Caeyin wasn’t surprised by the human’s unwillingness to answer his question, but her response vexed him nonetheless. His upper lip curled back slightly, and his violet eyes narrowed when she said she hoped he would get himself killed by one of the things that had just attacked them. He opened his mouth to retort that his comrades were just fine on their own, but the words died on his tongue. In truth, he had no idea what had become of the others. He’d been separated from them a day ago, and they weren’t due to reconvene until tomorrow. Although it pained him to admit it, it was possible that at least one of the other scouts had stumbled upon a feral human and been unable to fight it off. They were far stronger than he’d been told to believe.

Instead of arguing with her, he turned his head away with a roll of his eyes and planted himself in one of the mounted seats just beyond her arm’s length. [i]I should get rid of her,[/i] he thought as he toyed idly with the weapon in his hands. The human was uncompliant, insubordinate, sharp-tongued, and not at all helpful to him. Coupled with his ordered to get rid of her kind on-sight, he had every reason to aim the projectile gun at her head and pull the trigger. However, something stilled his fingers.

As infuriating as she was, she had still stopped the male human from sinking its yellowed teeth into his throat. It felt wrong to repay a lifesaving gesture with coldblooded murder. He let out his breath in frustration. Had she not done that, he could have killed her without a second thought, but now he felt like he owed her. He wanted to wrinkle his nose with disgust at the thought. A Lunairan indebted to a human. It was ridiculous, but it didn’t change the fact that he now felt obliged to let her live, if only for a little while longer.

“If you’re not going to give me what I want, then just shut up,” he ordered exasperatedly, resting his weapon loosely in his lap and casting her a scathing, sideways glance. Really, he was more frustrated with the dilemma she had put him in rather than her hateful words, but either way, he was getting tired of going back and forth with her. Having decided not to finish her off right then and there, his next course of action was to reach out to the other scouts and bring them to the winged vehicle to see her for themselves. With any luck, one of them would kill her in his stead.

He turned to the closed window on his other side and lifted the edge just enough to peer outside, keeping watch for movement on the ground beyond. He just had to wait long enough that he felt comfortable venturing out without worrying about being ambushed by another deranged human.