Page 21 of Rogue: Planet Athion
If Marick was listening, I was fucked, but if I didn’t speak up, my friends would tear Vex to shreds.
“He didn’t hurt me.” The words spilled out. “We faked it to shut Marick up.”
Xavier blinked slowly, and then the anger bled from his expression; his gaze flicked over my shoulder and narrowed.
“Why?” he asked Vex.
The others gathered behind him as if waiting for an answer.
Vex’s chest brushed my back. “Because I don’t take what isn’t freely offered.”
Xavier’s snort was derisive. “Then you must be the only exception to the rule when it comes to your people.”
Vex raised a brow. “Is that why there are two Trad behind you ready to kick my face in for touching the human?”
Xavier’s jaw clenched.
“Rogue is part of our team,” Lazar said.
“So, you haven’t tried to violate her?” Vex asked.
Lazar averted his gaze.
“Step closer,” Vex said. “Take a whiff of her and tell me you can control yourselves? Tell me there isn’t a jitter in your bones begging you to lunge and take her right here up against the wall?”
Lazar’s jaw ticked, and he took several steps back.
What was this? What was going on?
Vex’s hands cupped my shoulders, and he leaned in so his breath was hot on the side of my face. Xavier growled low in his throat, and Marlon gripped the door frame, but neither made any other move, probably subconsciously sensing that the Trad wasn’t intending to hurt me.
“Don’t you know how it works?” Vex said. “Haven’t you guessed?”
“What are you talking about?” Marlon snapped.
Vex ignored him. “Were their eyes glazed when they attacked. Was it as if they didn’t hear you? As if you couldn’t reach them? Are there certain times in the day when they are less tame then others?”
“Yes.” My gaze tracked to the two Trads hovering behind Xavier. Vex had their attention now.
“It’s in the food, you fools. The drug to enhance aggression. To make us need to lash out, to fight. It also has the side effect of enhancing libido.”
“The food?” Killion shook his head. “We all get the same food. It hasn’t affected me or Marlon. It hasn’t affected Rogue.”
Vex released me and stepped back. “Eighty percent of the fighters here are Trad; the rest of you are incidental. You’re novelty pieces. You’re there for us to rip to shreds. Until three years ago, there were no Athion or human fighters here. The drug … The drug has been around forever.”
It made sense. It all made sense. The way the Trads were more aggressive in the mornings and lesser so by the evening. The morning was gruel time. Jurak’s words came back to haunt me, his strange behavior when he’d come to see me, to remind me we were on the same team. He’d mentioned something about emotions and confusion. But what didn’t make sense was how Vex hadn’t been affected this morning after his meal, which I’d seen him finish.
I turned to him now. “You just ate, and you didn’t lose your head.”
He shrugged. “I guess I developed a tolerance for it, or maybe I’m just super controlled.”
But me … Did it affect me? My libido was all over the place right now, but it wasn’t always like this. For me, it was a monthly thing, echoing the periods I no longer got.
Lazar and his companion were murmuring urgently to each other, but it was Marlon who spoke.
“How do you know this?”
Vex sighed. “I’ve been here a long time, Athion. I have learned things. But right now, all that matters is making sure your house manager doesn’t figure out that I’m not using Rogue as a plaything. If he does, then he’ll find another way to break her.” Vex’s lip curled. “I guess a man isn’t easily parted from his testicles.”
