“No,” I stuttered, pulling away as fast as I could. My traitorous nose gave a twitch, upset it had been robbed of its prize.
His gaze zeroed in on my face and I prayed my nose would behave. Desperate to distract him I blurted out, “So what did you decide you were going to do with me?” I wanted to slap a palm to my forehead.Way to go, Oz. Remind him of what he came for,one half of my brain chided.It’s better than him knowing I was sniffing him,the other half countered.There is no way I would ever be able to live that down.
He smirked. “Well, first you are going to move out of Axios’s quarters.”
My heart sank. I didn’t want to leave Axios. He made my stay here bearable. A bright spot amongst the dark, a reprieve from all of the stupid shit I’ve done.
I met his eyes, refusing to allow him to see how much leaving my sanctuary hurt. “Are you letting me go, then?” Crossing my arms over my chest, all the progress we had been making vanished in an instant.Fuck the fact he smells good. He’s an ass. Me and my nose are launching a “stay away from Viper” campaign.
His eyes narrowed. “You really think we’d let you go?”
Damn him for reminding me of the fact I was essentially a prisoner here. “No,” I managed to retort through my clenched teeth. “But I don’t understand why it’s a big deal I’m staying with Axios. He doesn’t have a problem with it.” I watched his eyes flash. Some emotion that reminded me suspiciously like jealousy flickered in their violet depths before evaporating.
“There is an empty set of quarters next to mine. That is where you will be staying from now on.”
I worked to keep the shock off my face, but a heaviness settled into my stomach, my heart picking up speed.Why would he want me so close?It didn’t make any sense.
“Your quarters will be kept locked from the outside and I’m the only one with the access code.” His smirk morphed into a look of triumph.
Anger pooled low in my belly. I had tried not to let my frustration at my situation get to me. I had done this to myself, had signed up for it when I stormed into the cyborg rebellion headquarters. Still, I had been trying. Trying to be better. Trying to make them see I was sorry. I had gained a friend, a multicolored cyborg who meant more to me than I wanted to admit.
Plus, there was Poe. She was happy and whole and back in my life. If it wasn’t for the fact I couldn’t leave, and how the other cyborgs treated me like a piranha, I could fool myself this was a well needed vacation.
My actions had stranded me here but honestly, I hadn’t really thought about my life outside these walls since I had arrived. Why think about all the awful things that waited for me on the outside? The only good thing in my life up until now had been Poe. The rest? Well, that had been more of a nightmare, one I had always wished I would wake up from.
Life on the streets had been hard. I handled it. Kept myself fed. Most nights I even had a roof over my head, but sometimes I had wanted to crawl into a hole and forget the shit I had done to get that food or a bed for the night. I kept Poe in the dark, never revealing how bad things got or what I’d had to do to stay breathing. She would have wanted to fix it, take me in and hide me somewhere safe, and love me even if I don’t deserve it.
I couldn’t taint her with my life, with the darkness that followed me wherever I went. In some ways, storming the cyborg rebellion had been the best decision of my life. I had Poe. I was warm and safe. Found a cyborg who made me laugh, who doesn’t require me to spread my legs just for somewhere to lay my head at night.
But Axios wasn’t here to save me this time and deep down, this is what I always expected them to do, what I believed I deserved. I swallowed hard, working the words past the sour taste that had crept up my throat, making my stomach churn. It would be useless to fight. I needed to resign myself that I had made this bed, now it appeared like I had to finally lie in it. I dropped my eyes. “I’ll get my things.”
“That’s it? Is there no fight left in you, female?”
My mouth opened, ready to tell him what I really felt, but I snapped my lips shut and turned to get my things. We might have had a moment but that doesn’t mean things had changed. I refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing his actions had stolen the little piece of happiness I had finally found.