Crimson-smeared fist raised for another blow, the girl continued to glare down into Hofer’s face. The man had both arms up to block the assault. Hofer’s nose was already gushing red, and his eyes were terror-wide. He was coughing, a spray of blood accompanying each racking convulsion.

“What the hell?” Talina demanded, striding in and reaching down to grab Kylee’s arm. She plucked the girl off Hofer’s chest as, between wrenching fits of coughing, he screamed, “Get her off me! She’s a stinking animal!”

“Slug fucker!” Kylee snarled back.

With Kylee’s weight off Hofer’s chest, he curled into a ball to grab his testicles, still coughing, blowing blood across the filthy flagstones. Talina thought he made the most pitiful sounds.

“Want to tell me how this all went cucking frazy? Thought you were just going to pee?” Talina was aware of the crowd plugging the door. Somehow, Dek wiggled through, stepping off to the side, a hand on his fancy pistol.

Kylee thrust a hard finger at the wheezing and suffering Hofer. “I was. And that pus sucker poked his head in my stall, cocked it kind of funny like, and said, ‘Looks like a normal slit to me. You’d think it would be bigger after all the quetzal screwing you’ve been doing.’ So I jumped to my feet, pulled up my pants, and hit him.”

At the sound of snickers coming from the door, Kylee twisted around in Talina’s grip, dropping to a crouch, ready to strike again. Her eyes had that deadly look—quetzal-wide and pupils black to gather all the light—which gave Kylee an even more alien appearance. That she’d bared her teeth didn’t help matters in the slightest. Quivering in rage like she was, she’d have launched herself into the whole bunch.

“Ease down,” Talina told her. To Hofer she said, “That true? You said that? And don’t you fucking lie to me, Hofer. You tell me the God’s-rotted truth or I’ll finish what Kylee started. Now, did you tell this girl she’d been fucking quetzals?”

“I . . . I . . .”

“Hofer?”

“Yeah.” The man now cupped his balls with one hand. The other massaged his throat where it was turning red from bruising. Hoarsely, he admitted, “I might have said that.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Talina muttered. “You have to be the dumbest piece of shit on the planet.”

“So, I can kill him now?” Kylee asked, still struggling against Talina’s iron grip.

“No!” Talina turned, ordering, “The rest of you? Party’s over. Back to your beer and chili. But pass this around: Kylee’s a guest here, and she’s new to town. Yeah, she’s half quetzal, but so are Dek and I.”