Protected By The Highlander (Medieval Romance)

by Veronica Wilson

  “How did you… how did you take down that robot, anyway?” she asked, recalling the way the thing had convulsed while it was trapped in the web.

  “An invention of mine.” The Hood seemed rather pleased to share this fact. “It takes advantage of the machines’ weaknesses. Nothing more and nothing less than that.”

  “I understand,” Cynthia said, doing her best to ignore the tingling in her nether region that this man’s presence so effortlessly invoked. “But that’s not really a good answer.”

  “Then maybe what you asked was not really a good question,” he replied, grinning all the while.

  Alright, I see I’m going to have to do this one step at a time.

  In an attempt to appear as focused as was possible, Cynthia straightened up while she sat. Her gaze was directed straight into the Hood’s face. If she could avoid blinking, she’d have done so as well. “The finest scientists we have could not figure out an easy way to bring these things down. I’m sure that they’ve already tried electricity, at least several times over. How did you, a hermit who survives in the middle of nowhere, figure out the proper way to take them out?”

  “I aim to please, beautiful. Especially in areas where others have failed.” The way he looked at her while ending that statement somehow managed to both annoy her and make her smile.

  Way to dodge the answer, Mr. Charmer.

  “But I like the cut of your jib, Miss…”

  “Greene. Cynthia Greene.”

  “A lovely name for a lovely lady, Cynthia,” he said, extending his hand to meet her own. Then, instead of giving her his own name, he merely continued talking. “As I was saying, because I’ve grown to like you in this regrettably short period of time you’ve spent here, I will tell you exactly what it is that I’m doing with these cats, as you call them.

  “These synthetic creations are in fact rather well defended against electric attacks. When exposed to such an assault, they move about frantically, trying to disperse the excess energies into their surroundings via an elaborate countermeasure mechanism. If you stop them from moving, however, and keep frying them for a while, the defensive system becomes overwhelmed and goes offline, taking the CPU with it.” The way the Hood talked about the subject was passionate, as if he was describing an act of lovemaking. He paused after finishing the final sentence, closing his eyes for a couple of seconds.

  If he has such passion to spare for cold mechanics. I wonder what kind of explosion he’d make in the sack.

  “But I am sure that someone like you would not be interested in technological banter.” He opened his eyes again, giving her a mirthful look. “I do what I must in order to survive, as I’m sure you’d understand.”

  More than you will ever know, Hood.

  “Of course I do.” She paused a bit before allowing herself to ask her next question. “Which brings me to this: why live here, of all places? Surely you can be a hermit in a forest somewhere? U.S. territory is brimming with deserts, too. Someone with your knack of survival can make it anywhere. Why do it here, where food is scarce and cats still roam in abundance?”

  He started talking but Cynthia didn’t listen, having recalled something. She had been stranded in a dead zone before, the memory etched in the back of her mind. Food was impossible to find. Yet he has enough of it to give me double rations. There was no getting around it. The Hood was not to be trusted. Best-case scenario, he was slightly unhinged. Although he doesn’t appear to be insane, at least no more than the rest of us. Worst-case scenario, he was in league with the enemy, giving them something in return for commodities and his life. But what could be so valuable that he is allowed to destroy cats over?

  The answer didn’t come easily.

  I guess I will have to get it out of him the old fashioned way.

  Trying her best to maintain a constant expression, Cynthia felt between her legs with her left hand, hoping that the Hood would not take notice. As far she could tell, he didn’t, caught as he was in his irrelevant monologue.

  Let’s just hope that he is as respectful as I hope—yes!

  Disguised within what looked like a maxi-pad, there was a small but sharp punch dagger. Carefully, she pulled it out from between her legs, wincing at the thought of scraping herself with it.

  This would have worked so much better if I had the use of my right arm…

  Regardless, she had to try. With a swiftness no one could expect from someone with her injuries, Cynthia leapt toward the Hood, ending her thrust less than an inch in front of him, her dagger right under his throat. The absolute lack of reaction that followed on his side disturbed her to no end.

  He didn’t even blink…

  His grin now even wider than before, the Hood observed her with all the glee of a child in a petting zoo.

  “Now, where in the world did you… oh. You dirty, dirty girl, you.”

  I’m going to be dirty with your blood soon if you don’t tell me what I want to know. A part of her regretted having to do this, but there was simply no other option. Something was off here, and she needed to know just exactly what that was.

  “A woman is never truly unarmed,” Cynthia purred, caressing the skin of his neck with the tip of the blade. She took special care not to pierce it without reason. “Now you will tell me, Hood, who you really are and just what you are doing here.” She practically barked the words out, her intention to intimidate easily evident.

  “Everything I’ve already told you, my dear Cynthia, is the truth. I might have skipped a few more explicit details, but make no mistake, all of it was one hundred percent honest.” Still smiling, he seemed barely even to register her as a threat.

  “How about telling me the explicit details, then?” She smiled in return, albeit mockingly.

  “No problem.” He took a deep breath, pausing for a moment before he continued. “I am actually an alien invader, exiled for conspiring against our leader. As punishment for my crime, I was banished down here.” The Hood kept grinning as he talked, visibly amused by Cynthia’s baffled expression.

  You have got to be kidding me… One would assume that anyone with the stones to live out here would be a little deranged, but this was way too much.

  “As for what I am doing here, well, that is a rather complicated question, don’t you agree?” He appeared to genuinely believe in the madness he was spouting.

  “Humor me.”

  “I am building something. Or, depending on how you look at it, hiding out. A little bit of both, really. The inorganics keep looking for me, and I harvest them for parts. You might even go ahead and call it a mutually beneficial agreement.” The Hood’s face now betrayed traces of sadistic glee.

  He is even further gone than I thought.

  “And what are you building, my most gracious of hosts?”

  “Why, a doomsday device, of course,” he replied, with all the enthusiasm of a cackling madman.

  Alright, then… I see there’s not much sanity left in there.

  “And what are you going to do, H—I’m sorry, what was your name again?”

  “Your expression tells me all I need to know about whether you’d believe me if I told you my alien name. So just call me Johnny… or something.”

  Calling a mad hermit “Johnny” would be almost as stupid as calling him “Or something.”

  “Alright Hood, just tell me what you plan on doing with the so-called doomsday device.”

  “So no ‘Johnny’ for me, huh? Too bad, I was kind of looking forward to being called that.”

  “Please.” She pressed her blade to his throat again, letting him know that her patience was wearing thin. “Are you going to, say, destroy the planet?”

  “The planet?” Suddenly, the Hood started laughing like a madman, his cackle echoing through the surrounding hallways. “Of course not, Cynthia. I am on the planet. The alien armada up there, however, is just ripe for the picking.”

  She stared into his eyes for a couple moments, her stare a glorious achievement in the
field of bafflement.

  “Listen, erm… Johnny,” she called him by his chosen moniker despite how dumb it sounded. I figure the poor, sexy-as-hell madman deserves to be cut a little slack, given how crazy he is. “I think you better sit down for a little bit.”

  As if her suggestion had been a command, he sat down immediately, the look of excitement a little bit too apparent on his face.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked, still touching his skin with her blade.

  “I actually made you say it,” he replied, grinning maniacally.

  Alright, all I really need is to recover my pistol. After that, I can force him to come to the base with me. There, he will have no choice but to share his way of taking those things down.

  She gazed into the Hood’s eyes once more, the intensity of his stare making her uncomfortable. She had liked him at first sight, and looking at him in this state was not easy. Still, she had to maintain eye contact. Otherwise, who could guess what he might do…

  And if whatever it is that he has built here actually works to some degree, then we could—

  Then, without warning, the light went out. Realizing that she was now sharing a dark cave with a deranged maniac, Cynthia felt her stomach tightening. Trying to subdue her shudders as much as was possible, she stood her ground, prepared for an attack that never came.

  Instead, some ten seconds later, one of the chamber’s neons flickered back into function, shedding some light onto the situation: The Hood was gone.

  What in blazes just happened here?

  As if to answer her question, seconds later the sound of a thundering explosion found its way to her ears. Following it, the cave began vibrating, almost knocking her off her feet.

  Has the power been cut? The possibility terrified her. Finding a way out of this place with minimal or no illumination would most certainly be a horrifying experience. And that would be the case even without the presence of a megalomaniacal madman.

  Then another, even graver possibility occurred to her. Is this place under attack? By whom? She couldn’t possibly imagine a reason for the military to assault it, so it must have been the invaders.

  I have to get out of here! she screamed inside her own head, propelling herself down a corridor. She picked the one to the right, the very same one that the Hood had used to enter the chamber not that long ago.

  It’s the best shot I’ve got at getting somewhere I can orient myself around. Seeds of doubt about that course of action slowly crept up. Unless of course his kitchen is placed even deeper down for some reason, in which case I am pretty much screwed. Still, Cynthia maintained her path. Reasoning has as much of a chance to get me out of here as sheer, dumb luck does.

  It took her about ten seconds of stumbling through the pitch-black hallway before she finally saw the light from the next room. It was faint, but slightly more intense than the one behind her. Picking up her pace, Cynthia tightened her grip around the miniscule hilt of her blade, ready to face whatever it was that followed.

  Holy Mother of…

  The chamber she had just entered looked like something straight out of a B-grade science fiction film. An impressive number of cables converged here, piling on top of each other to form some abomination of technology that appeared almost alive. It was black, littered with blinking red lights, and kept undulating like a polyp during its swimming motion. If the Hood was in fact insane, then his was the most productive madness she had ever seen.

  It’s far more likely that he was telling the truth, though. She concluded as she bit her lip. No human mind could ever make this by itself, no matter how brilliant or insane it was.

  Cynthia approached the machine carefully, intrigued by its intricate design. But she was just as repulsed by its living appearance, so she proceeded very carefully. Just as she was about to get a closer look, another explosion came, this one knocking her down to the ground.

  No time to admire the scenery, I’ve got to get going! she reminded herself, rising up with the help of her left arm while clutching her weapon with the other. Once she was up, she swapped it between her hands and ran down a random hallway. She didn’t look back.

  Yeah, like this is going to do me much help. The punch dagger now occupied her thoughts as well as her good hand. Whether the attackers are cats or soldiers, I’m toast either way if they open fire. Still, the knife made her feel better, and that prevented her from dropping it.

  Once again, she noticed light emanating from the next room, this one even stronger than the previous one. Elated, she picked up her pace, hoping that stronger illumination meant greater proximity to the entrance.

  She couldn’t have been more wrong.

  The next chamber was by all means identical to the previous, albeit with one exception: most of the cables had been ripped into pieces, the handiwork of the four cats that resided in the room. The contraption in the center kept shaking and shrieking as the other machines ripped it into pieces.

  As soon as she stepped in the robots stopped dealing with the polyp-like thing, their attention now solely focused on her. Barely preventing herself from breaking into a scream, Cynthia instantly turned around, running through the corridor as fast as her legs could carry her. It was an outright miracle that she didn’t trip and fall.

  The intense light was coming from the still-powered cables they were smashing, she concluded, the sound of metallic limbs clanging behind her. But what caused the explo—

  Almost immediately, the large machine in the room behind her blew up, propelling her down the hallway with a wave of force. Cynthia managed to avoid landing on her bandaged shoulder using her acrobatic training, but not without seriously banging herself up in the process.

  The polyp-things go boom after getting sufficiently torn up, of course. She articulated her thoughts while what was left of the cats pursuing her hit the wall around her. Most of them were in pieces, the most complete one being no more than a head on a torso.

  Oh God, I need a good rest.

  Cynthia wanted to close her eyes and doze off, tell herself that the threat was over. However, her instincts wouldn’t let her, and this time they happened to agree with her reason.

  If the disgusting squid-like things explode after taking enough damage… She slowly got up, every little movement filling her with new kinds of pain. Then there have got to be more cats to continue bashing them in. Her stomach tightened, unsettled by the conclusion. Otherwise, the attack wouldn’t make that much sense.

  As if summoned by her thoughts, metallic steps started echoing around her again. The labyrinthine nature of the cave meant that there was no way for her to escape, no correct route to take. And they kept getting closer.

  This has been a very bad day.

  One by one several of the invaders’ pet robots entered the room, their glowing eyes making it progressively easier to see. Within five seconds there were a total of five of them, every single one staring in her direction.

  Despite my best efforts. She gripped the handle of her dagger so strongly it made her left hand bleed. Despite the Hood’s efforts. She gritted her teeth, harder than she had done earlier today. It seems that I am to be taken either way.

  The robots’ eyes kept getting brighter and more difficult to look at. In reaction, she leapt forward, dashing toward the closest cat at top speed.

  “Well, screw the lot of you!” Cynthia screamed, her roar muffled by the intense beam of light that hit her head on.

  Far away

  She opened her eyes, barely any sensation left in her body.

  The night sky was far above, the moon full and bight.

  Gathering what little strength she had, Cynthia tried to rise, but instead only succeeded at wobbling slightly to her side.

  I can’t feel a thing. Where am I? What’s happened to me?

  Memories from the cave came back then, flooding her mind with a jumble of intense imagery and sensations. With them, feeling came back to her body, soon followed by intense pain. Her shoulder, knees, and bac
k all ached horribly. Her head was no better, pulsating from both sides.

  “And so, my Sleeping Beauty wakes.” The Hood’s voice dragged her attention away from her agonizing inner universe, forcing her to face the present. “How do you feel? I understand that the aftereffects of the beam are quite unpleasant for humans.”

  Humans. She remembered who the Hood claimed he was, what he said that he was about to do. What came of it in the end?

  Now in more control over her body, Cynthia managed to lift herself up into a sitting position. She was clothed in an oversized black jumpsuit, probably one from the Hood’s supply. He sat a mere three feet away from her, his unblinking gaze meeting her own. They appeared to have been on some sort of grassy plain, probably far away from the previous place.

  “What happened back there?” she finally managed to ask, her voice coarse from the dryness of her throat.

  Before saying anything, the Hood passed her a plastic bottle of clear water, which she gladly took a sizeable swig from.

  “We were under attack, my dear Cynthia. My hiding place had been found, perhaps due to the extra measures I’d taken to bring you there. Or maybe due to some other oversight on my part. I can’t say for sure.”

  Does he really think it might have been my fault? He doesn’t seem as angry as he should be.

  “Once the main power failed I was forced to leave you in order to initiate the proper countermeasures. Sadly, the synthetics managed to get to you before I was able to shut them all down.” For a moment, his expression became serious. “Without my gear, I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to revive you from brain-death. Luckily, I’ve succeeded at that, too.” As he finished his sentence, the persistent smile he had worn for much of their first conversation overtook his face again. “Didn’t I tell you that I always aim to please?”

  “What happened with the cave, then? The machines you’ve built?” she asked, the mental barriers she had raised while thinking he was insane evaporating rapidly. He was her handsome savior again, and the tingling in her loins returned, stronger than ever.

  “Melted to slag,” he replied, refusing to let her see his displeasure. “I had to initiate the self-destruct sequence once I’d gotten you out of there. The same goes for our vehicle. I destroyed it some three hours ago. I’ve had to carry you for quite a long distance.”