Covenant (boyxboy)

Chapter Six

The courting event was neverending. It wasn't enough that I'd sat through the first three courses with the girls they'd forced me to pick. After Emily left, another Elioud took her place at the table for dessert. After dessert, there was tea and coffee, and breath mints passed around in a dish.

The Elioud began switching places faster, about every five minutes, and they each had a useless question to ask of the table. It was inane icebreaker stuff: if we could have dinner with any living or dead person, who would we choose? What's something we wished we were better at? Who were the important people in our lives?

I guessed this was what Bo had meant about the event being part speed dating. Luckily, the other men at the table were big talkers. I let them answer, and they invariably filled the time until the next switchover. Suited me fine.

One girl's face blended into the next, a shifting kaleidoscope of poofy hairstyles and blinding sequins. Nobody stood out. Nobody seemed very interested in me, either. I couldn't stop thinking about Connor. I had to take my phone out of my pocket and set it on the table, so that I wouldn't give in to the temptation to keep visiting him.

I was hoping we'd be done after lunch, but it turned out that we had to sit through two hours of performance from the students. Some sang, some danced, some played musical instruments. There was a dramatic poetry recitation and several martial demonstrations, all of them increasing the pheromones in the air until everything started to shimmer like we'd drunk too much liquor.

With Father in the audience I didn't dare attempt to sneak out, but I finally couldn't stand it anymore and picked up my phone. I could pull up the results of this morning's work to give my restless brain something to focus on. I'd made some progress ionizing a handful of nucleotide particles. The next step was to see if it made a difference to the labeling materials, but I wasn't going to get the chance to find out today, if this ridiculous event didn't let out soon. Maybe it would be okay to take Connor to the lab with me this evening, just for a few hours. I really wanted to see if this idea was going to pan out.

I scrolled through the readings, which were fed in real time from the lab's storage units. One batch was looking especially promising. I'd save it for a third or fourth attempt, in case there was something to learn from the first few tries.

The overhead lights went down and I was shooed from my seat by a few of the servers. But it still wasn't the end of this thing. The tables were stripped, folded down and rolled away, and the room transformed into a dance floor. Most people migrated into the crowd of floating, swaying couples, while sappy pop hits of eternal love played overhead. The Nephilim far outnumbered the third years, so it appeared that for this phase of the event the younger girls were participating too.

There were also a few elderly Elioud out on the floor. They had come to assist their Grooms in choosing their successor. I knew of the tradition, but seeing it myself was more touching than I'd expected. They invariably looked more excited about the event than their Grooms did. I saw more than one venerable lady urging her reluctant man into the arms of a sequined girl, though several were enjoying a dance themselves.

I saw my father dancing with Olivia. He nodded respectfully as they two-stepped past some of the older Elioud, and received many supportive pats on the arm and encouraging smiles.

My mother had never come to one of these events with him. She wouldn't have been willing to, even if she were still alive. Not because she didn't want to pass Father on to someone else, but because she'd viewed the entire Bride system as a form of slavery. No matter how gilded the cage, she used to say to us, we've been robbed of the choice to fly.

I found a shadowy spot by one of the stone columns, and checked on work again.

Suddenly, an alarm icon appeared in the middle of my lab app, with yellow rings and an exclamation point flashing.