Cyborg (11 page)

“Such as?” she asked finally.

“The family units they will need to build a society. I hadn’t given much thought to what I would do if I lived to retire from active duty, but now that I have been retired from company service, the idea of a companion and children holds a good deal of appeal.”Amaryllis blinked at him in surprise. “But … cyborgs can’t….”

He shrugged. “Dalia is pregnant … proof that the cyborgs are evolving into a unique species.”

“Or that Dalia is actually human,” Amaryllis pointed out dryly.

“And yet it was you who pointed out that no human would have the speed, strength, or agility to best a cyborg. If that is true then Dalia, who has had more kills than any other, would certainly fit that criteria. Besides, Reuel claims the child as his own.”

Amaryllis’ eyes widened at his mention of the most feared, and sought after, cyborg of all. “Reuel?” she whispered in a voice threaded with awe.

He shrugged. “I don’t know what the likelihood is that we will find we have all evolved the ability to procreate, but it certainly isn’t impossible if it has already happened once.” “Making plans already?”

Amaryllis and Cain both turned to look at the huntress who’d joined them.

Cain’s lips flattened into a thin line of irritation. “Merely discussing possibilities.

You know my partner, Violet?”

In pretty much the same sense that she knew all of the hunters. She recognized both the name and the face. “We didn’t train together,” Amaryllis said non-committally.

Violet divided a look between Cain and Amaryllis and smiled thinly, then fixed Amaryllis with a significant look and jerked her head in the direction of the observation booth above them. “I just thought you might be interested to know that the dark twin has been released from the brig at last.”

Amaryllis’ heart skipped a beat as she instinctively glanced in the direction that Violet had indicated. Dante was standing at the front of the observation booth. Beside him stood Reese. Her heart did a back flip when she saw that both were looking directly at her. Disconcerted, Amaryllis looked away again quickly, trying without success to keep the blood from rushing into her cheeks.

Violet, she saw, was smiling like the cat that ate the canary.

When she glanced at Cain, she saw that he was still studying the two in the observation booth.

He didn’t look particularly pleased.

She didn’t especially want to ask, but she couldn’t seem to resist. “What makes you think he’s been in the brig?”

Violet shrugged. “It’s what we heard … that one of the cyborgs had been caught harboring a huntress and was confined to the brig. Then, low and behold, you appeared in the barracks. Naturally, I assumed….”

As badly as Amaryllis wanted to wipe that smile off of Violet’s face by knocking her head clean off her shoulders she didn’t particularly want to end up in the brig herself.

Besides, her thoughts were chaotic. She’d assumed that Dante had betrayed her, but it seemed less likely that he had if he’d been thrown in the brig for hiding her.

Did that rule out the possibility altogether, though?

She thought it might, but then she also thought there was a strong possibility that she wanted to believe he hadn’t used her and then callously turned her in … which meant she should distrust her reasoning since it was obviously tainted with emotionalism.

She absolutely didn’t want to consider what sort of emotionalism might be involved. Moreover, she couldn’t help but notice that both Cain and Violet were watching her with interest.

“Why did you call him the dark twin?” she asked, more because she was trying to turn the conversation to something less uncomfortable than because she had much interest.“His brother, Reese, is fair,” Violet pointed out dryly.

A jolt went through Amaryllis. “Brother? They’re cyborgs.”

Violet chuckled. “And? Look at the two of them. Except for their coloring, they look like twins--which means they have to share at least one parent gene donor. Besides, I partnered with Reese. Don’t tell me you partnered with Reese a year and a half and he never mentioned his twin brother, Dante?”

Amaryllis reddened, but she saw she didn’t have to say anything at all. Violet had read the answer in her expression.

She wanted nothing so much as to escape the inquisition, and the smug look on Violet’s face, but there was no escaping the rec room until the cyborgs allowed them to leave. She glanced at Cain, wondering if he’d set her up for Violet.

His expression was carefully neutral, but anger flickered in his hazel green eyes.

“Is there a point to this, Violet?”

Violet shrugged. “I suppose you could say I was just testing the wind.”

Cain’s brows rose. “For what?”

She divided a malicious glance between Amaryllis and Cain and finally shrugged, and Amaryllis realized abruptly that jealousy was driving her. “As you were telling Amaryllis earlier, we’ll be allowed to choose companions once we arrive at the colony. I was just curious to know what her interest was in Dante and Reese.”

Amaryllis glanced from Violet to Cain and back again, restraining the temptation to glance toward Reese and Dante. She had the feeling, though, that Violet was more interested in Cain than either Reese or Dante.

Or, perhaps, she liked the looks of all three and didn’t want competition until she’d decided which she would choose?

It must be nice to have that kind of confidence, however misguided it seemed to be.

With an effort, she pasted a smile on her lips. “Go for it. I really don’t have any plans to stay.”

It didn’t take the smug smile on Violet’s face to assure her she’d just left herself wide open. She knew the moment the words were out of her mouth that she’d allowed her chaotic emotions to overrule her wisdom--if she could claim any and she was beginning to think she no longer did if she ever had.

“You’re leaving us?” Violet asked, pleased. “Exactly how do you plan to do that?” “I hadn’t made any plans,” Amaryllis said tightly, if not with complete truth.

“However, they have said we are not going to be prisoners, and that implies that we’ll have the right to choose to stay or to go. I’m just thinking I’d rather take my chances with my….” She stumbled to a halt, horrified that she’d almost said ‘my own kind’.

“Company,” she finished lamely.

Violet laughed. “Your company?”

“Give it a rest, Violet,” Cain said tightly.

Violet glared at him. “The crash screwed up her logic circuits.” Her eyes narrowed. “You really ought to consider whether it’s a good idea to hang around her or not. The cyborgs are likely to take any escape attempts very badly.”

Amaryllis watched Violet as she stalked off. When she glanced at Cain, she saw that he was studying her retreating form, as well. “She’s probably right.”

“Only in the sense that she managed to trick you in to voicing dangerous thoughts

… or at least what appear to be dangerous thoughts.” He turned to study her for a long moment. “She’s likely to report the conversation … assuming they didn’t hear it already, which they probably did.”

“You think?” Amaryllis asked dryly. “I wasn’t referring to my … logic circuits,”

she said after a brief hesitation. “I meant, the hanging around me thing.”

“You aren’t considering anything, are you?”

Amaryllis gave him a look. “If I had been, I wouldn’t have mentioned it. I
was
talking about after we land. They did say we’d be given the option of joining their colony.”“They didn’t say what the alternative was,” Cain pointed out.

Amaryllis glanced at him sharply. “You think it’s do or die?”

He shrugged. “I don’t trust The Company … never did. That doesn’t mean I do trust them. And, strategically speaking, it wouldn’t be safe to let any of us go when we could head straight back to The Company and tell them how to find the cyborg home base.” Amaryllis shook her head. “We’ve entered uncharted space … uncharted by humans, at any rate. They removed the locators and destroyed them. Setting aside the fact that we now know The Company’s plans for us and only a complete moron would even consider going back to The Company, the cyborgs could leave us anywhere in the known universe without any worry whatsoever that The Company could track them down. There’s no reason for them to terminate us, unless they just want to, and if they did, they’ve had plenty of opportunity to do that.”

He shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out whether we can trust them or not.”

* * * *

The voice, more even than the words, sent a shiver of sensation down Amaryllis’

spine that had nothing to do with fear. Her heart was in her throat as she glanced down at the hand that had clamped around her upper arm and then up into the face of the man who’d detained her. Surprise went through her when she met Reese’s pale blue gaze instead of Dante’s deep sapphire eyes. She hadn’t realized until that moment that his voice was almost identical to Dante’s. Her mind went perfectly blank. “Talk?” she echoed.

She’d hardly gotten the word out when he snatched her into a room along the corridor, closing the door behind them. Instead of releasing her once he had, he corralled her in one corner, placing a palm against the bulkhead on either side of her and Amaryllis felt as breathless as if someone had punched her in the stomach. “I’ll be missed,” she said with an effort.

He frowned. “I’ll escort you to the barracks myself.”

Amaryllis blinked as that statement washed over her with equal parts fear and gladness. “No offense, but they already look at me like….”

Reese tilted his head questioningly when she didn’t finish. “Like?”

Her mouth felt dry. Her lips stiff. She licked them, searching her mind for something that would put a safe barrier between them. “I’d just as soon they didn’t suspect me of being a plant to watch them.”

“Like I was?”

Hurt surged through her full fold. She gave him a look. “Except that now we know you never were one of us. It’s a different sort of betrayal.”

Anger glittered in his eyes. “I didn’t betray you.”

“No. You were just doing your job. That almost makes it worse. I … we idolized you, looked up to you, and you aren’t even real.”

Several emotions chased across his features, anger uppermost. “I
am
real,” he growled, dipping his head to capture her lips. She evaded him, twisting her head to one side and lifting her palms to place them against his chest to hold him at bay. He caught her wrists, pushing them behind her so that she had to arch her back to relieve the pressure on her arms. His mouth, seeking flesh, settled along the side of her neck like a firebrand. She gasped as a rush of heated sensation washed through her, both seduced by the lure of his heat and infinitely wary of it.

“Don’t!” she gasped as he wove a path downward and nuzzled his face between her breasts.

He hesitated and finally lifted his head to look at her. “Why? Because I’m not real? Or because you want me and you don’t want to now that you know what I am?”

Amaryllis stared at him speechlessly, embarrassed that she’d been so transparent and he’d seen it. When she said nothing, he dipped his head once more. Making no attempt to kiss her lips, instead he nipped a string of kisses along her cheek, then traced the line of her jaw to her chin. Sensation erupted through her, lifting the fine hairs all over her body to stinging life. He hesitated when he reached her mouth, waiting, his heated breath fanning against her lips, making them tingle with heightened sensation.

Amaryllis wasn’t entirely certain of whether she closed the distance or Reese did, but the ability to formulate any sort of objection deserted her the moment his lips covered hers and his essence flooded her senses, intoxicating her with desire. She surrendered completely to the lure of pleasure, stroking her tongue sinuously along his as he explored her mouth with desperate thrusts. Lifting her hands, she skated her palms along the hard, bulging muscles of his chest, dug her fingers into the thick ridge of muscle along his shoulders, battling to retain her balance when weakness and dizziness swarmed around her.

Abruptly, he tore his mouth from hers and trailed his lips hungrily along her throat to the valley between her breasts. Cool air wafted across her nipples as he disgorged her breasts from the cups of her halter style top, causing her nipples to pucker and stand erect.

She uttered a whimper of pleasure at the jolt that went through her as he covered one peak with his mouth, suckling the sensitive nub. The sound seemed to tear what little restraint from him that he’d held onto. He grasped her around the waist, lifting her up for better access and divided his attentions between her breasts, suckling and teasing first one throbbing nipple until she thought she would black out from lack of oxygen and then the other. She wasn’t even aware of wrapping her thighs around his waist until she felt the ridge of his distended cock nestling along her cleft. He slid his hands from her waist to her buttocks, cupping them in his palms, massaging them, then slipped his fingers beneath the edge of her briefs and traced her damp cleft.

Amaryllis clung tightly to him, gasping for breath, her heart thundering so hard in her chest it felt as if it would explode. Moisture gathered in her sex, the walls of her channel clutching mindlessly for the feel of his hard flesh. She uttered a choked cry as his fingers found the ultra sensitive nub of flesh nestled in the valley of her cleft, rubbing it and sending jolts of electrifying sensation through her. Lifting his head, he covered her mouth with his own once more, thrusting his tongue in and out in a rhythm that made desperation climb over her to feel his cock thrusting inside of her. As if he’d read her mind, she felt him fumble briefly with his clothing and then the rounded head of his cock pressing against her, piercing her body’s opening.

Gratified, she pressed down in counter to his thrust, trying to sheathe him within her body. Frustration surfaced when she found she could get no leverage to take him inside her.

Breaking the kiss, Reese glanced around the room and finally settled on the seat of a straight chair with her straddling his lap. He bore down on her hips, thrusting upward to meet her and Amaryllis groaned as she felt her body yielding reluctantly, clinging to his hard flesh.