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

by Lisa Lace

  “Bye,” he said, and then fired his gun right in the thing’s face.

  It fell back with a screech and a squeal, its dying sounds worse than anything Sabin had ever heard before.

  He sat up enough to watch it writhe and then disappear into nothing.

  Relief was hot and heady as it washed over him, and he knew he was a mess of blood and dirt. He needed to get back to Heather. He needed to make sure things were really finished.

  But first, he needed a nap.

  His head hit the floor and darkness took over.

  Chapter 15: A Hero

  “Look at them, Heather. Aren’t they beautiful? The stars?”

  She looks up, and there above her is a blanket of some of the brightest stars she has ever seen. They spill across the sky in gorgeous patterns that she smiles to see and when she looks back down, her dad is standing there, his eyes just as bright.

  “Yeah, they are,” she replies. “I think I understand now, Dad.”

  He smiles at her. “Do you?”

  “Yeah. About the magic. About everything you were trying to teach me. I didn’t get it when I was a kid.”

  “Ah, well. Kids are like that, honey. You give ‘em your best material and they look at you like you’re crazy.” Christopher shrugs. “You learn to live with it. I wish… No, that’s not something for a wish. Life and death, that’s bigger than all this.” He gestures to the sky.

  Heather frowns. “When I was younger, you made it seem like anything could be fixed with a wish.”

  “Well, yeah,” he replies. “I didn’t want you to grow up thinking wishes never came true. It’s just like how we let you believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy for years.”

  “But those things aren’t real, and you really believed in the magic. Didn’t you?”

  He nods. “Yeah, I did. But magic can’t solve all your problems. Don’t you know how many times in my life I wanted to wish for things? How many times I thought that a little magic would go a long way? But I saved it up for the times that mattered.”

  “Saving your own life didn’t matter?”

  He shakes his head and smiles sadly at her. “Like I said, life and death is too big for wishes.”

  “And sometimes death can be a kind of salvation,” Heather murmurs, remembering what Sabin told her. She knows this is a dream, but it’s vivid and more real than before, and considering how awful she feels, it’s a welcome change of pace.

  Her dad looked pleasantly surprised. “That’s right, it can. For me, it was. I didn’t want to leave my family, but I was so tired. But it’s not for everyone. Sometimes you get the chance to come back. Sometimes the fever breaks. Sometimes the hero wins.”

  Heather blinks, confused. “What do you mean?” But as she stands there, the scene starts to fade away, her father disappearing back into nothing, the sky growing light.

  She opens her eyes.

  “Dad?” was the first thing she said, eyes darting around wildly.

  “No,” Keith says. “Still just me. God, you scared the crap outta me, girl.”

  Heather blinked. She still felt heavy and too hot. “What do you mean?”

  “Your fever was way up and I couldn’t get you to wake up!” Keith said, eyes wide. “You were muttering about something, so I knew you weren’t dead, but you were on fire, and non-responsive. I was this close to calling for an ambulance.”

  Heather had no recollection of that. She had the fuzzy memories of a dream that slipped out of her mind as she tried to think about it, but she didn’t even remember going from the couch to the bed, so that wasn’t really surprising.

  She pressed a hand to her head, and she felt cooler to the touch than she had before, but she didn’t know if that was just her mind playing tricks on her or not. High fevers were dangerous to sustain, and she felt dizzy and a little nauseous still.

  “Oh,” Heather replied. “Sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault, but try not to do it again all the same, maybe?”

  She smiled tiredly at him.

  It was morning, though, the sun streaming weakly through the blinds into her bedroom. She didn’t even need to ask if Sabin had been back yet.

  Keith would have told her if he was, knowing how worried she’d been about it, about him. There was something heavy in her chest that made her worry that he was dead.

  If he was dead, then so was she, though, and while that was a terrifying prospect, she remembered what he’d told her about death being a kind of salvation. She was pretty sure that she’d rather die than have to kill someone she loved or deal with them killing her because they or she had gone mad.

  “What are you even still doing here?” she asked. “Don’t you have work this morning?”

  “Yes, but I called in and told them I was sick. Someone has to stay here and look after you until your boy toy gets back. He’d probably tear my head off if I left you alone. I told him I’d look after you, anyway.”

  “He wouldn’t,” she murmured, a rush of tiredness making her reel in place, even though she had just woken up.

  Heather sighed and flopped back against her bed, eyes closed. Something persistent was ringing in her head and it took her much longer than it should have to realize that the ringing was coming from the phone.

  “Can you get that?” she asked Keith

  He rolled his eyes. “Of course. I just love being your servant.”

  She stuck her tongue out at him and listened to him pad off to answer the phone. He really was a good friend, Heather mused.

  Sleep had almost claimed her once again when he came back. “Who was it?”

  “The hospital actually. They...someone brought Sabin in an hour or so ago. He’s lost a lot of blood, apparently, but he’s alive. Apparently when they asked him if there was anyone they should call for him, he said your name. They didn’t know who he meant, but then Kelly recognized him, and so they called.”

  It took her longer than it probably should have to process all that information, but when she did, her eyes flew open wide.

  “He’s alive?” Heather asked, already struggling to get out of bed.

  “Yeah,” Keith said. “Banged the hell up, but alive. Where do you think you’re going?”

  “To see him!” she shot back, like it was the most obvious thing. Which, in her defense, she thought it should have been.

  “Whoa, there, girl. You’re barely well enough to walk to your own bathroom and now you’re going all the way to the hospital?”

  “Yes! I have to see him.” She didn’t even want to look at herself in the mirror, knowing she looked terrible. The rash hadn’t set in, but her skin was pale and there were heavy smudges under her eyes. The thought of putting on makeup or something to try and cover it up made her exhausted just to think about, so she shook her head and went to brush her teeth instead.

  An hour later, she was dressed and had her hair pulled up into a sloppy bun. Keith had vetoed her driving as soon as they stepped out of the house, so she was bundled into the passenger seat of her own car for what was apparently the second time in as many days, while Keith drove them, muttering under his breath the whole time about her apparent death wish.

  “He better be really good at sex for you to be going through this much trouble to see him,” he said.

  “He is,” Heather shot back. “Not that it’s any of your business.” Teasing him was a welcome distraction from worrying about whether or not Sabin had managed to defeat the Nine or not. He wasn’t dead, which boded well, but his foe could have slipped away and escaped or something like that.

  If he was injured and the Nine were still out there then things weren’t even close to being resolved. Worrying about it wasn’t going to help either, and she knew that, but…

  But she didn’t want to die and she didn’t want him to die either. There were still things she wanted to do and still things she wanted to say to Sabin, and…

  Yeah. She needed to stop getting herself so worked up about it.

 
The hospital was just as busy as it had been the last time she was there when they walked in, and everyone looked surprised to see her. Kelly Ann was waiting by the nurses’ station when they walked up to it, and she pressed a hand over her mouth.

  “Heather, oh no. Are you okay?”

  “I’m hanging in there, Kells, but it’s nice to know I look that terrible,” Heather remarked dryly. “Where is he?”

  “Right through here,” she said, gesturing for them to follow her. “He’s been in and out of consciousness since they brought him in.”

  “Who did bring him in?” Heather wanted to know as they followed her.

  “These teenagers, actually. They said they found him lying on the floor in an abandoned building looking like he’d just done battle with a hedge trimmer. They also said that he got rid of some of the darkness, so it was the least they could do. I don’t know what that even means.”

  Heather had a pretty good idea, and it made her heart leap up into her throat to hear it. Had they seen the fight? Did that mean he won?

  Kelly Ann was looking at her strangely.

  “What?” she asked.

  “It’s just...I’m not trying to mother you, Heather, I promise I’m not, but is he some kind of...thug or something? I mean, it was pretty obvious these kids were from the rough part of town. What was he even doing there? And while you’re so sick too.”

  Heather smiled and shook her head. “He’s pretty much the opposite of a thug, Kelly. He was...working. Kinda. To...catch a bad guy.”

  “Oh! So he’s like a cop?”

  “Something like that. Can we go in?”

  They’d reached a room, and standing behind the closed door, not knowing what she was going to find inside was driving her crazy. As much as she appreciated her friend’s concern, she didn’t want to have this conversation until she knew what had happened.

  Kelly Ann opened the door and led the way in. “He was almost too big for the bed,” she murmured in a weird kind of awe.

  And there he was. Bandaged and bruised, but every monitor showed that he was alive. Heather’s knees nearly gave out in relief, and she had to catch herself on the foot of the bed.

  His hair was dirty and there was a bruise on his face, but he was alive, and in that moment, that meant more to her than finding out if he’d won his fight.

  “I’m not sure if he’s going to wake up any time soon,” Kelly said. “There’s something...well. Weird about him. He’s huge, for one thing, so we had to double up on the painkillers. His arm is sprained and his shoulder was dislocated. No one can figure out what his blood type is, so we couldn’t give him any blood. Luckily he didn’t lose a worrying amount.”

  “I’m going to sit with him for a while, if that’s okay,” Heather said. And she really didn’t care if it wasn’t okay, because she was already heading for the chair. She actually didn’t feel as badly as she could have. The shaking had stopped and she didn’t collapse into the chair in complete exhaustion like she had the day before on her couch.

  She reached for Sabin’s hand and threaded their fingers together, stroking the back of his hand with her thumb.

  Keith and Kelly Ann stepped out, and she heard Kelly say “Hey, I thought you were sick today.” as they made their way out.

  She laughed softly and sat there with the sound of the beeping machines and Sabin’s soft breathing, easily losing track of time. Her eyes closed, and when she opened them again, Sabin was looking at her.

  “Hey,” she breathed. “You’re awake.”

  “So are you,” he replied, and he sounded tired.

  Heather knew they both meant ‘you’re alive’.

  “I was worried,” Sabin said.

  “So was I.” And then, “Did you do it?”

  Sabin’s eyes fluttered closed again, and Heather had a split second to fear the worst before he smiled and nodded. “If it works like it’s supposed to, then they should all be gone.”

  Heather breathed a sigh of relief and had to stop herself from jumping up to hug Sabin. It was better news than she had been expecting, really. They were both alive, the Nine were gone, and everything had worked out for the best.

  It would probably take some time for the world to heal itself after the weeks of chaos, but at least the catalyst was gone.

  “So,” Heather said, giving him a small smile when he looked at her again. “What’s next for you? You saved the planet from what basically amounted to a secret invasion. Are you going to try to go home?”

  It would make sense if that was what he wanted to do, and while she would miss him something awful, she wouldn’t try to stand in his way if that was what he wanted. He probably still had friends who were alive on his planet, and a life that he could rebuild. He had never really been meant for Earth anyway, and he’d accomplished the job he came to do.

  “No,” Sabin replied after a moment. “No, I don’t think I will. The things I loved at home are gone now, and I think…” he squeezed her hand. “I think I have more here than there now. I have plenty of reason to stay. If you’ll have me.”

  Something loosened in her and she smiled wider, nodding. “I think that can be arranged. Although, you’re gonna have to get a job or something because you eat a lot of food.”

  Sabin laughed and tugged her closer until he could kiss her on the cheek. “I think we can work something out.”

  Chapter 16: Epilogue

  It did take a while for the Earth to heal from the wounds of the Nine’s invasion. Even though no one had been aware of them, the death toll was fairly high due to their influence. Even with them gone, those who had been extremely sick didn’t recover, and people still died.

  In the end, no one ever knew what had caused the chaos, and eventually they stopped looking for answers, choosing to blame drugs and mental illness and hatred in various groups of people.

  Conspiracy theorists had their own ideas about what had caused people to lose their minds for a period of time, but there weren’t many who listened to their claims. After all, who would believe that their brains had been taken over by beings from another planet?

  Heather read the articles to Sabin when they came out, and they enjoyed laughing about them.

  “Tiny people?” Sabin said about one theory. “They think tiny aliens were living in their heads? That’s ridiculous.”

  “Oh yeah,” Heather replied, her head in his lap. “Way more ridiculous than what actually happened. A group of ancient beings who live in darkness and share one life force and feed on fear.”

  “That’s a perfectly legitimate thing. It’s what happened!” Sabin insisted, and he didn’t understand why Heather wouldn’t stop laughing.

  The two of them were still together, and they were both happy about it. Sabin had yet to find a job, but that was just because it was hard to find work when you were from another planet and had no records. They both understood that.

  He did, however find something else to do with his time.

  It turned out that there were more refugees from other planets on Earth than just him and Ithmar. Earth had been their safe place, some of them for years longer than Sabin had even been alive. In light of what had just happened, they all agreed that there needed to be something in place to protect Earth from those who would seek to do it harm.

  Ithmar, after hearing how Sabin had essentially single handedly saved the planet, found the courage he needed to speak up and say that there needed to be a change. It wasn’t fair for them to live on Earth and not do anything to give back, and Sabin agreed.

  Heather had taken him in and been kind to him when she hadn’t even known who he was, and without her, he likely would have ended up on the streets cold, hungry, and alone.

  In the end, he’d fought for her and what he believed to be the best thing he had here, and he knew that others would feel the same.

  Not all of the refugees had found their place with humans, and some of them continued to live in the shadows alone, but they were all grateful for finding a p
lace with mostly abundant resources and plenty of places for them to blend in.

  And so they created a task force of sorts to help keep the Earth safe. There were many of them who knew how to fight or had once, and Sabin still had plenty of his old training. They familiarized themselves with the planets and races on them that might mean harm to the Earth and came up with plans to stop them, so that what had happened with the Nine wouldn’t happen again.

  It was good work, work Sabin was proud of, and it made him happy to be doing it.

  Heather was proud of him as well, which she always managed to convey when he came home from a night spent training all sweaty and grinning from getting to exert himself.

  This wasn’t where he’d been born, but in less than a year, Sabin had set himself up a home and had reasons to stay, and he was happy.

  “I can’t believe you have to go,” Heather said, pouting as she watched him pack.

  “I did try to convince you to come with me,” Sabin pointed out, frowning as he folded a shirt. This was harder by hand. On Samis, they’d had machines to do this for a person.

  Heather rolled her eyes and took the shirt from him, shaking it out and showing him how to roll it up neatly. “It saves space this way,” she said, handing the shirt back. “And I told you, I can’t take that much time off work. I’m just going to miss you, is all. Everyone’s going to miss you.”

  Sabin had been folded easily into her life in the time they’d been together once things had calmed down and they’d both returned to full health. He’d thoroughly charmed her friends, and the people in the town liked him because he was so helpful, always willing to carry something or lend a hand when someone needed it.

  He was a hit down at the diner because he’d beaten the record for biggest cheeseburger eaten in five minutes, and he had his picture on the wall to prove it.

  It was weird, but Heather really liked having him be integrated into her life.

  She wasn’t so happy about him leaving, but she understood.

  In order to protect the Earth, he needed to see it. They were trying to work on a way to create a communications system that worked only between the members of the Extraterrestrial Defense Force (or EDF), as she was calling it.