Page 31 of Legacy of Chaos

He was running from himself.

Cyan loved a good party, and this one beat them all as far as birthday bashes went. Grace Obert? Wow. The global superstar had won every major music award multiple times and had branched out to acting as well. And here she was performing a private concert.

Very cool.

A server passed with a loaded tray of frothy, sparkly pink drinks piled high with whipped cream—apparently, one of Runa’s favorite frou-frou cocktails. Cyan waved him off, preferring less sweet, Barbie-puked-in-a-glass types of beverages. She liked her alcohol the way she liked her men.

Strong, hard, and no-nonsense.

Males like Rade and Kynan.

And Stryke.

Ugh, no. He might be her type in theory, but she didn’t like him.

A vampire who had hit on her earlier scowled as he walked past, and no, she didn’t like him, either. They’d been having a nice time, chatting about his job as a phlebotomist at Underworld General, and then he’d had to go and ruin it by asking if she wanted to experience his blood-letting skills. With his teeth. In her femoral artery. As if she’d allow a complete stranger to pierce a vital artery with anything, let alone fangs.

Idiot. She’d been so glad when Parker saved her from further conversation with the jackass.

She watched the vamp disappear around the corner with a human DART agent who worked in finance, so it looked like he was going to get a little suck and fuck after all.

As for Stryke…she had no idea where he’d gone. She’d noticed his arrival, how devastatingly hot he was in a fitted black suit, black shirt, and a blood-red tie. Every female who recognized him had probably creamed themselves as he strode toward his parents, his long, smooth strides effortlessly eating up the floor.

He’d been as hard to read as his brother Rade. Blade, on the other hand, reminded her of a simmering pot of hot water.

“Cyan.”

She turned to her boss, looking as handsome as ever in a pair of slacks and an untucked blue dress shirt that matched his eyes. “Kynan.”

“I’m glad you came.” He gestured to the waiting area, a small alcove just off the lobby. “Got a minute? We haven’t had a chance to talk about how things are going at StryTech.”

She nodded as they stepped a little outside the clamor of voices and music. “Stryke is an ass, but his team is competent. We’ve already designed a microchip we think can hold the type of guidance weave I would need to inject into it.”

“Excellent,” Kynan said, his raspy, battle-damaged voice sounding impressed. “Good work. That’ll speed up the expected timeline.”

“Ifit actually works,” she said. Nothing ever came together effortlessly, which was why, when she prepared time estimates for any project, she added a twenty-percent cushion. “We still have a long way to go. Right now, we don’t know if we can design a weapon that’ll hold multiple projectiles. If we can figure it out, we’re still probably looking at several years of research and development.”

Years of working at StryTech.

Kynan clapped her on the shoulder. “If anyone can do it, it’s you.”

She appreciated the vote of confidence, but until the Reaper was thoroughly tested, she wouldn’t get too excited about it.

“We’ll see.”

“Always the cynical one.” Dropping his hand back to his side, he nodded at Blade as the demon walked past, headed toward the Harrowgate yard exit like he was on a mission.

“Keep me up to date,” Kynan said. “And let me know if we can help from this end.”

“I will.”

Kynan took off in the direction of his wife, Gem, who was laughing at a table with her sister, Tayla, and the newest addition to DART, Logan’s fiancée, Eva. It had taken Cyan time to warm up to the ex-Aegi, but the human had grown on her. Cyan liked her straightforward personality and reserved but friendly nature.

Cyan contemplated getting a drink and joining them, but her species had naturally hyper-sensitive hearing, and the noise was getting to her. In truth, she longed for the quiet solitude of her workspace.

She supposed she should visit the lab…to make sure everything was in order, of course.

Glad for a made-up excuse to escape the party for a while, she started for the comfort of her lab. Oh, how she’d missed it—

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