Hysterian’s glands remained closed.
It wasn’t until he forced them open that he secreted, and even then, what pooled from his body was anything but poisonous. It was as benign as water. Something his poison didn’t do unless it was out of range from him and out of his body for a length of time.
“Is it…”
Nightheart released him. “You tell me.”
Hysterian ordered his nanocells within him to change. They did. He opened and closed his hand, his body jittering with excitement.
Years he’d waited for this. Years he’d searched. No one had access to the resources Nightheart had, and Hysterian cursed himself for not approaching his brother sooner. Instead, he’d made the best and worst mistake of his life…
Alexa.
He was out the door and seeding into the EPED’s systems within the next moment. Voices called after him, but he outran them, heading straight for the one being in the universe worth waiting for. His body groaned, his joints springing, air breezed over his naked form, and he felt freedom.
Pure, perfect, delectable freedom.
He smelled her before he saw her. Entering the resident staff housing floor, gasps followed him as people and androids dodged out of the naked Cyborg’s path.
“Alexa,” he called.
She shot out of her room the second her name left his mouth.
She halted, staring at him, face etched with worry. He stalked toward her, threw her over his shoulder, and carried her back into the room.
It may have only been a blink since he’d last seen her, but a blink was more than enough for him to suffer.
Skin bare to all the universe, Hysterian laid her on the rumpled bed of her dorm and covered her with his body. She cried pretty little tears from seeing him as her fingers whispered sweetly over his damp skin. Starved, he gripped her hair and tugged her head back until their eyes met.
Her beautiful hair glinted teal from the light of his eyes.
He rubbed it between his fingers. It felt like heaven.
“You waited,” he said, making her aware how trapped she was now, his legs and elbows caging her body under his.
She could have run again while he was out, and it had taken a lot of coaxing on her part to convince him to turn off. Even though he’d pulled away from her for fear of hurting her again, he had needed her to reassure him again and again.
Because he’d kill every last being in the EPED building, Nightheart included, if he awoke and she wasn’t there. Alexa had laughed at the threat.
She had a lot left to learn about his kind.
“Of course I waited,” Alexa said.
Her hair shimmered, clear around his fingers. “You didn’t dye it.”
“You destroyed all the dye. Nightheart said it no longer exists anywhere. I hate you both,” she muttered playfully.
He didn’t actually care if she dyed it or not anymore, as long as she stayed right where she was. Hysterian manually shut down his systems, the ones that didn’t matter, and focused entirely on Alexa.
Her face softened as he took her in. He couldn’t look away. She was beautiful.
“Alexa…”
Her tongue peeked out to swipe her bottom lip.
His mouth watered.
“Kiss me,” she whispered.
