Free Ouroboros 2: Before by Odette C. Bell

not something one could be flippant about.
    For all Nida knew, she would soon lose her life in the most terrible way imaginable. Either the entity would become corrupted, and it would destroy her in the process, or one-day it would leave her, and she feared that in doing so she would become nothing more than an empty husk.
    That thought mollified her. It stamped out the fire of her embarrassment, and practically wiped the strange interaction she had just had with Carson from her mind.
    Instead, she concentrated on what would happen next.
    The city.
    Vatron.
     

Chapter 7
    Carson Blake
    ‘ Pull it together,’ he said silently under his breath, shaking his head as he did.
    Nida was several steps ahead of him, and he stared at her back and winced as he admonished himself.
    He was nothing more than a bundle of embarrassment and nerves, and it was agonizing.
    He felt like he was a fresh faced recruit again. Which was stupid when he paused to think about it, because when Carson had been an undergraduate at the Academy, he’d been, for want of a better word, a cad. It was only when he’d graduated that he’d gone through a major personality overhaul due to the enormous responsibility that had been thrust upon his shoulders. But before that, he’d been smooth, suave, and, simply put, successful with women.
    But now that part of his history felt like it had never happened.
    He’d had to change his behavior so radically when he’d become a lieutenant, that his old habits weren’t just buried, they were gone completely.
    And while Carson was more than happy of that fact, considering he had grown to loathe how he had once behaved, right now he wanted a little bit of Mister Suave back. Of Mister Charming, of Mister Confident.
    Because the way he was reacting around Nida was, to put it simply, like a schoolboy.
    He wasn’t a goddamn schoolboy; he was freaking Carson Blake, head of the Force.
    Struggling with those thoughts, and getting absolutely nowhere with them, he continued to walk quietly by Nida’s side.
    Though she was horrified by what the women of this time wore, and justifiably so, she had now withdrawn. And he could tell her sudden silence wasn’t just her silently musing about all those straps.
    She was undoubtedly considering the entity and what would happen next.
    He was struck with the sudden urge to tell her everything would be okay, but knew he couldn’t simply keep on repeating that. He had to show it. That would be the only thing that would count.
    Realizing he had promised to fill her in on all the information he had gleaned on Vex culture, he cleared his throat uncomfortably. It took until he said her name for Nida to pay attention to him.
    ‘ Sorry,’ she mumbled quickly, ‘I’m a little distracted.’
    ‘ That’s okay,’ he cleared his throat, ‘I just thought you might like to know more about the Vex.’
    ‘ Of course,’ she added automatically.
    ‘ Well, as far as I can tell, they are split up into three provinces, and this province is called Borez. As I said before, it’s chauvinistic, male centric, and alarmingly violet. They have strict and brutal laws. The other two provinces are known as Dorga and Frux.’
    ‘ And what are they like?’ she asked, but she still sounded distracted.
    ‘ Better than this place,’ he answered simply. ‘I suggest that if we can’t find anything about the dimensional bridge or any time gates here, we should find some way to head over to one of the other provinces.’ As he mentioned that, he realized how wild the suggestion was. Though they now understood more about the culture of the Vex and could at least speak their language, navigating this vast world would be yet another step.
    ‘ Okay,’ she said simply.
    Again she didn’t sound as if she was paying complete attention to him. In fact, she still stared dead eyed at her left hand.
    Despite the number of light, tender, or downright awkward experiences they’d shared, he couldn’t forget what was