Adam (18 page)

“No!” In a romantic move, if a foolish one, Avion threw himself in front of the girl, the bullet hitting him in the upper part of his chest and exiting through his back. Red blossomed as blood flowed. Not a killing blow, yet enough to leave him incapable of climbing. Hell, he would pass out if they didn’t stem the flow of blood quickly.

The gunman didn’t have time to celebrate his shot, or to fire again. He ignited. A human fireball with no noticeable cause or reason.

Or did the flick the blonde woman made in his direction with her finger count?

“Get up the ladder,” Adam yelled as he slung Avion over his shoulder. “We need to go.”

This time the freaky lady didn’t hesitate. She moved quickly and smoothly up, allowing Adam to climb until he swung onto the flight deck. Seth quickly took Avion from him and placed him on the floor, applying pressure to the injury.

“Someone grab me a med kit. We need to stop the bleeding,” he shouted. Anastasia moved quickly to assist him.

“Are you Adam?” the bald man asked. “I’m Aramus. Follow me. We’ve got some aircraft to avoid.”

“So there is a nuke on its way?”

“One? Ha. You all rated two. Just what the fuck are they worried you’ll escape with?”

Peering back at Avion, who was watched over by a frowning blonde, Laura had to wonder.

“We might have brought back the answer. But just in case we missed something, and to make sure the military can’t use it again, we need to wipe that installation clean.”

“This ship doesn’t have that kind of firepower,” Aramus grumbled as he wedged into a pilot seat at the front of the craft.

Rosalind, sitting co-pilot, didn’t spare them a glance, but Laura could have sighed in relief at spotting her.

Adam dropped into the only other spot and buckled the safety harness as his eyes scanned the readouts before him. “I don’t suppose your main ship is hiding nearby?”

“Nope. We didn’t want her to get noticed, so we tucked in like a baby inside one of the moon’s craters. But no worries. Blowing shit up is my specialty. I’ve got a plan,” Aramus announced, his hands flying over his console. “What do you say we have those incoming human pilots blow the joint for us?” Aramus bore an evil grin, which was oddly contagious.

The whole adventure was contagious. As Laura walked on her first ever spaceship—even if just a small planetary explorer one—and entered an honest-to-goodness command center, built for a small crew so she had to hover in the door, the little girl in her who once knew how to get excited wanted to squeal, “Look at all the flashing buttons!”

But it wasn’t just the child in her that wanted to push some to see what would happen. She got her chance when Aramus yelled. “Lady with the caught-in-headlights gaze, behind you, the blue button, flick it. Now!”

Such an innocuous looking switch, but as soon as she touched it, they dropped like a stone, and she screamed.

Adam had just enough time to grab at Laura before she went crashing into a console. “You crazy fucker!” he yelled at Aramus. “What the hell?”

“I need manual control of the ship so we can do this.”

‘This’ involved them rolling and then diving, heading toward the military installation, a nuke hot on their tail.

A good thing his unit wasn’t prone to panic else Adam might have worried at the speed with which they approached the solid structure. But he trusted in the skills of his cyborg brother.

Poor Laura, she closed her eyes and squeaked from her position on his lap. He hugged her close and whispered, “Don’t worry. He’s cyborg. He won’t miss.”

Indeed he didn’t. At the last possible moment, Aramus reefed their vessel into a rising surge. The nuke didn’t have time to adjust and follow. It hit the building, and the shockwave radiated out, catching the rocketing spacecraft and sending it spinning.

Adam kept his arms locked around Laura, his own harness keeping him stabilized in his seat. In the back, he could hear Seth cursing. “Bloody hell, Aramus. Did no one ever teach you how to drive?”

The cyborg with the metal skull patch chuckled. “Stupid spy bot never could handle too much spinning.”

A red light flashed on the radar screen. “Shit, the other plane launched the other nuke.”

And it was right on their tail.

Aramus swerved the vessel, but the nuke followed. “Got any more buildings to blow up?” he asked.

“Not really.”

“Any big malls or tall buildings that could use a razing?”

Laura gasped. “What about the civilians?”

“I didn’t hear you worrying about that a minute ago.”

“The military had it coming. But civilians don’t.”

“Then what would you like me to do, lady?”

“This nuke thing, it is bad for this vessel?” The woman they’d rescued appeared in the portal, seemingly unaffected by the swerves and dips Aramus engaged in to keep the bomb from connecting.

“Depends on your point of view. Do you mind having your body parts scattered over a few states?” was Aramus’ sarcastic reply.

“That would not benefit Avion and the rest of you. I will fix it.”

“How the hell do you…” Aramus’ query trailed off as the nuke angled away from them, up, up, and away. Even Aramus couldn’t help but join Adam and Laura as they craned to peek out the front window of the craft. In the atmosphere, high overhead and far enough away, the nuke exploded in a bright shower of sparks and smoke.

“It is done. Might we now rendezvous with your larger vessel? The one named Seth says Avion needs to go there.”

“Um. Yeah. Sure.” The ornery male seemed at a loss for words. They all were as the blonde woman moved to the back.

Aramus wasted no time in heading off-planet, hitting the Earth’s atmospheric ring, and powering through it before the military forces could regroup and come after them.

Not to say they got off scot-free. A few vessels did manage to intercept, only to get blown to bits by the
SSBiteMe,
which blasted its way out of hiding on the moon, taking out a key communication center when it did.

In short order, the small craft was tucked into the bay, Aramus had rejoined his crew and plotted a course out of the Earth’s solar system. Avion rested in critical condition in the medical wing being attended. As for Adam and Laura?

They stood on the command center deck, more useless than an AM receiver on a cyber unit.

“We’re alive,” Laura said in a wondering tone.

“Of course we are. We cyborgs are hard to kill, especially when given incentive,” he replied. “I seem to recall a certain promise of a shower as part of mine.”

“You remembered.”

“I’m a cyborg. We never forget anything. Especially not something like that.” He dropped a kiss on her lips.

“Oh, fuck me. Not another fucking lovey-dovey couple. What the hell is happening to people around here? We’re losing our edge,” Aramus bellowed.

“And our hearing,” quipped a petite woman with a wry smile who perched herself on the armrest of Aramus’ command seat.

“Sorry,” Aramus rumbled. “But really. This is a spaceship, not the fucking love boat.”

“Oh, really? Then perhaps I should find other quarters for the remainder of this trip,” said the woman with an arch of a brow.

“Ruined, and by a human woman. It’s enough to make me want to find a vat of oil and drown myself in it,” he grumbled, and yet, despite his complaint, he still snared the female around the waist and planted a kiss on her lips.

A man seated at a console turned to face them, a humorous tilt on his lips. “I’m Kentry by the way. You guys are more than welcome to go make yourselves comfortable until we figure out our next course of action.”

With nothing better to do, Adam, who’d already linked to the computer and downloaded a map of the ship, led the way.

Laura stared with wonderment around her. How strange this must all seem. Even Adam found himself intrigued, given he’d spent all of his cognitive years on Earth. The closest he got to space was a short trip once to the moon for the military as a guard for a shipment.

In the room assigned to them, Adam ignored the utilitarian accommodations—bunk bed cots covered in gray thermal blankets, a small square table bolted to the floor, and a pair of stools—to stare at a screen showing a view of Earth receding.

Laura tucked in close, and he draped an arm around her, hugging her tight. Together they watched the only world they’d ever known shrink. He knew when it hit her. She froze, and forgot to breathe.

“I’m leaving home.” She whispered the words.

He didn’t sugarcoat the reality. “Not just home but an entire solar system.” There went the only way of life she’d known. How would she handle going off into the unknown?

A shiver went through her.

“Are you scared?”

“I should be,” she admitted, “but I’m not. More like tingling with anticipation. This is going to sound weird, but I’m free now.”

A frown creased his brow. “Free? You always were as a human.”

“I wasn’t talking about that kind of freedom. More free from a promise to a cyborg. A cyborg long dead. But given all that’s happened, meeting you, the others, helping, I no longer feel bound to that promise. I did what I could. I made a difference. What about you? You’ve been the Earth resistance leader for years. Are you okay with having to leave it behind?”

He’d honestly not thought that far ahead. “We are both free of the commitments we made,” Adam murmured as it finally sunk in.

Free to live and love, in the open. No more hiding.

Her thoughts touched him, such a strange sensation, akin and yet not the mind-to-mind speech he and the other cyborgs used. A byproduct of the nanos even now coursing through her body, changing her, but changing her into what? She didn’t have a BCI like the cyborgs or machine parts. She was one hundred percent flesh, and yet, at the same time, she was no longer completely human.

“Are you sad we’re leaving?”

“A little,” he admitted. “A part of me feels guilty that I’m off with the woman I love.”

“Do you really love me?”

“After all that has happened, can you doubt it? I might usually only rely on my logic, but where you are concerned, rationality does not enter the equation. I see only one possible cause for that. I love you, Doc.”

“It’s funny. I once argued with my English teacher that love at first sight was creative fiction. It couldn’t exist, and yet from the first moment I saw you, I knew something was different. It occurs to me that, much like some chemical combinations, it is possible for love to spontaneously erupt. For two elements to meet and bond immediately, and perfectly.”

“I couldn’t have said it better.”

“So where do we go from here?”

“Shower. Bed. Maybe another shower.”

She laughed. “That wasn’t what I meant. I mean what’s next for us? And everyone else?”

“I guess we start over. Set up a new base of operations. Maybe expand our search beyond Earth into the stars. I know there’s more cyborgs out there, stranded or enslaved, who need someone to help them.”

“Then we’ll find them, and we’ll rescue them,” she said, wrapping her arms around him and laying her head on his chest. “You know I’ll help. I also intend to look for answers. The cyborgs need to know where they come from and how to stop the military from shutting them down. I think with our newest member, we might finally be in a position to provide some answers.”

“You’re talking about that strange woman we rescued. The one with the freaky-ass powers.”

“Yes. Did you know she calls herself One? Which is a name we’ll truly have to change. I think she holds the key to many secrets.”

“Secrets you intend to unravel?”

“Most definitely. But not until later. Right now, I have only one thing I need to find out.”

“Oh, and what’s that?” he asked, already knowing the answer, as her core temperature rose and the musk of her arousal surrounded him in a pheromone cloud.

“This inquiring mind wants to know how you taste.” She shot him a teasing smile, even as her hand slid below his waistline to cup him. The bulge that met her just widened her grin.

“Taste? For scientific reasons of course.”

“Oh, yes. And I warn you, this might cause you undue hardship and stress your control, as I intend to be very thorough with my exploration, and experimentation.” With those purred words, she dropped to her knees and rubbed her cheek against the fabric covering his shaft.

He leaned against the wall as her nimble fingers worked the zipper and button to his pants. Tugging them down, she almost got a literal eyeful as he sprang forward, his erection more than ready for her sensual promise.

Funny how he could control just about every aspect of his body and actions, except for when Laura touched him. She gripped his cock and stroked it, and he turned into a simple-minded creature. A true human. A man. A man who craved the touch and skin-to-skin pleasure only this woman could bring him.

The fingers she wrapped around him stroked his length, and he couldn’t help but groan, “That feels so good.” His hips projected forward, thrusting in time to her movement.

“That might feel good, but I bet you I know what will feel better.” The tip of her tongue emerged to dab at him. A brief, wet flick. Then a longer, head-stroking swirl. Before he could gasp, she opened her mouth wide and sucked him in.

She truly meant what she said about exploring him and testing his control. Back and forth, she dragged her taut lips, rubbing the engorged skin of his cock. The flat edge of her teeth also teased him, as did her tongue, which did its best to swirl.

Her mouth wasn’t the only thing working his arousal. Her hand still gripped tight, stroking in counter motion to her mouth, the offsetting actions tossing him into an erotic turmoil. One he didn’t want to end.

She bit the tip of him, and he jerked, his hips thrusting forward. But she didn’t seem to mind, as she took him deeper. So deep. Holy fuck.

He couldn’t help but twine his fingers in her hair, to keep her there, to guide her, or simply because he needed something to do with his hands, lest they gouge the wall he leaned against.

“You’re bloody amazing,” he growled.

“I know,” she said around her mouthful before sucking harder.
I love you.

The projected thought acted as a catalyst. Adam cried out as he came, his hot cream jetting into her mouth, giving her the taste she craved.

Before the shudders of his flesh had died, he’d yanked her to her feet and positioned her so she faced the wall, palms flat on it. This was where his cyborg control and stamina truly came into play. Still hard, he slid into her slick channel, the firm thrust drawing a moan of pleasure from her.

“I love you, Doc. I think I have from the first moment you ever pushed those glasses up on your nose.”

“Glasses I no longer need,” she said between pants as he pistoned into her welcoming, heated flesh.

“Glasses I intend to replace with clear lenses because they’re so fucking sexy,” he murmured against her ear as his hands reached around her curvy body, one to cup a breast, the other to fondle her clit. As he squeezed the globe and rubbed her nub, he kept thrusting and projecting thoughts to her. Feelings.

I love you.

I need you.

We’re going to start a new life together.

Together.

Forever.

The big bang of the universe was nothing compared to the blissful nirvana that exploded between them.

Two hearts, one metal, one not, joined as one.