“Well, that one weekend at the PCP factory was a bad scene,” I teased, still thinking.
“Ha.” Nex’s voice came loud and clear through the speakers. “Wait. Thatwasa joke, right?”
“Depends,” I said. “Was that . . . a laugh?”
“Depends,” he countered. “Did it sound like one?”
I fought not to grin as my lips puckered around my straw. “Do you want constructive criticism or head pats?”
An even longer silence. “Both?” His tone got the question mark on the end right, at least.
“It was fantastic,” I said, pulling into the garage beneath the Monster Security Agency building. “Your timing was spot on, and your irony was on point. Just—make the sound a little warmer next time.”
“Logged,” he said as I slid the car into its berth.
I patted the dash with slightly greasy fingers. “Just be patient. We’ll get there.”
I took the elevator inside the MSA building to the thirty-third floor, where Nex’s lab was, and the door opened for me the second my feet hit the hall.
Nex weaving himself into the MSA hadn’t been easy—more than a few agents felt like Thorne did and didn’t want the potential for surveillance all the time. We’d lost some good ones, but Nex had gained trust over time—especially when he overrode the fire doors for me at the Dogpatch warehouse fire and, during the South Bay train derailment he’d managed to thwart, rerouting all of the morning commuter trains so thatnone of them drove over the bomb some psychopath had left on the tracks.
His room smelled faintly of ozone, and he started directing me through speakers hidden in its walls.
“I’ve prepared a clean tray,” he said, and lights along server racks blinked like a runway, directing me farther in.
“I know where your arms live, Nex.” I set my burger and what fries remained on the counter next to what looked like a petri dish, underneath a nest of differently sized dangling armatures, waiting for me to present the tracker.
I reached into my pocket, blind, and despite the fact that I’d put it in an evidence bag, one stray wire was jutting out. It pricked my finger beneath my fingernail like a thorn. “Ow!” I yelped, pulling my hand out.
A metal hand grabbed my wrist, interrupting my finger’s arc toward my mouth. “Sirena? Are you all right?”
Lights strobed overhead, and several more arms readied themselves for use.
“Yeah, no, I’m fine—just a pinprick.” I could hear fans attached to machinery winding up, and Nex hadn’t let go of my hand yet. Instead, the arm that had me was pulling me closer, and several bright lights shone down from above, like my hand was about to be abducted by aliens. “Nex? What’s happening?”
“She could’ve had any number of blood-borne ailments—” he started.
“I’m only half-human, Nex,” I complained, pulling my arm away from him. I couldn’t, though—I was half-siren strong, but I wasn’t bolted to the ceiling.
“No. Let me see,” he demanded, before adding, “Please.”
I unfurled my fingers so that we could both see a tiny red dot. “It’s only one little drop.”
“Do not pretend that the things you are made of are not precious.”
I bit my lips, pulling them into a line. We’d had conversations before about the “nature” of humanity, and Nex had always been curious about what humans were made of on the inside. It seemed like we were puzzles to him—just like he was to me.
“I’m fine. Blood’s not that exciting once you get used to it.”
“Stay here,” he commanded, letting go, several of his arms retracting into the ceiling—before returning with a tiny cotton ball.
“Is there a secret drugstore up there?”
“It’s spider-silk. I had Nia’n’an give me some so that I could run tests on it,” he answered as delicate mechanical tools portioned it out—and then started wrapping it around my fingertip, weaving it snug.
My wound definitely did not rate a bandage—but I was fascinated by how he worked, especially seeing as I got to see him so infrequently. Most of Nex’s brain was contained in the server racks on this floor and the one above. He was everywhere in many ways—in our computers, on our phones—but he was also mostly intangible.
“Are you done yet?” I said, embarrassed by the show he was making over me.
