“We wait until morning then head back to the settlement.”
“And the Cyborgs?”
“If they don't return, they'll meet us there.”
“How do you know? We're half a day out at sea,” she laughed without humor. “They have no ship. They don't even have their weapons, their armor.”
He ran a hand over his face, his countenance more tired than she had ever seen it before. She suddenly worried over him as she took in his haggard state. “Are you okay?” Rylie went to him and took his hand.
He waved her away. “I'm fine.”
“Da...”
He stood up fast and turned away. “They're shifters, water shifters,” he said. Rylie knew he was changing the subject. It wasn't like him to leave a question unaddressed but it also wasn't like him to look wrung out.
He spoke as he headed for the interior. “Netto is a shark, a big one at that. Zeph, I don't know, I haven't figured him out. They're different, the water is their home.” He stopped at the passageway. “I'm going to turn in.” He glanced at the darkness. “I've never been able to stomach the nights at sea. You'll see, come morning, everything will be back to normal.” He turned and left her.
And for the first time that day, she was alone. Completely, utterly, heavily alone. Rylie went back to her seat and sat sentinel. She didn’t welcome the silence.
If the morning will be normal, I'm going to watch that happen.She didn't think she could sleep knowing that her sister was out there, or that Netto could be hurt.
It was a revelation, a hard one to swallow.
She pulled her towel back around her shoulders and settled in. She rubbed her hand but found it no longer tingled, was no longer covered in serum, and that her skin was healed.
Chapter Nine
***
He couldn’t think,couldn’t breathe, watching in slow motion Zeph turning on Rylie. A wildfire of warning coursed through his tech, sensing and discerning the violent and volatile transmissions coming from his partner. A series of events erupted.
He saw red.
He acknowledged a threat.
Zeph became his number one target. Rylie’s safety was paramount and he accepted it for what it was. Netto thought of her ashis, even if she would never be. He had Zeph over his head, throwing him into the ocean and as far from the Montihans as possible—acting more like an animal than a machine.
