Muscle memory continued to work for that. Too bad it had chosen to abandon him when it came to the act of murder; a deed that had once been almost as much of a habit.
Damn Vax. It was his fault. Everything was his fault.
Threatening those who gaped at him with a fanged snarl, Karil ran as best he could for the in-house transport, desperate to escape before law enforcement could show up and catch him. Before Respel could come to bail him out just for the pleasure of having his bodyguard goons tear Karil apart.
The cavern was a kaleidoscope of confusion as Karil ran. He bounced against the cavern walls, fell, got up, and ran again. The hunter searched for a place to hide before he could be hunted down.
* * * *
Investigator Yas, a middle-aged Dramok, wore an expression that announced he suffered no fools whatsoever. He showed his handheld to Vax. Its holoscreen displayed an intake vid of Karil, shot a couple years before when he’d been arrested on drug possession charges.
“This is the Nobek whose clanmate you killed.”
“Yes. He’s lost weight since then.” Vax shifted in his chair, though the past couple of hours had proven there was no good way to sit in it. It, like the station’s interview area, was not built for comfort.
Vax was the victim of violence, but he was the man who perspired. The environment was too hot, too bright, and it smelled of years of sweat. Yet it wasn’t the worst of the whole experience.
Why should law enforcement bother with such a distressing environment when the officers were intimidating enough to put even an innocent man on edge? Investigator Yas, sitting across the scarred table from Vax, was the embodiment of don’t-fuck-with-me. His Nobek partner, Enforcer Genwa, was the other side of the coin: a breathing incarnation of I-will-fuck-you-up.
Standing next to Yas’s chair, Genwa was all muscle, all scars, all terrifying. His stare alone could have set an idiot Tragroom screaming. Vax didn’t think the craggy-faced Nobek beast had blinked in the last hour.
After Karil’s attack, the Imdiko had run straight to Bacoj’s apartment, needing not mere safety, but also his lover’s reassuring presence. Now he wished his friend was sitting by him, rather than standing silently. Seeing those handsome features would have gone a long way to calming the Imdiko, but Bacoj leaned against the wall behind him, out of sight unless Vax turned around.
He didn’t dare, not with Yas and Genwa watching him, looking as if they’d pounce at any moment.
Yas ran the show, and he’d told Bacoj to stand where he was and to keep quiet. Don’t-Fuck-With-Me Yas as yet had betrayed no hint of feeling for Vax’s story. He’d no doubt refuse a request for Bacoj to stand within the shaken Imdiko’s reach.
“Karil’s been showing up where you work, you said. I’m going to interview the owner of the bar—Dramok Deras—for confirmation.”
“Great.” Despite the stress, Vax couldn’t restrain a weary sigh. They’d been doing this dance for two hours now. Two hours of repeating the same questions and answers. Two hours since Bacoj had brought him to the station to report Karil had damned near killed Vax in his own home.
Vax went cold despite the too-hot room. He’d seen the knife Karil had come at him with. He’d seen Karil’s expression—murderous hatred, far beyond sanity. Karil had meant to kill him. Had almost done so. The blade had nicked his shoulder. If Karil hadn’t lost his balance when he did—
I should be dead.
“You never gave a report to law enforcement about Nobek Karil stalking you.”
That’s what it kept coming back to. Vax hadn’t filed a complaint in all those weeks. He saw how dubious it made Yas about his story.
“All he ever did was stare at me. His coms were nothing but accusations of me being a murderer who was overdue for justice. He never said he’d come after me. What could you possibly do about that?”
Yas snorted. “We could’ve kept an eye on him, for one thing. We certainly couldn’t help you without knowing what was going on. Most people would have filed a complaint.”
“Okay, I screwed up. I almost paid the price. I’m sorry.” He’d been assaulted, and he was apologizing. If the officers hadn’t been so terrifying, he’d have stormed out.
“Tell me, Imdiko, do you feel guilty about your cousin Huk’s death?”
Vax blinked at the seemingly unrelated question. “Of course. If I’d known body-slamming him the way I did would kill him—”
“Do you feel