How could this cute, sexy, innocent yet tough woman be the enemy? Would be sad to have to kill her.
She was definitely an enigma. He wanted to find out what she was. Maybe there was some new way to fight the GLs? It would be more fun than lying back and watching the world die then rising in the ashes, which was what half the beasters were resigned to doing.
“You have an octopus tattoo on your ass.” Amusement had leaked into his voice.
“Uhh, I do? You shouldn’t be looking.”
“Difficult not to see that.”
“I’d eyeroll at you if everything didn’t hurt. You owe me.”
“Sure. Anytime you want to see my ass, I’ll deliver.”
That did make her eyeroll. “Stay there. Best if you don’t move too much. I’ll be back.”
He figured he knew her size, having had his hands on her. Now to find an apartment that had what he needed.
3
Night fell,and the reflections off walls and slanting through open doorways lessened to almost nothing. They hadn’t travelled in far from the chasm, but moonlight wasn’t enough for her to navigate by. The room slowly took on a gray darkness impenetrable to her eyes.
Until he returned bearing gifts and a flashlight.
He’d brought tan leggings that looked as if they’d fit and a red sleeveless shirt that was too loose, plus underwear from some nearby bedroom. They seemed clean. Not that she could wash them. Water was scarce, he’d said. Along with most everything humans held dear or required to survive.
She was reborn into a world of need, devastation, and desperation. Only this baby had teeth. Sharp ones. She’d cut a Ghoul Lord and killed a man, and her only a day old.
“Thanks.” She smiled at Vargr.
“Not a problem. If I had to see your naked octopus-ass for one more hour, minute, make that second…” He winked. “I’d do something I wouldn’t regret. Feel well enough to dress?”
Cyn made a dismissive sound and shook out the shirt, wondering if the old her would’ve said something to put him offthe… her scent. He was attracted to her? Thing was, she rather liked him too, this imposing, exceptionally solid man, who’d become a winged beast. Wing-soldier he’d called his form?
She supposed they needed to make new names for themselves. New names for a new world.
The flashlight he’d salvaged lasted another minute before it flickered and died.
“Battery’s fucked. Most are.” Vargr dropped it to the floor
Cyn dressed by touch, wincing as the wound was pulled by her contortions.
The bandage wrapped about her belly had no new blood seeping through.
What had she been thinking, dragging out that metal bar? It’d been instinctive in the moment—what she’d felt she needed to do, despite the possible dire consequences such as bleeding out. Truthfully, the consequences hadn’t occurred to her. Had she gone mad for those few seconds?
She’d lied to him too.
Lying to her rescuer was ungrateful, and she’d seen suspicion in his eyes. He suspected her ofsomething, and she didn’t know what because she knew less of her situation than he did.
Five years up there with those monsters and she’d forgotten almost all of it, years, except for a blur of memories and that fight when she freed herself.
The lie about that fight between her and the Ghoul Lord had slipped out easily, as if she’d thought it through and went,yes, for the best. Again, no, she hadn’t.
Perhaps it was for the best? What would Vargr think if he knew she’d killed a man with a knife and done something else to the Ghoul Lord she didn’t comprehend? That had been weird. Vargr was suspicious of her and for good reasons.
She chewed off a torn nail and frowned at the blood taste on her tongue. Brooding on where she was and who she was with,how she’d arrived… she slid her tongue along her lip, gathering the bitter-sweet taste. Was surviving five years up there not your average deal?
Duh. Of course it’s odd.
