The Host (The Host 1)

"Yes, but she's a friend. "

The woman eyed me doubtfully.

"Doc? You've got a few more visitors. Is that okay?"

Doc looked at the woman. "These are all friends, all right? More of the humans who live here with me. None of them would ever dream of hurting you. Can they come in?"

The woman hesitated, then nodded cautiously. "Okay," she whispered.

"This is Ian," I said, motioning him forward. "And Jared, and Jeb. " One by one, they walked into the room and stood beside me. "And this is Kyle and. . . uh, Sunny. "

Doc's eyes bugged wide as Kyle, Sunny attached to his side, entered the room.

"Are there any more?" the woman whispered.

Doc cleared his throat, trying to compose himself. "Yes. There are a lot of people who live here. All. . . well, mostly humans," he added, staring at Sunny.

"Trudy is on her way," I told Doc. "Maybe Trudy could. . . " I glanced at Sunny and Kyle. ". . . find a room for. . . her to rest in?"

Doc nodded, still wide-eyed. "That might be a good idea. "

"Who's Trudy?" the woman whispered.

"She's very nice. She'll take care of you. "

"Is she human, or is she like that one?" She nodded toward me.

"She's human. "

This seemed to ease the woman's mind.

"Oh," Sunny gasped behind me.

I turned to see her staring at the cryotanks that held the Healers. They were standing in the middle of Doc's desk, the lights on top glowing muted red. On the floor in front of the desk, the seven remaining empty tanks were piled in an untidy heap.

Tears sprang to Sunny's eyes again, and she buried her face against Kyle's chest.

"I don't want to go! I want to stay with you," she moaned to the big man she seemed to trust so completely.

"I know, Sunny. I'm sorry. "

Sunny broke down into sobs.

I blinked fast, trying to keep the tears from my own eyes. I crossed the small space to where Sunny stood, and stroked her springy black hair.

"I need to talk to her for a minute, Kyle," I murmured.

He nodded, his face troubled, and pulled the clinging girl from his side.

"No, no," she begged.

"It's okay," I promised. "He's not going anywhere. I just want to ask you a few questions. "

Kyle turned her to face me, and her arms locked around me. I pulled her to the far corner of the room, as far from the nameless woman as I could get. I didn't want our conversation to confuse or frighten the Healer's host any more than she already was. Kyle followed, never more than a few inches away. We sat on the floor, facing the wall.

"Jeez," Kyle murmured. "I didn't think it would be like this. This really sucks. "

"How did you find her? And catch her?" I asked. The sobbing girl didn't react as I questioned him; she just kept crying on my shoulder. "What happened? Why is she like this?"

"Well, I thought she might be in Las Vegas. I went there first, before I went on to Portland. See, Jodi was really close to her mother, and that's where Doris lived. I thought, seeing how you were about Jared and the kid, that maybe she would go there, even when she wasn't Jodi. And I was right. They were all there at the same old house, Doris 's house: Doris, and her husband, Warren-they had other names, but I didn't hear them clearly-and Sunny. I watched them all day, until it was nighttime. Sunny was in Jodi's old room, alone. I snuck in after they'd all been asleep for hours. I yanked Sunny up, threw her over my shoulder, and jumped out the window. I thought she was going to start screaming, so I was really booking it back to the jeep. Then I was afraid because she didn't start screaming. She was just so quiet! I was afraid she had. . . you know. Like that guy we caught once. "

I winced-I had a more recent memory.

"So I pulled her off my shoulder, and she was alive, just staring up at me, all wide-eyed. Still not screaming. I carried her back to the jeep. I'd been planning to tie her up, but. . . she didn't look that upset. She wasn't trying to get away, at least. So I just buckled her in and started driving.

"She just stared at me for a long time, and then finally she said, ??You're Kyle,' and I said, ??Yeah, who are you?' and she told me her name. What is it again?"

"Sunlight Passing Through the Ice," Sunny whispered brokenly. "I like Sunny, though. It's nice. "

"Anyway," Kyle went on after clearing his throat. "She didn't mind talking to me at all. She wasn't afraid like I'd thought she'd be. So we talked. " He was quiet for a moment. "She was happy to see me. "

"I used to dream about him all the time," Sunny whispered to me. "Every night. I kept hoping the Seekers would find him; I missed him so much. . . When I saw him, I thought it was the old dream again. "

I swallowed loudly.

Kyle reached across me to lay his hand on her cheek.

"She's a good kid, Wanda. Can't we send her someplace really nice?"

"That's what I wanted to ask her about. Where have you lived, Sunny?"

I was vaguely aware of the subdued voices of the others, greeting Trudy's arrival. We had our backs to them. I wanted to see what was going on, but I was also glad not to have the distraction. I tried to concentrate on the crying soul.

"Just here and with the Bears. I was there five life terms. But I like it better here. I haven't had even a quarter of a life term here!"

"I know. Believe me, I understand. Is there anywhere else, though, that you've ever wanted to go? The Flowers, maybe? It's nice there; I've been. "

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; "I don't want to be a plant," she mumbled into my shoulder.

"The Spiders. . . " I began, but then let my voice trail off. The Spiders were not the right place for Sunny.

"I'm tired of cold. And I like colors. "

"I know. " I sighed. "I haven't been a Dolphin, but I hear it's nice there. Color, mobility, family. . . "

"They're all so far away. By the time I got anywhere, Kyle would be. . . He'd be. . . " She hiccuped and then started crying again.

"Don't you have any other choices?" Kyle asked anxiously. "Aren't there a lot more places out there?"

I could hear Trudy talking to the Healer's host, but I tuned out the words. Let the humans take care of their own for the moment.

"Not that the off-world ships are going to," I told him, shaking my head. "There are lots of worlds, but only a few, mostly the newer ones, are still open for settling. And I'm sorry, Sunny, but I have to send you far away. The Seekers want to find my friends here, and they'd bring you back if they could, so you could show them the way. "

"I don't even know the way," she sobbed. My shoulder was drenched with her tears. "He covered my eyes. "

Kyle looked at me as if I could produce some kind of miracle to make this all work out perfectly. Like the medicine I'd provided, some kind of magic. But I knew that I was out of magic, out of happy endings-for the soul half of the equation, at least.

I stared back hopelessly at Kyle. "It's just the Bears, the Flowers, and the Dolphins," I told him. "I won't send her to the Fire Planet. "

The small woman shuddered at the name.

"Don't worry, Sunny. You'll like the Dolphins. They'll be nice. Of course they'll be nice. "

She sobbed harder.

I sighed and moved on.

"Sunny, I need to ask you about Jodi. "

Kyle stiffened beside me.

"What about her?" Sunny mumbled.

"Is she. . . is she in there with you? Can you hear her?"

Sunny sniffed and looked up at me. "I don't understand what you mean. "

"Does she ever talk to you? Are you ever aware of her thoughts?"

"My. . . body's? Her thoughts? She doesn't have any. I'm here now. "

I nodded slowly.

"Is that bad?" Kyle whispered.

"I don't know enough about it to tell. It's probably not good, though. "

Kyle's eyes tightened.

"How long have you been here, Sunny?"

She frowned, thinking. "How long is it, Kyle? Five years? Six? You disappeared before I came home. "

"Six," he said.

"And how old are you?" I asked her.

"I'm twenty-seven. "

That surprised me-she was such a little thing, so young looking. I couldn't believe she was six years older than Melanie.

"Why does that matter?" Kyle asked.

"I'm not sure. It just seems like the more time someone spent as a human before they became a soul, the better chance they might have at. . . making a recovery. The greater the percentage of their life they spent human, the more memories they have, the more connections, the more years being called by the right name. . . I don't know. "

"Is twenty-one years enough?" he asked, his voice desperate.

"I guess we'll find out. "

"It's not fair!" Sunny wailed. "Why do you get to stay? Why can't I stay, if you can?"

I had to swallow hard. "That wouldn't be fair, would it? But I don't get to stay, Sunny. I have to go, too. And soon. Maybe we'll leave together. " Perhaps she'd be happier if she thought I was going to the Dolphins with her. By the time she knew otherwise, Sunny would have a different host with different emotions and no tie to this human beside me. Maybe. Anyway, it would be too late. "I have to go, Sunny, just like you. I have to give my body back, too. "

And then, flat and hard from right behind us, Ian's voice broke the quiet like the crack of a whip.

"What?"