Forbidden by Ted Dekker Page B

Avra to Rom. “So? What are you doing here?”
    “Saving you from Triphon’s proposal,” Rom said.
    Triphon closed the door. “Neah was about to accept.”
    “No, I wasn’t!”
    “You both look terrible,” Triphon said. “Are you ill?”
    Rom was suddenly unsure what to say.
    “We’re in trouble.”
    “Trouble?”
    He began to wonder if Avra was right, and coming here was a bad idea.
    “We poisoned ourselves,” Avra blurted. “By accident.”
    “What?” Neah paled. “What do you mean, poisoned yourself by accident ?”
    “We didn’t poison ourselves,” Rom quickly corrected. He glanced at Avra. “We have this vial that was passed to me. This vial of ancient blood. It apparently has some kind of effect.”
    “Like a drug?”
    “Maybe. Yes. Kind of like that.”
    “Yes,” Avra said.
    “Idiots,” Neah said.
    Rom looked from Triphon to Neah. “We need help.”
    Neah said, “Let me get this clear: You found some old blood. You took it. It poisoned or drugged you. And you come here, to my apartment? What kind of friends are you?”
    “We can’t go home,” Rom said.
    “What do you mean, you can’t go home ?”
    Rom weighed how much to say. “There are some people after this blood. Because of its properties, I think. It isn’t safe for us to go home.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous,” Neah said. “You should have gone to compliance immediately.”
    “We can’t,” Avra said.
    “What do you mean, you can’t ?”
    Triphon followed the verbal volley, one eyebrow cocked.
    Neah stared at her. “What aren’t you telling us?”
    “Listen,” Avra said, stepping between them to take Neah by the arm. “The point is, we came across something that we’re not sure what to do with, and we’re not sure what it’s done to us. But we think it’s something bad, that it might be poison—”
    “It’s not poison.” Rom shot Avra a look, stepping up. “If it were poison, we’d be dead, instead of going through this…these feelings. And I wouldn’t feel the way I do about…people…with this…attraction.”
    That stalled them all. Or Triphon, at least.
    “Make sense!” Neah said.
    “If these feelings are any indication, then it could very well be poison,” Avra said, speaking directly to Rom. Why was she countermanding him?
    “Attraction?” Triphon said, glancing between them. “What do you mean?”
    “Well, it’s this…You know.” Rom looked at this bull of a man who had circumvented custom to present a contract for marriage directly to Neah. Why? It wasn’t out of desire, because as far as Rom knew no one on earth felt true desire for another human being.
    No one but he and Avra now.
    Rom searched for a way to sound compelling. He took a step toward the taller man. Triphon was more likely than Neah to be an advocate. “Attraction. Desire. Yearning, wanting to be with someone not out of fear of loss but for the fulfillment of something more. It’s a magical thing, and now Avra and I have it.”
    Triphon frowned. “Is that so?”
    “The things you’re talking about don’t exist,” Neah said. “Not anymore. Avra’s right, you’re both ill. You should go to a wellness center.” Neah turned to Triphon. “You should escort them there on your way home.”
    “We can’t,” Rom said, taking a breath. “We’ve gone against Order.”
    “What do you mean, you’ve gone against Order ? Then you need to report yourselves!”
    Avra gave him a pointed look as though to say, See? I told you!
    “About this attraction,” Triphon said. “You mean like a sexual urge?”
    Rom paused. Sex was an acknowledged and common urge, like the urge to eat or drink. But now as he thought about it, with Avra standing nearby, the very notion of sex seemed vastly different to him. No longer a mere need to procreate or to find release, it seemed like something far deeper.
    “Yes,” he said, drawing a slow breath. “Like hunger or thirst. But for the companionship of another, not simply to satisfy