Page 107 of Decadence

It was Ikriss’s turn to open his mouth and then close it, his ill-thought questions evaporating as realization dawned on him.

She wasn’t used to this… to feeling safe.

She was still traumatized.

I will make them suffer for what they did to you.

Thoughts of death danced through his terrible mind as he held her tightly, letting her curl up against him. She sought his warmth, curling her face into his chest, wrapping her arms around him, her slender fingers dancing across his back.

He simply held her, because that was all he could do.

She let out a deep, shuddering sigh and relaxed, her fingers still caressing his back, seeking out the dotted swirls of his ritual scars. “Your kind heal quickly, don’t you?” she murmured absently.

“What are you talking about?” Ikriss frowned. Only the warriors of the First Division possessed abnormally fast healing. Without Zharek’s nanosurgery, his battle wounds bled black and healed slowly just like any other cursed mortal Kordolian.

“Well, my mind must be playing tricks on me, because I was feeling really bad just now. I could have sworn I accidentally tore your poor back to ribbons the first time we, uh…” The pink flush in her cheeks deepened.

“You did,” he chuckled, remembering her sudden savageness; remembering that he’d liked it.

“Well, you must heal pretty quickly then, because your skin is as smooth as a baby’s bottom.”

Her strange human expression made Ikriss chuckle wryly. “Smooth as a baby’s…?”

What?

He sat bolt upright.

She had scratched him; of that, there was no doubt. He remembered the exquisite pain and the scent of his own blood and the exhilarating intensity of her.

Oh, she had definitely wounded him.

And now he was healed.

Perfectly so.

Suspiciously so.

He uttered a vicious Aikun curse under his breath.

What the fuck did you do to me, Zharek? Did you put fucking nanites in my body?

At some point, he and the medic would be having words.

But before Ikriss had time to contemplate what it meant to be infested with those cursed machines, the comm inside his ear buzzed. Spliced directly into his auditory nerve, it could be activated in response to subtle facial movements—a slight twitch of his cheek muscles or a faint click of the teeth.

He activated it, quieting Sienna with a finger to her lips, conveying silent reassurance with his eyes.

Hold a moment, my love. They know not to contact me unless it’s absolutely necessary, so this must be urgent.

“We found the human, boss.” It was Zarken, once of the Second Division, and now one of his trusted squad leaders.

“Ah.” Ikriss had specifically tasked Zarken with finding this close friend of his mate’s—this Eva. “That took longer than it was supposed to. She is safe and in our custody, then?”

Zarken let out a soft growl of frustration. “I said we found her. I didn’t say we had her. We searched for an entire rotation. Interrogated her contacts and relatives. Kail’s mate tapped into her Link devices, which had been wiped. It was only when we reviewed our surveillance logs that we found a trace of her.”

“Oh?” Ikriss’s voice dropped to a dangerous pitch. He did not want to deliver bad news to his newly claimed mate. For the sakes of everyone involved, they had better pray to the Goddess that this human was found alive and in good health. “So where is she, Zarken?”

“This so-called Syndicate has her. She was abducted from the streets during the riots.” Somehow, the warrior managed to telegraph a shrug through his voice. “Infernal humans. They are becoming too much of a pain-in-the-ass to ignore. Zyara’s mate reached out to one of his old contacts in the Syndicate for information. It appears that because they lost Sienna Adamo to us, they have taken this female instead, to account for your mate’s unpaid debts. They will probably try and sell her to a body trader.”

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