The elevator slowed, saving her from answering. Thomas ushered the men out ahead of them. They exited into another bare lobby with a set of heavy doors to one side. Thomas held out a hand at his side, pausing her progress. The two men preceded them, the Guardian’s shoulders set and angry. As the door swung to close behind them, Prentiss looked back. He wasn’t looking at her physically, but inspected her aura. The lascivious heat in his stare made it a violation.
Once she and Thomas were alone again, she let out the breath she wasn’t aware she’d been holding. They spoke at the same time.
“Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea.”
“What was that all about?”
She waited for him to answer her question.
He rubbed his nose. “Erwin explained the basics of our life spans?”
“Yeah, he did. And I understand, awesome, you guys live a long time and get lonely. But there are women here. I’ve seen them. Those two looked at me like they hadn’t had a warm body in their beds in…ever. They’re not the only ones. And really, I’m just not that beautiful.”
“It’s complicated,” Thomas said. “It’s not the life span alone. There are other biological adaptations at play. But to explain them…. I don’t know how experienced you are in certain areas.” He avoided her gaze. “I don’t want to offend you.”
Lena wanted to laugh. She would have if she wasn’t so sick of being ogled by everything attached to a penis. Here in the Ward School, there were a lot of them. “Let’s say I’m experienced enough. Please explain.”
His face moved from side to side as he thought about how he wanted to phrase it. “So, look, your parents. She was a Spark and he wasn’t. Did you never notice how powered men reacted to your mother, Lena? Or how they treated your father for having the audacity to be with her?”
She stared at the man for a moment. Male Sparks came on to her mother? What the Dust was he getting at? “I…no. I stayed inside. I never saw them interact with anyone.”
He nodded in resignation. “Right.” Thomas took a deep breath and shrugged. He looked at her now, his voice strong and direct. “And have you never been with a Spark yourself?”
“What does this have to do with anything?”
“Have you?”
“No, not—no.” She crossed her arms and refused to think about Jackson. “I’ve avoided other Sparks like the plague. I couldn’t risk being with someone who could recognize how strong I am.”
“Okay.” He nodded, licked his lips, and muttered to himself, “How did I get stuck with this conversation?”
She waited. Her brows were raised, and her amusement at his discomfort twitched her lips upward.
He looked up at her, his own lips curved into a wry smile. “Don’t laugh,” he ordered her. “It’s not funny. Look, it’s like this. The Dust, the nanobots, they react to each other, a certain electric or magnetic pull. And they react also to those who can use them. We—” he gestured between the two of them “—and all of us, we have more Dust in, on, and around us than the unpowered. They prefer us. And the attraction grows with the Spark’s power.”
“Okay. Got it.”
“And there are certain involuntary…discharges…that occur during times of heightened arousal.”
“Right.” She remembered how the Dust pooled within her in the safe house with Reyes. It had seemed drawn to where their bodies touched. Later, she’d definitely felt the involuntary discharges sparking and flaring when Jackson kissed her, and the frenetic reaction of the Dust when Reyes interrupted, as if it remembered him. That sensation got more intense?
“So, if you ever noticed or if anyone ever told you—”
“I got it,” Lena said.
He moved his hands up in a gesture to appease her. “Okay. So, when you’re with another Spark, it is more pleasurable. And the intensity of the experience grows with the power of the…participants. Significantly.” The emphasis he put on the final word caused her brows to raise nearly to her hairline.
“So…what you’re saying is, every single man I walk past in this place who gets a peek at my aura starts drooling and wondering if being with me would be a brains-on-the-wall final moment of glory?”
Was that why Jackson couldn’t resist her advances? Not because he wanted her, but because of…nanites? Had she been that wrong? Lena felt a wash of confusion as strong as nausea. No wonder he’d volunteered to go out on field maneuvers.
Thomas winced. “Yes…”
“Yes? But? Am I wrong?”
“Yes. You’re not wrong. But look, it’s more than the physical response. Although there’s never been a woman like you, so that response isn’t insignificant.” His eyes were narrowed now, and he spoke rapidly and forcefully. Was this a favorite subject? “The things that you are capable of, the promise of what you can bring to us as a whole, and yes, perhaps, to one individual. If you choose well, your children will be powerful beyond—well, that’s the draw. It’s…you’re the ideal. You’re the…great…tantalizing…possibility.”
“I see.” She did see. But she wasn’t sure what to make of it. “So we’re all slaves to the Dust we carry? Like, uber-Spark pheromones or something? Funny. Reyes doesn’t seem all that affected.”
He made a face. “Alex has more discipline than any ten men put together. He feels it. We all feel it. It’s a matter of control.”