AN ACQUIRED TASTE
1544 4D
The crash of the front door jolted Marra awake. She tottered out of bed, fighting for balance, and fumbled toward her closet in the dimly-moonlit darkness. Someone had broken in; heavy boots thudded in the hallway, and she turned. A huge shadow fill the doorway of her bedroom.
“How arrr ya?” It was one of Joyann‘s farmhands, and his drugs were on him. Probably a mixture of metathellin and pyro. His crotch bulged. “Comere and fix me up.”
What’s going on? Aoriver‘s voice came clear in Marra‘s head.
“You’re about to learn what rape is,” Marra muttered as the man approached her, his arms out, his long hair dangling in dark greasy curls. The damn gun was in the kitchen pantry.
I know what rape is. Kiss his mouth.
“Not the way to deal with it.” Marra gritted her teeth and backed into the corner. Deen appeared in the doorway, the gun in her hands. Thank goodness.
No, don’t let her shoot. It’s time.
“Time for what?” Marra said out loud. Her heart pounded.
Just kiss him. I’ll do the rest.
“Time ta help out a guy,” the man said, pressing up against her in the corner. His bulk squeezed the air from her lungs; his breath stank from stale stomach acid and rotted food.
“I’d rather die,” she choked out. If Deen fired, she’d kill them both. She waved NO to her sister.
“You gotta nice face,” the man mumbled, ignoring her words and her expression, taking her jaw in a huge hand. He bent to her and kissed her full and rancid on the mouth.
Excellent.
A sliding sensation rose from her gullet and drained out past her teeth. The man released his grip and straightened, looking around as if in a dream. Marra stuck out her tongue and wiped it on her nightshirt sleeve.
That’s ugly stuff he was using, Aoriver said. I neutralized it. Take him out of the house now, into the field in back.
The man stood docile. Waving Deen away, Marra led him outside. Deen followed, muttering to Oortonel.
Now, another kiss.
“Are you enjoying this?”
You will understand. Are you feeling all right?
“Barely missing being raped makes me feel just marvelous.”
Please. It will finish him.
Once more she stretched up and kissed the big man. His legs buckled; he fell sideways onto the fresh-tilled soil and gazed at nothing with an imbecilic grin. Hunger rose mightily in her.
“Oh, no!” Aoriver wanted her to eat him. Nausea spiked, followed by an even greater surge of appetite that made her race back to the house to get a knife. She stopped dead a few feet from the man lying on his side in a heap. “I won’t do this. You’re making me do it.”
It’s the reason we can keep you healthy.
“What?” Marra was appalled.
What we can do for you comes from what we eat. Nothing less good than Man, as one of your ancient authors wrote. But we take only those without sentattar, without nouess, to use your word.
“How do you know that?”
We know. Andros, some humans, lack souls. This man — would he not be better as food?
Marra‘s stomach growled. “It’s not right.”
Do you like being healthy and not growing older?
“Of course, but—“
This is the price. He will die soon anyway; his line of life holds many strangling knots.
“But I can’t — oh, why do I want meat so badly? Are you doing that?” Some herbs had this effect; Marra fished in her memory for antidotes.
No. Your body is stating its own needs. I’m simply passing them along to you, in clearer form.
“What would I have to eat?”
The liver and a few other things. Nothing repulsive.
Marra said sarcastically, “That’s such a relief. But the whole liver? Raw?”
Only as much as you want. Yes, raw.
She knelt by the man, peeled free the seam of his coverall, and touched his skin. He no longer breathed.
“He’s dead!”
What did you expect, live dinner? We’re not as savage as some of your kind. Feel his rib cage. There, on your left. A little cut. That’s good, just let the blood drain onto the soil; it’s good for your crops.
The raw taste got better with each bite, until she lay so gorged she couldn’t do anything but sleep, sprawled on her side on the tilled earth under teeming summer stars, until Deen woke her, took the knife, and began to feed.
