Page 52 of Rebirth

She touches me…and I had not known her touch would be my weakness.

Soh’fee’s pulse quickens, the sweet scent of her fear flooding through me mixed in with her relief. She does not pull away from the male’s grasp. To do so now would rouse suspicion. But she lifts her chin, squaring her shoulders, showing me she still has fight left.

Brave Soh’fee.

“Of course, I’ll stay,” she says, eyes meeting the male’s. He bares his teeth, hand loosening from her arm as he reaches back to scratch some itch.

There is a mass of nerves at his back. Populating, the veins digging deeper. He is a live rotting carcass. A paradox. Something that should not be.

All of these hyu’mans are.

We must leave at once.

“I have some tests I need to perform so I can help, um, Kara.” Soh’fee’s throat moves as she swallows hard. “You won’t mind if I mingle with some of the others out there, will you?”

The male looks back at the other two hyu’mans standing in the tent before jerking his shoulders. “Sure, whatever you need, doc.”

His toothy grin makes me clench my claws. Otherwise, I would have closed them around his neck and ended his existence right here.

He intends to take my Soh’fee. I can scent his arousal. It is enough to make me move closer to her, pressing my frame into her back.

She inhales deeply, chest rising and falling with the contact. But she does well to not reveal my presence. Not yet.

There is something she needs to do. I can tell.

Soh’fee pastes a smile on her face before turning and exiting the tent. I don’t immediately follow. Instead, my gaze falls on the males in my presence, lingering for a moment.

When this ends, they will be the first I kill. My decision is made as the one that had held on to Soh’fee runs a blackened tongue over his lips.

Especially this one. I will make him bleed.

Outside the tent, I spot Soh’fee heading to one side of the camp, far from the others. She glances behind her, eyes on the tent before she looks around.

Searching for me?

As I move closer, I hear her hushed whisper. “He’rox?”

My name. She has always called me by my name. Not the other designations I’ve been awarded, but the name my mor gave me. To her, I am not her medic. I am simply He’rox.

“Did I imagine it?” she whispers, gaze darting to the camp and the group of hyu’mans watching her there.

They do not know it yet. Don’t understand it. And Soh’fee does not yet realize. That their gazes are not just of interest and suspicion. Caution and fear. But there is something primal there. Slowly overrunning their basic functions.

They are looking at her because she is the only one here whose blood is still pure.

And they want to taste it.

I will rend their flesh from bone before I let that happen.

“Fuck. I’m lost in the middle of nowhere and, to make things worse, I’m hallucinating.” Her voice takes me back to the present. I stand beside her, watching as she paces before pretending to crouch and search through the bushes for herbs. She’s pretending to work. “Should have stayed in my fucking bunker. Then the world could end and I could die alone, but in peace.” She gulps as she rips a weed from the ground, turning to glance over her shoulder. I can see the shiver that goes through her shoulders as her gaze catches on the hyu’mans watching her. Salivating over her and not aware of it. Yet. “Who the fuck am I kidding? Given the chance, I’d do this again. Because I don’t know when to fucking stop. Shit.”

I crouch by her side, camouflage still intact. “Because you are curious,” I saw low. “And brave.”

Soh’fee rears back, falling on her ass as her eyes widen.

She recovers quickly, glancing behind her and forcing a laugh. “Ha, thought I saw a mouse.”

The people don’t respond and Soh’fee’s lips tighten before she rights herself and crouches again.

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