“Hey, I gotta question for you before you go,” he said.
“Yes?” Baird turned, wondering what new bullshit was going to come tumbling out of the tattooed human’s mouth.
The male squinted at them considering.
“Are your dicks as big as the rest of you? And if they are, how are you fitting them inside human bitches?”
“First of all, we don’t consider our females ‘bitches,” Baird growled. “And secondly, we have ways to pleasure women that I doubt you’ve even considered.”
The human raised his tattooed arms in a gesture of appeasement.
“Hey, take it easy—bros before hoes, right? I just wanted to know how you did it. I mean, you must be really railing ‘em—stretchin’ out those pussies every damn night! Their cunts probably look like goddamned subway tunnels when you Kindred are done with ‘em!”
He threw back his head and laughed raucously in a way that Baird found disturbing because it didn’t sound completely sane.
“Come on,” he muttered to Rarev. “We’re not going to learn anything else around here.”
“Agreed.” The Monstrum Commander nodded and the two of them left, with the crazy-sounding laughter still ringing in their ears.
TWENTY
Roarn stayed on the sleeping platform but, due to his acute Monstrum hearing, he caught every word that was spoken between Christine and the two Kindred.
Dangerous, he thought, as he heard the other warriors warning Christine against him. I’m dangerous. I came from the ship that crashed. What if I’m the reason it crashed? What if I killed the pilot and caused it to crash?
He tried to remember anything at all about the ship or the crash but all he could bring up was a kind of redness and buzzing. In fact, most of his memories from the last five cycles were the same—a kind of bloody static that was impenetrable, no matter how he tried to probe it.
Even worse, he could feel that buzzing red static still hovering in the corners of his brain—waiting to take over again and make him nothing but a beast.
Clenching his fists, he forced himself to keep listening to the conversation between Christine and the two Kindred he could hear talking on her front porch. One of them was clearly Chief Commander Rarev, though Roarn didn’t recognize the other voice or the name that went with it. Maybe he was one of the Kindred from this new ‘verse his people had apparently come to while he was trapped in the Fury. Roarn supposed it was good of them to bring him with them, considering he had been nothing but a mindless beast at the time.
And how did I repay them? I mauled my guards—and I may have killed that pilot. Gods, what have I become?
The question and the anxiety that came with it made the red buzzing in his head grow louder, threatening to overcome him and erase his thoughts once again.
No! Roarn fought it grimly as he listened to the rest of the conversation. To his surprise, Christine refused to give him up. She even lied and said she hadn’t seen him at all!
Roarn’s eyes widened as he heard her do it. Why was she protecting him? She barely knew him and the other Kindred were telling her how dangerous he was—why would she hide him like this?
What if I hurt her the way I hurt the guards? The way I might have hurt or killed that pilot?
But no—every instinct inside him rebelled at the idea. He would never hurt her—he wanted to Claim her!
Can’t Claim her though—no female should be tied to a male like me, one whose mind might snap at any time, he thought bitterly. I should probably get away from her.
But where could he go? As guilty as he felt, he still didn’t want to be sent to the Max Security planet. There would be nothing there to drive back the Fury—nothing to stop the red static from consuming his brain and eating him alive forever…
The front door closed and he heard Christine breathe a long sigh of relief. She was probably glad to have gotten rid of the males who were looking for him, Roarn thought. But why would she put herself at risk for him?
He had no answers.
TWENTY-ONE
When she got back to the bedroom, the big Monstrum was sitting up on the side of the bed, his hands clenched at his sides and a grim look on his face.
“Hey—you all right?” Christine asked him, frowning a little. It was difficult to tell, since his face was different from a human’s, but his tense posture spoke of him being upset or distressed.
“I…heard,” he said in that halting way of his.
“Figured you might,” Christine said, nodding. With senses like his, there was no way he hadn’t overheard the conversation she’d just had.
“You didn’t…give me up.” He looked up at her, a frown creasing his forehead. “Why?”