Page 10 of Fighting Gravity
“That make you feel big and tough, asshole?” she said.
I couldn’t say she was getting on my nerves yet, but she was definitely heading that way. I reached back and took her wrist device out of one of my many belt pouches, tossing it on the floor in front of her.
“I’m assuming you didn’t find anything useful,” she said. “Figures. You captured yourself a peon. What the fuck are you gonna do with me now, huh?”
Her tone was so angering…
So few people had ever gotten away with talking to me like that.
I reached out and slid my fingers through the thin strands of black that covered her scalp. Evidently, it was sensitive so I tugged, pulling her head back. She gritted her teeth, her eyes screwing shut and I watched that expression curiously… until she gathered another mouthful of bloody spit and sent it splattering across my cheek.
So much for being cautious about transmittable diseases. Not that Veron found anything that could spread to us, but if she had, it would have been in my system by then.
I reached up with my other hand and wiped away the bloody smear with a low groan.
“You gonna just torture me for fun?” the human said. “Because you haven’t even asked me anything yet.”
I leaned in close, looming over her and reminding her how small she was. “Quinn Liu,” I said.
She froze, her strange eyes widening a little. For a second, I was intrigued by the odd colorations in her small, round irises. They were the color of moss—the color of my skin—and with my hand so near her face, the color seemed to brighten.
“He speaks,” she said.
“Why are humans being so heavily protected by valerians?”
“We have an agreement.”
“What agreement?”
“We just have an agreement.”
I wrapped my big hand around her slender neck and squeezed. At first, she remained tense and defiant, but when she realized she couldn’t breathe, she began to squirm. I watched, feeling her pulse beneath my palm to gauge exactly how much she could take before I released her. She sucked in a strained breath and began furiously kicking and screaming, further damaging the skin beneath the wrist cuffs.
“What agreement?” I repeated.
“Syfer,” Quinn wheezed. “They give us syfer to power the Nexus.”
“For what? What are humans worth to them?”
“Fuck you.”
So irritating.
I whipped my hand to the back of my belt and pulled a small knife free. It was nothing fancy, but something told me that anything could break her pale, thin flesh. Perhaps I didn’t even need the knife. Perhaps my talons would do.
I raised it to her chest and rested the tip against her skin, dragging it slowly to the side. Blood pooled in the shallow cut, the strong scent of it filling the room now.
“You fucking coward,” she said.
“What do you trade?”
“Military! Word is they have a thinning population, so we’ve allied our military.”
Lies.
“Are you part of that military?”
“I’m a pilot. That’s all I am. I fly ships.”
