Page 15 of The Syphon King

“I’m going to have you inked with a bio-ink capable of detecting and analyzing emotional fluctuations in real-time.Heartrate variability, skin conductance and brainwave patterns. It’ll be equipped with wireless connectivity that communicates directly to the receiver I will have embedded on my body giving me immediate feedback on your wellbeing.” He paused.“Do you understand that I willalwayshave this power and ability regarding this?”

Zenith felt flush and faint. May as well be a marriage. She’d joked about it while secretly wishing it were real.Answer the question.“I understand and I’m still more than willing.”

She waited again, tugging at the dress bunched in her fingers.

“Why do you give me this much control over you?” he seemed to puzzle, maybe accuse.

Yes, that was the big question she asked even herself. She knew one of those answers. “You saved my life.” Her stomach danced through another span of silence while she gathered more of her dress in her fists.

“Is this the only reason? Answer honestly. I must know.”

She took a careful breath then slowly released it.

“You fear answering me,” he stated after angling his head.

“I...do,” she whispered.

“Why?”

“I fear...disappointing you.”

“You have nobody to please here but yourself.”

“I also...have very strong feelings for you.”

Another tilt of his head. “Because I saved your life.”

“Partly,” she said with great hesitance. “I’m not sure of the rest of it.”

More silence.

“In return for your cooperation, I will give you a single thing that you wish.”

Wow. He was giving her something for letting him take care of her? “Like what?” she wondered, not about to waste the gift.

“Whatever you wish if I can give it.”

Wow again. “Can I have time to think about it?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“There’s something about you that calls to things in me,” she confessed quickly. “And I...can’t seem to stop from answering it.”

He adjusted himself on the sofa, the movement graceful as he stretched a leg and placed one of his chain-inked hands between them.

“You terrify me,” she whispered, confessing more. “And yet I’m not afraid. I need to...it feels like I need to touch you.”

“Kuff,” he ordered, the rough word making her insides jump. “Don’t say such things to me. I have told you there is power in your words.”

She lowered her head. “Yes. Sorry. I was...trying to be honest as you requested.”

“I see things when I siphon people. About them.”

She again nodded, fear slowly filling her, still unsure what he’d seen of her. Only that it seemed to anger him.

“I must allow time for them to process and for my body to calibrate and remove it.”

“How long...does that take?” she wondered.

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