Page 90 of Shattered Silence

“Apologize to her and record it. If you do it with enough humility and contrition, I may spare your life.”

Andross cursed under his breath in Earth-speak. “C-can we at least g-go inside? I-I’m g-gonna g-get fucking hypothermia out here.”

Enki shook his head.

Andross let out a strangled whimper. With shaking fingers, he activated the device and stared into the recording lens. “Th-the B-black T-tapes are already out there. I d-don’t know how you think this is g-going to ch-change anything.”

Enki raised an eyebrow and drew his longknife from its sheath, holding it sideways. A single flake of ice came to rest on the obsidian blade, and Enki admired its intricate hexagonal design.

“Oh god. Fuck. You j-just c-can’t do this.” Pure terror invaded the human’s voice. Enki tended to have that effect on people, even when he wasn’t really trying hard to intimidate. He didn’t know why, he just did.

He stepped forward, ice-flakes swirling all around him. A few of them landed on his face and hair; pleasant, ephemeral fragments of coldness. He liked this falling ice… what did humans call it again? Snow. Perhaps he and Layla could go somewhere where there was plenty of this snow, but without the infernal crowds.

He caught another snowflake on the flat of his blade as he stared past Andross, watching the glittering city skyline beyond. He had no desire to look at this pale human’s ugly, shivering form.“I will not repeat myself, so listen to me carefully, human. Layla is under my protection. Any insult to her I consider a direct insult to me, and I have killed people for much lesser crimes.” He turned away from Andross, walked to the edge of the building, and looked down. Below, the empty street was covered in a thick blanket of snow. The only sign of life was the occasional drone silently drifting past.

It was early in the night, after all, when most humans retreated into their small dwellings, seeking warmth.

Thinking he had an opening, Andross rose to his feet and attempted to creep away.

“Don’t.”

The foolish human froze.

Enki didn’t bother to turn around. He could hear everything, even the soft plop of the ice-flakes falling on the deck. “Do you understand me, human?”

“Y-yes.”

“Then fix it.”

“U-urgh.” The human made a sound that was halfway between a choke and a whimper.

“And if you ever bother her again, if you even so much as think of her, I will find you, and I will rip your fucking heart out with my bare hands, and I will do it slowly.” Enki caught another tiny snowflake on his knife, marveling at how the faint starlight caught its incredible angles and spikes, turning it into a dazzling jewel. It nestled against the one he’d caught earlier, appearing similar at first, but on further inspection, he realized it was intrinsically different. He wished he could show it to Layla, but she was asleep in the desert on the other side of the planet. She would be waking soon, because shortly after the sun set here, it slipped over the horizon on the other side of the Earth.

Strange planet indeed.

“Make this quick, human.” He would be home soon, slipping back into their pod before his mate even realized he’d been away.

With his teeth chattering like mad, the human started to talk.

This was going to make for some entertaining viewing, and Enki was pleased that he had achieved full capitulation without shedding even a single drop of blood.

Chapter Thirty-Six

“Enki,” Layla said slowly, a sneaking suspicion entering the pit of her belly as she glanced at her holo again. No, she hadn’t misread it. That figure was real. “Would you by any chance happen to know why a shit-ton of credits has suddenly appeared in my account overnight?”

He shrugged, his expression perfectly deadpan. Well, except for the slight narrowing of his eyes.

“You’re a terrible liar,” she whispered, taking a sip of her hot, thick tsokolate, made the way her Filipino father had taught her. Even though it was blazing hot outside, she’d craved the drink for so long, especially when she’d been trapped in the escape-pod, thinking she was going to die.

So now she was having it for lunch as they sat alone together in the homestead’s weird old-fashioned kitchen.

Layla made the best tsokolate. Even Abbey’s blunt talking aunt, Kenna, had begged her for more. It was how she’d made a living as a seller on the streets of Moscow before she got famous. In fact, it was only yesterday that she’d thought about starting an upscale cafe in Darkside, because her remaining credits weren’t going to last forever, and she had to invest them in something she knew.

She knew how to make tsokolate so thick and moreish and addictive it was like opium, and now she was thinking about an iced version.

Well, she’d been thinking about an iced version a few minutes ago, until she’d checked her account and found that she was filthy rich.

Holy moly. What the hell was she going to do with all these credits?

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