It was much too late for anyone reasonable to be out and about—maybe at home the streets would be full, but this was Nabias, and people didn't tend to stay out late. The ones that did were just the ones she was looking for, dangerous and sharp-edged, likely to leap out at an undefended female without thinking of any consequences. She'd met them before, and they didn't last long.
She had her staff with her, too, so she'd make short work of any attackers; she hated carrying it in her mouth like a dog, but Gallagher had been too busy to join her tonight, and anyway, the taste of wood helped mask the blood on her teeth. Some of it was hers this time. She'd been careless, let herself get into one fight too many, and the trouble with prizefighting was that there were still a few rules, so she couldn't fight back the way she wanted to.
Oh, well. She'd show him next time.
Now it was much later than she usually went home, and if that creep eyeing her from across the street actually made a move she'd be even later. Transportation was hard to come by this time of night. Maybe when she got back she could get Gallagher to make dinner or something—robots didn't sleep, after all, and wasn't that what she had him for?—and she'd practice a few moves for the next time she came out here, and go to bed. It didn't seem worth going home at this hour, but she'd slept in Nabias before, and it was nowhere near comfortable enough for her. Luxury was important after an event like this one.
That creep had started moving toward her, and not slowly, either. At least something was going well tonight.