City Of Tears (3 page)

She ignored his antics and nodded toward the door. He scanned it open, waiting for her to exit before he joined her on the railed walkway surrounding Detention Center Three. Similar buildings marched in graduated steps, following the steep contour of the Day Moon. Interspersed with the austere buildings were lush gardens and tree-lined parks.

The Day Moon had once been a pleasure colony, the most popular destination for Ontarian tourists. The Great Conflict had begun long before Lyrik was born, and the massive military training facility had replaced the leisure colony.

The faint scent of flowers drifted on a gentle breeze. He glanced at Saebin, and his breath lodged in his throat. She’d raised her face to the setting sun, her eyes closed, expression blissful.

“Saebin,” he whispered.

She looked at him and smiled. For a breathless moment they stared into each other’s eyes. Her gaze sparkled. Color blossomed across the crest of her cheeks; then her gaze clouded, and expression bled from her features. D-159 had returned. She continued her visual assessment of her surroundings as determination surged through Lyrik. He would see that expression again.

“What is that?” She pointed to the palatial building perched atop the highest hill, the Warlords’ Headquarters.

He hesitated. D-159 was incapable of curiosity. She gathered information for assignments. He had no intention of letting her out of his sight. Still, it didn’t feel right.

Guards approached from the left. Lyrik waved them back. She was too distracted to notice.

“How can this be the moon? The moon is right there.” She pointed to the dark, shadowy shape silhouetted on the far horizon.

There was no security risk in answering this question, so Lyrik explained, “Ontariese has two moons. We’re on the Day Moon. Bend down. You can see the planet over there.” She followed his instructions, her bottom brushing against his crotch. Heat swirled though his belly, settling between his legs.

You’re spitting into the wind there, buddy. Even if she were willing — which is about as likely as the Joint Council appointing you High King — how would you get past her body armor?

This was part of the reason he spent so much time in space. Finding female companionship was easier in any spaceport than on his home world. Ontariese had become a frustrating, lonely place for anyone without Mystic abilities.

“You will take me to the planet.”

“I don’t think so.” She made a threatening motion with her fist. “Sweetheart, there are way too many people down there. Unless you can pilot a spacecraft, it’s not going to happen. You’re stuck with me until you figure out what you want.” Oh, and by the way, you make one wrong move and you’re toast. My father has decided you’re too dangerous to keep around.

She clutched her head, then grasped the railing, moaning pathetically. Lyrik hesitated. Was this another “broken wrist?”

“Hot.” She rasped out the word, her body trembling. “I’m so hot.”

A shimmering red aura erupted around her. This was no trick. Were her implants overloading? Was she —

Before he could complete the thought, she disappeared in a flash of light.

* * * * *

“What the hell happened to her?”

“Stop shouting at me!”

Lyrik took a deep breath and inclined his head toward Krysta. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t able to get the tracker on her. Do you have any idea where she went?”

“I don’t think she meant to teleport. To my knowledge it isn’t within Saebin’s capabilities.”

“D-159 can do all sorts of things Saebin couldn’t,” Cyrus said from behind his desk. Krysta sat in front, while Lyrik paced the office. “What about her body armor? According to Trey’s report, it makes the wearer undetectable to Mystics. What other functions does it serve?”

“We’ve been waiting a full cycle for your engineers to tell us.”

Cyrus glowered at her impertinence. “My engineers have been unable to decipher the technology because they have never encountered anything remotely like it before. Technology is easier to backwards engineer when it still works!”

“We were fighting for our lives.” Krysta scooted to the edge of her seat, her knuckles turning white as she clutched the chair’s arms. “Excuse me if we destroyed some body armor in the process!”

“This isn’t going to help us find Saebin.” Lyrik sat beside Krysta, shooting her a warning glance. “She wanted to visit the planet. Is it possible she teleported to the surface?”

Krysta shook her head, her posture relaxing a bit. “Not without Summoning the Storm. Teleportation has a very limited range.”

“Are you sure she teleported?” Cyrus muttered, obviously still annoyed with Krysta.

“What Lyrik described was a teleportation. I can almost guarantee she’s still on the Day Moon.”

“Almost?”

To her credit, she ignored Cyrus’s jibe and focused her gaze on Lyrik. “You said her aura turned red?”

“I don’t know anything about auras. I’ve never been able to see one before.”

“I don’t think you saw one today. I think you saw a glimpse of her destination.”

“Hot, glowing red? You think she’s in Firestone Valley?”

“I’ve tried to link with her, but that damn suit is
fully operational
.” She turned to Cyrus for a meaningful glare.

“It better be.” Lyrik shook his head. “She won’t last long in Firestone Valley without external protection.”

Saebin sank to her knees, her scream echoing in her ears. Danger! She was in danger. No,
everyone
was in danger. All around her massive spikes shot skyward. The gleaming black stones glowed as if fire had been trapped inside the rock. Smoke thickened the air, acrid and cloying. Her throat burned, and her eyes watered. A brutal wind whipped her hair across her face, blasting her skin with stinging particles.

Pressing her forearms to her face, she curved into a ball.
Make yourself as small a target as possible. Survival is the supreme objective
. Her handler’s voice sounded in her mind. Her real handler, not Lyrik. Her mission must have gone horribly wrong. Nothing made sense. Voices of dead friends, strange planets, and rocks that burned … she must be losing her mind.

What was her objective?

Survival. The supreme objective. She must focus her thoughts.

She raised her head and peeked over her arms, squinting through the sooty air. Where was she? How had she gotten here?

We’re orbiting the planet Ontariese
. No, she would not listen to him!
Operation Hydra was destroyed … Your only real objective now is to stop rendering people unconscious and figure out what you want to be when you grow up.

This was a test, or …

Pain sliced through her brain and stabbed down her spine. Her implants were overloading. Fear, confusion, and rage bombarded her from all sides. She screamed, the sound lost in the merciless wind.

An image flashed into focus, accompanied by another burst of pain. She squeezed her eyes shut and whimpered. Her real handler stood in front of a man, her back to Saebin. Even without seeing her face, Saebin recognized her handler. Fear, resentment, and hatred rolled through her in icy waves. She couldn’t hear their words only their hushed urgent tones. Trepidation surged.
They
were the source of the danger.

Gradually the image receded, and she slumped with a muffled groan. She had to find shelter, a cave or culvert deep enough to protect her. Paralyzed by the force of the wind, she huddled against the ground. She had to find … Survival was the supreme —

* * * * *

Awareness returned more gently than it had departed. The roaring in her ears lessened, and she dragged air into her burning lungs. Her head throbbed, but the punishing wind had abated. Blinking repeatedly, she forced her eyelids to open.

“Lie still. Some sort of debris tried to take your head off. I sealed the wound, but the compound isn’t quite set.”

Lyrik. How had he found her so quickly? They were in a cave or a crude building. She couldn’t see beyond the small lamp he held in one hand, a water pouch hung from the other. A protective suit covered him from head to toe, the hood resting on his broad shoulders.

“Where are we?”

“In a storm shelter. They’re scattered all over the valley. The miners have gotten pretty good at predicting the storms, but sometimes they kick up without warning.” He knelt beside her, set down the lamp, and handed her the water pouch.

She squirted water into her mouth, closing her eyes as the liquid soothed her parched throat. Already her implants were lessening the pounding in her head. Accelerated healing was one of the advantages of the implants.

“How did you find me?” Before he could answer, she added, “Why did you bother?”

“Krysta pointed me in the right direction, and like it or not, you are my objective.”

“How did I get here?” There was so much she didn’t understand. How could she hope to sift through the facts, determine what was real and what was imagined, without confessing all she’d seen and sensed? He still thought she was D-159.

“You teleported, sweetheart. Surprised the hell out of me. We’ll have a nice chat in a bit, but we have a more serious problem right now. Firestone dust is toxic, and we’re both covered in it. This shelter is constructed of stable Firestones. They’ll emit light and warmth, but they have to be charged. I can’t believe I’m suggesting this, but pretend we’re surrounded and send out an energy pulse.”

She sat up on the narrow bunk and lifted the lamp, holding it high so she could examine the room. The meager illumination didn’t reach far, but she could see the wall closest to her. Smooth, black blocks reflected the lamplight.

“If you manage to knock me out, do not leave this shelter. The storm will probably last through the night.”

If he meant for her to set off some sort of explosion, he would be caught in the blast. She didn’t understand his intent, but she sent out a small, controlled pulse. All around them blocks began to glow. Fascinated, she got to her knees.

“Again. Stronger this time.”

She sent out a strong, sustained pulse, and the shelter burst into light. Hundreds of blocks glowed with warm, red light. Her gaze swept the room, and she gasped, her implants quickly counteracting her response to the beauty. “This is what becomes of the stones I saw outside?”

“After a long, involved stabilization process. The facilities are through that archway. We both need to shower and decontaminate our suits.” He paused, his gaze narrowing on her face. “When they brought you out of stasis, they tried to remove your armor, and your vital signs went haywire.”

“I must intentionally disengage the sensors or it causes a system-wide overload. It prevents the technology from being recovered by an enemy and ensures I am not taken alive.”

“That explains a lot.” He motioned for her to follow him. “But none of it’s important right now. We have to get this residue off before our skin blisters.”

She rose and followed him into the adjoining room. Why had he searched for her? He’d saved her life; she couldn’t deny it. Still, it didn’t make sense. Or did it? If they had tried unsuccessfully to remove her armor …

Her thoughts sputtered out as she stepped into the adjoining room. The facilities offered no privacy. A row of showerheads protruded from one wall, separated from the sinks by recessed lockers. A half wall offset the toilets from the shower area, but the rest was one open space.

Dr. Hydran and her handler had stripped her naked to demoralize her when she displeased them. This was even worse. Hydran was old, and her handler was female. Her mouth went dry, and knots formed in her stomach. She wasn’t ashamed of her body, but she’d never been naked in front of a young male.

He unceremoniously stripped off his suit and the garments he wore beneath. “There should be clean uniforms in the lockers. Come on. We don’t have time for modesty.”

The knots in her belly tightened with each garment he tossed aside. She couldn’t drag her gaze away from his spectacular body. Golden skin stretched tight over corded muscles. His tight ass bunched and flexed as he moved beneath one of the showerheads. He turned to face her, and her eyes widened owlishly.

“You’re welcome to look, just get out of that suit. You have to wash the dust off now.”

Dragging her gaze away from the proof of his virility, she looked at her hands. Her skin did feel unusually sensitive. Her knuckle conduits functioned without her armor, so she disengaged the six primary sensors and unfastened her body armor. Her gaze drifted back to his groin. Even relaxed against his thigh, his shaft was long and thick, and his balls …

With a chuckle, he turned to face the spray, presenting her with his broad back. She gave herself a mental shake and continued undressing. It wasn’t like she’d never seen a naked man before. She’d had access to a variety of simulations and stimulators, but nothing in her experience came close to the sheer power of this man’s body.

He smoothed his hair back from his face with both hands, the muscles in his back rippling. “Am I going to have to come get you?”

She peeled off her suit and moved up beside him, activating one of the showerheads. Cool water saturated her hair. She raised her face to the spray as much to hide her flush as to cleanse the dust from her skin.

Lyrik ignored his growing erection and tried to focus on the task at hand. “Scrub your hair with this.” He pushed his hand into an indentation in the wall, and a gel covered his fingers.

She followed his example, working the gel though her long hair. He watched her out of the corner of his eye. Her body armor had been form fitting, but naked the little hellion just about knocked the breath from his lungs. She was sculpted with lithe strength. Firm, round breasts begged for attention, her nipples pebble hard. How would she react if he dragged her beneath his showerhead and finished washing her himself? Her belly was perfectly flat. He couldn’t see more without looking directly at her.

“The dispenser below it is soap. Scrub your face and hands thoroughly. The dust is fine. Make sure you get it all.”

As she reached into the soap dispenser, her gaze swept the length of his body, lingering on his hardening shaft. She lowered her lashes and turned back toward the spray, color rising across her cheekbones. There was definitely a woman underneath the body armor. A secretive smile curved his lips. He abandoned all pretence and faced her.