Chapter 7

He took her over to the tower. It was a simple gray structure with windows all around, most of the glass broken. There was a small building next to it and a door in the rock leading inside to the tunnel system. Men were stationed here too, watching to the east. Like those guards at the south entrance where she'd come in, they were silent and still, only dipping their heads and mumbling a greeting to Draka as they approached.

Draka didn't take her inside the tower. Instead they stopped beside a low wall. He took a seat against it.

"They should be coming soon. Sit with me," he said.

She took a seat beside him, trying not to stare at the corpses that had been staked not far down the hill, Margrul's men, she now realized. "Who's coming?" she asked.

"Traders."

She didn't ask what exactly they were trading. She sat beside him for a moment in silence, looking down the mountain. She could see the mines, the steam billowing up into the sky. To the south she saw the edge of the city and the factories.

A distant roar reached them, and she looked over to see, down at the bottom across a field of ice, a pack of large animals. They looked like large raptors with white fur. They turned toward the mountain in unison like birds changing direction. They roared and shrieked as they moved toward them.

She sprang up, her muscles tensing as if ready to run. No way she was getting eaten by one of those.

She heard a low laugh beside her. "Jumpy, aren't you? What? Never seen a skaleg pack before?" Draka said. "Sit, Oza, they won't hurt you. They don't eat prisoners. Usually."

That wasn't comforting. Slowly, she sat back down.

"Is this the first time you've seen them?" he asked.

"Yes. At least a live one. I think I've come across bones before."

"Interesting. Most don't come near the mines or city. They stick to places around them. Scavengers mostly encounter them. You a scavenger then?

She stiffened a little. "Sometimes, yes."

"Freys mentioned you didn't have a pack."

"No."

"Then you haven't been here long."

She side-eyed him. He wasn't looking at her but down toward the valley.

"Not very long, no," she said honestly.

"It's good you chose to serve me then," he said quietly. "You wouldn't have lasted much longer. Scavengers are the first to go." He said it almost bitterly. "And ironically that's how most of us start before we find a pack."

"Did you?" she asked, unable to hide her curiosity.

"What?"

"Start as a scavenger?"

He glanced at her and smiled. "Yes."

She looked away, surprised. "I find that hard to believe."

"Why's that?"

She curled her fingers into the snow next to her. "Because you're a sidonion. You could have fought the first pack leader you saw and won, claiming a pack right away. And if not that, you'd take what you want because people would have been too scared to say no."

"That's bold of you to say."

She shifted next to him. Shit, Ria, she thought, maybe just keep your damn mouth shut and keep your opinions to yourself.

"But you're right," he continued. "I could have."

"Why didn't you?"

His eyes darkened. "I was afraid."

She gazed back at him, speechless. He scanned the valley before his eyes drifted to her.

She shook her head. "Why?"

He hummed. "I wasn't myself. Hadn't been for a long time. Paranoid, unable to get over the wars, I think. Knew I'd have to kill to survive here."

"So, more scared of what you would do to others," she said.

"Yes. I knew how vicious I could be, how…cold and calculating. Something my kind loved to use me for."

A shiver raked her body. "You were a commander?" She'd learned how ruthless they had been back in the blade wars. Deadly, cunning, kings of destruction, destroying whole cities, taking over worlds.

He looked back to the valley, his mouth in a hard line, his expression dark. "At first, yes. I was their top engineer. Head of the weapons department. I made unspeakable machines, things that not only killed but maimed, tortured. I made these things to destroy our enemy. An enemy I was told had done unforgivable things to us."

She remembered hearing about the experiments. The torture her kind had enacted too. She'd never even been a part of it and yet it made her feel wrong, regretful.

"But it was an enemy I had never actually seen with my own eyes," he said. "Only in images on a screen. And yet I still killed with my weapons. Still did as my leaders ordered without a thought."

"Is that why you're here now?"

He laughed a little. "No. I blew up an embassy."

She did a double-take. "A federation embassy?" she choked out.

"They had traded with my kind for the weapons I made. I didn't want them to have them."

She stared at him in disbelief. And yet she believed every word he said.

They sat silent for a moment as she took in his words. He appeared to be in his own head as well.

She was sitting next to one of the deadliest sidonions in the systems, and he was so calm, but something about his expression told her he was regretful. It was odd seeing a sidonion feeling anything but hate. To actually believe he might feel a measure of guilt.

She was told they were monsters, so why did this one feel so human?

He was messing with her head, and she wasn't sure how to feel about it.

From out of his coat pocket, Draka took a meal bar and handed it to her. "For later. I know you haven't eaten."

She took it, feeling strange at his kind gesture.

But that's because he doesn't know who you are,she thought. If he did, he wouldn't be so kind.

She turned the bar over in her hands, thinking. Finding her courage, she asked, "Do you really hate them? The humans?"

He went quiet again, and she waited to hear his answer.

"Once, yes," he said softly. "At first because I was told to. Then I heard about the atrocities the humans did when they were lucky enough to capture one of us." When he exhaled, she saw his breath rise in the air like smoke. "I definitely didn't take that well. I made some of my worst machines after learning about it." He shifted, one elbow on his knee as if the memory made him uncomfortable. "Yet, I also saw the absolute cruelty my kind bestowed upon them in return. Enslaving many, treating them like animals. Through the circuit, I heard of the humans getting sold. Even on a screen, I could recognize the utter fear in them. I knew not everything was black and white. When I saw what my machines did, how my leaders used them to take out more than just human soldiers but cities filled with families, I started hating my kind too."

She studied him closely. "And now?" she asked.

She caught his claws slipping out of his fingers then sliding back in. "It's been so long. No, I don't hate them anymore. In fact, I've grown very curious about them…more than curious. I met one for the first time…You might have heard."

She gripped the bar in her hands. "Yes. You've been hunting her." She tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

He glanced at her. "I'm aware of how insane it is."

"May I ask why you're so fascinated?"

He leaned forward, watching the steam rising into the darkening sky. "I caught her in a vulnerable moment. Any human I ever saw was only an illusion, what our leaders wanted us to see. Either mindless with rage or fear. But this was something new, shocking. Beautiful. A hidden piece of her none like me had yet ever seen. I was so drawn to her at that moment, so utterly entranced. I'd caught her scent, and it was maddening, something I didn't expect. And her taste…by the brightburn gods." He turned to her and grinned. "She awoke something feral in me. Never have I lost control of my own body like that. She looked strong and yet so innocent at the same time. I want to know more, to see that primal side that reminds me so much of my own kind." He gave her a sheepish expression.

He couldn't see her more flabbergasted one. Now how the fuck was she supposed to feel about this?

The sidonion really did have the hots for her. Was all that stuff he said at the pool true? What crazy ass universe had she slipped into?

"Strange to be telling you all this…" he said absently. "But, you know, you're the first one to even ask. Everyone just keeps making jokes."

She thought back to the pool, how he had behaved. The way she had seen it, he was just trying to trick her so he could sink his claws into her. Or torture her. Anything else but this. She hadn't actually thought he had been serious about the offer, that he actually felt these things.

"What will you do then if you catch her?" She had to know. Even if he wasn't planning on hurting her one way, that didn't mean he wouldn't hurt her in another.

"Bring her back here was my first thought," he admitted. "Here she would be safe. I did get carried away and offered her a place in my bed, but I think I might have come on a little too strong. She'd been terrified, poor thing. I tend to get a little…possessive. I don't want the others to touch her."

"You should definitely go slow if you do catch her." She couldn't believe she was giving him advice. What the hell was wrong with her? Still she continued with, "Make sure she can trust you aren't going to hurt her."

He studied her curiously. "Have you met humans before?"

She tried not to squirm under his insistent gaze. "A few. I know they are very cautious. Some find it difficult to trust easily. You may want to give her space and let her warm up to you." Like strangely what is happening now, she thought. He'd opened himself to her and she wasn't going to deny it was endearing even if the confession was disturbing. She would have almost forgotten the fact he'd let a guy fall off a cliff to his death less than fifteen minutes ago before showing this side to her. But then he was just protecting his pack, wasn't he? This place was savage, and he understood what needed to be done. Who was she to judge, anyway? She'd killed a man just yesterday.

No, no, she was not going soft for this guy. Surely he was just messing with her.

"Warm up. Yes, I could do that," he said.

"You understand what I mean right?" she asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Yes, let her warm up to me…My body is perfectly heated for her to snuggle up against."

She glared up at him. He glanced back at her and laughed. "Yes, I understand what you really meant."

"No touching right away. It might make her uncomfortable. Humans get weird when strangers touch them."

"It will be difficult, but I will try." His smile dropped. "This is all assuming I find her."

"Who knows. You just might," she said softly. No, she couldn't seriously consider revealing herself to him already. This conversation was a strange and admittedly fascinating revelation, but she still couldn't trust him fully. Not yet.

She had to wait and see.

Draka straightened, his eyes falling to a point down the hill. "Here they come, finally."

She followed his gaze and saw a pair of prisoners climbing up the hill, dragging a cart behind them. Two silderhydes from the looks of them.

Draka rose and so did she as they reached the wall.

"Did you get everything?" he asked.

"Yes, but know it's becoming more difficult," one hissed. "The guards are starting to punish for missing items even if they don't catch you."

"Thankfully we shouldn't need more," Draka said. "Oza, go ahead and check the crates. Make sure nothing is contaminated."

Curious, she slipped over to the cart and opened one of the crates lying within. She saw several jars. She took one and saw on the label it was more of the compounds needed for the fuel. She'd noticed they were starting to run low on a few of them.

She looked over each jar and they all looked clean to her. She went to the next crate and checked, and they all appeared safe too. She also noted several small metal pieces situated with the jars, but she didn't question what they were.

"Good?" Draka said.

She nodded.

"Good. Go ahead and grab one, and I'll get the other."

They took the crates out, and Draka slipped something to the silderhydes before they started back down the hill. In turn, she followed him back up toward the tower. They returned inside through the small door and made their way through the narrow passage.

When they made it back to the lab, they set away the new compounds in the cool storage cabinet. She checked again on the two tanks and saw no issues.

"I enjoyed our little talk, Oza," Draka confessed when everything was settled. "You should know if your plan was to avoid me now and keep your head down while working, you've failed." He smiled, showing the tips of his fangs. "Most here don't ask questions like you do. Or listen like you do either. Not without cracking some snide remark. Not that I don't like those every so often. But you don't strike me as one to talk of vulgar things." He started for the door. "Night draws in and I still have work to do. But if you need me, just ask for me, and I will come."

She didn't doubt it.

She watched him disappear down the passage, wondering if she was going to feel guilty for enjoying their talk too and if it was going to cost her.