Arrow Lake the water in my bones was running dry

Something nameless leapt between them like a spark. No, not some silly chemical attraction or other such nonsense — Ephraim hardly had time in his stacked survival agenda to entertain the thought of a real connection with another living being, and besides, Qiao's ability to see the unseen gave him the creeps — but there was something tangible there.

A sense of mutual benefit and matching values, perhaps. He didn't have to think long on it before Qiao voiced a thought in a similar vein, teasing Ephraim's lips into a smirk. That depends on the work, he drawled in a voice far more confident than it was the last time they met, and what's in it for me.