so much, you have nothing to lose in telling me. Go ahead.” Hysterian waved his hand. “Though my inclination to kill you is increasing. And just so you know, I wasn’t going to kill you to start. Remember that.”
“Do it. I dare you. The rest of the crew will find out. You said it yourself, there’s footage in the security feeds. I’m sure those above you will have access to it. They are Cyborgs as well, aren’t they?”
“Why, Daniels, did you take this job?”
He turned to leave. “Fuck you. I don’t need this shit.”
Hysterian stopped the doors from opening. Daniels slammed his fist into them when they didn’t open for him. He slowly turned around. “I’m leaving, isn’t that what you want? Or have you changed your mind?”
Hysterian uncrossed his arms, took a step toward his former bridge officer, and removed his glove. Daniels’s eyes snapped to it.
Hysterian held it out between them. “Go ahead.”
“Fuck you, you fucking cyshit.” But Daniels’s gaze didn’t move from Hysterian’s hand.
“You obviously know about me. You know what I can do. Not many outside Raphael’s inner circle know, so you must have connections on Elyria. Go ahead, take my hand, unless you’re scared?” Hysterian flipped his hand over. “Isn’t this what you came here for? Isn’t this what you want? People pay thousands of dollars to touch me, they pay hundreds of thousands the second time. You couldn’t afford it, could you? ”
Daniels hesitated.
“You were looking for me, weren’t you, in my quarters? At least a part of me, the part that intrigues you,” Hysterian continued.
“I told you, I was looking for my fucking stash,” Daniels muttered.
“I’m better than whatever your stash is. Far better. I’m the best thing you’ll ever experience. One touch is all it takes, and you’ll be dancing in the heavens. The universe will finally right itself, any pain you might have will vanish, and a sublime delirium will take you over. That’s what you’ve heard, wasn’t it? A druggie looking for a higher high?”
Hysterian’s palm glistened as millions of microscopic glands opened up. Invisible to the eye, they produced an opioid that was, to a druggie’s dream, a high to die for.
“But if you take too much, you’ll miss that bliss and fall asleep instead. You’ll fall asleep and never wake up. And even if you survive, you’ll never find another drug that can do for you like I can. You’ll go mad with desperation for more. Do you dare?”
Once people had a taste of his opioids, they were ruined.
Daniels stared at Hysterian’s hand with want. A hungering want that Hysterian had seen so many times in his past. So. Many. Times. He’d refused to count. He hadn’t only been a bouncer and bodyguard to Raphael; he’d made the man a lot of money.
Daniels swallowed, reaching out his hand.
“How long—” Hysterian began.
“Ms. Dear is requesting permission to enter the bridge, Captain,” Questor’s AI said.
Daniels startled, freed from his trance, and Hysterian drew his hand back.
Daniels grabbed his head and turned away. “Fuuck!”
Hysterian slipped his glove back on. “I suppose she saved you once again,” he said with disgust. He wasn’t a saint. He hoped Daniels would touch him and take on the consequences of his actions. “Let Dear in,” he announced to the ship.
The bridge doors opened, and there she was. The bane of Hysterian’s recent thoughts. Stiff and cold, straight spine and all, arms crossed behind her, Alexa glanced between him and Daniels.
“Dear,” Hysterian said, “what do you want?”
“Am I interrupting something? I can come back later.”
“No, you’ve arrived at the perfect time,” Daniels answered with a growl. “Like always.” Daniels clenched his hands and, without another look at Hysterian, stormed through the doors. He rammed his shoulder into Alexa on his way out.
Alexa stumbled and righted herself.
“Are you okay?” Hysterian asked, rushing to her and clasping her elbow.
“Yes.” Her soft brown eyes met his. “I, uh, can really come back another time, Captain.”
“No. You will stay. I’ll be right back.”
He released her and stalked after Daniels. The fucker chose death, and so death he shall have. Hysterian had been inclined to let the man live, even if he’d taken what Hysterian had offered. But he’d touched Alexa, disrespected her in front of her superior, and thought that he was going to get away with it?
No one touched what belonged to Hysterian.
He caught up to Daniels just as he passed the menagerie’s storage.
“Daniels,” Hysterian called out.
The man swerved. Hysterian pounced forward and grabbed him by the neck, crushing