Page 74 of Elas

“I don’t trust him… not for a fucking second. This information is a weapon to him, August, and he’ll use it against us someday. Mark my fucking words.”

“What do you suggest we do, then?” I ask, and there’s no mistaking the murderous gleam in his eyes as he narrows them. “No,” I insist, and he scoffs. “Absolutely not, Elas. We can’t hurt him.”

“You are asking me to donothing,then? Sit around and wait for him to hurt us?”

“I don’t think he will.” Elas glares with an annoyance he’s never directed at me before, and I struggle to climb off his lap. His hands bracket my hips and hold me there, though, so I stop squirming and return his scowl. “Violence solves nothing, El.”

“Sounds like it would fix the problem to me,” he counters, and I growl in frustration.

“You can’t just go ripping heads off people you don’t like!”

“I can when they’re a threat to you!” he shouts back.

“Gods, are all your kind so stubborn? Can none of you trust that the world isn’t evil?”

“The worldisevil, August, and I have the scars to prove it,” he snarls, jabbing his finger at the jagged line across his lower lip. “You asked me once how I got this? I got it becausemy kindshoved me into a dark cage for days. Barely any food and water, and no light.None. By the end of the third day, I was so determined to get outthat I tried to squeeze between the bars. I knew I’d never fit, but I was so fucking desperate that I didn’t care. Those corroded bars ripped my skin right open as I screamed, andstill,no one came.”

“Elas,” I whisper, horrified.

“Those scars across my body? Ibeggedfor them, August. Traded my nights in that hell for the countless fucking lashes, because at least I knew they’d end. At least I couldseewhat was happening to me.” Tears pool in my eyes as I remember the thick, raised scars that cross his wide torso, and my lip wobbles at the way his pupils distend, even here in the bright afternoon sun.

“You want to know why I wake up some nights terrified? Why I lose myself and can’t figure out where I am? The darknesshauntsme, August, because my people, the people that were supposed to be my allies, the people I abandoned my dying mother to serve, have always been my greatest enemies.” His chest heaves and his eyes are faraway, even as he looks directly into mine. “Do not forget what we are. We donothingbut hurt.”

“Not you,” I whisper, resting my palm on his chest as I inch closer. “Never you. You’d never hurt me.”

The fog clears from his eyes as he sags, seeming so much smaller than should be possible. “No, I’ll never hurt you… but I won’t letthemhurt you, either.”

“Don’t be reckless, okay?” He’s skeptical as I scoot closer and cup his cheeks. My thumb drags over that awful scar, and I lean forward and press a gentle kiss to the raised skin. “I need you, El. I need you more than I’ve ever needed anything in my life. Don’t do something that would take this away.”

“What would you have me do?” His voice is rough, raspy, as he nuzzles into my hand.

“Stay,” I whisper, and his eyes are heavy as they land on mine. “Just stay. That’s all I ask of you. You’re all I need in this world.”

“Fuck, doc,” he murmurs, his hands circling my waist as he tugs me closer. “Nothing could make me leave. Not when the most perfect man in the world is right here in my lap.”

“Elas?” His lips graze mine and he pulls back, waiting. “What does it feel like to be in love?”

Those endlessly dark eyes search mine for a long moment. “I think it feels a lot like this,” he finally says, and then he kisses me, and nothing else matters.

Elas

Xeniisathreat.

He’s aliability,and dropping August off while that threat roams those same hallways is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. My instincts kept me awake, urging me to leave August peacefully asleep in our bed and go hunt down the Cavese. Shred his body into something unrecognizable and shove it in a hole somewhere, never to be found.

I imagined the conversation in my mind a hundred different ways.“What’s that, August? Xeni didn’t show up for work today? How strange! No, that definitely isn’t blood underneath my fingernails.”

My fantasies of slaughter morph into contemplation, though, as I think about the files. We stayed awake until the darkest hours of the night, reading the ones that remained. We learned a few things, but every piece of information only leads to more questions. In the last file I read, the human mate died during one of their procedures.The surviving mate, a Ramves, was in agony, and their mark turned into a scar on their skin, raised and bunched as though it was an injury long healed. August read the description, but he insisted Xeni’s mark was black and diseased-looking.

Each story shares a common theme, though, and it’s become abundantly clear that the military is attempting to extract something from these mates. Detailed documentation outlines every step of their techniques, and they range from something as simple as drawing blood with a syringe to hanging the mates upside down and draining them into a bucket. In the more recent files, they pump them full of experimental medicines in an attempt to isolate the magic inside them.

Over and over, we see it referenced—Project V.

Frustratingly, though, there’s no explanation of what it actually is or what they’re trying to accomplish. Not that I expected there to be, but it would’ve been nice to be handed an instruction manual for all this.

Urul tosses me a wave as I approach our duty station. He jogs over, his piercing catching the sun. Fucker. “Someone was looking for you a few minutes ago. Said the new commander wants to see you.”

“Great,” I mutter, and he chuckles as he punches my arm with a playful jab.

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