Page 46 of Command

There it was. “Was necessary.”

Alina blinked rapidly and jerked her chin in a nod. “I know.”

“Do you?”

This was the human who could not bring herself to kill him, her enemy, when she had a chance. How could she possibly understand? Alina Argoud layered the paste across his skin with the pad of her finger. She tossed the fur-clump from her eyes with a jerk of the head and pinched the tip of her red tongue between her teeth, angling herself to shape the application into a neat seal on his chest.

“You could have let them Upload,” she said.

“There is no exorin in your Heaven,” he retorted. Threxin did not know if addictions persisted in Heaven, but that was not the point. If he intended to keep the uhyre and aliens on his ship under control, swift consequences were necessary.

Alina Argoud’s gaze flicked upward then, but they both averted their eyes. He focused instead on the work of her hands. Threxin did not trust himself not to doitagain. She worked fast, practiced fingers steadying as they went. In the days before, she had applied such dressings slowly and carefully. Now she was rushing. Getting it over with.

“You have seen your kind’s footage from your Earth?” Threxin asked.

Alina nodded, not pausing her work. “Yes.”

“You have seen uhyre footage from then?”

“Yes.” Her hands hesitated over his chest for only a moment.

“Then you know the risks.” Threxin did not know why he felt compelled to explain himself to this creature.

“Couldn’t just pull a tooth out like with your kind though, could you?” Alina bit her lip as the retort left her, patting down the new synthskin at its edges.

“And leave humans who are dependent on my cohort for the remainder of their lives? If we are to avoid the peril ofyour Earth, we must be separated. Completely. Your kind cannot handle anything more.”

“Mykind,” she scoffed. “Like it wasourfault.”

“It was,” Threxin said, confused at the lack of self-awareness.

“You were the vicious ones! You got us hooked and used us. You hunted us down in droves!”

“You begged for it. Like those two did tonight. Did you not see them?”

Her lip quivered as the truth was foisted upon her, but she had to know he was right. She had to realize keeping addicted humans around was unsustainable—a plague that would rip through the rest of the population, both human and uhyre. The gravity—therisk—could not be overstated.

“I’m done,” she said a tick later. “It wasn’t that bad, but you should keep an eye on it until the stitches fully dissolve and take it easy for a few more days. You… shouldn’t have left last night. It was too soon.”

Threxin turned away, flexing his talons.

“Can you postpone the jump?” she suggested.

“No.” He needed to get to the edge of human space. Trajectories were already set, and postponing now would only raise more questions after his absence. And why was she still sitting there like that right in front of him, kneeling between his feet, her palms folded on her thighs? “Get up.”

The haste with which the female pushed off and to her feet pleased him. He rose after her, exhaling a sigh when his chest did not ache with the movement. Whatever protection she applied there minimized the pain.

“I will escort you back,” he said.

CHAPTER 21

THREXIN

The blood passages were sparsely lit. There was something comforting in the blackness of their narrow walls. Threxin scented Alina Argoud’s curiosity as she followed half a step behind him. He also smelled her trepidation. She was frightened still, as she should be.

The passages contained many shortcuts, but Threxin had not yet explored them all. They took the winding trip in silence as usual, her short steps scurrying to keep up with him.

Threxin’s long strides were too speedy for her, but he did not intend to linger in her presence any longer than necessary. Not while her kneeling form was fresh in his mind, lashes splayed across sharp cheeks as her hands hovered at his chest. And especially not when the vision of her stare as he delivered his punishment in the dock kept surfacing. She had leaned forward as she latched onto him, even in the violence of it all, and saw nothing else. Threxin could have kept her locked on him until someone—or everyone—noticed, and she would do nothing.

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