“Really? That’s what you got?” Veta said. She kept shifting around and pulling at the old man’s arm, but she couldn’t break his grip.
The old man shoved his hip into Veta, mimicking sex.
“Knock it off!” Veta fought harder against him.
The Terran laughed and did it again. “Why? You spread your legs for everyone else.”
Anger burned in Wrathin. He took a couple more steps toward them.
He looked to Wrathin. “Has she spread her legs for you? That’s what she does. Fucks people for information. That’s why the Emperor liked her so much. She would fuck anyone to get their secrets.” The old man glanced back at her. “I suppose she’s kind of pretty. I can see why men tell her things.”
Wrathin blinked. He processed what the old man said, verses what Veta had already told him. Sex was her weapon? That was what she used to do her job?
“That is how you get your information?” Wrathin asked.
“Wrathin, he’s just jealous I wouldn’t have sex with him.” She lunged again.
The old man held her tight. “Why would I want some slut like you?”
“Let her go. We can end this,” Wrathin said.
“Yes, we can,” the old man said.
Three things happened in the same instant.
He turned his gun on Wrathin.
Veta swung her arm down and hit him in the crotch.
Wrathin hurled his blade toward the man. He had estimated for the man’s chest, opposite of Veta.
The blade went into the man’s eye.
He fell to the ground.
“You bastard,” Veta said and kicked him. The man’s head cracked back, the sound of his neck popping echoed.
She reached down and pulled the knife from his face and glanced at Wrathin. “Here.” She held the blade out, but they were still a couple of meters apart.
He started to cross to her. “Are his words true? Is that how you get your information? Through sexual contact?”
“When I have to, yes.”
“Did you see me the same? A mission? A job?”
“I saw you as survival,” she said.
Wrathin met her and accepted the blade. “And now?”
“I see you as Wrathin.”
He pulled her against him. The feel of her against him bubbled the fire under his skin but differently.
The rational side, under his skin, made him wonder if he should analyze this. But The Craving did not care what the sensible side said. This moment was not something he wanted to examine.
Wrathin just wanted to feel it.
Feel her against him.
