Page 75 of Cold-Blooded Creatures

Another useless discussion. Ardaton had followed Coriattus’ example and upgraded its security system, but at least Damia’s compound had avoided an involuntary decrease in their numbers, as we’d warned them in advance.

“What about the microchips? Any news from the other compounds?” Eislyn delved into the mass of Gedeon’s notes scattered over the ebony desk and plucked out a hand-drawn blueprint. “What about the schools? When are the next auctions taking place?”

“They haven’t solved them yet.” I answered her first question as I cracked open a window. A blast of the late summer heat assaulted me, the air itself sticky and clingy, dampening my t-shirt and pasting it to my chest, and I shoved the window closed. Fresh air would’ve been nice, but not at the cost of an even higher temperature.

Slumped in a chair behind the desk we were gathered around, Sadira toyed with her thin black braids. “We haven’t discovered anything about the schools and their auctions either. Ryder, you came back from Damia’s yesterday. Any news?”

“No. Their compound is smaller than ours, so they can’t risk accidentally drawing Ardaton’s attention without insurance,” Ryder said, exploring the map of the three cities and our compounds hanging on the wall behind the ebony desk. “They’re going blind without direct access to their systems.”

“So we don’t know anything,” Eli remarked from the light gray suede couch situated several feet away from the wall lined with dark wood shelves, each brimming with rows of neatly organized books, all of them the same height, and the spines color-coded. “Glower at me all you want; it doesn’t change a thing until we solve at least one of the problems.” He spread his arms along the backrest and hoisted his feet on the low table, ankles crossed.

Gedeon’s glare at dirtying up his coffee table bounced off Eli with no effect.

“He’s right. We can only wait.” And sit outside their walls like their obedient citizens with not a pea of grey matter in their brains.

“Fuck.” Gedeon splayed his palms on the desk and dropped his head. Dark waves falling over his forehead didn’t obscure the tension in his features. The daylight seemed to halt before him, not daring to illuminate him, as if that strain acted as his personal warden.

“What’s the plan? I don’t mean today. But the long-term plan, what is it?”

My head snapped toward the door at her voice. Kali hovered in the doorway, dressed in a pair of black cotton shorts and a white t-shirt. My mouth watered at her exposed legs, the flareof her hips. I wondered if I could make her laugh by licking the inside of her knee. A gnawing suspicion told me she’d be ticklish.

“Take down the cities,” Ezra said, walking around the desk and pausing at the front of our group. “Care to join the resistance?”

“Come on, don’t call us that,” Ryder reproached, without pausing his study of the map containing the last known active residencies of humankind. “Some simply live here. You know that.”

She bent down to scratch her calf. “When?”

“Soon,” I said, my voice as certain as the sun baking my back through the window. Neither was willing to budge.

“A year at minimum, likely two,” Gedeon objected, expressing his disapproval of me running headfirst in his tone.

Only my patience wasn’t going to last that long.

Leaning against the door frame, she crossed her arms and ankles. “What do you want from me?”

Everything.I strode across the polished pale wood floor toward her. “Your blood.”

Groans sounded from around the study, and Sadira snorted. “If anyone is in your debt, send them to Zion. He’s hungry again.”

People called me insane, unhinged, or deranged. But the specific words didn’t matter. I had a fascination with blood. The essence that flowed in the spiderweb of muscled tubes inside you. How the abundance of the acquired-taste liquid kept you alive and lack of—dead. Offering it to someone of your own volition meant gifting them a drop of your life.

Regarding me with suspicion, Kali took a step inside. “I’d prefer to stay alive.”

No one had said anything about me taking her life. Just a piece of it.

“Join us.” Gedeon gestured to everyone. “Not like you have much of a choice.”

She sighed dramatically. “Why do think I’m here? Aren’t you supposed to be smart, the leader of the compound and all?”

“Pretty birdie!” I picked her up and spun us around. Huffing, she clutched my upper back to keep her balance. A tiny smile worked its way to the surface, wiped off the next second by her composing herself and demanding I put her down.

I conceded, but not before squeezing her backside and kissing the tip of her nose. Every time I did it, she rubbed her nose in such a cute manner. It made it impossible to resist. And her ass had been way too squishy to prevent the flow of endless scenarios involving it from spinning in my mind.

“Go away, pretty boy.” She pushed at my chest. “I don’t do nice. You have no idea about the things I’ve done.

What had she done? Maybe we could compare our stories. Weave new ones.

As long as they involved either bodily fluids or steel, I was down.