Cyborg Heat: A Science Fiction Cyborg Romance (Burning Metal Book 1)

by Lisa Lace

  Ithmar nodded. “Yes. They got all they needed from the energy that kept them alive. But then one of them had the idea to supplement with some other kind of energy. Surely that would make them strong again. And so they turned on each other more, instilling fear in those who were already weak. It worked, and they fed off of it, but it twisted them, their beings taking on the characteristics of the essence they consumed.”

  “You are what you eat,” Sabin murmured, remembering something Heather had said to him once.

  “Crude, but accurate,” Ithmar said, nodding again. “Eating fear turned them into creatures of fear, and they destroyed all but nine of their number, and when they were done, they were what you know as the Nine. They have been nine for hundreds of years. The life force they share between them now is just enough to sustain the nine of them all together. If you were to kill one of their number…”

  “Then all of them would die?” Sabin asked, filling in the blank.

  “I think so. I don’t think they could sustain themselves as eight. It’s clear that they need more sustenance with the Nine of them just to keep themselves alive, which is why they’ve come to Earth, I’d be willing to wager.”

  It made a sick sort of sense, and Sabin marveled at the fact that he knew more about the Nine now than he’d ever thought possible. If he’d just known that when they’d been on the ship, he would have snuck up there and killed one of them and worried about crashing later. But it was too late for that now.

  One on one odds were in his favor, and if he could just find the one that was pulling the strings in this area, then he could end this whole thing and save these people.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Ithmar said. “You’re going to go find one.”

  “Of course I am,” Sabin said. “I can end this before it gets any worse.”

  “And what if you can’t? One of the Nine still has all the powers necessary to make people ill and mad and furious.”

  “I have to try. I can’t have this knowledge and not do anything with it. That is cowardice.”

  Ithmar hung his head, picking up on what Sabin was saying, clearly. Maybe it wasn’t entirely fair but Sabin found he didn't care about that. He had what he needed to defeat them, to get revenge for his mother and for Lilera and for the humans who were dying and getting sick.

  He could make a difference before Heather had to experience any more of the horrors that the Nine were capable of, and if it cost him his life, well; that was a price he had always been willing to pay.

  It was one of his duties as a guard, and that didn’t change just because he was guarding something else now.

  “You’re determined,” Ithmar said. “I can see it in your eyes. This planet has been a safe place for refugees from other worlds for so long, but we’ve never had a champion.”

  “I don’t think I’m any kind of champion. I’m not going to do this for recognition or praise. I’m doing it because it has to be done. Someone has to stop them or they’ll just keep destroying worlds until there’s nothing left. What if someone had stopped them before they caused the destruction of your people?”

  For a moment, Ithmar didn’t move, eyes wide. He hung his head a moment later and then nodded, as if accepting the truth of Sabin’s words. “You’re right. Someone has to do something. That person is just not me. May the Creators guide you, young Samis Das, and if you lose your life, may they guide you to your rest.”

  “Thank you, Ithmar,” Sabin said. “For your blessing and for the information you passed on.” He hesitated for a second and then smiled. “You aren’t a coward.”

  “Thank you for saying so, but I know what I am. I have taken it upon myself to watch and to wait, not to act. But there are people like you who make up for my lack of action. Be well.”

  Sabin left with his head spinning. More than anything he wanted to talk to someone about this. He wanted to tell Lilera that the Nine hadn’t always been monstrous, wanted to tell his mother that there was a way to end the suffering of people who didn’t deserve it.

  Instead, he pulled himself together and started thinking.

  Planning wasn’t his strong suit, that was for sure. He was better at following other people’s plans or working on blind instinct, but he didn’t think he was going to get more than one shot at this. If the Nine found out that he knew about their weakness, then he would likely be dead before he had a chance to do anything about it.

  So he needed a good plan. And weapons. And somewhere to look.

  He remembered something Heather had said the night before, about there being certain areas where people shot first and asked questions later.

  All of a sudden he had a picture in his mind of one of the Nine at the center of the chaos and the rest of it spreading out in a circle. One of those bad areas would be the perfect epicenter, keeping the One fed and letting it spread out.

  But it was already getting late in the day, and he didn’t have any weapons, so he headed back for Heather’s house, telling himself that he would check to make sure she was alright. Then he’d start fresh in the morning with a plan and whatever he could find in her house that would protect him or at least help him put up a fight.

  He walked back, mind racing, and he kept his eyes open, watching for signs of any of those areas that might be good. For the most part, people were keeping their heads down and moving on about their business. No one seemed to want to linger when it was unknown what was happening or who was safe to be around.

  Unlike on Samis, these people weren’t banding together to make sure that they could keep each other safe. Instead they were reacting with suspicion and anger, which wasn’t going to fix anything.

  But that seemed to be the way of humans, and Sabin shook his head as he headed back for the one place on this planet that he knew was safe and comfortable for him. Heather would be home soon, and then they could have dinner together. He’d put his arm around her, and they would try to pretend like they weren’t under attack.

  Only that wasn’t what happened at all.

  He came home just in time to find some man he had never seen before nearly dragging an unconscious Heather through her front door.

  Granted, he was dragging her into the house rather than out of it, but Sabin was still instantly on alert, stepping up quickly and narrowing his eyes. “Who are you?” he demanded, folding his arms and going for the intimidation factor of his size. This man was tall, but still several inches shorter than him and nowhere near as muscular. He was wearing clothes similar to the ones Heather put on every morning before she left for work. He was clever enough to figure out that this man worked with her more than likely, but that still didn’t explain who he was and what he was doing, and with the way things were, Sabin wasn’t taking any chances.

  It seemed like it took forever for the man to answer him, and countless scenarios played themselves out in Sabin’s head as he waited for a response.

  Maybe this man was mad and was taking her inside to kill her.

  Maybe Heather had gone mad, and the man had knocked her out and was taking her inside hoping she wouldn’t be a danger when she woke up.

  That last one twisted his stomach because he could easily defend Heather from a mad person, but if the mad person was her, then he had no idea what he would do. He didn’t know if he could make the choice that Lilera had made, what seemed like forever ago, and hesitation could get a person killed.

  “Who are you?” the man demanded right back, barely pausing as he got Heather inside and lowered her to the couch, panting slightly.

  Sabin rolled his eyes. Was that all it took to tire out a human?

  The man squinted, sizing him up for a moment before he smirked. “Ohhh, I bet I know who you are. Kelly Ann said something about Heather having a huge boyfriend all of a sudden. You know, when she wakes up, you should tell her that telling Dr. Woodward the truth that she was already in a relationship probably would have made him leave her alone a lot faster.”

  None of what he was s
aying made sense to Sabin, and he’d had enough of the chatter, really. He took a step towards him, anger burning in his eyes and turning them molten. “What happened to her and who in the void’s name are you?”

  “I’m Keith,” the man said. “Stand down, big fella, jeez. I’m Heather’s friend from work. God, that girl is good at compartmentalizing. She doesn’t tell her friends about her boyfriend, she doesn’t tell her boyfriend about her friends, honestly.”

  “There was a second part to the questions?” Sabin got out around gritted teeth.

  “What? Oh! Right. Well, we’ve all been working round the clock lately with all these mysterious illnesses popping up at the hospital, and Heather just...collapsed today. We were walking to the cafeteria for a quick coffee break and then she just...bam.” He held his hands up, miming what Sabin could only assume was meant to be a person hitting the floor.

  “But she’s alright? You brought her home.”

  “Because there’s no friggin’ space in the hospital anymore. They were going to admit her, but she would have just ended up in a chair for an hour while we found somewhere to put her. I suggested bringing her home so she could at least have a bed. No one was in a position to argue with me.” Keith shrugged.

  “Creators,” Sabin sighed, rubbing at his face with his hand. “This has gone too far.” He knew Keith didn’t know what he was talking about, and the last thing Sabin had time for was filling him in.

  Instead he brushed past him and lifted Heather up into his arms with ease, carrying her to her bedroom.

  “Holy crap,” Keith murmured from behind him. “I can see the appeal. You did that like she weighs nothing.”

  But Sabin wasn’t in the mood for chatting with this human anymore. He put Heather down on the bed and knelt beside it, pressing his hand to her cheek.

  Heather’s skin was pale and waxy to the touch, and she was burning up with fever. He could tell that the illness had gotten to her, and he wanted to cry.

  She was the one thing he had been gunning to save here, and now…

  It would be just like with his mother and with Lilera and all the other people who had died on Samis. All his friends, people he had fought beside for most of his life. Their leader, Bristel, and Osu. People who had brought color to his world for as long as he’d been alive, and there had been nothing he could do for them.

  “Hey,” Keith said from the doorway. “She’s gonna be okay, right? She just has whatever's going around. The flu or whatever it is?”

  Sabin looked up at him, eyes shadowed. “You work with her. Tell me, have you cured any of the others?”

  Keith blinked and frowned. “Well...I mean, no, not yet, but…”

  “Has medicine and technology evolved so well here that you can cure any illness you find?”

  “...No.”

  “Then how can you say with any certainty that she’ll be fine?”

  He opened his mouth and then closed it again, looking away. “I can’t,” he admitted. “But...she has to be alright. She’s…” He shook his head. “Some of the others, the elderly and the children, they died from this. She won’t...she can’t. They said it wasn’t contagious.”

  “Not in the way you’re thinking, it’s not,” Sabin replied. It didn’t always move from person to person, and there was no way to chart how it would infect people. On Samis, they had made quarantines, but the illness still spread, and people still died. He didn’t know if there was a cure, but there was a glimmer of hope in his chest that maybe, if he could defeat the Nine, their pestilence would die with them.

  “You know what this is?”

  Sabin hesitated. Now was really not the time to try and have the ‘yes, because I’m from another planet’ talk with one of Heather’s friends. He had to do something, and the time for talking was past.

  “I’ve seen it before,” he answered. Sabin let out a shaky breath and leaned in to kiss Heather’s cheek. And then got to his feet. He opened Heather’s closet, aware that Keith was watching him the whole time, but there wasn’t anything he could do about that. He rummaged inside for a moment before finding a bat and decided that would have to do.

  Keith’s mouth was open when Sabin pulled his head out of the closet, and he took a huge step back when Sabin stepped closer to him.

  Good grief.

  “I need to go to take care of something,” he said. “Will you watch over her? I should be back before morning.”

  “Um.” Keith visibly swallowed. “Sure. I’ll. Yeah. Do that.”

  “Thank you.”

  He strode out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, pausing when he saw the pad of paper on the counter where Heather made her grocery lists.

  Just for a moment, then.

  Sabin picked up the pen and wrote something down and then was out the door, slipping back into the fading light of the day.

  Darkness was where the Nine ruled, but he didn’t have a choice at this point.

  Chapter 13: Close to Home

  Darkness was thick around her, and she felt overly hot as she fought to break the surface of her sleep. Her eyes were heavy and it felt like there was ground up glass under her eyelids, making it hurt to even think about lifting them.

  Her body felt molded to the bed, each limb weighing a ton and keeping her pinned in place.

  When she turned her head, it throbbed, and when she opened her mouth, it was sour tasting and dry.

  What was going on?

  Without moving too much or opening her eyes, she tried to think back over what had happened. She’d gotten up and gone to work as per usual, been rushed off her feet, but that was also becoming the norm.

  The last thing she could recall with any clarity was Keith meeting her at the nurses’ station and asking her if she wanted to nip down to the cafeteria for a quick coffee break. Since she’d been feeling dead on her feet since she’d walked into the hospital that day for the most part, she’d said yes.

  Everything after that was just blank.

  You’re not going to figure anything out with your eyes closed, she told herself, and so, with a little whimper at how much effort it took, she opened her eyes.

  It felt like Heather could hear each blink she took, and the gritty feeling didn’t go away no matter how many times she blinked. A quick glance around told her that it was nighttime and that she was in her bedroom.

  But how had she gotten there? She didn’t have any memory of driving home, but she was definitely in her bed, the covers tucked up around her. There was a cup of water on her nightstand, and she wanted it more than anything, but the thought of reaching for it was exhausting.

  Maybe Sabin had come to pick her up?

  But no...that didn’t make any sense. Did he even know how to drive? She’d never seen him do it. But she could hear someone rummaging around in the kitchen and knowing she wasn’t alone felt like cool relief when everything was too hot.

  “Sabin?” she called, and her voice was weak and raspy.

  After a moment, there were footsteps in the hall, and then someone stepped into her room. It wasn’t Sabin, that was for sure, since this person was much smaller than him, and when she squinted, she could just about tell that it was Keith.

  “You’re awake,” he said, sounding relieved.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “Taking care of you,” he replied. “What do you think?”

  “What happened? Where’s Sabin?”

  “You mean tall, thick, and meaty?” Keith asked. “He said he had to go take care of something and left here carrying a baseball bat. You’d think he was about to go kick someone’s ass for hurting you, but it’s not like he can beat up a sickness, right?”

  Sickness… Something jolted in Heather as it all clicked into place in her fever muddled mind, and she inhaled sharply.

  She had it. Whatever the sickness was that the Nine spread around, she had it. It was in her. Oh, god. Oh, god. Did that mean she was going to die? That’s what happened, wasn’t it? People d
ied from it. She’d been there when some of their patients had passed away, their fevers burning too hot and their bodies shutting down.

  Was that going to happen to her?

  The thought made her want to throw up, but there wasn’t really anything in her stomach, so she just heaved a bit and curled her fingers into fists.

  “Hey,” Keith said as he stepped into the room. “Calm down, okay? Everything’s fine.”

  “No, it’s not,” she said, voice cracking.

  “Here. Have some water.” Keith helped her to sit up and tipped the cup to her mouth. She managed to drink most of it without spilling it all down her front, and the cool liquid made her feel a little bit better.

  She was still worried, about herself, and about Sabin. Who was to say what would happen with this. Maybe they both would die.

  Heather shuddered and looked up at Keith who was standing there with his hands on his hips. “What?” she asked.

  “How come you didn’t tell me that you had such a hot boyfriend?” he asked. “I thought we were supposed to be friends, Sutter.”

  She rolled her eyes. “That’s what you’re worried about right now? The fact that Sabin’s hot? And anyway, he’s not even my boyfriend. Not really.”

  Keith arched an eyebrow. “Does he know that? Because I saw how he looked when I dragged you in here, and first he was about ready to snap my neck because he thought I’d done something to hurt you. And then he was devastated when he figured out what was wrong.”

  “H-he was?” Heather bit her lip. She didn’t want to think about how upset he must have been. Especially considering what he’d seen before. If he came back and found out that she was sick, then he must have been truly worried about her to have set back out in the dark to find the Nine.

  “He was,” Keith confirmed. “In fact… Hold on a second.” He walked out and then came back in, holding a folded piece of paper. “He left you this.”

  Heather’s eyes widened as she took the paper in shaking hands. She recognized the paper that she left in the kitchen for writing down lists, and smiled when she opened it up to see the terrible handwriting that covered it.