Page 20 of Survivor
“Come on.” I reached to help Tide up.
“Not him. Just you,” leather dude said.
I met his gaze with a flat one of my own. “If I go, he goes.”
He shrugged. “Then you stay. You forfeit your chance to be picked for the gauntlet.”
Shit.
“Go,” Tide said. “I’ll be here.” He raised a hand to the barman. “I’ll take another drink.”
He looked and sounded weak. He was a pilot, a leader, a snitch, and his fighting skills were streamlined and professional. Despite what he’d said, he had no idea what dirty fighting was, and that was okay. I could fight dirty for the both of us. I had won, and this could be our way off this rock.
I stepped between his knees so I was up close and personal. “Heal up quick, okay. We’re getting off this port, and then I’m going to want you in top form.”
His eye darkened, and his gaze fell to my mouth.
I kissed him softly, careful not to hurt him. “I’ll be back soon.”
The leather guy made a grunting noise. “Follow me.”
He led me out of the bar and to a steel door. He pressed his palm to a panel in the wall, and the doors slid open smoothly.
A lift.
He stepped back to allow me to enter but didn’t join me.
The doors closed on him, and for a moment, I was enclosed in a metal box, and panic flared, hot and sudden in my chest. It’s okay. Just a few seconds and—
The doors opened with a swish, and I stepped out quickly, eager to get out of the box and the memories it evoked. They closed behind me with a soft hiss.
“Yep, it’s a human woman all right,” a deep male voice said.
I scanned the plush, amber-lit room, zeroing in on the bar that hugged the wall to the right, where several hulking figures were seated on high-backed stools sipping from glasses.
“You’re human, right?” The speaker was tall enough to use the stool merely as a butt perch; one leg was stretched out in front of him, the other braced on a metal spoke at the bottom of the stool. “Hey, you mute?”
I stared evenly at him, taking in his dark hair and swarthy good looks. “Are you Braker Rock?”
He grinned, showcasing gold-capped teeth that were startling against his complexion. “Do you want me to be?”
“Shut it, Jaron,” one of the other guys said. “You know you ain’t meant to mess with the contestants.”
This one was blond and blue-eyed.
They both looked human. Like the Trads did. Like Vex. But … My gaze dropped to the hand holding the glass. Metallic wrapped in some kind of translucent skin, and the first guy, the dark-haired one, had metal poking out from the V of his shirt.
They weren’t Trad, and they weren’t human. My curiosity was piqued. “What are you?”
Blondie arched a brow. “You don’t know?”
“If I knew I wouldn’t be asking.”
“Humans don’t get around much,” dark-haired guy said.
“Cybornex,” Blondie said. “The best of the best.”
Jaron pushed off his stool and strode toward me. “Almost human. Want to feel?”
