variable was her. Maybe that drink she’d had did have an effect on her after all.
“What about you? I am seeing a lot of you lately,” M’Agunt continued.
“Maybe because—” Kyro began, those two words already slicing like daggers, and Evren had a feeling she knew exactly what he was going to say. Something along the lines of M’Agunt being a pest.
“—because I’ve been out a lot lately.” She finished Kyro’s sentence and smiled sweetly at them both.
“Ah,” M’Agunt’s grin deepened. With a tentacle, he gestured to a building close by. “Would you like to have a drink? I’ll pay.”
Ah.
She cringed inwardly. No, she didn’t want to have a drink. But she’d sidestepped his advances so much lately, she was beginning to feel guilty and she might even be creating an enemy in him.
“No, we wouldn’t ‘like to have a drink.’ We are tired and we are heading back to her quarters to rest…” Kyro spoke up.
“...For the rest of the day,” he added. “Without interruptions.”
His tone was still clipped.
“I see.” It was M’Agunt’s turn to narrow his eyes. “Together?”
“What does it matter to you?” Kyro took a step toward M’Agunt and she found herself holding him back. “I will be staying with her,” he added, and Evren’s wide eyes flew up to his.
Smiling at M’Agunt, she dipped her head in a slight bow as she began to pull Kyro away and down the street—a mammoth task because his entire body was reluctant. “We’re a bit tired, M’Agunt. Maybe some other time. I’ll see you in the market maybe?”
Eyes still narrowed on Kyro, his entire face gone hard, M’Agunt didn’t even look at her when he replied. “Yes, human. Some other time indeed.”
As Kyro’s feet finally mobilized and they began walking again, his hand loosened around her arm, but he still kept it there.
“What was that?” She glanced up at him.
When he met her gaze, his shoulder rose and fell with a sigh, the contempt leaking from his bones.
“Some form of bewitching,” he said, almost as if to himself.
“Bewitching? Do you think M’Agunt is a wizard or something? Is stuff like that even real?”
“M’Agunt is filth.”
She didn’t like M’Agunt either but Kyro’s response still seemed a little extreme. Nevertheless, he seemed to have gone into a mood and she decided to end the conversation there as they walked the rest of the way to her apartment in silence.
As they approached her door, she turned to face him.
“Thanks for walking me back. I...” Her gaze sauntered to the street below as she tried to choose her next words carefully. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to say to him or if she should say anything at all.
It was during this moment while she stood there that her gaze focused on the alley connected to the street and her blood ran cold.
There, looking right back at her was Shive. He was staring unashamedly.
What the actual hell?
Without realizing what she was doing, she gripped Kyro’s arm, her eyes widening as she stared at the alien in the street.
“What the—”
As Kyro turned to see what had drawn her attention, Shive slipped out of view.
“What is it?”
“That alien that had stopped me in the market. The cockroach one.”
“Cockrosh?”
“Shive. Shive I think his name was, right?”
“Shive?” Kyro snarled, the contempt returning in his voice immediately. “What about him?”
“I just saw him. He was standing there, just looking at me.”
Kyro’s head snapped to the street and she could feel his muscles tense under her arm.
“Go inside,” he said, not looking at her as he began moving toward the gravity lift that would take him back down to street level. “Go inside and engage the locks.”
Evren nodded, reluctantly letting go of his arm as she did what she was told.
Minutes ticked by that seemed like hours.
As she paced by her window overlooking the street, she could see Kyro down on ground level.
He was moving through the crowd with such ease and grace that it didn’t even seem as if he was hunting someone. But she knew.
She was sure she’d seen Shive there by the alleyway.
What had he been doing? Why had he been watching her so much lately?
Was he still pissed about what had happened between them in the market?
Whatever the cause for his behavior, she was sure it wasn’t good.
No one stalked another person and watched them from afar like that with good intentions.
She watched as Kyro turned and headed back toward her and her shoulders sagged.
He hadn’t spotted the other alien, but she knew she wasn’t going