He draws a device out of his pocket and tosses it, then catches it. “Guess I’m lucky I stole this.”
“What’s that?”
“You don’t know?” He laughs at the ceiling. “Of course you don’t. Why would he ever tell you?”
“Who?”
“Well, your great-grandfather, of course. He engineered this little mental controller. It’s rudimentary, but works well for CSP regulators.”
He gestures to the screen where Menace is. “Don’t you recognize him?”
Sythius presses the button on his device, but nothing happens.
“Had the CSP tech cut out, dumbass.” I peer up at the light dusting of scales on his face. “You can’t cause me pain that way anymore.”
Sythius sucks on a tooth and throws the device over his shoulder. “At least the memory of Captain Cerzsl should—stringing you up by chains kind of like your Titan friend.”
It does, and I suddenly make the connection. Quris looked familiar, but he’s far more augmented now than the Captain Cerzsl I remember.
I drag my eyes from the screen to Sythius. “I escaped but not before setting off a pulse-grenade. I thought he died.”
“Youassumed.” Sythius studies me with caution as if he didn’t believe I was capable of such destruction. “So did I. But Cerzsl didn’t stop with us. He wasn’t always into human experimentation. He was a Creator long before he carved us up. But he doesn’t want you or your kind anymore. You’re a washed-up junker’s servant, a simple human. But he can still use you as motivation for that cyborg down there.”
“Are you kidding? I hate him. He’s a pain in my ass,” I lie. I don’t want to let Sythius think I’m weak or broken because Menace is probably dying, or he’ll take advantage of it. “I can’t sneak a credit or weapon out from under his nose.”
Sythius grins. “There she is. I knew you were still my favorite woman in the whole galaxy.”
I stifle a gag. “What on Earth would you want me for? I’m just a guard.”
“Come on, baby. I’m Kilthrian and Solcrue raised by human hunters. I belong nowhere and everywhere. So I take what I want and don’t care who it hurts.” He jams his hands in the pockets of his black leather jacket and crosses one leg over the other. “And I admit it gets lonely as fuck, hopping from ship to ship. So I’m stealing Kuthar’s hunk of grotesque metal, the Creyfirth, and you, and leaving this system for good.”
He chuckles and shakes his head.
I shudder inside. I don’t want to be stuck in a ship with him ever again. “What’s so funny?”
“It’s really crazy to think that I left the outpost and came here for the ship, and you just fell into my lap.” He lifts his hands. “Like it was meant to be.”
“You sold me behind my back to a junker as a mate and told me you arranged for me to guard their shipments.”
He waggles his head. “That was a mistake. I realized it after your pretty face was gone and I was stuck looking at old fugly Solcruean rejects. They beat me to a puddle for selling you without theirpermission.”
“What about mine, you piece of shit? Do you know what that’s like?” I growl at him, tugging at my ropes. My right boot is loose. With the perfect move, I think I can slip my foot free. I just need to wait for the right time. “Being used and left to die when they’re done with you?”
He rubs his face. “Actually, I do. The point is to get through the shit so we can have what we want.”
“What are you talking about?”
He laughs nervously and paces in front of me. “You’d be surprised how many Solcruean officers don’t actually care about the gender of those they abuse. Why do you think I don’t care about them either?
“Humans are on the losing side of the war. Royal Solcrue are twisted beyond what any of us could’ve imagined.” He circles a finger beside his head. “Void Delirium.”
Ah, there’s the familiar pity ploy.
“That has to be some kind of nightmare,” I mutter.
“It was. For sure.”
“I mean shifting your loyalty to weasel your way out of everything. I doubt you suffered for long. I bet you broke before they even touched you and made a counteroffer they couldn’t refuse. You’re real convincing like that,” I sass.
