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“Hello!” he announced to Nyx as he jumped into some kind of surfing position. Moving his hands back and forth between them, he said, “It’s you. It’s me. We’re here together!”
Then he threw his arms around her, wrapping her in a hug that was surprisingly un-creepy: There was nothing sexual in the contact, he smelled good, and he didn’t hold on for more than a split second. As he leaped back and clapped his hands, like it was game time and he was more than ready to face the opposing team, he revealed a set of fangs that had already descended.
“Let’s get on with this, motherfuckers.”
As Nyx glanced at Jack, Jack rolled his eyes. “We do what we can with him—which is not much.”
“Oh, shit, sorry—Mayhem.” The male shoved his hand forward. “Sorry, I shoulda introduced myself before I hugged you.”
Nyx clasped what was offered. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nyx, I know.” As he smiled widely, she was once again struck by the fact that she had absolutely no clue what was behind that expression. “Great name, by the way.”
“Has anyone ever told you you remind them of a yellow Lab?” she asked. At least on the surface.
“I get that all the time.”
“You haven’t gotten that even once,” Jack muttered.
Mayhem leaned to the side and dropped his voice. “I’m trying to make her feel more comfortable. I read it in a self-help book.”
“You did not. You can’t read, and there are no volumes like that here. And speaking of which, she’s in a prison. How much more comfortable do you expect her to be?”
“For one, my eyes are bad, okay. It’s not like I’m illiterate. Two, there could, theoretically, be self-help books somewhere around here. And three, I concede your second point, as I believe her comfort is your territory, if ya know what I mean. Wink, wink.”
Nyx started to smile as Jack looked like he was going to pound the male into a throw rug.
“Relax, Jack, he’s good,” she said. “It’s all good,”
“Oh, nicknames.” Mayhem elbowed Jack. “Moving fast. We’re into nicknames.”
“I swear to Fate, I will kill you with my bare hands.”
“Jack,” she cut in. “Seriously, it’s fine—”
Her voice dried up as the fourth presence registered. Whoever it was had stayed in the shadows, outside of the glow of the candles around the pool, but she had a sense of the bulk of him. The evil, too.
Menace rolled out of the darkness, curling across the rock floor as tangible as a black magic fog that threatened to crawl up a person’s legs and body and choke them with ghostly hands. Nyx took an involuntary step back—and had the thought that unlike the others, where she wondered how they’d found themselves in this hellish place, she knew exactly why that one was here.
Not the particular details, no. But he was a killer because he liked it.
“That’s Apex,” Jack said softly. “Don’t mind him.”
Yeah, right. That was like suggesting she ignore a predator who’d gotten out of a zoo cage before lunch. And she was tempted to ask if they could leave him behind, but she had a gun, and no matter how fierce he was, he wasn’t going to beat a bullet shot into his brain.
“It’s time.” Jack went over to a stack of folded prison garb. “I’m going to ask you to put this on over your backpack.”
“Good idea.” She strapped her things on and then pulled the loose, grungy-colored shirt over her head. “Which way are we headed?”
“Into the main concourse. You’re going to be in the middle of all of us. Keep your head down—”
“And don’t make eye contact. You’ve told me the drill. But what’s the plan? What do I do—”
“You stay in the middle of all of us. We’ll take care of everything else—”
“Which is what, exactly.”
“Keeping you alive.”
Frowning, she stepped up to him and leveled a hard stare. “FYI, I’m in on that job.”
Lucan spoke up. “It’s true. I’ve been there with her.”
When Jack didn’t respond, she thought he was going to blow her off. Or stomp away. But then he rubbed his eyes.
“We’re going to walk you through to the Hive, and we’re timing it so that we get there when the guard shift happens. The Command has private quarters and that’s where the Wall is. These males will help you and me get in there, and once we’re inside, we’ll have only a matter of minutes, so you’ll have to keep up.”
“That’s not going to be a problem,” she said dryly.
As he turned away, she grabbed for his hand. When he pivoted back to her and broke the contact, he had a stern expression on his face, like he didn’t want her getting too personal in front of the others. Or maybe it was more of an “at all” situation.
Whatever. She wasn’t wasting time with lovey-dovey girlfriend crap in this situation.
