Page 11 of Dark Awakening: New World

"Aru either shaves or has stubble. I've only gotten to see the Kra-ell males that Jade brought to carry the stasis chambers to the catacombs. They all looked clean-shaven, so maybe the Kra-ell don't have facial hair, but we can ask Jade the next time she comes to visit."

"If she comes." His eyelids drooped, but he forced them to open.

"Right."

Lying so close to Ell-rom and not getting any reaction from him was a little disappointing. His fangs were still dormant, and his eyes weren't glowing.

He tried to shift to his side, but he ended up needing her help. "I walked today. I should be able to turn on my side."

"You are exhausted. Don't be so hard on yourself."

He looked down at the teardrop hanging from her neck. "I guess being hard is one of the idioms that don't translate well to Kra-ell." He lifted his hand and brushed her hair aside, exposing her ear. "Do you experience the same in reverse? When these devices translate what I say for you?"

"Rarely." She brought the hair forward to cover her ear again. "I forget that they are there. Kra-ell probably doesn't have many idioms and is more straightforward than my language."

She still hadn't told him that the earpieces were doing more than translating Kra-ell to English for her and that they were filtering compulsion.

He must have misinterpreted the guilty look in her eyes. "Tell me why you think that you are not as pure and courageous as I think you are."

Listing her shortcomings was not something Jasmine wanted to do, but it was better than telling him what the earpieces were really for.

"I am an actress. Do you know what that is?"

He nodded. "A performer. You sing and tell fictional stories."

"I also enact fictional stories. I don't know if you have movies or theater on Anumati. The gods do, but maybe the Kra-ell stay away from such entertainment. Here on Earth, it's a highly desirable profession, and many hope to become a star, a face that everyone recognizes." She looked into his eyes. "Are you following so far?"

"I think so. What qualifications do you need to become a star?"

Ell-rom was a smart guy, and he was grasping concepts with surprising ease.

"Good looks are important, and many use surgical means to enhance their appearance, but I'm proud to be all natural. Acting skills are required as well, the ability to memorize scripts quickly, being easy to work with, which means taking directions well and not being overly demanding or fussy."

"You seem to have all those requirements covered."

"Thank you." She smiled. "I do, but that's about it. I'm good, but I'm not exceptional. It's not easy to get rejected over and over again and still go on auditions hoping that a miracle will happen and I will fit the director's vision for a breakthrough part. There are two ways to get great parts. One is to be already famous, and then they want you because you have an audience that will come to see you no matter what the movie is about, and the other is to fit a role so perfectly that the director will be willing to take a risk on a no-name."

"Sounds tough."

"It is." She sighed. "At times, I pretended to be attracted to males to gain favor, hoping it would help me get chosen for a part I wanted." She shivered. "It's a nasty business, and many young people are exploited. I should have given up on dreams of fame and fortune as soon as I realized how sleazy it was, but I convinced myself that if others could do that to get ahead, I could do it too, and that it wasn't a big deal." She smiled nervously. "I bet that didn't translate well to Kra-ell either."

"No, I got the meaning." He lifted his arm with effort and wrapped it around her. "I'm sorry you had to go through such unpleasantness."

The guy was a born diplomat. To call her basically whoring herself out for parts an unpleasantness was a masterpiece of understatement.

"It wasn't as bad as it sounds. I don't like sleeping alone, so I would have probably picked up some loser who I didn't care for anyway. At least by seducing casting directors, I got a few parts."

Jasmine fell silent, memories of lonely nights and hollow victories washing over her like a wave of muddy water.

Ell-rom squeezed her hand. "Nothing of what you told me contradicts my assessment of you being pure of heart and strong of spirit."

"You are pure sweetness." She leaned to plant a soft kiss on his lips. "I've never met anyone like you."

He smiled. "And I have not met anyone like you."

She rolled her eyes. "You don't remember meeting anyone at all."

His smile wilted. "From the little I remember, my sister and I were alone most of the time. Our mother was too busy to visit, and the head priestess who knew what we were under the veils was not the kind, loving type."