He imagined her with translucent white locks.
Hysterian licked his lips.
Was it sick that he wanted her still? After knowing what she was, what she’d done. It was absurd.
Why did she sleep with me?
Was she trying to get close to me?If so, she’d done a fine job at it.Maybe she was waiting for the right moment…
I probably killed some of her ancestors.
Her eyelids fluttered open. Once her eyes focused on him, she tensed and shot upright. His audio picked up an adrenaline surge from her—her heartbeat skyrocketed. Her cheeks flushed pink.
“Why?” he asked.
Alexa slunk away from him.
“Why?” he asked again, lower this time.
He sat back when she refused to answer. “You will tell me. You’ll never leave this room otherwise.” When she remained silent, he scowled. “You had to have a good reason, half-breed. How could you not? It must’ve been hard, no doubt. I wonder if this was your plan all along, getting on my ship, getting close to me? Or was it just the luck of the draw? You saw an opportunity and took it?
“Maybe you have a good reason? Someone found you out during training and is now blackmailing you? Is that it? Threatening to reveal your identity? Or is there someone you love in danger?”
He hoped she was being blackmailed. He prayed—fucking prayed—it was something so easy to forgive.
“Tell me!” Hysterian shouted when Alexa still refused to speak.
She didn’t even flinch. It was like she’d shut down.
“Why the fuck are you here, Alexa? Are you here to hurt me, kill me? Why!?”
He surged to his feet before he did something he’d regret. This was all too close to home for him.
The pads of his fingers slickened with poison. He could make her speak and tell him all her dirty secrets. He could make her delirious with a single touch. He could make her addicted to him, giving her little doses of heroin, or worse, until she was mindless and broken. And all she thought about was pleasinghim.
He could have all his answers and so much more.
Anyone would spill their secrets rather than go through excruciatingly painful withdrawal.
But this was Alexa, not a war criminal. She wasn’t some desperate, addicted club whore easily used and discarded.
“I will get my answers from you,” he said. “Whether you want to share them willingly or not. I will get my answers.”
He strode from the room and locked the door behind him.
Twenty-One
Days passed,and each time Hysterian visited Alexa, it was more of the same. He would watch her, she would watch him back, and he would threaten her. He never touched her, never allowed himself to get close enough that she might try and touch him back.
And each day, she drifted farther and farther away.
He brought food, made sure she ate.
He set it on the table beside the sofa, where she spent most of her days.
On the third day, he was half-crazed. He yelled, railed, tore up the bedding, destroyed the room all while she stood in the center quietly watching.
Once, he could get any living being to talk, to spill all their secrets, but not with Alexa. Every time he came close to using his skills on her, disgust filled him and he stormed to the gym’s shower and boiled.
