“I’m better than whatever your stash is. Far better. I’m the best thing you’ll ever experience. One touch is all it takes, and you’ll be dancing in the heavens. The universe will finally right itself, any pain you might have will vanish, and a sublime delirium will take you over. That’s what you’ve heard, wasn’t it? A druggie looking for a higher high?”
Hysterian’s palm glistened as millions of microscopic glands opened up. Invisible to the eye, they produced an opioid that was, to a druggie’s dream, a high to die for.
“But if you take too much, you’ll miss that bliss and fall asleep instead. You’ll fall asleep and never wake up. And even if you survive, you’ll never find another drug that can do for you like I can. You’ll go mad with desperation for more. Do you dare?”
Once people had a taste of his opioids, they were ruined.
Daniels stared at Hysterian’s hand with want. A hungering want that Hysterian had seen so many times in his past. So. Many. Times. He’d refused to count. He hadn’t only been a bouncer and bodyguard to Raphael; he’d made the man a lot of money.
Daniels swallowed, reaching out his hand.
“How long—” Hysterian began.
“Ms. Dear is requesting permission to enter the bridge, Captain,”Questor’sAI said.
Daniels startled, freed from his trance, and Hysterian drew his hand back.
Daniels grabbed his head and turned away. “Fuuck!”
Hysterian slipped his glove back on. “I suppose she saved you once again,” he said with disgust. He wasn’t a saint. He hoped Daniels would touch him and take on the consequences of his actions. “Let Dear in,” he announced to the ship.
The bridge doors opened, and there she was. The bane of Hysterian’s recent thoughts. Stiff and cold, straight spine and all, arms crossed behind her, Alexa glanced between him and Daniels.
“Dear,” Hysterian said, “what do you want?”
“Am I interrupting something? I can come back later.”
“No, you’ve arrived at the perfect time,” Daniels answered with a growl. “Like always.” Daniels clenched his hands and, without another look at Hysterian, stormed through the doors. He rammed his shoulder into Alexa on his way out.
Alexa stumbled and righted herself.
“Are you okay?” Hysterian asked, rushing to her and clasping her elbow.
“Yes.” Her soft brown eyes met his. “I, uh, can really come back another time, Captain.”
“No. You will stay. I’ll be right back.”
He released her and stalked after Daniels. The fucker chose death, and so death he shall have. Hysterian had been inclined to let the man live, even if he’d taken what Hysterian had offered. But he’d touched Alexa, disrespected her in front of her superior, and thought that he was going to get away with it?
No one touched what belonged to Hysterian.
He caught up to Daniels just as he passed the menagerie’s storage.
“Daniels,” Hysterian called out.
The man swerved. Hysterian pounced forward and grabbed him by the neck, crushing Daniels’s larynx with one swift pinch, and dragged him into the storage room. Daniels screeched, coughing and clawing at his neck. Hysterian shoved him to the floor.
Daniels jerked away and crawled to the other side of the room, gasping for breath. Hysterian followed him.
He hadn’t planned on killing Daniels today, but whatever.
He hadn’t planned on his fascination for Alexa Dear either.
When Daniels sagged, shaking with his last twinges of life, Hysterian flipped him over onto his back. Hysterian pulled down his mouth covering and planted a soft kiss upon Daniels’s brow. A gift.
The fear left Daniels first, then his eyes dilated as he slumped to the ground.
Hysterian gently laid the human flat. “You shouldn’t have touched her. You’d be walking away from this ship right now if you hadn’t.”
