C791 (Cyborgs: More Than Machines) (7 page)

“Whoa, Joe,” his friend exclaimed, stepping from the murk. “Since when do you shoot the cavalry?”

“You surprised me,” Joe grudgingly admitted.

Seth chuckled. “I never thought I’d see the day. I don’t suppose it has to do with the little human at your side?”

Joe tucked Chloe closer to his side, and she went willingly even if her frame trembled.

“She’s coming with me.”

“Whatever you say, boss.” The sound of stomping feet echoed from up the corridor. “What do you say we blow this joint, and I mean blow?” Seth grinned, his adaptation to human language and mannerisms uncanny at times.

“Lead the way.”

Following his friend’s frame through the thickening smoke, he made sure to keep his senses alert to possible incoming danger, all too aware of Chloe at his side. When she stumbled, it was a great excuse for him to scoop her up into his arms. Her wide eyes peered up at him, the rest of her face masked by the cloth she kept pressed against it.

Drawn into their depths, he didn’t immediately react when the arriving troops, clad in gas masks, began firing. But he did when a pained gasp left her, and the impact of her wound transmitted to him. With a bellow of rage, Joe began to fire and kept firing even when the soldiers had stopped.

Seth shoved a harness at him. “Stop playing with the humans. They can’t get any deader and we need to go. Solus says there are hundreds of heat signatures heading our way.”

Joe growled. “I need to check her wound.”

“Check it on board. We need to leave now before the soldiers arrive, or would you prefer she end up with a few more holes?”

“I’m fine,” Chloe gasped from behind her makeshift mask.

Since logic appeared to have completely left him, Joe did as his friend suggested. He let Chloe stand as he quickly buckled himself into the harness. Secured, he took her back into his arms.

“Hold on tight,” he ordered before the rope began to pull them up through the hole his brothers created. And back to freedom — which contained a much-needed shower and a really big bed.

*

Hold on indeed. Chloe clamped her eyes tight as she and the cyborg went flying up through a ragged hole she knew hadn’t existed that morning. It seemed the machines brought some heavy artillery to free their comrade. Even with her face buried against the machine’s bare flesh, she could hear the rumble of gunfire, the strident alarms, the shrill screams of men dying, the rapid thump of the escaped prisoner’s heart as it beat.

For the millionth time since he’d carted her caveman style from the restricted area, she wondered that she didn’t fight his abduction of her. Didn’t even want to. She wished she could blame it on the soldier who tried to rape her. Hoped to perhaps excuse it as shock, but the truth was, when Joe declared she was going with him, she’d never heard something that sounded so right. How it made any sense she didn’t know.

How could being kidnapped by a cyborg, a known killer of humans, be the right thing to do? Where was her sense of outrage over her dilemma? Her panic and fear over what would happen to her?

Wrapped in his muscular arms, the steady thump of his heart the only sound she focused on, she decided it didn’t matter. For the first time in a long time, she felt alive and, even stranger, safe. Oh and a tad bit excited, and not entirely from the adrenaline rush of the escape. Some of it, actually a lot of it, had to do with him. He made her tingle in a way she didn’t recall experiencing before. With her cheek pressed to his skin, it would be so easy to press her lips against him and taste. Lick. Touch…

Okay, she’d completely lost her mind. Talk about the worst time and place to get horny. A jolt snapped her from her naughty meanderings, and she opened her eyes to see she stood in some sort of docking bay. Before she could take in any details, her cyborg was pulling her after him as he strode over the metal perforated flooring.

“Where are we going?” she asked, but he didn’t reply. What she could glimpse of his face showed him alert, and yet distant, as if in deep thought.

Despite his lack of communication, he seemed to know where he wanted to go. He tugged her through several doors before halting in a large stateroom.

“Can your wound wait a little longer?” he asked suddenly, startling her from her contemplation of the overly large bed taking up most of the space.

She’d actually forgotten it. His reminder had her looking down to see her sleeve covered in blood, but while her arm felt a touch tender, she didn’t seem to be in any great pain.

“I’m fine.”

“I am needed on the bridge. You may want to strap in. We will be leaving the atmosphere in one minute, five seconds. Once we’ve cleared the moon and shaken our pursuers, we will adopt a more sedate pace, and you will be able to unbuckle. I will return shortly.”

She nodded and headed for the jumpseat jutting from the wall, but before she’d gone two steps, she found herself spun and encased in a pair of familiar arms. Hard lips crushed hers in a kiss that was both hungry yet sensual. And totally unexpected.

Gasping in surprise, her open mouth allowed him to latch his lips around her lower one and tug it, an erotic pull that she felt right down to her pussy. A sensual heat crept through her limbs, and she opened wider, inviting him to deepen the kiss. Instead, he groaned as he pulled away.

“My brothers are calling me, little one. Later.” Spinning on his heel, he strode away, still only clad in his loincloth, the back of him a mass of rippling muscles, just as enticing as his front. She sighed as the door slid shut behind him, her lips tingling from their short embrace.

I think I’ve just discovered why he brought me along.
As absurd as it seemed, he’d kidnapped her for sex.
And hopefully not parts.
The womanly side of her couldn’t help a warm pleasure that he found her appealing enough to bring along. While the rationale portion of her mind called herself all kinds of crazy.

The ship lurched, and she put aside her musings to scramble to the jumpseat and strap in. Too late now to wonder at her current situation. She obviously wasn’t going home any time soon, and she doubted the military would exert itself rescuing her.

For some reason, the fact she was stuck on board with cyborgs, more specifically hers, made her smile even when her stomach lurched as they shot through the atmosphere.

Chapter Four

“Status.” He spoke aloud. Having reached the bridge and most of his brothers who’d volunteered to come on this mission, the need for wireless, BCI-to-BCI, communication disappeared.

“No signs of pursuit. The diversion we set in motion has kept their air troops occupied. And Krag has entertained himself picking off their ground artillery. Leaving the atmosphere in twenty-nine seconds.” Solus relayed his report without looking up from his console.

Seth laughed. “We’ve got the humans chasing their own tails.” His third-in-command yipped like a dog and chuckled some more, prompting Solus to throw him a dark look.

The situation appeared under control and moving forward as predicted, which made Joe leery. Where humans were concerned things never happened as expected. “Let’s move up the time for departure. Change our trajectory three degrees and commence countdown.”

He braced his legs, magnetizing his lower limbs so he wouldn’t move as the ship lurched and gained speed as it prepared for its ascent through the earth’s atmosphere. Joe allowed his neural net to link to the onboard cameras and quickly checked on Chloe. Seeing Chloe seated and strapped in, some of his tension left him.

“You changed the plan.” Solus’s remark emerged quietly. “You were supposed to go in for intel, not return with a female.”

Joe glanced at his friend and found him actually looking up from his console. “I saw an opportunity and took it.”

“More like saw a hot ass and wanted it,” Seth laughed.

Without bothering to turn and look, Joe aimed his fist sideways and struck Seth in the jaw.

“Hey. What was that for?”

“Chloe is mine. Do not use disparaging words when speaking of her.” The possessive claim pleased him, although not as much as the quick kiss he shared with his female. A kiss she enjoyed. It made him even more impatient for later. But duty came first.

As his BCI stayed linked with the shipboard computer watching for pursuit, he couldn’t stop his thoughts from straying to the luscious woman in his cabin. Unlike some of his brethren’s human captives, Chloe came along without a protest. It made him hopeful that acceptance of her change in circumstance and lifestyle would come easier. Not all abductees reacted well, despite the incredible sex their partners gave them. Some actually missed the cesspool known as earth and their hard lives as little more than underpaid slaves for the government. Never mind the cyborgs gave them spacious homes, belongings and freedom, a few of the women refused to adapt, claiming they could never love a machine; an illogical claim inherent to the human species. None of the cyborgs ever asked for love. They just needed an accommodating body. Yet another truth the women they captured took issue with.

Would Chloe, when she found out he had no intention of letting her go, feel the same way? Would she resent him? Try to kill him? He hoped he didn’t have to reprogram her. He rather liked her spirit. However, the fact remained, once captured and privy to the cyborg secrets, humans couldn’t be trusted to return to their home world no matter how miserable they ended up. It was either adapt or end up with their minds wiped and reprogrammed. They’d only had to resort to that extreme with two of the captured females to date, and Joe truly hoped he wouldn’t have to do that to Chloe. Wiped females ended up no better than sexbots, capable of interacting and functioning on their own, but losing their unique individuality.

I won’t let that happen to Chloe. She will accept her new life. She must.
He’d make sure she did, even if he wasn’t sure what to do beyond giving her orgasms and a home of her own. By all the circuits in his head, he’d even steal her a child, or a pet, whatever she wanted if it would make her happy.
And then I’ll shoot myself for being a defective unit.
A cyborg did not beg and grovel or abase itself in any way for a human. Not even an attractive female one. She would obey because he said so. And that was that.

*

When the ship settled into a more sedate speed, one where it didn’t feel like her face would peel from her skull, Chloe unbuckled herself and stretched. A twinge in her arm reminded her of her injury. She peered down at the area and cringed at the blood staining her sleeve. But she knew for a fact flesh wounds bled as copiously, if not more at times, as deep ones. First things first. Before she could assess the damage, she needed to clean the spot of the injury.

As with most starships, the single residency cabin owned an adjoining compact bathroom. She turned on the sink tap, only to realize she didn’t have anything to wipe her arm with. Peering into a narrow cabinet over the toilet, she found a large towel folded in to a neat square, but no small cloths. Under the sink, behind a dusty roll of toilet paper, tucked at the back, she found an unexpected surprise; an emergency med kit. She yanked it out and popped the lid. An array of sterile bandages stared back at her, along with wipes still in their aluminum wrappers. Peeling open the cellophane, she made an exasperated noise as the flimsy tissue for cleaning ended up desiccated.

She sighed and happened to catch a glimpse of herself in the mirror. What a mess. Black streaks marred her complexion, while her hair hung in limp strands around her head. Screw washing just her wound, she needed an allover clean. Decided, she stripped and stepped into the small cubicle. The water, while not exactly scalding hot, still did the job, sluicing the dirt of the escape from her skin and making her hiss as it hit the gouge in her arm. Turning her back to the spray, she held her arm up and peeked at the problem spot. She winced at the shallow gash in her skin. While long, it seemed more of a flesh wound — even if it felt like she’d gotten torn open when it first hit — a few layers of stripped skin that would heal quickly and hopefully without much of a scar.

Not bad when she considered she’d been in the middle of a firefight. She wondered how her cyborg fared. Thinking of whom, did he have a name? When she tended to him as a prisoner, she’d not wanted to ask because somehow personalizing him would have made him all too real — more man than machine. But now that he took her, who knew for what, although she could guess, it seemed stupid to try and keep herself at a distance.
And I’ll admit I’m curious.

Cyborgs — or at least the one she’d met — were nothing like she imagined. For one thing, they were awfully human for something grown in a lab. Or were they truly humans with modifications like her captor implied? So many questions, and she wanted to know.

A shriek escaped her as the door to the shower cubicle opened and a large, naked body crowded her into the back corner.

Familiar blue eyes regarded her with smoky intensity.

“What are you doing?” she exclaimed, her heart racing, and not just because of the fright. In the tight confines, she became only too aware of how naked her cyborg was and how happy he seemed to see her, or so she guessed judging by the hard poke against her belly.

“I am dirty and require cleansing.”

“But I was here first.”

“And?”

“This shower isn’t exactly built for two.”

A hint of humor glinted in his eyes and curved his lips. “And yet we are both in it.”

“How am I supposed to get clean with you hogging all the room?”

“There is a human expression I believe appropriate for this moment,” he drawled. “I’ll wash your back if you wash mine.”

His hands reached around her to cup her buttocks. He massaged her cheeks slowly. The teasing touch made her nipples tighten, something he would surely notice given they pressed into his chest.

Flustered by his brazen attention, Chloe’s cheeks heated as she stammered, “Um, that’s not my back.”