What Lies Behind: A New Adult Dark Science Fiction Romance (22 page)

A blinding white light hung above her. A soft, warm bed cradled her limp body.

Cass blinked away from the light.

“It’s okay,” Brandon said, coming to her side. “I’m right here.” She felt him beside her like a warm presence. Distracted by the pain of the light, it didn’t register with her at first that something was different. That she was able to feel when she shouldn’t.

“No doubt her eyes are sensitive to the light. It’s the first time she’s seeing them without the dampening effect automaton eyes have,” Doctor Stephenson said from the foot of her bed. She looked down at him. His white coat nearly glowed in the light. “Here, let me turn it down some.” He adjusted something on his glass computer sleeve, and the lights dimmed considerably.

Cass sat up.

“Is that okay for her to do?” Brandon asked. “Will it damage her?”

“No, she’s been out long enough to heal up. The one thing that we can’t change is the nanobots she has in her system. There’s simply too many of them, and they replicate like regular cells. They have likely already reconfigured to her new status. You will notice she heals much faster than people.”

“How much of her is different?” Brandon asked, running a hand through his messy hair. It was the first time Cass had seen it ruffled, out of order.

“Everything. Everything that we could change. She doesn’t have bio fuel cells any longer, she will depend on nutrients from food like a human. She has organs created identical to humans, she has circulation. Mr. Tupper’s money paid for all of it.”

“What does that mean for us?” Brandon asked. He chewed at his nails.

Cass reached out and touched his hand to stop him and gasped at the sensation of
feeling
his skin for the first time. In that moment she knew what humans meant by things like warm, and rough. His hands were both of those and more. Strong. Firm.

Brandon.

“What do you want it to mean?” Doctor Stephenson shrugged.

“She’s an actual android now? Like, free from all of her programming?” Brandon asked.

Doctor Stephenson nodded.

“Brandon,” Cass laughed. “I can feel your hand!”

Brandon’s mouth split into a stupid smile and he tightened his grip in her hand.

“Would you like something to drink?” Doctor Stephenson asked her.

It was right on her lips to protest drinking anything, remembering weeks ago when she was so worried that Mathilda would drink her tea and short out.

She nodded stiffly.

Doctor Stephenson laughed. “Don’t worry, it won’t harm you.” He handed her a bottle of some orange liquid. Juice. She remembered that from Natalia’s fridge. She was going to taste orange juice.

She opened the bottle and rested the cool glass against her lips. The nectar, so wet and thick, slipped over her lips and into her mouth. Her eyes went wide with the flavor. Sweet, she knew that now. Tart. She knew that also.

Amazing. That was something she would call it from then on.

The juice rushed down her throat to swirl in her belly. For the first time she felt something other than her bio fuel working inside of her. What did humans call it? Digestion. Yes, that must be what she was feeling.

“Not so much,” Doctor Stephenson said. “This is the first bit of oral nutrients you’ve taken and I don’t want you to cramp from it.”

She pulled the bottle away and handed it to the doctor. She gasped for air after such a long drink, and wiped at her mouth.

“How is this even possible? How can I taste and
feel
?” Cass asked. She trailed her fingers up her arm and felt—truly
felt
—for the first time the tingle along her skin as flesh played along flesh. A shiver raced up her spine.

She didn’t have to imagine what Brandon smelled like any longer. She didn’t have to imagine what his touch felt like. She didn’t have to
imagine
what things like sweet and tart tasted like. She could experience it all now.

“Androids were always the end goal,” Doctor Stephenson said. “You’re already equipped with everything you need, nerves of a type, taste buds of a sort. All that was missing was an artificial intelligence to put it all in motion.”

“Cass,” Brandon said, crushing her to his chest. Her nostrils were filled with his scent, but she couldn’t put a name to it. It was Brandon. From that point forward, whenever the rain fell over a pine forest heated by the summer sun, she’d always remember how Brandon smelled in that moment, without sleep, worried that the transplant would go wrong, and elated that she’d came out of it fine. “You’re okay?”

She looked straight into his eyes. This was the man who had helped her when he had every reason not to. The man who had entrusted part of himself to her, and had done more than any other person had done for her.

This was the man she loved.

She pulled him to her, her mouth parting over his. She felt his lips, soft and warm and slightly sticky. He tasted sweet. Not sweet like the juice, sweet like something she hadn’t tasted yet. His breath played along her check as he moaned into her mouth. His tongue flitted past her teeth, wet and insistent in her mouth. His hands gripped her tight, and she felt the burning hot pressure of them on her hips.

She pulled away sooner than she truly wanted to.

“I’m so much better than okay,” she said, and laughed. “I’m an android.”

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About Travis

Travis Simmons was kicked out of magic school for his refusal to study and his penchant for mundane activities like cooking. While selling his sword he stumbled upon dogs that he wrongly thought were magical and imagined he could commune with them. After a vicious zombie attack in which witches helped him push back the undead horde, Travis found himself apprenticed to a necromancer.

Afraid that winter was coming, Travis tucked into his magical studies, but always chased his dreams of writing tales science fiction tales and fantasy stories where he could explore his wild imagination about life on other planets. Adamant that Travis learn the esoteric ways of the occult his master made his life a horror of practice and studies. No matter how he tried, he could never conquer Travis' questing mind.