by Susan Hayes
“Royan!” She called his name, not caring what the others thought of her outburst.
His head came up at the sound of his name. One eye was completely swollen shut now, and there were more bruises on his face than she remembered seeing in the recording she had been sent. Anger tore through her, raw and red. The bastards were going to pay for every mark and bruise they’d given him.
“Ease up, baby. You can talk to Royan after you give me what I want.” Vin continued walking toward her, but at a gesture from him, the others came to a halt.
Royan swayed between his guards but managed to stay upright by what looked to be sheer will. Zura’s heart ached at the sight, and she swore that she would make this up to him somehow.
“You’re not getting anything until I hear from him that he’s okay,” she retorted.
“Fine. Hey, loser. Tell your sister you’re good so we can get on with this.”
Royan looked straight at her and gave her a lopsided smile. “Hey, sis. I’m good. Seriously. You should see the other guys.”
“Don’t remind me what you cost me in men, asshole. You put three of my guys in the infirmary!”
“And one in the morgue,” Royan said, then grunted as one of his guards slammed a fist into his side.
“Your brother has the Watson family charm. It’s going to get him killed one of these days, just like your old man. I swear you’re the only smart one in your whole family, Zura.” Vin came to a stop less than two feet away from her and held out his hand. “Prove to me how smart you are and hand over the ring.”
She unfastened the necklace and handed it to him, chain, ring, and all. “Here. Take it and give me Royan.”
Vin cradled the ring in his hand like it was more precious than platinum. “Not yet. Once I’ve confirmed what this is, then you can go if you still want to. I brought you out here for a reason. I wanted you to see what your future could look like if you stuck with me. All this belongs to the people I work for now. They’re powerful, and they want a piece of the action out here. I’m offering you a chance to be part of something big.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want any part of you or whatever you’re into this time.”
He sighed. “You don’t know what you’re walking away from. Someday soon, you’re going to regret saying no to me. Soon we’re going to be the ones in control of the pharma trade out here, not the corporations.”
“I doubt that. Are we done here? I want to get Royan out of here.”
“Almost. Like I said, I need to confirm what’s on this thing and make sure you aren’t cheating me. If I like what I find, then you can go. If not, well….We need ships for our new venture. I’d prefer to take you and the Sun Sprite as a package deal, but if you’re not interested, you better hope there’s enough money here to make me happy. Otherwise, I’m keeping your ship, too.”
“You bastard. We had a deal!” Zura yelled, feigning surprise. Of course the weasel was changing the rules; he thought he had her at a disadvantage.
He was so very wrong about that.
Kit was standing with his hand over the door panel, waiting for the right moment. When Vin changed the deal, he knew the time had come. He slapped his palm down on the pad and charged the still-opening door with Luke right behind him.
Fighting was what they had been created to do, and they were damned good at it. Cyborgs were a lethal blend of technology and biology, manufactured to be faster, stronger, and far more lethal than a normal human could ever be. Before he had taken more than a few strides, he knew the location of every enemy, their armament, and threat level. For the first time in his life, Kit was fighting a true enemy, one who didn’t deserve a moment’s mercy. This wasn’t some faceless cyborg soldier or a drunken miner looking for a way to vent his frustration, this was the man who had hurt Zura and taken her brother hostage. Vin Collins was going to die for what he had done.
“You backstabbing bitch!” Vin bellowed as he spotted Luke and Kit charging out of the Sun Sprite’s cargo bay doors. He reached for Zura, who laughed at him as she danced out of his reach.
“Did you really think I would come out here alone? I knew you’d pull something like this,” she said before darting past him to head straight for her brother and the two men guarding him.
“I’ve got Zura. You deal with Vin,” Luke called out as he changed direction to go after her.
Kit tightened the grip on his knife as he closed the distance between himself and Vin. Vin might be large and well-muscled for a human, but he was no match for an enraged cyborg. He seemed to know it too, because the moment he saw Kit coming for him, Vin’s eyes widened and he turned to flee. He didn’t get very far.
A downward slash of his blade sliced Vin’s shoulder wide open, and the man screamed in pain and stumbled. Instead of letting him fall, Kit caught Vin by the shoulder and spun him around so they were face to face. Another downward slash tore through the tendons in Vin’s right arm, making him drop the weapon he had been about to fire.
“Who the fraxx are you?! Whatever she’s paying you, I’ll double it. No, triple!” Vin demanded through gritted teeth, every word slurred by pain and fear.
“I’m Zura’s vardo, and there isn’t enough scrip in the galaxy to buy your way out of this,” Kit said and shook Vin like a rag doll.
“Vardo? She’s mated to one of you?”
“Two of us, actually. I won the coin toss, so I get to be the one to kill you.”
Vin sneered and managed to wrench himself free of Kit’s grasp. “I don’t fraxxing think so. You three against all of us? Do you have any idea where you are right now? You’re standing on the deck of a Drojo Cartel ship. Look around you, buddy, because this is where you’re going to die.”
Kit lunged and slashed Vin across the chest, then stepped in and slammed his fist into the other man’s jaw, snapping his head back so hard Vin’s teeth clacked together.
“Who said we came alone?” Kit asked.
Right on cue, alarms rang out, echoing through the hangar bay at ear-shattering volume. “You have to love allies with impeccable timing, don’t you agree? That would be Corp-Sec making their presence known.”
“Fraxx!” Vin muttered through bloodied lips, his earlier bravado gone. “My employers are going to kill me for this.”
“You’re partially right. You’re going to die now, but your bosses aren’t the ones who are going to kill you.” Kit finally gave in to his bloodlust and put an end to the man who had threatened the woman he loved. He slashed Vin’s throat and watched with satisfaction as the other man collapsed to the floor and expired in a pool of his own blood.
He glanced up from the wreckage at his feet to look for Zura and Luke. His fiancée was standing beside her brother, both of them armed and watching the door. Luke was finishing off the remains of Vin’s crew. When the last man crumpled to the deck, all three of them turned and started toward the Sun Sprite.
“Time to go! I think we’ve overstayed our welcome,” Luke called out as he and Zura flanked Royan and helped him across the hangar.
Kit lingered for a moment to retrieve Zura’s ring. He sheathed the knife and pulled out his blaster. Armed and ready, he ran over to help, taking Zura’s place at Royan’s side. “You run ahead and get the Sun Sprite ready to go, little one. We’ll get your brother on board.”
She nodded. “On it. Don’t think this means I’m going to start letting you boss me around, though. I’m still the fraxxing captain.”
She was gone before he could do more than chuckle. Damn, he loved her, sass, fire and all.
“Our fiancée is crazy. I swear she was ready to take them all on by herself,” Luke muttered as they watched her run to the ship.
“Fiancée? Whoa. My sister is with you two? When did this happen?” Royan demanded.
“On the way here. We’d be at the Nova Club celebrating right now, but we had to come out here and rescue you instead.”
“So long as I didn’t miss the party. By the way, thanks for the resc
ue. At some point, I’m hoping someone explains what the fraxx this was all about. All I know is Vin is an asshole with an unhealthy obsession with my sister.”
“Was an asshole, past tense,” Kit said, jerking his head toward Vin’s mangled body.
Royan glanced over and grunted in approval. “Good. You saved me the trouble of tracking him down later."
“Anything for family,” Luke said, and all three men laughed.
That was the moment it all went to hell.
The alarms were still screaming, masking the sound of the doors opening behind them. The first any of them knew of the new arrivals was when the air around them exploded with weapon fire.
One of the shots caught Zura seconds before she made it to safety. Kit watched it happen, the scene playing out in some kind of terrible slow motion. He saw the bolt slam into her back, and he swore he could hear the sickening sizzle as it burned through her flight suit and into her skin. She staggered forward a half step and then dropped to her knees at the top of the ramp. Somehow she managed to keep going, her progress slowed to a painful crawl as she dragged herself onto the ship and out of danger.
They lifted Royan between them and charged the last few feet to the ship, taking sporadic fire every step of the way. The moment he hit the door, Kit took cover and started returning fire.
There were only three attackers. The rest were likely responding to the far greater threat of the Corp-Sec ships bearing down on them right now. He took them down quickly, grateful there weren’t more. It wasn’t until the last one fell that he felt a burning pain in his leg. One of the bastards had managed to graze him on their run back to the Sun Sprite. He switched off neural feedback from the injured area to kill the pain and kept going.
Luke swore his heart stopped beating the second he saw Zura go down. It didn’t start again until he hurtled through the door and saw her struggling to sit up. She was alive.
Dropping into a crouch at her side, he placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her from trying to move again. “How bad is it?”
“Bad,” she answered through gritted teeth and then looked past Luke to her brother. “Royan, you’re going to have to get us out of here, the Sun Sprite’s all yours.”
“You got it,” Royan replied, looking down at Zura with worried eyes. “I promise I’ll take good care of her.”
“You better,” she said and gave them a weak smile before letting her eyes close.
Royan and Kit worked their way past and headed for the cockpit. Luke noticed his brother’s leg was bleeding slightly, but it looked minor enough. Kit’s medi-bots would deal with the injury. Right now, Zura was the one he was worried about.
“I need to get you to medical so I can take a look at your injury. Hang in there.” He carefully lifted her into his arms and got to his feet. Even though he was as gentle as he could be, she moaned in pain at being moved. He quickly realized that her clothing was soaked with blood, and so was the floor where she had been lying. He didn’t need to be a doctor to know that he needed to get the bleeding stopped quickly, or they were going to lose her.
He headed toward the ship’s small medical center as the engines came online. “Not much longer, now. We’ll be home before you know it.”
Zura nodded in response, but didn’t open her eyes. By the time he got her there, her skin was pale; the moment he placed her on the bed, the medical scanner started to chirp, beeping alerts and warnings. Low blood pressure, poor oxygen levels, extensive tissue damage, he took it all in with a sinking feeling in his stomach. She was in bad shape, and this small medical bay wasn’t equipped to handle injuries this serious. He injected her with healing accelerant and applied a blood clotting agent to the wound to try and slow the bleeding, but nothing seemed to help. They needed to get her to one of the other ships, fast.
“Zura, open your eyes. You need to stay awake.”
She moaned and opened her eyes. “It’s s’okay, Doesn’t hurt anymore. Good drugs, thanks.”
He couldn’t bring himself to tell her he hadn’t given her anything, yet. “That’s good. You’re going to be okay. You just lie still and let me take care of you.”
He activated the internal comm channel he shared with Kit. “She’s in bad shape. We need to get her to a real doctor soon, or we’re going to lose her. Tell Royan to haul ass to whichever friendly ship he sees first and let them know to have a medical team on standby.”
Kit responded almost instantly. “Message relayed. Listen, you’re going to want to hang on back there. Things are about to get bumpy. We’re going to have to blast our way through the hangar doors.”
Luke barely had time to lean over Zura and grab the sides of the bed beneath her before the first salvo launched. He held on, keeping them both in place while the ship bucked and rocked. When the muffled booms and blast waves finally ended, there were only a few seconds delay before the engines rose to a roar and they were moving.
“Going too fast, Royan. Quit showing off,” Zura muttered softly before lapsing into silence again.
“Zura, you’ve got to stay awake right now. Royan’s piloting, remember? Do you really want him flying your ship while you nap?”
“Tired,” she murmured, but her eyes fluttered open again. “Who let him drive?”
“You did. You got shot rescuing him. Remember?’
She looked at him with confusion. “No…maybe? I remember Vin. Was a fight.” Her eyes closed again. “Cold in here.”
Luke wanted to scream in protest, to rage against what was happening. This wasn’t how their story was supposed to end. He had to do something to save her. He brushed his lips against her cool cheek and whispered, “I’ll get you another blanket. Be right back.”
He grabbed a blanket out of one of the cubbies and tucked it around her while he activated his internal comm channel again. “Kit, get down here. Now. We’re losing her, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
“We’re taking fire, but the shields are holding. It won’t be much longer now.”
“You don’t understand. There’s only one way we might be able to save her, and I don’t know if it will even work.”
There was a pause before Kit asked, “There’s no other way?”
“None. Hurry. We’re nearly out of time.”
“I’m on my way. Don’t wait for me to get there.”
Luke returned to Zura’s side and gathered her into his arms so that she was curled against his chest. “I’ve got you, and I’m not letting you go. Do you hear me, Zura? You’re not going anywhere.”
She uttered a weak sound that might have been his name, but that was all. She was fading quickly now, and he knew they were out of time. He managed to keep one arm around Zura as he rummaged through the supplies until he found what he was looking for, a blood testing kit. He grabbed the auto-syringe and pressed it to the side of his neck, aiming for the carotid artery. He got it on the first try.
He held it in place until it chirped, announcing a full sample had been taken. He had no idea if it would be enough. He wasn’t sure that this would work at all, but he had to try. He couldn’t lose her. He wouldn’t.
He transferred the vial of his blood to an injector and pressed it against her arm. Before he hit the button, he kissed her one last time. “I suspect this is going to hurt, love. I’m sorry for that, but it’s the only way I can think of to save you. Don’t you dare leave us, Zura.”
He activated the injector and watched as the contents of the vial vanished into her body. His blood was filled with medi-bots, microscopic nanobots that were designed to keep him alive and combat ready, even when severely wounded. Every cyborg had them, but cyborg physiology wasn’t the same as human, or Pheran for that matter. The odds were that her body would reject the invading tech, and if that happened, she’d die.
The last time Luke tried something like this, it hadn’t ended well. They’d been in the middle of a battlefield, on a planet so remote it had no name, only a number. A plasma grenade had gone off close enoug
h to injure them all, but Dana was hit the worst. Cynder had cradled her sister in her arms, tears streaking through the dirt and ash on her cheeks as they had done all they could to save her. All they could do hadn’t been enough. Not even transfusions of all of their medi-bots had been able to undo the terrible injuries Dana had suffered, and she had died, still held in Cynder’s arms.
She was the last one to die before the Resource Wars ended and they had all been freed. Luke had hoped it would be the last death he would have to witness until he was an old man, but here he was again, holding the woman he loved as she fought for every breath.
When Kit arrived, he would add his medi-bots to the ones already coursing through Zura’s bloodstream, and then they would have to wait. If it worked, they’d know soon enough. If it didn’t...Luke stopped his thoughts from going down that path. Zura had the heart of a warrior. He had to believe she would win this fight. Now that he had her in his life, he didn’t know how to live without her. More than that, he didn’t want to try.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kit sat beside Zura’s bedside and waited for her to wake up. He and Luke had taken turns staying with her since she had been hurt, only leaving long enough to eat, sleep, and return to her side once again. They were back home on Astek Station, and Zura was once again a patient in the medical center, only this time, she had company.
Her body hadn’t rejected the medi-bots, but the differences between her body and a cyborg’s meant that the healing process had taken a toll on her body. Her injuries were gone, but she had yet to regain consciousness. The doctors assured him that she would wake up when her body was ready, but it was killing him to see her lying so still and quiet. He needed to see her smile, hear her laugh, and tell him she was okay.
His own injury was already well healed, and Royan was recovering quickly as well. He was in the room next door and was making the medical staff crazy by constantly getting out of bed to check on his sister.
