew that his inner peace was dependent on protecting her. He caressed her lower lip with his thumb and he inspected her sharp teeth up close, just as Baine had to him. Her teeth were prematurely implanted in her gums with a lot less length than normal, short and futile, because she had fed on Lot's healing blood too early.
Becca exhaled sharply, the ache in her stomach drew her bellybutton in toward her back, and her shoulders pushed forward. She floated her hand up from the water, grasped his gently, and pushed his thumb from her bottom lip into her mouth toward her lower sharp. Her eyes crept open and planted on his neck.
"You're thirsty," Iggy pointed out acceptingly. "I'll take care of you, now." He took his thumb back and handed her his wrist. Her eyes were locked onto his, her lips drew back, and naturally she bit hard into the same place from where he had given her his life. Although she barely pierced the skin, Iggy braced himself along the bathtub ledge and waited for her pull to taper off. The shallow bite was much more painful than he assumed it would be, and he didn't know if the tingling sensation that was mixed with stinging was because of her strong suck or from the poison in her saliva. She clamped her eyes shut and sucked as much out of him as she could. Then, while still connected to him, she fell asleep like a baby. He unhinged her from his wrist and drew it back into his stomach.
As he gazed at her, Emi appeared at the doorway. She could smell the blood, of course. Iggy caught the lilac scent of her. He turned his chin and looked up, assessing her reaction to the whole ordeal, yet found nothing on her face. He stood up and went to the sink, where he splashed cold water on his face and scrubbed scabs of dry blood off of his cheeks.
Emi stepped in. "Is she asleep?" she asked. He didn't answer. She stood next to him, but she turned her back to his reflection because she couldn't look at him anymore. She spoke low and steady so that there was no misunderstanding her. "I see the two extra fangs in her mouth... and the brightness in her eyes. I know that you gave her the virus." She looked over at him as he continued to scrub his face. "Why? Why her? A… a… a murderer?"
Iggy laughed in his throat. "A murderer? She had the grounds. The man she killed was sadistic and the woman was no better. They… they… they exploited people for money."
Emi implored further, "how long have you known her?"
Iggy shrugged his shoulders and whacked some water off of his chin. "A couple of days."
"'A couple of days?!'" Emi repeated. "You infected a stranger? I can't believe you'd do that, and go on running around with-" she tore at her hair "-There's no difference. Murder among our kind is wrong, and all crimes are to be dealt with in more sophisticated ways. Even I know that."
"I don't have time for such processes," Iggy claimed. "I'm very weak-"
"And it's shameful for you to divulge in such barbaric acts or support them! And to share your sacred blood with someone outside of our world is preposterous! I don't approve of this! Not at all. I wish that I had known you were here all along. I would have-"
"I haven't been here all along," Iggy corrected her. His fingers began to tremble. The thousand foot stare reappeared in his eyes and he lost himself in his reflection. "I was in the labs," he said. "They starved me... for days. They starved the thirst reflex right out of me. That's how I can remember things, now."
Emi tilted her eyebrow and turned around. She faced him through the mirror. "That's not a bad thing!" She lifted her hand to pacify him, but his face became hard and he leaned far away from her.
"They replaced my heart with another that isn't my own, Emi. Then, they threw me away to die. I was going to die, but a guard helped me escape. Now, I'm free, but I can't heal and the shadows have abandoned me." He gestured to the near empty medicine patch on his hip. "This medicine is preventing me from healing. The doctor who did this to me did it as a favor, but I wish he hadn't. When it's gone, this heart will burst out of my chest, and I will die." Iggy looked over his shoulder back at Becca who was neck deep in the bath and still sound asleep. "Please, take her with you. Keep her safe, for me. She can pass on whatever's left from me."
Emi's eyes narrowed. "What's the doctor's name that did this to you?"
"Branching," Iggy answered quickly. "I'll never forget."
"And neither will I."