She laughed out loud and let all the tension of the day drain away. “What exactly was that for?”
“To show you how I feel.” He paused as if trying to find the right word, which was impossible as he had a billion-word vocabulary available to him. “How I feel about you. How I feel about…us?”
The last word rose slightly in question. He probably was thinking about what Ravi had said about the boyfriend thing. A dozen different emotions warred with each other. She was having a hard time sorting them and having him staring at her like a beautiful, wounded prince wasn’t making it any easier, but she had to say something.
She was enjoying forgetting the troubles of the day, and now here was another one, front and center.
“Den.” She said his name in a low whisper. “Do we have to talk about this right now? You know how I feel about you.”
A celebration erupted around them. Boncans and sparklefingers set fire to the night, sizzling and popping, and even old-fashioned chalk paints were being tossed against walls and people. It was like being inside a blooming flower.
An elephant draped in an embroidered headdress strolled down the street. On its back, a man dressed in white and wearing a turban beamed. An entourage of equally happy, well-dressed people raced to keep up with the massive animal.
“Odin’s flippin’ beard. That was an elephant! What’s going on?”
“Wedding. An ancient custom in this territory. The groom arrives on a horse, or if funds allow, an elephas maximus indicus.” Den’s arms receded and hung at his sides. His mouth curved down, and his face lost a bit of its animation.
“What’s wrong?” Ionia asked.
He was never sullen or sad, but he seemed to be both. She grabbed his elbow and tried to pull him back into an embrace so that these stupid questions would vanish, and they would kiss again, and everything would be okay.
“Will we ever…engage in…a ceremony such as that?” His voice had a weird flat tone to it that Ionia didn’t like. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand.
All of this was different and wrong and made Den feel like he was standing kilometers away instead of right next to her.
“I don’t know. I’m a kid, really an adult, but I still feel like a kid. I’m worried about my eye. I’m worried I’m going to be attacked again, like back in that cave. I feel panicky and uneasy. The only time I feel happy or at peace is with you. Isn’t that enough?”
The line remained in his perfect brow, and his lips pressed together tightly, but he nodded. More people danced into the square, flowing in like a wave, bodies pressed up against each other. Ionia lost Den in the rush. She didn’t mind the crowd so much, coming from the butthole of the world, it was a novel experience, but being separated from Den was enough for her anxiety to tick upward. She fought forward.
She could see him, pushing people out of his path. Most looked shocked he was so strong. A few faces took on hooded and angry expressions.
“Do not touch me.” an older, burly man shouted.
Another took up the chant. “Droid. Fleshie. You’re not welcome here. Leave.”
The wall of people separating them redoubled, and she lost sight of Den. The only way she knew his whereabouts was the occasional shout of, “Leave.”
How dare they talk to her Den like that? Assholes. The panicked feeling subsided, replaced by anger, and she pushed back, weaving through the arms and swinging hips. She needed to get him and get gone.
“Den! I’m here.” She torpedoed past another cluster of people and found herself face-to-face with the elephant.
The giant beast looked like the crowd was spooking her, and Ionia running into her face wasn’t helping. The animal pulled back onto her hindquarters and trumpeted. The groom grabbed onto the harness.
Ionia stumbled and fell directly in the elephant’s path. A blur from her left, a few shouts of what sounded like pain, and Den was between her and the animal. The elephant came back down hard on the cobblestone street.
Den stood over her with his hand up toward the massive creature. Ionia adored animals, especially elephants, but she didn’t want to be squished by one. Not a great thing to inscribe on a tombstone. Here lies Ionia. Crushed by an elephant.
Over the crowd’s roar, she heard a high-pitched hum coming from Den.
The beast calmed, then bowed touching Den with the end of his trunk. His handlers grabbed his harness and guided him away with some shouts of thanks. Den smiled and nodded, turning back to Ionia.
“Thank you.”
He reached to help her rise with one final sigh. “Protecting you is what I am designed to do. Thank you is not necessary.”
“But thank you anyway.”
He fixed her with his clear blue eyes that made looking at him like staring into a perfect summer sky. She would sometimes forget what she was doing and get lost in how beautiful they were. How beautiful he was.
Her steel-laced protector, forever her guardian and droid in shining armor. It didn’t matter if she was young or if Ravi made her feel weird about her relationship with Den. A lump of feeling rose up from her heart and filled her chest, contacting everything pushing all her organs aside. She may be confused about a lot. But this she knew.
She forced the words out of her mouth. “You know I love you. Right?”
His mouth opened, and his eyes dilated until they looked midnight blue. He didn’t respond. He just stared at her with an expression she could only call longing.
“And not the way I normally say it.” She wanted to be clear. For him to really understand. “Like I love a flower or my sparkly boots. I love you… like romantically.”
She didn’t see him move, but she was in his arms again. He pushed her protective lenses up on top of her head, leaned down, and pressed his lips to hers—slowly, gently, soft and warm. His tongue worked its way in, and she responded with her own.
The elephant, the wedding party, the piped in music and fireworks disappeared. All she felt were his arms around her, and his mouth moving in a perfect cadence with hers. Suddenly, the fireworks weren’t just in the sky but firing off inside her. He smoothed a hand up to cup her face and pulled back, looking down at her, his breathing a harsh gasp.
“I didn’t think you needed to breathe.” She teased him. Everything felt better now—centered, happy, safe.
“It is not necessary but helps when my emotional circuit has… a lot to process.” He smiled a slightly cocky, sideways smile that made her breath catch. She was sure he was simplifying for her. He’d come a long way from that crazy day at SPS when she had first activated and bonded with him. “I feel the same way. I never vocalized it. Never knew how to name the emotions I was feeling. But I love you too, Ionia Sonberg.”
Her heart half leaped in her chest, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed him tight, pulling him to her chest until she could feel the soft purr of his processor. Over his shoulder, the wedding party dissipated.
They walked holding hands like a real couple. And for the first time, that’s exactly what they were.
Chapter Six
The world appeared different suddenly, as if Den’s ocular chip had been replaced with a higher-definition model. The perimeter became a very welcoming, happy place. How had a simple statement from Ionia changed his very view of the ordinary objects that surrounded them? The hanging lanterns’ light appeared brighter. The attitude of the constables, wedding guests, even her family did not trouble his processor.
He did a scan, and no immediate threat was found, but he didn’t expect any. He had such a strong rush from his emotional chip that he equated it with the human dopamine or endorphins, which made everything appear better than it was in reality.
But even though his superior senses could see past his emotion, he didn’t want to use them. He let the glow overtake him. Ionia’s warm arm wrapped tightly with his, flush against his side, matching him set for step, smiling her quiet smile. He was sure she didn’t even realize she was emoting. He felt no
thing but joy from her, and that increased his emotional level. Like an overheated engine that needed to allow steam to escape, he needed to express how he was feeling.
All he wanted was to keep Ionia safe and happy and whole. But her having emotions about him was akin to human dessert. He had a strong urge to touch every inch of her, to map her entire body with his hands. He desired to be with her from now until he stopped functioning.
They walked past an alley between two high buildings. He detected that there were no people within sensing distance. “Would you like to make-out with me?” he asked, using the word that Ionia preferred to his typical term for osculation.
She giggled and nodded. “Yes.”
He grabbed Ionia and pushed her up against the wall, lowered his head to her neck and pulled her arms above her head, capturing them, so she was at his mercy.
She laughed and tilted her head to allow him more access to her skin. They had played this game before, but this was the first time he had initiated it.
“Mmmm.” She hummed. “I like it when you take charge.”
His sensor picked up her hormone levels increasing and her eyes dilating, and she licked her lips, all physical indicators of arousal. He brushed his lips up her neck—gently grazing, tempting, teasing—until he elicited another moan. Ionia worked against him, trying to free her hands. “Would you like to stop this protocol?” he asked, knowing her answer.
“No.”
“Then stay still.”
“Okay, bossy.”
He gave her a low laugh. Not a descriptor he would ever have used about himself, but at the moment, accurate. “I’m doing this for your pleasure.” He lowered his mouth and sucked gently on the nape of her neck. He located the spot with the most nerve endings.
Another deep moan and hormone spike which gave him deep satisfaction. He knew his job. He may have military DL, but this chassis and most of his basic programming were built for this. And with his free will option engaged, he could admit he liked his job.
“But what about you?”
“I gain pleasure from giving you pleasure. But if it pleases you to touch me. Then do.”
He released her. Her hands dug into his hair, and she pulled his lips from her neck to meet her mouth. Intense sensations jolted through his system. Having her like this—wanting him, pleasing him—was overwhelming. He moved a hand inside her jacket, under her shirt to find her breast. She gasped slightly then leaned into his touch. He moved his thumb in circles against the sensitive area, and she moaned again, wrapping her leg around his hip and moving against him.
“Den. I think I’m ready for more.” Her breath was a hoarse whisper, but her words sent another shock through his system. They had never progressed further than heavy petting and external stimulation. She’d been unsure of wanting to continue, but now that they had a spoken emotional attachment, he guessed that made her more willing.
“Ionia. You have had a very difficult day. Maybe you should allow yourself to settle, calm, and consider if this is what you truly want. I am always ready to serve, but you need to be emotionally ready.”
“Damn, man. I’ve been ready since I first uncrated you back in SPS. We should do it. Tonight. We can find a place.”
“Once we do this, you will be bound to me as I am to you. Human hormonal attachment.”
She laughed and looked up into his eyes. “I’m already attached, dummy.” She kissed him again. And he kissed her back. Tonight would be special for her. He would make sure everything would be perfect.
“We should go to your aunt’s home before we are missed.”
She nodded and straightened her clothes. In minutes, they were walking down the boulevard again toward her aunt’s house and toward their shared future.
***
The remains of the sun’s golden light extinguished as Ionia walked with Den into a valley of tall buildings.
Her new eye throbbed, alive with pain. She pulled down her protective lenses, even though it had grown so dark she shouldn’t have needed them.
“Are you well?”
“Yeah, fine. Overdid it with the eye.” She probably should put her patch back on when she got back to Aunt Sera’s. Right now, she didn’t want to take a step back. She was happy and whole and with her love. Nothing would spoil their time together.
Her body hummed as they rounded the corner of Bethel Street. She let Den lead since he had an unerring internal locator.
This felt good and right, and she did love Den, as twenty-first century as that seemed. Being with him was as natural and comfortable as breathing. Once she turned eighteen, she and Den could travel to CONUS, where droid and human relations weren’t considered weird or taboo. With her vision intact, she’d start a business designing, and her mom couldn’t discount her art as a wasted pastime anymore. The more she thought about it, the more excited she became, and being whole was just the first step to the life she wanted.
Den grabbed her hand tighter, stopping her just before she ran into a street cart. How had she not seen it?
“Ionia?” His voice was colored with concern.
She blinked, and her replacement eye’s vision blurred. Iron spikes of pain radiated from the center of her eye. It took her breath, and she clutched at her eye socket as if clawing at it would stop the agony. This shouldn’t be happening. Her eye had been fine. It would be fine. But the pain didn’t relent. In fact, it doubled.
Den seized her again. He pinned her arms away from her face and lifted her, carrying her like a child. Every instinct she had wanted to get the searing object out of her body.
Now.
His voice came through the haze. “You will injure yourself further.”
She screamed and fought. Nothing mattered but stopping the pain.
“I am taking you to find medical assistance,” he said.
Held tight against his chest, she felt a sense of motion, but everything else was hot, dark pain. A sickening pop sounded in her head, and with one last explosion, moisture leaked down her face. The pain stopped. She didn’t open her left eye. Couldn’t. And it wasn’t necessary. She knew what had happened.
“Stop,” she said, her voice remarkably calm.
He continued moving at some ridiculous speed, probably alerting every enforcement officer in twenty blocks to his droid-i-ness.
“I’m okay now.” She felt him slow, but he still held her close, still pinned her arms.
“Your eye needs attention.”
“I don’t have an eye anymore.”
He did stop then, and she could tell he was doing a complete scan.
At last, Den halted and eased her to the ground. “Your body has rejected the ocular replacement. You should be seen by a medical professional.” He set her back on the ground.
“How could this happen?” She opened her good eye and kept her ugly-hole closed. “I thought bio-identical replacements were a sure thing.” Pain flared again, but this time it didn’t come from her surgery. “What could have happened?”
Den’s face tightened. “I have suspicions but do not want to alarm you.”
“What?” The news almost felt like a physical blow, and she wobbled.
Den steadied her. “Your mother and aunt have been conferring about your health in very particular ways.”
“Like how? Why didn’t you tell me?”
His shoulders came down, and his chin dipped. “I was monitoring the situation, and I did not have any evidence, only unusual communications. I did not want to worry you needlessly.” He looked down and away in a very human gesture of shame. “Would you like to have your eye examined by a professional to determine what might be amiss without interference from your family unit?”
“No.” The uncomfortable feeling that had been nagging at her since they had first touched down in ND settled in her stomach. “We need to go to my aunt’s house.”
Den nodded. No more discussion was necessary. He swept her up against his chest again and whisked her down the street.
&n
bsp; The journey flew by but seemed to take an eon. Ionia’s brain felt like scrambled eggs. A million and one weird questions floated around, vying for her attention. The sinking feeling in her stomach couldn’t seem to find a bottom.
At last, they arrived. The streetlight gave the front of the building a ghostly glow. Den placed her on the ground. Pausing for only a moment to take a deep breath, she led the way inside.
Maja screamed when she saw Ionia’s blood-covered face. Every head in the common area jerked up. Her mother and aunt, at their perpetual station in the kitchen, both converged and threw questions at Ionia like knives.
“What happened?” Aunt Sera asked.
“Did that droid do something—” her Mom said.
“It wasn’t Den!” Ionia shouted. “It’s you. You’ve done something. I don’t know what, but you’re going to tell me.” She didn’t often lose it on her mom, especially since their recent cease-fire, but this… She had to know what her mom knew.
“That can wait a moment while I check you,” Aunt Sera said.
“The eye just didn’t work. I’m fine.” She waived her aunt off.
“Let me be the judge of that. Aunt Sera grabbed a med scanner and ran it over Ionia’s face. Then shook her head. “Rejected. But you are physically fine.” She handed Ionia a clean bandage from a med kit and helped her apply it. Her mom stayed back. Not speaking. For the first time in like. Ever.
“Talk, Mom.” Den hovered protectively near, watching ever move. Probably scanning them for weapons at this point. It felt nice to have him there for support. She glared at her mom waiting for her to speak.
Her mother crumpled from her usual shoulder’s-back-chin-up position, and her brows dropped. “Yes. It seems we do need to talk, but just you and me. And Sera.”
Ionia’s eyebrows lifted at that. Den had said that her mother and aunt had been discussing her health, but she had a hard time believing that her aunt had anything to do with the whole fiasco. This had her mom’s trademark secret-keeping stamped all over it.
“Okay.” Ionia waved at Den to stand down.
He complied and stepped back but stayed within a protective distance.
Vagabond Souls: The Ionia Chronicles: Book 2 Page 9
