Page 29 of Cold-Blooded Creatures

The corners of Jayla’s babbling mouth curled down, and she huffed, flicking her long ginger hair over her shoulder and rubbing the nose of her steel-toed boot on the black-and-white floor. As if she wanted to dig a hole to hide herself in.

She obviously had come here straight from Vice. Despite being promoted to show manager and lead waitress, she continued to lug around all of the heaviest crates, not accepting anyone’s help; hence, the reinforced-toe boots. Why she proceeded to do what would surely break her back one day was beyond me. It was not like she had not proven herself to us. Business was booming because of her.

“Alright, let’s pretend I didn’t say that.” She surrendered and plucked out a tablet device from her bag, handing it to Ryder. “It crashed. And yes, I’ve already rebooted it a hundred times.” She half-sighed, half-grunted at Ryder pushing the on/off button. “What did I just say?”

Jayla was not getting off this easily. She dared to bad-mouth Kali. There was no way she would bend over willingly. She would fight me every step of the way, and I would savor each moment of it.

And I knew a sure way to embarrass Jayla. Zion had no clue what she was going to do to him for me revealing this.

I gave her a minute to converse with Ryder troubleshooting the software installed on the tablet, then decided the sixty seconds of her peaceful existence were enough. Crossing the distance, I tapped her shoulder lightly.

She yelped, almost falling out of a sky-blue upholstered chair.

“Would you like me to get Zion here?” I clutched the backrest of her chair and dragged her a foot away from the milky white table. “Last I heard, you are the one whose mouth cannot last more than thirty seconds while on your knees.”

Jayla’s mouth froze agape, and her hands flew to cover her face. Barely contained snickers blew up from all around us, Sadira and Ryder’s teammates bursting into laughter in the corners of their luminous workroom.

“Would you like someone to fill up that open mouth of yours? I am sure we could get Eli here in no time. Or would you prefer another round with Zion?” I pulled her hands to her lap, revealing her beet-red cheeks. “Do not hide. Everyone here would be more than eager to teach you. I believe even Ryder would be happy to give you a verbal lesson or two.”

Ryder snorted at my offer, and with a tablet pressed under his armpit, hurried off to a far corner of the room where a group of his team members were hunched over various devices, half of them disassembled.

It was hard to come by tech people. The cities protected them at all costs, and very rarely did we get a chance to smuggle them out of Ilasall. Luck has evaded us, instead choosing one of our other compounds, the one next to Ardaton, which hosted the most substantial tech team by far, led by Nelle and Samuel. A couple of tech officers had fallen for the women assigned to them and ran from Ardaton in pursuit of a better life. Now they werewho we asked for help when we faced tech issues we could not sort out ourselves.

Though we were better off than the compound near the city of Coriattus. They had to come to us or Damia’s compound for the most basic problems each time, as they had no residents who could manipulate tech with ease among their ranks.

At least we had Sadira and Ryder. And with Sadira’s craftiness and Ryder’s resourcefulness, we were managing so far. Both of them had been training anyone who would display any interest in tech in hopes of expanding our team.

“Okay, that’s enough. I got what I deserved. I’m going to kill Zion. Have you seen his dick? Who would want that inside them?” Jayla grumbled, hopping out of the chair and traipsing after Ryder.

Sadira snorted. “Yes, I have. And believe me, mouth is your best option.” Picking up a silver tray, she proceeded to collect the scattered wires, mainboards, covers, and whatever else she had been working on.

Gathering up the things from my end of the table and passing them over to her, I asked, “Can we expect anything else in the meantime? Getting through the gates without the microchips?”

Sadira handed the tray to a worker and pulled a rag from a drawer, wiping the table clean of any dust particles. “No, you cannot go through the gates without access. They simply won’t open. You could physically go there, connect to their system, and disable the lock. But that would mean showing our faces to their guards and begging them not to shoot us while we mess with their tech. Somehow, it doesn’t sound like a viable option. So no, we can’t cross the gates for now. Unless you are planning to climb the fifty-foot wall with electrical wiring on top?”

I was not bowing to their new security system like a loyal citizen of Ilasall. I was not ceasing in getting people out, not until the city fell and became ours.

But we had a long way to go. Not enough resources, lack of information about their plans, and then the issue of the other two compounds being smaller than us, even if you could count them as cities. Population numbers could not lie. If we attacked now, I could not guarantee their survival. The last war between Ilasall and our compound alone had almost wiped us all out. This time, we had to be sure of our chances. We had to be prepared. I was not risking anyone’s lives if I could not ensure their future. Or at least a real possibility of it.

“Gedeon?” Jayla backed toward the wide-open door. “Kali’s awake. I would have told you sooner, but since you are a real pain in my ass today, be glad I told you now,” she said, then dashed out of the room.

My jaw ticked like any time someone withheld information from me, and I called on the memory of their military commander and his executioner wielding the spindly branch as his chosen instrument. Coming up with scenarios of their deaths, such as imaging their tracheas collapse from the pressure, and the exquisite crunching sound they would make, usually soothed my tendency to snap.

Not that I was going to act out on Jayla. I was not a fool, and not in a lifetime would I give in to the urge. You did not climb to where I was without differentiating between enemies and friends. Jayla was useful, albeit a bit irritating. I had no wish to go after her.

Not when my little death was awake.

10

KALI

Six stitches.

Streaks of blue thread held my skin together. The slash was gnarly, likely to scar, but smugness washed over me at the prospect of having a permanent reminder of how I’d hurt one of those two idiots for kidnapping me. Zion was not innocent by my account. A gnawing suspicion told me he’d probably stalked me my entire walk home from work.

A key turned in the lock, and I tensed at the sound, mad at myself for getting lost in my thoughts and not hearing the approach.

My kidnapper marched into the room, surveying the space while I examined my palm under the open window. “Considering jumping out?”