Page 79 of Chained

“Because everyone who wasn’t affected by the Bogarok signal managed to leave the dome. If you got out, you must have been damaged in the past,” he says evenly.

Cleo looks at me, I put my hand over the scar on my forehead which dips into my skin slightly. It would explain why Klynn was rendered unconscious and I wasn’t.

“How do you know all this?” I growl at him.

“I invented it,” Dirk responds.

I want to kill him. I want to hack him to pieces for what he’s done. For what he is.

“Maxym.” Cleo’s voice filters in through the rage. “They have his family.”

“It doesn’t excuse anything,” I snarl, but my heart isn’t in it.

Not when I have my Cleo. Not when she’s close enough to touch and scent. With a grunt, I pull back from him but don’t lower my sword.

“I’m not proud of what I’ve done for the Proteus.” Dirk says. “But your female says you’re here to destroy all of this.”

I glance at Cleo. “I’m going to burn it to ash.”

“Then trust me when I say I might have been forced to make things to aid the Bogarok and Protoex, but I have plenty of tricks available to counter it all.”

“Including the serum to counteract the mind control?” Cleo queries.

He makes a move and finds my sword back at his throat.

“I need to work, if I’m going to be of any use,” he says, eyeing the blade with hands raised.

“I don’t trust you,” I growl. “If you cross me, I will kill you.”

“I understand,” Dirk says as I allow him to edge across to a table covered in vessels and equipment, where he picks up a hypo-syringe. “If you want?” He gestures to it. “I also have serum cartridges for pulsar pistols which you can use.”

“What we need to do is turn off the signal,” Cleo says. “But the cartridges will do in the meantime.”

My little mate is a force to be reckoned with. I offer her a smile just as Dirk jabs the hypo into my arm.

“Vrexer,” I snarl at him, but he’s already beating a hasty retreat.

“You’re a gladiator. You’ve had worse,” he retorts once he’s out of range.

My head swims.

“What the vrex have you given me?” I slur.

CLEO

Maxym sways on his feet and then lands with a thump on the weird medical chair. He puts his hand to his head, finds the helmet there, and then gazes at his fingers.

“What have you given him?” I say to Dirk, my stomach chilling. Has our trust been misplaced?

“There’s a very mild sedative within the serum, to make the transition a little easier. On a creature of his size, he’ll feel the effects for a nova-minute or two, and then it’ll be gone,” Dirk says.

The little Oykig makes a growling sound under his breath. “If you’ve hurt Maxym…” he says.

“I think we’ve got the idea,” I say kindly. The Oykig looks like it could be blown over with a single breath. “I’m Cleo,” I introduce myself.

“Nate, clerk, second class,” Nate says. “Maxym asked me to help find you,” he adds proudly. “And I found both of you.”

“Both?”

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