Indulgence (97 page)

He maneuvered her into a shadowed alcove. Fingers of fear
crept up her spine. She pushed the emotion away. This was Denny, her friend. He
wouldn’t hurt her.

“They’ll make an example of you so no other female joins.”
His freckled face was flushed, his green eyes slightly unfocused.

“As they tried to make an example of me at the Academy?”
Joan lifted her chin. She’d been terrorized there too and she’d survived.

“This isn’t the Academy.” Denny’s forehead furrowed with
concern. “There’s no governing body, formed of males and females. No one will
launch an investigation if you go missing.”

No one would have launched an investigation at the Academy
either. Joan had always been alone, a number easily erased from the Humanoid
Alliance’s databases. “They don’t plan to abscond with me. They plan to kill
me, Denny, and I’m not frightened of dying.” She knew her time was running out.

“You always were fearless.” His words were weighted with
sadness. “In the past, I admired that about you. You came to my defense more
than once.”

“Only when the odds were against you.” Joan smiled. “When it
was one-on-one, I let you fight your own battles ‘cause I knew you could win.”

“You believed in me.”

“Yes.” She saw glimpses of the boy she once knew in his
countenance. “And I believe in you now. You’ll do the right thing.”

They gazed at each other. Joan didn’t speak, allowing him
the quiet he needed to come to the morally correct decision, to agree to help
her save the cyborgs.

“There are worst things than dying.” He clasped both of her
wrists.

“There are.” She nodded. “Like getting dissected while you
remain conscious. That will be our cyborgs’ fates if we don’t stop it.”

Denny blew out his breath. “They have no consciousness,
Joan. They’re not alive.”

“You say that but you know it isn’t true. They feel pain.
They care for each other. They--”

“They got you killed.” Her friend’s grip on her wrists
intensified. “You’re dead, Joan. You simply don’t know it yet.” He pushed her,
smacking her back against the metal wall panel.

She realized then that the hallway was empty. “Denny--”

“You told me to do the right thing.” He stepped closer to
her. “They plan to torture you in all of the ways males can torture a female
and they’ll force me to join in.” He slid his hands up her arms, around her
shoulders. “You won’t be allowed to die until there’s nothing left of you.”

They’d violate her, hurt her as they hurt Rage. “You won’t
stand back and let that happen. I’m your friend.”

“You are my friend.” Denny circled her neck with his
fingers. “Which is why I’m doing this.”

That sounded ominous but there was no reason to worry, Joan
told herself. This wasn’t Plank. This was her former academy mate, a man who
would never harm her. Fear licked at her, threatening to overcome these
rational thoughts.

“This is a kindness, Joan.” Denny tightened his grip and she
opened her mouth, unable to breathe. “You’ll die quickly, painlessly.”

That
was his solution—to kill her? Fuck that. Dying
now wasn’t an option. Others depended on her. She had to break his grip, help
Rage.

Joan clawed at Denny’s hands. He was crushing her,
strangling her. She writhed, trapped against the wall, unable to gain the
leverage she needed.

Her former friend turned his head away, the rectal wipe
unable to watch his actions.

Think, Joan. Think.

The dagger.
She fought her natural instinct to
protect herself, forced herself to let go of his hands, reached into her
pocket, and extracted the weapon. A black funnel circled her field of vision,
narrowing, narrowing.

“Yes, accept this.” Denny leaned into her. “Go quietly.”

If he believed she’d go quietly, he didn’t know her. Joan
raised the dagger. Using all of the strength in her sturdy build, she drove the
blade into his right thigh.

“Fuck.” He shrieked louder than any female, bent over and
grabbed his leg.

Released, Joan gulped mouthfuls of precious air. The black
funnel receded.

She pelted down the hallway, not looking back. Only one
thought filled her mind—to escape. She pumped her arms, her lungs and muscles
straining.

Was she being followed? She didn’t know. Her head spun from
lack of oxygen.

Joan headed straight to Rage’s chambers, smacked the control
panel with her sweaty palms, sprinted inside the first door, smacked the second
control panel, ran to the far side of her cyborg’s sanctuary, searching for
more weapons.

Only when the inner door closed did she relax. Fuck. She
folded in two, every breath of air a gift. She’d almost died, killed by a male
she’d thought was her friend. Joan rubbed her neck. Rage’s nanocybotics bubbled
against her skin, soothing the burn.

She yearned to curl up on a horizontal support and rest. If
she slept, she wouldn’t think about the betrayal, the lingering pain.

She didn’t have that luxury.

Time was running out for her and for her cyborg. Denny
warned of an upcoming attack on her, a violent assault led by a mysterious
they
,
a number of beings wishing her dead. She wouldn’t survive that.

When she died, Rage would be paired with another engineer,
someone less sympathetic to his situation. He wouldn’t get the help he needed,
wouldn’t be relayed the information that might make the difference in his run
for freedom. That could cost him his life.

Rage had to escape during the upcoming repositioning. The
Humanoid Alliance planned to decommission him in twenty planet rotations. He
might not have another opportunity.

She could assist him…
if
he listened to her.

Would he?

Her cyborg had doubted the intelligence she’d given him
about the tracking devices. When she tried to share more insights, he wouldn’t
listen, telling her to end her chatter.

Rage might not give her the opportunity to speak, might
discard any knowledge she gave him. Joan chewed on her bottom lip. There had to
be a solution. He couldn’t sever the Humanoid Alliance’s control on his own.

He wasn’t on his own though, was he? His friends, Crash and
Gap, were escaping with him. She retrieved an old recording device loaded with
a memory chip. Crash wasn’t the primitive C Model she’d been paired with. He
was a more modern, rational E Model and appeared to be more open to
suggestions. He might investigate her insights before discarding them.

Or he might not. But any effort was better than none.

She started the recording, her voice hoarse. “Crash, sir,
I’m Cadet Joan Tull, Rage’s cybernetic engineer. You don’t know me and I don’t
expect you to blindly accept what I’m about to tell you but I hope you will, at
the very least, listen to what I have to say.”

She took a deep breath. “Because I care for your friend.
Very much.” That sounded inadequate for the depth of her feelings but she
couldn’t, wouldn’t admit to more. “I want Rage to be safe, free, happy. If
that’s possible for him.” She smiled. “He can be very grim at times.”

She paused, collecting her thoughts. “I’ll relay to you
everything I know to be true, the knowledge I’ve gained at the academy and
during my time on board the battle station. In return, I ask you for two
things. One, you can use the information to help other cyborgs but not if this
places Rage at risk. His security is my first concern. If he dies.” Her voice
cracked. “My sacrifices will be for nothing, my life meaningless.”

She breathed in, breathed out, trying to calm down. Her
throat no longer pained her. That was Rage’s gift to her. This information
would be her present for him.

“Two, I have a message I’ll leave Rage at the end of this
recording. Give that to him once he’s out of danger, not before then.” She
didn’t want him to feel guilty, to try to return to her. “I’m trusting you,
trusting in your honor as a cyborg and a warrior, to uphold your end of the
bargain.”

Joan collected her personal viewscreen and transferred
images onto the recording. “There are some modifications you’ll have to perform
to your ship to ensure it survives a long trip. Forgive me if I tell you things
you already know. I haven’t been briefed on your preparations.” Rage had told
her nothing.

She’d tell him everything.

Rage was glad to be back on the battle station.

If a cyborg had told him a solar cycle ago that he’d feel
that way, he would have told him to frag off. He had hated returning to his
chambers then, dreaded seeing his human handler, knowing he’d have to contain
his anger, meekly tolerate whatever torture the male had devised for him.

With Joan, there was no torture and no need to hide his
emotions. She accepted him, sweetly served him. Simply the thought of seeing
her again, of feeling her soft hands on his chest, made energy rush through his
circuits.

He couldn’t show his eagerness. Aware of Boyd’s gun pushed
into his back and the other human males watching him, Rage forced himself to
slow his steps. If they knew how he felt about his female, they’d kill her,
simply to torment him.

Humans. No, he amended his thought. Human
males
were
sick beings.

“Tell Tits that she’s about to get what’s coming to her.”
Boyd placed his palm on the chamber’s sensor, the exterior door slid open, and
Rage stepped inside. “She’s going to wish she’d been a lot nicer to me.” The
door closed.

His female waited for him, clad in her flight suit, her
hands clenched before her. She tilted her head back. Their gazes met and held,
her brown eyes wide with relief, with a caring he was growing to believe in.

“Rage.” She rushed forward and wrapped her arms around his
waist. “I’m so glad you’re safe, sir.” Joan pressed her cheek against his body
armor.

He hesitated for a moment, surprised by her enthusiastic
reception. Then he returned her embrace, holding her to him. She was his. Rage
breathed deeply, inhaling her scent, a combination of her musk and his
nanocybotics.

Fraggin’ hole. He sniffed the air a second time. He detected
the ugly aroma of a human male.

“You were attacked again.” Rage sank his fingers into her
brown curls, releasing more of the scent. It belonged to Olsen, Intrepid’s
handler. He added that male to his long list of beings to kill.

She said nothing, his normally talkative female’s silence
unnerving him.

The attack must have been vicious this time. Rage brushed
her hair to the side. Bruises colored the delicate skin around her neck. His
vision system turned red, fury rising within him. “He tried to strangle you.”

The males attacked while he was on deployment, when he
couldn’t protect her. They were cowards, weak, undeserving of life.

“Don’t concern yourself with me, sir.” Joan turned,
authorized the inner door to open. “Worry about yourself.” She pulled him into
the chambers. “You have to escape during the next deployment. You--”

“I have to do this.” Rage scooped her into his arms and
covered her ever-moving lips with his. She gasped, surprised by his attack, and
he pushed his tongue between her tiny blunt teeth, invading her mouth, claiming
the terrain as his own. His female tasted intoxicatingly sweet, her flavor
making his head spin and his breath shorten.

She murmured a half-hearted protest, continuing to worry
about him, a C Model cyborg, her fingers splaying over his chest plate. Rage
ignored her concerns and explored the wet, hot caverns of her mouth, learning
his little engineer, imprinting her on his processors.

Before going on deployment, she’d asked him to kiss her. Not
wishing to show more weakness, confused by the feelings swirling within him,
he’d refused.

He’d almost lost her. He would have never known this
pleasure.

Rage pressed his lips firmer against hers. Joan moaned and
sucked on his tongue, tugging at his flesh, drawing him deeper. Her gentle
fingers framed his face, capturing him as though she was afraid he’d escape.
He’d escape the battle station and the Humanoid Alliance but not her, never her.

Rage knew in that instance that he would never let her go.
She’d be his hostage, his shipboard slave, his payment for solar cycles of
killing. Above all, she was his. She belonged to him. He set her overdressed
ass on a horizontal support, ripped her flight suit open, tearing fabric.

Her breath hitched, the sound swallowed by his throat, and
her nipples tightened against his palms, small points of hardness in a
overflowing bounty of smooth, supple curves. As he pulsed his tongue into her
mouth, he kneaded her breasts, cupping, lifting, squeezing.

His little female wasn’t silent. She never was. She mewled
and murmured against his lips, caressing the planes of his face, the bluntness
of his chin. His lips curled upward. He would never again have a quiet planet
rotation in his lifespan.

In his lifespan. Rage caught her bottom lip between his
teeth and pulled.

How could he keep her for that long? Humans weren’t allowed
in the cyborg Homeland. He wouldn’t let her go, the thought of being without
her unbearable. Killing her was no longer an option.

Rage had no answers. Pushing aside the dilemma, he
concentrated on her, on now. He bent his head and licked the bruises around
Joan’s neck, applying more healing nanocybotics to her wound.

“You kissed me.” She touched her lips. “Does this mean you
care for me?”

“It’s the only way I can stop your chatter.” He tugged at
her flight suit, not wishing his too observant female to see the truth in his
eyes, to realize the control she now had over him. “Remove this.” He yanked on
the fabric. “I wish to breed with you.”

“Yes, sir.” She unfastened her boots, stripped away the
remains of her garment.

He discarded his leg and arm coverings, tossing them on the
floor. “You will clean up this mess later.” That would keep her busy hands
occupied.