“You fucking idiot!”
The backhand across my face from the person standing aggressively in front of me is not unexpected, but it’s harder than I anticipated. I’m not prepared for the force of the blow, so I end up sprawling on the ground from the impact. It’s grimy and sticky and altogether unpleasant.
This wasn’t where I thought I’d find myself when I arrived here.
Working my jaw back and forth, I glare up at them, smoke pouring out of my nose as my teeth clench with barely contained anger. How dare they treat me like this? A growl escapes my mouth, but they’re not paying attention, instead continuing to berate me.
“You were perfectly positioned to find the information we need, and now you’ve fucked that all up.”
The shuttle from the Galaxy Circus dropped me off at Fluxx late in the day after I attacked Lila. Link knocked me out when I was about to shift, so I didn’t even get a chance to defend myself to the Adams brothers when I woke up.
Nope, it was an instant dismissal because I upset theirpreciousgranddaughter. That fucking whore took Caspian away from me. Not only had shematedhim, she’d also given him what I couldn’t—babies—and that was an even bigger slap in the face. I’d take physical torture over emotional agony any day of the week. Sure, I slept around, but I had my own sexual needs, and I was waiting for Caspian to get jealous and realize he couldn’t live without me. I already had a dragoness lined up to incubate my eggs, and we would have been great parents together.
But she ruined it all.
I hadn’t even been on Fluxx for twenty minutes before I was being summoned. I jumped onto a quick transport shuttle and was at the Edalaxian Space Station, a meeting place where people do trades and business of the not so legal kind, within an hour.
When I reached the bar where I was to meet them, I’d been shown to a back room that was typically used for sketchy dealings—all bare bones with a table, chairs, and dim as fuck lighting that gives it a creepy ambience—and I didn’t even get a chance to open my mouth before I was being punished and screamed at.
The being in front of me paces back and forth across the room, their hands flying as they continue their tirade.
“What the fuck were you thinking? You were supposed to make nice with the girl and milk all the information you possibly could out of her!” The being pauses, the tension so thick in the air it’s suffocating.
There’s zero misunderstanding on my part of how royally I fucked this up, but they are not finished.
“Everything we have discovered points at the Unas landing on Skarr, but there is no sign of the orb on the planet. The Galaxy Circus and the Adams brothers have to have it, and if they don’t, they know where it is. It’s too much of a coincidence that the Unas crash-landed and disappeared only months before the circus was established.”
The being in front of me is agitated, their eyes glowing a molten gold as they turn back to face me.
“Well? What do you have to say for yourself?” they demand, and I shrug, pulling myself to my feet and flexing my wings. My own anger pulses, and my beast restlessly writhes beneath my skin, demanding to be released.
“She’s useless. I don’t even think she’s actually Skarrian. There are no signs of power whatsoever. I think the grandpas fucked up. Either she’s not their granddaughter, or she’s been away from the waters of Skar for too long. I also lookedeverywhereon the ship and pod, and there’s no energy signature that is even close to being powerful enough to be the orb.”
“We know nothing about it!” the being screams at me. “It could cloak itself or just not emit high readings of energy. Now you have no chance of finding it. You. Fucked. Up.”
I shrug, shoving my hands into my pockets. “Sorry,” I say, but I don’t mean it. I hated having to pretend that I loved that circus. I didn’t. The only good thing about it was all the easy ass and Caspian, and it’s not like I couldn’t get easy ass anywhere else. “I just think you’re barking up the wrong tree out of desperation. I’m confident they don’t have the orb.”
“I don’t pay you to think,” they snarl at me, and before I can react, I’m looking down the barrel of a laser gun. “You’re just lucky I have other options, becauseyouare expendable.”
I never would have guessed this being would have the guts to kill me, but I’m regretting misjudging them as a shudder of fear rips through my body, and before I can even move, they pull the trigger.
Lila
Snuggling with Caspian and Link on the couch went a long way to making me feel better, but I still feel miserable a couple of days later. Dylan’s nasty ass words hurt me deeply, not to mention the fact that he completely had me fooled, so I guess I’m feeling a little naïve as well.
When I wake up, I’m alone, and I can’t say I’m upset about it. It’s nice to have five minutes to myself to breathe and process everything that happened. I really haven’t had a chance to do it since it occurred, instead falling into bed exhausted every night.
I lie here thinking about what transpired. Dylan’s betrayal and false friendship has me picking myself apart and questioning who I’ve become since I arrived at the circus. I think I’ve been so desperate for approval and acceptance that I’ve become a little complacent.
I trusted him way quicker than I ever have anybody else in the past. I mean, we haven’t even done a DNA test to ascertain if Eric, William, and John are even my biological granddads. For all I know, they have me in space now and I’m going to be food for Viggy. My brain takes hold of that wild thought and tosses me headfirst down a rabbit hole. What if all those missing people were really victims of alien abductions much more sinister than a simple probe and return? Fuck. Maybe the whole reason I don’t have powers is because I reallyamjust human. Double fuck.
There is also the mated and pregnant part. Hopefully that means I’m not going to be T-rex food, but I barely know my babies’ daddy. Sure, he’s sexy and sweet and everything I could wish for in a man, but our relationship went from being annoyed with one another to flirting, having hot fucking sex, and getting knocked up in the span of a week. On top of that, there’s the oral sex I received from a cyborg yesterday, all with the blessing of said man. He wasn’t just any cyborg though—no, he’s basically a sex expert. Sex. Expert. How did my life come to be like this? I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not actually a mugging victim and lying in a coma somewhere having a fantastical dream.
Eventually, I realize spending all day in bed while letting my thoughts run rampant is not productive. Pushing back the covers, I notice the tightness in my muscles as I move, almost achy from the inner turmoil that’s been eating away at me from the inside out. I roll my shoulders and stretch my arms and legs to see if I can get rid of the tension. Stress fucking sucks.
Standing up, I make my way over to the closet to get dressed. I opt for one of the Galaxy Circus uniforms because it seems like the right thing to do. I have to prove I’m taking my role seriously since many performers aren’t convinced my grandads made the correct choice by bringing me in. Trying to clear my thoughts, I focus on cleaning my teeth and brushing my hair before calling it good. Sadly, my hygiene routine only distracts me for a few minutes, and now I’m back to square one.
I’m still worrying about the shitshow of the last twenty-four hours when I go out into the kitchen in search of coffee. Link left late last night, and Caspian and I went to bed shortly after. For the first time since we mated, my libido has calmed down, so I went to sleep with his tentacles and arms wrapped around me. I insisted that he take whichever form he is most comfortable with or prefers to be in around me. I would never judge him. For me, I am happiest in my human form and will probably only shift to swim with him, though I can’t deny I haven’t thought about how sex in that form would be. The anticipation of that happening sends shivers down my spine.
