Kill by Numbers: In the Wake of the Templars Book Two by Loren Rhoads Page B

as Jonan thought I liked what he did to me, liked it as much as he liked doing it, he kept me around. I was the mirror that reflected his perversion and made it beautiful.”
    The pads on Coni’s fingers were rough, but her touch was extremely gentle as she explored the ridges and troughs of scar tissue.
    Raena asked, “You understand now why I killed him?”
    “Yes.” Coni took her hands away and Raena turned to meet her gaze. “Yes,” she said again. “I think the galaxy would understand, too, but I respect your privacy in this.”
    “Thank you.” Raena went to the door and retrieved her shirt, sliding it back over her head. Having someone touch her scar tissue made her feel chilled, despite the sweltering heat in the room. Those memories, apparently, were still too close to the surface.
    She didn’t tell Coni not to say anything to Mykah. It would be interesting to see if the blue girl would want to get her boyfriend outraged over something that happened to another woman or if she really did respect Raena’s privacy enough not to share her discovery.
    After Coni left her, Raena realized her fever to exercise had passed. She re-routed the heat exchangers and started mopping up the floor with a towel.
    Mykah came into the gym while Raena was crawling around on all fours. His hair was an explosion of ringlets today and he was letting his beard go dark at the roots. “Wanna spar?” he asked hopefully.
    “No, I’m done,” Raena said.
    He looked disappointed.
    “Go ahead and use the equipment,” she added quickly, “if you just want a workout.”
    “Thanks.” He moved into the room listlessly, trying to decide where to start.
    Raena paused in the doorway. “Can I ask you a question?”
    Mykah turned from the equipment as if glad of the interruption. “Anything,” he promised.
    “Do you remember your dreams?”
    That was clearly not the direction he expected her to go. “Yeah,” he said, “doesn’t everyone?”
    “I don’t know. I never asked anyone before.” She leaned against the doorframe, trying to steel herself to ask what she really wanted to know. “Mykah,” she said slowly, “do you ever dream about your past? Like reliving your memories?”
    He frowned, thinking about it, before he shook his head. “Not really. I mean, things from my past turn up, like the day we disrupted the jet pack race. I remember what it was like to fly. But I end up flying out over green fields or above forests or the ocean, stuff we never did on Kai. The memory is kind of a jumping-off point for the rest of the dream.”
    “Thanks,” Raena said, letting the door open.
    “Why do you want to know?” he asked, before she could get away.
    “I’ve been having a lot of bad dreams lately,” she said. “I wish they were as wonderful as flying over the ocean. Maybe, now that you’ve put the image in my head, I’ll dream of that next.”
    Coni waited until Raena had gone into her cabin to shower, before she slipped back into the gym to talk to Mykah.
    He also had stripped off his shirt to exercise. She came over to lick the sweat beading on his chest.
    He laughed at her. “Did you come in just to get a taste of me?
    “That, too,” she said, savoring the lingering salty flavor on her tongue. “But … no. I wanted some reassurance.”
    He released the bar he had been hanging from and dropped back to his feet. “What’s wrong?”
    “I came in here earlier, when Raena was working out. I saw … I saw her back. I saw what that monster did to her.”
    Mykah rubbed a towel over his skin before he came to hug her.
    “I know,” he said, looking up into Coni’s lavender eyes. “I’ve caught glimpses of them. We knew she’d been shot several times in his service …”
    Coni interrupted him. “It’s her back. She said they were love marks. She said he’d set her on fire.”
    Mykah squeezed Coni tighter. “You know he was crazy,” he reminded.
    “How could humans do that to each other?” she demanded.