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“Okay, hold on.” I smoothed the skin on my forehead, already feelings the beginning aches of a migraine forming. “What’s the history between the two of you?”

“Both petrylle and caeboros have deep history with religion,” Wrex explained.

I nodded so he would continue. “It’s long rumored that petrylle helped build cathedrals.

” Which made sense to me, considering that Wrage mentioned how often petrylle were given construction jobs, known for their strength.

“The caeboros are convinced that the “angels” that humans are so fond of in their various religions are inspired by them.” He said the word angels like it was a curse, but I couldn’t deny the comparison.

It was the first thing that had popped into my head when I’d been interviewing Kloan for a spot on the board.

“There’s been animosity between us ever since. ”

“So petrylle might have helped construct religious buildings and caeboros don’t like petrylle also being attached to religious lore?”

“Basically, yes.”

Rolling my eyes, I sighed. So caeboros were mad at petrylle over something that might not even be true?

“Wait, did petrylle help construct religious buildings?”

“I’ve long heard rumblings about it growing up, but I’m nowhere near old enough to know how true it is.

” I wanted to ask how old he was, but I knew now wasn’t the right time.

“My point is, if there’s anyone in the Orb community that would be the most likely to make petrylle go missing, it would be caeboros. ”

“But why would they want to make petrylle disappear?” Something wasn’t adding up, especially if it was caeboros behind the kidnappings.

As serious as it was that Orbs were going missing in a certain community, I wanted to have all the evidence before moving forward.

“Have any of them been seen since being taken or have any petrylle…turned up dead?”

“No, to both questions.” Wrex stated. “It doesn’t make sense for caeboros to be kidnapping us, given our gifts in contrast with theirs, that I can agree, but then again, it doesn’t make sense in the first place why petrylle would be disappearing.”

“Gifts?” I knew that some Orbs had certain abilities or things that made them unique, but I had no idea about specifics.

The only one I’d really experienced first hand was how the sangamar were required to consume blood in order to live, which in turn gave them their sight.

But that seemed like more of a burden than a gift to me.

Instead of telling me what he was referring to, Wrex put down his beer and drew in a chaste breath as he set his arms on the table.

Once he clasped his hands together, I watched in fascination as he flexed, a sudden sheen appearing over his entire skin.

It was as if a clear coat of nail polish appeared against his grey skin, making it shine and catch the light in every perfect angle.

Surprise colored my face as I stared into his blue eyes, captivated by the changing of his skin. “Wow, you’re even more beautiful.”

It slipped out before I had enough time to wrangle it back into the depths of its horny jail confines where it had come from. But Wrex didn’t let it go unnoticed, smirking with the curve of his lips.

“You must say that to all the guys,” Wrex snickered. “Thank you.”

Trying not to keep the topic of conversation on how beautiful I thought he was, despite my dick starting to plump up in my pants, I cleared my throat. “What does this do for petrylle?”

“We call it our luster,” he explained. “When we activate our luster, we’re pretty much indestructible. We’re strong enough without it, but with our luster, we’re absolutely unmatched.”

The wicked side of my brain thought about what Wrex must look like completely naked, covered in luster.

Emphasis on the lust part. I wasn’t doing so well in concealing my thoughts, and I just hoped that my cheeks weren’t reddening as my thoughts darkened.

Wrex just smiled at me, not giving me anything to go off of.

So I just nodded and steered the conversation back around to the kidnappings, ditching all thoughts of Wrex naked. At least for now.

“I had no idea,” Plastering on a simple smile seemed the most neutral, and I took a nervous gulp of my gose. “Wrage should have mentioned this during the interview.”

“It’s a well guarded thing amongst petrylle,” Wrex nodded with purpose. “We don’t like to show it off unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

A dismal thought crawled into my brain at that. “Could the luster be a reason behind the kidnappings?”

Wrex tilted his head as he let it rattle around his skull. “I suppose anything’s possible. All I know is that twelve petrylle are missing without a trace and something needs to be done about it.”

“Absolutely.”

I was already going over in my brain how to best go about this issue.

We needed to get local law enforcement involved, that much was evident.

Clueing in my boss on a potential targeted petrylle kidnapping was also pretty high on my list, considering that I’d need to get a local officer assigned to the problem so we could deal with it as discreetly as possible.

Unbeknownst to me during my mental ramblings, Wrex was staring at me.

When I finally looked back into his eyes, seeing how intricately he was taken me into his eyes, I felt a little…

vulnerable. Something about his stare made me feel like he was mentally cataloguing me, saving my frame for later when it was more suitable.

Did Wrex…find me as attractive as I found him?

He couldn’t. There’d been no mention of his sexuality, although I guess there wouldn’t be.

I hadn’t said anything about mine. But his comment about me thinking all guys were beautiful…

had that been his way of hinting to me that he was gay and I was too obtuse to notice it?

Oh god, I’d been silent too long. Wrex was starting to smile, and my hands were covered in sweat as he flexed again, his luster leaving him and his usual grey skin pulsing before me.

“Sorry,” I laughed nervously. I was usually a lot better than this around guys I was into. Then again, I’d never been into Orbs before now. “I’ll contact my boss about the disappearances and we’ll get someone from the local police station involved so we can figure out what’s going on.”

“Sounds great, thank you.” Wrex said, picking up his beer. “Until then, you can let me buy another round for us.”

“Yeah, perfect.” I smiled back.

Because more alcohol made every decision better, right?